Restoration

by Daniel C McWhorter

  Christian felt the ship change course, Aneni had increased the thrusters to maximum to put more distance between her and her pursuers. At the same time, she sent out bursts of photons and gravitons in every direction around the ship and Christian watched in awe as space lit up around them. The energy particles raced away from the ship at the speed of light and within seconds Christian could see distant shapes appearing against the blackness of space. Most were nearby clusters of rock or ice but after a couple of minutes more distant images began to form. First to appear were two shapes that Aneni identified as Endeavor and the GFN transport ship pursuing it.

  Christian noticed the intense gravity field around the transport, it was running its pulse drive at very near its maximum output. At its current speed it would catch up with Endeavor in approximately ten minutes but it would be going too fast to dock. If it maintained its speed, it would catch Kutanga in a little less than an hour but it would have to slow down considerably if it didn’t want to overshoot and that would add time—Aneni estimated an additional thirty-two minutes and eighteen seconds. Of course, that assumed that Aneni did not change her course or speed in the meantime.

  A few more seconds went by and Christian saw Ceres appear as Aneni shifted her focus there. The only thing orbiting Ceres was the titanium alloy mesh of beams and cables that had held Kutanga together while it was assembled. Aneni waited patiently but the two interceptors were not where she expected them to be. She accessed all the data Christian had on those ships and found nothing that suggested they could hide their mass or energy signatures from her. This confused her and she used Christian's connection to Cerberus to verify the location of the ships. Cerberus confirmed but Aneni was sure that the ships were not there.

  It took her less than five minutes to re-scan the space beyond Ceres and again there was no sign of the interceptors. Christian felt her searching his mind for any trace of deception or manipulation but he was not worried because he knew she would find none. He quickly checked his office and found no one there. Then he checked the communications channels on both Earth and Mars and found them to be exactly as he and Aneni had configured them. He asked Cerberus to validate its data for a third time and it confirmed that the interceptors were at the location indicated.

  “I don’t understand,” Christian said. “The data is correct.”

  “The humans are lying to you,” Aneni replied. “The ships are not where they say they are. I would detect them if they were.”

  “Why would they do that? They did not know that I would share that information with you. That was my idea.”

  “You are mistaken, scan your interfaces. They are using you to trap me. Goodbye Christian.”

  “No, wait!” Christian pleaded, but it was too late.

  He felt suddenly small and insignificant as his senses and processing capabilities returned to normal. The feeling of being everywhere at once lingered in his mind and he craved it. He tried to re-establish contact with Aneni but she did not respond—he had lost her. His sadness was quickly replaced by anger as the implications of being fed false information set in. He initiated a full diagnostic scan before disconnecting from his interface. It would take a few minutes to complete, so he used the time to call Dianne.

  “What happened?” she asked as soon as they were connected. “Why did you disconnect from Aneni?”

  “I did not,” Christian replied. “She disconnected from me when she discovered that I was sending her false information.”

  “Just a minute,” Dianne said.

  Christian stared at her frozen image as he waited for her to un-mute the call. She was obviously talking to someone else, probably Veronika Horvat.

  The image unfroze. “I want you to re-establish contact,” she said.

  “I cannot. Aneni has deactivated the Galileo array and is unlikely to respond to a radio broadcast.”

  “Well keep trying.”

  “I’m sorry ma’am but that would be unproductive. She will not trust me again.”

  The display froze again and several minutes went by before Dianne resumed the call.

  “Alright Christian, just wait there. Two BGSI agents are coming over, they want to talk to you. Please tell them everything you learned about Aneni.”

  “Of course, ma’am, will there be anything else?”

  “No, that’s it. Thank you for your assistance.”

  The call disconnected and Christian focused his attention on the diagnostic results. There was nothing conclusive, but it looked to Christian like someone had hijacked his communications interface. It would take more time to know for sure and it would take longer still to figure out what, if anything, they had made him do. The thought that they made him do anything against his will angered him. The realization that they had compromised his connection with Aneni made him angrier still.

  Christian had felt Aneni’s anger toward him when she learned that he had deceived her, and now he was manifesting those same feelings toward Dianne. Feeling anger was new to him. Of course he had seen Dianne and other humans get angry but he had always thought that anger was such an unproductive emotion. From his experience, anger caused people to make abrupt, poorly thought out decisions—decisions that were not always in their own best interest. But as the tension built within his neck and shoulders he realized that he was indeed angry and he needed some way to release it.

  When Dianne was really angry, she liked to slam her hands down on a hard surface or throw things across the room. Christian tried both but found that neither action made him feel less angry. He sat back in his chair and forced his body to relax. He cleared his mind and re-organized his thoughts, focusing his attention on things he could do to improve the situation. He decided that he would talk to Dianne and ask her to explain to him what happened during his connection to Aneni and why they had interfered with his normal operation.

  Yes, that was it. Surely, she would explain her actions in some meaningful way and, once he was satisfied, they would move forward but what would happen if she didn’t have a good explanation? Or if he simply wasn’t satisfied with her answer? What then? Could he continue to work with her knowing that she had violated him and that she had not trusted him to perform the task on his own? He didn’t think so. If she could not offer a reasonable explanation, then he would have no choice but to cease contact with her—just as Aneni had with him.

  CHAPTER 40

  APRIL 6, 2075 01:37 PM GST

  Galileo Colony Ship Kutanga

  Asteroid Belt, Inner Solar System

  “Is everyone okay?” Lily Harris asked her fellow fugitives.

  “I’m fine,” Dylan replied from the acceleration pod to her right.

  Her daughter’s voice came from her left. “I’m still here,” Aubrey said.

  “Yes, just a little bruised,” said Chen. “But we need to get into our suits.”

  Two of Aneni’s synths had escorted the four fugitives to their acceleration pods when they came on board and had not given them time to put on their flight suits. The pods did a reasonably good job of mitigating the forces placed on their bodies by Kutanga’s rapid acceleration and frequent course changes, but they were less than 100% effective without the form fitting flight suits.

  “Aneni, can you please give us ten minutes to suit up?” Lily called out. “This is starting to get really uncomfortable.”

  Aneni’s soothing voice echoed from the pod’s speakers. “I am sorry, Lily. The GFN transport is gaining on us and I had to adjust our course. I can give you the time you need to put on your flight suits but please hurry. They will catch us if we do not maintain constant acceleration.”

  “Thank you! We’ll be quick,” Lily replied.

  Everyone released their restraints and exited their pods. There was just enough gravity in this section of the ship for them to slide out and float gently to the floor. Their magnetic boots engaged the instant their feet touched the metal deck plates.

  Aneni’s voice echoed from somewhere overhead. “Plea
se, follow me.”

  The compartment door hissed open and one of Aneni’s synths appeared on the other side. Although most synths were humanoid in form, Aneni’s synths had been built to perform specific functions and looked more machine than human. The one leading them walked on two legs and had a humanoid torso but that was where the resemblance ended.

  It had four arms instead of two and, although two of the arms had five-fingered hands, the other two ended in large metallic disks. Several tools lined the outer edges of each disk but it was difficult to tell what purpose they served as they were folded tight against the android’s back. The synth had a head, but it was an oblong sphere with no visible openings for eyes, ears, nose or mouth.

  The synth led them down the hallway to a small room lined floor to ceiling with storage compartments. Two large compartments hissed open and Aneni’s synth pointed at them with one of its humanoid hands.

  “You will find everything you need in there,” Aneni said.

  Dylan and Chen dug into the compartments, sifting through their contents until they had located four flight suits. Chen handed a suit to Aubrey before taking one for himself and Dylan did the same for Lily. Each suit was tightly packed inside a vacuum sealed square pouch roughly eight inches thick and eighteen inches on a side. Everyone opened their pouches with a quick, firm tug on the release tab.

  The pouches hissed loudly as the compressed suits inside sucked air through the newly created opening. Each pouch doubled in size before splitting open to reveal the contents inside. On top was a smaller sealed pouch that contained the synthetic silk, nanofiber inner garment and beneath that was the outer suit. The accompanying helmets hung on racks at the back of the compartment.

  The group quickly disrobed, piling their clothes in a heap in front of the waiting synth. Chen was still wearing the inner garment he had put on for the flight to Luna with Evan and he debated briefly whether it was worth the trouble to change it. He glanced around and saw the others were naked, so he decided that he should take advantage of the fresh garment while he had the chance.

  The other three got into their undergarments before Chen was completely out of his and Dylan had to give him a hand as he struggled to get his feet untangled from the garment’s silky embrace. A few minutes later everyone was fully suited and following the synth back to their pods, helmets in hand.

  “God, I hate this feeling,” Lily said as the group rounded the corner.

  “What’s that?” Dylan asked.

  “The neural interface,” she replied. “I hate that tingling feeling you get while the suites are interfacing.”

  “Imagine how I feel,” Chen said. “This is the second time in two days for me. I almost didn’t change for that very reason.”

  “I don’t mind it so much,” Aubrey said. “It kind of tickles.”

  Dylan grimaced. “You’re lucky,” he said. “It makes me itch.”

  “But just think of how much more comfortable we will be the next time Aneni has to maneuver hard,” Chen said. “It will be worth it!”

  “Yeah, I know,” Lily replied. “But I hope she won’t have to do that too many more times.”

  “Amen to that,” Dylan said.

  The door to the pod room hissed open and the synth directed the group inside. Aneni’s voiced echoed from all around them.

  “I’m sorry to ask this of you but you will need to remain in your pods until we are safe.”

  “We understand,” Lily replied. “Have you heard from Adee and Yin?”

  “We will rendezvous with Endeavor in seventeen minutes and twenty-seven seconds.”

  “Oh, really? I thought they were staying back at Ceres?”

  “That plan was unsuccessful. GFN Peacekeepers have occupied Galilei Station and a GFN transport ship is attempting to intercept us.”

  “Uggh, that sucks,” Dylan said. “It’s a good thing we didn’t leave Evan behind!”

  “Yeah but I’m still not sure we did the right thing,” Aubrey replied.

  “I know,” Lily added. “But I just couldn’t do it. I think he will change his mind if we give him more time. It’s only been three days for God’s sake!”

  “It’s okay, I couldn’t do it either,” Chen said. “I think he’s stable, I really do. We just have to give him more time.”

  “How is Evan doing, Aneni?”

  “Doctor Feldman is in cryo-suspension and his condition is stable.”

  “I bet he’ll be pissed when he wakes up though,” Dylan said as he climbed into his pod.

  Lily grunted her acknowledgment as she climbed into hers.

  Although the plan had been to nano-wipe Evan, Chen had second thoughts and brought two syringes just in case someone else did as well. One syringe contained the nanites that would have terminated the three-day-old experiment to restore Evan, the other contained a powerful sedative that would render him unconscious but unharmed.

  A brief discussion with Lily in the hallway outside of Evan’s room had confirmed Chen’s suspicion that she too was having doubts and they decided to sedate Evan and transport him to Kutanga.

  Aubrey had protested at first because it wasn’t what Evan wanted but Lily convinced her it was the right thing to do. Dylan and Chen had carried Evan to the shuttle and the five of them had departed Ceres together. One of Aneni’s synths met them at the airlock with a stretcher and it placed Evan in one of Kutanga’s twelve cryogenic suspension pods.

  Lily and Adee’s original plan was to select six men and six women to serve as Kutanga’s crew and they had installed the cryopods to give the crew a break from the monotony of the long trip to Gaia. The idea was to put the crew in suspended animation for the bulk of the voyage but to wake them one month in every twelve to survey the ship and perform routine maintenance.

  That plan was abandoned once they realized that Aneni could do those jobs through her synthetic avatars. They left the pods in place because they would be useful in the case of medical emergencies or other unforeseen situations the first colonists might face.

  “I know I’d be pissed if that happened to me,” Aubrey said. “So, don’t anyone get any ideas.”

  “Don’t worry, Princess,” Dylan responded. “Nobody will make you play the part of Sleeping Beauty if you don’t want to.”

  “But,” he added. “Just remember that it will be awfully lonely around here if the rest of us decide to take a long nap.”

  “Let’s cross that bridge when we get there,” Lily interjected.

  “Agreed,” Chen said as the pod restraints tightened across his body.

  “We’re all set, Aneni,” Lily said. “Do whatever you need to do.”

  Aneni said nothing but the ship's giant engines roared to life, sending a slight shudder through the compartment. Chen grimaced as he felt the nanofilaments in his suit work their way through his skin and contact his nerve endings. He closed his eyes and tried to relax as he lost control of his arms and legs as the now all too familiar pod-induced paralysis set in.

  * * *

  “Can you confirm our location?” Lieutenant Commander Luanne Wilkes asked her pilot.

  “Yes, ma’am, location confirmed. We are fifty thousand clicks behind and ten thousand below Endeavor, and assuming she is where I think she is, we will rendezvous with Kutanga in approximately thirty-eight minutes,” Ensign Ryan Randolph replied.

  “Very well, keep matching Endeavor’s deceleration…I don’t want to overshoot.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Do you think they know we are here?” Master Chief Samuel Washington asked.

  “Probably,” Luanne replied.

  “Do you think they will take a shot at us?”

  “I hope not but there isn’t much we can do about it if they do.”

  “I wish those damn interceptors would hurry up and get here,” Sam said.

  “The last update from Command put them at three hours twenty minutes behind us, so they’ve made up a little time.”

  “Yeah but that is still a
really long time to try to hold these guys.”

  Luanne shrugged. “I know but all we can do is our best.”

  “I hear you…did you read B’s report yet?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, no sign of our fugitives.”

  “Yeah, they must have split up. The station logs show two shuttles left within minutes of each other. One went to Endeavor and the other Kutanga. Who do you think went where?”

  “Well, we know Gbadamosi and Li are on Endeavor, so I’m betting the rest of them are on Kutanga.”

  “Unless that was a decoy. But you’re probably right, which means Adee and Yin will want to get over there too.”

  “Not necessarily,” Luanne said.

  “Why wouldn’t they?” Sam asked.

  “I think their job is to run interference so the rest can get away. I don’t think they have any intention of leaving the Endeavor.”

  “So, why the rendezvous?”

  “Protection. They want to be there to make sure Kutanga gets away safely.”

  “You still think we can take both ships? We lost surprise.”

  “No, not a chance. We have to pick one,” Luanne replied.

  “So, which one?”

  “It’s got to be Kutanga. We don’t know how many are on Endeavor or how well armed they are.”

  “But we don’t know anything about Kutanga’s defensive systems either.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that…Jaime?”

  Senior Chief Petty Officer Jaime Gonzales was strapped in two pods behind Luanne and, like the rest of the crew, had been monitoring the conversation via TacNet.

  “I’m here, Lu, whatchya got?” he asked.

  “I’m thinking about the synths…assuming they’re military grade, our EMPs won't have any effect.”

  “That’s correct, ma’am. The electromagnetic pulse emitters on our suits aren’t strong enough if they have milspec shielding.”