by C. Litka
02
The following round a supply boat arrived for the Island Dove. It brought bunker fuel - black-cake - and with it, familiar memories as I joined the crew in transferring black-cake from the supply ship to The Hermitage's fuel bunker. Afterward, I washed the black soot off in a cool, waterfall fed pool amongst the pines before dinner, and after dinner I told Naylea, 'Botts says that whenever you're ready, you can record your message.'
'I'll do it now.'
'Right. I'll signal Botts so he can meet us at the door.'
After Botts led us into his office and picking up a small pendant that looked to be a smooth black stone with a leather loop from its desk, it handed it to Naylea. 'I have printed out a new com-link for you. I fashioned it as a pendant rather than as a band, so that you can keep it hidden on your person. I've set up a link at one of the workstations in the reading room to record your message, but in the future you can use the immersive viewer feature of com-link to record and receive messages, if you care to, for as long as you are in com-link range of me.'
'Why, thank you Botts.' Naylea blushed. 'That was very kind and thoughtful. I'm glad that some of the strangeness Litang attracts isn't all deadly.'
'I believe I could say the same thing about you. Now, if you will hold the com-link in your hand, I will imprint and activate it.'
'I'm afraid there were times that I would've made a liar out of you, Botts.'
'Then we won't mention them. Right - it's activated. We'll leave you to your message. The Captain and I still have much to catch up on, so please take your time. We'll be in my office.'
The Four Shipmates guarded their secrets well - though clearly, not well enough. Though they didn't reveal their real secrets, they may have alluded to them too casually - even the name of their ship, the Lost Star, alluded to them. I had few secrets, which I tried keeping as they did, to myself. Unsuccessfully, I'm afraid. The one secret I wanted to keep was my encounters with the soul stones, and without them, the story of the mutiny wouldn't make a great deal of sense. And without the mutiny I didn't have much of a story to tell, so, if I mentioned my time aboard the Lora Lakes at all, it was simply on a long charter to film some natives with the giant dragon as the tale's star attraction.
I felt, however, that I could make an exception for Botts, since he'd had a soul stone and wasn't susceptible to greed. So while we waited in the scanning office, for Naylea to record her message, I spun my yarn of not only the voyage of the Lora Lakes, but my previous encounters with the Dragon-people. What I failed to take into account was that I was actually telling the story to several hundred thousand sentient machines. And their passion. Even before I had finished my tale, Botts - or rather the machines usually in control of Botts III - were eagerly questioning me about every little detail of the episode until Naylea knocked on the door, and Botts cut off communication.
I walked a quiet Naylea back to the Hermitage, and later, as I lay on my pallet, Botts signaled me.
'I'm very sorry, Captain for putting you through that. It seems that once again our quantum-probability mathematics have correctly predicted that you would bring to our attention something of interest. We don't build statues on our worlds, but if we did, we would build one of Captain Wil Litang for all the undreamed of mysteries of the Nine Star Nebula you have led us to.'
'Through no fault of my own.'
'A gift the Directorate greatly appreciates. I'm afraid that I have one more question. Could you take this avatar to that island?'
'I've told you all I know. I spent the voyage tending the engines, not on the bridge. I can tell you the nominal cruising speed based on propeller revolutions, and for how many rounds it took to arrive?'
'Which were?' asked Botts - or the machines of the Pela Committee in the background.
I thought back and after several seconds, gave him the Lora Lake's approximate cruising speed and the time from the Verenta Islands to Halfway Islands - 27 rounds - and then 32 rounds to the Dragon-people Islands.
'And on the return voyage?'
'81 rounds to reach Karena in the Donta. And with that, I think I have told you all I know about the island. I've told no one else about that incident and I would appreciate it if you would keep what I told you to yourselves.'
'Yes, of course. We appreciate the risks they present. To humans,' replied Botts, or the unseen machines.
No, not only to humans, it would seem. They affect machines as well.
