by S. H. Jucha
the engineer received. The bio ID was that of Alex.
Mickey sent in reply.
A smile crept over Mickey’s face.
A quarter hour later, Mickey exited a lift, checked on Pia’s location, and headed that way. He didn’t spot her immediately, but he did spy Alex’s broad back.
Alex had tracked Mickey’s location. When the engineer got close, he turned aside and smiled. The reason for his expression was obvious. The women were dressed, as if the occasion was a fête, wearing the gossamer wisps of clothing that the genetically sculpted Méridiens preferred.
Mickey’s face lit up at the sight of Pia. It had been months since they had spent an evening together, and he regretted every lost hour.
Rather than reply, Mickey threw his arms around Pia’s waist, easily lifting her lithe frame. In turn, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and they clung together. It was Mickey’s apology, and Pia’s acceptance.
When the couple’s hug was over, Alex stared at his premier engineer and asked, “Tough day?”
“This will take some time to get used to,” Mickey replied.
“Two days,” Alex said.
“What two days?” Mickey asked.
“Two days before you’re off tinkering with a new idea and calling on the SADEs to explore it,” Alex explained.
“No, thirty hours, counting from the evening’s end,” Renée piped up.
“When we finish the vid?” Mickey asked to clarify the start of the count.
“No, when you and I finish this evening,” Pia supplied, delivering a warm kiss to Mickey’s cheek.
The couples strolled toward the suite where Cordelia displayed her reality vids. The technology had long since surpassed that of the original installation, and the display space was four times greater. As it was one of the most popular entertainment venues aboard the ship, reservations were required.
Aware of who was arriving for a viewing, Cordelia augmented the suite’s program menu, with one of the special designs that she had reserved for Alex’s viewing. He’d been the first person to open his implant to her performance art, dropping his security protocols, to play in her vid, which was capable of supplanting a person’s reality. The mind’s senses participated in the vid’s actions.
The foursome entered the suite, as a family left, happily chatting about their experience. As the lights dimmed and the vid began, Alex received a cryptic message from Cordelia. She sent,
In sensory-enervating motions, the foursome found themselves being swept out into Omnia’s raging sea. Sea water sprayed them, and waves threatened to swallow them. A giant wall of water rose up and covered them. Instead of drowning, they discovered they were in the dry tunnels of the Dischnya. The invasion alarm sounded, and warriors ran past them to defend the nest. They followed, popping out at a tunnel’s entrance. The night sky was lit with stars, and they felt the dry winds of Omnia blowing softly on their faces.
There was laughter at the experience, which quieted when the scene changed again. The Dischnya’s grassy vistas spun and became rich, green meadows. Now, the air was moist, and the scenery was lush.
Scarlet Mandator, standing beside Mist Monitor, beckoned them. The Ollassa waited at the base of a Life Giver, an enormous tree, which gave birth to the species and advised the race.
When the humans approached the Mandator, Renée dared to hope she could repeat her experience on the Vinians’ planet. She stepped forward and touched the sensitive petals around Mist Monitor’s face, which resembled a huge flower’s seeded center. The petals curled around her fingers. Renée felt Pia brush her shoulder, and the women shared the moment with the gentle sentient.
The vid wasn’t one of Cordelia’s longer ones, by any stretch of the imagination. Its intensity called for brevity, and it definitely wasn’t for children or the nonadventurous.
Cordelia waited for Alex’s response, when the vid ended. Alex had been her archetype to understanding human men, and, in many ways, they shared a mental intimacy that no other male human and female SADE matched.
Alex sent. It wasn’t a condemnation. His thoughts had been wrapped in humor.
Cordelia sent. She sounded sincere, but the tinkle of silver bells ended her comm.
When the ocean wave rose up to swallow them, Alex had reveled in the stormy seas. The saltwater didn’t sting his eyes, and the waves didn’t threaten to crush him. His heavy forelimbs ended in enormous claws. He’d pinched his fingers together and heard claws snap shut. He was a Swei Swee.
In the Dischnya’s corridors, Alex felt his long tongue brush rows of sharp teeth. His keen eyes could see in the dim corridor, and a brush of his arm revealed the coarse hair of the Dischnya.
It was the same on the Vinians’ home planet. Alex felt an urge to step from the shadows into the bright starlight that fell on the meadow. When he felt the beneficent rays fall on him, as he followed the others toward the Life Giver, he sensed energy seeping into his fronds. His arms were split into the long slender stalks of the Ollassa. The gentle breeze and the presence of the Life Giver soothed his mind. This latter effect intimated at Cordelia’s deep understanding of Alex’s psyche.
“Wonderful new vid,” Pia gushed, when they exited the display room.
“That opening is enough to scare you silly,” Mickey remarked. “I was a tick of time away from exiting the room.”
“I can’t believe that Cordelia duplicated the sensation of the Ollassa petals so closely,” Renée added.
The threesome waited for Alex to add his impressions. When none were forthcoming, Renée asked him, with concern, “Uh-oh, did you get a Cordelia special?”
In reply, Alex gave Renée his lopsided grin.
“Good or bad?” Pia asked.
“Mind-bending,” Alex replied.
“Better you than me,” Mickey commented.
“I think Cordelia knows that, my partner,” Pia said, sidling close to Mickey. “Alex seems to be the only one she plays with that way.”
The couples enjoyed a drink at a local café before they separated for the evening. When Pia and Mickey retired to their suite, she kept her promise to Mickey.
-5-
New Terrans
Alex and Renée met the New Terran arrivals when they exited the bay into the Freedom. Maria, Alphons, and Oliver received warm greetings. Captain Bertram Hardingsgale and his crew were excused to enjoy the hospitality of the city-ship.
Alex and Renée were joined by Tatia and Julien, and the foursome retired to a meeting with Maria, Oliver, and the New Terran Trident captains.
Once comfortably ensconced in the suite’s salon, Renée served thé. She noticed that the captains were polite in accepting her offers, but after a sip or two, they set their cups down.
Alex held his cup in both hands, letting the heat permeate deeply. He gazed at Maria, when he spoke. “I d
on’t represent a government. Therefore, I don’t feel obligated to consider world politics in my actions. I’m a private citizen.”
Then Alex turned to eye each of the Trident captains, as he said, “In that regard, I’m going to make an offer to you and your crews that you need to seriously consider. There are pros and cons to what I offer you. This expedition will be long. I don’t know how long, but it might take years. It will be dangerous, and there will be hardships. For your courage in volunteering, we’re prepared to offer you implants and cell gen nanites. These aren’t the medical nanites that you’ve received for injuries. These are permanent nanites, which will be refreshed each year.”
“Question, Alex,” Alphons said. “I can see the value of these, but what do you consider the negatives?”
“What if the New Terran government doesn’t adopt the cell gen technology or doesn’t allow access to it?” Maria interjected. “Whoever takes these nanites would need to return to Omnia for updates on a yearly basis.”
“More important,” Renée added, “consider the effect on your partners and children if you maintain your cell gen nanites and they never acquire them. You’ll see your contemporaries live out their lives, possibly your children too, and you’ll endure their loss.”
Much as we’ll suffer the loss of our human friends, Oliver thought.
“Many of us have seen the uses of Méridien implants, Alex,” Alphons said. “What do you consider their negative implications?”
“Personally, I would never consider giving up my implants, even if I knew they could be removed. And, before you ask, I’ve never delved into that question,” Alex replied. “Once you’ve been trained and have adopted many of the applications in your implants, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. And that’s the conundrum. Implants are only effective between those humans who possess them, SADEs, and controllers.”
“Do you see value in command officers possessing them?” a New Terran captain asked.
Alex glanced at Tatia, who replied, “Among Alex’s first recruits, I was probably the most resistive to adopting my implant. That was nearly my undoing. While I’ve been listening to this discussion, I’ve communicated with several SADEs, Mickey, our chief engineer, and some direct reports.”
“Then you might have missed some of this conversation,” the captain persisted.
Tatia loosed her infamous grin on the poor captain, accessed her implant recording of the conversation, and read out loud every word until the captain held up his hands in surrender.
The demonstration elicited nervous smiles and chuckles from the New Terrans. Handling sophisticated technology, they could accept, but the thought of putting that same tech in their bodies gave them cause for concern.
“Unfortunately, these decisions need to be taken quickly,” Alex said. “Poll your people. Update your controller’s personnel files with the decisions of your crew members. We need to know who wishes to accept these two medical procedures. You’ll be notified in two days to begin shuttling crew to this ship.”
On cue, Pia Sabine entered the room. Her Méridien trim figure delightfully filled out her form-fitting uniform and her face exhibited the excellent skills of the Confederation’s geneticists. The captains immediately sat a bit straighter, and Tatia hid her smile.
“Pia Sabine and her medical teams will handle the medical procedures for you and your crews,” Alex announced.
“Sers, you have no need to worry, and I want you to relay my assurances to your crews,” Pia said. “These procedures are painless and will be over quicker than you could imagine. Afterwards, you’ll be given orientation for three days to acquaint you with the basic operations of your implants.”
A second captain raised a hand, and Alex acknowledged him. “Once individuals have an implant, aren’t they vulnerable to manipulation by others?”
“You have security protocols to protect you against intrusion, Captain. Can these be breached? Yes, but typically only by SADEs,” Alex replied.
“By typically, do you mean some humans can?” Alphons asked.
“To my knowledge, only one human can,” Alex replied, “and, yes, I’ve done it frequently … in emergencies and when individuals have been stubborn.”
“What about SADEs?” another captain asked. His forehead was furrowed by his anxiety.
“This is a sensitive subject for SADEs,” Oliver replied. “Every effort is expended to protect the sanctity of human privacy. To my knowledge, which means I know well whether there have been exceptions to this effort, only one such occurrence exists.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed at Oliver, and the SADE calmly returned his gaze.
“It happened during the turmoil at Libre,” Oliver continued, “and it was done to protect a friend, without humans even realizing that it had happened.”
“Do you think that was right?” the captain asked.
“I wasn’t at Libre, Ser,” Oliver replied. “I don’t know the situation’s circumstances, only that the deed was done. It’s not my place to pass judgment on what the SADE did.”
While the captains ruminated on the possibility of being mentally vulnerable to a SADE, Alex and Tatia wondered what had happened at Libre that remained unknown to them. Only three individuals, Julien, Terese, and Renée, knew what Julien had done to protect Alex’s image by erasing a vid from the memory of some Méridien women, who had enjoyed catching the New Terran leader in an orbital station’s refresher. The SADE had accomplished the task, while the women slept, and it had been at Renée’s behest.
“I would ask you to consider these questions,” Oliver said. “Have any of you spoken unkindly to another? Have any of you lied to another or presented a false face? Using implants makes it difficult to achieve these perversions. When you send your thoughts, there is little opportunity to reform them, as you have when you choose to speak what you think. Consider that value when you weigh the consequences of adopting this technology.”
“Thank you for your time, Captains,” Alex said, rising. “Minister, I’d have a word with Oliver and you, if you please?” Alex asked.
Tatia and Pia, with a quick signal from Alex, exited with the captains.
“You’ve put our people in an awkward position, Alex,” Maria said, when the door closed behind the group.
“Are you referring to the captains or the entire contingent of New Terrans?” Alex asked.
“All of them,” Maria replied. She was upset with Alex for several reasons, and one of them was personal.
“Would you rather have them forgo our technology so that they stand a lesser chance of surviving encounters with superior alien forces?” Alex asked.
“But you might have isolated them from families, friends, and the general population,” Maria persisted.
“How long have we known each other, Maria?” Alex asked.
“About three decades. Why?”
“Throughout this time, I’ve had either one or two implants, and yet we’ve been able to talk. And I think we’ve done quite well for each other, don’t you think?” Alex asked quietly.
“Yes, we have. I apologize, Alex. In my capacity as New Terra’s Minister of Defense, it’s not my place to criticize your actions. There’s nothing in our agreement that forbids you offering Omnian technology to those who sail with you,” Maria replied, deflating.
“But you’re upset with me for another reason. What is it?” Alex asked.
Alex waited quietly, while Maria wrestled with whatever was on her mind. When she glanced from him to Julien and back, he got an inkling of what she wanted. But he needed her to ask. It had to be her choice.
“Is your offer of Omnian technology limited to the captains and their crews?” Maria asked.
Alex could see the burning desire in Maria’s eyes. She had a special relationship with Oliver, but it was limited by her natural human condition until she gained an implant. At the same time, Alex perceived Maria was embarrassed to make the request.
Oliver sent in reply,
Alex sent a quick signal, and then he addressed Maria. “Pia is waiting for you, Maria. May the stars guide you.”
Maria stood quickly and hugged Alex, delivering a quick kiss to his cheek before she hurried out the door. Oliver nodded to Alex, as he passed, and ran to catch up with Maria and direct her to the medical suite.
Alex smiled, glanced at Julien, and said, “Oliver … trainer, games, and referee.”
Julien nodded and connected to Oliver. On the way out of the suite, Julien experienced a lift in spirit. The algorithms driving his pride were temporarily elevated in his hierarchy. Maria and Oliver needed each other. Now, their bond would grow deeper, with the aid of her implant.
Julien thought back to the early days, when a young New Terran captain, without an implant, struggled to understand his requests, which were needed to save the derelict starship, Rêveur. A jaunty cap sprang up on his head, projected by his synth-skin, and a lively whistle passed his lips.
* * *
The three junior New Terran captains had never been aboard a city-ship, and Alphons decided that they should see the grand garden. The foursome made their way along corridors, up lifts, and across decks.
“You said you were taking us to the central park, Captain Jagielski,” Drew Stevens said, when they exited the last lift to face the center of the park. “You didn’t say you were transporting us to the great outdoors.”
The captains belatedly stepped aside to allow others to access the lift. They stood staring at the flowering trees, which towered to the overhead.
