Ghosts

by Barry Solway

  “I know. Let them. It’s seven hundred feet for the metric-impaired. Once they start forcing you down, aim for the tenth floor, about 110 feet for altitude. It’s where the concrete columns stop and the large glass windows start.”

  “Got it, but we're going to be there in like, ten seconds. Which way do I turn?”

  “Don't turn. You want to ram it. Be sure to hit the window head on and not the support beams. As soon as you hit, put it hard in reverse.”

  Anna finished when they were about three seconds from hitting the building. “Goddammit!” Jon swore. “You could have given me more notice!” He punched the ship forward and they slammed into the glass. Just as they hit, he pulled back on the acceleration lever and a horrendous noise echoed through the ship as glass shattered and the engines whined in protest.

  Mel fell to the floor. As they rapidly skidded to a stop, everyone in the back slid into her, crushing her against the front seats. Finally, the ship stopped, the engine rotors whining to a halt.

  Mel could hear screams from outside the ship. Anna spoke over the confusion. “Everyone out of the ship. Now! Mel, not you. I need you to stay on. Riley, stand by, I'll be in touch over the translator comms.”

  Mel pushed Gorgeous off her and crawled towards the door. She had no idea what Anna was up to. “C'mon, Beats, you heard the artificial lady. Off the ship.”

  Anna urged them to move faster. Mel threw the door open to an office area in total devastation. The ship had crashed through several thin walls and rested sideways on a desk. A number of Latanua were staring in shock and confusion at the end of a hallway. At least one of them looked injured.

  Mel helped Riley drag Beats out. Once everyone was off the ship, Mel jumped back on and yelled to Evan. “I'll see what Anna's up to, be back in a sec.”

  Evan shook his head. “I already know where to go. You’re going with Anna. Good luck.”

  Mel stared at him in confusion. Separating didn’t make any sense. What was Anna thinking? She turned away from Evan and headed back to the cockpit. As she threw herself into the pilot chair, the rotors sprang to life.

  “Anna, what are you doing? We can’t leave the others.”

  “Strap in, Mel. I’m going to need you to pilot,” Anna said. “Trust me. I have it all planned out.”

  Mel grunted in frustration, but quickly put the harness on. The ship shook as Anna guided it into the air in the tight confines of the office space. Papers, dust, and other debris flew through the tornado of air. As the ship turned, Mel saw two police drones hovering outside the window.

  “Are you piloting?” Mel asked.

  “Yes. I let Jon pilot earlier so I could focus on other things. He also gets testy when he feels like he’s useless. I need you to take over as soon as we get out of the building. Get ready.”

  “Okay, okay. I can do this,” Mel whispered to herself. “What the hell are we doing? I really hate separating from the others.”

  “They know where to go, Mel. The police don’t know they got out. It will take them time to figure it out, which gives them more time to escape. In the meantime, we need to have the police and the Order continue pursuing us,” Anna explained. “Also, I’d like to not get captured. As soon as you disconnect me, I become useless again. I need time to plan things out before that happens.”

  “Oh,” Mel replied. She had totally forgotten about unplugging Anna.

  “Hang on,” Anna said. The ship slid sideways in the open office space towards an unbroken window. Anna gunned the engines and the drone tilted slightly forward from the acceleration. They crashed through the window, fluttered momentarily in the air as debris fell past the windshield, and plummeted straight down.

  Mel could see the two police drones off to the left. She would have screamed, but her breath caught in her throat, and all she could do was hang on. The ship banked and turned right as they approached the street below. At the last minute, Anna pulled up, pushing Mel down into her seat. They careened down the street, then Anna executed several crisp turns. By the end of it, Mel had no idea where they were.

  “Okay, I need you to take over. Follow the highway below us to the third ramp, then take a right. Follow that road until you get to the forest. Once in the forest, stay low, under the tree line. You’ll have a mile of exposure to the fighters while you’re over the road. Don’t try to evade, just beeline for the forest.”

  Mel grabbed the control stick and felt the ship rock as Anna relinquished control. She pushed the stick forward, expecting it to speed up. Instead, she felt the craft suddenly drop. She yanked back up, too hard, and saw clouds for a moment before the ship leveled off. Anna had taken back control.

  “A little movement goes a long way,” Anna said. “Try again, just be gentle.”

  “Sorry. I thought forward on the joystick would make us go faster.”

  “Power is the lever on your left. Forward for faster, backward for slower.”

  “Gotcha,” Mel said. She felt Anna give up control again and this time she gently moved the joystick right and left to get a feel for it. “Okay, I think I can do this.”

  “Good, I’m still trying to hack the police. Should have things in place in just a minute. I need to concentrate on this, so let me know when we get to the woods.”

  Mel counted the ramps. The third one came up quickly and she veered right. She heard a loud jack-hammering right before a jet screamed by overhead. They were shooting at her. She couldn’t detect any difference in the way the ship flew, so she focused on the forest that lay ahead. To stay below the trees, she had to descend closer to the road than she was comfortable with. Just as they entered the woods, she heard the familiar popping sounds. The quad-copter. lurched to the left and she quickly compensated to keep from hitting the trees on that side. It required holding the joystick to the right to keep them going straight.

  “Anna, we’re in the forest. We’ve been hit. The ship keeps pulling to the left.”

  “I’m back. Our plan is ready. Ever skydived before?”

  “God, no! You don’t think I’m actually going to jump out of the ship?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  Mel swore. “Do I have a choice?”

  “Not really.”

  Closing her eyes for a moment, Mel took a deep breath. “Okay. I trust you, Anna. What do you need me to do?”

  “I’ve taken over one of the police drones chasing us. I’m going to have it fly under us and do an inversion. You’ll need to jump out the door and land on its belly. There’s a cavity and a bar that’s used to tie down the drone that you can hold on to. Once you’re off, this ship is set to autopilot. The drone will shoot the ship out of the air, and they’ll think you’re dead. Once the ship is down, the police drone will lower to a few feet off the ground. You’ll need to jump off and roll into the woods immediately. I programmed the police drone to provide cover for you so the fighter jets and the other drones don’t see you hide. Once you’re in the woods, head away from the road. You’ll come out on another road, about one kilometer away. Hide in the woods along that road. Evan will pick you up.”

  “Wait,” Mel said frantically. “How can you control the police drone if you’re in my pocket?”

  “I’ve already pre-programmed it with instructions.”

  “But how will Evan find me?”

  “The others are getting transportation now. He’ll find you because I’ve planned out the entire scenario, including where you’ll land. Which means timing is important and we don’t have any more time for questions. Are you ready?”

  Mel swallowed. She wasn’t remotely ready. “Sure.”

  “The door will open in ten seconds. Grab my core and run to the door. When you see the drone flip, jump and grab the bar. You’ll have sixteen seconds before the drone rolls back to normal. Then just hang on until you’re over the ground.”

  Mel’s mouth was so dry, she couldn’t even respond. Seconds later, the door slid open of its own accord.

  “Good luck, Mel,” An
na said. Mel didn’t respond. She grabbed the entire qCore and control interface assembly and yanked it away, leaving wires dangling under the main console. Scrambling to the door, she saw the police drone flip upside down beneath them, then move underneath her ship, angling slightly so the center was right under her.

  Mel tried to keep track of her sixteen seconds, but she had already lost track. The wind buffeted her, whipping her hair into her face. It was a six-foot drop and she panicked at the thought of sliding off to the ground dozens of feet below.

  Steeling herself, she willed her legs to move. As she hit the police drone, her feet slipped on the slick metal hull. Sliding sideways, she grabbed wildly for anything. Her hand fell on a thin round bar that stuck out from the belly of the ship. It was long enough that she could get both her arms around it, and she clung on for dear life. Suddenly, the drone rolled and her feet slid down until she was hanging from the bottom of the ship. Kicking her legs, she crunched up, trying to find purchase for her feet. After a few attempts, she managed to wedge one foot into an indentation.

  The police drone dropped back, and she could see the shadow of her ship and another police drone racing along the ground. The sounds of gunfire were almost swallowed by the wind, and tears streamed in her eyes. The police drone she was attached to lurched upwards and to the side as her old ship lost altitude, listing to the left. A moment later, it slammed into a tree, spun in the air, and crashed to the ground with a screech of tearing metal.

  Her drone slowed, hovering over the wreckage at least fifty feet off the ground. Mel panicked for a moment. What if the drone didn’t go down? A moment later, it descended to float ten feet off the center of the road. Mel debated jumping, but if she landed in the road, the other drone might spot her. As she dithered, the drone slid sideways, ostensibly surveying the wreckage of the quad-copter. If it continued on its slow drift, it would eventually be at the edge of the road, right next to the tree line. Mel held her breath, waiting for the right time. As the drone drifted sideways, it descended to just a few feet off the ground.

  Just as the drone almost touched a tree, Mel let go. She twisted in the air, landing on her feet and hands and immediately rolled sideways into the trees. Scurrying behind a tree, she curled up into a small ball, hoping the other drone hadn’t seen her.

  Seconds later, the drone pulled away from the woods and rose into the sky. Following Anna’s instructions, Mel crouched as she ran from tree to tree until the road was out of view. Twenty minutes later, she came out of the woods along another road.

  She hovered at the tree edge, afraid to come out for fear of being spotted. She had no way to know where Evan was or even if they had successfully picked up another vehicle. What would she do if Evan never showed up?

  An hour later, a blocky van hummed down the road. It slowed every few hundred yards, then sped up. She crept to the edge of the woods, trying to stay out of sight. As the van got closer, she saw that Gorgeous was at the wheel. With a yell of relief, she stepped out of the road and waved them down.

  Chapter 15

  Beats looked up from the notebook. After examining his work for a moment, he put down the colored marker and showed the notebook to Riley.

  “The red line here will cause an upswell, while this cluster of blue should feed off this black line, causing a steady increase in the beat. Until you get to this drop-off here.” Beats pointed to different areas of the paper.

  “Hand me the crimpers,” Evan said.

  Riley reached to the side and picked up a tool that he gave to Evan, before turning back to Beats. “I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t get how you keep it all straight. It just seems random.”

  “This is a basic drawing. Draw it out and feed it into the imasic algorithm. That teaches you which part of the drawing does what. After hundreds of such basic drawings, you begin to understand which parts of the image fit together to make which sounds. You should copy this.”

  “I see what you did. What’s the point of drawing it out?” Riley asked. Evan handed him back the crimping tool and Riley absently placed it to the side.

  “You won’t learn it just by looking at it. Drawing it yourself is part of making the music. It would be like rapping by just looking at lyrics and never speaking.”

  Riley took the notebook from Beats, opening it to a new page. “I can’t argue with that.” Picking up a marker, Riley bent over the notebook, his brow furrowed.

  “The hand arc welder, please,” Evan said. When he got no response, he looked up at Riley. “Riley? The arc welder?”

  “Yeah, yeah, just a sec,” Riley muttered, not looking up from the drawing. Mel reached over and grabbed the small welding tool, handing it to Evan.

  “Thanks, Mel,” Evan said, obvious exasperation in his voice. “When she comes back up, I’m going to let her know that you were no help at all.”

  “Uh-huh,” Riley said.

  Evan bent over the device in front of him. Nodding in satisfaction, he plugged Anna’s module back into the base. After several moments, the holo-display flickered and an image of Anna’s head hovered over the panel.

  “Ah. Back again. This is getting a bit disorienting,” she said.

  “How are you doing?” Evan asked.

  “Well enough. The module took some damage in the original crash, but I’m compensating. Memory is mostly intact.”

  “What do you mean ‘mostly’?” Mel said.

  “There are redundant systems. Parts of one were damaged, but the overall sub-system is still good. Not a lot of room for error in the future, though. I see everyone’s here. How are we all doing?”

  Riley waved his notebook in front of Anna. “Hey, Banana. Good to have you back. I’m learning how to draw.”

  Mel leaned towards Anna’s image. “No worse than before. Except for Riley, he might be sliding a bit. But we need to talk, as a group. Figure out our next step.”

  “Bring me up to speed first,” Anna said. “Let’s start with, where are we?”

  “We’re in a small town named Chosba, about three hundred miles from Svarga. It’s a little arts community and there’s a number of different races here. Chaturee, Chota, and Asadharan mostly but they get Ankhen and Nipun and others who move here and a fair number of tourists. It will be easy enough to blend in. Right now, we’re in an old farmhouse that’s part of a larger estate.”

  “Old farmhouse is an understatement,” Riley said. “It’s a small mansion. A bit seedy, but this place is huge.”

  “It belongs to Sheila’s family,” Evan said. “It used to be a famous estate. I think they raised show animals, like a kind of horse or something. But it’s been shut down for decades. Sheila’s family rents it out as a retreat, but it’s empty right now and she sometimes comes here to do research. Which is good, because they have a small medical wing, an amazing workshop, an excellent library, and plenty of room.”

  “Ah, I see,” Anna said. Her holographic eyes scanned rapidly side to side as if she was reading some invisible text. “The Stone Highlands estate outside of Chosba. Sheila comes from a very rich family. Fairly amazing given the current political state of the Order. But I imagine that’s why they’ve fallen on hard times more recently.”

  “This can wait,” Jon interrupted. “Anna needs to explain some things. Like what happened at the hyperdrive.”

  Anna’s holographic head hovered in the air without moving for a long moment. Then the image sighed. “Fine. This is a bit difficult for me. I suppose I’ve become overconfident in my abilities.

  “There are two things that you should know. I’m more limited away from Kathor’s ship than I realized I would be. The qCore contains a quantum processor and the memory to hold my artificial mind. But the processing power is considerably less than in the construct I had back on the ship. I can feel the difference. I’m slow, and I get overwhelmed if I take on too many tasks.”

  “That’s why you had me pilot the drone ship, isn’t it?” Mel asked.

  “Yes, partially
. I could have done it, but then I wouldn’t have been able to focus all my efforts on the hacking I was doing. That brings up the second problem. There’s another AI out there. And it’s trying to find me. Find us.”

  Jon sat back in his chair, looking as stunned as Mel realized she must look. As everyone around the table did.

  “It started back on the station. When you were at the police headquarters, I was trying to access cameras and open doors and kept getting blocked. At first, it looked like pure defense, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. But then, when you were heading to the trams, there was a direct attack. Very sophisticated and powerful. It tried to hack into my neural network. But they didn’t know what they were dealing with. By the time whatever it was realized, I had locked them out. But they’ve been after me ever since. Whenever I access networked systems, I’ve had to focus a lot more on stealth. I felt traces of that presence during the escape, at the end. It took six minutes for it to detect my hacking of the satellite and comm grids.”

  “That must be the Order,” Riley said. “What do you guys think? Do they have computers like that?” Riley directed the last question to Beats, Gorgeous, and Evan.

  Beats shook his head. “Intelligent computers? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  Gorgeous shrugged. “On Sha Shahar, they talked about… ‘them.’ Something or someone in the Order that tracked everyone and knew what everyone was doing. That could kill you in your sleep. But it was just rumors and conspiracies.”

  Simon waved a paw. “Stupid people in Sha Shahar do too many drugs. Paranoid all the time. But the Viro Kara has long suspected the Order has supercomputers much faster than what are normally available. Power always seeks to protect itself. This thing, this Anna, she is very powerful. A machine as intelligent as a living creature? Amazing! I have never seen anything like it, and such research would, of course, be banned. But the Order… I am convinced they have such a system. Maybe many of them, on each planet. It explains why it is so hard to evade them and why we have to be so careful.”