If you think you know somebody who resembles any of the characters here, congratulations, but you're wrong - any similarity between the characters in this story and any real person is purely coincidental, since all of these characters are figments of my imagination.

This is my story, not yours. Don't sell it or put it on a pay site. You can keep it and/or give it away with all of this information intact, but if you make money off of it without my permission, you're breaking the law and pissing me off.

Prototype Ten: Epilogue (no-sex)
(C)Copyright 2005 - Shakes Peer2B
[email protected]
(remove 'NONO' from the above address to contact me)

http://storiesonline.net/library/author.php?name=Shakes_Peer2B
/files/Authors/Shakes_Peer2B/

"Sorry, Mac," the bartender shrugged, "can't help you."

"Can't, or won't?" the guy asked, still shoving the stack of mixed Earth and New Earth credit notes toward him.

"Can't." the bartender looked him square in the eye for the first time. "Those two show up, have a drink or two, then I don't see them for months or years at a time. God knows where they hang out, but it ain't here."

"But damnit, I need to talk to them!" the guy did look desperate. "I mean, shit! I've been all over Human space, an' damn near everybody's seen 'em, but nobody knows how to get in touch with 'em! What the fuck am I gonna do! They're our only hope!"

"Wish I could help you, mister." The bartender said sincerely. He had gotten very good at being sincere. It was one of the reasons his bar was so popular with the lonely and the broken hearted. "But there's really nothin' I can do. I will tell you this: I don't figger there's a whole hell of a lot of any importance that goes on in this galaxy that they're not aware of, so if they figure your problem's worth lookin' into, they're prob'ly already on it."

"I hope you're right, man." The guy ran a trembling hand once more through hair that looked like it hadn't seen a brush in years. "Ev'rybody on Golinda hopes you're right. There's a big fuckin' fleet of mean ass aliens headed our way, and neither Earth nor New Earth can spare anybody to help!"

The man downed the dregs of his whiskey and dragged himself out of the bar. One more night in a sleazy spaceport hotel, then back on the next flight headed toward Golinda space. That's what I have to show for this expensive fuckin' wild goose chase. He thought bitterly. Sure hope Golinda's still there when I get back.

"It will be." A young man was suddenly walking beside him as if he'd been there all along.

"Wha-?" The Golindan stared open-mouthed at the young man. "Wha'dya mean?"

"I mean," smiled the young man, "that Golinda will still be there when you get back."

"B-but, how...? Who...?" he spluttered. "You're not...!"

"No, I'm not Prototype Ten. Since I have no prototype number, you'll just have to call me Sam. That's what my parents call me, anyway."

His mind still befuddled, the Golindan stammered, "Y-your parents?"

"Um-hm. Prototype Nine's my mom, Prototype Ten's my dad, and I can tell you man, adolescence sucks when your parents know everything you do and think!" The young man shook his head, smiling. "I have to admit, though, they only butt in on the important stuff, so they're pretty cool that way. Hey! That's kinda like your problem! They wanted to make sure there really was a problem they needed to butt in on before they tangled with those aliens. Turns out, they were able to reach a compromise. Found 'em a nice little out-of-the-way planet and promised to help 'em get started with their colonization. The aliens liked that idea a lot better than being teleported into a black hole somewhere!"

"Wait a minute!" The Golindan stared, unbelieving, at the kid. "You're telling me that Proto..."

"Will and Tina. It's a bit less cumbersome than all those 'prototype' names." The kid interrupted.

"...whoever! You're telling me that they're your parents, and that they've already taken care of the aliens that were about to attack Golinda? That's not possible! I would have heard...!"

"Now think about it, mister. Do you mind if I call you Sean? Okay, think about it, Sean. How long does it take a ship-borne message to travel from, say Golinda to here?" The kid was being patronizing, but wasn't rubbing it in too bad.

"Well, with sub-light transits into and out of the primary's gravity well, transfers and such, probably about six months, real-time..." He understood the basics of space travel, after all, he'd been chasing all over human occupied space for god-knew-how-long.

"...and," Sam continued for him, "since it's unlikely that your last message, telling them where you're going has reached Golinda yet, it could be up to a year before you hear about this from Golinda, right? So, how long do you think it takes Mom and Dad to get from one place to another? They got wind of your problem back when you were on New Taiwan, and decided to check it out. Once they figured out what to do, they sent me to fill you in before you have a heart attack. Speaking of which..."

Sean hadn't noticed, but as they talked, they continued walking, and now they were entering his hotel room. It didn't occur to him until later that he hadn't removed the key-chip from his pocket. Part of the reason it hadn't occurred to him, was the sudden appearance, directly in front of him, of a man and a woman. He looked to be in his forties, she in her late twenties or early thirties.

"Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you." The man said without preamble. "We had to get the All-takers settled on their new planet."

"All-takers?" Sean gaped.

"Their name actually sounds like 'Krch-numfl-maukli' as near as my mouth can pronounce it." The guy answered genially. "It means 'All-takers', though. Look, Sean, we'll be happy to answer your questions later, but you need to sit while I work on those blocked arteries or you'll have that heart attack before I'm done."

Numbly, Sean settled into the room's only chair as a look of concentration came over the man's face.

"Okay, that should keep you alive for a few years." The guy said after only a few moments.

Sean stared at his chest, feeling with his hands as if to see if anything felt different. "Who...? Wha...?"

"Okay, I realize this has all been a little confusing, so let me see if I can explain." The guy and the woman sat next to each other on the dingy bed. The younger man paced like a caged tiger. "I'm Will Masters and this is my wife Tina. You've already met our son Samuel." He indicated the restless young man.

"We had actually been tracking the All-takers for a while before we learned that someone from Golinda was looking for us. We figured it would be more effective to go ahead and take care of the problem than to chat with you about it. Then, of course, we had to go and implement a few sanctions against Earth and New Earth for not helping you out. This was something they should have been able to handle easily, but they were too worried about protecting their shipping, so a reasonable percentage of their take for the next year or so will go to Golinda to help you learn how to convert the alien ships into your own navy. The rest will go to cover the cost of resettling the All-takers. It'll hurt, but they'll recover. Oh, yeah, they're also going to share the task of picketing the All-taker's new home. Now that Golinda's going to have its own fleet, however, you'll have to share the task of protecting other planets. "

"Wait, wait, wait!" Sean waved both hands in front of himself, shaking his head as he did so. "You're Prototype Ten?"

"I believe I just said that... Well, at least I assumed that you would know our real names."

"And you've already saved Golinda?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." The man gave the woman a look that seemed to and in fact did ask Is this guy slow, or what?

"Give him a little time, dear." The woman identified as Tina said. "Not everyone has your ability to assimilate and categorize millions of thoughts and concepts at the same time."

"So, I've just wasted all this time and money chasing around the galaxy after you two?" Sean asked, growing more than a little frustrated.

"Actually, no." Tina chose to answer this time. "While we had been weighing whether or not to intervene for some time, had you not done what you did, and illustrated for us that neither of the protector governments were inclined to intervene, we would have waited longer, perhaps to the point where we would have had no choice but to destroy the All-takers. That many lives is a heavy burden for anyone to bear, especially people like us and our children, who can hear and feel their pain and anguish as they die."

"Okay..." Sean looked at the pacing boy for a moment. "But wait a minute. You two are supposed to be over six hundred years old. You mean you waited until a few years ago to have kids?"

"No!" Tina laughed. "Sam is actually our youngest, but he's over two hundred... What is it dear? Two hundred thirty seven, right? You see, they were all born as normal human babies, but Sam and one of his older sisters chose to have us do the same things to them that made us who we are. Rebecca has most of Will's capabilities, but she's been living with some old friends of ours and isn't much inclined to interfere in the affairs of nature. She's pretty much integrated into the All-Mind now. Sam, on the other hand, has all of my abilities and many of those of his father, and is just itching to use them, but we're trying to teach him a little patience."

"You say you have other children?"

"Well, most of them," Tina replied wistfully, a little sadly, "chose to live normal human lives, rather than being modified as Sam and Rebecca have been. Since normal humans don't live as long, well, we've just the two, now."

"But couldn't you have more?" Sean seemed, somehow, to have gotten more interested in their family situation than in what was happening on his homeworld.

"Well, yes, and I might, eventually." Tina said softly. "But it hurts too much to watch them grow old and die. I don't want to live through that again. At least not for a while."

Sam sat down beside his mother and he and Will embraced her. Sean could not guess the intense connection the three shared, but in a remarkably short period of time, Tina seemed to have gotten over her sorrow.

"Oh, by the way," She said brightly, "You are quite well thought of on Golinda these days. Would you like us to take you there? There's a great deal to be done as your planet shifts from a sleepy farming community to a player in space trade, and they could use everyone's help, especially someone as widely traveled as you now are."

"Take me there?" Sean was still a bit befuddled by the topic shift. "Oh, uh, I've got a ticket on the freighter that leaves tomorrow..."

"We know, Sean." Will told him. "But we can get you there in, oh, about three seconds, if you like."

"Well... um, I guess so..."

As Sean finished the sentence, he found himself surrounded by people in the customs line at the Golinda spaceport, bags in hand, and no sign of the three to whom he been talking.