Blue Planet

by S E T Ferguson

  Chapter Eighteen

  Beryl was rewatching the video for the tenth time when the sound of steps heading toward her made her look up.

  Instead of Vlad, whom she had expected it would be, it was a young girl—May Lee, Fawn’s daughter. Beryl tried to remember how old she was. She must have been five or even six by now.

  “Hi May Lee,” Beryl said, greeting the girl by name.

  “What are we going to do?” May Lee pulled at a strand of her black hair, her narrow brown eyes searching Beryl’s face as if it had an answer for her.

  “About the Earthlings?” Beryl asked. The girl nodded. Beryl wondered why May Lee had come to her to answer this question. It couldn’t have been more than an hour or two since she had seen her pull a gun on her father. That was not the sort of thing that would normally inspire a child to talk to an adult. And with her father, there was a chance coming to speak with Beryl would have severe consequences for the little girl.

  If it did, Beryl would just have to deal with it. And she didn’t think it would end well for Reed.

  “We’ll figure out a way to deal with the Earthlings. Iris is getting into their computer systems as soon as possible, and then we’ll know the best way to deal with them.”

  May Lee continued staring at Beryl, her dark, almond-shaped eyes intense with worry. Beryl thought they looked like May Lee wanted to ask a question of her, but at the same time didn’t want to ask it.

  “Will we have to fight them?”

  “I don’t know,” Beryl responded. “But if we do have to fight them, we will.”

  “All of us?”

  “Only if people want to. This is Columbina, so you’re free to make your own decisions. No one is going to draft you to fight.”

  “Are you going to fight them?”

  “I don’t want to. If the Earthlings or their AI really are a threat to us, though, I’ll be the first one out there. This is our home, and if I’m not willing to fight to protect that, what am I willing to fight for?” Beryl said the words as reassurance, but she realized that the simple thought was precisely how she felt. Nothing more.

  May Lee smiled, her eyes still focused, but not intense. “I’ll fight with you, Beryl.”

  The girl skipped off, a slip of a person. As Beryl watched her return to Fawn, she realized that if it came to fighting the Earthlings, girls like May Lee, who seemed so young, might somehow get involved in the fighting. Maybe they would not get sent out of the caves to fight, but what if the fight came to them?

  Beryl looked around the room. She knew everyone there. It was impossible to be anonymous on a planet like Columbina.

  The farmer standing over there to her right was also a great poker player; he once won a gun off of Vlad, who was a good poker player in his own right. Vlad still brought that game up regularly. The doctor on Beryl’s left drank beer but not wine. His son had an unfortunate accident where he had nearly drowned as a child. Even with Iris’s ability to cure most cancer and disease, this was the sort of thing she could not do anything about. The boy—Clem—had mental difficulties because of that incident, but he almost always had a smile on his face and was one of Camp’s favorites thanks to the treats the boy carried in his pocket for all the Columbinian dogs.

  Beryl couldn’t imagine these people having to fight.

  Particularly if they would be fighting other humans.

  Not that it hadn’t happened before. On Earth, humans had fought humans all the time. It had even happened since humans had left Earth. There had been the Founders Conflict. Humanity in space nearly killed itself off, and they had hardly been out of the home solar system at that point. Beryl knew there would come a time when humans in space fought each other again; it seemed to be a facet of humanity that would never leave them.

  But humans having to fight humans was something Beryl had never seen in person, at anything other than a personal level.

  Or maybe it was that she couldn’t imagine someone on Columbina having to die.

  Beryl nearly tipped over her chair when she realized that people already had died in this fight.

  They were already in this fight, whether they wanted to be or not.

  Iris must have seen that something was bothering her, because she placed her hand on her shoulder, comforting her before she spoke.

  “I have some good news, and I have some bad news.”

  Beryl stood up. “Which do I want to hear first?”

  “The good news. Because that’s only going to take a second.”

  “Shit.”

  “Shit is definitely an appropriate word right now. As would be pretty much every synonym for it you can think of.” Even though she didn’t breathe, Iris made a noise that sounded like a deep inhalation of breath. “The good news is that I’m through the firewalls on the Earthlings’ ship, and I’m processing as much information as possible as quickly as possible.”

  “That’s pretty good news.” Beryl put her hand to her necklace, running its familiar chain through her fingers.

  “That’s it for the good news. I hardly even know where to start with the rest of it.”

  “Let’s go big picture. Give me a general idea of what is going on up there.”

  “Big picture? The AI are in charge. As far as I can tell, they’ve enslaved the humans. They’re keeping them alive, but barely. They need the humans for various tasks they haven’t yet figured out how to take care of themselves or which they deem below them. There also seems to be some thought by the AI that having a sentient species completely subordinate to them is a way of showing their own superiority and value should they ever come across some other sentient species.”

  “What about us? What are their plans for us?” Having heard about the plight of these other humans, Beryl knew she sounded callous. She knew they needed their help. But she couldn’t do anything for the humans on the Earth ship until Columbina was safe. If they could make Columbina safe, then—and only then—would they have time to think about the Earthlings.

  Then, there would be other feelings. Beryl knew they would have to deal with people who would cooperate with the AI, even unwillingly. There had to have been ways to fight them. At least, there had to have been ways not to cooperate with them. Beryl had seen the video of the man who had been there when the AI killed her mother. There was a vast difference between being a slave and being the sort of person who is indifferent, at best, to the death of other humans. He was definitely in the latter category. Would she be able to put those feelings away to help these humans?

  “Their plans for us are the same as the plans for the humans on the ship. Enslavement, destruction of anyone who resists. They’re definitely planning to follow through on their attack plans. Actually, they’re planning on following through with them after 24 hours, not 48. These are not very trustworthy AI.”

  “That’s an understatement there,” Beryl said. “What kind of attack is this going to be? Are we talking a planet-destroying sort of attack?

  “It depends on how you describe planet-destroying. The AI aren’t planning on nuking us, which is the closest thing they have to planet-destroying technology.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “Hold that thought. The AI are planning on sending thousands of drones to Columbina. Think hand-to-hand combat, except instead of humans fighting humans, it’s humans fighting AI-controlled drone technology.”

  “But why do it that way? Wouldn’t it be easier to nuke us out of existence? Humans had that technology long before Hodios left.”

  “Simple. The AI want to destroy as little as possible of Columbina. They are planning on establishing an outpost for themselves here on Columbina. It’s easier to set up that outpost if they already have an infrastructure in place for the humans on their ship who they plan to leave here. Humans can remain slaves here, and the AI don’t have to put any effort into keeping them alive. It seems to me that the AI view Columbina as something of a slave farm for themselves.”

  Iris took an audible bre
ath. “In case it isn’t obvious, the AI have a very dim view of humanity and the ability of humanity to defend themselves against an AI opponent. They definitely think the drones will be enough to destroy all of us down here.”

  Beryl thought of her mother and the other people sent to their destruction on the Earth’s ship. They had been so trusting of these others, so happy to see other humans. The Earth AI had exploited that in its entirety.

  There was no bright side here unless it was that the AI might underestimate the Columbinians.

  “Well, then. Let’s show those AI what humanity that left Earth can do.”

  Beryl stepped on the seat of her chair, making her tower a foot and a half over most everyone gathered in the cave.

  Beryl knew at that moment, more than maybe anything she had ever known in her life, that she couldn’t fight the Earth AI on her own.

  At the same time, she knew she was going to take them on, whether or not anyone joined her in the fight against them.

  Beryl put up her fingers to her mouth to whistle.

  Nothing came out.

  This was not beginning auspiciously.

  Thankfully, Iris saw what Beryl was trying to do and let a whistle ring out of everyone’s phones. Hundreds of heads immediately turned to Beryl, her height on the chair making her stand out.

  Beryl realized she had no idea what she was going to say.

  Why had she thought this was such a good idea?

  Beryl took a deep breath in and scanned the crowd gathered around her. The room was silent, hundreds of sets of eyes focused on her.

  “Everyone,” Beryl’s voice cracked. She tried to raise herself taller, readjusting herself. She spoke again, the sound coming out of her mouth now loud and clear. Even without the amplification, Iris could have done through their phones, Beryl could tell it was carrying to the back of the cave. “Iris has cracked the firewall of the Earth ship.”

  Some noticeable murmurs arose out of what had been a near-silent crowd. A voice near the back shouted across the din. “Who authorized Iris to break their firewall?”

  Shit, Beryl thought. She shouldn’t have been surprised by this question. There were still people on Columbina who didn’t trust Iris because of her intelligence. Everything that had happened that day—and even more so, what Beryl was about to say—wasn’t going to help that.

  Her public speaking career was definitely not off to a promising start.

  “I told Iris to get through it as soon as five of our fellow Columbinians were shot down by the Earthlings in cold blood. One of whom was my mother. If you have an issue with what I did, you’re welcome to take it up with me. Frankly, though, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me I did the wrong thing.”

  More murmurs from the crowd. Beryl heard some voices mention “Reed” and realized the previous incident might have gained her some credibility as a fighter, even though it had been a random outburst, not meant to do anything but help a friend.

  And then a few louder voices reached her ears. These were saying other recognizable words, “Whit” and “father.” Beryl knew those voices had been raised on purpose, a reminder to her of someone else in her family who had believed his actions to be right and justifiable. She couldn’t think about him right now. And besides, what he had done was entirely different than this.

  “Everything Iris has found will be available to anyone who wants to see it. For now, though, I want to express two main points. First, the humans on the ship are not in charge. The AI in control of the ship is in charge, and the AI on the ship essentially consider the humans on board to be slaves.” A certain element in the crowd was definitely talking amongst themselves. Iris whistled again, silencing most of them, but not all.

  “Second, and more important for the time being, is that the AI are planning to attack Columbina, as they threatened on the video yesterday. Except, instead of attacking in 48 hours, like they said they would, they are planning to attack in less than 24.”

  Beryl’s statement had the desired effect—virtually everyone in the crowd started shouting their indignation and dismay at this revelation over the words of dissent. Beryl began shouting above the din, hoping everyone would start paying attention to her again. For the most part, it worked. At least, it worked enough to allow those who wanted to hear her speak to do so. There were definitely some people who were still talking amongst themselves.

  “Thankfully, because Iris has been able to get past their firewall, we do know that the attack has been moved up. We also know they’re planning to send drones to Columbina to fight us hand-to-hand.”

  “Can’t Iris do something about this? Disable their drones or something?” Beryl heard Vlad’s voice above the low buzz of the crowd. She saw him standing near his mother and siblings. His mother looked like she was crying and had been for a while. Most of the younger kids looked the same way. Vlad and his older siblings, though, looked as if their faces were masks. It was like they were trying not to show any emotion at all. Beryl had seen that look before.

  It was the look of people who were looking for revenge.

  Did she look the same way?

  She guessed she did. It was better to have people think you emotionless than to have them think you were weak and unwilling to act. There was also a suggestion that messing with someone who looked like that was a bad idea.

  Reed had found that out for himself.

  Iris shouted over the crowd in answer to Vlad’s question. “I am sure there is a way to disable their drones. Unfortunately, the Earth AI seems to have viewed this as a major threat to their ability to fight by drone and have implemented numerous safety features to prevent against this happening. I am sure I can break their codes and disable them eventually, but it is going to take a while. I may not be able to do it before the attack comes.”

  A voice came from the back of the crowd, similar to one of those whose voices were raised above the crowd mentioning her father. Beryl couldn’t see him, but she suspected it was Reed. “You can’t do that without our approval!”

  “I beg to differ,” Iris said. She was a head shorter than Beryl standing on the chair, but her presence in the room was suddenly larger than anyone else’s. “My purpose here on Columbina, as it was when I was created, is to do whatever I can to keep humanity safe and provide for your well-being. Now that we know of a legitimate threat to the continuing safety of everyone on Columbina, I’m within my rights to do whatever I can to protect all of you against this threat.”

  A few whoops went up from elsewhere in the cave. The vast majority of Columbinians trusted Iris. Beryl was grateful for that fact now more than ever before. They even trusted her now, after other AI had shown up with a plan to make them all slaves.

  “Is there a plan?” A small voice was raised from near the front. Beryl saw May Lee with her hand raised, as if she was a student in a classroom.

  “Is there a plan?” Beryl repeated, letting her voice ring out in the cave for all those who couldn’t hear May Lee’s less-than-entirely-confident voice. She couldn’t speak for everyone else, but she could speak to what she was going to do. “Iris is going to try to take out the drones before they can attack. But if she can’t, the rest of you are going to have to make a choice. Do you fight back, or do you sit back and hope others fight for you? Humanity may now live in many places across the universe, but I only call one of them home. And that’s Columbina. I don’t want anything to happen to this planet or the people who live here.”

  Beryl paused before finishing her thought for the crowd.

  “Did I want this fight? No. But now that we have this fight, I, for one, know which side I am on. I’m going to fight back.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Despite the late hour, around her, Beryl could hear that she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep.

  Low whimpers rose from people crying amongst the snoring and light sounds of people rustling in the cots that had been set up throughout the cave. A few people weren’t even trying
to sleep, instead sitting on their cots reading or gathered in small groups around the edge of the large room. Beryl still fought to get a few minutes of sleep, knowing she would need all the rest she could get before the coming fight. She could ask Iris for something to help her sleep, but Beryl didn’t want that sort of false sleep. She wanted the kind of rest that could only come with a natural night of sleep.

  Beryl sat up, rousing Camp from his light sleep next to her cot. The dog nuzzled her hand, trying to do what he could to comfort her. Beryl buried her head in the ruff of his neck, comforted by the familiar smell.

  And then, with her face rubbing against the fur of her dog’s neck, Beryl knew what she needed.

  Beryl got up from the cot, trying not to disturb the people around her, all of whom seemed to be sleeping easily and peacefully. She picked her way in the low light of the room toward where she knew she would find who she was looking for.

  When she got there, she knew he wasn’t sleeping either.

  He turned to face her when she stopped next to his cot, and she saw he had been doing what she hadn’t allowed herself to do yet.

  Vlad was crying.

  Wordlessly, he lifted the blanket from around him, and Beryl lowered herself to the cot, taking a familiar spot curled up against Vlad’s chest. Camp took up a spot near the cot, and Vlad pulled the blanket back around them, placing his arms around her smaller body.

  There, nestled against Vlad for the first time in months, Beryl let herself cry. She cried for the mother she would never see again. She cried for the things her mother would never get to see. She cried for her own new status as an orphan. She cried for all the people who might die the next day. But mostly, Beryl cried because her life had changed and it would never be the same again.

  Eventually, the tears stopped falling.

  “I just wanted to be the girl doing her research and making life better here on Columbina,” Beryl whispered. She could tell from his quick breaths and heartbeat that Vlad wasn’t asleep yet, either.