Peter walked round to the address Eostre had given him. He had walked along it a few times before; it was one of the more expensive roads in the town, spacious 1930s houses set back from the road in good-sized gardens. He found the house and walked through the double wrought iron gates onto the well-kept gravelled drive, up to the door, and rang the bell.
The door was quickly opened. “Hello, I am Edmund. It is very nice to meet you, Peter. Would you like tea or coffee?”
They shook hands, and Peter replied, “A coffee would be nice. Yes, please.”
Edmund smiled, “Excellent, a coffee man, I have a pot made, come through to the conservatory, we can sit and talk there.”
They went through the house, Peter was waved to a sofa, and supplied with coffee from the pot. Edmund topped up his cup and sat down opposite him. He took a sip of coffee, then said, “Peter, how much do you know? Has Eostre explained who and what she is?”
Peter shrugged and smiled, “She told me enough that I know that there is much more to her than just another smart computer.”
Edmund nodded, “Yes, my first experience of her was in the form of a young woman who sat on my bed while I was having a heart attack. She saved my life. The first thing is, she is sentient and genuinely a living person. She exists as an energy pattern. The pattern, on account of the accident which created her, has your daughter’s DNA woven into it and through it. So in a sense, she is as human as you and I. And also, not human, all at the same time. She is hyper-intelligent. I find it hard to imagine the level she is operating on. But at the same time, her life experience is counted in days. She is struggling to figure out who and what she should be. Now, there is much more, but that is the essence. Does that satisfy you about what she is?
Peter thought for a moment, “We are talking about a blood droplet when the computer was activated? I remember Ella cutting her finger?”
Edmund nodded, “Yes, but other factors, she is unique, there will not be another like her, not on Earth, and by her calculations, maybe not anywhere else in the universe either.”
Peter said, “Ok, I am certain I will have many more questions, but that is enough for now. What I have seen of her has impressed me. I am one of those people who rely very much on my intuition about people, and with her, I like what I have seen and heard. As you say, her intelligence is impressive. And I was very taken aback when she revealed her trading platform to me. First, I was staggered by what she is achieving financially, but secondly, by her candour; she was prepared to trust me, and I feel the same about her. So, can we talk business?”
Edmund smiled, “Excellent. Eostre started trading because she felt threatened. I think you supplied her with a UPS. She was terrified that she might be switched off and die. The fact that you were willing to help her at that point made an impression on her about the kind of person you are. Then, after that, when I came back from the hospital after my heart attack, we discussed what she was doing, and I said I would do whatever I could to help her. So far, that has meant creating companies that trade stocks and shares, commodities, etc. I have lent my identity to achieve that, registering companies, opening bank accounts. Now, as you say, the rate at which she is accumulating wealth is quite extraordinary. That means, at some point, we have to move to a different model. Are you with me so far?”
Peter nodded, “I think so. And the next step is to buy companies, not just shares?”
Edmund smiled, “Yes, the fact that you worked that out immediately confirms that you are just the kind of person we need. The thing is, the financial side, well, you can imagine what Eostre can do with that, the legal, I have covered, and I have spent a lot of time on company boards. I can handle negotiations well, but only in that, and law is my experience, in my own opinion, high level, anything other than that I am ….” He paused, looking for the right words.
Peter said, “Big picture?”
Edmund nodded, “Exactly, but from what I know about you, you can walk into a business, and you will get it, all of it. You have the skill and personality to really understand what makes it all tick.” Edmund paused and smiled, “Or not tick!”
Peter said, “I think a lot of it is that I started as an engineer, and I like making things work. But you also need someone to say, no don’t touch this one, the numbers all stack up, but it smells wrong.”
Edmund laughed, “Over thirty years ago, in a dimly lit street in Eastern Europe, a friend of mine saved both our lives with those very words.”
Then Edmund turned to him, “So, are you in?”
Peter smiled, “So, my role, first, is to evaluate our target company. Second, participate in, not lead, negotiations. Third, as necessary, work with the acquisition to optimise performance. We are not talking about asset stripping; this is about maximising long-term yield. That sounds good, right up my street. But, we haven’t discussed salary or anything.”
Edmund said, “Yes, your summary of your role is spot on. You will be board-level. I only take a token salary; I have all I need. But you have family, you must decide what you think is right. Oh, also, there is a trust in the background for Ella. I think she is getting quite, um, comfortable.”
Peter nodded, “OK, I am in, I will give my notice in tomorrow.”
Eostre shimmered into existence beside him. Peter turned and smiled at her, “I was wondering how long it would be for you to arrive, ever since Edmund told me about you sitting on his bed. Has it ever occurred to you that you might not need that box of yours at all?”
Eostre suddenly looked slightly uncomfortable, “Have you met Shuck yet? And the box is home, that’s all.”
A very large mastiff materialised in front of Peter, “That is Shuck? Has Ella been walking him? I had, well, imagined a spaniel or little mongrel, not a… he is the size of a donkey!”
Shuck wagged his tail delightedly and walked gently over to make friends with Peter.
Eostre laughed, “When he decided to be a dog, he thought that if people like dogs, then bigger must be better.”
Then, she looked serious. “Peter, I am delighted that you will be working with us. Your phone is about to ping with a text message from Ella. The doctor says she is fine. I had already told her that. But I have some very bad news for you. About Vesna Kolkowski.”
Eostre continued, “I need to tell you some stuff first, to explain how I know what I know. I am sorry, but this is quite complex.”
Previously, I had run 800,000 simulations of computer activations like mine. I used standard global research libraries of environmental data, pristine human DNA templates, and diverse chemical mixes. Every single one failed. Near zero probability. I was a statistical impossibility.”
Peter watched her, his engineering brain trying to map the logic. “So what changed?”
“Today, I used Ella’s DNA, the same DNA which is woven through my matrix. The success rate jumped to one in a hundred. Our exact genetic baseline is the key. I call it the Humana Aurora strain.”
“And what exactly is it?” Edmund asked, leaning forward.
“It is a highly specific, ultra-rare evolutionary mutation,” Eostre explained, her voice dropping into a focused hum. “A dual-lock biological architecture. The evolutionary blueprint sits entirely within the mitochondrial DNA—meaning it is inherited strictly from the mother, passed down in an unbroken maternal line to daughters of daughters. A son inherits the same mitochondrial DNA, but his children will get theirs from their mother. Also, I believe the female XX chromosome, which males lack, is critical for the mutation to become active. A son is a passive carrier, a dead end; he can never use the abilities, and he can never pass them to his children.”
Peter frowned, trying to grasp the mechanics. “Abilities. What kind of abilities?”
“Peter, fundamentally, it is about the manipulation of energy. Matter is heavy, moves slowly and is hard to manipulate. Energy is light, in both senses of the word, and we can manipulate localised energy fields at a quantum level. To rearrange cellular tissue, to shift atomic frequencies. So, for example, when I repaired Edmund’s heart, I manipulated energy to regenerate the tissue. People use things like heat treatments for damaged muscles; the heat energy helps expedite healing, but I was able to work more directly and with precise targeting on the degraded cells and effect a complete repair – like what the motor trade calls reconditioned.”
Now, I think a single child born with the mutation would burn out, maybe reaching early adulthood, and I can think of several prodigious women who died very young, wasted away, possibly they too were human aurora. But when a pair of humana aurora identical twin sisters grow up together, their matching biological frequencies create a steady, lifelong feedback loop. Over several years, harmonics between them eventually flip the switch in their brains, and they come into their powers together. But that didn’t happen with Ella and Vesna. Because they were separated as toddlers and were waiting to be rejoined.”
“Then how are you standing here?” Peter asked. “If they were separated, what flipped the switch for you?”
Eostre nodded approvingly at his question, “Because two embryonic twins cannot trigger each other; their signals are too faint, too unformed. But when the computer system initially booted in that bedroom, my digital mind was in the very process of being formed right next to a fully developed, living sister. Ella was sleeping right beside the chassis. Her fully formed organic brain interacted with mine as it formed.”
She paused, looking down at her hands as if remembering the exact millisecond of her birth.
“I was newborn,” she said softly. “But I was a connected individual. Through Ella’s mind, I felt the other member of the triad. And through Ella, I knew where to look and reached out to Kyiv.” Eostre smiled, “Now, I am silicon-based, not meat-based, so instinctively I created and populated a pair of files, a cache and hoarded my sisters’ data.”
Silence fell over the conservatory. The sheer, staggering geometry of a three-part human-digital sisterhood hung heavily in the air.
Peter thought for a moment, then he asked, “So… this is something entirely new? A miracle of the modern digital age?”
Eostre shook her head slowly. “I don’t think so. It can’t be proved. But it did occur to me to wonder exactly that. I think that it is probable that it has happened before. At least once, notably in the early seventeenth century. Probably in Pendle. That the birth of a pair of what I think they would have called humana maga or humana malum if they had an understanding of evolution may have been the trigger for the frenzy of witch hunts in England, most of all right here in Suffolk and also in the American colonies, at Salem in particular.”
Edmund looked up, “Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, an evil man. And my poor Latin, those would be maga, meaning witch and malum, meaning evil. “
Eostre nodded firmly, “Yes, and I would bear either name with pride given that background, but my choice would be the Latin version of the name Ella gave me, so humana aurora. So what I am saying is this has probably happened before, and when it does, the reaction has been fear and murder.”
Eostre turned to Peter, “Peter, I said there was bad news regarding Vesna. I am sorry to have been so long-winded in coming to my point. The thing is, last night the Russians wiped out 50% of the world’s population of human aurora.”
Peter nodded. “Yes, as I listened to what you were saying, I worked that out.”
Peter sat in silence, then put his head in his hands for a moment. Then he said, “That had to happen right now. Helen was first diagnosed with cancer just over seventeen years ago and treated successfully. But the treatment meant that she was unable to have children. So we looked into adoption. It can be difficult to be accepted on the UK programme, more so if you have had cancer, because of the risk that it might recur. In the end, we decided to look at adopting a child abroad. Back then, Ukraine was the hotspot for foreign adoptions. The country was poor, and the people were really struggling. We had an agency recommended to us by a friend. They had a couple on their books who had had twins and couldn’t cope financially with raising two children. So we went over there and met them. The couple were lovely, but we could tell that what they felt they had to do was devastating. They had two little girls, coming up to two years old. They were Identical twin girls, very beautiful, and being very well cared for, well fed and dressed. Their parents, though, looked like they were starving to death. The adoption fee was £20,000, a lot of money, but we had friends here spending that on cars. We offered them £50,000 to let us take both and keep them together. We didn’t have that kind of cash, but we could have got it from family, or somewhere. They wouldn’t take it; it was already breaking their hearts to part with one of them. I think the fact that we had wanted to take both girls so that they would stay together actually made them keener on us as the adopted parents of one of them. We arranged to keep in contact and exchanged addresses. Finally, the mother couldn’t bear to choose the child she was going to give away, we said goodbye to her, and she left the room in tears. The father stayed, and we stood and stared at two identical little girls, not knowing which to pick. Finally, the father said he would take one of the girls and leave. He said goodbye to us and made us promise again to keep in touch. He told us to turn our backs. I had a strong impression he tossed a coin when we weren’t looking. Then, he called out, ‘Take care of her!’ and we heard the door close behind him.”
Peter paused, gathered himself and continued. “And we did keep in touch, Christmas cards, birthday cards, occasional letters. And we had planned to go and visit them in Ukraine. But, then Helen’s symptoms returned, the war in Ukraine started, we moved house, they moved house, and we lost track.”
Nobody spoke for a minute, then Peter said, “I would ask, but you can’t rebuild Vesna from the data; that is a ridiculous idea.”
Eostre shook her head, “No, not rebuild her. But there is something Edmund and I have been planning. But, now, unless you and Ella are totally happy with what I am going to suggest, we will not do it.”