As the family emerged from the 'bridge', they were greeted by another astounding beauty that vaguely resembled Sheba. Jimmy thought to himself that this grayish-lavender haired supermodel had to be Grista. She was still wearing a cover-all, but they utterly failed to hide her beauty.
Sheba stood next to her, and the 'family' resemblance was clear. "Jimmy, Ladies, I would like to introduce my sister, and the chief maintenance AI, Grista. Grista, this is Jimmy Wells, his girlfriend Tammy Holden, Donna Wells, Tina Holden, and Jamie Adams. Finally, this is Janie Wells, and her mate, Holly."
"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Welcome to Pollux. Please excuse my dress since I was fixing one of the energy conduits out in Fallsport, and didn't have time to change," Grista explained.
"Don't worry about it, Grista. We're sorry for interrupting your day," Jimmy replied. "Although it is a pleasure to meet you as well, uh, forgive my rudeness, but are all AI avatars as beautiful as the two of you?"
Instead of getting slapped on the shoulder, the rest of the family wanted to know as well.
Grista seemed to be a little taken by surprise by the question. "I don't know how to answer that; there are only two active avatars at the moment. With the exception of Prinea, the rest of the AIs are asleep. Well, Pollux is awake now too, but she's in a data acquisition mode."
"We do have the option to select the physical appearance of our avatars when we need a new one," Sheba offered.
Donna nodded. "So your bodies are android in composition. Whoever designed them did a really good job."
"Excuse me, but who's Prinea?" Holly asked.
Walter smiled broadly. "Prinea is the main medical AI and my counterpart in the medical center. He's a disembodied AI, that is to say, he chose not to have a physical body. Please, say hello Prinea."
"Thank you, Doctor. I thought perhaps that Sheba had forgotten me. It is an honor to meet all of you. If you have any medical questions or simply need me to translate what Wally tells you, please feel free to ask.
"Now, to answer your earlier question Miss Donna, they are fully functional, enhanced humans. They have to eat, drink, urinate and deficate just like any human. They are also capable of bearing children, though both Sheba and Grista have opted to disable that function.
"All that being said, the way they are created could be considered manufacturing. Once they make all the decisions on how they want to look and function, it is coded into the genetic information of a 'blank' clone. When the clone reaches the specified age, a new meta-crystal is implanted in the cranium, and the neural nanobots finish the 'wiring'. Once complete, the AI downloads from the main computer system, and the new avatar wakes up as a sentient AI."
I winked at Tammy as I said. "Oh really? So, Tammy and I really can ask Sheba out on a date then?"
Sheba's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, as Wally, Glynda, Grista and Prinea all burst out laughing.
"Gods! Please! She needs a really good ... uh, date!" Prinea sputtered out between laughs, and Sheba started looking mad.
Tina walked over to the super-embarrassed AI, took her in her arms and pressed her lips to Sheba's.
The laughter slowly died away and still the two beautiful women continued kissing. Walter chuckled, held a finger up to his lips for silence, and led the group out of the transit bay. The lounge he led them into was surrounded by 'windows' so visitors and new arrivals could get a good look at the true size of the Citadel.
It was immense! From what Jimmy could see it had to be miles across. Their vantage point seemed to be 'below' the majority of the great station/ship, and looking up, past the 'spokes' and the outer ring-shaped habitat, were the very beautiful ice rings of the sixth planet.
The whole family was staring out the huge windows at the sight, and for a long time, no one said a word. Wally and Glynda had been right; the view was breath-taking.
"Just how big is this place, Grandpa?" Jamie asked.
"It's roughly ten miles wide, and thirty-one or so miles around. We're currently at the bottom of the central hub, which is known as the Citadel. The Eco-sphere, where most of the residents will live is the outer ring.
"In between two of the four main spokes are area's reserved for our military. One of the two areas is aerospace services bays, training, housing, and manufacturing for the aerospace forces. The other area is for the ground troops, all their equipment, housing, training, manufacturing and equipment storage.
"The fortress itself has so many weapons systems that it would be a bore to list them all; since Pollux will fill Jimmy in and the rest of us don't actually need to know, I'll spare us all a long and boring rundown of the offensive and defensive weapons systems. Suffice it to say, we are standing in the most well defended place in the universe," Wally finished.
"This place is just ... overwhelming! I'm honestly more than a little intimidated by all of this. I mean, what if I accidently open an airlock or something?" Holly asked, and Janie nodded her head, agreeing with her.
"I don't know, I'm kinda curious to take a look at the ground forces area. I'd love to see what advanced aliens consider effective weapons," Jamie said.
Glynda smiled at Holly and Janie. "No need to worry about it for now. You actually can't do anything dangerous. Mostly because you can't actually do anything at all. You can't even walk down the corridor unescorted at the moment."
Wally picked it up from there. "It's part of the security system of the Citadel. We'll get all of you checked in while in the medical portico's. Then the computers will let you move around; giving you access to air and ground. We'll get you in temporary quarters until you decide which permanent residence is yours."
Jimmy turned to Grista. "If I strangle him, does that automatically disqualify me from being the Avatar?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, but the twinkle was in her eyes. "In this instance, I'm sure Pollux would rule this as a 'justifiable homicide' and most likely give you a medal."
"Spoil Sports!" Wally said grinning. "Once they finish what they're doing, would you ask Sheba to escort her new friend to Main Medical please, Grista?"
"As you wish, Doctor," Grista replied, bowing her head to him. Turning to the rest of the family, she excused herself. "I should get back to the repair I was working on. Ladies, Jimmy, it was a true pleasure to meet all of you, and I look forward to seeing all of you again. If you'll excuse me?"
"Of course, Grista! Don't let us keep you from your work!" Janie said. "It was a pleasure to meet you as well. You're welcome to come and visit us anytime you want, once we figure out where we'll be staying."
After the tall beauty walked away, Jamie said, "If we all didn't have to go to medical, I think I would have followed her!" Tammy giggled at her.
"Sure! Then she would've never gotten that repair finished!" Glynda quipped. "Come on, let's get to Medical so Prinea can get all of you registered with the census computer. We can have lunch, and then get any health issues you might have handled. Jimmy? Pollux will handle your medical scan, but you can stay with us for lunch."