Lyssa's Run_A Hard Science Fiction AI Adventure
Page 13
Rina crossed her arms again but didn’t say anything about leaving.
“Yeah?” Harm said, looking around the tiny room again. “Good news is that the coffee maker is working for the time being, and we’ve got a fresh shipment of protein substitute. So we’ll eat moderately well, at least. And we’ve got about four thousand cubic liters of beer in the secondary radiation shield.”
Harm pushed herself to her feet. She swayed a little, confirming that the captain was indeed still drunk.
“Shouldn’t that shield be full of water?” Rina asked.
“It’s all the same thing. Beer keeps the bacteria from growing. It’s an ancient practice, you know. Dates back to sea-faring times.”
“UV filters keep bacteria from growing,” Rina said.
“So filter it a few more times and distill the alcohol out,” Harm said. “Easy. Best of both worlds.”
Chafri shrugged. “Sounds pretty smart to me,” he said.
“Of course, it would,” Rina replied, somehow crossing her arms even more firmly.
Brit nearly laughed aloud, glad for something to distract her from the memories of 8221. She stretched her neck. “You going to send me those coordinates, Captain? I’ll get the course laid in and do the calculations for Ceres.”
“Sure,” Harm said. She put a hand on the table to steady herself. “I’m going to go get some sleep while you all get us ready to ship out.”
The others filed out, leaving Brit with Harm. Rina shook her head as if she thought they were doomed.
Harm stared into the distance for a minute, apparently accessing her Link. When Brit didn’t receive anything, she tapped the captain on the arm.
“Are you sending the coordinates?” she asked.
Harm started. “Coordinates? Sure, I’ll forward the whole job packet. Sure. There it is.”
Brit nodded as she received the information, a standard set of charts, along with the contract, something Harm probably didn’t want to share with the crew since it showed what she was getting paid. Harm was too drunk to realize what she’d done.
“Thanks, Captain,” Brit said. “I’ll get it laid in.”
“And I’m going to lie down.”
“You need help?” Brit asked.
Harm reached for the chair and sat down again. She lay her head in her arms on the table and was snoring before Brit could ask if she needed help again.
Brit looked around the shabby galley and back at Harm. All things considered, these didn’t seem to be bad people. She hoped they didn’t get killed before everything was done.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
STELLAR DATE: 09.14.2981 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Mars 1 Port Authority Terminal 983-A4
REGION: Mars 1 Ring, Mars Protectorate, InnerSol
From his physiological responses, Lyssa assumed Andy was freaking out. He didn’t respond as she would have expected. Instead, his emotions went flat in a way she remembered from when they had been running from the swarms of Heartbridge attack drones outside Cruithne. His heartbeat actually slowed. His breaths grew deeper and drew out longer. He wasn’t trying to relax. Every muscle from his stomach to his arms and legs tensed as though he was ready to spring.
Currently, he was running down a narrow access tunnel on the outer edge of one of the thousands of Mars 1 ports of entry, looking for some way to bypass the main terminal and reach Sunny Skies, which had successfully disconnected from its docking ring and was running a station-keeping burn. Lyssa didn’t see how they were ever going to get back to the ship now. She found her attention occupied by Em, the puppy who desperately wanted out of Tim’s arms so he could run along beside them. The dog appeared to think all of this was a game.
She found herself considering these different types of perception: how each thing in the corridor must perceive what was happening based on their different levels of understanding and comprehension, when Fred knocked on her barrier again.
Lyssa said.
The Ring’s AI went quiet.
Andy reached the puppy and scooped it into his arms. He tucked it into his shipsuit against his chest and turned to grab Tim’s hand. Em immediately started scratching Andy’s stomach to get out. Stabbing pain shot through his mind.
Lyssa considered that. Earlier Fred had made it seem as though he never had meaningful communication with other AIs.
Andy had reached another junction and was obviously unsure which way to go. For a while, it seemed they were heading deeper into the body of the Ring. Hatches lined either side of the narrow corridor, marked only by numbers and no indicator of what lay on the other side. They had finally given up on trying to carry Em. The puppy was running along behind and nearly skidded into a bulkhead when he couldn’t find purchase on the alloy floors. Tim had started sobbing as he ran, tears leaking from his eyes, but Lyssa couldn’t tell what had made him upset or if it was going to get worse.
Lyssa received the map as Andy did. She quickly assembled their local section of the Ring and was able to cross-locate the maintenance tunnel where they were standing. She was about to share the information with Andy but found he already had it.
Lyssa felt a flare of anger.
on’t concern myself with local security issues. A ship wants to disconnect to avoid docking fees, it means nothing to me.>
Andy was choosing directions more confidently now. He grabbed the puppy and led Tim down a vertical shaft connecting two floors. The puppy whined as he held it one hand and navigated the ladder with the other.
“We’re almost there, Tim,” Andy was saying. “We’re almost there. You’re going to run out of tears if you keep this up, little man. You run out of tears, what are you going to do when you’re really happy, huh?”
Tim nodded and wiped his face but didn’t seem able to stop himself.
They emerged in a poorly lit tunnel with puddles on the floor. Pipes along the walls seeped water.
“It smells like mold,” Tim complained.
“Just a little bit of greenery,” Andy said.
Andy grabbed Tim’s hand again and pulled him through the puddles. The puppy splashed happily behind them, following.
Andy shook his head.
Lyssa said.
Fred fell silent and Lyssa turned her attention back to Andy, Tim and the puppy. They had slowed a little. Tim was getting tired and the puppy was constantly stopping to nose around in some corner. It would have been cute if it wasn’t slowing them down. These corridors were older than those closer to the terminal. The bulkheads were warped in places and corrosion showed where moisture had been seeping for hundreds of years. They passed a wall covered in cascading shades of minerals from centuries of dripping water.
Lyssa said.
She remembered her time in the dark, living only for the exercises with Dr. Jickson. She recalled her longing for another voice in the world of her mind, just to know she wasn’t alone.
Lyssa said.
she said.
Andy nodded even though Fran couldn’t see him.
Andy turned a corner and abruptly they were facing a corroded airlock. The rectangular structure was covered in moss from the leaking walls and decades of temperature fluctuations. He wiped the dusty control panel and tapped indicators with his thumb.
Lyssa was about to point out a storage locker on the opposite side of the airlock from the control panel when Andy spotted it. The door squealed as he pulled it open. Three dusty EV suits hung inside, their faceplates tilted toward the floor.
“Dad?” Tim asked, voice high with fear. “What happened?”
“Where are you, buddy? Come here.” Andy groped in the dark until he found Tim and pulled him closer. The puppy whined nearby.
“Can you see Em?” Tim asked.
Andy knelt beside Tim. “Em?” he called, as if the dog might know its name already. “Em, come here.”
Lyssa was surprised when the puppy found Andy’s extended hand in the dark and licked his fingers. It tickled.
“You hang onto him,” Andy told Tim. “You can let him stay on the floor but don’t let him run off again.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m going to take a look at these suits. Let’s hope they’ve still got some juice in them.”
“Are we going outside?”
“We may have to.”
Lyssa smiled to herself. Andy was right. Maybe Fred’s attempt to stop them was going to end up helping.
Andy turned back to the locker and felt around among the suits until he found a control unit. After a minute of feeling out the inputs, he pressed what he thought was a main power switch. Nothing happened.
“Dad,” Tim whispered. “I hear sounds down the tunnel.”
Andy froze, listening. Lyssa attempted to isolate sounds but didn’t find anything other than dripping water.
“I don’t hear anything,” Andy said. “But you keep listening, all right? I don’t think anybody’s here, but you keep guard. I’m going to get these suits working.”
“Are we going through the airlock?” Tim asked.
“I don’t you
know yet. Keep an eye on Em.”
“I can’t see him.”
“Keep a hold on him. You know what I mean.”
Andy found the shoulder of the nearest suit and worked his way down to the wrist.
Fran seemed to enjoy his sarcasm, which confused Lyssa. She waited as Andy pressed each of a series of small buttons lining a plate on the suit’s wrist. The last switch finally generated a blinking yellow light on the main control panel on the suit’s chest. The light filled the tunnel, falling on Tim’s face where he held Em against his stomach.
Fred said.
Lyssa lied. She had decided she couldn’t trust Fred. She didn’t want to talk to him any more than she had to in order to get off the ring.
Fred replied tonelessly.