by Emma Newman
That’s insane. How were they all brought up here in secret? Unless they arrived before Principia was populated and told never to go anywhere near it?
Why the hell has Gabor lied about this place? What could they be working on inside to merit hiding it from the world?
Whatever the reason, I daren’t go inside without more sophisticated scanning equipment and a better cover story for my absence from the communal areas. I’m getting hungry too. I save the data in two different files in the ground scanner’s local memory and switch it off. As I’m waiting for its stabilizing legs to fully retract, I take one last look around and notice something behind me in the dust.
A footprint. And another. A whole trail of them, heading back toward the Cerberus Palus crater, mere meters away from the route I took to get here. I heft the scanner back into the rover and climb inside, convinced that at any moment, someone from this base is going to find me and chase me off, like some ancient rancher.
I follow the prints for almost a kilometer, which takes me back along the same general route at first, but then through a small canyon. There the footprints stop and the tracks of another rover begin. I follow those to a small crater about half a kilometer away from Cerberus Palus, where it obviously parked, and then the tracks simply disappear.
Frustrated, I climb out and walk around, spotting a groove in the dust that starts a few meters away, as if the rover had suddenly shrunk to the size of a small pebble. On closer inspection, I realize that the driver must have dragged something behind the vehicle to obscure the tracks, not realizing that a pebble got caught and made a new track of its own.
The tiny track is heading for Principia, only going round the opposite side of the crater from the edge I followed. Either someone else back at my base knows about the other station and has visited it, or one of the secret base inhabitants has been spying on Principia. Either way, there is at least one more person on this planet who knows about both bases. The question is, who?
17
I PULL MYSELF out of the suit and finally let out a sigh of relief once I’ve put my feet on the cool floor of the base again. I retrieve my clothes from the locker, dress and then get the ground scanner from the compartment on the other side of the dust lock. It’s been cleaned and the data is still there. Good. All I need to do is get to Banks and tell him to stop fooling Principia, and then I’ll feel safe to upload the data to a private folder.
I step out into the corridor only to see the edge of someone’s back as they go round the corner. I freeze as the sound of their footsteps stops. They must have heard the dust lock door open. Damn my own stupidity! I should have checked everyone’s locations first.
There’s enough time to get only three steps away from it and for the doors to start closing when Petranek rounds the corner. “There you are!” ze says with obvious relief. “JeeMuh, where the hell have you been?” Ze holds up a hand before I reply. “I found her! By the dust lock.” There’s a pause and I watch hir eyes take in the ground scanner and the tips of the onesie sleeves, which are longer than those of my loose jumper. “Wait, were you outside?”
I can already hear someone running down the corridor behind me. It seems absurd to deny it, and it’s clear they’ve been looking for me. Shit, why didn’t Banks warn me? He set me up!
Just as I’m silently cursing his name, Banks almost collides with me from behind. “Anna!” Then he sees Petranek coming closer and his expression shifts from panic to a blinking, sweaty relief.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Banks says. “Arnolfi needed to speak with you.” He hugs me. “I couldn’t warn you,” he whispers in my ear. “And you weren’t in your room,” he continues, loudly enough to let everyone hear as he lets me go, “even though Principia said you were. It was so weird. Are you okay?”
Petranek is right next to us now and I can hear Elvan and Arnolfi approaching too. There’s no way I can cover this up. Judging by what Banks has said, something went wrong and now he’s terrified I’ll drop him in it too. “I’m okay,” I say, realizing I haven’t said anything. “See? Look, I’m fine.”
Elvan and Arnolfi arrive, and the relief on Elvan’s face makes me blush. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I’m fine.”
“You weren’t in your quarters,” Arnolfi says.
“Is that a problem? I wasn’t aware we were confined to them.”
“It’s a problem when Principia says you’re there and you don’t respond,” she replies.
“I had a DND notice up. I didn’t—” I almost say that I didn’t hear the request to enter, but I need to drop that ruse. “I didn’t think that anyone needed me.”
“You were outside?” Elvan says, catching up. “In a storm? By yourself? What the hell were you thinking?”
“That goes against every safety protocol I can think of,” Arnolfi says. Her voice is calm, quiet, but there is such rage in her eyes it makes me flinch. Then it is gone, but I am certain I’ve seen her look at me like that before. When?
“It would have been, if there was actually a storm,” I say. “But there wasn’t. Principia lied about it.”
“I think you need to come to my office,” Arnolfi says, and I feel a confusing flash of fear, but Petranek shakes hir head and speaks up before I’ve had a chance to respond.
“No, not yet. Anna, are you saying that the rating-seven storm—that’s on all the weather satellite pictures, the cams, and confirmed by the weather stations outside—is bollocks?”
“Yes, I am,” I say firmly. “And I don’t want to discuss this with you in private,” I say to Arnolfi. It isn’t just the fact that this deception needs to stop; it’s that I don’t want to be alone with that woman. Why do I feel that so strongly? “This is something that everyone here needs to be aware of,” I say, focusing on one problem at a time. “Principia has been lying to all of us about the storm, and about something else too.”
“Anna, it is my firm belief that you are experiencing a psychotic episode.” Arnolfi takes a step toward me. “We knew you were at high risk of one, and this reckless behavior has all the hallmarks of—”
“Now, just wait a bloody minute!” I regret raising my voice, but I can’t let this damn psych plant ideas like that. I know, more than most, how quickly those roots can grow deep. “You can go out there, right now, and see for yourself, before you start making accusations like that.”
“Wait, the storm has passed,” Elvan says, eyes staring into the middle distance. “It’s clear out there now.”
I laugh, trying to stifle the slightly hysterical edge to it. “Of course it is. Principia knows I’m calling its bluff. Go ahead—ask it how long it’s been clear out there and I’ll prove to you that it was lying.”
“Would you like me to participate in this meeting?” Principia asks, and I’m the only one to say no. The avatar joins the group, smiling politely. Now that it’s standing next to Elvan, the resemblance between them actively embarrasses me.
“When did the storm pass?” Elvan asks it.
“There wasn’t one!” I say.
“The weather conditions have changed in the past three hours. The wind speed has dropped to three miles per hour. The temperature is—”
“When did the wind speed drop?” Elvan asks.
“The wind speed started to drop two hours and forty-five minutes ago.”
I can see Banks looking up the time that we went outside, but I don’t need to. I know how long I was gone and that Principia has given the only time window that could make me look like I’m lying. Two hours and forty minutes ago I was telling Banks that the storm was fake. Neither of us looked up the conditions then; we knew from the meeting that the conditions were supposed to be bad outside. Now Principia is making it look like I made an error, that by the time I stepped outside, the storm was already abating.
I am being undermined by a fucking AI.
&nb
sp; “Well, Principia confirms that there wasn’t a storm when Anna went out,” Arnolfi says. Her stare is making my skin crawl. “Principia, how long ago did Dr. Kubrin ask for a weather update?”
“Dr. Kubrin was informed of the storm eight hours and thirty seven minutes ago, when I was forced to return a drone under her command to base.”
“And it was mentioned again at the meeting,” I say. “That was hours later.”
“But you didn’t check the weather between the meeting and when you left the base,” Arnolfi says.
“Dr. Kubrin has not left the base,” Principia says.
“I have! I went out there and it was obvious there was no storm at all today. The tracks from when I went out there with Petranek were still there!”
At least, I know they were there farther away from the base, when I picked them up again following our original change in route. I didn’t look near the entrance. “Principia made up that storm to stop me from using the drone. This is what I’m trying to tell you; we’re all being duped.”
Petranek leans against the wall. “I have no idea what the hell is going on,” ze says. “Principia says there was a storm, Anna doesn’t believe it and goes outside but Principia says she never left the base.”
“I did go outside!” I rest the back of my head against the same wall as Petranek. There is no way I can avoid a disciplinary here. But that’s better than being accused of having a psychotic break. “It’s just that I had to hide it from Principia because it wouldn’t let me out of the base if the storm was going on outside.”
“Dr. Kubrin, you never made a request to leave the base after the storm abated,” Principia says. “How can I have denied you permission to leave if you never requested it?”
“I . . . I just knew you wouldn’t.”
Elvan winces. “You say you went outside. You certainly weren’t in your quarters when Principia thought you were. How do you explain that?”
I can feel the heat crawling up the skin of my neck, into my cheeks. I keep my eyes fixed on Elvan, making sure I don’t glance at Banks and give him away. “I tricked it. It’s hard to explain.”
“You tricked Principia?” Petranek’s arms are folded; hir head is tipped to the side, an eyebrow raised, all the body language suggesting ze doesn’t believe me. “How?”
“That isn’t even possible,” Banks says, and I look at him, silently screaming his name in my head. He’s throwing me to the dogs here to save himself.
“I can’t . . . it’s . . .” Every single thing that springs to mind sounds like complete bullshit—because it is complete bullshit! I can’t even pretend to pass off what he did as my own work because I have no idea how he did it, and anything technical I try to say will just be refuted by Principia and Petranek.
But I can’t say it was him. No matter what they do to me, it would be so much worse for him.
“Principia, where is Dr. Kubrin now?” Arnolfi asks.
“Dr. Kubrin is two point five meters away from the entrance to the dust lock,” Principia says. “I cannot account for her movements between the time she entered her room at fifteen hundred hours, three minutes and twenty seconds, and the time she was sighted by Dr. Petranek in this corridor.”
“Would it be possible for Dr. Kubrin to leave the base without your knowledge?” Elvan asks.
“It would not be,” Principia says, “if all systems are working within established parameters.”
“But you know they weren’t, because Principia thought I was in my room and I wasn’t,” I say. I pause, trying to keep hold of what I’m actually trying to prove to them here. “Look, the important thing is that I did go outside and I went to a place that Principia has been hiding from me, and there’s another base there, far bigger than this one.”
Petranek half coughs, half laughs. “What? Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m fucking not!” I yell, furious that I’m being accused of that on one of the rare occasions when I’m confident of my own mental health. “I’ve just been there and I can prove it to you!”
“I think this has gone far enough,” Arnolfi says. “Dr. Kubrin.”
I kneel down in front of the ground scanner, opening the panel and doing my very best to ignore her voice and the awful flicker of fear it’s sending through me.
“Dr. Kubrin. Anna.” Arnolfi’s voice is getting more insistent.
“I did a ground scan, right by the base,” I say. The interface is sluggish, or does it just seem that way because of the pressure? “I stored the data here. I can show you.”
“Just let her do this,” Elvan is saying to Arnolfi.
I tap through to access the memory. There’s nothing there. I go back a couple of steps, feeling like my stomach is trying to claw its way out of my throat. “I don’t understand,” I whisper, now stabbing at the panel’s display. “I saved it in two different places and it’s all gone.”
The silence being woven by the others above my head feels like it’s taking on a physical weight. No matter how many times I try to access the files, there’s nothing there.
“There is no data saved on that device, Dr. Kubrin,” Principia says. “Can I help you to—”
“You wiped it!” I shout at the avatar. “That’s why it was slow. You fucking bastard! You wiped the files as I was trying to find them!”
“Anna.” Elvan catches the scanner as it tips away, my hands focused on reaching for Principia’s throat. Petranek grabs my arms and pulls me back.
“Whoa! Easy, Anna. There’s no one there to . . . errr . . . strangle, remember?”
I scan their faces. Even Banks is looking at me the way I once looked at my father. “Oh Jesus, none of you believe me! I went there! It’s about five kilometers northwest of the Cerberus Palus crater. There was a launchpad—I saw it! It was scorched and the stabilizer was flat on the ground. Something has taken off from there in the last few days. I swear it!”
Arnolfi’s glare is terrifying. “Dr. Anna Kubrin, I am confining you to quarters until your mental health status has been fully assessed by myself and Dr. Elvan. Any criminal investigation into the possible corruption of Principia’s primary functioning will be discussed following our assessment.”
“No! I don’t need a fucking mental health assessment! I was there! Why would I make that up? Why would I do that?”
“Let’s get you to your room,” Elvan says softly, allowing Banks to take the scanner. He touches my arm and I jerk it away from him.
“It’s Principia. It’s hiding the other base. You just have to come with me. It’ll take an hour, tops, and then you can see for yourself!” I look to Petranek, whose discomfort is clear. When I turn to Banks, he lifts the scanner, mumbles something about taking it back and hurries off.
“It really is for the best that you come with me now,” Elvan says, his voice smooth and calm.
I am not like my father. I will not lash out again. I fill my lungs and breathe out slowly, straightening my back and looking Arnolfi in the eye. “This is not immersion psychosis, but I understand your concerns and I will cooperate fully.”
With a triumphant thrill, I watch her step aside and look away. She seems weak all of a sudden, and I notice her trembling hands as I walk past her. Then I feel like a bully. No one here likes conflict, and that was probably just as hard for her as it was for me. But then I remember the note and push that guilt away. I have enough of that to fill me for a lifetime without adding more.
Elvan is silent on the way back to my room and doesn’t cross the threshold when we reach it. “I think it would be a good idea for us all to take a break and speak again in a little while,” he says. I want to embrace him, or rather, be held by him. Now the drama has passed, I feel shivery and uncertain. I want to feel where the edges of myself are.
“Probably for the best,” I reply, going in. “But I am telling the truth. This looks bad, but I kno
w what I saw. Something took off from there, in the last day or two, I reckon. Gabor is up to something and he’s hiding it from everyone on Earth.”
He’s trying so hard to seem neutral, to not give any indication of doubt or belief. I understand why; if I am breaking, he doesn’t want to reinforce the delusion, just as much as he doesn’t want to make me feel even more isolated.
“I’ll be back later to do a physical exam. Your MyPhys data is showing elevated cortisol and other stress markers. Try to rest. Have something to eat and drink if you can.”
“But no mersives, right?”
My attempt at a wry smile seems way off target. He merely nods and, after a brief hesitation, closes the door.
I strip off the soiled onesie, dump it in the recycler, and shower. My mind drifts from thoughts of the secret base to the comms blackout preventing contact with Charlie and Mia. I wonder how Charlie is coping with the loss of contact. What have they told him on Earth? And no doubt Mum is worried sick. She’ll be convinced there’s been a terrible accident here and that it’s a total media blackout while GaborCorp figures out how to handle it PR-wise.
There’s nothing I can do about that though. Then I remember Travis’s dead drop. I’ve devalued the leverage potential of the information about the other base by blurting it all out to the rest of the crew. Maybe the dead drop uses a different means of communication though. I hurry into the bathroom, look at myself in the mirror and start recording immersively.
“The comms have gone down. I have information but I don’t know if anything can get through to you. I need to know this works. If you’re clever enough to set all this up, you’ll be clever enough to get a message to me. Let me know what’s going on, and I’ll send you what you want.” I end the recording, name the file “ready for home” and store it in the folder he sent me. I try not to think too much about a back door in my chip being exploited to send that to Earth.
I sit on the bed, tired. What bothers me about the way Arnolfi has handled this is that Banks might think I tricked him, or at the very least that he got sucked into my delusion. But with Principia acting against me, it’s impossible to prove I’m telling the truth. At least I haven’t implicated him, and he knows that. I shouldn’t have thought this was a setup—why would he do something that would make an inquiry more likely?
