by Erica Rue
The call to Zane was open, but it was the AI’s voice coming over the line. She apparently had access to the manumeds now. Great.
“Another Venatorian ship has arrived,” the AI said.
“How much time until they come to the planet?” Lithia said.
“They are holding position.”
Lithia sighed in relief until she heard Zane’s response. He had heard the AI’s declaration as well.
“They’re waiting for more ships. How big is this one?” Zane asked.
“Invader class.”
Lithia cursed. That meant over two hundred Vens, and they were still holding position. How many more were on the way?
42. ZANE
Zane hit the turbulence just like Lithia said he would, and he struggled to maintain control. Lithia really did make flying look easier than it was, but he could handle it. Maybe Dione would have a little faith in him after this. He looked to Bel, whom he had strapped into the copilot seat, immobilizing her as best he could. He had carried her to the Calypso because she wouldn’t wake up, but Zane wasn’t going to think about what that meant. The medical bed had given her something to help her rest, but he didn’t know if this was normal. She gave no sign that she felt the turbulence, and why would she? She was unconscious. He had found some sort of mobile breathing device, but it was nothing like the medical bed she had been in.
“Don’t descend too quickly,” Lithia advised over the comm. “You want to go gradually, even though your instincts will tell you to go down fast and get out of the turbulence. That puts way too much stress on the ship.”
“Got it,” he said. She was right about instincts. He wanted to press on toward the surface and avoid the unpleasant rattling. The stabilizers at last adjusted to their new load, and the ride smoothed out.
“Don’t get comfy. There are a few more bumps along the way, and you’ve got to watch your own inputs, because the controls are going to feel like glue.”
What did that even mean? Zane wasn’t sure, but as he tried to maneuver toward the landing site, he got it. In space, a little thrust went a long way. In atmosphere, well, it was like running through water. It would be easy to overcompensate.
Extreme caution and admittedly good guidance from Lithia did get him to the landing site. Now only the hard part was left. Actually landing.
“Bring her down gently,” Lithia said, “then let her go at the last second. She’ll detect the ground and adjust.”
“What? Let go?”
“No, don’t —”
Immediately, the ship plummeted and Zane’s stomach was in his throat. He pulled back to slow his descent, and it worked.
“Your angle’s off. Readjust, now!”
Zane could see what was wrong. The moments of free fall had rotated the ship slightly, which meant he would not land properly. Not good. He could either fix his orientation or his speed, but not both, because he was still coming in too fast. Way too fast.
“I need to slow down first,” he said.
“No, the rotation’s more important! It’s the difference between landing really hard on your feet or hard on your face.”
Zane obeyed, righted the ship, then braced himself.
With a mighty thud and awful scraping, Zane landed the Calypso. He hoped it sounded worse than it was, because the hairs on his arms were standing on end. As soon as he was sure they’d stopped moving, he freed Bel from her restraints and carried her. Sweat soaked her forehead and she was burning up. Without the medical bed regulating her fever, he had no idea what her status was, beyond the general and alarming “very bad.”
Lithia helped carry Bel inside, and they set her on the table closest to the door. There was no time to lose.
Lithia rifled through her pack. “Where is it?” she said. “Oh, hell no.”
“What’s wrong? Where are the anti-parasitics?” Zane asked.
“Cora. I told her the Vens were coming. She must have taken the meds,” Lithia said, growing pale. He had never seen Lithia so overwhelmed.
“Where is she?” Zane asked, the panic in his voice mounting. They didn’t have the meds, and Bel’s fever was already dangerously high.
“I don’t see Evy either,” she said. “They’re probably with Dione. Come on.”
Zane followed her into the lift, looking back to where he left Bel’s motionless body. Soon, the doors opened again, revealing another hallway. A giant, red double door labeled Danger: Trained Personnel Only made their destination easy to find. Inside they found Dione and a young man he presumed to be Brian disconnecting some extremely large power cells from the main energy distribution center. Despite their lukewarm relationship, Zane was glad to see Dione.
Lithia spoke first, leaving no time for pleasantries. “Where’s Cora?”
“She’s not with you?” Brian asked.
“No, and the anti-parasitics are missing from my bag. Did you take them?”
“Of course not. Where’s Bel?” Dione said. Zane could detect the frustration in her voice. She and Lithia must be fighting again.
“Upstairs. We need those meds,” Zane said. A girl burst through the doors. She was out of breath, so Zane couldn’t understand her. By her age, Zane figured this was Evy.
“Evy, where is Cora?” Lithia asked.
“She said she was going to leave,” Evy said.
“I told her I would take you both home in the morning. Do you know where she might be hiding? I know you both have been exploring this place.”
Evy looked hesitant, but finally spoke. “We found something. It looked like a giant tractor. I’ve seen them before, but ours don’t work anymore.”
“Base, are there any vehicles here?” Zane said.
“Yes, I can send directions to the garage to your manumeds,” she replied. Not every room had an audio interface with the station computer, and the manumeds made communication easy. Before Zane could suggest it, Lithia was already removing her manumed and handing it to Brian.
“Here, this way we can stay in touch,” she said. He realized that Dione had probably never gotten a chance to retrieve her own manumed.
“Come on,” Zane said. “Bel’s running out of time.”
They followed the AI’s map and found themselves outside the garage. When they entered, Zane heard the mechanical whir of the external garage door opening. Early evening light filtered in, illuminating an all-terrain vehicle idling with its doors open overhead, like the wings of a bird in flight. Then he saw her, hunched over a control panel. With the noise, he thought they could sneak in, but Lithia charged straight for her.
When Cora turned, it became clear she had taken more than the meds. She held Lithia’s stun rifle, and at such close range, had no trouble hitting her target. Lithia stopped as if she had run into an invisible wall and dropped to the ground with a loud thump.
Zane immediately raised his hands. “Please, Cora, hold on.”
“Zane?” she asked. “I recognize your voice.”
“Yes, remember, the harbinger?”
Cora scoffed. “That was all a lie. Lithia told me everything. And now that you’ve brought the demons here with you, I need to get this medicine back home where Moira can replicate it.”
“I wasn’t lying about my friend. She’s upstairs, right now, you can see her. I only need one dose. The rest is yours. I’ll fly you home tonight, since Lithia is… indisposed.”
“Like I could trust anything you say. You tricked me into betraying my own father! I won’t let you do any more damage.”
She raised the rifle, but he managed to duck behind one of the vehicles before she got her shot off. He thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, but he was too afraid to take his attention from Cora. Maybe some wild animal had gotten into the garage. He had seen the kind of monsters they’d created on the space station computers. He didn’t know how many had been truly viable and able to reproduce, but there had been a few that were utterly terrifying.
He peeked around the vehicle and was m
et with another shot. Cora was making her way toward the open ATV. Could she even drive it?
“What about Evy?” he called. “She’s with Dione and Brian. Are you really going to leave her?”
“She said she wants to stay, and I’ve had enough of trying to get that girl to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” Cora replied. “You won’t hurt her.”
It was almost a question, but Zane couldn’t bring himself to threaten Evy, even if he didn’t mean it.
“Of course not. Cora, those ATVs are hard to maneuver, especially out here. How will you even find your way back? I promise you I will fly you home tonight after we give Bel one dose of the anti-parasitics.”
“The Base AI will give me instructions on where to go and how to drive.”
“This wasn’t the deal, Base,” he said.
“I will explain later,” the AI replied through his manumed.
“She can’t take those meds!” he yelled.
When Cora climbed in the ATV, Zane charged forward. She lifted the rifle to shoot, but he grabbed the barrel in time to redirect it. He pulled hard on the weapon, almost pulling her out with it, but suddenly she let go. Zane flew back and hit the floor. His vision blurred for a moment with pain, and by the time he scrambled to his feet, it was too late. Cora was gone. This couldn’t be happening. After everything, he wouldn’t let things end like this.
“Base, send me the same information you sent her.” He would tell Dione where to find Lithia once he was on his way. There was no time for any distractions.
“Wait!”
Zane turned to find the owner of the voice. Evy. She had followed him.
“There’s no time. She has the meds that will save my friend,” he said. His voice sounded strange. He was yelling. He hadn’t meant to raise his voice.
“No, I’ve got them.” Evy held up a small vial full of a clear liquid. It looked so boring and inconsequential that he could hardly believe that this was it, that this drug could save the girl he loved. Sometimes context was the only difference between ordinary and a miracle. Evy handed him the vial.
“How?” Zane asked, his voice catching in his throat. He had always known it, but that moment was the first time he had ever admitted it to himself. He loved Belen. Now he could save her.
“When you were arguing. Is Lithia—”
“She’ll be fine. I’ll come back for her soon, but Bel needs this now. Base, close the garage door.” He didn’t want anything coming in and attacking Lithia while she was out cold. Evy looked worried, so he said, “Will you stay here and keep an eye on her?”
Zane didn’t wait to hear her reply. He took the stairs, which were closer than the lift, two at a time. In no time, he grabbed an auto-injector from the Calypso. He came back inside and injected Bel with a dose of the anti-parasitics. He stared at her for a long time.
“Base, do you have a medical facility?”
“No, there is a small infirmary, but any serious ailments and injuries were handled on the station.”
“Do you know anything about the Venatorians?”
“My information is limited and probably out of date. Vens found this planet, and two survived their crash. They were killed by the colonists, before the civil war.”
There was so much to ask this AI, yet she spoke to him from his manumed. That was odd. He should have been able to communicate with her throughout the base, unless everyone who had worked here had manumeds, or something similar.
“Why isn’t there a central interaction system for communication?” He would have expected more hardware around to facilitate the AI’s monitoring and interaction with the Base and the people in it. Maybe she would tell him.
“This facility was not originally equipped with an AI.”
“I know, but why didn’t Jameson incorporate those systems when he installed the first AI?”
“I see you discovered the logs on the station. The original AI lacked the communication abilities I have. There was no need to install an interaction system because it could not use one. I was installed after he was already gone.”
If Jameson integrated the AI in order to monitor the sensors and weapons in case someone showed up, it wouldn’t have needed to communicate orally. But where did this AI come from?
“Why did you help Cora leave? Why didn’t you warn us?”
“My primary objective is to keep the colonists safe. The anti-parasitics can be replicated at the Vale Base.”
“And we’re not technically colonists?”
“No. Cora convinced me that returning her and the medicine to her people would keep them safe.”
“So you just protect the Aratians?”
“No, I protect both groups.”
“Why is that? Wouldn’t Jameson want you only to help the Aratians?”
“I do not do what Jameson wanted. My objective is to protect the colonists.”
“Who installed you here?”
The AI paused. “The Architect.”
“Samantha Myers.”
“Dr. Samantha Myers was known as the Architect, yes.”
Zane had guessed as much, but it was nice to have it confirmed.
“That explains why Jameson didn’t install the interaction system then. Why didn’t she? How did a biologist create a new AI?”
“It was more of an enhancement. She had to make use of what she had on hand.” Well, that was delightfully vague. Something didn’t feel right about this AI. Before he could ask more questions, he heard the lift reach their floor. Dione and the same guy from the power supply room, covered in sweat, came down the hallway.
“I gave Bel the meds. We just need to wait and see.” Dione hugged him, which caught him more off guard than anything else.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “for being such a jerk before.”
“It’s okay,” he said. The muscular guy stepped forward, his long hair a stark contrast to Zane’s close-cut shave. “You must be Brian.”
Brian nodded and sized him up. “And you must be Zane. I’ve heard a lot about you. Think you can fix the Icon?”
“I’ll do my best,” he said. Brian smiled, but he seemed no less tense. Zane couldn’t blame him.
Dione looked around. “Where’s Lithia? Where are Cora and Evy?”
“Crap,” he said, jumping up. “Cora hit Lithia with the stun rifle before escaping. She’s still in the garage. Evy’s watching her.”
“Cora escaped?” Brian said. “We’ve got to stop her.”
“I don’t think we can. Plus, we’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”
“So you know about the second ship?” Dione asked. Apparently the AI had told them, too.
“Yeah, I heard, but now I’m more worried about what the final count will be.”
The AI spoke calmly. “The final count is three. They have begun their approach. Based on the specifications of this charging matrix, the installation must be completed in two hours in order to leave sufficient time to charge and prime the Icon.”
43. DIONE
The AI was insistent. “The schedule is already tight. There is no time to waste.”
Dione felt the panic welling up, but she pushed it down.
“Understood. Brian, will you go get Lithia? I need Zane’s help removing the charging matrix, since he’s the one that rigged it to work in the first place.”
Evy came running into the room. “Did you forget?”
“No, Brian was just about to come help. Here, Evy, take this and keep an eye on Bel. Let Brian know if there’s any change,” Zane said, handing her his manumed. “Thank you. Without your help, Bel would be dead.”
Evy smiled at that and nodded, glad to have helped. Dione wished she had been that impressive when she was ten. Evy had this way of watching so quietly, you didn’t know she was there.
Once they were safely on board the Calypso, Zane spoke. “Something’s up with that AI. I don’t know what, but we need to be careful.”
“What are you talking about?”
Zane explained about Cora’s escape and the AI’s mysterious origin.
“That makes sense, though, that she would help Cora if her mission is to protect the colonists,” Dione said.
“I know you haven’t spent a lot of time around AIs, but the ships I grew up on had them. They have limitations built in, like they cannot lie.”
“She didn’t lie, not exactly,” Dione said.
“She’s deceptive. Her programming shouldn’t allow her to do that. Something about her seems… off. I can’t explain it. It’s just this feeling, like when you know something is wrong, even when you can’t say why.”
“Like hoverflies.”
“What?” he said.
“Bel was telling me about them. They’re flies that have bee-like markings for protection, to scare off predators.”
“Why else would they look like bees?”
“More nefarious motives, like infiltrating a hive. We just need to figure out what the AI really wants.”
“The Base is too free for an average AI,” he said.
“What does that mean?” Dione asked.
“She’s not bound by the usual programming constraints put in place that prevent things like deception and the sophisticated decision making we’ve seen, like connecting to my manumed the second I walked in the door. She didn’t ask permission.”
“She did the same to Lithia,” she said. “Before she even spoke to us.”
“She may be harmless, but keep your guard up. Based on some logs I found on the station, I think that the Architect did something to the Base AI, but she didn’t really have the right background to make something this complex.”
“All right, I trust you.”
Dione watched his shoulders relax a little. She hadn’t known he spent so much time on ships. AIs were strictly regulated on core planets, so she rarely encountered them, and when she did, they were little more than glorified assistants. On freighters and colonies, they were often essential, though there were still restrictions. The penalties for untethered AIs were extreme, but people’s own fears and superstitions kept these infractions to a minimum. Zane was picking up on something, and she wouldn’t take his warning for granted. Plus, the AI gave her the creeps.
