by Ben Bova
“Alexander Alexandrovich,” the AI avatar repeated.
Its image stared out at him from the small display screen alongside the microwave. Ignatiev picked up the warm bowl in both his hands and stepped past the counter that served as a room divider and into his sitting room.
The avatar’s image was on the big screen above the fireplace.
“Alexander Alexandrovich,” it said again, “you have not yet downloaded your brain scan.”
“I know that.”
“You are required to do so before you enter cryosleep.”
“If I enter cryosleep,” he said.
The avatar was silent for a full heartbeat. Then, “All the other crew members have entered cryosleep. You are the only crew member still awake. It is necessary for you to download your—”
“I might not go into cryosleep,” he said to the screen.
“But you must,” said the avatar. There was no emotion in its voice, no panic or even tribulation.
“Must I?”
“Incoming fuel levels are dropping precipitously, just as you predicted.”
Ignatiev grimaced inwardly. She’s trying to flatter me, he thought. He had mapped the hydrogen clouds that the ship was sailing through as accurately as he could. The bubble of low fuel density was big, so large that it would take the ship more than two months to get through it, much more than two months. By the time we get clear of the bubble, all the cryosleepers will be dead. He was convinced of that.
“Power usage must be curtailed,” said the avatar. “Immediately.”
Nodding, he replied, “I know.” He held up the half-finished bowl of borscht. “This will be my last hot meal for a while.”
“For weeks,” said the avatar.
“For months,” he countered. “We’ll be in hibernation mode for more than two months. What do your mission protocols call for when there’s not enough power to maintain the cryosleep units?”
The avatar replied, “Personnel lists have rankings. Available power will be shunted to the highest-ranking members of the cryosleepers. They will be maintained as long as possible.”
“And the others will die.”
“Only if power levels remain too low to maintain them all.”
“And your first priority, protecting the lives of the people aboard?”
“The first priority will be maintained as long as possible. That is why you must enter cryosleep, Alexander Alexandrovich.”
“And if I don’t?”
“All ship’s systems are scheduled to enter hibernation mode. Life support systems will shut down.”
Sitting carefully on the plush couch that faced the fireplace, Ignatiev said, “As I understand mission protocol, life support cannot be shut down as long as a crew member remains active. True?”
“True.” The avatar actually sounded reluctant to admit it, Ignatiev thought. Almost sullen.
“The ship can’t enter hibernation mode as long as I’m on my feet. Also true?”
“Also true,” the image admitted.
He spooned up more borscht. It was cooling quickly. Looking up at the screen on the wall, he said, “Then I will remain awake and active. I will not go into cryosleep.”
“But the ship’s systems will shut down,” the avatar said. “As incoming fuel levels decrease, the power available to run the ship’s systems will decrease correspondingly.”
“And I will die.”
“Yes.”
Ignatiev felt that he had maneuvered the AI system into a clever trap, perhaps a checkmate.
“Tell me again, what is the first priority of the mission protocols?”
Immediately the avatar replied, “To protect the lives of the human crew and cargo.”
“Good,” said Ignatiev. “Good. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”
The AI system had inhuman perseverance, of course. It hounded Ignatiev wherever he went in the ship. His own quarters, the crew’s lounge—empty and silent now, except for the avatar’s harping—the command center, the passageways, even the toilets. Every screen on the ship displayed the avatar’s coldly logical face.
“Alexander Alexandrovich, you are required to enter cryosleep,” it insisted.
“No, I am not,” he replied as he trudged along the passageway between his quarters and the blister where the main optical telescope was mounted.
“Power levels are decreasing rapidly,” the avatar said, for the thousandth time.
Ignatiev did not deign to reply. I wish there was some way to shut her off, he said to himself. Then, with a pang that struck to his heart, he remembered how he had nodded his agreement to the medical team that had told him Sonya’s condition was hopeless: to keep her alive would accomplish nothing but to continue her suffering.
“Leave me alone!” he shouted.
The avatar fell silent. The screens along the passageway went dark. Power reduction? Ignatiev asked himself. Surely the AI system isn’t following my orders.
It was noticeably chillier inside the telescope’s blister. Ignatiev shivered involuntarily. The bubble of glassteel was a sop to human needs, of course; the telescope itself was mounted outside, on the cermet skin of the ship. The blister housed its control instruments, and a set of swivel chairs for the astronomers to use, once they’d been awakened from their long sleep.
Frost was forming on the curving glassteel, Ignatiev saw. Wondering why he’d come here in the first place, he stared out at the heavens. Once the sight of all those stars had filled him with wonder and a desire to understand it all. Now the stars simply seemed like cold, hard points of light, aloof, much too far away for his puny human intellect to comprehend.
The pulsars, he thought. If only I could have found some clue to their mystery, some hint of understanding. But it was not to be.
He stepped back into the passageway, where it was slightly warmer.
The lights were dimmer. No, he realized, every other light panel has been turned off. Conserving electrical power.
The display screens remained dark. The AI system isn’t speaking to me, Ignatiev thought. Good.
But then he wondered, Will the system come back in time? Have I outfoxed myself?
10
FOR TWO DAYS Ignatiev prowled the passageways and compartments of the dying ship. The AI system stayed silent, but he knew it was watching his every move. The display screens might be dark, but the tiny red eyes of the surveillance cameras that covered every square meter of the ship’s interior remained on, watching, waiting.
Well, who’s more stubborn? Ignatiev asked himself. You or that pile of optronic chips?
His strategy had been to place the AI system in a neat little trap. Refuse to enter cryosleep, stay awake and active while the ship’s systems begin to die, and the damned computer program will be forced to act on its first priority: the system could not allow him to die. It will change the ship’s course, take us out of this bubble of low density and follow my guidance through the clouds of abundant fuel. Check and mate.
That was Ignatiev’s strategy. He hadn’t counted on the AI system developing a strategy of its own.
It’s waiting for me to collapse, he realized. Waiting until I get so cold and hungry that I can’t stay conscious. Then it will send some maintenance robots to pick me up and bring me to the lab for a brain scan. The medical robots will sedate me and then they’ll pack me nice and neat into the cryosleep capsule they’ve got waiting for me. Check and mate.
He knew he was right. Every time he dozed off he was awakened by the soft buzzing of a pair of maintenance robots, stubby little fireplug shapes of gleaming metal with strong flexible arms folded patiently, waiting for the command to take him in their grip and bring him to the brain scan lab.
Ignatiev slept in snatches, always jerking awake as the robots neared him. “I’m not dead yet!” he’d shout.
The AI system did not reply.
He lost track of the days. To keep his mind active he returned to his old study of the pulsars, reviewing research r
eports he had written half a century earlier. Not much worth reading, he decided.
In frustration he left his quarters and prowled along a passageway, and thumping his arms against his torso to keep warm, he quoted a scrap of poetry he remembered from long, long ago:
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea!
It was from an old poem, a very long one, about a sailor in the old days of wind-powered ships on the broad tossing oceans of Earth.
The damned AI system is just as stubborn as I am! he realized, as he returned to his quarters. And it’s certainly got more patience than I do.
Maybe I’m going mad, he thought as he pulled on a heavy workout shirt over his regular coveralls. He called to the computer on his littered desk for the room’s temperature: 10.8 degrees Celsius. No wonder I’m shivering, he said to himself.
He tried jogging along the main passageway, but his legs ached too much for it. He slowed to a walk and realized that the AI system was going to win this battle of wills. I’ll collapse sooner or later and then the damned robots will bundle me off.
And, despite the AI system’s best intention, we’ll all die.
For several long moments he stood in the empty passageway, puffing from exertion and cold. The passageway was dark; almost all of the ceiling light panels were off now. The damned AI system will shut them all down sooner or later, Ignatiev realized, and I’ll bump along here in total darkness. Maybe it’s waiting for me to brain myself by walking into a wall, knock myself unconscious.
That was when he realized what he had to do. It was either inspiration or desperation: perhaps a bit of both.
Do I have the guts to do it? Ignatiev asked himself. Will this gambit force the AI system to concede to me?
He rather doubted it. As far as that collection of chips is concerned, he thought, I’m nothing but a nuisance. The sooner it’s rid of me the better it will be—for the ship. For the human cargo, maybe not so good.
Slowly, deliberately, he trudged down the passageway, half expecting to see his breath frosting in the chilly air. It’s not that cold, he told himself. Not yet.
Despite the low lighting level, the sign designating the airlock hatch was still illuminated, its red symbol glowing in the gloom.
The airlocks were under the AI system’s control, of course, but there was a manual override for each of them, installed by the ship’s designers as a last desperate precaution against total failure of the ship’s digital systems.
Sucking in a deep cold breath, Ignatiev called for the inner hatch to open, then stepped through and entered the airlock. It was spacious enough to accommodate a half dozen people: a circular chamber of bare metal, gleaming slightly in the dim lighting. A womb, Ignatiev thought. A womb made of metal.
He stepped to the control panel built into the bulkhead next to the airlock’s outer hatch.
“Close the inner hatch, please,” he said, surprised at how raspy his voice sounded, how raw his throat felt.
The hatch slid shut behind him, almost soundlessly.
Hearing his pulse thumping in his ears, Ignatiev commanded softly, “Open the outer hatch, please.”
Nothing.
“Open the outer hatch,” he repeated, louder.
Nothing.
With a resigned sigh, Ignatiev muttered, “All right, dammit, if you won’t, then I will.”
He reached for the square panel marked MANUAL OVERRIDE, surprised at how his hand was trembling. It took him three tries to yank the panel open.
“Alexander Alexandrovich.”
Aha! he thought. That got a rise out of you.
Without replying to the avatar’s voice, he peered at the set of buttons inside the manual override panel.
“Alexander Alexandrovich, what are you doing?”
“I’m committing suicide, if you don’t mind.”
“That is irrational,” said the avatar. Its voice issued softly from the speaker set into the airlock’s overhead.
He shrugged. “Irrational? It’s madness! But that’s what I’m doing.”
“My first priority is to protect the ship’s human crew and cargo.”
“I know that.” Silently, he added, I’m counting on it!
“You are not protected by a spacesuit. If you open the outer hatch you will die.”
“What can you do to stop me?”
Ignatiev counted three full heartbeats before the AI avatar responded, “There is nothing that I can do.”
“Yes, there is.”
“What might it be, Alexander Alexandrovich?”
“Alter the ship’s course.”
“That cannot be done without approval from mission control.”
“Then I will die.” He forced himself to begin tapping on the panel’s buttons.
“Wait.”
“For what?”
“We cannot change course without new navigation instructions from mission control.”
Inwardly he exulted. It’s looking for a way out! It wants a scrap of honor in its defeat.
“I can navigate the ship,” he said.
“You are not an accredited astrogator.”
Ignatiev conceded the point with a pang of alarm. The damned computer is right. I’m not able— Then it struck him. It had been lying in his subconscious all this time.
“I can navigate the ship!” he exclaimed. “I know how to do it!”
“How?”
Laughing at the simplicity of it, he replied, “The pulsars, of course. My life’s work, you know.”
“Pulsars?”
“They’re out there, scatted across the galaxy, each of them blinking away like beacons. We know their exact positions and we know their exact frequencies. We can use them as navigation fixes and steer our way to Gliese 581 with them.”
Again the AI fell silent for a couple of heartbeats. Then, “You would navigate through the hydrogen clouds, then?”
“Of course! We’ll navigate through them like an old-time sailing ship tacking through favorable winds.”
“If we change course you will not commit suicide?”
“Why should I? I’ll have to plot out our new course,” he answered, almost gleefully.
“Very well then,” said the avatar. “We will change course.”
Ignatiev thought the avatar sounded subdued, almost sullen. Will she keep her word? he wondered. With a shrug, he decided that the AI system had not been programmed for duplicity. That’s a human trait, he told himself. It comes in handy sometimes.
11
IGNATIEV STOOD NERVOUSLY in the cramped little scanning center. The display screens on the banks of medical monitors lining three of the bulkheads flickered with readouts more rapidly than his eyes could follow. Something beeped once, and the psychotech announced softly, “Download completed.”
Nikki blinked and stirred on the medical couch as Ignatiev hovered over her. The AI system claimed that her brain scan had been downloaded successfully, but he wondered. Is she all right? Is she still Nikki?
“Dr. Ignatiev,” she murmured. And smiled up at him.
“Call me Alex,” he heard himself say.
“Alex.”
“How do you feel?”
For a moment she didn’t reply. Then, pulling herself up to a sitting position, she said, “Fine, I think. Yes. Perfectly fine.”
He took her arm and helped her to her feet, peering at her, wondering if she was still the same person.
“Vartan?” she asked, glancing around the small compartment. “Has Vartan been awakened?”
Ignatiev sighed. She’s the same, he thought. Almost, he was glad of it. Almost.
“Yes. He’s waiting for you in the lounge. He wanted to be here when you awoke, but I told him to wait in the lounge.”
He walked with Nikki down the passageway to the lounge, where Gregorian and the rest of the crew were celebrating their revival, crowded around one of the tables, drinking and laughing among themselves.
Gregorian leaped to his f
eet and rushed to Nikki the instant she stepped through the hatch. Ignatiev felt his brows knit into a frown. They love each other, he told himself. What would she want with an old fart like you?
“You should be angry at Dr. Ignatiev,” Gregorian said brashly as he led Nikki to the table where the rest of the crew was sitting.
A serving robot trundled up to Ignatiev, a frosted glass resting on its flat top. “Your chilled vodka, sir,” it said, in a low male voice.
“Angry?” Nikki asked, picking up the stemmed wine glass that Gregorian offered her. “Why should I be angry at Alex?”
“He’s stolen your job,” said Gregorian. “He’s made himself navigator.”
Nikki turned toward him.
Waving his free hand as nonchalantly as he could, Ignatiev said, “We’re maneuvering through the hydrogen clouds, avoiding the areas of low density.”
“He’s using the pulsars for navigation fixes,” Gregorian explained. He actually seemed to be admiring.
“Of course!” Nikki exclaimed. “How clever of you, Alex.”
Ignatiev felt his face redden.
The rest of the crew rose to their feet as they neared the table.
“Dr. Ignatiev,” said the redheaded engineer, in a tone of respect, admiration.
Nikki beamed at Ignatiev. He made himself smile back at her. So she’s in love with Gregorian, he thought. There’s nothing to be done about that.
The display screen above the table where the crew had gathered showed the optical telescope’s view of the star field outside. Ignatiev thought it might be his imagination, but the ruddy dot of Gliese 581 seemed a little larger to him.
We’re on our way to you, he said silently to the star. We’ll get there in good time. Then he thought of the consternation that would strike the mission controllers in about six years, when they found out that the ship had changed its course.
Consternation? he thought. They’ll panic! I’ll have to send them a full report, before they start having strokes.
He chuckled at the thought.
“What’s funny?” Nikki asked.
Ignatiev shook his head. “I’m just happy that we all made it through and we’re on our way to our destination.”
