Lineage, Part 1

The Unrelinquished December, cloaked above Central Park, New York, Earth.

"You're going to get written up again."

"Let them write me up. This is the sole amount of fucks I give, Jo Jo." Aurora said, holding out her left hand to show a tiny space between her thumb and forefinger before she returned to her smartphone. "When they get internet set up on Terra, then I'll be more productive on Earth trips."

"Or less." Josephine "Jo Jo" Kirkling said, as she worked on a painting of gold bars. Nothing like a good lure for criminal elements.

"You try living most of your adult life with terrible robot arms, you'll learn well the simple joys of doing stuff like this." Aurora said, lying on her bed as she rapidly tapped at her phone's screen with her artificial thumbs. "You know what one of my shining moments while I dated Pit was? Holding a hot dog well. That's how damn much a pain in the fucking ass it was."

"How's he doing?"

"Married stuff. I friended him on Facebook."

"Careful, he'll think you're stalking him."

"If I was stalking him it would have ended with a blade through the back of his head by now. I ended it, remember? I blew it. I have my issues but I know when to admit my mistakes." Aurora said. "Besides, if I went and did that I suspect there would be a lot of fire heading my way."

DING!

"Updates?" Jo Jo said, in regards to the loud noise Aurora's phone had made.

"Updates. Lessee boring boring dull fuck if I care..."

"What about that weird pillar we found on Terra?"

"Robots are still poking and prodding at it. Table's not letting any living thing within a hundred miles of it after Barros went to check it and flipped out. Something about toxic memetic overwriting huggamugga...Maddie also thinks it has some relation to necrotic tissue but hell if I know how or what...let's see Undertaker Squad has a few more small concert dates...Gem and Stan are STILL off honeymooning somewhere...most of the supplies we're here to gather have been gathered but we need more fusion fuel, something about looking into finding one of the garbage masses in the oceans and using that..."

"Pretty much." Jo Jo said, looking at a tablet.

"...Wait are you following along?"

"You skip stuff."

"Then just read it yourself! There's no orders for me so..." Phonephonephone. Jo Jo let the cyborg woman do her thing. And speaking of data...

"...huh." Jo Jo said, as she looked at her emails and discovered she had finally gotten one back. "Hey, Raw?"

"Yeah?"

"You were adopted, right?"

"Fuck no, I was abandoned and foster cared and fuck the rest I don't wanna talk about it. Why the fuck did you bring that up?"

"Well you know those ancestry TV ads?"

"No."

"Uh, well, they can try and trace your family tree."

"Who cares?"

"Well I was kinda curious, but suspicious, so...I kind of sent them a DNA sample. Of yours."

"...they're not gonna use it to make a legion of evil clones of me, are they?"

"Doubt it."

"So? Fucking point? Am I related to Jean of Polo or Hitlertrump or one of the Kobbers or something?"

"Well, no, but, uh, if I'm reading this right..."

---

ONE REVELATION AND HEADING TO THEIR MAIN SCIENTIST TO DOUBLE CHECK LATER.

"Crude and unrefined, but still fairly accurate, this test! It COULD be wrong but it's about a 1 in 50 chance from what I can read. You have a half-brother, Aurora."

Aurora was quiet for a bit.

"...How? I mean like...from who?"

"According to this test, it's on your father's side. So this boy's father is your father."

"...And who is he?"

"His DNA was in the system due to some medical issues, give me a moment to sneak around some privacy firewalls and..."

Revelation. Once more.

"...well." Aurora Klenn said, looking at her half-sibling. "Fuck me running."