Sparrow & Tulip

"Advance two seconds, then loop. Amanda, watch their leg movements carefully. It's subtle."

"I see Emma moving first, and then Theo follows her."

"Exactly. Jaxson, zoom out and reframe the two of them. Add three seconds to either end of the loop."

They watched several iterations of Theo and Emma twisting away from a jet of water before Amanda saw it.

"She dodged a bucket of water she couldn't have seen," Amanda said. "But is it just luck?"

"Possible but unlikely," her Warden said. "Were more instances of this recorded?"

Nora was beaming as though Mirjam was an especially bright student. "Jaxson, take the parameters from Mirjam's annotation and apply them to the video captures I had you save."

They watched as the twins reacted simultaneously to stimulus that only one of them saw. Occasionally Emma followed Theo's movements but more often, he followed hers.

"But how can they communicate that quickly?" Amanda asked.

Mirjam sat back down and raised an eyebrow at Kawehi who nodded slightly. Amanda didn't miss the look.

"What's going on here?"

"Nora forwarded the videos so I could take a look," Kawehi said. "I saw something that is bothering me. Jaxson run the loop I highlighted in my training record, please."

The twins disappeared and the scene changed. Now it was a room full of obstacles. In the center of the room, Kawehi and Nate stood back-to-back, wearing Project issue gray combat fatigues. The clip was slowed down, enough that blurred trails snapped across the scene as the training AI fired non-lethal, but still painful, training rounds.

"This was recorded when Nate and I were going through bonding," she said. "Jaxson, put the two clips side by side, centered on as much of the rectus fomoris as you can."

The magnified clips ran slowly, side by side, focused on the front of each pair's thigh and hip.

"The same muscle twitches in all of you," Amanda said. "What am I looking at?"

"It has to do with how bodies communicate in combat dyads," Kawehi said. "There's no precognition happening, part of the deep training was teaching our bodies, on an unconscious level, how to recognize each other's movements in a high stress situation. It's one of the most intense modules in training for field dyads. How are those two using the same technique? Before I saw this, I had figured on some sort of precognition. Forgive my ignorance, but do the Garragh have a biological affinity for the bonding process?"

"Not that I've ever heard of. Mirjam?"

The Warden shook her head. "In fact, the close relationship between Oliver and Amanda actually interfered slightly with the bonding."

Henry cleared his throat. "Another possibility is the...unusual parentage of the twins."

Amanda shrugged. "It's possible, but very unlikely. Kawehi, my brother and Claire wanted children, enough that my brother imported a genetic engineering team from the Commonwealth to make it happen. It was a long process, but they finally managed a hybridization. Two viable zygotes, one male, one female, were implanted and Claire carried them to term."

"So, they're not twins," Kawehi said.

"No, they're technically clones," Amanda said. "Combining genes from two different prefcorian races was nearly too much, even for the Xero'pah specialists Ollie hired. When they finally managed the first viable material, it was immediately cloned. My brother worried about the two of them developing codependent personalities but even as children, I remember them having distinct personalities.

Mirjam smiled, surprising almost everyone at the table. "Perfect partners in whatever mayhem they could invent."

"Perfect partners," Nora repeated. "We've noticed something in observing Theo and Emma. Henry has an interesting theory. Putting the present issue aside for a moment, what's the first response for a combat dyad when they're forcibly separated?"

Kawehi shrugged. "Reuniting, obviously."

"What if that's not possible?"

Kawehi's smiled faded and she looked uncomfortable. "There's been instances where half a dyad is killed in action. In training, they describe how the survivor is sedated and evacuated for intensive medical intervention. That hasn't ever happened to my knowledge, the surviving half has committed suicide in each instance."

"But what would happen if the partner isn't killed, just taken away?" Nora asked quietly.

"There's one goal, reunification," Kawehi said. "Whatever it takes. You are not complete until you're together again."

"Does anyone know what would happen to a child in that situation?"

Everyone at the table looked at Dr. Aeolus. His eyes widened and he glared back at them.

"I protest these...insinuations! Yffliadi ethics would never allow that kind of experimentation, let alone the problems presented in child research ...

Nora cleared her throat. "Doctor, I was hoping that you could extrapolate the effects on a developing personality. You're the neurological expert in this field."

Aeolus relaxed. "I see. Pardon my outburst then. In adults, there is a risk of a type of catatonia in cases involving extreme dysfunction. Higher functioning individuals in the third stage of personality generation, symptoms modified by powerlessness..." Aeolus' voice lowered into a mumble as he talked to himself. After a minute he looked up. "My prediction is that there would be a wide range of behavioral issues involving rage and sorrow. Likely a preference for skills they see as helpful to their search, with a correlating disinterest in unrelated skills or activities. Very probably there would be highly defensive outbursts toward anything that casts doubt on the dyad's existence."

Amanda got up, clutching her chair, face pale. She held up a finger to wait and stumbled to her private office. Mirjam, not looking much better, followed her.

"I am certain that I did not say anything this inappropriate," Aeolus said to Kawehi.

"Emmaline, Theo's sister, has a range of maladaptation that match your projection," Nora said quietly. "We've done our best to help, but it's been intensely difficult on all three of them."

"You may not blame me for this later," Aeolus said quietly to Kawehi.

Both women reappeared a minute later, and Mirjam poured a glass of water for Amanda who looked like she was ready to cry.

Kawehi cleared her throat. "Lady Amanda, I realize that your time is invaluable. However, I think it would be more productive to speak about this another time."

"I'm fine," Amanda said, sitting up straight.

"I don't often argue, but you are not fine," Kawehi said firmly. "It is obvious to me that you both need time in privacy to work through this."

"The lieutenant is high trained emotive," Mirjam said. "And I am insisting that you follow her advice. We can walk, of I can paddle you and then put you over my shoulder."

"If you're that sure, who am I to argue," Amanda said. "Doctors, I'll have Lily contact your offices to reschedule a meeting."

Henry closed his folder. "We will keep our schedules open, we can meet whenever you're available, Administrator."

"Dr. Aeolus, can I ask you to stay at Echo for an extra day or so?" Amanda asked.

He bowed his head. "I am at your disposal, Lady Tulani."

A minute later, the vault door had shut. Mirjam led Amanda into her private office and put her on the leather couch.

"Jaxson, have Lily extend my apologies to the rest of today's meetings. We'll be heading to the Residence within the hour, I'll have full privacy until then."

"Confirmed," Jaxson replied.

"Please sit with me, Mirjam?"

"Of course. Are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine, it was just the horror of...this has been going on for years!"

"If nothing else, we finally understand Emma's predicament."

Amanda shuddered and Mirjam put her arm around Amanda's shoulder and felt her shudder. "I have been so angry at her sometimes, you would slap me if you knew some of the hateful things that I've thought about her. And every punishment I've ever given her, all the extra work, everything I thought might help, it was my failure, not hers."

"You don't get to carry all of the fault here," Mirjam said. "I am just as guilty, if not more so. I may have a problem ever looking her in the eye again."

"If we had only known."

"Stop there," Mirjam said. "We gave Theo up for dead years ago. Even with the two of them together again, it took several different geniuses to figure out what happened. We didn't torture Emma out of spite, and I hope she realizes that someday."

"You are always too kind to me."

"No, you are always too hard on yourself. Stop it."

Amanda sighed. "I don't even know what we're supposed to do next. I have always been hopeless at being part of a real family."

"We go home, apologize, and hope that she's more merciful with us than we were with her."

"Then what? What if she never speaks to me again?"

"Then I'll kill her," Mirjam said calmly.

Amanda leaned back to look at her. "My body is sensing that you're about to start laughing."

Mirjam finally smiled. "We are a protective dyad, not a combat team."

"And we've been partners for a dozen years, white-hair. Don't sass me."

"Do you think she's going to put us on restriction for a long time? Only, there's a skeet tournament this weekend."

Amanda's laugh was cut short by Jaxson's voice; "Administrator, you have an archived message marked as critical-immediate. Message originates from Commonwealth Senator Teydora Xilthana Esta-Yllacan."

Communications were still limited to lightspeed, even for the uncanny science of the Xero'pah, as well as the rest of the Commonwealth. Routine messages were moved by semi-autonomous courier ships that side-stepped the enormous distances by the use of Slingshot gates. Once within a few light-seconds, traffic was exchanged, along with the latest gossip between the resident Synths and their ship handling counterparts.

One of the roles for every Synthetic was a complex situational archive, enabling local areas to react quickly and autonomously, rather than waiting for messages that could take weeks to get from one end of the Commonwealth to the other. Amanda had been designated the leader of the lost research facility with the same method. So, Mirjam simply let go of Amanda as she stood up and went back to work.

"You have a deranged sense of timing, Jaxson. Go ahead."

"I apologize, Administrator. There have been multiple protocol modifications attached."

"I understand. Please relay the message."

A female Xero'pah appeared on the wall screen. "Mistress Tulani, I have just received word that Oli'vehndra and Claire's son has been recovered. Allow me to extend my best wishes and accolades to your reunited family. As a small token of my unending regard for the House of Tulani, I am extending full Commonwealth citizenship to both Theophile and Emmaline. The synthetic intelligence carrying this message will provide the specific details as required. I will watch the twin's future progress with much interest. Until we meet again."

The screen blanked and disappeared back into the wall. Amanda sighed deeply and sat back down.

"Full citizenship," Mirjam said. "That's a bit more than some token honor."

"I had assumed we could have some small amount of peace and quiet, now that Theo has finally come home."

Mirjam chuckled. "You thought there'd be any peace, or quiet, with those two gremlins reunited?"

Amanda smiled at her. "You're the one that said I needed to dream more."

~~~~

Theo stepped outside and took a deep breath of the chilly air. It would be hot later, but the predawn sky was dark for now. He found the Big Dipper first, far closer to the horizon that he'd ever seen. The door behind him shut as Emma came out and put an arm around his waist. The Milky Way stretched overhead, the trail of light leading who-knew-where. This would always be his favorite part of the day; just the quiet magic between the two of them, out here in the quiet and dark.

The End.

The next installment of Theo and Emma's story is called Song of Rage is under construction and coming soon. Let me know if you prefer a chapter by chapter posting, or the whole thing at once (with a longer wait)