I heard a creaking noise and then a voice grumbling, “I will. I will. Can’t expect me to be everywhere at once.”
The mechanic was a small man. Greasy strands of hair hung in his face, and a smell preceded him, a smell of stale clothes and floral disinfectant. Even without the distinctive creaking sound, which I suspected came from a bad joint replacement, I would have known him. It was the man from the plaza who had been trying to rob the sergeant. Did Divana know what her crew member did in his free time? And if she knew, did she even care?
“What are you doing in my engine room?” he demanded.
“We came to help,” Nic said.
“I don’t need any fissing help!” He glared at us, though he didn’t act like he recognized me.
“Are you sure?” I said. “The sooner it’s fixed, the sooner we can get out of here.” And the sooner I could get away from the smell.
“Yes,” Nic added. “Since Tineg can’t identify the problem, we’ll have to do a visual inspection, and it will go much faster with the three of us.”
She was right, though I didn’t understand why the MI couldn’t pinpoint the problem. A visual inspection wouldn’t hurt, though that rarely exposed a problem. Usually if it was something obvious, we’d already see a leak or sparking or worse, and an alarm would be going off.
“We’ll each take a section,” Nic said. “I’ll do the port side. Quinn, you take the starboard side, and Creak, you do the bow.”
I waited to see if Creak would object to Nic taking charge, but he just nodded his head grudgingly.
“Maybe one of the engines isn’t getting a steady stream of coolant,” I suggested. “Sometimes even a small dent in a line causes pressure variations, and that can cause an engine to kick off. When was the last time you checked them?”
“I haven’t had time. I haven’t been here very long.” Creak’s voice had a whiny edge to it. “I don’t know this engine at all. Someone should have told me it was in such bad shape before I signed on.”
“Well, you’re here now,” Nic snapped. “Let’s get to it.”
I went over everything and found nothing. It was all coated in a layer of grime. If it had been my father’s ship, he would have fired whomever was in charge of it. But all the piping and tubing were their normal white and gray color; a hairline crack or the incorrect temperature gradient would have changed their appearance to a warning yellow or a danger red.
When I was finished, I walked over to Nic, who was still examining her section. “Nothing so far,” she said.
As I stood there, something pinged in my brain. There was something extra in that maze of pipes and tubing that shouldn’t be there. I ran my eyes over the area again and saw it: a small loop of tubing attached to a longer section of tubing near the floor. It stuck out. Everything else ran in parallel lines the length of the room.
I went over and knelt down to look at it. I recognized some of the other components around it, so I knew this was the section that regulated air flow. “Look,” I said. “This extra bit of tubing is bypassing the taper valve here, so the amount of vacuum isn’t properly regulated. That may be causing the problem. I don’t know why anyone would put that on. Did you do it?” I asked Creak.
He threw his hands in the air. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. Why would anyone? Have you noticed this before?”
“I told you, I haven’t had time to look at everything.” The whine was back in his voice.
“Well, if you take it off, everything should work better unless there is something wrong with the taper valve.”
“I know that! Move out of my way so I can fix this.”
I moved back to stand next to Nic.
“I didn’t notice that,” she said, “but even if I had, I don’t know enough to be able to recognize something like that as a problem. I was looking for color changes.”
“Sometimes I notice things that are out of place,” I said. “It’s just an odd brain thing.”
“Useful,” she said. “I’m going to go tell Divana what’s up.”
“Good, get out of my way,” Creak muttered. “In fact—you, kid, whatever your name is. Why don’t you leave too? I don’t like people looking over my shoulder, and I don’t need a supervisor!”
“Okay, fine,” I said.
I followed Nic out of the room, happy to breathe in the fresher air of the corridor. She went back up the ladder, so I headed back to our quarters. I didn’t like what had just happened. Too many questions.
“Did you find anything?” Javen asked when I came in.
I told them what I’d found, and about Nic. “She was inspecting that section but overlooked it.”
Javen frowned. “You mean she said she overlooked it.”
“Exactly. I don’t know if she’s telling the truth. The engine person says he didn’t do it and doesn’t know how long it’s been there. I don’t know if he’s telling the truth either. It could have been placed before Divana even took over the ship. There’s no way to know.”
“Why wouldn’t the diagnostics pick it up?” Lainie asked.
“I don’t know. You’d think it would have.”
“Why do you think Nic is really here?” Javen asked. “What little she told us doesn’t make much sense.”
“I know. I don’t believe she’s gone AWOL,” I said. “But we can’t do much about it now. I think she’s still working for my grandfather. My biggest worry is that if we find Mira, Nic will try to report her location to the Admiralty. We’ll either have to stop her or get away before they can come in to interfere.”
“If it comes to that, I’ll stop her,” Javen said. His voice was cold. He sounded a little too much like Ansun for comfort.
“At least we know she needs to be watched. We’ll need to be careful what we say around her,” Decker said.
“We really don’t need her becoming one more potential problem to add to this rescue attempt,” Javen said. He sat down on one of the containers and crossed his arms. “So now that we have some time, Quinn, explain something to me. Why do you think you need to help Mira? She’s very good at helping herself. I don’t see why you need to step in. Even if you think you are in love with her, you are not going to have some great romance. She is destined for a different life than you. Surely even you can see that.”
He was being a little too blunt for my comfort. I knew things didn’t look promising for Mira and me, but it made me angry to hear Javen say it. I didn’t want to discuss it, especially not with him. I knew he wasn’t in love with Mira now, but they had a long history, and I didn’t know exactly what that had involved.
“Mira is good at taking care of herself. It’s her sister who may need more than just Mira’s help,” I said. “You know how desperate Mira is to save her. And besides, I’m sure Mira wouldn’t want you making pronouncements on her future.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? I’m just pointing out the obvious. You don’t know her at all. Tell me five things about her. Five things she likes.”
I wasn’t going to let him bait me. I did know five things Mira liked. She liked buildings and architecture, she liked food, she liked learning new things. There was a lot more, I just couldn’t think of them when put on the spot. And she and I hadn’t had time to get to know each other all that well. It wasn’t like I had spent the little time we did have together quizzing her.
“I’m not going to play your game,” I said. “It’s my choice to do this, so drop it. But what about you? You said Fade told you to go, but you’re not exactly Ansun’s favorite person either. I think he hates you as much as he hates me because you changed your allegiance from him to Fade.”
Javen got up and paced around. “He does hate me, but he won’t hurt me,” he said.
“Why not?” Decker asked.
“It’s not your concern,” he said. He turned away.
Lainie gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “Can everyone just stop
talking for a while? Let’s concentrate on making this a decent place to sleep because I need several hours to catch up. You’ll have plenty of time to bicker later. It’s also freezing in here.” She rummaged around in her bag and took out the clothes we’d been given on the Everest. They were basic military wear without any insignias. “Time for basic black again,” she said.
Even without insignias, the clothing still managed to look like uniforms, but it couldn’t be helped. We didn’t have anything else. We all went back to heavier clothing, including Javen, who had some sort of more cold-appropriate Reyetan wear that wasn’t the loose clothing we’d all become accustomed to. I noticed he kept his Fosaanian belt on. I’d never seen any Fosaanian without a belt, and the knives I knew that were hidden within them.
After changing, we moved things around to make more space. It actually managed to be a decent space when we were done. With the furniture set up and all the containers shoved against one wall, I could almost imagine we were in a tent. All we needed was a scene setter to create the image of a crackling fire in the middle. I made a mental note to ask Wren if there was one aboard. I went back to the hammock and tried to sleep but found I couldn’t stop thinking about Mira. Maybe it was just the exhaustion playing with my brain, but I was getting worried we wouldn’t actually find her. Maybe I was also totally misreading the reason she’d given me the water diamonds. Maybe she didn’t want to be found.
Decker began to play his carine very softly, and the sound of it was relaxing enough for me to close my eyes. I was really close to drifting off when I heard a thud and a curse from Javen. I opened my eyes to see him scrambling to his feet and then backing away from the MI in its hologram form sitting next to Lainie on her sleeping mat.
“Hello,” the bot said. It looked around, taking in the room like a human would, though I knew it didn’t need to. Its sensors would provide all the information about the room without it needing to move.
“Samson! I didn’t tell you to activate.” Lainie frowned and turned to the rest of us. “I took the sphere out of the bag and was about to take a look at it.”
“I wanted to know the name of the song that Decker is playing,” Samson said. “Gregor did not play that kind of instrument.” If a bot could idolize someone, Samson had idolized Gregor, to the point of changing his own programming so his hologram looked exactly like Gregor, down to the somewhat wild hair and the Sondrian ruby earring Gregor always wore, against all military regulations.
I noticed Javen was standing frozen in place, his mouth open. “You didn’t see Ansun’s MIs activate, did you?” I asked him. I knew he must have seen them once they were actually projecting their hologram forms, because Samson had appeared with Ansun at a rally, but it was startling to see the spheres generate the hologram so quickly. Holograms had been around forever, but not ones so solid looking.
Javen shook his head. “No. I stopped following him before he acquired the robots.”
Lainie was still frowning. “Samson, how did you activate without me telling you to?” Lainie had managed to convince the MI she was its primary operator, so it was only supposed to respond to her commands.
“I had incomplete information about the musical instrument,” the bot said. “It was important to collect more. I didn’t see a reason not to.”
I glanced over at Lainie. Her face had a shocked expression on it. I felt just as shocked. Earlier attempts at artificial intelligence had often had disastrous results when the robots didn’t have enough controls to keep them from taking independent action. Newer models were supposed to have programming to keep them under human control. I knew my mother and the other designers would have included that. Were some of the other design flaws interfering with that programming?
“Wait, you can hear us even when you are in shutdown mode?” Decker asked the MI.
“Of course. How would I know when to activate if I wasn’t listening for a command?”
That made sense, though I hadn’t thought about its various stages of activation and hibernation.
“Samson, you can’t just activate the hologram at will,” Lainie said. “It might be dangerous.”
The MI tipped its head. “Oh? Please explain the possible dangers. Danger is something that can be very exciting. Some humans seek it out, as I understand. It is most intriguing.”
“What did Gregor do to this?” Decker muttered. “We don’t need a thrill-seeking bot.”
I wasn’t sure it was Gregor, though my mother wouldn’t have done it either, at least not on purpose.
Lainie didn’t say anything for a few minutes. I knew she was trying to think of what to say so it wouldn’t lead to more problems. Speaking to bots, even MI ones, took some skill to get the desired results.
Finally, Lainie said, “We are going into situations where we do not have complete knowledge, therefore we can’t know if danger exists or not. Humans are cautious, so I want you only to activate when I tell you to. You are very valuable, and others may try to steal you.”
“Oh.” The bot looked around the room. “Being stolen sounds unpleasant. How will I let you know when I need more information?”
Lainie yawned. “I don’t know right this moment. My brain needs a break. I’ll think of something when I’m less tired and let you know.”
“If you are taking in all the information as it happens, can’t you just store it up and then ask later?” I suggested.
“That is a possibility, though sometimes information is needed immediately.” All of a sudden the MI opened its mouth, and the song Decker had been playing came from it as if it were singing. “I suppose in the case of a song, I don’t need to know immediately, but I was curious, just as I am curious about this room.”
The bot gave a smile and then made a motion as if it was startled when its gaze fell on Mags. It got up and walked over to her.
The projection was missing a foot, which we had seen before. It was strange to watch it walk about so easily without a foot, because even though I knew no actual part of the robot was touching the ground, it looked so human and solid.
“Parrots are very interesting,” Samson said, leaning in a little closer.
Mags eyed the bot. Both were motionless. I hoped Mags wouldn’t have another meltdown. After several seconds Mags tipped her head to one side and said, “Shadow man.”
“I am projecting an image.” Samson said to Mags, articulating each word slowly. “I am not a shadow. I am a hologram.”
“She won’t understand you,” I said. “She has a limited vocabulary.”
The bot drew itself upright. “I am aware of the limited vocabulary of parrots. That’s why I spoke slowly and used simple words.” It actually sounded indignant.
“Shadow man,” Mags repeated.
“A bird’s eyesight must not perceive a hologram the same way as a human’s,” I said. “She may see you as a shadow.”
“I suppose that is possible. Interesting,” the MI said. Mags put her head under her wing, like she was completely bored with the conversation.
The MI turned back to us. It raised a hand. “Oh, I have a wonderful idea.”
“You don’t have to raise your hand to speak, Samson,” Lainie said. “What is your idea?”
“If it is dangerous for me to appear as Samson, a human man, I could disguise myself as something else! I can make several different holograms. Since there is a parrot on board, perhaps I could be another animal. Gregor was quite fond of a particular breed of canine, one he had as a child.” Suddenly a large black dog stood in front of us, growling and baring its teeth. Decker stumbled backwards and fell over a bin.
Javen swore. Mags pulled her head out and screeched, “Dog! Dog!” The hologram even smelled like a dog, a rather wet one, though the animal appeared dry.
“No!” Lainie said over Mags’s missile sounds. “Not a dog. We’ll figure something out. Go back to your standard hologram.”
The dog disappeared, and the image of Gregor r
eturned in an instant.
“You didn’t like it? I could do a different breed of dog,” the bot offered.
“No,” Lainie said. “No animals at the moment. Just … just stay like you are.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that the MIs would take nonhuman shape, but as I thought about it, I realized there was no reason they wouldn’t. They had the capability to form into any shape as long as they had the right data, and if they had access to the Rinth, the communications network, they had access to anything they’d want to know. They had the storage capacity for millions of images at their disposal.
“Does your mom know the MIs can do this?” Lainie asked me.
“I suppose so. I don’t know if it ever occurred to her that one would choose to do so without being given an order.”
“Be quiet!” Javen held up his hand and then pointed to the door. A thud came from the hallway.
Chapter Seven
“Deactivate,” Lainie said. The hologram disappeared. The red sphere lowered itself back on the mat. Lainie scooped it up and put it in her bag, then got up and tiptoed over to the door. I realized I was holding my breath as she put her ear to the door. I didn’t hear any other sound. Lainie took a step back and pushed on the mark beside the door. It opened, and she went out into the hallway.
Even though she was only gone for a few seconds, it felt like a long time.
When she came back in, she made the door close. “I didn’t see anyone. If there had been someone there, I don’t know if they could hear us through the door. At least Samson will be safe in the bag, as long as no one goes through our stuff.”
“Can we activate the door lock?” Decker asked, going over to look at the small slip screen embedded in the wall by the door. It was standard to have a wall slip in most rooms on a ship, though this one wasn’t showing any lights at all. He touched it. No reaction. He tried voice commands. Still no reaction. “It’s not functioning. Either someone shut it down or it’s broken.”
“Maybe I should reactivate Samson,” Lainie said. “He might be able to get it operational.”
Paradox Hunt Page 7
