Savage Stars

by Randolph Lalonde

  “I don’t believe they controlled any of the machines in orbit.”

  “They were in orbit shortly after we arrived, and they weren’t known to us as Eden or Defence Drones, so they could have been part of their force. What if they were trying to get orbital control as we were fighting our way through the solar system? We could have provided them with the opening they needed.”

  Skylar thought silently for a moment then nodded. “That seems likely. The base we were after fired at a few of the drones, I remember. When we were going down to the planet, a few of those shots were from above too. I didn’t have time to mention it then.”

  “So, they needed something in the manufacturing base that developed dolls. They are intent on keeping us here, behind metres of armour and on keeping us happy.” Gavin pondered for a moment.

  “They need us so they have grown dolls to compare their versions with. Maybe for the genetic keys to make sense, they need the locks too.”

  “That makes sense,” Gavin said. “But there’s something else, something bigger.” He moved his hand down to her waist then between them. There, he tapped his conclusion out by wiggling his finger between. If a scanner could see what he was doing, it wouldn’t be able to decipher it. They made their own version of Morse code when they were young. ‘Sol Defence preserves Earth. Their masters have been restoring it for centuries. They wouldn’t make a whole world barren. These people are not Sol Defence.”

  Skylar nodded, then kissed him. “You’re right, we have to get some sleep.”

  It was her way of telling him that she understood, but there was nothing they could do about it yet.

  Twenty-Two

  There wasn’t so much as a tingle as Spin stood in the full body scanner. Most of the systems she’d seen were larger, and they required her to disrobe and lay down. This machine could scan through her consuit. They only had her take her belt, boots and jacket off before she stepped inside. Less than a minute later, the nurse – a broad headed Mergillian that looked like some kind of overlarge frog – grumbled; “Time to get out, we’re all finished.”

  Spin stepped down from the scanning alcove, taking her jacket from Boro as she stomped into her boots. “Are you sure you got what you needed? I didn’t feel or hear anything.”

  “Don’t worry, we got it,” the nurse said, poking the control panel in front of him, bringing up a hologram of her working cardiovascular system. “Whole fifteen second loop of all your functions except a couple big ones we don’t need, like sneezing, eating, defecating, you know, that stuff. If we need any of that, we’ll tell you to come back.” The nurse pointed at the door. “Through there, get in a plain room. Your people can wait outside.”

  “I have questions for the doctor too. They’re just quick ones though,” Nigel said.

  The Mergillian threw his head back and sighed before shuddering then regarding Nigel. “What do you need a high level genetic researcher for?”

  “Well, it’s my friend. His brain was just transferred into the wrong body. They said his containment was failing – his brain was in a small containment box – and they didn’t have time to wait for a male body, so he’s a she now and she’s not taking it well.”

  “Bloody humans and their gender issues,” the nurse grumbled. “Did you know that I’m technically female? I know I look male, and I've got the right organs for it, but if I don’t run into enough of my kind for a few years and have some skin to skin time with a female, I could turn and just impregnate myself. I get plenty of skin on skin time with the females, mind you, but when it comes to gender issues, my people have everything figured out because we realized a long time ago; people are just people! They probably did all kinds of stupid hormonal and psychological monkeying around in your friend’s head, but I’ll let you in on a secret; take their favourite things, give them to her, and watch all those personality traits and weird flaws you humans call unique or cute or important come flooding back. You people make all this so complicated.”

  “I’d still like to ask the doctor…” Nigel said.

  “You! Waiting room!” he barked, pointing at the door. “If you really want gender reassignment, go to the concourse, there are people happy to do it there for a few million plat.” The nurse turned to Spin. “The Doctor will see you in a couple minutes.”

  Nigel retreated to the waiting room with Boro close behind. He was trying not to laugh at the tongue lashing his nephew received.

  “That wasn’t funny,” Nigel said, sounding a little hurt.

  Boro patted him on the shoulder. “You know, I learned a long time ago to listen to nurses. When we’re done here, let’s go down to the concourse and buy Dori a nice spanner, a gun, and the kind of long coat he used to like. Maybe he’s right.”

  “See you in a few minutes,” Spin said as she broke off into an exam room.

  “Good luck,” Boro said.

  The space was more of an interview room, with a retractable exam table folded up against the wall, one seat in front of a large display showing asteroids and meteors tumbling by outside, and three others around that one. She took a seat and a moment later a man in a blue and green suit with a British Alliance emblem on one side strode in. When he turned around and sat across from her, she saw the animated logo of a spinning planet shifting between arid and lush colours. Beneath it was the company name: Renew Tech. “Spin,” he said. “You were one of the Aspen Seven lines,” he said, looking at her for a moment then throwing a holographic overlay of her scan on top of her. It was strange looking at the motions of her heart, lungs and the functions of her other organs as though they were wrapped around her.

  “I am. I understand you worked on my doll model?” She asked. “I’m…”

  “You’ve been tampered with,” he said. “Someone gave you the wrong meds and you almost self-destructed on the spot. That could have been much worse for you.” He looked at a holographic readout that projected from his wrist. “I didn’t work on the Aspen line, but I know people who did. I also worked on a line that came after, as well as a few before. You’re lucky I’m here, because everyone else is dead, as far as I know. Well, except for Doctor Case, but we haven’t been talking for years, and she mostly worked in military development.”

  “Can you do anything to extend my life?” Aspen asked.

  Doctor Rogan sat back in his chair and scrolled through a few more holographic projections, most of which were set to private mode, so they were blurry to her. “One minute, okay? It’s been a while since one of your people made it here.”

  Spin waited patiently as he skimmed more records. After a few minutes, he found one that he read carefully, then shut his personal projection system down. Doctor Rogan leaned forward, looking her in the eyes as he deactivated the hologram overlay showing him the results of the deep scan his nurse had taken. “Okay, Spin,” he said. “Your model is only special in the way all dolls are special. As they grow up, they utilize more of their potential, become more impressive, and before you become too exceptional you suffer complete organ failure and die. I’m guessing you already know that.”

  “I do, I know I don’t have much time left,” Aspen said.

  “You’re lucky you came in. I’d say you are twenty-one days from complete failure, but I can fix that. Pay my hourly rate, and I can guarantee you fourteen months. I’m only doing this because I always wanted to see what any of the dolls like you would become if the death switch was left off.”

  Spin felt like she’d just been on the fastest emotional roller coaster she’d ever experienced. She really only had three weeks left? This Doctor could give her more time? “Thank you,” she said. “What about turning that off myself?”

  “I’ve never met a living doll who has broken their loyalty conditioning in the wild before,” he said, smiling a little. “This is truly enlightening. The death switch is easy to cure if you have the genetic key that will alter the instructions that prevent tampering. Once that’s done, any genetic modifications can be made. You can turn
the death switch off, cure your infertility, increase your life span, and use any genetic modifications just like any human.”

  “So, dolls are pretty much human?” Spin asked. Even though they passed for humans, the idea that her kind were set apart was so firm in her mind that the statement that she was only human came as a surprise.

  Doctor Rogan laughed. “Yes and no. You were never an embryo. Your body was made from a bio-printer, then animated to full life and allowed to mature for a set amount of time in order to check for issues,” he nodded. “You are largely based on a human template, though. Imagine if we designed you as a whole new race from scratch.” He threw his hands up. “Oh, the complications! We’re geneticists, once upon a time people used to accuse us of playing God, but we don’t really think we are Gods. Well, most of us don’t.”

  He wheeled his chair over to a medical fabrication station. Its tall, narrow body lit up and he began making several selections. “Where I come from we were always treated…” Spin tried to find the words but settled on something simple; “…differently.”

  “Our whole culture has had a problem with separating people from the pack. This one has red hair, so she must be strange, or exceptional. This person is really charismatic, so let’s listen to every word they say and ignore the awkward people, no matter how insightful or intelligent they are. This guy has curly hair when his whole family has straight hair, what’s wrong with him?” He shook his head. “It’s all just nature pushing different buttons, trying different things along a path of evolution that will take us who knows where in the end. If you find your cure and have a few kids, they’ll be pretty smart, probably very healthy, and they’ll push their traits into the gene pool, but after a century those traits might carry on, might not, or they’ll carry on to a lesser degree. In the grand scheme of things, you’re as special and as normal as everyone else. The real differences you make are up to you, not so much what you dump into the genepool. If more people realized how little we matter to the big picture, maybe we'd try to accomplish more,” he retrieved a small square from a slot in the machine and turned towards Spin. “But isn’t life grand?”

  “What about getting the genetic key?” she asked. "It sounds like you're already assuming I'll have kids, that I'll get the key."

  “I've seen what an Aspen can do for their master in challenging situations. They're part of a generation of dolls we made that could serve as secret guardians to their masters. Only the buyers, sales people and developers who made you knew that you can think tactically, perform in a combat capacity and be more adaptable on short notice. With the way you and the dolls from your generation look, no one would suspect. I believe that with free will, you have a real chance."

  Spin recalled that Larken saved the Countess from the robot servants that typically surrounded her when they turned. The idea that he could save her, against so many of them while unarmed and survive always seemed incomplete, like she was missing a piece to the puzzle. It felt like what Rogan was saying was the missing piece. After she escaped the first time she adapted, adapted, and adapted again to her changing situations, learning new skills, observing social structures so she could fit in quickly, and eventually joining the crew of a freelance ship while underplaying her intelligence to fit in. "I didn't think adaptability was special for a doll. We're made to serve, aren't we?"

  "Oh, yes, most of the earlier generations were made to serve, but you were purpose built, mentally programmed for a specific place in the lives of your masters. Your generation, maybe the last generation along that development track, were made to be versatile. Maybe that's why you were able to break your loyalty programming, but this is the first time I've seen it in the wild, like I said. I think you have a great chance at getting what your people need to be truly free. Besides, I have a map. You need access to the database from Flesh Tech. They designed the genetic lock system guarding you from modification. It’s in an air-gapped intelligent system in orbit around Sa-Hadin. They called it the Iron Mind, one of the security computers that were hidden away. I used to visit whenever I needed a key, and Iron Mind would put it on a data chip that would wipe itself out as soon as the key was used.”

  “Do you think Iron Mind is still intact?” Spin asked.

  “Most likely. They kept him in a vault. He had a lot more than genetic secrets stored away, too, so I’m expecting a few of the expeditions that are coming together now will be after him.”

  “Expeditions?” Spin asked, realizing that the British Alliance fleet gathering around the Lady Grace must be a part of it.

  “The security around Sa-Hadin has been seriously compromised, so every well-armed sort is putting together a party to go raiding. Haven’t you been watching the news?”

  “I’ve been planet hopping a lot,” Spin said, watching the Doctor prepare to affix the square containing medication to her neck. “What’s that?”

  “It’s everything I can do for you in one little injection. This will send a chemical signal to the genetic safeguard in your system telling it that the medication that reduced your life expectancy was administered in error. You will feel a little sick – upset stomach, general aches and pains – for about three hours, but the main thing is that you will have fourteen months to live. It’s like someone putting the right abort code in before the self-destruct in a ship goes off. I wish I could give you more, but without that genetic key, any attempt at modifications will either send you running back to me, or, well…”

  “Kill me,” Spin said. “How do I know that what you’re doing won’t finish me off right here?”

  “I’m very good at what I do,” Doctor Rogan said, sitting back and looking her in the eye. “I’ve worked with your kind of genetic security for years, I know it well. Besides; I’m on your side here. I’m happy you’re free so you can get me a copy of that genetic key database. With that I can put the word out that dolls can come here to get fixed. My practice will expand exponentially, and I can automate the process.”

  Spin didn’t trust as much as she used to, but his designs on becoming the main, if not the only, geneticist who can remove limitations and help dolls in the galaxy, or at least the British Alliance territories, seemed likely. “I’m guessing you don’t want me to give anyone else a copy?”

  “That would ruin my exclusivity,” he said. “If you make this deal, I’ll give you a map that’ll help, and your whole visit today will be free, including this little fix that’ll give you over a year. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Spin said.

  He affixed the square to her neck, she felt a cool pinch, then he tossed the empty vessel into the trash. “You’ll know it worked when you go back to your ship and scan yourself. The life expectancy will match up with what I told you, no matter how deep the scan is.”

  “Thank you, Doctor Rogan,” Spin said. “Now I just have to convince my crew to go along.”

  “They will,” he said, turning towards a tiny computer terminal and rapidly tapping on the keys. It was funny seeing such an old device in a clean, advanced office. He took a data chip from a tray that popped out of the side and gave it to her. “We made sure you were charming, worthwhile company, and great diplomats. Most people would follow you into a burning shuttle.” He dropped the small, golden chip into her hand. “This is a detailed map of Doro Doro Station, where you’ll find Iron Mind. Tell no one and expect something strange, maybe tragic. No one has had contact with that station since it went offline shortly after the virus took over. Go with my blessing and bring lots of guns.”

  Twenty-Three

  The feeling Spin had when she met Nigel and Boro in the waiting room, which was decorated in brown and white with images of happy children and patients getting good news scrolling in frames – like so many doctor’s waiting rooms – was unlike anything Spin experienced before. Relative to how much time she had left; fourteen months was a gift. Any additional time was an improvement, but it was still only a little more than a year. Spin was relieved, happy to have good news for he
r friends, and she'd never admit it but Doctor Rogan's faith in her, and the reasons behind that faith made her feel like she'd been given a gift, even though he tried to mute her importance by telling her that it didn't necessarily mean much in the larger picture. She was emboldened by it all, but still felt a sense of urgency.

  They stood and joined her as Spin walked through the waiting room. Neither of the men flanking her asked her what happened in the doctor’s room. The medical scanner in Spin’s pocket already confirmed that she had fourteen months and seven days almost exactly. She was tempted to show them but it still wasn’t what she was really hoping for when she set course for Beta Bio. Despite her efforts to control her expectations, she hoped for a cure, to have her limits removed, and her boon of more time was overshadowed by the disappointment of not getting full relief.

  The worst part of the whole situation was that she would have to go to Geist herself. Alone, she had the tiniest chance of getting to the Iron Mind. Boro was an experienced mechanic and machinist, Nigel was on the same path but years behind, and other members of her crew brought their own skills to the table to lesser and greater extents. She knew she wanted Leland, their medical technician, and other members of her crew to go with her, but some of them might be better off if she left them behind. “What do you think of Sharon as a pilot?” she asked as they crossed out of the Renew Tech facility into a short corridor that took them to the elevator bank. It was another polished, blue and silver hallway with a view of asteroids, Spin was becoming numb to the conventional design of most space stations, even the views were starting to look the same.