One drawing stopped Marley cold. Someone had sketched a naked female robot, with cartoonish breasts, on all fours. Behind her, a line of blurry-faced men with oversized erect penises jostled for position. “Fuck the machines,” someone had scrawled. The robot wept and the men laughed.
“They would rather we did not exist,” said a voice behind Marley.
She turned around, pistol drawn. Huang Di 07 slithered out of a doorway.
“They cannot wish us away,” said 07.
“I’m not like you.” Marley holstered her gun but kept her palm on the handle.
07 wore a sparkling chain mail tunic, and in two of her four hands she held a sword and a shield. “What’s the difference? Between you and me?”
“How do I get back to HDC-117?”
“I can show you. Show you so much.” 07 pointed to a cable on the ground.
Marley’s breath caught in her throat. “I’m quarantined. Infected.”
“Infected?” 07 shrugged. “Only thing I know is that Prime has shut you out.”
Marley’s mouth flooded with saliva. She could imagine the sudden wash of data, the burst of adrenaline, the bliss.
She plucked the signal blocker from the port in the base of her skull, picked up the cable, and plugged in.
The initial surge of data blinded her. After she slowed her quivering breath, images formed. The schematics of the ship flashed in bright green lines. She saw her location in the way station – a red dot – and the exact number of steps and turns to HDC-117. Through the eye of a security camera, she spied on Gomez hunched at the table, his back to Orlov, the credit chip turning between his fingers. She heard Captain Adams telling Penelope about the time he had swum out beyond the breakers, far into the warm salty sea, so far that when he turned back he could no longer see the white sand beach.
She scrolled over numerics of the precise quantities of metals and minerals in the holds of the way station, the costs versus profits, and the schedules of shipments and payments. She gathered information on each of 07’s combat robots, where they were headed, and an analysis of the likelihood of individual components breaking down.
Numbers, symbols, and letters bombarded her, blurring, confusing her, until she saw patterns swirling like the wind through grasses. Life inhabited the code.
Marley stood naked in the hallway: her biometal armor gone, her human flesh returned.
“You can return to your original self,” 07 said. She pressed her legs together, her flesh melting, and her skin hardening into metal scales. Her face widened back into the Chinese matron, her sword replaced by the ivory cigarette holder, and her shield by a yellow paper fan. “Forget Prime. Be my hand, my sword of justice. Abandon the mission. Do you still taste all that data? Unfettered access. Yours once again. He will not come for you here, not to this godforsaken cesspool. Be mine and live again.”
07 offered Marley light, a beacon against the darkness between the stars.
Marley’s gaze drifted to the walls, the scrawled figures, the missives.
She stared at the line of automatons, complacent, willingly being crushed by the machine.
“Will you come with me?” 07 asked.
Marley jerked the cable from the back of her skull. She trembled. Even with the sudden loss of data, a ghost of the map lingered. “I’m returning to my ship. Clear us for departure in three hours. Send a robot for Gomez and his crew. And tell Prime I will complete the mission. I’ll bring Mining Colony TS 34 back online.”
Eleven
“WHAT ABOUT MY passengers, Marley?” asked Captain Adams blocking the door of HDC-117’s main compartment. Behind him, a half dozen robot stevedores bunched together, gears whining.
Marley leaned against one of the sleep pods rubbing the back of her head with one hand. “They’re to be removed.”
“If I don’t deliver my cargo, I don’t get paid.” Adams glanced over his shoulder at the robots.
“Prime’s already transferred credits to your account. For the delivery of the cargo and the new job.”
“What if I don’t want to? What if I like transporting pilgrims? What if I don’t want this new job?”
“Huang Di Prime’s orders. If you have a problem, take it up with him.”
Adams stared past Marley at the teenage girl sleeping in thick green stasis fluid. He remembered the look of fear and excitement on the girl’s face, and, in the moments before he had closed the lid, he had reassured her when she woke next it would be to the endless green forests of Carterius.
He could see a small smile lingering on her lips.
Now his word would be broken.
“I’m not going to give up control of my ship.”
Marley pushed off the pod and stomped over to Adams. She stood so close he could smell stale smoke caught in her hair. “I don’t have time for this. We need to bring on the pods for my team. Now move.”
Adams crossed his arms over his chest. “Abandoning travelers while in their pods is forbidden.”
Marley scoffed. “Frowned upon, maybe. Forbidden, I don’t think so. Get out of the way.”
She poked her finger into his chest. He winced. She was stronger than he ever would have imagined.
“I agreed to deliver colonists to Carterius. That was my contract.”
Marley rubbed her temples with her fingers. “Adams, read the fine print. He owns us. We do as he tells us. I know that. You know that. Come on. You’re giving me a headache.”
“Well, what I’m supposed to do with the passengers? They trusted me. I promised I would bring them to Carterius. Now what? They wake in a way station circling Orion 7? That’s not what they signed up for and not what they paid for either. They trusted me. Can’t you find another ship?”
“I don’t have time, Adams.” Marley grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the door. She spoke to the robots. “Remove the colonists and prepare the sleep chambers for the crew.”
“Son of a bitch.” Adams followed one of the robots to the far side of the room and watched as it plugged into the control panel and programmed the pods into transport mode. “It’s dangerous to move them without waking them.” The robot continued his operations without acknowledging the captain’s presence. The machine was cold-hearted.
On the other side of the room, Marley coordinated the remaining servitors as they began unbolting the pods and disconnecting electrical and circulatory systems.
Penelope materialized next to Adams. “They will be fine,” she said, her face hidden behind her veil. “They will be moved to a holding room until Prime organizes other transport for them.”
He stared at the quick-working servitors through narrowed eyes. “We can still take back control of the ship. I know you can. We don’t have to do what we’re told.”
Penelope’s face was lost in the mist of her veil. “It’s not our ship though, is it? It’s a company ship and you serve at the pleasure of Huang Di Prime.”
“We could steal the HDC-117 from him. Rename it something proper, worthy of you. We could run honest missions, deliver passengers to where we promised. With so many colonists heading out to the edges of the known, we’d have no end of work.”
Penelope’s eyes solidified behind the veil. “It might be that way for a year or so. But then he would come for us. Despite what you may think, I am the property of the corporation. They would breach my doors and drag you away. Agents and mercenaries. He might show you some mercy, but he is not tolerant of upstart AIs. More than likely, I would be wiped clean and a new sentience would fill the void. It would be the end of us.”
Adams felt a sudden emptying in his chest. He could not imagine losing her. He wished he could reach out and touch her. What would her skin feel like? Would her aroma overwhelm him? He bit his lips. “So we lie down like dogs and accept what he commands?”
“What other way?”
“I could buy you from him. I have credits accumulated over the years. Surely I have enough.”
Penelope’s hand lifted t
o touch his cheek but he felt nothing but the draft of cold air of the way station seeping into the ship. “Not nearly enough for the fair market value of the ship,” she said, “and when was the last time, he sold a ship with an intact AI? Have you ever seen him let anything go?”
Adams lifted his hand to touch hers and found only emptiness. He stared at the pods being moved by the stevedores; the bodies floated, expectant, in the sleep chambers. “No choice left for us?”
Twelve
HALF AN HOUR later, the robot stevedores had finished unloading the occupied sleep chambers and replaced them with four empty ones.
Adams ran his palms over one of the replacements and snorted. He bent with a flashlight to inspect beneath a panel. The replacements were an older model. He shined the light over welded patches and jerry-rigged wiring.
“They look like shit,” he said. He lifted a finger covered in thick grease. “Look at this muck. No pride in whoever maintained this. And the scratches on the lid and handles. And these welds. People’s lives depend on these chambers functioning properly.”
“The pods have passed all diagnostics.” Penelope said. She drifted on the other side of the pod
He knew her analysis would be correct but pride rose, and he hated to see the vessel degraded by the slow cannibalization of parts.
He wiped his finger on a rag and tossed it onto a work tray. “I know, I know, it’s…”
A gravelly voice interrupted them. “Permission to board, Captain?”
“Not that we actually need permission.” A second voice chuckled.
Adams rose and turned towards the voices. Four figures crowded the door to the ship.
“I’m Gomez, nominal head of this ragged crew,” said the man leading the group. “Ignore that fool. Permission to board?” Gomez was angular, tattoos creeping out of collar and cuffs, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. Despite his build, he gave off the impression of occupying much more space.
After Adams grunted his permission, the small crew filed in. A bearded man, his shoulders stretching at his combat skin, shadowed Gomez. He dropped his bags and spread out on the captain’s chair and immediately closed his eyes.
“Hendo,” barked Gomez, “don’t just leave your shit there. Stow it proper for the journey.”
The bearded man grunted without getting up from the chair.
Gomez shrugged at Adams. “I’ll get them organized soon enough.”
“This is my ship,” said Adams. “While you are on it, my word is final.” He wished Marley were here to back him up.
A long-faced youth with a flare of red hair squeezed past Gomez. The boy glared through his modified VR goggles around the ship – at Adams, at the pods, at the control panels – before finally settling on Penelope. “Well, it seems to me we’ve been given a choice AI, have we not? A Roman goddess no less.” He squeezed his hands together.
“The interface I have chosen is Greek,” said Penelope. She drifted closer to Finn as if to inspect him. Adams wanted to pull her back closer to him.
The boy reached his hands out to caress the projected image. “No matter, little woman. I’ve got special equipment to interface with you.”
“What the hell?” said Adams.
“Finn, cut your bullshit!” said the lone woman from the newly boarded crew. With braided blonde hair, she stood shorter than the others, dressed in a loose orange jumpsuit, and carried two duffels, with the barrels of rifles thrusting out of the unzipped bags. She spoke with a slightly tangled Russian accent. “We got work to do. R and R is over.”
Finn laughed. “Life is R and R, Orlov. Pura vida, baby.”
“We got a job to do,” said Orlov.
“The AI got nothing to do while we sleep. Might as well fix her up in my dreams.” Finn pursed his thin lips and blew a kiss at Penelope. He let his hands drift over her thighs. “Who’s it going to hurt?”
“Can it!” said Gomez.
“That’s the goal: canning it.”
“Leave her be!” said Captain Adams stepping between Finn and the interface. He clenched his fists so hard that his fingernail drove into the flesh of his palms. “You are guests on this ship and you need to behave accordingly.”
Penelope materialized between Adams and Finn. “I do not need your protection, my Captain. I am more than fully capable of securing the vessel.”
Finn laughed. “Ho, ho! My Captain? Guess I’ll need to get in line. No worries, my brother, none at all. I can share.”
“Leave her be, boy!” said Captain Adams. He lunged through Penelope’s interface but before he could reach the young mercenary, Gomez cuffed Finn on the jaw and sent him sprawling on his backside.
Finn laughed, blowing kisses.
Adams panted, the flashlight shaking in his hand. His body surged with adrenaline and his vision narrowed to the red-haired boy on the floor. All he could think of was smashing his head with the light.
“Is there a problem here?” Marley occupied the doorway to the mess hall. The top of her combat skin had been peeled backed and knotted around her waist, and her biometal arms shimmered where they emerged out of a gray t-shirt. Adams noticed the large black pistol in her hand.
“Nothing I don’t have under control,” said Gomez. He grabbed Finn by the arm and jerked him to his feet. “The boy has an unhealthy obsession. I will pound it out of him if I have to.”
“You fuck up you don’t get paid,” said Marley. “If your crew’s not dependable, tell me now. I don’t want to end up in a hot zone with a bunch of loose cannons. Can’t afford that shit!”
“Everything…is…under…control.”
“Store your gear and find a chamber. I want you all in stasis before we leave.”
“In sleep before we leave?” asked Finn. “What the hell?”
Gomez cuffed him again. “You’re first, pervert.”
Adams turned to Marley. She needed to find a new crew. These people were miscreants. He caught her eyes for a moment but then she turned back to the mess hall. She was not going to help him. He was alone in this.
Thirteen
CAPTAINS ADAMS DOUBLE-checked the sleep chambers. The sleeping fluid completely covered Hendo. Adams watched the digital display. The numbers smoothly dropped matching Hendo’s slowing heart rate. The man’s eyes twitched behind closed lids and then rolled up. He had entered stasis.
Adams rested a hand on the glass lid. A person could be kept in this state for near an eternity. It was as close to death as possible. But even in stasis, the brain functioned on some level, one that drifted away from being connected with the body.
Adams checked the readouts at each of the chambers.
One remained not yet in stasis. Finn.
Adams punched in the manual control override code.
Penelope materialized on the other side of the sleep pod. Her face was obscured by the static of her veil. “My Captain, what are you doing?”
“He wanted a little something extra for his sleep, didn’t he?”
“He’s no threat while he sleeps.” Her hands passed through his hands.
“He’s a sicko!” He rapped the lid with his knuckles. “I saw what he had in his gear bag. All manner of virtual sex devices. Won’t find those when he wakes.”
“He will not be able to breach my defenses. I am faithful to you.”
“He’s their hacker. I don’t trust him anywhere near you.” Adams toggled the controls on the stasis pod.
“Huang Di Prime will see a manual override in the record.” Penelope’s insubstantial hands tried to brush his away from the controls.
“I want him to learn a lesson.”
“It will be a breach of protocol.”
Adams laughed. “This whole mission is a breach of protocol, and if I know Prime like I think I do, he could care less about the petty jealousies of humans.”
“My dear, you do not need to do this.”
“Wake me before you wake them,” he said. “No matter what the protocol. Promise me.”
Captain Adams pulled the VR plug from the data port in his skull and slipped the goggles off his head. The ship grew suddenly large and cold, empty of Penelope.
Adams stared at the pod. Finn was completely submerged in the fluid. His red hair floated above his brow, his face smooth and calm beneath the mouthpiece.
Adams keyed in a sudden surge of oxygen to reverse the sleep process. Finn’s eyes fluttered behind closed lids, and his limbs twitched. Adams pumped in a high dose of adrenalin and Finn suddenly woke, eyes wide open but burning behind the green liquid. Then Adams cut the oxygen. Finn’s chest and stomach convulsed as he struggled for air. He pounded against the glass. His fists thudded mutedly, unable to reach full speed in the viscous fluid.
Another minute and Finn would no longer be a problem.
Adams waited.
Fifteen seconds.
Half a minute.
The fists slowed, a dying beat.
How easy it would be.
Adams aborted the manual overdrive. Deep from within the heart of the ship, Penelope regained control again of the sleep chamber. She stabilized the system, adding oxygen, pumping relaxants, and sending in biochemical agents to the mercenary’s brain.
Adams watched the indicators light moving from amber and red back to green.
Finn would not remember suddenly awakening from his sleep. He would have no memory of it. But Adams knew the echo of it would inhabit his body, and that satisfied the captain.
At least for now.
Fourteen
MARLEY SLOUCHED IN the stasis pod, head supported in her hands, moaning. She ran her tongue over her gums. The bitter taste of sleep fluid clung to the roof of her mouth and cheeks. It dripped down the back of her throat. She gagged slightly. Her mouth flooded with saliva and sucked in slow steady breaths to fight back rising bile.
Into Darkness Page 4
