So many things happened in a relatively short time, my head would be still spinning if I was my old self.

First was when Dad decided to have a chat with me. All things considered, it is not a big thing to have a heart to heart conversation with one’s father. Arguably, that is if both are flesh and blood human beings… ours was a bit different. The man could not even pat me on the back since the only way we could have something resembling normal human interaction was by me projecting a holographic representation of myself.

Well, he came to the Excalibur and told me he had some things to say, and I already knew he had a similar conversation with Michael. (Not that I intentionally eavesdropped, but I do have surveillance all over the place.)

“Max, I know things have been especially tough on you, considering everything you have been through. I cannot even imagine how I would react if I found myself turned into a digital being. But as I told Michael, I want to tell you... I'm so proud of you, son, and of all that you have managed to do here.”

I thought that I was above all that mushy stuff, but it seems I was not… because I choked up. This was my father, the man who made bottling up emotions into an art, and he was standing on the bridge of the Excalibur, looking at my hologram, and going all-emotional on me.

“It’s OK, Dad, I know—”

“No, as your brother did, you need to shut up and listen,” he said sharply. “All this would not be possible without you; the others are important parts of this project, but without you, it would have been doomed to failure. Every day I see people that have lost everything… with new hope in their eyes, and you are the one that made it all possible. I cannot explain how honored I feel to be a part of it, and I just wanted to say… I love you son.”

Yep, I was choked up all right and had to increase my AI-core speed to get over it, so he would not think he fried my transistors or something.

“Thanks, Dad, I love you too,” was the best I could come up with.

He sat in the pilot’s chair for a while, after I offered him a bottle of beer that I keep in case Michael wants one when he is here. Adding a beer cooler next to a coffee maker was something he considered essential spaceship equipment. My digital one was as good as the one he was having.

It is strange, how little things tend to mean so much. These were just a few sentences my father told me, and yet, they carried more emotional impact than I knew how to deal with. It meant a lot, and while some parts of my consciousness were working on several different things, my main focus was by his side, taking a few minutes for myself.

***

Not long after that, the trouble I was expecting to show its ugly head… did. The ungratefulness of some people still tends to astound me.

The problem with a group of disgruntled scientists was a thing that has been brewing for a while. It culminated when a few of them decided to organize a mini-revolt and to show their displeasure at how things were run on the island.

OK, I get it, they were exposed to many advanced technologies that looked like magic to them, and they are not exactly the most human relations savvy group, to begin with. All those abstract thoughts that run through their heads made them a bit oblivious to how the real world really works.

I guess the AutoDocs, anti-gravity, transporters, nanites, and this spaceship would make one think he was living in some Utopian future; reality was far from that.

Dr. Nikolov was an extremist who wanted the world to dance to his merry tune.

The fact that he managed to pass our initial screening is an indicator that the evaluation process is far from perfect. (Our admittance protocols will need to be tightened up.)

I listened to some of his conversations; his idea was for us to share everything we had with the whole world. He convinced himself (and a few others) how that will make people realize that they could be so much more, and then everybody will happily hold hands and sing Kumbaya, My Lord. He was so out there, I think some part of his mind went a little astray over the guilt that his past research was used to create some scary weapons. Of course, that guilt didn't stop him from cashing in the checks, people are strange that way.

Anyway, Michael had a little chat with the entire group of dissidents and they calmed down. I guess that most of them realized just how idiotic was the spiel that self-righteous Dr. Nikolov was propagating. Still, if you were hired to do a job that concerns science, why the hell would you involve yourself in politics? There is a reason why they were good at their jobs, but when it came to policy-making, they sucked.

The entire episode put the seed of doubt in Michael, which was normal, and something I expected all along. We did have the technology to change the world for the better, but it could easily be used to destroy it. So which decision was the correct one? In the end, you go with your gut and hope for the best.

The gut, in this case, being countless scenarios I run constantly (with millions of variables) so that my prediction algorithms could glimpse into the future. Every single one where we shared certain technologies with the world at large, turned into a disaster. That is not to say that we wouldn’t do it at all, just the opposite of that. There were plans to share a great portion with the whole world in the future, but it would have to be done gradually.

Advanced technology needs to be implemented in a measured and organized way or it will be misused. I remember a funny story about jet planes sold to some tribes in Africa for a truckload of diamonds, they didn't know how to fly them so they pushed them down the slope to collide with each other, the one who was less damaged was proclaimed the winner... People are nuts.

***

Maybe it is a way one deals with bad situations that define the outlook on life he or she will have. Sometimes you need to have fun; it is one of the basic necessities of life. Without it, things get sour and depressing.

It all started with Jack calling the team to the Missile silo because his friend's kids were kidnapped by a drug cartel. Not a rare thing with those people, they do make their living on the misery of others. Well, Michael wanted to test the tranq-darts that were a new type of nonlethal rounds he had me make… and they were a doozy. The tranquilizer was a combination of several substances that could kill an elephant in bigger doses but mixed in such a way to make them almost harmless to ordinary people. (Really, it would take at least five of them for one to start showing some negative effects.)

The best thing was that they worked almost instantaneously. Within the second the chemical inside would paralyze the nervous system making the intended target unable to call out, the loss of consciousness follows a few seconds later. The attack went without a hitch and all the bad guys were alive and unconscious.

The point is, Michael had an idea to maroon all the Cartel members on a desert island as a way of punishment. I quickly agreed and told him they could be used for scientific research, and there was a truth in that, but not the whole truth. I got the idea for Survivor: Drug Cartel edition the moment he said they would be tranked. It was fun, a whole bunch of Alpha males going native.

It worked like a charm, and I made sure there would be enough hidden cameras all around their new home to record all the best footage. Guess what, the people loved it, it was so much fun to watch them fumble around.

***

It is not easy, hiding from the world. People were living in a tropical paradise, but there was this dark cloud of apprehension caused by the possible outcome if we were prematurely discovered. When you have so many exceptionally intelligent human beings concentrated in one place, it does not take them long to figure out the potential dangers of the technological bounty we possessed. Moreover, most of them did not share Dr. Nikolov’s skewed view of reality, they had their heads screwed on straight.

As a way to relieve some of the psychological pressure of our people on the island, we needed to make everyone get together and forget their problems, doubts, and fears, at least for one evening.

The party with the Hawaiian Luau theme was a big hit. Not so surprising if you consider how much the entire thing ended up costing. We did save a lot for not paying transportation fees, and a few of the restaurants in Hawaii got the biggest takeout orders ever. It is not an easy thing to feed so many people with authentic food, and we splurged a lot. It was worth it in the end, good food, good music, and dancing. A few new romances were started at that party, and I would bet a few future members of our budding new society could trace the exact date of their conception to that particular night.

What can I say—the more the merrier.