by Scott Baron
“I said we wipe them out.”
“The other bit.”
“We flip the script on them.”
“Oh shit,” Daisy said as a lightbulb went on in her mind. “I wonder...”
“Wonder what?” Sarah asked.
A smile began to form on Daisy’s face as an idea blossomed.
“Freya, can you fabricate a neural connection reversal circuit that would be compatible with this piece of Ra’az tech?”
“I think I can. But my mechs and fabrication units are kinda busy right now. Is it urgent?”
“No,” Daisy replied. “But when you are able, I want you to see if you can whip one up that will fit within this thing,” she said, sliding the power whip gauntlet into Freya’s nearest scanning compartment.
“What are you going to do, Daze?”
“I’m going to flip the script. Or in this case, the signal, basically.”
“You’re going to reverse the polarity. Brilliant!” Sarah said.
Yes. Thank you, Doctor Who. Polarity reversal is precisely the idea.
“You’re going to make it mistakenly read your calm as aggression?” Sarah realized.
“That’s what I said.”
“Other You said the same thing,” Daisy relayed. “But yes. I’m going to trick the thing into working like the Chithiid one without realizing it’s doing it.”
“And you’re good at that one, so you should have no problem making the Ra’az version work.”
“I hope so, Sis. Time will tell.”
The path cleared beneath the cities of Denver and Colorado Springs, Daisy and Sarah’s self-imposed task of silent aid was complete. If not overtly butting into her own timeline, Daisy rationalized that she could at least ensure that past Daisy would have a reasonably smooth time of it.
Now she and her new team of her sister––both living and dead––and her rapidly maturing kid, needed to focus on the rapidly approaching convergence of timelines.
“We’re too close to attempt a jump in time,” Daisy said as they discussed their next moves. “I mean, we could try it, but if we’re off, we might wind up passing where we meant to arrive, and then that could open up a whole new can of worms. Do you guys agree?”
“Your point is a good one, Daze.”
“I don’t know,” Freya said. “I think I can do it, now that I’ve had time to really go over the results.”
“I’m with Daisy on this one, kid,” Sarah said. “It’s not that I don’t trust your intentions, and Lord knows you’ve got a hell of a lot more brain power than any of us do, but I’m thinking we should save anything remotely experimental for after the bazillion crises on the horizon are dealt with. Like, what do we do once we win the battle? There’s still a war to win.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, actually,” Daisy said. “We can do something that will set us up to be sitting pretty in case the Ra’az return.”
“Oh? What were you thinking?”
“It depends on Freya, really.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you, kiddo. Were you monitoring my team when we made the run to that silo in Montana?”
“You know I was.”
“Hey, just because you eavesdropped on Sid’s conversations doesn’t mean you listened in to everything,” Daisy replied. “So, you know what our mission was. Besides turning the access keys for Joshua.”
“Yeah. But we wouldn’t even need it if you’d let me save him.”
“Freya, we’ve talked about this. We simply cannot stop that mountain from going nuclear. It’s fixed history.”
“Yeah, but––”
“No buts. And believe me, I’d save him if we could, but this mission right now? It’s not about him. It’s about getting what’s on the encrypted master code keycard. Now, we can’t actually steal it––that would stop the team heading to Montana from getting their hands on it in the past, and who knows what havoc that could wreak on our timelines.”
“Nothing good, I’m sure,” Sarah noted.
“Likely not. But here’s my idea. If Freya can decrypt the key and store the codes without needing to keep the keycard itself, we’ll have command access over the hypersonic missiles once our timelines catch up.”
“But won’t you need to get that master code keycard in the first place? And wouldn’t it be locked in a high-security safe?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, it is. It would take a couple of days’ worth of attempts to crack that thing open.”
“Then we’re screwed. You said your team will be heading there in a day.”
“Yes. But I don’t need a couple of days.”
“Before you ask, the answer is yes, I do see the safe combination in your mind.”
As do I, Sis.
“Photographic memory, aided by a dead girl’s recall. Not a bad team, you and me.”
Not bad at all, Daisy silently replied with a grin.
“I know that smile. What’s Other Me saying?”
“Just that we know the combination to the safe.”
“Well, shit,” Sarah said, surprised. “Now that actually is pretty impressive.”
“Thought you’d like it.”
“So, then. We need to get our butts to Montana lickety-split.”
“Lickety-split?”
“You said you were bringing back old-timey sayings,” Sarah said with a laugh. “Just doing my part.”
Daisy burst into laughter, joining her sister’s mirth.
“Okay, that settles it. Freya, you know the coordinates. Get us to Conrad.”
The stealth ship lifted off from her sheltered resting place and plotted a quick course to the silo just outside the sleepy little town in Montana. Twenty minutes later, they were on the ground, Freya gently hovering nearby.
“Any sign of a secondary entrance, Freya?”
“Nothing, Daisy.”
“Sonofabitch,” she grumbled.
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault, kiddo. Just shitty luck. Okay, then, I guess it looks like we do this the hard way. That means pumping the water out of the elevator shaft, making the retrieval run, then pumping the water back in.”
“Awesome,” Sarah said, sarcasm dripping like the foul water soon would be. “We need a pump, Daisy.”
“Easy. There’s one over here,” she replied, pulling back the aged canvas.
The pump was gone.
Or more correctly, it had never been there.
“Motherf––” Daisy cursed. “Dammit. Freya, is there a hardware store in any of the nearby towns that might still be intact?”
“There’s a small one in Bozeman.”
“Okay. Let’s make a hop and see if they’ve got what we need.”
The flight took minutes, Freya depositing Daisy and Sarah within a block of a long-dead supply house.
“All right, we’re looking for a pump and a hose,” Daisy said.
“Looks like most of the stuff in this place rusted out decades ago,” Sarah noted. “Look at the ceiling. Snow melt must’ve taken that part down. The elements have been at work in here for a long time.”
The store, while dusty from centuries of neglect, still housed a fair amount of now-vintage tools and machinery. Much of it had rusted to junk or cracked with age, including the several sizes of sump pumps that were indeed in stock, but nowhere near functional condition. Most had rusted into solid slabs of metal by this point.
A filthy pile of grease from a large can that had fallen off a high shelf caught Daisy’s eye.
I wonder.
Sticking her fingers into the murky mess, she pulled free a well-preserved pump, though it would need the grease thoroughly cleaned out before being able to function.
“Freya, can your nanites do a refurbish job on this? Fix the cracked seals and strip the grease out of it?”
“Shouldn’t be a big deal,” she replied.
“You’re the best. About how long do you think it’ll take?”
Freya paused, calculating the varia
bles. Despite the speed she could have run the numbers in, she was still in the habit of trying to do things in human-time whenever talking with non-AIs.
“It’ll be about twenty minutes to do it right. And another twenty to have them repair a hose. You’ll need to bring a couple of extra ones for them to cannibalize for rubber, though.”
“Will do, kid,” Sarah said, slinging crackling hoses over her shoulders. “Okay, Daze. Let’s get crackin’.”
“Hang on a sec,” Daisy said, as she picked up a heavy coil of cable. “Quick detour,” she said with a knowing grin. “Then we’ll hit the silo.”
The cable safely tucked in the cabin of the abandoned equipment hauler just outside moments later, the sisters then set to work on the keycard retrieval. Things went surprisingly smoothly, with Freya storing the siphoned water to put back in place when they re-sealed the silo.
That was, of course, after copying the master code keycard and replacing it in the TS-SCI safe in the belly of the facility.
As she pumped it back into the elevator shaft, Sarah winced from the awful stench of long-stagnant water.
“Sorry, Freya,” Sarah apologized. “I know it stinks.”
“Nah, it’s okay,” the chipper AI replied. “It’ll only take a few seconds to divert my drive overflow through the waste water storage system and burn it clean.”
“Um, are you sure that’s safe?”
“Don’t see why not,” she replied, completely unconcerned with the unconventional––and likely dangerous––process she was about to commence.
Daisy dropped the pump with a clang and called out to her sister. “Hey, Sarah, come here and help me pack this thing in grease.”
“Why? We’re done with it.”
“Trust me.”
Grudgingly, Sarah joined her on the ground, carefully packing grease into every nook and cranny, then stowing the pump and hose under the now-grease-soaked piece of burlap.
“Perfect,” Daisy said, satisfied. “Let’s clean up and get the hell out of here.”
Sarah wiped her hands on a rag and dusted off her pants.
“Best idea you’ve had in hours.”
Chapter Eighteen
Watching herself and her team crossing the river far below on Freya’s feeds as the ship easily rose toward the edges of the atmosphere, Daisy couldn’t help but feel a wash of nostalgia for the experience.
“Good old George,” she said, softly.
“Yeah, he was a pretty cool dude,” Sarah agreed.
“Even for a cyborg,” Daisy added with a wry but wistful smile.
Twisting around in her seat, Sarah adjusted the thin band she wore on her head. “Hang on, I almost got something, there. Say it again.”
“I said he was a pretty cool dude.”
“Uh, something is a shitty pool?”
“Not quite,” Sarah chuckled.
“Sorry, Sis, that was still a bit off,” Daisy agreed.
“I think it’s gonna take a little longer to get the brain waves dialed in, Sarah,” Freya noted.
“Any idea how long?”
“Nah. Beats me. You two are supposed to have the same brain waves, but since your timelines are all out of whack, so are each of your brains.”
“But you can still hear me.”
“Well, yeah. But that’s just me reading you, not relaying and transmitting real time to the other you.”
“But you can still hear her, so half the problem is solved,” Sarah added.
“Hey, you heard her?”
“No. Just deductive reasoning based on what you said, kid.”
“Oh.”
“Keep at it, Freya. I’ve got faith in you,” Daisy encouraged. “But for now, we need to get out there and scan through the debris field. Find whatever salvageable ships and non-infected AI units we can locate. Push them into clusters on the far edge of Ra’az scanning range.”
“Isn’t that interfering with history, Daze? I mean, this could change events.”
“Ultimately, they’ll find what they find. This just makes it easier for them,” she replied. “Besides, we’re not delivering them to Dark Side. Just shuffling stuff around a bit. I’m willing to wager that they’ll gather exactly what they did last time. Things seem to keep working out that way.”
Freya set to work, and for the next several hours, she subtly shifted higher-value salvage to the Goldilocks Zone of the debris field. Annoying as he was, Daisy couldn’t help but smile when she saw Kip’s small ship added to the mix. Soon enough, the oddball little AI would be installed, ultimately helping her stop the Ra’az warp ships from escaping.
“Daisy?”
“Yeah, Freya?”
“I’ve been working on figuring out the problem I’m having syncing Sarah’s neuro-band while we’ve been moving ships and stuff around out here, and I had an idea.”
“What is it, kiddo?”
“Well, the problem I keep having is where Sarah and Sarah have different brainwave patterning.”
“I know, you told us.”
“Yeah, but I was thinking, what if I could get the exact transition point pinpointed? Then I could build off of a past, but common, reference key.”
“Sounds like a good idea, but you’ve seen Mal’s logs, and you’re tapped into my and Sarah’s heads. I don’t know what else you could use.”
“I have an idea, but you probably won’t like it,” Freya said, timidly.
“Whoa, what’s with the downer vibe, buddy? You know I won’t hold creativity against you. So what were you thinking?”
A brief silence hung in the air before Freya finally spoke.
“You’ll need to go inside Dark Side,” she said.
“Hang on. Sneaking around aboard Mal while she was damaged was one thing, but a fully operational top-secret military facility?”
“I’m with Sarah on this one––”
“With me on what?”
“Sorry. Other Sarah.”
“But I can get you inside, Daisy.”
“I appreciate the confidence, kiddo, but Sarah’s right. Sneaking into Dark Side is a helluva lot more complicated than getting on the Váli.”
“No, you don’t understand––”
“Yeah, I’m in agreement with Daisy and myself. You’re good, kid. Really good. But that doesn’t mean that––”
“Why won’t you FUCKING LISTEN TO ME!” Freya shouted.
“Whoa, watch the tone, Freya,” Daisy said, sternly.
“And volume,” Sarah added.
“That too. And since when do you swear at me?”
“Since you fucking ignore me,” Freya shot back.
“We’re not ignoring you.”
“Yes you are. You think you know it all, but I’ve been slowing down my brain because it’s what you want. You just want me to be easy to control.”
“Do you actually believe that? I don’t want to control you, Freya. I taught you to think slowly so you could focus and grow. It’s partly what helped you become the young woman you are.”
“Yeah? Well I’m grown, okay? Now will you respect what I have to say and listen to me?”
“Goddamn, Daze. Talk about the world’s fastest puberty.”
I know, right?
“I heard that,” the irate AI grumbled.
“Oops.”
“Look, Freya. I’m sorry if you feel you’re being held back. That was never my intention. And I do want to hear what you have to say.”
“Yeah, me too. I’m sorry I interrupted you,” Sarah added.
“Well...” Freya’s tone shifted as she got her emotions under control. “Okay. Apology accepted.”
“Thank you. Now, please, tell us what it is you wanted to say.”
“What I was trying to say was that Dark Side is different than the Váli.”
“Well, yeah, we know,” Sarah said. “It’s a top-secret––”
“And if you’d let me finish, you’d know that getting into Dark Side is a cakewalk compared to the Váli.”
>
A confused look flashed across Daisy’s face.
“Okay, you lost me, there.”
“Daisy, I was born on Dark Side. More than that, I was born in the most secret and secure part of the entire base. You know why I was able to tap into comms and listen in so easily? Because Dark Side is my home, and I know every single fiber cable, power line, and wireless linkage like the back of my proverbial hand.”
Daisy and Sarah shared a shocked look. Then they smiled in unison.
“Damn, kid, I really underestimated you.”
“Seems to happen a lot,” she groused, albeit good-naturedly.
“So what’s the rest of your plan?”
Daisy stepped into the little-used airlock adjacent to Hangar Two and quickly removed her space suit. The familiar smell of the base’s air scrubbers was almost a welcome nostalgia, even after enjoying the glorious freshness of Earth’s air.
“Okay, I’m in,” she said quietly into her comms.
“Chu is in his lab with Barry, and Gus and Donovan are out on a run with Bob,” Freya informed her. “Doctor McClain is sleeping in her quarters.”
“So it’s just Mrazich and Fatima I have to worry about.”
“Yep. They’re both in his offices. You have a clear run to your quarters. I’ll inform you if they change location.”
“Copy that. I’m on my way.”
Daisy took off at a run.
Freya, it turned out, was far more dialed in to Dark Side than any of them had ever imagined. Daisy decided they would most certainly not clue the others in to that little detail. She doubted Sid would feel comfortable in his own walls ever again if he realized just how easily her precocious kid could bypass his security.
“Heading past the mess hall. I should be there in under two minutes,” Daisy whispered into the comms.
“You don’t have to whisper, Daisy. I’ve frozen all scans and monitoring equipment on a moving axis for thirty meters in front and behind you.”
“Made her a moving bubble of silence, did ya? That’s some really nice work, hon.”
“Thanks, Sarah,” Freya replied warmly.
Daisy arrived at her destination a minute later and cycled the doors open. She stepped inside and surveyed the space.
Her quarters were exactly as she remembered them, just a little bit messier, though that was to be expected as, in this part of her timeline, she had just recently dropped everything to rush down to Earth to save Vince.
