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

[jovahs_heiress]

That is good! Everyone likes to hear little angel voices. Rinnah is terribly proud of her. So is Isabella.

[pythbox]

It makes Damaris very happy when Mommy and Grandma are proud of her!

[jovahs_heiress]

That's good!

Does it also make Damaris very happy when, timed nearly right for her third birthday, she gets a little sister?

[pythbox]

Damaris is not sure how to feel about that at all.

[jovahs_heiress]

Keziah's feelings on the matter seem to mostly come in the form of whimpery mewls whenever she is not being actively fed right then, or sleeping. She sleeps a lot.

[pythbox]

Keziah is kind of boring.

Damaris asks her father if she was that boring when she was a baby.

He considers the question, and then says she was a lot louder.

Damaris is not surprised.

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella doesn't think her darling Keziah is boring at all!

[pythbox]

"But she doesn't do anything, Mommy," says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Not yet," says Isabella. "She's watching everybody around her so she can learn to do things."

[pythbox]

"Oh," says Damaris. "Well, put her in front of interesting people, then, so she'll stop being boring quicker."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Don't you think we're interesting?" laughs Isabella.

[pythbox]

"I guess," says Damaris. "Good job, then! Should I sing her songs, will that help?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"It might!" says Isabella. "We can sing to her together. But not when she's asleep. Babies need a lot of sleep."

[pythbox]

"Okay," says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"In a few years she'll be talking and singing, just like you."

[pythbox]

"That's good!" says Damaris. "I want her to talk! She'll be less boring if she talks."

[jovahs_heiress]

"It's true," agrees Isabella, laughing.

[pythbox]

"I'll sing her songs and talk to her a lot," says Damaris, "and then she'll learn those things faster!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Quite possibly. She can only learn so fast, though, she is just one little angel and not six of them."

[pythbox]

"Do six little angels learn faster than one?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Well," says Isabella, "they'd have to learn the same things, like how to walk and talk and use their hands and flap their wings, but if you count all of it separately, then yes, about six times as fast."

[pythbox]

Damaris frowns.

"That doesn't make sense," she announces. "If six little angels learn six times as fast as one then why doesn't everybody have babies six at a time so they won't be boring as long?"

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella laughs. "Well, first of all, that would be very uncomfortable. You saw how big I got when I was pregnant with just Keziah; imagine if there were six of her! And second of all, that's not what I meant. Imagine you're drawing with chalk, a line on the floor from that wall to this one. If you draw six lines at once, with six pieces of chalk, then there will be six times as much chalk on the floor, but the lines will still only go from one wall to the other."

[pythbox]

"But then that's not any faster at all!" says Damaris.

[jovahs_heiress]

"More learning happens, in the same amount of time," says Isabella. "That's a kind of faster. The kind of faster you want is the same amount of learning in less time."