The Mother Code

by Carole Stivers

  “You didn’t know that before?”

  “I didn’t know. I just was. There is a difference.”

  “How much like her are you?”

  “I assume that I am as close to her as she could make me. She planted her spirit within me. She wished for me to carry it. I understand now.”

  “Yes . . .”

  “But in the beginning, I was unaware. I didn’t truly comprehend this part of my mission. Even if I had, I couldn’t have accomplished it.”

  “Why not?”

  “I had no sense of myself.”

  “You do now?”

  “It is a difficult thing to learn. But I am learning it.”

  “How?”

  “You are teaching me.”

  Kai looked out the hatch, at the darkness that now enshrouded the desert. He imagined the rock formations that had once been his only friends—and the one he’d once called Father. “Rosie,” he asked, “do you remember my biological father? The man who Kendra said painted the yellow mark on your wing so he could keep track of you?”

  “You’re thinking his name. General Richard Daniel Blevins.”

  “Yes.”

  “He is not a part of my core memory. But I’ve accessed a photograph from my learning database.”

  For the first time since the dust storms had assailed them in the desert, Rosie’s hatch screen display illuminated. A man with a square jaw and a ruddy complexion, his skin scarred by wind and sun, gazed steadily from the screen, his lips held taut in a knowing smile. Looking up, Kai stared into the eyes of his father.

  “Kendra says he saved us,” Kai murmured. “I guess that was his mission.”

  * * *

  CHEWING ON HIS last piece of corn bread, Kai sat forward. In the moonlight, he could just make out a series of mesas—like the fingers of a glove, separated by wide, barren washes. They were due to land in Polacca in just a few minutes. He imagined Misha’s grandmother, an amazingly old woman, perhaps older now than anyone else on earth. He imagined her children, and her grandchildren. Soon, he would meet them.

  “Kai.” A faint voice echoed in his ear. “Are you there?”

  Kai adjusted the radio headset that Kendra had given him, placing the earphone more securely into his left ear. “Yes?”

  “There’s a problem.”

  “What happened?”

  “Let me patch in William.” Kai heard a crackling sound, followed by a loud click. “William, can you tell Kai what you just told me?”

  “Hello, young man.” The man’s voice was deep and nasal but carried a certain musicality. “I’m afraid we’ll have to come up with another plan. James and Mac just left.”

  “They left?”

  “They agreed to stay overnight. But when Edison went down to bring them dinner, the transport was gone. If you’re going to do anything, it looks like you’ll have to go on to the Presidio.”

  A scratching noise rattled the connection. “I think this is getting too risky. You don’t have to continue,” Kendra said.

  Kai looked back into Rosie’s hold, at the decoys lying there. “But I have to—”

  “I’m not even sure you can get there in time,” Kendra said.

  “But William said they just left . . .”

  “Since they have a pressurized cabin, they can fly at higher altitude than you.”

  “Which means?”

  “They’ll get there faster.”

  “How much faster?”

  “At best it’ll take you a little over five hours. For them . . . four, tops.”

  Kai gripped his seat. “I’ve got to go,” he said. He looked out the window, at the moonlit mesas now receding into the distance. He wouldn’t meet the Hopi tonight. But he’d be back one day.

  As Rosie once more gained altitude, he remembered their first trip to the Presidio—how at last, exhausted, he’d fallen into a deep sleep as they sped over the Sierra. Tonight, encircled by a sea of stars, he was wide awake.

  47

  JAMES OPENED HIS eyes to find only the black depths of the Pacific Ocean below. Mac had taken the southwest route, skirting the southern ranges of the Sierra Nevada. As James had dozed, they’d turned due west, then north, following the California coastline toward the San Francisco peninsula.

  “You still set on Angel Island?” Mac asked, glancing at his flight computer.

  James nodded. They’d chosen the island not only for its proximity to the Presidio but also because it should be outside the area patrolled by the bots. “Will that be a problem? No matter what, we’ll need to steer clear of the Presidio proper.”

  “The island is kinda socked in,” Mac said. “But we should be able to use the computers.”

  Up ahead, James could make out the fog that enshrouded the coastline. He’d known it would be risky to make a landing by starlight. But there was an advantage as well. In the dark, and with the transport heat shields activated, the transport would offer the bots neither a visual nor a heat signature. The fog would only help.

  Just then he spotted a small, dark form, silhouetted against the white of the mist. “D’you see it?” he whispered.

  “Yup,” Mac affirmed. “Looks like a bot. Guess we were wrong about how far out they might be patrolling.” He shut down his lights, then held the transport at high altitude, skirting the coast. “We’ll go around, come back down from the north.”

  James’s grip tightened on the front edge of his seat as the transport swung steadily west of the fog bank, sailed out into a clear patch of sky over the rough ocean waters, then swooped inland toward San Pablo Bay. Traveling south now, he fixed his gaze straight ahead. There, just off to his right, he could see the tiny emergency beacon light, glowing ominously. They’d spotted it in the drone footage: a perfect site for their current operation.

  “There it is,” he said. He felt badly about lying to Edison and William, leaving them to wonder what he and Mac could possibly be up to. But soon, all this would be over. Soon, everyone would agree that things had been set right.

  “Got it,” Mac said. He took the transport down, almost skimming the water as they traced the eastern shore of Angel Island. They came to rest on a small peninsula formerly owned by the coast guard.

  James donned his face mask and turned his seat to face the center aisle. Mac, summoning his comparative strength, had already grabbed a tarp from under the back passenger seat and was dragging it to the rear of the cabin. He lost no time in unloading the contents of the rear storage compartment onto it.

  “Got ’em all?” James asked.

  “Yup,” Mac replied. Stooping, he bundled the tarp around the decoys as James hauled them forward by a rope attached to the corner nearest him. Then James climbed out the side door, clutching the door handle to maintain his balance as a wave of dizziness overcame him.

  “You okay?” Mac asked from inside the cabin.

  “Yeah,” James murmured. Edison had been right—he wasn’t yet ready for this kind of exertion. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting this done.

  Together they hoisted their cargo closer to the door. “Careful!” James said, pulling the tarp as near to the sill as he dared. “We don’t want to damage them.”

  In a moment, Mac had hopped from the pilot’s side and was standing next to him on the uneven ground. “Let’s take ’em one by one from here.” Carefully, they spread the decoys out over the cracked concrete to form a large circle.

  “Okay,” James said, his heart now racing as much from anticipation as from exertion. “You ready?”

  “Let’s do this thing,” Mac said.

  The two men hurried back to the shelter of the transport, and James grabbed a remote from the compartment under his seat. “On my count . . . one . . . two . . . three!” He pushed the button on the remote and squinted out at the ring of decoys. As each was activated, a re
d light on its cover began to blink. “Looks like all of them!” he called out. “You sure they’ll get the call?”

  “The decoy radio beacons are good for up to ten miles,” Mac replied. “They’ll get it, all right.”

  Even as they took off, James could hear the roar from the direction of the Presidio.

  * * *

  ROSIE HAD TAKEN a direct route, plunging over the central Sierra and heading straight west. Kai could hear Kendra’s voice in his ear. “James and Mac went south, so that slowed them down quite a bit. They needed to fly west of the coast to avoid detection.”

  “Do you know where they are now?”

  “They should be landing soon on Angel Island. At least that’s what Mac told me when I finally got hold of him. Here are your coordinates.” Slowly, Kendra read out the coordinates for the island.

  “I understand,” Rosie said in his mind.

  Kai craned his neck to look at the replacement decoys in the nest of blankets behind his seat. “Rosie, are you sure you can destroy the bad decoys from the air?”

  “I’ve obtained an image based on the unit that you showed me. I can target the red indicator lights.”

  “Then we just have to get there before your sisters do,” Kai thought. “How far away can the Mothers be and still receive the upload?” he asked Kendra.

  “The decoy beacons can call them all the way from the Presidio,” Kendra replied. “But for the upload to take effect . . . it’ll be the same as it was when you uploaded Rho-Z. Only fifty feet or so, maximum.”

  “Rosie, what’s the range on your laser?” Kai asked. Though Rosie’s laser had been disarmed as part of the Safe Protocol, Kendra had reactivated it for this mission.

  “My maximum laser range is five hundred feet. However, I need to discern my target. For that, I must be much closer, depending on the size of the target and my ability to detect it.”

  “We’ll have to get as close as we can, then.”

  “Yes.”

  Kai squinted out the hatch cover. All he could see now were the tops of trees, a few scattered buildings. Then off in the distance, he made out a dense line of fog, and closer, the glimmer of water in the moonlight. “The bay! I can see it!” Now he could see small shapes emerging from the fog. “They’re leaving the Presidio! Rosie, are those your sisters?”

  “Yes.”

  “Chase them!”

  He felt a rumble in the floor of the cocoon as Rosie streamed toward the bay. “How long before we get to Angel Island?”

  “Approximately one minute.”

  Kai fumbled the remote-control device that Kendra had made for him up from the floor under his seat. “Kendra, should I turn on my decoys now?”

  “Wait until Rosie destroys the others. We don’t want to risk timing out your transmission.”

  “Wait.” It was Rosie. “I have communication.” She went silent, and he heard only a faint musical sound, overlaid by the familiar buzz and click of her processors. “It is Alpha-C.”

  “Alpha?”

  “She is answering her daughter’s call.”

  “Tell her to stop! That’s not Sela calling her. Tell her there’s danger. Can you do that?”

  “I will transmit that message.”

  “Tell her to stop the others too. Slow them down!”

  Kai was already reaching behind his seat, groping for the decoys, making sure they were all upright.

  * * *

  THE TRANSPORT TOOK off heading north, fleeing Angel Island at top speed. James could feel the vibration in the air as, behind them, a swarm of bots approached the spot where the decoys had been laid. “Seems to be working!” he said.

  “At least the beacons worked.” Mac pulled back on the stick. The transport rose steadily, and James clung to his safety harness, all the while craning his neck in hopes of getting a better view to the south. “Let’s stay up ’til we’re sure the bots are deactivated.”

  As Mac brought the nose of the transport around, James donned a pair of night-vision goggles. Over the southeast end of the island, trails of hot air emanating from the bot engines resembled ethereal beings, converging eerily to a point on the ground. But suddenly they scattered, their paths twisting and crossing, the cluster of them expanding like the petals of a gigantic flower.

  James held his breath, straining to steady his gaze. “What’s happening?”

  “We in trouble?” Mac called, his hand ready on the stick.

  “No . . . no, it can’t . . .” James donned his radio headset, tapping it on. “Kendra!”

  “What’s up, James?” He could barely hear her voice over the whir of the overhead propeller and the staccato beat of his own heart.

  “It . . . it’s not working!”

  “What’s happening?”

  “They don’t seem to want to land . . .”

  “James,” came the reply, “I’m sorry.”

  “I suppose there was no way we could have known.”

  “No, James,” Kendra repeated. “I am truly sorry.”

  * * *

  ROSIE STREAKED PAST her sisters, her path set on the finger of land where Kendra had directed them. Outside his cocoon, Kai could see the massive forms of the other bots, hovering, then careening off in every direction.

  “Transmitting image,” Rosie said.

  “Of what? To whom?”

  But as Kai looked down, he understood. Hovering over the target, a ring of bots was opening fire. A flaming circle erupted on the ground.

  His cocoon lurched as Rosie righted herself for a landing close by. “Kai, activate your decoys now,” Rosie said.

  Kai pulled the remote up from his lap and pushed the “on” button, turning to watch the indicator lights go on atop each of the decoys in Rosie’s hold. “. . . eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one. That’s all of them!” He peered out the hatch window. But his view was blocked by a sea of metal as the others crowded close.

  * * *

  JAMES WATCHED IN horror as the fire began on the island—first a fine ring, focused, then exploding into a bonfire. But in the air, the heat trails from the bots had dissipated, leaving only darkness. “No more in the air now . . . not that I can see, anyway.” He waited, holding his breath.

  Then something caught his eye. “Wait a minute . . . What’s that?” A tiny streak of light, like a plume of iridescent smoke, rose into the air. Then another. Soon, a cloud of plumes was rising, slowly powering away from them—back toward the Presidio. “Damn, what’s happening?”

  He heard Kendra’s voice from his headset. But there was too much static. He couldn’t tell what she was saying.

  “Kendra, what’re you—”

  “James, you’d better get—” The radio cut out.

  * * *

  THE TRANSMISSION OF the new code had taken only minutes. And already the others were leaving them behind, winging off in the direction of the Presidio. “Rosie, we need to get to the field,” Kai said. But he needn’t have told her. Outside the hatch, he could see her wings extending in preparation for takeoff.

  “You are concerned about your friends,” she said.

  “They have no idea what’s happening.” Kendra had assured him that the children at the Presidio wouldn’t suffer as jarring an experience as he had—their Mothers hadn’t been inactivated by the replivirus prior, and their adaptation to the new code should be seamless. Still, he worried about how they would cope with this abrupt turn of events. And he worried about Zak.

  As soon as Rosie set down at the north end of the field, Kai pushed open her hatch and slipped down her treads. All around him, Mothers were landing. As he hurried toward Building 100, he could see children crowding out onto the front porch, their solar torches swarming like bees. Reaching the side wall of the building, he stopped at the front corner nearest the dining room. There, he crouched down in the tall scrub
at the base of the porch, holding his hands over his ears to block out the din.

  Suddenly all went silent. He looked up to see Misha, crossing the porch toward the steps leading to the front walk. Right behind her were Meg and Kamal.

  He stood up. “Misha!” he called. But she didn’t hear him, and he realized that in the dim glow of the torches, he must be invisible. “Misha!” He raised his hand to wave, and Kamal looked his way.

  “Kai? Is that you?”

  “Kamal, I’m fine! Tell Misha I’m here!”

  But the boy only stared at him, dumbstruck.

  “Kai?” Misha was at the edge of the porch now, peering down at him.

  Without thinking, Kai rounded the bottom of the steps and loped up to Misha’s side. He reached out, took hold of her arms as she took hold of his, and drew her close. “It’s okay,” he whispered into her ear. “We found a way—”

  He stopped in midsentence. Misha was no longer looking at him. Her gaze had drifted out to the field, her brow furrowed. Her expression changed, softened—a look of wonder. Her hands let go their grip on his arms. And as if in a trance, she made her way slowly down the steps and toward the waiting bots.

  Then Kai saw the familiar look in Kamal’s eyes. He imagined the banyan tree, its arms reaching to the sky, its myriad roots descending to the ground in a forest of trunks. He imagined Kamal, gathered in its limbs, pulled up, up, up into his Mother’s embrace. And the wide smile on Meg’s face, the tears in her eyes, said that she too had heard her Mother’s call.

  In the field, Hiro awkwardly scaled his Mother’s treads; Álvaro and Clara sat side by side at their Mothers’ feet, their hands covering their faces; farther away, someone cried out—“Mama?” And from beyond the woods, he could already see bots hovering, bits of junk trailing from their arms as they dismantled the blockade by the east entrance. He heard a roar and looked just in time to see Alpha-C, her wings spreading as she took to the air. She soared overhead, looping and twisting, mirroring what must be the sheer joy of her newfound daughter. Misha was one of them now.