In the background from Aler’s screen was the sound of shouting and a distant scream.
“I am empathetic enough to not want to kill innocents,” Bedivere said. “However, I am also a better shot than you have ever seen. I know exactly where you’re holding Kemp’s family. I will shoot around them with the precision of a surgeon and nothing you can do will stop me.”
He was continuing to work the board as he spoke. He was firing down on Soward, Catherine realized. She bit back a soft moan. What was he doing? He was in greater danger than she was, even with Kemp’s knife at her throat.
Aler’s surroundings were shaking. The man’s black eyes bulged. “I mean what I say,” he shouted. “I will shoot you out of the sky!”
“I’m counting on it,” Bedivere replied, with eerie calm. “I want everyone to see exactly how you arrange matters to suit yourself, you and your Cartel.”
Aler reached out to grab something for support that was outside the lens range. “Rodagh! Kill the woman! Now!”
Brant leapt toward them, as Kemp stepped to one side and dropped the knife. “No. I won’t,” Kemp said flatly.
Aler screamed as a piece of construction plasteel fell to the floor behind him. He threw up his arm to protect his head. “Open fire now!” he shouted at the screen. “Take the abomination out!”
Then the screen flickered and was replaced with pure white nothingness.
Bedivere looked up and around him. Then he looked at the screen once more. “Kemp, your family is safe. If they’re watching this, they should escape the complex now. If anyone else on Soward is watching this, go to the remains of the civics building in Soward City. Find Kemp’s family and shelter them until he reunites with them again.”
The structure around Bedivere was coming apart. Smoke was rising from the dashboard.
He tried a few more commands, his long fingers moving over the controls with swift sureness. Then he let out a deep breath and looked at the screen once more. “I love you, Cat.”
The screen didn’t grow fuzzy. It didn’t fade to white. It just switched off. Deep, silent blackness.
The same blackness rose inside her. It wreathed around her head, blinding her to everything except the pain welling up behind it.
She tried to breathe and couldn’t. The floor. She was looking at the floor.
Then hands were on her arms, lifting her.
“It’s shock,” she heard Lilly say. Her voice wavered.
“I’ll take her,” Brant said sharply.
She recognized the motion of being carried, but the pain was overwhelming. She couldn’t see. Still couldn’t draw a breath.
Brant was lowering her. Softness underneath. “Catherine,” he said. His hands were still on her arms. “Look at me.”
She shook her head. Tiny sips of air slipped through her numb lips.
“Catherine. Cat.” His hand lifted her chin, until she was forced to look at him. His colorless eyes were filled with…sadness. “He’s dead, Cat. You have to let that register. You have to let it in, or you’re not going to be able to move on.”
She was breathing harder, the little breaths becoming pants. “No.” She pushed the word out through uncooperative lips, between breaths.
“Yes, he’s dead, Cat.”
“Stop calling me that!’
And the pain broke inside her, a dam wall giving way. Her eyes stung as the tears began to flow.
“There we go,” Brant said softly and gathered her in his arms and pressed her head against his shoulder.
Catherine clung to him. “He’s dead…Bedivere is dead,” she said brokenly.
And she wept her heart out against his chest.
Chapter Fourteen
Mid-Transit, Shanta Gates, Shanta System. FY 10.092
Once the ship’s security was convinced that Kemp wasn’t a danger to anyone—and the frantic calls from his family and his tearful reception did most of the convincing—then they let him return to the first class suite that they had found for all of them.
“It keeps us safely out of circulation with the rest of the passengers,” Brant observed dryly as they settled themselves into the luxurious quarters.
Kemp was quiet. Reserved.
Catherine cared very little. Her thoughts were still mostly incoherent and kept sliding back to Bedivere, over and over. She had no energy to deal with anything else. Brant and Lilly had negotiated with the Corsair’s captain and staff, talking them into saving time and money by getting to Sunita as swiftly as possible and getting rid of their unwelcome guests.
The Choi Corsair jumped into the wormhole three hours later.
The ten day journey lasted a small lifetime. She didn’t read, her sleep was fractured and she barely ate. She had no interest in any of it.
Lilly and Kemp left her alone.
Brant sat next to her at least once a day. He didn’t talk. He didn’t ask questions, or demand anything. He just sat. Oddly, she felt a huge comfort from his silent presence. It didn’t lessen the pain which had returned as a deep shadow over everything, draining her energy.
On the last day of the journey, he did speak. “Connell has Kemp’s missing memories. The surgery you set up at Nicia is every bit as good as the one you used to have on the ship. Can you implant the memories? Then he will be able to tell us what happened that night.”
Catherine wiped her cheeks. They were often wet, even when she wasn’t aware that she had started crying again.
“I don’t care what happened,” she said listlessly.
“Yeah, I think you do. I know Kemp does. He’s the one proposing we do it on Nicia, so he can explain himself.” He squeezed her hand. “I’ll tell him yes.” He moved away before she could rouse herself to gather together words for a refusal.
When they arrived at the Sunita gate station, they learned that they were notorious once more. Heads turned as they walked through the corridors to the substation down to Nicia. Silence settled around them like a pall.
Catherine only noticed when Kemp pointed it out. She badly wanted to be home and to be left alone.
* * * * *
Nicia (Sunita II), Sunita System. FY 10.092
“The clean up on Soward is incredibly thorough,” Lilly said, looking over her reader. “They’re investigating. Everyone and everything.”
Brant was driving the zipper, skimming over the island complexes and buildings of Nicia’s city core. “Who is doing the investigating?”
“A conglomerate of other world representatives.”
“Everyone has a stake in the clean-up,” Kemp said quietly. “No one wants to see the Federation return, even in disguise.”
Catherine sighed and looked out the window as the sun played on the wavelets peeping between the complexes.
Lilly laughed. “They even have two Varkan consulting.”
“I recommended them,” Connell said, his voice issuing from Lilly’s reader. “Raige and Josh are mature enough to represent us well.”
“Good,” Brant said firmly. “They have an embedded interest in stamping out every last root of the Federation. Has anyone found Kare Sarkisian yet?”
Lilly shook her head. “Not yet.”
“There are not too many places left for him to go,” Kemp said.
“The Silent Sector,” Lilly suggested.
“No one lives for long in the Silent Sector,” Kemp pointed out.
“Except the Griswoldians,” Lilly replied.
“What they do barely qualifies as living,” Kemp shot back.
“They don’t like outsiders, either,” Brant said. “Strangers drain their food resources. If he had the guts to run there, Sarkisian would find no shelter.”
Catherine stirred herself. “You are all forgetting that Sarkisian is a master strategic and politician. He was the head of the Federation for over seven hundred years. He survived assassination attempts and political coups. He will have friends in places that you’ve never heard of. Bedivere…” She made herself go on. “Bedivere just st
amped out one corner of his network. Sarkisian will be back. Weeds like him always return.”
Everyone in the zipper stared at her.
Catherine shifted uncomfortably on the seat. She realized they were all staring at her because she had spoken as she normally did.
She didn’t want to return to normal. She didn’t want life to move on. So she turned her head back to the window and stared blindly at the sunlight.
They reached the complex fourteen minutes later.
“I’d go ahead and get coffee going for you,” Connell told them, “except the complex is sealed with a DNA lock. One of you must talk to the house AI first.”
“Thank you anyway, Connell,” Brant told him. “You have been a comfort and an asset. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
Connell was uncharacteristically silent for a few heartbeats. “Thank you, Brant,” he said, his voice low. “I miss him, too.”
* * * * *
Catherine didn’t want to go near the bedroom. As Lilly and Brant went to their quarters and Kemp returned to the borrowed room on the next level, Catherine decided that she would redesign the interior walls tomorrow. She would build a different suite. Or maybe just a room.
Or maybe she would find a whole different planet to settle on. One without an ocean.
She used the drop shaft to move down to the common room level. She had been sleeping on the sofa there. That would do for tonight, too.
Bedivere rose from the big armchair as she walked in, just as he had a thousand times before.
Catherine gripped the strap of her carrysack and stared at him. For a moment, pure hatred blazed from her, sent out to whoever had arranged this cruel joke.
“I know it’s a shock,” Bedivere said, coming toward her. “It’s really me.”
She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.
His big hand cupped her cheek, as he watched her with wariness in his eyes. He actually touched her.
Catherine drew in a shuddering breath. She dropped the sack and plucked his hand from her face and examined it. It looked achingly familiar, except that it was pale and had no scars. She turned it over and rubbed her thumb over his palm.
Heated flesh.
She looked up at him. She was starting to shake. “It’s really you….”
“It is.” He gave her a small smile, just the corner of his mouth lifting. “As if I’d ever choose to stay away from you, Cat.”
She threw her arms around him, squeezing with all her strength. He held her against him and his arms felt just as they always had. Then he tilted her head up and she held her breath as he kissed her.
She knew she would remember this kiss forever.
“Oh…my…stars!” Lilly said from behind them. “Kemp, Brant, get in here! Now!”
“What’s wrong?” Brant called from inside their quarters.
Bedivere kept on kissing her and Catherine was happy to let him do so for as long as he wanted. She didn’t give a damn who saw them.
“That’s why I couldn’t talk the AI into letting me in,” Connell said, sounding vexed. “Well, that’s just unfair.”
Chapter Fifteen
Nicia (Sunita II), Sunita System. FY 10.092
Even after five days, Catherine kept tripping over the fact that Bedivere was still alive and being surprised and delighted by it. She woke each morning to find him in her bed and nights were their own special pleasure.
On the fifth day after their return, when everyone had slept and eaten and swum in the warm ocean enough to feel as though they had returned to a state of normal, she settled Kemp in her surgery and began the restoration procedure to return his missing memories.
While she was running the procedure, with Lilly assisting, Connell and Brant made arrangements that stretched out across the known worlds. As Kemp lay sleeping it off, the two of them declared their work done.
The next day, people began arriving. One of the first to land on the top of the complex was Done Rison, the consulting investigator, who looked Bedivere up and down with sharp curiosity. “They killed you.”
“As much as I killed Kemp,” Bedivere replied.
Rison sniffed.
“All your questions will be answered very soon, Mr. Rison,” Lilly said. “Come and have a seat. The others will join us soon enough.”
“What others?” he demanded.
Connell was already there and sitting on a straight-backed chair. He gave Rison a cheerful smile and checked off names on his fingers. “Mr. David Jacksanch, the Director of the Civil Obedience Bureau of Nicia and his senior colleagues will be joining us in person. Via the datacore, we have the Prime Minister of Shanterry, the Governor of Barros, the new governor-pro-tem overseeing change on Soward and various other interested parties. Also,” and his grin grew bigger, “Six hundred and fifty-three of my fellow Varkan.”
For the first time, Rison showed something other than urbane pleasantness on his face. His lips parted as his jaw sagged. “You’re a computer!”
Connell stood and gave a short bow. “Connell Yair at your service.”
Rison rubbed his chin, trying to cover up his surprise. “For a secure and secret meeting, six hundred and more seems like a lot of people,” Rison said. “The more people holding a secret, the shorter the time it takes to leak.”
“Every single person attending this meeting will have reason to keep their mouths shut,” Catherine told him. “You’ll see.”
Rison looked skeptical.
She hid her smile, as David Jacksanch and his people were led into the big common room by Lilly and everyone settled into seats and chairs, or perched on furniture.
Connell, as the coordinator of the multiple secure feeds, also chaired the meeting. “We’ll start with what everyone is most anxious to hear. Kemp Rodagh has had his missing memories returned and they are viable right up until six minutes before he died. He will confirm or amend anything that Bedivere tells you. As Bedivere is Varkan and his memories are unalterable except by physical tampering at the source, he will provide the narrative. Is everyone in agreement?”
Jacksanch nodded and after a moment, Rison also nodded.
“And I have verbal agreements from everyone who is watching,” Connell added. “Bedivere?”
Bedivere moved to stand in front of everyone. He gave them a small smile. “Six standard weeks ago, Connell Yair introduced me to a sentient computer called Jovanka Runa. She was deeply troubled, scared and lonely. As we learned more about her conditions, we came to understand why her mental state was so fragile. She was being extorted by the Cartel on Soward, who were threatening her existence if she did not cooperate.” He hesitated. “Unfortunately, we learned this after we had encouraged her to negotiate for rights and freedoms. Jovanka…Jo…did attempt to fight for some basic sentient rights. The Cartel has been a puppet of the Federation for centuries and has been conditioned to fear computers as thoroughly as any Ammonite. The Cartel leaders were alarmed by Jovanka’s demands. To them it must have seemed their slave computer was revolting and they struck back blindly. They began to disassemble her core components.”
“They killed her?” Rison asked sharply. “She jumped through the Soward gate.”
Bedivere nodded. “Yes, she moved her psyche to the ship they had her linked to and used the ship to end her life, rather than let the Cartel take her memories from her piecemeal.”
Jacksanch cleared his throat. “Does it…hurt, when a computer dies?” he asked diffidently.
Bedivere looked at him directly. “Computers don’t have physical bodies with which to experience pain, except for me. I don’t know if it hurt. I don’t remember that moment.”
“Perhaps it’s just as well,” Rison said loudly. “I have known professional security people with live-stream backups and they remember dying very well. I’m told it is agonizing. I have seen far too many fine professionals become physical shells, their mental state almost vegetative, through experiencing death too many times.”
Bedivere inc
lined his head. “Let us agree that everyone fears permanent death and that even temporary death takes its toll. It is a mental stress as much as a physical one and therefore, computers fear death as much as humans.”
“That seems reasonable,” Rison said.
“Everyone else agrees, the Varkan most emphatically so,” Connell said. “Please continue, Bedivere.”
“Jo’s death and the manner of it, set off a chain of events that none of us was aware of until much later. I have put the events together since then and this is what I have learned. Kemp will be able to confirm much of it and you all saw the…um…discussion I had with Asold Aler, the head of the Cartel, which will support the rest.
“When the Federation dissolved over two decades ago, Kare Sarkisian, the former head of the Federation, renewed old alliances. One of them was with the Cartel on Soward. He convinced them, perhaps over time, that a new Federation could be built using Interspace as their new coin, instead of the jump gate technology that had filled their coffers for millennia. All they needed was a sentient computer who could use Interspace. It is a matter of record that Soward was the second planet to remove all computer harnesses, right behind Shanterry, the first.
“If you dig into surviving Soward records, you will find that Soward didn’t sit back and wait for their computers to build their complexity organically and reach sentience that way. They forced the growth upon a handful of the bigger AI systems they had. They added capacity, memory and functions and they deliberately overworked the computers, until one reached sentience. That was Jovanka.
“Kemp will confirm this part. Once Jo was awake, the Cartel poured all their resources and knowledge into forcing her maturity, to the point where she could separate her sentient intellect from the digital world of Interspace.”
Varken Rise Page 15
