So the cataract surgery worked—yay! and I am now back to posting. Note: no posts the week of Thanksgiving.

With this segment of Chapter Sixteen of Repairing the Legacy, we continue the serialization of Repairing the Legacy. This is a rough draft work in progress and may not reflect the final form. Time period: set after the ending of The Martiniere Legacy main trilogy. I’m breaking longer chapters into sections for readability. This is the fifth part of Chapter Sixteen. There will be six parts to this chapter.

New to the series? Chapter order:

Chapter One, Section One

Return of the Prodigal Son (2 parts)

Conversations and a Dinner (2 parts)

Dancing into Change (2 parts)

Sisterly Compromises (3 parts)

Conspiracies at the Rodeo (3 parts)

Passing the Baton (4 parts)

Research Complications (3 parts)

Chasing After Shadows (3 parts)

Fifth Anniversary Present (3 parts)

Mariah (5 parts)

Shadows, Redux (3 parts)

Accidents Happen (4 parts)

Maternal Memories (4 parts)

A Voice…Weeping for their Children (6 parts)

Winding Down the Years (4 parts)

August, 2073

GABE

Gabe remembered the dreams of those other worlds more clearly now. The one where he had the most ability to move freely in his dreams was that horrible, devastating universe where he died at Philip’s hands. Gabe spent time around that world’s Ruby. Maybe if he could get through to her, then she could communicate to his Ruby.

No such luck.

But he kept dipping in and out of the timeline, trying to find an opening. The one good thing was that he learned how to control his movements in that world somewhat.

It wasn’t until Gabe stumbled across Gabrielle Marguerite that he had his first breakthrough. She was sitting in her office at the Double R—once his office—a year before she deposed her grandfather Philip. As he popped in, she looked up from the screen she was studying, and smiled.

She saw him.

No one ever saw him in these dreams. No matter how hard he tried to reach them.

“Hello, father,” she said softly. “I’ve been expecting this visit for a while.” She snapped the screen to a larger resolution, and he recognized what she was watching.

One of his recent videos.

“How?” Gabe dropped into one of the chairs. Not that it mattered, but he felt better when he wasn’t just floating around.

“These videos started popping up in my feeds about six months ago. I—“ she bit her lip and looked down, sighing. “I’ve been fascinated by them, if somewhat frustrated. No one else can see them. Not Mom, not Brandon, not Justine. They glitch.” She gulped. “I’ve heard so many stories about you—well, this world’s version of you. I ran an aging program on the pictures I have of you to confirm your identity. To see the father I’ve never known, in his elder years, talking about something that I’ve started to suspect—“

“Do you know what’s happening?”

Her lips pressed together, so much like Ruby’s when contemplating a problem. “When I broke into Philip’s files a year ago, I came across a reference to digital thought clones. He’s been experimenting with them. Well, so, I started to do the same thing, trying to devise an algorithm. Using what video files I have of you—including these.” Gabrielle gestured toward the video. “After watching some of these vids, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could talk to some version of you, get some advice. Instead, it looks like I lured in the real thing—just from a different universe.”

“In my world, I’m dreaming. I’m still alive. I’m not a clone, digital or otherwise. What the hell are digital thought clones, and why is Philip playing with them?”

“Digital thought clones are created through an algorithm using existing media files to construct a digital personality that thinks like the original person.” Gabrielle frowned—and that frown matched the glower he sometimes saw in the mirror, nothing of Ruby. “The more data, the more useful the digital clone is.”

“So what’s Philip trying to do? He created actual physical clones in my world.” My world. Amazing how quickly he assumed this was real and not just dream logic.

Gabrielle grimaced—this time a Ruby feature. “He’s chasing immortality.”

“That’s what he was doing with the physical clones. He made thirteen of them, used them for spare parts and blood donations. One survived to the age of five, and Ruby and I found him. We raised him. He’s almost eighteen now—Mike. The thirteenth clone.”

“Aw, shit.” Gabrielle leaned back. “He’s not been able to make physical clones in this world. Only digital.” She exhaled. “The problem, father, is that I think Philip has discovered the algorithm to go digital. It’s entirely possible that he exists physically and digitally in this world.”

Chill crept down Gabe’s spine. “He’s been dead for almost thirteen years in my world. But I’ve been seeing manifestations of him. There’s a worm in the Martiniere programs that forces us—me, Ruby, Mike, Brandon, Justine—to forget about it.”

Gabrielle blanched. “And you have a living physical clone in your world?”

“Yes. Mike.”

“And there are manifestations of Philip.”

“Yes. I can’t tell anyone what I see, except in those videos, and I’m being careful talking about them. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m experiencing delusions. Especially since—“ Gabe swallowed hard. “If I try to tell someone, Philip shoots me. Just like he did to me in this universe.”

“And the effect?” Oh, that was so a Ruby expression on her face now, that tight-lipped thoughtful mode.

“Every time it happens, I lose a little bit more of what I can do physically. It’s as if I’ve had a stroke, only the doctors can’t find any evidence of a stroke.”

Gabrielle shook her head. “He’s experimenting on you, damn it.”

“And his goal?” Though Gabe already thought he knew.

Mike.

“He’s going to try to possess the clone in your world. He mastered physical clones in your world, and digital clones in mine. If he can transfer that knowledge across worlds—”

“I wouldn’t call it mastery of physical clones,” Gabe said slowly. “Mike has significant physical issues. Heart attack and cancer at fifteen. Severe osteoporosis. He’s needed to have heart, lungs, and arm bones cyborged. Odds are quite high that Mike will not live as long as his progenitor. And Mike’s not material for a secondary clone—the degeneration of the source DNA is even worse.”

Gabrielle rubbed her face. “Well, that’s something to be thankful for—I guess. Unless he’s had better luck in another world.”

Gabe shrugged. “I don’t know. I won’t know. This world and my own—well, there’s another where the plane crash that killed my family didn’t happen—are the only ones I have much experience with.”

“We have to stop him.”

“I don’t know how much more time I have, dear.” Time to face up to the reality. “I’m fading. Seventy-one and struggling. Come close to dying several times ever since digital Philip’s taken to shooting me.”

Gabrielle pursed her lips. “Would you be willing to try to become a digital thought clone? Maybe the reason my algorithm dragged you in was because you’re still living in your world.”

“But why me and not another version of me?”

She threw her hands up—now that was a Justine mannerism—and sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to best communicate the algorithm in a means that you can use.”

“My videos crossed the worlds. Maybe if you made one, for me—“ He tapped his lips with his index fingers. “Ah. I wrote protective algorithms for the videos. Let me dictate them to you. That—might be a factor.”

“I’m willing to try. And in return—any advice that you can give about fighting Philip would be helpful. After all, you managed to beat him in your world.”

“Dear girl, whatever it will take.”

Her tooth-baring grin in response was so like his that it was scary.

She’s my daughter, all right.

ATTENTION BARNES AND NOBLE/NOOK READERS

Apparently the universal link to The Enduring Legacy does not include Nook/Barnes and Noble.

So here it is!
Barnes and Noble/Nook

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