With this segment of Chapter Seven 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 first part of Chapter Six. There will be three parts to this chapter.

New to the series? Chapter order:

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

March, 2063

RUBY

Ruby scowled at the clear blue sky as she sat on one of the growboxes on the trailer behind the crawler. It needed to be overcast and either splatting her with icy wet snow or a steady rain—she didn’t care which form of precipitation happened in March, as long as it was liquid soaking into the ground. Not enough of either this past winter. That meant the potential for a smoky hot summer, crappy hay harvests, and prospective crop failures. Crop failures weren’t a problem for the Double R these days, but—she and Gabe might end up bailing out struggling Thunder County locals. She didn’t resent helping the less fortunate, but damn it, the weather needed to cooperate once in a while, for everyone.

She shifted her weight. What was taking Gabe and Mikey—now Mike—so long to ride up to the Homestead field? Ruby was reluctant to start the test of the new growbox self-transport mechanism without their help. Just in case that piece failed. The one good thing was that the payload of biobots in the growboxes included the new two-year duration RubyBots carrying self-reproducing microbial treatments intended to strengthen drought resistance in grain crops, along with perimeter-patrolling Guardian killbots meant to repel sabotage biobots. Guardian was a mutual development project with Swait Secure, and it was a cranky, cranky bot, either overreacting or underreacting.

This was also Mike’s first time running a scanner to monitor and record biobot release performance. He was excited about learning this technique—so why were he and Gabe running late?

As always, the possibility of crisis came to mind.

Was the delay due to problems with Gabe’s health? Mike’s? Both were moving slow this morning. But Mike’s meds were supposed to be stable, and Gabe—well, who knew for sure about Gabe, thanks to all the variables in his health. Or it could be a call from Brandon, Eliot, or Justine—even though it had been a year since Gabe’s retirement from being the Martiniere, things still came up that required his input as the Martiniere Emeritus.

Or it could be something involving the Swaits, or, or, or—

Stop fretting, Ruby.

Gabe had stabilized over the past year. Mike’s meds were projected to be stable until he hit puberty, hopefully still a few years off. He was only eight, after all.

The delay was probably business-related, and that was always unpredictable.

Focus on the land. Focus on the here and now. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Even if it wasn’t raining, at least it was a beautiful morning out here on her land.

And then she heard the steady four-beat rhythm of galloping hooves. Ruby grinned, her mood lifting. That meant Gabe and Mike were racing up the final stretch from the Draw field just below Homestead. The two of them engaging in impromptu horse races was fairly common these days, as Mike’s riding skill grew. Or crawler races. Arthritis kept both of them from foot races, or she suspected those would be happening as well.

Ruby slid off of the growbox and walked to where the road dipped into the draw, hands on her hips, waiting. The horses and riders came into view, the horses almost the same color except for Star’s light brown nose and the rusty tinge to his winter coat. The difference between a truly black horse like Pard and a dark bay like Star was more evident in summer, when Star turned dappled light brown under black guard hairs.

Gabe clearly restrained Star from outpacing Pard, while Mike bent low over Pard’s neck, doing his best to encourage the old gelding to run harder.

Ruby grinned. Three and a half years since Mike first sat on a horse, and now they could hardly pry him off a horse’s back. Unless he was sick—which was far too often. Still. Or unless he was engaged in a tech or programming challenge.

All the same, the sight of Gabe with Mike made Ruby wistful. Brandon said he didn’t envy that Mike was growing up with a full-time father. But sometimes she wondered. Would Bran have been more interested in programming and systems design if he had matured around Gabe’s daily presence, instead of weekend visitations? Would he have developed the same deep love for horses that Mike had, instead of an amused tolerance? At least Bran shared Gabe and Mike’s fondness for dogs; had a couple of Border Collies at Moondance.

Don’t chase might-have-beens, Ruby!

Their son was a successful Martiniere, deftly guiding the Martiniere Group while leaving much of the Family leadership to Gabe. Had been a successful videocast producer in his own right, and still made ‘casts as part of his management of the Group. Just because he wasn’t like her and Gabe when it came to science and tech research didn’t mean his work wasn’t valuable.

But all the same—she enjoyed Mike’s obsessions that were in common with hers and Gabe’s; regretted they didn’t share them with Brandon.

Ruby put brooding thoughts aside as the horses approached.

Gabe sat up to ease Star back as Mike and Pard shot ahead, galloping past Ruby.

“Whoa,” he said softly to the dark bay stallion.

Star didn’t stop as hard as he would in the arena with skid boots on—too hard on his fetlocks and the experienced stallion knew it—but he halted without Gabe needing to touch the reins. Mike had a few more problems with Pard, finally turning him to trot back to Ruby, Gabe, and Star.

“Sorry it took us so long to get here,” Gabe said. “Mike and I stopped at the lab to check his scanner, and it kept glitching.”

“Better you found out down at the lab than up here.” Ruby frowned. “But that’s weird. I thought those scanners were solid tech. I’ve not had problems with them before.”

Gabe shook his head as he dismounted. He pulled off the stallion’s bridle, untying the lead for the rope halter Star wore underneath the bridle from the saddle horn, then hanging the bridle and reins on the horn. There was a fenced-off grass patch on the other side of the road from the cultivated field so that they could turn horses into it while working at Homestead, if they chose to ride up. All of the ranch horses had been trained to graze while trailing a lead rope—easier for catching.

“I know,” Gabe said after turning Star loose. “It surprised me and Martin as well. We ran a virus scan on all the devices at the labs. Worm-type virus, something new showing up only in certain scanners. Martin’s rewriting protocols and talking to Kevin about the Swait labs. Still no idea where it came from.”

“Sabotage?” The Martiniere Group did have other opposing entities besides Heaven’s Reach and the Electric Born that were capable of doing something like this. Competitors, mostly, such as Zingter Enterprises.

“Very possible. Martin’s not issuing a verdict yet.” Gabe shrugged as he held the gate open to the grazing patch for Mike leading Pard. “You got the scanner, Mike?”

Mike nodded, patting his backpack. “Don’t trust the saddlebags.”

“Good idea.”

Ruby exhaled as Mike dropped Pard’s lead rope. “All right. Let’s get going before it gets too warm for optimal release. Mike, let’s see your first display before I fire up the growboxes.”

Mike eased the backpack to the ground. He knelt next to the crawler and rummaged inside the pack until he came up with the scanner, then opened the first screen.

“So what variables are you looking for?” she asked. A test.

“Distribution of the RubyBot and Guardian,” Mike answered. He showed her the variance settings. “If they go beyond that, we have problems, right?”

“Correct. Let’s put you here—” Ruby guided Mike to the optimal monitoring spot. “Don’t get excited about variances until all the bots are in the field. You’ll see some wide ranges. They need about five minutes to spread properly.”

Mike nodded, biting his lower lip as he concentrated on the display.

Ruby returned to the trailer.

“So shall we see if the tracks work?” Gabe pursed his lips, studying the growboxes.

The Swaits had first devised self-transport growboxes. But they used propane-fueled jets to move theirs—not as much an issue in Arkansas as it was in the arid West. But enough of the RubyBot customers were in dry and borderline areas that finding a different transport method was a priority. Ruby and Gabe focused on solar battery tech to move the growboxes to avoid fire danger and reduce complications. Tracks worked better than wheels, but still, coming up with something that worked proved to be more difficult than expected.

As always.

They lowered the trailer ramp. Gabe stood on one side, Ruby the other.

Ruby inhaled, then exhaled. “Let’s get it done. You want to flip the switch?”

Gabe shrugged. “You came up with the latest fix. Go for it.”

“Blame me if it doesn’t work,” she snorted. Ruby picked up the remote controller that rested next to the growboxes, scrolled down the list, and pressed the ACTIVATE button for GB ONE. A soft whine came from the growbox as the tracks lowered—but not a grinding or screeching sound that indicated problems. Good.

Ruby carefully watched—did the growbox stay level as the tracks engaged? That had been the latest problem, uneven angles which interfered with the auto-emptying function of the growbox.

Level. Good. Another step accomplished. Ruby pressed FORWARD. From here on, she could use the directional arrows to guide the growbox—if it worked. The damned remote wasn’t always functional.

She and Gabe hovered close to the growbox, ready in case the box threatened to tip over as it descended the ramp. Another past problem.

Ruby realized she had been holding her breath when the growbox reached the bottom without tipping. She exhaled, and tapped the button to turn it toward the field. One track caught on a long, tough strand of grass which spun the growbox around in circles until it wobbled, threatening to fall over. Ruby pressed STOP as Gabe kept it steady. She knelt to pull the grass free.

“Another thing to work on,” Gabe muttered.

Ruby nodded. She stuck the controller in her back pocket and they carried the growbox to the edge of the field. Then she and Gabe returned to the trailer to unload the remaining three growboxes, using the remote to get them off of the trailer. They carried each one to its proper place for the bot release.

“Whew.” Gabe blew and stretched after they placed the last growbox. “At least we didn’t need to unload each box. Just getting them on and off the trailer like this is a big advance, and my back is grateful for that.” He grinned at Ruby. “We’re getting somewhere, Rubes.”

“Not fast enough,” she sighed.

“It’ll come. Have faith.”

“We’ll see. If anything goes wrong, it sure seems to be in this field.”

“Which makes Homestead the perfect trial field,” Gabe said.

“Yeah. Mike! You ready to monitor?”

“Yes.” Mike’s jaw tightened and he stared at his display.

Should I tell him to relax? Nah. Won’t make a difference with first-timer jitters, especially with Mike.

Ruby toggled all the growboxes, and hit the RELEASE command. Gabe stood ready as the containments opened, watching to ensure that the doors didn’t stick. Swarms of biobots half the size of ladybugs emerged from each box. The majority glowed bright red—the shade the RubyBot had taken from the very beginning and which had been the source for its name. The Guardian bots were teal and brown. The latest version came with a camouflage capability, but Ruby wasn’t certain how effective it would be here. Most likely, perfecting that aspect of the Guardian would take localized research and programming.

“All releases good,” Gabe called.

He joined Ruby. She leaned into him as they watched the bots skim across the field, spreading within the programming parameters to their charted locations. Homestead’s difficulty didn’t come from the mapping component—all of the Double R fields were mapped in excruciating detail, part of Ruby’s work over the twenty-some years she had spent crafting the RubyBot. Homestead was thoroughly mapped in more detail than other fields because it was a difficult field. Its challenges came from the winds, microclimates, and temperature extremes that the field was subject to.

But damn, when everything came together—Homestead was one of the Double R’s most productive fields. That was one reason why Ruby struggled to keep it in cultivation rather than turning it into grazing. It was also an excellent proving ground for testing bots—another reason to keep it as something other than pasture. Homestead regularly defied bot cultivation. However, every tweak of the RubyBot to meet Homestead’s challenges meant that the bot worked in a greater range of conditions elsewhere.

Ruby pursed her lips, worrying as she noticed that the distribution of teal-colored bots didn’t appear to be uniform around the edges of the field.

“Hey Ruby. There’s a problem with the Guardians,” Mike said.

She and Gabe joined him.

“Input distribution control, and reboot parameter definition,” she said. While she itched to take the scanner from Mike, enter those commands herself—it was time he learned how to do this.

Under supervision, of course.

“Got it.”

“Hit disperse again.” She squinted at the display. Mike was inputting commands correctly, but it sure wasn’t being reflected in the data. She looked up.

“It’s getting worse,” Gabe said. “Concentrating on that right corner. You don’t suppose we have an issue over there?”

“Scanned the field before you two got here,” Ruby said. “Nothing showed up that would interfere with a bot release.”

Gabe pulled his scanner out of his pocket and punched in commands. “Damn it, mine’s not working.”

“They’re all going to that right corner!” Mike’s voice rose, quavering slightly. “Ruby, they won’t obey me!”

“It’s just the Guardians, right?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Rubes, can I borrow your scanner?” Gabe scowled at his. “I should have checked mine as well as Mike’s. I’m going to that corner to see if I can spot a reason for those Guardians to act like that.”

Ruby looked at Mike’s scanner again. The RubyBots were settling in—so it was just a Guardian issue. “Let’s all go to that corner. Maybe it’s an issue of transmission range.”

“That could be.” But Gabe didn’t sound convinced.

She really wasn’t, either.

Mike scampered ahead of them. He halted at the corner and scowled at his scanner.

“It’s still not working,” he grumbled as Ruby and Gabe joined him.

Ruby handed Gabe her scanner. He entered several commands. No response.

“There’s no logical reason for the Guardians to act like this,” he said.

Ruby sighed. “All right. I wonder if they’ll obey a command to re-enter the growboxes, or if we need to hand-collect samples before hitting auto-destruct?”

“I think we’d better hand-collect and auto-destruct,” Gabe said. “I know,” he said as Ruby winced. “It’s a pain with these Guardians. But I’d just as soon avoid the risk of them disrupting the Rubies. Whatever this is targets the Guardians.”

Ruby couldn’t argue with that logic. “All right. I’ll get the Guardian sample nets and boxes from the crawler.”

“I’ll help.” Mike scrambled to join her.

“Thanks.”

This wasn’t how she intended to spend the morning. But it was another task that Mike could learn—the precautions for handling rogue Guardian bots when gathering them for sampling purposes.

Hopefully, the bots would obey the kill command and they wouldn’t have to spend the whole day clearing the damn bots from the field. Rogue Guardians were nasty. They often turned on humans.

But at least Ruby remembered to bring protective gear for all three of them. Maybe that would make the process easier.

She hoped.

#

A couple of hours later, after wrestling with recalcitrant Guardians, Ruby, Gabe, and Mike stood outside of a clean room, watching Beck O’Toole and Martin, the lab managers, run assessments on the Guardian samples. Ruby’s gut tightened as Beck and Martin talked, Beck shaking her head. At last, Beck headed for the vestibule, stripping out of her biosuit before exiting.

“It’s two things,” she said. “Martin’s checking further, but it looks like we have a problem with that stem line. I have to trace it further.” The stem cell lines powering the biobots were Beck’s specialty.

“Originating here or at Swait’s?” Ruby asked, tensing even more. The stem lines for this generation of Guardians had come from Swait Farms.

“It’s partially a Swait issue,” Beck sighed. “There’s also been a problem with programming—and that originates here. So fifty-fifty.”

“We’d better call Jeff and let him know about this issue,” Gabe said.

“Yeah. Let’s schedule a meeting and take them some samples. Beck, what’s the programming issue?” Ruby thought through their schedule. Tomorrow would work, if Justine had a jet free to go to Arkansas.

“You’ll need to talk to Martin about that one,” Beck said. “He thinks it’s related to the problem with Mike’s scanner. Some sort of worm that doesn’t appear consistently.”

“That might explain why our scanners tested out fine as compared to Mike’s. The issue wasn’t with them but with the Guardians themselves.” Gabe frowned. “Could his scanner have been the source of the programming problem with the Guardians?”

Beck shrugged. “More Martin’s venue than mine, but I think that might be a what-came-first issue. Or both could have been infected from the same source simultaneously. Want me to send Martin out?”

“No, we’ll wait until you two are done,” Ruby said. “Gabe, Mike, I think we’ve learned what we can right now. Let’s aim to have a solid preliminary report to send to Jeff by this evening, and meet with him tomorrow. Sound good?”

Gabe and Beck nodded.

“Mike?” she asked. “Does that sound good to you?”

Mike’s eyes widened. “You’re asking me?”

“You’re part of this project, and you’ll be composing your own report to Jeff this afternoon,” Ruby said. “So yes, you have a say in the meeting plans.”

“Does this mean I go with you to Swait Farms?”

Ruby wasn’t sure if that was apprehension or excitement in his voice. “Yes.”

Mike grinned. “Yeah. Can you help me write the report?” Now trepidation showed up in his voice.

Ruby side-hugged him. “Mikey, just write down everything you did and that you observed. We’ll edit it from there.”

Mike was a decent writer, for an eight-year-old.

Then again, while Mike’s progenitor had been a psychopathic ass, no one could deny that Philip Martiniere had been brilliant when it came to research work. It wasn’t surprising that Mike displayed a comparable degree of precocious intellectual ability.

Now if they could just keep Philip’s clone from turning into the psychopath that Philip had been….

*************************

Like what you’ve read so far? Check out the other stories in The Martiniere Legacy—all links here, both Amazon and other sources.

Justine Fixes Everything: Reflections on Mortality is now available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo!

What’s it about?

EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE....

Over the years, Justine Martiniere has become the fixer for the Martinieres. Have a problem? Go to Justine to get it remedied.

But it wasn't always that way.

First, Justine needed to escape the abuses of her father, Philip. She didn't expect to fall in love with the man she married, Donald Atwood. But she did–and then she faced the choice between remaining married to Donald, or stopping her sociopathic, megalomaniac father.

Justine Fixes Everything is in part the unusual love story of Justine and Donald–and in part the saga of her rise to power, viewed in retrospect as she tells the history to Philip's clone Mike, as he recovers from surgery. It's about what she sacrificed to become powerful—and, at the same time, how that past comes to haunt the challenges she faces toward the end of her life.

Want more? How about an alternative Martiniere world where Ruby and Gabe meet in a different manner and meet more challenges?

ANOTHER MARTINIERE LEGACY STORY ON KINDLE VELLA—A DIFFERENT LIFE—WHAT IF?

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LH72GQG

One of the turning points of the Martiniere Legacy series is the death of Gabriel Martiniere's family in a plane crash when Gabe was twelve. That put Gabe's biological father, Philip, into the leadership of the Martiniere Group and the Martiniere Family, and expedited Philip's megalomaniac ambitions. But what if that crash hadn't happened? What would Gabe's relationship with Ruby, the love of his life, look like?

Billionaire nerd with a conscience, unlucky at love, striving to overcome the shadows of his past while trying to find agritech means to fight climate change.

Former rodeo queen, just trying to get her degree in agricultural robotics and make her mark on the world while trying to find agritech means to fight climate change, also unlucky at love and struggling with a shadowy past.

Can Ruby and Gabe successfully negotiate the complexities of the Martiniere Group and launch Ruby’s world-changing biobots without interference from competitors, while maintaining a relationship?

UPDATES ON A DIFFERENT LIFE HAPPEN EVERY WEDNESDAY, THROUGH DECEMBER, THEN MONDAY-WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY STARTING JANUARY 3, 2022. EPISODES CURRENTLY SCHEDULED THROUGH JANUARY.