Hiro received the daemon's code. He looked around to ask further questions, but as soon as the transfer had completed, "Shi" was gone, leaving him with...this. He looked at the daemon curiously, and held onto it, leaving it in a suspended state while he thought things over.
He met back up with his father, who had stayed behind to pay the bill at the diner, and they headed back toward the car. Hiro explained briefly what had happened, leaving out the part about his past behavior and Shi's knowledge of it. "S-so," he said, "do you think it's a scam? I mean, why would she want me to do it?"
His father shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Maybe she's serious that they want someone running on a mixed system to do it?"
Hiro frowned. "What good would that do?"
"I dunno," she said. "If the goal is to get him back to working order as a person...maybe a partial human brain is more conducive to creating people than a fully-electronic one? Maybe there's some non-deterministic element they want to be involved. It might be simpler to pick that up from an existing, functional human being than to try and re-invent it."
"Huh. So...do you think I should go through with it?"
His dad shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "Certainly it's not something you want to jump into without looking. But if you can be sure that it isn't a virus or something, it's a unique opportunity, isn't it?"
Hiro thought about that. If she was right...if there was something that his compromised nature actually made him suited for...wouldn't he want to be a part of that?
The squirrel-girl and her white-haired friend stepped into the clearing not really knowing what to expect. Jenny had no idea whatsoever, though she hoped they'd find Ms. Violet's niece safe and sound, and while Lilly could tell that the scent was the one she'd been following, she didn't really recognize it either. Jenny gripped the flashlight she'd brought with tightly, and Lilly gulped; she hoped it wasn't anything dangerous...
As it turned out, what they saw was a young girl, about their age, dressed in soft white robes, with silver hair. She was standing in the middle of the clearing, looking up at the sky with a curious expression on her face. Jenny brought her flashlight to bear on the girl, and gasped; as the light fell upon her, her hair shone in reflection, and her skin was illuminated with a pattern of bright spots and darker shallows that looked familiar for some reason. "A-are you Harriet?" she asked, wondering if this could really be her.
The girl turned to face them, her shining hair forming a silver corona around her face, and smiled to herself. "Huh," she said. "Harriet...I 'member being her. I guess I'm her..."
Lilly frowned. "Well, aren't you? How d'you guess you're somebody? And where were you? Your mommy an' aunt an' people've been all worried about you, 'cause you were gone for like a month!" A month, that was forever ago to her. She felt a little upset at the girl; she liked Miss Violet, and it was mean of the girl to make her worry...
The girl's smile faded to a look of sad realization. "Y-y'mean Harriet's mama? I 'member her...I wanted to see her, that's why I came! Did I make her sad? I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" A couple tears began to form at the corners of her eyes.
Now the squirrel-girl felt a little bad for making her upset. "N-no, it's okay," she said. "I bet she'll be really happy t' see you 'gain."
Jenny nodded, smiling. "That's right!" she said. "Your mommy an' your aunt'll be happy to see you when you come back! But...where were you? My mummy says the p'lice were lookin' all over for you!"
The girl brightened a little. "Oh," she said, "I was on the Moon."
The other girls stared at her, not quite sure if they'd heard right, but she didn't seem to be joking. Jenny looked her over, curiously, then up at the sky, where the Moon was. It wasn't quite full yet, but it was getting close, and she could see it quite clearly. She glanced back at the girl, and gasped again as she recognized the patterns the flashlight revealed as being similar to what she saw on the Moon's surface. It almost looked like the girl's skin had the same craters and ridges and basins and pockmarks, only it didn't seem like it was actually dents in her skin, just a kind of coloration that showed up under the flashlight. It didn't look quite the same here, but...maybe that was 'cause the girl wasn't just a big ball?
She stared at the strange girl. "A-are you the Moon?" she asked. She didn't know why; the Moon was right up there in the sky, yet that still seemed like a reasonable thing to say.
The girl giggled. "No, that's silly!" she said. "The Moon's a lot older'n me! I'm Artemis, daughter of the Moon."
Lilly frowned slightly. "'Artemis?'" she said. "That's...kinda a nice name..."
Harriet, or Artemis, or whoever she was, nodded. "I think it was someone else's name too," she said. "I'm not her...I don't think so, anyway, 'cause I was Harriet. But I guess she had my name 'fore I did, maybe."
"Huh," Jenny said. "But...what were you doin' there for a whole month? Why didn't you come back sooner t' see your mom?"
Artemis bowed her head. "I had t' visit my other mama," she said. "Selene, the Moon, is my mommy...she's never seen me 'fore, so I had t' stay for a while. An' I couldn't come back while it was a new moon, neither. So I hadda stay until I could come back."
Lilly frowned. "Y-you mean th' Moon is a person?" she asked. "Is she like you?"
Artemis smiled sadly. "She's real pretty," she said, "even though she's really old. An' she's nice, but real quiet. But she wants me t' have a lotta kids, 'cause she's too old to have any. But I dunno if I wanna...I wanna run an' play an' hunt an' stuff, like here in the woods!"
Jenny nodded. "I guess so," she said. "But you can do that when you're a grownup, right? You're still a kid, so you don't hafta be a mommy yet."
The strange girl nodded. "Yeah, I guess," she said. "But...it's kinda lonely there 'cause there's no people 'cept my mama. I dunno, maybe some day..."
The white-haired girl smiled. "Yeah," she said. "But your mama here's prob'ly waitin' for you, so you should go see her. If we take you to see my mommy, she'll know how we can take you to her."
Adam arrived home from her shift to find her mother just waking up. She looked up from her coffee and smiled. "Good evening, honey," she said. "How'd it go at work?"
Adam made a so-so gesture with one wing. "Not too bad, I guess," she said. "It's...I don't think it's going to be quite the same, but my boss is willing to work with me in helping me address any problems, so that's good."
"It is," her mom smiled. "I was just about to shower before work, so if you want to join me, we can get you cleaned up, too."
The harpy stared at her. "P-pardon?"
Her mother nodded. "We can get you cleaned up," she said. "It'll be a lot better than you trying to scrub yourself with just your talons, you have to admit."
"B-but, I...I..." Adam sputtered. Take a shower? With her mother? "I c-can't..."
Her mother held up her hand. "Adam, honey, I gave birth to you," she said. "We're way past the point of embarassment here. I know you'd like to continue to do things yourself for the most part, but there are some times when it's just simpler to involve another party. I'd much rather you learn to live with a little embarassment than slip on the soap in the shower and have only those wings to break the fall."
Adam sighed. "Yeah, I guess..." she said. Her mother smiled and led her son-turned-daughter to the bathroom, where she helped her undress and then helped her into the shower. It wasn't really as bad as Adam had expected; embarassing, to be sure, but nothing really mortifying. It was one thing to have someone scrubbing her arms and torso and other bits she'd had before, but when her mother gave her breasts a gentle scrub-down, that was...pretty embarassing. And this hair took so much more time and effort to wash...
Still, at the end of it, she was clean. She was a bit less happy a minute or so later, when she (instinctively) realized the need for preening and discovered her source of preen oil, but she managed, and it felt better to have her feathers properly taken care of too. Her mother helped her into a flannel pajama top (a bit big on her, but better too loose than too tight, where pajamas were concerned,) and then left for work.
Adam sighed, spent a while reading, and then went to bed. She slept curled up in the bowl chair.
