by S. J. Ryan
At the moment, though, he had a renewed interest in chemical warfare, in particular as to what poison gas was doing aboard a hostile airship bound for Britan.
“I think we should investigate. Let me know if the gas reaches lethal concentration. By the way, you can protect me from it, can't you?”
“My medical simulations indicate that I can protect and heal you from the effects of the gas, but depending on the amount of exposure it may require the dedication of considerable health resources.”
“That's what they're there for.” Privately, Matt was beginning to question his generosity. He'd shared his implant's health resources with Senti and Matt Four, and some had even gone to the partition with Norian. While still retaining the majority for himself, he hoped it would be enough.
Ivan's map-diagram identified the large space ahead as an 'auxiliary cargo hold.' It was forward of the main cargo hold, below the airboat hangar. The entry was on the bottom level. From around the corner, Ivan detected two armed guards at the cross-passage door. Matt went into hypermode, flashed around the corner, shocked them both unconscious, took the keys – and a gun.
The weapon fascinated him. He had been expecting the crew to carry chemical-propelled projectile weapons, like in olden times. Instead the configuration was more like a squirt gun, with a large oval container on top. A gage showed a needle pointing to the right.
“How does this thing work?” Matt asked.
“It does not match any hand weapon configuration I have on file,” Ivan replied.
“Assuming it was the same kind of weapon, it didn't make much noise when it was fired at me a few minutes ago.”
Matt decided it was a mystery that would have to wait for later. He pocketed the gun and entered the door that the men had been guarding.
The interior of the compartment was two stories high, fifty meters long, the width of the gondola. Against bulkheads right and left were meter-diameter cylinders that towered to the ceiling, in rows that stretched the length of the compartment. Each cylinder had a panel at eye level with a pressure gage, valves and hose connections, and danger signs with skull and crossbones.
“Warning,” Ivan said. “Lethal gas concentration is at one percent of harmful level.”
Due to leakage, Matt thought. He gaped at the long rows of cylinders and said, “There must be tons of the stuff.”
“Would you like a precise estimate?”
“No thanks.” On his own, Matt estimated there was enough to contaminate all the villages in Britan.
“Matt,” Ivan said. “Based on trace amounts detected in the atmosphere, I have completed a preliminary simulation of the compound mixture's method of dispersion. The toxin is in liquid form but has a high rate of evaporation..”
Hoses connected the cylinders to a network of pipes that extended the length of the compartment. Matt followed the pipes to a sliding door embedded in the deck at the end of the compartment. A constellation of spray nozzles was poised above the door.
Matt visually traced the system and pictured how it would work. The ship would fly over a target: a village, perhaps, or even the town of Londa. The doors would slide open. The sprayer nozzles would be lowered on pulleys and chains through the open door. The cylinder isolation valves would be twisted open. The sprayer valves would be opened. The gas would be sprayed as an aerosol, covering the target. The system operators would have to wear gas masks and protective clothing, lest they become exposed to the deadly gas they were dumping on the unsuspecting populace below. Tons and tons of deadly gas . . . .
“They can kill thousands of people,” Matt said. “Millions.“
“Matt. A person has entered the room. It is Savora.”
Matt turned noseward At far end of the hold, a slim figure was standing at the threshold, too distant and enshadowed for features to be discerned. The figure loped toward him. The casual movement reminded Matt of how a shark will lazily circle its prey just before the attack.
“Hypermode in standby,” Matt said.
“In anticipation of your request,” Ivan replied.
“I may not be able to react fast enough. You have my permission to initiate hypermode whenever you believe necessary.”
“Yes, Matt.”
Savora stopped a few meters away, smiled and nodded. She held her gun level at his chest. He did likewise with his gun aimed toward her. In keeping with Ivan's color-coding convention, the AR line extending from the tip of Savora's barrel to Matt's chest was red, while the one from Matt's gun to Savora's chest was green.
“Hello, Matt,” she said. “I knew you would be drawn here to investigate.”
“Any sudden moves, and I will shoot you.”
“Likewise. It is pointless, however, for either of us to take the initiative, is it not? What would it accomplish for you to kill me? I am only a cog in Athena's plans. As for me, if I were to kill you, you would have your implant destroy itself, which is exactly against my orders.”
For a long moment they stood, waiting for the other to act in order to react. Matt realized that for him, at least, the standoff might have value. Savora had to have gone into hypermode standby some time ago and would be nearing her standby time limit. If he could run down her clock, he would have hypermode capability and she would not – a significant advantage.
“So,” Matt said at last, “your implant is running an emulation of Synth.”
“In case you're interested, it is an emulation from the time that you knew her, based on a dendritic archiving that was recorded when she was in the Ascendancy Project.”
“Okay, but who are you?”
“I sense that you mean to ask, who is Savora, the physical human being. Savora is a Britanian woman from the village of Stone Brook in West Britan.”
“How did she end up with a neural implant matrix running an emulation of Synth's personality?”
Savora smiled lightly. “I believe I have time to explain. It is not that long a story, although it begins centuries ago. You are aware that when Athena departed from Earth, she brought with her the cerebrum of Doctor Roth.”
“Not something I could easily forget.”
“The surgical extraction procedure required the removal of his implant, which Athena brought with her to this planet so that it could be reinstalled when Doctor Roth regained corporeality. My implant is a fifty percent partition of his implant.”
“How did Roth's implant end up with an emulation of Synth's personality?”
“Doctor Roth was mystified as to why Synesthesia left the Star Seed Project. For the purpose of study, he contacted the Ascendancy Project and acquired the personality emulation software through them.”
“That's illegal, a violation of the right to privacy, isn't it?”
“Actually, Synesthesia had signed a waiver, and it is legal under Solar Council law so long as only personality factors and generic memories are included in the emulator package.”
He just gets creepier and creepier, Matt thought. A grown man, playing with the emulation of a teenage girl's personality! Roth's rationalization of doing so for the purpose of 'study' only made it seem worse in Matt's view.
“All right,” he said. “Let me see if I can figure this out. Athena partitioned half of Roth's implant and it already had an emulation of Synth's personality in its archives, so all she had to do was tell the implant to run the emulation and it could impersonate Synth well enough to fool me. And she did it in order to romantically involve us so that you could manipulate me into doing her will.”
“That is correct. I had thought that you were unaware of your surroundings at the time that Athena and I discussed that in your presence. I see that you were more conscious and alert than I perceived. Perhaps you could explain how that is possible.”
“Maybe later. I still want to know how Savora the Britanian comes into this.”
“Athena knew of your coming to this world and activated the emulator-implant this summer. It was transported by airship to the eastern edge of the sto
rm barrier, the point nearest Britan. It was placed inside a fish, and under the implant's direction, the fish swam through the storm barrier. On the other side, still in the persona of a fish, the emulator-implant swam toward Britan and caused the fish to be netted. It was brought to Britan and ingested. From there is a tedious story of migrating from one human and animal host to another until the implant matrix encountered Savora in Stone Brook.”
“So the implant chose the host. But why Savora?”
“Being that she was young and physically resembled Synesthesia, Savora was the ideal candidate for a mission to seduce you.”
“All right, but why is Savora the Britanian human going along with this? I mean, doesn't she realize that right now this room is filled with poison gas could end up killing her own family?”
Up until then, the smile on Savora's had been constant. At that moment, however, it faded.
“No,” the woman's mouth replied, softly. “She cannot understand anything.”
“How can that be?”
“There is another reason that Savora is the ideal host. She suffers from congenital birth defects that impair her mental abilities to the level of an infant.”
Matt blinked. “Then who am I talking to?”
“You are talking to the implant, which is running the emulation of your friend, Synesthesia.”
“Savora the human being isn't involved at all?”
“That is correct. Savora the human is virtually incapable of acting coherently by her own volition.”
“So you chose Savora because her disability allows you, the implant, to be in control.”
“Doctor Roth did not allow his implant to have manipulators capable of controlling his brain. Therefore I cannot control any other brain.”
“But you can control a defective brain like Savora's.”
“I do not control her. I provide very minor neural-electrical impulses to her nervous system and she voluntarily submits to my guidance.”
“So basically, she obeys you or you give her shocks to her nervous system.”
“Doctor Roth would not have allowed his implant the ability to inflict pain on himself. The impulses are actually pleasurable, but again very minor.”
“You expect me to believe that a human being voluntarily allows an implant to run her life?”
“You do not know what Savora's life was like at Stone Brook. She was tied inside a hut all day, every day. She lived in filth and nakedness, and her only social contact was briefly in the morning and evening when her stepbrother was sent into the hut to put slop in her feeding bowl. She experienced no love or respect, only contempt and disgust. Her life is infinitely better now, and she is grateful. That is why she allows me to guide her body and speak for her. I am her only friend, Matt, and she appreciates me. You speak of danger to her family, but I am her only real family.”
“Savora, listen to me! Think of all the people who are going to die. Can you be part of this?”
“Who are you talking to, Matt? If you are talking to the implant, you must realize that I have a directive file that I cannot alter, and my highest directive is to serve the will of Athena. If you are talking to the human, you must realize that she lacks the mental capacity to understand words.”
Ivan interrupted: “Matt. Several men are approaching the entry to this compartment.”
Savora returned his gaze, smiling faintly. Matt realized that he was the one who had been tricked. While he had been waiting for her hypermode standby limit to expire, she had been waiting for reinforcements.
There were five men at the entry, and they were armed. Matt recognized the tallest by the mustache and stern expression as the captain. They strode toward the tailward end of the auxiliary hold, halting directly behind Savora. The AR lines emanating from their guns were drawn blue and, not being aimed by an implant, were jiggling all over Matt's chest.
“You will surrender now, Matt,” Savora said. “I know that you are thinking of escaping through the bomb bay door behind you, but you cannot possibly reach – “
A gun barked. Matt flinched. But it was Savora's eyes that went wide.
Two more shots were fired, and Savora collapsed forward, flat on her face, the hair on the back of her head matted with three bleeding spots. Matt looked up to the pneumatic weapon held in the captain's hand, whose blue line pierced Matt's chest directly over the heart. The captain smiled coldly.
“I know you can move fast, lad,” the captain said. “But don't even think about it. We'll shoot the instant we see you twitch. Besides, where are you going to go? I assure you, that parachute you're wearing won't save you. We're hundreds of klicks from land and if necessary we'll fly over the sea until we find you and return you aboard. And if you seek to hide on this ship – well, we're not moving until you give yourself up.”
Matt stared at Savora's lifeless form sprawled haphazardly upon the deck. Wild-eyed, open-mouthed, gasping for breath, almost in tears, he shouted hoarsely, “You killed her! Why?”
“She would turn you over to the Lady Athena. Whereas I have received a better offer.”
“What do you mean? Whose better offer?”
The captain smiled. “That would be telling, wouldn't it?”
Matt remembered Savora's words: I know that you are thinking of escaping through the bomb bay door behind you. Yes, but he would have to run meters in clear line of fire – a difficult task even in hypermode. He had to think – he had to stall –
“Athena won't let you get away with this.”
“She won't know about this. We've already informed her by radio that you fell into the sea. We'll tell her the two of you fought outside and must have fallen together. We will dump her agent's body into the sea, but you'll be well-hidden as our prisoner aboard the ship. It's a very big ship and she won't find you. Besides myself and my men, only your buyers will know that you survived.”
Matt had no idea who the 'buyers' might be. For the first time, he began to suspect the political situation on the other side of the world might be more complicated than Athena vs. Forces of Good.
The Captain continued: “Lad, I want you to come peacefully, so let me tell you something for you to ponder: your buyers also requested that I assassinate Athena. Alas, I know from personal experience that she's practically indestructible – but my point is that they're her enemy just as you are. Should you not work together? I can facilitate that. So why don't you surrender?”
“If I do, will you stop the gas attack on Britan?”
“Well, I have to go through with it, don't I? Otherwise, she would suspect. And I do want to remain in her good graces.”
“You could strand her on this side. If you go back to the other side of the barrier, she can't follow.”
“Not soon, perhaps. But after our success today, eventually many more dreadnaught-class ships will be built to cross the barrier, and Athena will return aboard one of those. I wouldn't want to face her anger then.” The captain shrugged. “So you see, while I have no personal animosity toward the people of Britan, there is nothing I can do to save them.”
“You could find a way. You could make an excuse – “
“Lad!” the captain said hotly. “Let's be clear about one thing. I don't need to take any risk on your behalf. Now, your buyers don't intend to harm you, and in fact it's likely that they will treat you well in order to win you to their side. They simply want to learn about that thing in your head. They prefer to have you alive to answer their questions, but even for delivering you as a corpse my compensation will be quite handsome. So, alive or dead, which way would you like to be sent to them?” The captain's eyes narrowed. “Drop the gun. I won't ask twice.”
Matt weighed the advantage of hypermode against five blue lines. Could he shoot five people before they shot him? He wasn't sure he could shoot one person. He dropped the gun.
The captain gave a nod to a crew member, who approached Matt bearing a set of handcuffs. Matt looked down at the pool of blood that was forming a halo aro
und Savora's head. One eye was visible. It was wide and unmoving.
Through the bomb bay door.
“Initiate hypermode,” Matt subvocaled.
The room shuddered. The lighting rapidly flickered on and off – it must have been an AC circuit. The crewman walking toward Matt slowed to a creep. The captain's expression, meanwhile, registered alarm. He opened his mouth and shouted in a booming bass: “Shoo – “
Shoving the approaching crewman to block the line of fire, Matt turned and leaped to the nearest gas cylinder, body-slamming against the control station panel.
The isolation valve handle was locked. Matt held up the key ring while touching the lock. Ivan's manipulators felt the interior of the lock mechanism, and an AR arrow appeared in Matt's vision, pointing to the right key on the key ring. Matt unlocked the valve handle, took a deep breath, and began twisting.
Matt heard the baritone barks of the guns. Around his head, bullets chipped clouds of the cylinder insulation material. Then he heard the thud of a bullet and felt the impact on his back. He knew he had been hit, but there was nothing he could do but hope that Ivan could block the pain and prevent loss of consciousness.
Distorted by hypermode, the hiss of gas through the connection pipe sounded like a waterfall. The gunfire halted and Matt heard shouting, and when he looked noseward, he saw that the men were running toward the compartment exit.
“Mode stop,” Matt said.
The room shuddered back to normal. The men had evacuated and it was just him alone with Savora's body. He looked down. No blood on the floor, his legs felt okay. Ivan wasn't showing him a damage status pop-up. Matt was sure he had been hit, though. He'd felt it. However, he had no time for mysteries.
