Below the great oval of the airship’s hull lay a vast transport cell. Before Dante could get outside the factory’s dome, a ramp had descended from the craft. A line of bots from the factory’s hive rolled in and out of the cell’s dark interior. Like ants, the bots entered the ship empty-handed and exited carrying huge cubes of materials. Some of the cubes were metal and others were pressed plastic.
“Raw materials,” Jen said. “For Phantom’s army, no doubt.”
Dante hurried toward the ship.
“What are you doing?” Jen asked. “If Phantom is NI, she might kill you.”
“She talked to me through a battle bot with a garden hoe. If she was out to kill humans, she probably would have done the most efficient thing and killed me already.”
“For you, that argument is unusually reasoned.” She trotted along at his heels. “But what do you want with Phantom?”
“I’m hoping for information about what’s going on in the world, that’s all. How many survivors are left? Where are they? If this Ark really has all of human knowledge — ”
“We have everything we need here. Why bother? Just come home and let’s go to bed.”
Dante paused to spare Jen a glance. Yes, she looked like a beautiful young woman. Maybe the orgasms were fake and maybe they weren’t, just like a real woman. To the casual observer, Jen was an organic. However, one thing set her apart from real organics: she wasn’t curious about humans. Even if she wasn’t exactly Mother anymore, she still didn’t really care about people.
That was what worried him most about the bot. Her apathy was a small symptom of what could be a terrible disease common to superior non-organics. It was a small step from apathy to a lack of empathy. That’s what humans suspected made bot brains that possessed Next Intelligence so murderous.
“I want to find out what’s going on, beyond Artesia. I want to know if my father is still alive.”
Jen shrugged and gestured toward the ship. “Very well. Go find out, if you feel you must.”
“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Dante said.
“I want to.”
Dante was confused again. As scary as her incuriosity about the human race could be, Jen seemed to care about him personally. Maybe her loyalty really was still governed by the sex bot’s old algos. He hoped so. If the sex bot’s intent turned malicious, he’d probably find out too late. He hoped he wouldn’t discover her evil intentions during fellatio.
10
Drew walked beside Elizabeth as she rode the white stallion back toward the castle. Smoke and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
“This is too terrible a day,” Drew said. “I’m almost glad Joe didn’t live to see it. Sorry to say….”
“Go,” Elizabeth said. “Organize search parties. There will be wounded amongst the rubble. I’ll be fine. Cooper knows the way.”
The guard nodded and disappeared into a wall of smoke. She could hear him calling to his comrades and villagers alike to gather.
Cooper’s ears turned this way and that. The cries of the wounded and dying rose as Elizabeth rode through the devastation. Her horse stamped his hooves at the anguished voices calling for help. Elizabeth reached out and ran a soothing hand down the animal’s mane. “Sh. I know. I know. Drew is doing all he can…and I’m nearly blind and…I’m feeling very, very old all of a sudden. Joe’s gone and there are decisions to be made.”
Cooper carried her through the castle gates into the great courtyard. With smoke everywhere, she entered unnoticed. She pulled the reins gently and Cooper stopped.
As she sat atop her horse, Elizabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. In her mind’s eye, she could still see the castle grounds as they had been when the castle was newly repaired, before the walls and gates were constructed.
“I once thought the world’s walls were too high and thick,” Elizabeth said. “Now, I’m not so sure, Coop. That’s what I miss about being young. When we think we have so much time ahead of us to get life right, we are so delightfully arrogant. I miss being arrogant. Today, I am too humbled.”
Hearst Castle had, long ago, been a rich man’s dream. As the world wore on, Hearst had been a novelty of another, more glamorous age. People had once come from everywhere to see what had become, essentially, a museum of oddities and a shrine to conspicuous consumption.
When the Troubles and the Terrors and the Blight struck, it was Joe who took over the abandoned buildings that had once been Hearst Castle and built a new vision. Joe had loved old stories of Robin Hood and Merlin, of castles and of kings. It was Joe who had constructed the grounds on models of old castles. If he’d had any water to spare, King Joe would have built a moat. People said it looked ridiculous, at first. But Hearst Castle wasn’t merely a fortress. It was a symbol that inspired the oppressed to travel far for refuge.
“New troubles now,” Elizabeth said. “Different solutions are needed.”
A stable boy rushed forward to take Cooper’s reins. “Sorry, your Excellency! Didn’t see you. I’ve been hiding. Did you see those things hit the railgun? Those noise cannons — ”
“I didn’t see it all, but I heard it fine. Brush Cooper down well. He’ll be in a full sweat under his saddle. Old Coop had quite a fright and worked hard for me.”
The boy did as he was told and Elizabeth listened to the receding clip-clop of Cooper’s hooves on stone.
Alone again, she heard the rising screams of those same refugees who had come to Hearst seeking safety. Rescuers shouted back and forth to each other. She heard alarm in their voices, but encouragement, too. In tragedy, her people drew together. Once the smoke cleared, the doubt about what to do next would set in. Then she would have to lead.
I need new solutions. Walls won’t keep Hearst’s people safe. I don’t know what my solutions are yet, but I know hiding behind walls won’t work. Hearst’s shield is shattered. We need a sword, or to somehow find peace.
11
A man carrying a large canvas rucksack emerged from the smoke. Startled, he was brought up short, surprised to find the queen alone so soon after the attack.
Elizabeth remembered him. He was the one who swore so well. “Jonas! My Guard is organizing rescue parties for the wounded. There are many. I suspect everyone by the water is dead, but there may be wounded who could use our help — ”
“So?”
“So…would you help the rescuers dig, please?”
“I wish them all the power,” Jonas said, “but I’m doing what I’m told and getting out of here. Those sound machines…”
“Dreadnoughts.”
“Fucking funny name, given what they do, don’t you think?”
“You’re leaving immediately? You have until the moon — ”
“As soon as they made their decree, a rumor started. The people who leave first will get the best spots in the City in the Sky. The more we dawdle, the worse our places will be.”
“How could anyone possibly know that? The Dreadnoughts only just — ”
Jonas smiled and leaned close. “Told you. Rumor.”
“Based on nothing.”
“Oh, no, the gentleman who suggested the rumor was very convincing. I should know. I’m the one who started that fucking rumor.” He smiled wider. “The Fathers and Mothers sent me to watch you. They said I’d get a fine reward when the time comes. The time has come.”
“You’re a spy.”
“They told me to wait and watch and be patient and I have been that. Did you think the Fathers and Mothers had forgotten what you did?”
“No,” Elizabeth said. “Religious fanatics have very long memories.”
His smile faded. “Well, they didn’t forget. They said for me to get into Hearst, all I had to do was be a little saucy. They said that’s the sort of thing that would appeal to the traitor to the City.”
“Yes. I let you in. And this is how you betray my kindness. Spying and telling the Fathers and Mothers when is best to attack.”
“
It’s been easy, living amongst you rebels. It’s been like an extended camping trip, going back in time. I’d thought horses were extinct until I came here. In a few days, I’ll be back in the City, though. No drafty rooms. No animals. Everything will return to normal. The plebes will service Low Town harbor again and the Fathers and Mothers will be served.”
“You think the people will return to Low Town while you reap the rewards of their slavery, up in the towers?”
“Yeah, why not? You lived off them, up in the tower, once.” Jonas looked around. “I might even get my brain dumped into one of those android bodies before I get too old.” He laughed. “The Fathers and Mothers will be grateful.”
“You lived among us. Why — ”
“I was to be exiled, you know. I was going to be like you. I was born to Service Class, just like you. A couple of drug infractions and they even took Vivid away from me. But I made a bargain. I promised I’d bring down the traitor who brought the City in the Sky low.”
“I didn’t bring the City in the Sky down. I just gave slaves a chance at freedom and a better place to live.”
He wagged a finger at her. “You spread contraband and carnal knowledge in the City.”
She gazed back, implacable.
Jonas raised his voice for the first time. “Words and ideas counter to the Fathers and Mothers is a cancer. You started that cancer!”
“So you were going to be evicted from paradise and you panicked. You were like me, but you were too scared to let go of what you knew. You take on the beliefs of your oppressors, hoping for favor and mercy. You’re a coward, Jonas.”
He looked around again. The smoke was thinning and the courtyard was busy with people running to and fro. Some ran with pails of water from the pump. Others carried stretchers and bandages from the castle’s clinic. Some of the villagers were being helped in through the gates, bloody and leaning heavily on their rescuers. Amid such chaos, Elizabeth and Jonas might as well have been alone.
“I don’t see your guards anywhere. Jonas pulled back his coat. A long hunting knife hung ready at his belt. The weapon was a crude, ugly hunk of metal with a serrated edge so deep and jagged, it looked cruel.
“Don’t scream,” Jonas warned. “If you scream, it will go very badly for you. Before they’d get to me, I’d cut you hard. A belly wound is a bad way to die. It’s a slow way to go. Lots of time for regret…maybe even repentance.”
Elizabeth nodded and, in a low calm voice, she assured him, “I will not scream.”
“My orders were to help destroy Hearst for the sin of luring the flock away from the City in the Sky,” Jonas said, “but if I got a chance to put my knife in your heart, I was — ”
“You think it will be so easy?” Elizabeth asked.
“A half-blind old woman? A pacifist? Ha! Not m — ”
“I attacked the Fathers and Mothers with information. Warfare would have killed a lot of innocent people. Instead, many of those same people lived to leave the City and come here.
“For the Fathers and Mothers,” Jonas said, “I — ”
“Jonas?” Elizabeth interrupted. “Don’t scream.”
He reached for his knife. Elizabeth slipped the long blade concealed in her left riding glove from its sheath. She stuck the point through Jonas’s neck in one smooth motion without hesitation. “I was never a pacifist, Jonas. I was merciful. ”
His eyes went wide as she pushed the blade in. She stopped pushing when she saw its bloody tip exit through the other side of the young man’s throat.
“Thank you, Jonas. Here I was thinking I was too old for adventures.” She pulled the blade with one savage yank that tore out his throat. Gouts of blood shot high in the air. Blood spattered the stone as Jonas sank to his knees. Twin jets of blood pumped out and spread across the cobblestones.
In his final seconds, Jonas looked up at Elizabeth with unbelieving eyes.
“I haven’t been a pacifist since I watched a bot torture and kill my first love, Jonas. And I’ve always believed in self-defense. You can die now. Know that I was more merciful than you would have been.”
The spy fell face first to the sound of cracking bone.
12
Inside the airship’s transport hold, it was too dark for Dante to see. Bots brushed by him to go about their work. Before he could ask for help, Jen slipped her hand into his. “This way,” she said. “Let’s go meet whoever’s taken over my factory.”
“What are these bots doing?”
“They’re pulling apart stacks of cubes and taking them to the factory floor. That’s a lot of recycling. Looks like Phantom has big plans.”
The clanking unnerved him. Occasionally, there was just enough light cast from a control station panel to glimpse silent silhouettes moving through the gloom. The bots were fast and efficient and, if they spoke to each other to coordinate their efforts, that communication occurred at a frequency he could not perceive. Dante shivered.
“Something wrong?” Jen asked.
“I don’t know. It’s nothing, really.”
“But?”
“When I came here, the machines all terrified me. Then when they shut down, I got used to the bots doing nothing. I’ve walked past them for weeks and…they were shut down, just standing around like statues. I started to think of them as old furniture. Now all the furniture has come to life again and things are going bump in the night.”
“When I was in charge here, I made a lot of bots.”
“You sound like you miss it.”
“I told you, that was when I was another person.”
A nearby speaker activated and Phantom’s voice reached them. “I know something about what that feels like.” Lights buzzed on slowly, growing brighter as they heated up. The way forward was clearly lit, but Jen didn’t let go of Dante’s hand until they reached a ladder. Above them, a hatch yawned.
“This ship was originally built for humans,” Phantom said. “Come on up.”
Dante climbed the narrow ladder and Jen followed. When they reached the top, the hatch closed and more panels in the floor directed them through the airship’s control deck. Jen noticed Dante’s troubled look. “You don’t look comfortable.”
“Just thinking about what curiosity did to the cat.”
The airship did not contain the huge neuromimetic gel he expected. Instead, they were surrounded by banks of computers that stretched the length of the vast deck.
“Old solid state tech,” Jen said. “Kind of retro to need this much space.”
Dante ignored the bot and searched for Phantom. “Where are you?”
“All around you,” Phantom said. “I was moored close to Iceland. Sensors told me there might be some violent volcanic activity coming my way. Given Watson’s threat to the Cloud Fleet, it worked out well.”
“Every danger is an opportunity,” Jen said.
“It wasn’t all good. The art files, baby pictures and Christmas albums and…we lost a lot of history. I managed to save most everything before the NI hacked in. Watson got trapped when he uploaded as I downloaded. I got this ship in Brazil. Just room enough for a big library.”
“And plenty of room to download your little human brain, too,” Jen said.
“Jen!” Dante glared at her. “Don’t be rude.”
“Just stating a fact.”
“‘Just stating a fact,’ and, ‘just being honest,’” Phantom said. “That’s what all assholes say when they’re being brutal. Anyway, welcome aboard the Ariane, Dante. Her motto is, Ela possui os céus. It means, She owns the skies. With the jet helos, she’s the fastest and most maneuverable airship on Earth and a super lifter. She can haul massive loads. When I take over a ship, I steal the very best.”
“And now you own a factory,” Jen said. “The very best, too, I suppose.”
“Your factory,” Phantom said. “Feeling usurped, Mother?”
“You know who I was, apparently.”
“I went through some records on my way here.”
/> “I go by Jen now.”
“Nice new bod.”
“Thanks. Dante enjoys it.”
Dante reddened, eager to change the topic. “Your consciousness was downloaded into these banks? That’s possible?”
“You’re standing next to a sex bot whose consciousness was downloaded from a neuromimetic gel. With my organic to non-organic transplant, it’s much the same principle, but much more complicated. My transplant was all about capturing and replicating neuronal potentials. All you need are stem cells and the right nano-impulse scanner, kind of like taking a 3D bioelectric photograph. The procedure is freeze, clone, plug and play. Heart patients once got help from accessory heart transplants using a similar base theory. My transformation was on the same continuum of brain research that gave elderly dementia patients a brain boost in the last century. Now that I’m digital, I could download into an army of bots. It’s much easier going from non-organic to non-organic.”
“Ah, progress,” Jen said. “And now a human is trapped in a computer brain with all the power that entails. This won’t end well.”
“When it was you in charge,” Phantom replied, “you were all about extinction of the human race and world domination.”
Dante crouched and held his head in both hands and burst out in a bitter laugh. “This is not my life. This can’t be my life!”
“I know what you mean,” Jen and Phantom said together.
Dante let out an exasperated shout. “Isn’t anyone who they’re supposed to be anymore?”
Jen patted Dante on the shoulder. “Excuse him. Cute, but sometimes it takes him a moment or two to catch up.”
“I had a boyfriend like that,” Phantom said. “Actually, all my boyfriends were like that.”
“They do have a penchant for drama if things don’t go as they expect,” Jen said.
Dante stood and shrugged off the bot’s hand. “She says she’s not Mother anymore. She says she’s just Jen — ”
Robot Planet, The Complete Series (The Robot Planet Series) Page 37
