Chapter 4: Upgrades

"Collette, you know where the coffee is," Bran instructed. "It's going to be a long night, so why don't you make a pot? Caleb, your batch of nanites is ready. I propose that you go first because Al has a better idea about what to expect. If there is an unforeseen problem, he has a better chance of correcting it on the fly. He can also be prepared to coach the rest of the Companions in how to handle the treatment."

"Okay, but," Caleb replied dubiously, as he was settling into his chair, "If my head explodes, you can blame it on Al."

"Humph," they all heard from the irascible alien.

Bran disappeared though the door to his basement.

"Not so fast," JJ said, grabbing Caleb by the arm. "We have an unfinished conversation from this morning, mister."

"JJ, we can't..." Caleb began in a panic, trying to read her to see what she was thinking.

"Not that, honey," JJ said drily, as she dragged him through the door.

Once they were in the living room, and alone, JJ grasped both of Caleb's arms and said, "This is not how I planned on spending our anniversary."

"It isn't how I planned on spending it, either," Caleb admitted apologetically. "I'm sorry, babe," he murmured before pulling her into a hug.

"So am I," JJ murmured, returning the hug. "There was something that I wanted to talk about, but I wanted it to be in a much more romantic setting."

"We can wait," Caleb suggested. "This business with Branch should be resolved in a few days, and things should be back to normal."

"That's the thing, Caleb," JJ said softly. "We have no guarantee we'll both survive Branch, this time. That's why I think we need to talk now."

"Okay," Caleb said dubiously, leaning back, and looking at JJ with a puzzled frown.

He tried to figure out what she was thinking, but all he could get was a nonsense song from Amy, her Companion.

JJ took a deep breath, as if steeling herself, and then in a rush said, "Caleb, I want to have a baby with you. Under normal circumstances, I would say that's crazy, because of our ages. But we'll live a lot longer, now, and Amy says there is no reason I can't have more children. I've thought about this ever since we got married. I thought I must be crazy, too. After a year, though, I really think it would be okay. I don't want..."

Caleb shut her up with a kiss. A very thorough kiss.

When he ended the kiss, finally, Caleb hugged JJ tightly before saying, "Babe, if you want us to make a baby, then that's what we'll do. There's only one thing that worries me."

"What's that," JJ asked, sniffling into his chest.

"Do you think we've practiced enough in the last year to get it right?" Caleb asked in his most innocent sounding voice.

JJ snorted, and punched him in the short ribs, drawing a gasp from Caleb. Then she hugged him as tightly as she could.

"I love you," JJ whispered fiercely.

"I love you, too," Caleb whispered back, his face buried in her hair, and hugging her just as intensely. "We can start working on that little chore whenever you want."

"I kind of already have," JJ admitted. "I didn't start my birth control pills after my last cycle."

Caleb chuckled and said, "So that's why I was having so much trouble reading you the last few days. I thought you were mad at me about something."

"I was afraid that you would get mad at me," JJ conceded. "That's why I decided that I had to tell you, today, on our anniversary. Then you were called away this morning, and I have no idea about what's going to happen tonight. Are you mad at me?" she asked, looking up at Caleb.

He met her gaze, and smiled before kissing her again, gently, and softly murmuring, "Not at all. I love you. I love Kim and Blake as if they were my own. I'll love any children we have in the future, too. Plus, I'll love you more and more every day."

"Thank you," JJ sighed, hugging him again. "We had better get back to the kitchen. Dad has some questions about what's going on."

Collette saw JJ's moist eyes when they reentered the kitchen, and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Everything's perfect, Mom, except some psycho wants to hurt us," JJ replied with a misty-eyed smile.

Bill frowned at his daughter, and began to say something before thinking better of it, and asked Caleb, "How did you find out about General Branch running with the Islamic radicals?"

"I was following up on some weapons charges that Greg, the Attorney General, was afraid were tied to terrorism," Caleb explained. "My team cornered one of the guys involved this afternoon. Al found traces of Branch's mental signature in the guy's memory. He had a girl tied up who we rescued when the guy gave up. Branch's mental signature was a lot clearer with her. An indelible signature, you might say."

"Was she okay?" JJ asked, concerned.

"Physically, she should recover in a reasonable amount of time. Mentally will take longer. I'm thinking about inviting her to stay with us for a while, to see if we can help her."

"How old is she," Blake asked.

"About a year younger than you are," Caleb replied, smiling at the teenager's priorities. "She is very fragile, though. That means that, if she does stay with us, we need to be careful with her. The girl has had it rough. She had a bad home life, and ran away. Based on the memories I looked at, Branch and his group gave her food and shelter in exchange for whatever they wanted from her. Her memories made it look like the radicals are scooping up American runaways. The girls are being used as rewards for the guys, and the guys are being trained as soldiers of Islam."

"Where's Gabi?" Caleb asked, turning to Bill.

"She wouldn't come," Bill replied sourly.

"Gabi said that she'll come after work," Collette explained, not any happier about the young woman's decision than Bill was. "She is completely wrapped up in making that restaurant work. They close at ten tonight. She said that she would be here between eleven and twelve."

"I'm worried about her," Bill said. "She's not getting enough sleep, and isn't eating right."

"Well, hopefully she'll be able to cope better after tonight."

Kim let herself in the back door, and JJ ran to her. The mother and daughter clung to each other.

"I'm so glad you're safe, baby," JJ whispered as she hugged her daughter.

"Me too, Mom," Kim whispered back. "Thanks for the help. It made it easier to take care of those guys."

JJ stepped back, and Caleb took her place.

"You know, kid, I'm the one that's supposed to take out the bad guys," Caleb said with a relieved smile. "Why don't you leave them to me, from now on."

"I will, as soon as they figure out that it isn't healthy to come after me," Kim retorted, sniffling back tears of relief at arriving safely. "Thanks for helping me, and staying with me for the rest of the drive."

"Any time," Caleb replied softly, after another hug.

"You're here! Good," Bran said from the door to his basement. "I need some blood."

"What? Is Igor graduating to blood?" Kim asked teasingly.

Kim knew what the blood was for. Caleb had explained it to her while she was driving. A part of Caleb's mind had been with Kim for the rest of her drive after the incident.

Kim had been teasing her great-uncle about his basement lab since she was ten years old. She called it Frankenstein's Lab, and insisted that he had an Igor hidden there that he used for his various experiments. When she was younger, Bran teased her about using her body parts and making a taller person.

"Nope. I'm going to clone you, but my Kim 2.0 will be logical and sweet. Nothing like the old Kim 1.0 that is illogical and mean to me all the time," Bran said pompously.

Both of them laughed and hugged.

"I'm glad that you're alright," Bran said gruffly.

"Thanks. So am I," Kim replied. "I hear that you're going to make me Super Girl."

"Not quite," Bran replied with a grin. "You don't get the red cape. Sit down, so I can get a drop of blood."

Bran turned to Caleb, and handed him a sealed vial, saying, "Rub this on your bare skin; an arm will do. The nanites will penetrate your skin and go to work as soon as they get to your blood stream. That should take less than a minute for them to penetrate the skin barrier. Don't touch anyone else for five minutes, though, as a margin of safety. I don't know what will happen if you get your nanites on someone else, and I don't want to find out. I suspect the nanites would attack the foreign body, causing a very painful death. Imagine being eaten from the inside out, beginning with your bones. There would not be an antidote."

"I won't touch anyone," Caleb assured him, feeling a cold chill at the image.

"While you apply your nanobots, I'll get Kim's batch started. Let's see what happens," Bran said, excited to see the results of his work.

"That doesn't look like enough to do anything," Caleb said doubtfully, looking at several grams of gray paste.

"According to Noah and Al, that is plenty for both your bones and your organs. They are designed to replicate as the need arises," Bran explained.

"JJ and Blake, your batches will be ready in about twenty minutes. Collette's and Bill's will be ready about an hour after that. Let me get Kim's batch started, and then we can work on the fun stuff." Bran looked back at Caleb saying, "Go ahead and smear that on now, so we can figure out if Al screwed up. I trust Al, and I believe this will work. Everything that I know matches what I've learned from Al, but I don't know about the human body. I'm completely depending on the Companions for that. I would suggest waiting a few hours before anyone else tries the treatment."

"This is perfectly safe," Al protested to everyone.

"I'm sure it is," Bran agreed. "Still, there is nothing wrong with an extra measure of caution. In fact, let me have the tube after you're finished. I'll incinerate the tube so there's no danger of any of those nanites getting on someone else. All it would take is a few to be lethal."

Caleb opened the vial and sniffed the concoction. He took a deep breath and then rubbed the mixture onto his bare forearms before he could talk himself out of it.

He trusted his Companion, and really did believe the treatment would help protect him. Caleb couldn't prevent the nagging doubts about something that came from a lab, and was designed by an alien. Fortunately, the concoction was smooth, and didn't have an odor.

"There you go," Bran said with a smile, as he carefully accepted the vial back. "Sit down, and tell me if you feel anything strange. Noah said that you shouldn't feel anything, but I want to make sure. I'll be right back."

Before Caleb could say anything, Bran disappeared down the stairs again.

Caleb sat, and tried to feel what the nanobots were doing in his body.

"Before you came along, I wouldn't have done something like this on a bet," Caleb told his Companion.

"Aren't you glad that you get to experience new and exciting things?" Al asked, almost mockingly.

"If you really want," Al continued in a more serious tone, and including everyone in the connection, "I can show you what the nanites are doing. It is kind of boring though. The nanites that are programmed for bones are getting into your arteries where they will flow to your bones. As they reach critical numbers, they will work their way into your bones where they will integrate with the calcium. When merged into the bone substrate, your bones will become much stronger and have greater flexibility. Other nanites are migrating via the same arteries to your organs. They will begin scouring your veins and arteries, and making sure that each organ is functioning at an optimal level. They'll also work with the nanites in your bones by permeating and strengthening your ligaments, particularly where they attach to your bones. The remainder will go to work within the vascular part of the bones where they will enhance the speed of blood cell production."

"Um ... No thanks," Caleb replied. "Ruggedized," Caleb said aloud. "That is what Al called this treatment earlier today. No one has to do this, but with Branch out there, we don't know what is going to happen, or when it will happen. I've got a feeling that their run at Kim was only the opening round. I can't stay in Houston to protect everyone. To stop him, I'm going to have to go out and find him. Plus, I'm supposed to be in Austin with Scotty tomorrow afternoon."

"What should we do?" Bill rumbled.

"Remember that Branch has a lot of years of experience working in covert operations. Expect anything, and be ready to respond. He has also gained control of a portion of the Muslim community. I don't know how large a portion, but judging from what I learned today, some of them have no problem being violent. The best that I can advise is to be aware of everything around you. Companions need to be on high alert and scan every surface thought that gets within range."

Caleb sighed before saying, "My biggest concern is our lack of intelligence. We knew what we were facing when we encountered General Branch in Arizona. He's calling himself Abdul Ali Hassan now. I don't know how he managed to get into a position of authority in the Muslim community so quickly. My bet is this identity has been a work in progress for him for a long time. That will make him even harder to find and track. It may not be the only identity that he's using, either. If it were me, I would have two or three solid identities in reserve, and several throw-away identities. The bad thing is I don't know how much he knows about us. Even having everyone in one place, like this, is a risk," Caleb admitted with a grimace. "I think it was necessary to get everyone protected as much as possible."

Bran had returned through the basement door for the last of Caleb's explanation. He was carrying a tray of metal boxes.

"Maybe this will give us an edge," Bran said grimly. "This is the fun stuff. Each of you take a box, but don't open it," he instructed. "I'll need to give you a little demonstration first, and then explain how to imprint your personal nanites. Imprinting has to be done before opening the box."

Each person took a box, leaving what looked like an odd headset, which Bran set on the coffee table.

"That is for imprinting the nanites," Bran explained.

Bran grasped the shiny silver tray with both hands, and it slowly melted, forming wide gauntlets on his forearms.