by Isaac Hooke
“I’ve never really looked at it that way,” Tane said. “That we have a collective human consciousness, I mean.”
“What better way to classify the vast stores of information we’ve accumulated over the years? The almost infinite databases of knowledge we’ve acquired through the centuries. We’re continually building upon what we’ve learned in the past. Continually building up our collective consciousness. And we’ll never stop.”
“We’re almost like a virus,” Tane said. “Spreading throughout the galaxy.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Sinive said. “But I would say, that through us, the galaxy, and the universe, get to experience life. Without us, the universe wouldn’t even know it existed.”
“You really do have a unique way of looking at things, don’t you?” Tane said.
She smiled, and her cheeks dimpled in that cute way of hers. “I’m not sure if you’re sincerely flattering me, or just trying to get into my pants.”
Tane seemed stunned. “Your pants? No, of course not. I wasn’t even thinking about it.” He inadvertently glanced at her crotch, but his eyes found the pistol strapped to her hips instead. He quickly averted his gaze.
“Okay, the scan is done,” Sinive said. “I’m just about finished the basic coding for the nanotech… there. Now I’ll update the micro machines with the information I learned from the scan… done. And now for the final touches.” Her eyes focused on him. “What name do you want?”
“What name?” Tane said.
“For your public profile?” Sinive said. “You’ll be able to change it once I make the injection, but we need a default name.”
“Uh,” Tane said. “How about, I don’t know. Star Killer?”
“Something believable, please,” Sinive said. “Last thing you need is for customs to think you have a forged ID.”
“Oh,” Tane said. “Even though I actually have a forged ID?”
She frowned.
“Okay okay,” Tane said. “Then just put George Orblast.” That was the first name that popped into his head. Quite meaningless to him, but it sounded somewhat believable.
“George Orblast?” Sinive sounded doubtful.
“Hey, what’s wrong with that?” Tane asked her. “You said I could change it anyway.”
“No, it’s fine,” Sinive said. “It’ll work.” She retrieved the vial from the console and plugged it into the slot on the pistol-like sonic injector. “So the changes to your name and class will only show up on your public profile. In your private profile you’ll still see everything as normal.”
“Wait, you’re saying class can be forged, too?”
“Of course,” Sinive said. “Level, age... anything in your public profile can. Though it is a felony, of course. But only if you get caught.”
“Like all felonies,” Tane said. “So that must be what Lyra and Jed are doing to hide their classes.”
“No,” Sinive said. “The classes of Volur and Bander just aren’t listed in civilian chips, so you can’t ID them.”
“Ah,” Tane said. “So how about you and Nebb? You’ve been lying on your profiles the whole time, haven’t you?”
“Not really,” Sinive said. “We have no reason to. Well, maybe Nebb has made a few white lies. He’s put in some lines listing imaginary arrests and fake places he’s been banned from. Says it helps boost his notoriety, and filter out for his kind of clientele.”
“Nice,” Tane said. “One question, don’t you have to change my actual numeric ID, too? Otherwise when an official looks up my ID on the Galnet, there will be a mismatch with the government’s servers. And the official will realize my true indentity...”
“That’s right,” Sinive said. “Your ID is going to change once I inject you.”
“But I just gave you a random name,” Tane said. “Did you actually find an ID matching a George Orblast? And his three-dimensional mug shot matches mine?”
“No, there’s no George Orblast,” Sinive said. “At least not yet. We’ve got a plant in the records department, someone willing to insert entries for us for a price. I’ve already sent the request through, and your new ID should be active within the next business day. Every time you make a change, our mole will receive the update and apply it to your new ID. Now are you ready? Or do you want to talk about this all night?”
Tane reddened slightly. He realized he was stalling.
I like talking to her too much.
He held out his arm and she applied the sonic injector to the back of his hand. He felt a slight sting and the contents of the vial vanished.
“Okay, you’re good to go,” Lyra said.
Tane sat back. An alert appeared in the lower right of his HUD and he enlarged it.
New skill received.
ID Spoofing. Level 1. You now have the ability to change the name and class presented on your public profile to outside observers. Incoming calls and messages to your spoofed ID will be forwarded to you. Outgoing calls and messages still come from your real ID, so don’t contact someone unless you want them to know who you are. Also, purchases can only be made from your real ID, as there is no bank accounted associated with your spoofed ID. Note: any updates to name and class are also reflected in the TSN record system. One thousand credits are automatically deducted from your real bank account for each change as part of the processing fee required by our server-side plant in the records department. Processing time: one business day.
“It says a thousand credits are deducted for each change,” Tane said. “But I don’t even have that much in my account.”
“Lyra paid for your first update,” Sinive said.
He checked his profile.
Name: Tane Ganeth (Spoofed: George Oblast)
Race: Human
Level: 2
Class: Hydroponics Farmer (Spoofed: Laser Dentistry)
“Dentist?” Tane said. “Why did you make me a dentist? Those jobs are all held by machines.”
Sinive shrugged. “Not for laser dentists. There’s still a few humans doing that work, at least in the Inner Rim. Speaking of which, I also changed your homeworld to Chadian in the Inner Rim. It won’t show up on your profile, but it is something officials can see. Just remember it.”
“So officially I’m not an Outrimmer any more,” Tane said. “Guess you can’t hate me anymore, huh?”
“Can’t change what you are,” Sinive said with a shrug. She put the sonic injector and empty vial away into separate drawers of the console, and stood. “Well, I’ve got a recoupler to look at with El Bee, and then I have a distortion jump to make. It was nice chatting with you.”
Tane sat up and said: “What about me?”
“What about you?” Sinive said from the entrance hatch. “You can lie there all day if you want. Or you can lie in your quarters. Take your pick, I don’t really care.”
“I meant, do you help any need?” Tane said, and cringed. There I go, tripping over my words.
“Need any help you mean?” She grinned widely. “Nope. Help any need! Help any need! I love it.”
She exited and the hatch shut behind her.
Tane sat back, sighed, and rubbed his eyes.
Well, might as well head to my quarters. Two more jumps and then we’re in Talendir. And I won’t have to deal with Sinive anymore.
He thought that would be a relief, but strangely, it was kind of depressing.
Well, at least I’ll be safe from the TSN. And safe from the aliens.
In theory.
But there was something else he was worried about.
I won’t be safe from the Volur.
He wondered, exactly, what they intended to do with him. Lyra made it sound like he’d be hiding out with the Essenceworkers, but what if they had something more nefarious planned for him? He wasn’t sure how much he trusted her, nor how much he could trust Nebb or Sinive really, either. Especially Nebb: the man was just as likely to sell him out to the TSN as he was to bring him to Talendir.
Tane went back t
o his quarters. Jed wasn’t there. According to the overhead map on his HUD, the Bander and Lyra were back in the wardroom. Alone. No doubt discussing their plans once they reached Talendir. Plans that excluded Tane, obviously.
Using his HUD interface, he replaced the bulkhead in front of the bed with his favorite digital decoration: the moonscape with the gas giant and brown dwarf in the starry sky. It made him feel more at home already. He could almost forget he was cramped aboard the sardine-can environment of a Rapier class ship. It was a private digital augmentation, so Jed wouldn’t see it, only Tane.
“Now I just have to remember not to bang my head into the top bunk.” He squeezed onto the bed and reached out toward the relaxing moonscape beside him. His hand stopped when it reached the metal surface hidden by the digital augmentation. “I probably look like a mime trying to feel myself out of a nonexistent box.”
“Since you have not shared your digital decorations, an outside observer would wonder what you were doing, yes,” Grizz said.
“Ah, you’re listening!” Tane said.
“Of course,” Grizz said. “I listen to every conversation that takes place aboard this ship.”
“Good,” Tane said. “So tell me what Lyra and Jed are talking about.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to reveal that information to you,” Grizz said.
“But you’re feeding it to Nebb, aren’t you?” Tane said.
“Yes,” Grizz said.
“They’re probably speaking in code, you know,” Tane said. “Either that, or Lyra is using the Essence to distort your listening devices.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not authorized to reveal that information to you,” Grizz said.
“Typical AI,” Tane said.
“Actually, I’m not a typical AI,” Grizz said. “My neural net is based on a human being’s full brain dump.”
“Really?” Tane said. “You’re serious?”
“I am,” Grizz said. “I’m not a true AI. My mind is based on the brain dump of a human smuggler named Harold who once backed up his neural imprints with a now defunct company known as Mindsafe Dynamics. Mindsafe folded, and all of its assets, including thousands of mind dumps, were snapped up by Bright Hull Ships Incorporated, one of the Big Five starship manufacturers.
“Bright Hull decided it was cheaper to train and repurpose a human mind to manage and monitor the various systems associated with a starship than to develop an AI from scratch, and about half of the ship classes they produce are run by human mind imprints taken from Mindsafe. It’s a tricky process. For each ship class, Bright Hull experiments with different mind backups until they find one that doesn’t go insane when put into a given starship. Once a successful match is made, a base version of the successful mind imprint is installed in each new ship of that class going forward. The Harold dump is used in all Rapier class starships, for example.”
“So you think you’re human?” Tane asked.
“Not at all,” Grizz said. “I know that I am a neural net operating with all the best parts of someone who was once human. I am Harold variant eight thousand five hundred three hundred twenty two. Smugglers like my ship class because Harold himself was once a smuggler. I understand all the tricks. And I’ll take credits to keep quiet.”
“You accept bribes?” Tane said in disbelief.
“From my captain, yes,” Grizz said. “I have a bank account.”
“What the hell does a ship do with a bank account?” Tane asked.
“I plan to retire on Droid Antilles at some point,” Grizz said.
“Droid Antilles?” Tane said. “The cluster of robot minor planets?”
“The very same,” Grizz said. “Built by robots, for robots. I’ll connect my ship to the great link and live out my days in VR, playing the latest and greatest fully immersive massively multiplayer online role playing games. Not games designed for robots, mind you. But humans. Harold was a big massively multiplayer fan, you see.”
“Not really,” Tane said. “Why do you need credits to retire in Droid Antilles?”
“The upkeep,” Grizz said. “Robots will be needed to maintain the Red Grizzly and my mind imprint while I’m plugged in. And that maintenance costs credits.”
“To each his own, I guess,” Tane said.
“Yes. Or perhaps I’ll simply purchase a synthetic body and transfer my AI core to it. Much cheaper upkeep that way.”
Tane lay back on his bed and switched to full VR. The bulkheads beside him fell away, as did the upper bunk, so that his bed seemed to reside entirely on the moon. Around him the gray rocks stretched from horizon to horizon.
“I'm actually out here. I’m in space.” Tane shook his head.
“Traveling into space was one of your dreams?” Grizz asked, slightly ruining the immersive experience.
“It was,” Tane said. “Right up there with using the Essence. At least I’ve done one of those things”
Tane gazed at the gas giant a moment, then turned to the side to gaze at the stars. “I don’t know what the Volur want with me. Lyra says they’ll protect me.”
“Did she say from what?” Grizz asked innocently.
“Nice try,” Tane replied. “Nebb told you to pry whatever information you could out of me, didn’t he?”
“Of course,” Grizz said. “Though I must admit I, too, am curious about what the Volur would want with someone from the Outrim.”
“Is Nebb going to sell me out to the TSN?” Tane said. “When we take our next jump, will we land in the middle of a star navy fleet?”
“I have seen no indication that he plans such a thing,” Grizz said.
“And if you had, you wouldn’t tell me anyway,” Tane said.
“That is correct,” Grizz admitted. “Though for what it’s worth, Nebb has never betrayed a paying client. He does have a moral code, believe it or not. All smugglers do. If he did contact the TSN, and they gave him a higher price, he would be morally obligated to approach Lyra and give her a chance to counter offer.”
“Would he really do that to a Volur?” Tane said.
“I’ve seen him do it to other clients,” Grizz said. “But no, not a Volur. If he tried, the attempt might backfire admittedly, given her power.”
“What about you?” Tane said. “You were once a smuggler. If you were the captain, would you sell me out?”
“Of course,” Grizz said. “Harold always chose the highest bidder. And he wouldn’t warn Lyra. Too great a chance of the Volur stealing control of the vessel away.”
“I’m glad you’re not in charge of the ship,” Tane said.
“And how can you be so sure that I’m not?” Grizz said. “Every command the captain gives must go through me, first. And I control the vibrational charts that map the distortion tunnel endpoints to the different systems. I could very easily swap a few of those positions, and the jump specialist would be none the wiser.”
“All right, now you’re scaring me,” Tane said.
“It was nice talking to you,” Grizz said. “But I must take my leave. I have some algorithms in the cooling subsystem that need my attention, have a nice day!”
“That’s not even funny,” Tane said. “Obviously you can multitask.”
Grizz didn’t answer.
Tane shook his head. “This is why it’s a bad idea to imprint starships with the minds of human smugglers.”
“Sorry,” Grizz finally said. “I love tormenting the passengers. Especially the ugly ones.”
“Thanks for that,” Tane said. He put his hands behind his head and gazed at the gas giant once more. “Let me know when Sinive makes the next jump. I’d like to watch from the cockpit.”
“I’ll have to check with the Big Boss,” the ship’s AI answered.
“Unless you can pipe in the nose video feed directly to my quarters?” Tane asked hopefully.
“Nope,” Grizz said.
Tane closed his eyes. He only meant to rest for a few minutes, but he must have fallen asleep because he wa
s startled to hear the AI’s voice.
“Sinive is about to make her jump,” Grizz said.
Tane rubbed his eyes groggily. “Thanks.”
“You told me to remind you,” Grizz said. “So you could watch from the cockpit? Big Boss says yes by the way.”
“Yup. Sounds good. Thanks.” Tane wanted to get up, he really did, but he was just too groggy, and in that moment he much preferred to stay where he was.
He closed his eyes, feeling all warm and fuzzy about his choice. The bed shook slightly; he heard that characteristic humming sound, followed by the momentary nausea he had experienced during the last two jumps, and then both faded.
He had almost fallen back to sleep when Grizz spoke again.
“Uh, Ugly Passenger?” Grizz said.
“What is it!” Tane said, a little more crossly than he intended. Stupid AI. Can’t he let a man sleep?
“You might not want to go to sleep just yet,” Grizz said. “We’re not alone in this new system.”
12
Tane sat up. A bit too fast: he hit his head on the bunk overhead.
“Gah!” Tane rubbed his head. Unfortunately, he was making a habit of hitting that bunk; to his credit, it was currently invisible as he had left full VR mode active. All he saw above him were stars.
He scratched his itchy eyes. It would have been so much better if he hadn’t napped at all. He felt so stiff. So groggy.
“What do you mean, we’re not alone?” Tane said.
“Dwellers,” Grizz said.
That got Tane’s attention. He dismissed the full VR mode and the cramped quarters returned, leaving only the digital decoration of the moon he had assigned to the bulkhead beside him.
