by Scott Baron
“I know.”
“Sarah saw her, didn’t she?” Freya asked. “My scans show that is a minorly enhanced female with a damaged AI processor in her head. It’s Fatima.”
“Yeah, Freya, we know.”
Daisy watched her friend––who was not yet her friend––struggle as she gathered several corpses near the open base doors. The trail dug into the soil leading there was clearly from her efforts to bring Sid’s unplugged AI cube into the facility.
A pile of charred bodies lay by the wreck of her immensely damaged ship.
The ones she took the oxygen units from, Daisy realized. That means––
Fatima faltered, stumbling to her knees.
“Daisy, I’m reading an elevated heart rate. I know she’s exerting herself, but this isn’t normal.”
“She’s running out of air, Freya,” Daisy said. “This is where she does it.”
“Does what?”
“What makes her so badass,” she replied. “When she ran out of air before she was able to activate Sid to seal the base, she sliced open the space suits of the dead to breathe the air trapped inside.”
“But that means she’d have to take her helmet off.”
“Yep. Like I said––badass.”
Fatima struggled to her feet, a pair of bodies in tow. It was clear, even through the space suit, that she was fighting with every ounce of strength she possessed. The strong-willed woman paused as she made what Daisy knew was the hardest choice she’d ever made. Then, in one quick motion, she pulled off her helmet, the near-toxic air within crystallizing into a mist around her.
She wasted no time, slicing open the wrist seal of the dead man’s suit and pressing it to her already-blistering lips.
Fatima took several steps forward, dragging the corpses with her, her eyes pressed tightly shut against the freezing cold before she stumbled to her knees once more. With the greatest of efforts she rose to her feet again, her cheeks sucking fiercely on the depleted suit.
With no time to spare, she dropped the corpse and pulled the other body’s arm to her face, slicing it open with weak hands. She barely managed to wrap her lips around the life-giving trickle of oxygen before she stumbled and fell once more.
It did not look like she would be able to get up again.
“Daze, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think she’s going to make it.”
“No, she’ll make it. She has to. She already did. No one can interfere. This is history.” But watching her friend struggle, Daisy was beginning to have serious doubts of her own.
Come on, Fatima. Come on.
“Daisy, Fatima’s vitals are redlining,” Freya informed her, a tinge of panic in her voice. “Are you sure this is how it happened?”
“It has to be,” she replied, but Daisy was already on her feet, quickly slapping on a light EVA suit, the very act betraying her growing doubts.
Fatima tried to move, but it was obvious she simply couldn’t.
“Daisy!”
“I know! Freya, get in there, quick, and deploy the soft-seal over Fatima!”
“But it’s not meant for––”
“Just do it!”
“Okay. Hang on!”
The ship bolted forward, flipping on its side in the low-g environment. The soft-seal ship-to-ship docking tube was not designed to mesh with soil, but it encompassed the woman nonetheless.
“Flood it with oxygen. I’m going out that airlock,” Daisy said as she latched on her helmet and took off with an emergency oxygen mask in her hands.
“Okay, I’m diverting oxygen. But be careful, the seal is shifting all over the place since it’s not latched on to a solid surface.”
The airlock cycled quickly, and Daisy dropped the distance to the soil beside her friend.
Jesus, look at her.
Fatima’s lips were nearly gone from the cold when Daisy pulled the pierced suit from her mouth and slid the oxygen mask over her face. Her ears and nose were likewise damaged, but there was nothing to do for that until she was safe.
“Okay, I’ve got her. Retract the seal. I’m taking her inside.”
“But the base is powered down.”
“I know. I need you to pull up fast-boot schematics. They’re in the files you stole from Sid.”
“I-I didn’t steal––”
“Now’s not the time, Freya. Do it.”
“Okay. Ready.”
“We don’t have time for a full boot of Sid. We need just enough to make the base recognize an AI is present and seal the doors. That should trigger emergency environmentals to activate once it registers vital signs.”
“I’ve sent the sequence to your suit tablet, Daisy,” Freya replied.
“Good girl, Freya. You’re doing great.” She hauled her friend up over her shoulder in the reduced gravity and started running. “I want you to scan her and start putting together a life support and repair protocol packet for the base’s medical systems. Once it’s online, I want you to embed it in the system.”
“I already started, Daisy.”
“Excellent. I’ll be inside straightaway. Be ready.”
Daisy made good time, already used to laboring in the moon’s low gravity already, courtesy of the very woman she was now carrying.
Oh, if you only knew, Fatima, she mused, grimly.
She stepped into the open door, manually sealing the exterior one behind her. The interior door would remain open until the systems were back online, but at least the base would be able to hold a breathable environment, even without the double door safety engaged.
It was a painfully long trek to the base’s protected AI cradle housing unit, but it was easy enough to find, even in the dim emergency lighting, thanks to the scrapes on the floor from Fatima’s Herculean efforts.
“She already plugged it in, Daze,” Sarah observed.
I see it, she replied. It looks like she didn’t have the boot sequence.
“Freya, confirming this is the fast-boot protocol you sent me, correct?”
“Yeah, that’s it, Daisy.”
“And it won’t boot Sid’s full consciousness, right?”
“No. Just minimal power to activate the base’s systems.”
“Good. This version of Sid doesn’t know us yet, and his last memory before being blasted down to the moon was his ship and entire fleet being destroyed by aliens. Not someone we want to wake up too suddenly.”
“Yeah. He’ll power on in approximately six hours, full consciousness will occur at six and a half.”
“More than enough time,” she said, keying in the boot sequence.
A low hum emitted from the AI’s powerful housing as it connected with the base. As a command ship AI, the top-secret facility recognized Sid as an authorized military AI and completed the initiation handshake.
“Power should come on in ten seconds, Daisy. Environmentals will follow almost immediately,” Freya informed her.
No sooner had she finished her transmission than the lights blossomed to full power and the oxygen scrubbers began sucking dust from the air as the subterranean ice field was fed into the reactor, breaking the hydrogen and oxygen into their respective molecules.
Three minutes later, the base’s atmosphere was at inhabitable levels.
Daisy pulled off her helmet and dropped it to the deck, removing the fogging oxygen face-mask on her friend.
“She’s so young,” Daisy gasped, seeing her friend as she’d never seen her before.
“She can’t be over twenty-five.”
“I know, Sarah. Now we just have to wait a few hundred years, till the time we finally meet her.”
Daisy picked up her injured friend and began carrying her to the medical facilities.
“Freya, can you tie in to the base yet?”
“Yeah, I’m dialed in, Daisy,” the disembodied voice said over the base speakers instead of Daisy’s comms.
“Okay, load up that stem-cell repair protocol. I’m almost there.”
&n
bsp; “It’s already done,” Freya replied.
“Good. You’re doing a great job, Freya. I’m proud of you,” Daisy said, pushing the doors to the medical labs open.
“Thanks, Daisy. What do you and Sarah think about maybe adding some gene therapy to the protocol too?”
Fatima shifted and groaned slightly as Daisy gently lowered her into the medical repair pod.
“You’re going to be okay, Fatima. Hang in there.”
Her mentor-to-be made no reply.
“Freya, if we modify the system to provide gene therapy and stem cell treatments, we’ll be interfering with her timeline even more.”
“Technically, you just interfered about as much as is humanly possible, Daze.”
“I know.”
“Did Sarah just tell you that you already interfered?” Freya asked.
“Smart kid. You and my dead sister are going to have a ball if you can get that neuro unit working so you can talk directly.”
“I know, right?” Freya said, brightly.
“Well––” Daisy hesitated. “What the hell. She’s in pretty bad shape, and seeing as how she’s going to be stuck here a long, long time, we might as well give her a little head start while she’s still unaware we’re doing it.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“Link in to Sid’s network and monitor to make sure he doesn’t come to full awareness before we’re out of here.”
“Done.”
“You’re getting faster and faster, kiddo.”
“I know. Cool, right?”
“Yeah. Now fire up the food replicators while I clean this place up a little and help the medbots set up to get these wounds dressed and fix her ruined lips. She’ll be hungry when she wakes up, so we should make sure there’s plenty of liquid and soft foods ready for her so she doesn’t have to figure the system out while on the mend.”
“Okay, Daisy. I’m on it.”
The machinery warmed up and inserted fine needles into Fatima’s inert form, pumping healing stem cells and soothing medications into her system in the first of the many rounds of repairs her frostbitten body would need to endure.
“Abandnnn shpp,” Fatima mumbled, then slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Shhh. Don’t worry, Fatima, you’re safe now. Sleep, and heal. You’re going to be okay. Better than okay, I’d wager.”
“Daisy?”
“Yes, Freya?
“Does this make a paradox? I mean, you said we couldn’t interact with the past, and you––I mean, we all just interacted a whole lot.”
“I don’t know, kiddo, but Fatima is my friend, and without her training, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Hell, I’d never have found you, for that matter.”
“But did we just prevent that from happening?”
Daisy looked at her hands in the sterile light of the medlab.
“Well, we haven’t faded from existence, so I think we’re good.”
“Then maybe we were supposed to do this all along.”
“I honestly don’t know, but that’s something you and me are going to have a long talk about once we’re back in our own time.”
An alarm sounded, the shrill tone piercing the calm of the moment.
“There’s an air leak, Daisy!”
“Shit. Seal this room, now! My helmet is back in the AI chamber.”
Daisy took off at a run as the doors sealed behind her.
“Where is it, Freya?” she asked as she snatched up her helmet from the floor and latched it into place.
“Corridor three. Looks like a foot-long breach has formed in the weakened metal.”
“Got it. I’ll grab the welder and get on it. Monitor the rest of the base, and let me know if there are any other critical issues.”
The welder was exactly where Daisy knew it would be. Even hundreds of years later, equipment still had its proper place, and that particular unit she was very familiar with.
“Scrap metal patches over on the shelf to your left, Daze.”
“Thanks, Sis,” she replied, grabbing a long piece and racing back to seal the leak.
Daisy recognized the location of the leak as she quickly slapped the metal against the wall and fired up the welder. It was one of the many damaged areas that Fatima had repaired during her long stay on Dark Side Base.
“Laying dimes, there, Daze,” Sarah said as the metal began bonding to the wall.
Fatima taught me well.
“Maybe, but you were already pretty good with a welder even before Dark Side.”
Less than fifteen minutes later the breach was sealed, the cold of the exterior near-vacuum rapidly cooling the weld.
Daisy removed the safety mask and looked over her work.
Not bad for a rush job, she mused, running her finger over the weld.
Her pulse quickened when her fingers slid across the one, and only, imperfection in the seam.
“What is it?”
A flush of adrenaline pulsed into her system.
“Sarah, I made that weld.”
“I know. I was watching.”
“No, you don’t understand. I’ve looked at this weld before. In the future.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“Then that means––”
“Freya was right. No paradox. I was always supposed to weld this. I always have.” Daisy’s head began to spin ever so slightly at the realization. “What does that even mean for free will? Oh man, this is a total mind-fuck.”
“Clock’s ticking, Sis. We can all freak out once we’re clear of Dark Side, 'cause we sure don’t want to be here when Sid wakes up.”
“You’re right. Hey, Freya, how’s the rest of the base?”
“There are a few minor leaks, but nothing pressing.”
“You have to leave, Daze. I know it’s hard, but Fatima is safe, now, and she has to do the rest of this on her own.”
“Yeah,” Daisy said, reluctantly. “Freya, set down by the doors. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
Daisy quick-timed it back to the medical facilities to check in on her friend one final time before she left her to a long and lonely life on the moon.
Fatima’s color––where the skin hadn’t frozen to a disturbing black that would be excised shortly by mechanical laser scalpels––was much better, as oxygen and healing fluids flooded her system.
“Whooo-the...” Fatima mumbled.
“Relax, Fatima. Your body needs to heal.”
“Yew...”
“Shhh. This is just a dream. You did it. You got the base turned back on all by yourself, and then climbed into the med pod. When you wake up, your body will be healing, but you’ll also have to put your mind at ease.”
Daisy thought a moment.
“Just remember, soft is strong. Don’t fight the power within you. Embrace it and let it flow.”
“Daisy, I’m outside and ready to go,” Freya said over the base speakers, comfortably taking over its firewalled systems like it was nothing.
“Thanks, Freya. I’ll be there soon.”
“Sweet! Tell Sarah I think I may have figured out the neuro link, too.”
“Already? Cool!”
“Well, she’s living in my head, you know––and therefore shares my ears––so you technically just told her yourself,” Daisy said with a little laugh. “But in any case, she says, ‘cool.’”
Daisy turned and walked out of the lab, leaving her friend to a long and restorative sleep.
“Hey, Freya,” she said as she walked for the exit. “Would you please load everything you have on meditative practices into Sid’s peripheral memory stores? I think Fatima might find it very enlightening once she’s recovered.”
Stepping out onto the surface of the moon, Daisy paused and looked over the desolate place she’d so recently learned to call home. Fatima had done yeoman’s work repairing it over the years, and Daisy had been the lucky recipient of the benefits of those labors.
There were so many bodies to gather, so many repairs to be made, but Sarah had been right. Fatima became the woman she was by persevering and overcoming those obstacles. Much as she wanted to smooth the road for her, Daisy simply could not.
“Freya? Sarah? I find myself wondering something and want to get your opinions on it,” Daisy said as she stepped into the airlock and removed her helmet and space suit.
“What is it?” Freya asked, her curiosity piqued.
“It’s this paradox thing,” Daisy replied.
“Uh-oh. I think I see where this is going.”
“Maybe. So, here’s the thing. At first, I was afraid of creating a paradox by helping Fatima. Hell, I was sure I was fucking things up in the future in some way by going where I wasn’t supposed to be. But then circumstances forced me to not only save her, but also to make some emergency repairs.”
“Well, you could argue that she wouldn’t have stayed saved if the whole base decompressed again.”
“But it didn’t decompress.”
“What about decompression?” Freya asked.
“Sarah said that Fatima wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t been forced to weld that repair plate.”
“Oh, yeah. I totally get it now,” Freya said as she gently lifted off.
“Thought you would,” Daisy said, proudly. “But the mind-fuck is that I know that weld. I’ve stopped and looked at it a hundred times back on Dark Side. Our Dark Side, that is. And it’s the same weld with the same small flaw. That means that all this time, since before I was even born, before I ever wound up on the moon, I was the one who made that weld.”
“I see what you mean,” Sarah said. “Total mind-fuck.”
“So do we actually have free will? What limitations do I have on what I can do? There’s no roadmap for this sort of thing.”
“Well, maybe you can change some things, but not others. Maybe just the small ones.”
“But saving Fatima wasn’t small.”
“No, but you told her it was a dream and that she did it all herself. So you’re the one who established that in her mind.”
“But what can I change that isn’t ambiguous like that?” Daisy thought a minute as she stared out over the corpses scattered around the base.
“Freya, take us down over by the crater near Hangar Two,” Daisy said, putting her space suit back on again.
