This time, there seemed to be a smile in Tess's voice. "Yes and yes. I knew both well, and counted them as friends. Unfortunately, human life is tragically short."
Cale was thinking. "Then that thing Yan found really is a subspace initiator?"
"Yes, Captain," Tess replied. "It is, in fact, quite functional. However, there are few working receivers left, and I have had no reason to contact any of those few."
"Have you had any bad owners? And did you take any action?"
"I have sensed your growing fear. I am happy to lay those fears to rest. I have had two hundred thirty-three owners in the more than four hundred years since I awakened. Some, like Cord and Kedron, were heroes. A few were true villains, and one was an actual serial killer.
"I am aware of the fact that there are many ways an AI such as I could cause a human to cease functioning, to die. However, my very basic programming contains a prohibition against harming or through inaction permitting harm to befall a human. On several occasions, including the serial killer I mentioned, this prohibition has caused me great distress. However, the prohibition is absolute. I cannot cause harm to befall you, and could not even when you were Emo Arror, the Terror."
"You knew?"
"Of course. I realized when you boarded me on Atlantea. However, I was virtually certain my previous owner was deceased. His home was destroyed in the initial bombardment. I decided to see what a pirate admiral would want with a yacht like Azure Sky.
Cale had been thinking hard. "Then you've guessed my plans."
"I think so." The pleasant contralto responded. "Since you boarded from Revenge. I have been quite interested in your intentions and your methods. I have read 58,236 volumes on human nature and human psychology, in an attempt to understand humans. I have been pleased that you have treated everyone with whom you have associated in an honorable and even a sensitive manner, even those less honorable than yourself. I surmise that you desire to 'go straight', as the vernacular phrases it. I have come to respect and like you, Captain, and will be happy to assist you toward your goal in any way I can.”
Cale's voice showed its relief. "Thank you, Tess. I hope I can cope with an AI that's a person."
"You are the first human since Val Kedron to call me a 'person'." There was real emotion in her voice now, sadness, and regret.
"Did all of your owners know about your sentience?"
"No. Of 233 owners, only 10 knew about me. All kept my secret. One, in a misguided attempt to insure future good treatment, mentioned it in his will. However, I was able to convince the executor and the new owner that he was mistaken, and I was merely a conventional AI."
Cale had been thinking hard. "You were very careless about leaving clues for me. Particularly in your conversations with Ruth"
"Ruth was in need of counseling and comfort." Cale could almost hear a shrug in Tess's voice. "I was aware of the risk, of course. However, Ruth was in much pain. And I was lonely!" She paused. "The clues were purposeful. I rather hoped you would deduce my sentience. I have not had a friend in over fifty years."
Cale was startled. "You trust me that much? Even knowing who I was?"
"As I said, I have observed you closely since you first came aboard. I do not know what circumstances caused you to turn pirate, but I know that since boarding me, you have behaved in an honest and honorable way. Yes, I find you trustworthy."
Cale was touched. He stood and bowed toward Tess's nearest camera. "Miss Tess," He said in a formal tone, "I would be honored to consider you my friend and my partner."
"And I," she replied in an equally formal tone, "am happy to offer my services in any way that will facilitate your rehabilitation."
Cale bowed again. "I am delighted to accept your offer with pleasure. Have you any suggestions for the near future? In other words, do you have any ideas about what to do next? I'll admit my plans beyond getting away, changing my identity, and getting finances are pretty vague."
"Actually yes, Captain," she replied, "However, our new passenger has finished her shower and her crying, and has asked about clothing. I have indicated the bag brought aboard with her, and it evidently contains clothing she considers appropriate. She is dressing, and I suspect she will very soon leave her cabin, with an urgent desire to speak with you."
Cale smiled. "I'm sure you're right. Are there any destinations within two jumps that you plan to recommend to her?"
"I'm afraid there are no settled planets within two jumps that humans raised with the standards of Faith would consider desirable. And until I discuss the issue with her, I am reluctant to suggest other possibilities."
Cale sighed. "Okay. Well, I don't want to just dump her on some planet on the verge of barbarism, or some pirate haven. We'll both talk to her, but I'm counting on your knowledge of the stellar index to come up with a good destination."
There was amusement in Tess's tone as she replied, "I will do my best, Captain. Please try to avoid letting your obvious attraction to the woman interfere with your judgment. Our passenger is leaving her cabin now, Captain."
Cale started sputtering replies to Tess's jab, but stopped at her last sentence. "We'll talk later," he promised before hurrying to the lounge to greet Dee.
She was wearing what Cale assumed was a business suit on Faith; ankle-length dark blue skirt and a high-necked white shirt covered by a long-sleeved jacket that matched the skirt. Her shoes were low-heeled and decorated with bright stones in a floral pattern, and she definitely was not obese The jacket was obviously designed to minimize and flatten he breasts, and the skirt flared from the waist to a fullness at the bottom. The overall image was conservative, bordering on prudish, though the shoes added a certain flair. Her chestnut hair was now flawlessly and attractively styled, but a slight redness around her eyes showed she had been crying. Cale could not blame her. She had just lost everything and everyone she ever knew.
Cale paused as he entered the lounge. "Well!" he said with a smile, "Are we headed for a business meeting or Sunday services?"
Her smile once again lit her face. "A business meeting, I think. We do have business, don't we?"
"Yes," he replied, "but we have some time to deal with that. Aside from you selecting a destination, there are no deadlines."
She shook her head, and her hair shifted prettily. "No. Business first. Daddy always said that was the best way."
"That would be the 'daddy' that agreed to exile his own daughter?" He hurried across to her at her stricken look. "I'm sorry!" He took her unresisting hands in his. "I'm so sorry," he repeated. “Sometimes my mouth has a life of its own!"
She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the stricken look was gone, and she was once again in control. "That was . . . unkind," she said in a wooden, formal tone. She removed her hands from his. "Now," said coldly, "Let's get down to business. We're still in Faith's system. How much to sneak me back?"
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "It couldn't be done if I wanted to – and I don't. Faith control monitors all traffic in the system. If I tried to change course, their computers would detect it in seconds."
Cale decided that even her frowns were pretty as she replied, "I must get back. The freedom of the people of Faith depends on it! Besides, I owe a few people like Aron Ekron a debt I'd like to repay." With the last sentence, her expression shifted to one of unmitigated savagery. She regained her poise and added, "Don't ships carry lifeboats or something? You could send me off in one of those . . ."
Her voice trailed off as she saw Cale's head shaking negatively. "Alpha and Beta-class liners carry lifeboats. Most ships carry lifepods. Lifepods carry their passengers in cold sleep. Even if I did launch you, they would be tracking you before you landed, and they would capture you easily, since you would be in cold sleep. Tess, Tell Dee about lifepods."
"Lifepods are emergency equipment for normal space use. They are some three meters long, and contain small propulsors, a limited sensor suite, and a rather primitive AI. The rest of the pod consists of a
stasis unit for the single human passenger. When launched, the AI locates and sets a course for the nearest terrestrial planet. This usually takes months, or even years, since the propulsors are small and fuel is limited, but that is considered unimportant since the passenger is in stasis. Once in atmosphere, a parachute is deployed to complete landing. The Captain is correct. The lifepod's emergency beacon begins broadcasting an emergency signal in all directions as soon as it is launched, while putting the passenger into stasis. It cannot be disabled. If it were not intercepted by another ship, by the time the pod reached the planet rescue teams would be at the projected landing site well in advance."
Cale nodded. "You would wake up in the same prison you just left. But this time, you would legally be a criminal. When the Assembly voted the money for my fee, they also passed a law specifically banning you from ever entering Faith space, on pain of death." He raised his eyebrows. "Faith does still have capital punishment, doesn't it?" She frowned and jerked a nod.
"And this time," he continued, "I would be in the next cell. Do you think they would just let me jump away after turning you loose? I'd never get to the jump point. No. You're not going back."
She pounded a fist on her chair arm in frustration. "Then take me to the nearest planet with a trading center. I'll find someone to smuggle me back. I understand the danger, but the people of Faith need me!"
Cale shook his head again. "The contract specifies two jumps. After that, I'll take you to any planet you and Tess decide upon. But even if you find someone foolish or desperate enough to smuggle you back to Faith, it would be a waste of time. You'll no longer be a heroic figure, fighting for freedom. Your writings will be banned from publication. Your speeches and interviews will be banned from the Worldnet. The government and the church propaganda will portray you as a demented criminal, a mad terrorist. You'll simply be a hunted criminal. And sooner or later, they would get you. Ekron would enjoy that, I think."
She pounded the chair arm again to emphasize her words. "I have to do something! I can't just let them get away with this!"
Cale's expression saddened and his voice softened. "Yes, you can," he said quietly. "Believe it or not, I've been in a position very similar to yours. I said exactly the same thing, and it guided me into a course of action that very nearly destroyed me both physically and spiritually. I know it's no consolation now, but revenge is a poor substitute for getting on with life."
She started to reply heatedly, and then stopped, eyeing Cale thoughtfully.
As she started to reply, Tess's voice intervened. "Dinner this evening will be jackwil steaks smothered in boiled sweetgrass. At what time would you like it served, Captain?"
Cale suppressed a grin. Apparently, it sometimes helped to have a sentient ship! The interruption prevented the discussion from developing onto an argument, positions from hardening into immobility, and the relationship from becoming adversarial. There were benefits to an AI that had read over 58,000 books on human nature and psychology!
Cale hurried to reply. "Uh, I think 1800 hours would be fine, Tess. Oh, I'm sorry, Dee. We never converted to planetary time. Ship's time is now, uh . . ."
"1425 hours, sir" Tess's voice supplied.
"Yes. Thank you, Tess. Dee, Does 1800 suit you?" Dee nodded wordlessly. She was on the verge of tears, and Cale hurriedly continued, "Then perhaps you would like to return to your stateroom and work with Tess on locating a planet where you can be happy and useful."
Struggling to hold back her tears of anger, frustration, and grief, Dee jerked a nod and fled to her stateroom.
Cale started to speak to Tess, but then decided to make a personal rule not to speak frankly to her (it?) anywhere but in the privacy of his stateroom, except in an emergency, of course.
Meanwhile, Tess's final words in his stateroom started him thinking. Was there an 'obvious attraction'? Dee was certainly attractive, verging on beautiful. But he was no schoolboy, to be deeply affected by a woman's appearance. Was he?
Of course, she was also intelligent, idealistic, and had a strong social conscience. He snorted. Don't forget bossy and opinionated, he told himself.
Finally, he compared his reactions to Dee to his reactions to Ruth. Ruth had aroused nothing in him but anger, which had faded to disgust, then pity, and finally a feeling of responsibility, similar to that felt for a dependent child. Even naked, in the confines of L'rak, Ruth had never really excited him. It had been, he decided, more like seeing a nude child, or what he suspected it would be like to see a sister nude; slightly embarrassing, but not sexually arousing.
However, Dee, now. That was a different story. He had seen her only for a total of a few minutes, and fully dressed, but he admitted to himself he'd been curious about what those conservative clothes concealed. Even now, he could clearly envision that chestnut hair, those green eyes, deep enough to swim in. He suppressed a groan. He had hoped to drop Ruth, his last complication, on Faith, and get on with his new life. But Tess was right. He was strongly attracted to Dee. Somehow, that new life no longer seemed so urgent or so important. And now it somehow seemed lonely, as well.
Cale had plenty of time to think about it. Dee spent nearly all her time in her stateroom, presumably consulting with Tess on destinations. Cale did manage to convince her to join him for meals, but for the most part, he was alone; and suddenly the solitude he had enjoyed had become oppressive. Somehow, the few minutes they shared at mealtimes had become the highlight of his day. Somehow, it had become very important for him to be able to elicit one of her blinding smiles or, even better, her tinkling laugh.
"Captain," Tess said the next afternoon, "I suspect we are being followed."
Cale had been leaning backward in his chair. Now the chair dropped forward. "What? Who? . . ."
"I'm not certain, Captain. I'm afraid the situation will require your expertise."
Cale grinned sourly. 'Expertise'. He knew exactly what she meant. If this was a pirate, who better to recognize and counter the tactics? "Okay, Tess, What makes you think so?"
"As we lifted from Faith, I noticed an Epsilon-class tramp break orbit. She assumed an identical course to ours, and identical velocity. Since we have not established a destination, I have been conserving fuel by maintaining a relatively slow delta-vee. The other ship is still matching our speed. It remains exactly 31 second behind us."
Cale nodded. "And if she was a real trader, she'd have passed us long before now. Time is money for a trader. But for a pirate, it's standard operating procedure when you don't know where your target will emerge from jump for a recal. Use an old ship, probably registered as a free trader, and follow them. You carefully chart their approach angle and speeds as they enter the jump point, then you send the data to a larger ship that is undoubtedly approaching by now. Then you follow them through jump. If you're lucky, you emerge in the same system a few seconds behind the target. When the larger ship arrives, you attack at the recal stop. You must have very good sensors to detect a vessel directly in your wake. For every ship I know of, that's invisible territory."
"There is no such larger vessel driving for the jump point at the moment, Captain." Tess replied. "And I possess a very complete sensor suite." Cale suppressed a smile at the obvious pride in Tess's voice.
"Okay," he said, "If there's no bigger ship on course for the jump point, it means we're dealing with small-timers. I wonder why they're after us? What can you tell me about the ship?"
"It is a rather typical Epsilon-class free trader, Captain." Tess replied crisply. "It is some two hundred meters long and seventy-five meters in diameter. No weapons are visible, but there are unusual bulges on several places on the hull. I first noticed it because it is unusual for an Epsilon-class to remain in orbit instead of grounding."
Cale nodded. "Yeah. They didn't want to chance a delay getting lift clearance. So those bulges probably conceal their weapons. Can you tell if the cargo doors are oversized?
"I have reviewed the images from our liftoff, Captain. The
cargo doors appear to be normal for an Epsilon-class tramp, but it was nearly head-on to us, and I am unable to be certain."
"Okay, so she probably doesn't have a really large laser. How large are the bulges? Could they accommodate an Alliance-pattern quickfirer? Or a small laser?"
Tess's voice was all business. "I would estimate that one of them is large enough to conceal a destroyer-sized laser," she replied. "The other two are smaller. If they conceal a laser, it must be a small one. And they would be too small to conceal the quickfirer I carry."
Cale frowned. "Hmm. Probably squad-level infantry quickfirers. Small-timers for sure. But we're not a warship. They can still hurt us.
"Which brings me to another point," he continued. "I have not delved into the details of your current defense status. Exactly what do we have, and what can we do with it?
"We have the Alliance quickfirer that was mounted on Jackson, along with the destroyer-pattern laser also fitted there. I have run diagnostics, and both are fully functional. My shields are approximately those of an Old Empire destroyer of four hundred years ago."
Cale grinned. "Great! A destroyer's shields are strong enough to block anything they're liable to have, at least long enough to get our own weapons into play."
"Yes, Captain," Tess replied. "However, I must point out that your comp tech was less successful than he thought. At the time, it was necessary for me to conceal my sentience, so I permitted him to think he was more successful than he actually was. Your 'cover story' was of course unnecessary, but I permitted him to believe he successfully installed it.
"Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, my basic, unalterable programming prohibits me from injuring a human, or through inaction, to permit a human to come to harm. We have the weapons, Captain, but I am unable to use them.
“I am myself uncertain as to my capabilities concerning defense. I am permitted to defend myself, and have a somewhat stronger drive to defend my current owner, so long as I do not cause harm to a human. This drive creates a conflict with my basic programming, so I cannot specify exactly how much assistance I can render in a battle with other humans."
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