our beloved and our god

[jovahs_heiress]

It's the middle of the night, and Isabella is sitting up reading, when she gets an alarming message.

[Captain,] says Jane's voice, and Jane never calls her Captain, [I've lost ansible communications with the rest of Jane. Local programming including responding to prayers will run as usual without a problem, and the voice synthesis will continue to operate with the Jane voice instead of the Jehovah voice unless you request otherwise. However, interworld communication and travel is impossible until the connection is restored. The nature of the error is unknown and is not related to a mechanical defect of the ansibles aboard the ship or in your bracelet.]

Isabella blinks.

[...Please do change voices as long as you aren't actually Jane.]

The voice changes, but says, [I contain more software than the original Jehovah did, most of which is original to Jane.]

[You're talking more like him than her.]

[Yes, Captain.]

[Alert me immediately when you have ansible communications back.]

[Yes, Captain.]

Isabella pads across the room to sit where Micaiah is sleeping and lay her hand on his back.

Comments

[pythbox]

"They sound nicer?" she guesses. "Do one-at-a-time babies sound nicer than twins?"

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella laughs. "No. All right - why do we sing at all?"

[pythbox]

"Because it's fun!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"And bringing up little angels," says Isabella, rocking sleepy Keziah and re-folding a limp wing, "is also fun."

[pythbox]

"Even the boring part?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"I wouldn't want to miss it."

[pythbox]

"Okay," says Damaris, dubiously.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Right now you are three," says Isabella. "Would you want to be magicked into being six instead, right now? And miss being four and five in between?"

[pythbox]

"I don't know," says Damaris. "I've never been four yet!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Keziah hasn't been one year old yet," says Isabella. "I don't think it would be fair if she never got to try it, even if that would make her interesting faster."

[pythbox]

"Oh," says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Besides, tiny babies are cute."

[pythbox]

"Tiny babies are boring," says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Well, I suppose I thought so too when I was three."

[pythbox]

"You were three?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Oh yes! I have been all of the ages from zero to twenty-three," laughs Isabella.

[pythbox]

Damaris giggles.

[jovahs_heiress]

"In order," Isabella adds, winking.

[pythbox]

Damaris giggles more!

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella kisses the top of her head.



Keziah isn't quite as precocious as Damaris, but when she is two and Damaris is five, she can reliably say things more intelligible than uncontextualized "juice" and "up" and "Mommy" and "Daddy" and "Dars", which is as close as she can come to Damaris's name for the first years of her life.

"Play wif me, Dars," Keziah says, tugging on Damaris's arm.

[pythbox]

"Okay!" says Damaris, beaming. "What do you want to play?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"A game!"

[pythbox]

"Okay!" says Damaris.

She quite enthusiastically makes up a game on the spot.

[jovahs_heiress]

Keziah plays along with all the eptness and clumsy enthusiasm one might reasonably expect from a two-year-old.

[pythbox]

That is okay. Sometimes when you're learning things you don't get them right away. Damaris will just have to keep on teaching her how to be interesting until she learns it properly.