“I am unable to confirm nor deny your observations,” replied the hologram.
“I saw her again!” cried Ravana. “I even spoke to her!”
Kedesh looked up and regarded Ravana crossly. “Saw who?”
“The phantom cat woman. She was in the hangar!”
“Ravana,” Kedesh said gently. “There was no one there. Forget her.”
“You’ve seen her before, haven’t you?” Ravana accused her, but the woman just shrugged. “Missi, you must have cameras everywhere. Did you see her?”
“My records contain no image of such person,” the AI told Ravana.
“Fat lot of use you are,” Ravana grumbled. “I did see her! She said something about being a pawn or a queen in a game, then disappeared exactly as before! She was tall, with dark hair, a fur coat and strange yellow eyes and... What?”
Kedesh gave a sympathetic smile and shook her head sadly. Ravana opened her mouth to argue, but the woman’s expression was that of someone listening to a child’s tale of fairies at the bottom of the garden. Ravana scowled and slunk into a corner to sulk.
“Can we return to the spiders?” suggested Kedesh, addressing the hologram. “This experiment of yours. Classified information, I take it?”
“To answer that question would presuppose your earlier deductions were correct,” Missi said smoothly. “You are free to use the station’s facilities as you please, but I cannot allow you to compromise the ongoing research conducted under my supervision.”
“By that you mean stop asking questions,” Kedesh retorted irritably.
“You don’t answer any of mine,” complained Ravana. “Why don’t you believe me? I did see her. She knew my name!”
Finding herself ignored, Ravana shuffled closer to Kedesh and the hologram. She was trying not to look at the corpse, for the thought of what the woman was doing to the mangled arachnid made her feel sick. Kedesh paused to dictate murmured notes to a nearby touch-screen slate, seemingly fascinated by the innards of the spider’s carapace.
“Do you know if this place has a working ED transmitter?” Ravana asked cautiously, trying a change of tack. “I was hoping I could call home.”
Just for an instant, the hologram froze and then flickered, as if the guiding intelligence had been temporarily called away. Ravana turned her questioning stare towards Kedesh, but the woman pointedly remained engrossed in her dissection.
“I regret that the transceiver is currently inoperative,” Missi announced calmly.
Ravana found the AI’s manner oddly suspicious. “What sort of problem?”
“There is a fault in the alpha-echo-three-five control unit,” the AI replied hesitantly. “This is situated on the main antenna mast and human intervention is required.”
“I’ve seen that movie,” Ravana retorted crossly. “If you don’t want me to use the holovid, just say so.” She glanced at the half-dissected spider, then to Kedesh and shuddered. “I don’t know how you can even touch that thing. Where did it come from?”
“It was wrapped around a drive shaft underneath the transport,” she said. “I wanted to test my hunch that the spiders are part of an experiment Missi refuses to tell me about. I’m pretty sure the bunker we saw in the valley is extracting oxygen from ground water to give them something to breathe, but it makes me wonder what else is needed to sustain them. I’m somewhat stumped as to why they are out there at all.”
“The pursuit of knowledge is reason enough,” the hologram interjected.
Kedesh looked far from convinced. “I know this place was built by the American military. I dread to think of what your creators had in mind when they set up an experiment involving these things.”
“The scope and aims of the research are restricted,” the AI stated.
“This is a military research centre?” asked Ravana, alarmed. “Won’t we get into trouble just by being here?”
“You heard Missi,” said Kedesh. “We are welcome as long as we don’t meddle. Besides, I think the Americans have forgotten this place exists. They built both here and Falsafah Beta more than twenty years ago, but the latter has long been used as a hideaway by the Dhusarians and no one has ever objected.”
“I am aware of their presence,” Missi confirmed. “They are of no consequence.”
“Easy for you to say,” muttered Ravana.
“Ravana, Artorius and our grey friends had a rather unpleasant innings with those at Falsafah Beta,” Kedesh explained. Ravana wondered why she was telling this to an AI. “It has been a trying time all round, but we are grateful for the chance to rest.”
“You are most welcome,” the AI replied. “The station is at your disposal.”
“We’ll be gone before you know it,” said Ravana, still thinking of the mysterious stranger in the hangar. “No one likes guests who overstay their welcome, do they?”
“On the contrary,” said Missi. “There is no danger of that happening here.”
* * *
Artorius pushed aside the empty bowl, slumped back into his chair and burped. His fifth serving of ice-cream was nice, but somehow not as satisfying as the previous four, to add to which he now felt queasy. Sitting with him in the common room were Nana and Stripy. They had both been keen to try the cold dessert, albeit with mixed results; Stripy was a bowl ahead of Artorius and behaving as if it were some sort of competition, while Nana had left a first helping unfinished. Artorius watched with a glazed expression as a clawed scullery robot scuttled along the table on tiny legs, scooped the empty dishes into the basket upon its back, then disappeared once more through a hatch in the wall. Missi’s hologram, hovering by the food molecularisor, approached the seated diners with an icy smile.
“Was that to your satisfaction?” asked the AI.
Artorius nodded, burped again and gave a weak grin. “I feel sick,” he said.
“Fwack,” agreed Stripy. The grey’s face had taken on a distinct green tint.
“Thraak thraak!” chided Nana. “Thraak thraak thraak!”
“I don’t care,” Artorius said stubbornly. “I like ice-cream.”
He enjoyed being able to order Missi around; and not just because he had no idea how to work the molecularisor, or indeed anything else in the kitchenette. He felt the AI treated him like a proper adult in letting him do what he wanted, which was more than Ravana or Kedesh ever did.
“I like you,” Artorius decided. “You can be my slave.”
“Your arrival was unforeseen but welcome,” Missi replied. “I have no recent data on your development and my research will be greatly enhanced by your presence. I fear however that allowing your companions to remain poses a risk to this establishment.”
“Nana and Stripy?”
“I refer to the young female and the other individual,” the AI clarified. “The creatures with you in this room appear to be of non-Earth origin and similar to the subject of another research project known to me. They are particularly worthy of further study.”
“They’re aliens,” Artorius told the hologram. “They’re really clever but talk funny.”
“Fwack!” protested Stripy.
“Your human companions destroyed many years of work when they trespassed in the valley. They will make amends by sacrificing themselves to science. Once committed, I would be free to serve you and you alone.”
“Thraak?” exclaimed Nana, alarmed.
“Could I do whatever I wanted?”
Missi’s reply was interrupted by the arrival of Ravana and Kedesh, who both stopped short at the door upon seeing the copious amounts of ice-cream dribbling from Artorius’ lips. Stripy and Nana shuffled away, looking sheepish. Ignoring the hologram, Ravana shook her head sadly and reached for the towel hanging by the kitchenette sink.
“Artorius!” she scolded. “Look at the mess you’ve made of yourself! Have you had nothing to eat but ice-cream?”
“I can eat what I want!” Artorius retorted sulkily. “You can’t tell me what to do!”
“How rude
!” said Ravana. “You need to learn some manners, young man.”
“Fwack fwack,” said Stripy.
“He had five bowls of ice-cream?”
“Stripy had six,” Artorius retorted sulkily. “Why can’t I...?”
Ravana muffled the boy’s protest with a non-too-gentle chastisement of his face with the towel. Kedesh regarded Missi suspiciously.
“Didn’t we leave you in the laboratory?” she asked.
“Each room has its own holographic projector,” the AI said smoothly. “The system can support multiple simultaneous visual interfaces.”
“Lucky us,” muttered Kedesh. “Make sure the boy eats something healthy, would you? We’re going to the hangar to see how the robots are doing.”
She waited for an acknowledgement, but the AI remained silent. Artorius pulled himself free of the towel, glanced up at the hologram and frowned.
“Missi?” asked Ravana.
“Your instructions have been noted,” the AI replied.
“Good,” said Kedesh. “We’ll be back shortly.”
She beckoned to Ravana and together they left the common room. Artorius yawned, then giggled as he caught Stripy doing the same thing. Apart from making him feel sick, eating all that ice-cream had for some reason made him feel sleepy. His gaze was drawn once more to the molecularisor and he gave the hologram a hopeful look.
“Another?” he suggested.
“Thraak,” murmured Nana uneasily.
“Your companions left me strict instructions,” replied Missi, then paused. “Yet the needs of my research are paramount. You may eat whatever you wish and then you will sleep. By the time you awake, they will have paid their dues.”
* * *
Their transport still looked like it had been dragged through a battlefield backwards, but now stood firm upon all six wheels with its windows repaired and the hull wiped clean of spiders’ innards. The maintenance robots were busy tidying the final minor repairs, though Ravana was a little disconcerted by the nuts, bolts and twisty metal brackets one robot was sweeping away from beneath the vehicle. There seemed little either of them could do to help. Kedesh agreed and pointed out they still needed to search the storerooms and stock up on provisions, whereupon she grabbed a trolley from the hangar and led the way.
“We need to talk,” said Ravana. They struck lucky in the first room they tried and Kedesh was busy pulling boxes of travel rations from a shelf. “About that cat woman.”
“What woman?” asked Kedesh innocently. “Ooh! Veggie sausage hat-trick!”
“You know who I mean!”
“There’s a lot of fried chicken meals here. Can’t see the fascination myself.”
“Kedesh!”
“Spinach pasta bake?” Kedesh showed Ravana the ration carton, caught the girl’s look of frustration and dropped the box into the trolley with a sigh. “She was a quantum mirage, a hallucination. Missi didn’t see her because in a way she wasn’t really there. Please believe me when I say we have more important things to worry about than her.”
“A quantum mirage?” Ravana scoffed. “The first time she appeared you said, ‘oh no, not again’! And you called her a pain in the arse. What is it you’re not telling me?”
“As I said, we have other problems,” Kedesh hissed. She kept her voice low. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the boy, but something very odd is going on. I was under the impression this place had been mothballed due to lack of funds, change of government, that sort of thing. I thought we’d have to start up life support before doing anything else.”
“The dome is probably kept pressurised to support the weight of the roof,” Ravana told her. “I’m training to be an engineer,” she added, seeing the woman’s blank expression.
“Really? I thought you were here to do archaeology.”
“Can’t a girl have a hobby?”
“Anyway, it’s more than just that. Everything seems to be running normally, as if the crew are still in residence and have just popped out for a while. Except when I checked the research log in the laboratory, the last entry was almost six years ago.”
“So that woman must be real,” Ravana declared. “The last of the scientists!”
“She’s a watcher!”
Ravana opened her mouth to speak, hesitated and gave the woman a curious stare.
“Happy now?” said Kedesh.
“A watcher?”
“Indeed.”
“A woman who is also a cat?”
“She’s actually neither, but watchers have their preferred forms.”
“The Isa-Sastra mentions ‘watchers’,” Ravana said slowly.
“I don’t doubt it,” Kedesh replied testily. “For now, please forget about her and listen! I think the personnel here have been bowled a googly. That AI is being far too coy for my liking. Have you noticed that Missi has blocked all implant control channels?”
“I did wonder why my head wasn’t filled with the usual rubbish.”
“Exactly. This place should be buzzing with activity. I suggest we take what supplies we can, find Artorius and the greys, then leave. Any objections?”
“Have I got time for a quick bath?” Ravana asked hopefully.
“No,” Kedesh said firmly. “Ooh! Chocolate gateaux!”
Ravana managed a grin. “How do you not put on weight?”
“I will with this stuff. The cake that launched a thousand hips!”
They quickly got to work filling the trolley with armfuls of boxed rations haphazardly plucked from the shelves. After what seemed an age they were back in the hangar, where they spent another frantic few minutes throwing the trolley’s contents through the open hatch of the transport. Kedesh had just disappeared inside to shove the various boxes into storage lockers when Ravana was almost swept off her feet by a grey blur that entered the hangar like a miniature whirlwind. This time the newcomer was definitely no phantom cat.
“Thraak!” cried Nana, gesticulating wildly. “Thraak thraak!”
“What’s that?” asked Ravana, startled. The grey vocalised too quickly for the implant translator to generate anything but a mess of random interpretations. “Your bush kangaroo has skipped down a mine shaft?”
“Thraak thraak!”
“Poisoned! By ice-cream?”
“Who’s been poisoned?” asked Kedesh, poking her head from the transport’s hatch.
“Thraak thraak thraak!”
Ravana hastened across the hangar, then saw the door ahead sliding shut of its own accord and instinctively broke into a run. Her hand hit the switch just as the door sealed but there was no response. She tried the control again, then gave the doorway an impatient kick. Kedesh joined her and tried it for herself, but she too found the controls dead.
“Missi!” cried Kedesh. “Open the hangar door!”
There was no response. Exasperated, Ravana hammered on the button but the door refused to budge. As she paused, she became aware of the distant rattle of a compressor and a change in air flow from the vent above their heads. Missi remained silent, but a faint hum from a concealed speaker told them the AI was listening.
“Missi,” growled Kedesh. “Open this door now!”
“I regret that is not possible,” the disembodied voice of the AI replied.
“Let us out of here!” demanded Ravana. “What have done with Artorius?”
“The boy is quite safe,” Missi intoned. “He is a most fortunate find, for once analysed he will complete important gaps in my research.”
“What?” cried Ravana, confused. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on him!”
“Your own fate is more prosaic,” the AI continued. “The robots carry food to my subjects but the synthetic proteins produced by the molecularisor are a poor substitute for the living flesh they need to thrive. I have therefore taken the liberty of extracting the air from the hangar, which will be restored before you reach the point of death, though not before you suffer irreversible brain damage. You destroyed many research sp
ecimens, but rest assured that your contribution to the welfare of the remainder will be largely pain-free.”
“Thraak thraak!”
“We are not going to be spider food!” retorted Kedesh. “Open this blasted door!”
“This is crazy!” shrieked Ravana. “Let us out!”
To her alarm, she was already finding it harder to draw breath. Kedesh succumbed quickly and fell to her knees, though Nana seemed singularly unaffected. Ravana grabbed the woman’s arm and in desperation dragged her towards the transport to take refuge inside. A large robot, aggressively brandishing its six multi-tooled limbs, blocked their way. Feeling faint, Ravana left Kedesh and returned to claw at the door but to no avail. It was then that her gaze fell upon the plasma cannon, still lying upon the nearby bench.
“Having problems?” purred a voice from behind.
Ravana, Kedesh and Nana turned to stare at the dark-haired woman lounging coolly against the front of the derelict transport parked next to their own. The woman gave the prone Kedesh a sympathetic smile, greeted Ravana and Nana with an apologetic shrug, then went back to idly contemplating her manicured fingernails.
“You!” gasped Kedesh. “This is not how it is supposed to be!”
“The boy is in no danger,” the woman retorted. “There is no paradox.”
“The AI is pumping out the air!” Ravana cried weakly. “Help us!”
“Mad Missi killed them all,” the woman said casually. “Military personnel, support staff, the lot. They were still breathing when the robots dragged them into the valley, but only just. The AI’s creators did not see the need for moral reasoning in a system intended solely for science. This is what happens when you remove ethics from the pursuit of knowledge. I’ve never seen a machine so dedicated to research!”
“You evil moggy,” murmured Kedesh. “Do something!”
“Does ‘science’ include rearing giant spiders?” the woman asked conversationally.
Paw-Prints Of The Gods Page 25
