by Scott Baron
Most of the labels were faded to the point of falling off, but the bottle of Midleton Barry Crockett she found tucked away on a top shelf had never been opened, its cork sound and the whiskey inside a perfect, deep amber.
From there, they flew to Pike’s Peak.
The vantage point was a mere fifteen or so miles from Cheyenne Mountain, but given the subterranean nature of the blast, and the direction the granite would direct the megaton yield of the warhead, the distance was deemed safe enough.
Daisy took the bottle and two metal cups from the galley and sat down on the soil, staring off into the not-so-distant distance at the hapless AI’s home.
Such a beautiful day, she thought as she poured two tall cups of whiskey. Sorry, Joshua. I wish there was something I could do for you. She took a sip, letting the smooth heat warm her throat and stomach. Of course, you’d be the first one to tell me not to do anything, lest we create a paradox. Daisy chuckled sadly at the thought. Too much death. Too many lost.
“Jesus, it’s truly gorgeous out here,” Sarah said, sinking to the ground beside her.
“Yup,” Daisy said, wiping her eyes and handing her sister a cup. “To Joshua,” she toasted, clinking rims and taking another sip.
“Whoa,” Sarah blurted. “That’s nice.”
“Apparently, my neuro-stim also keyed me in to some of the finer things that we didn’t have available on the Váli.”
“I can see why we didn’t. If we had this on board, I don’t know that we’d have gotten much work done.”
Daisy smiled sadly and rested her head on her sister’s shoulder as she gazed at Cheyenne Mountain.
“Any time, now,” Sarah said.
“Yep,” Other Sarah replied, her neuro-band finally dialed-in to her incorporeal self’s thoughts.
Not long after, the ground shook slightly as the subterranean blast destroyed the entirety of NORAD’s fortified facility. Across Colorado Springs, electricity was abruptly cut as the electromagnetic pulse knocked out the power grid for several miles.
Daisy let out a morose sigh.
“And that’s it,” she said, finishing her cup of whiskey and pouring another.
Sarah surveyed the landscape. Aside from a few small dust clouds where parts of Cheyenne Mountain had shifted from the blast, there was little sign of the destruction that had taken place beneath it.
“It looks so... I don’t know. Calm?” she said. “Like, for all of its power, there’s not much there, there, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Daisy replied.
Behind them, Freya quietly powered up.
“Daisy?”
“Yeah, Freya?”
“I was thinking, I should go survey the site,” the AI said. “You know. To document things.”
Slowly, Daisy began to climb to her feet.
“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “We might as well get to it.”
“Oh, no. Not all of us,” Freya said. “The radiation levels might be high, so until we know how things are over there, you and Sarah should stay here.”
The stealth ship slowly rose up above them in the air.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back soon,” she said, then quietly flew toward Cheyenne Mountain, her form growing smaller in the distance as the stealth craft hugged the verdant terrain.
“What was that all about?”
“Beats me, Sis.”
“That kid. Sometimes I don’t understand her.”
“You and me both.”
“Hey, guys,” Sarah said. “Shouldn’t she be invulnerable to radiation?”
Daisy cocked her head as the pondered the question.
“I would think so,” she finally conceded.
“Huh. I guess she figured it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“With Freya, no matter what she does, at least I’m confident she would never put us in jeopardy willingly.”
“Yeah. For all her quirks, she’s a good kid. You did a bang-up job with that one, Daze,” Sarah said as Freya’s dark form disappeared around the mountain.
“Who knew, though. I mean, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I activated her AI. Hell, I was basically pushing random buttons in that hangar. I’m just really lucky she turned out okay.”
“It’s not the activation, it’s the upbringing.”
“Yeah. And as your sister, and Freya’s auntie, I agree,” Sarah said.
“And now she has two aunties.”
“Which is kinda weird, when you get right down to it. I mean, here we are, two versions of me. Do we start calling me ‘number one’ and you ‘number two’ or something?”
“Why do you get to be number one?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m the one with a body. It seems logical I’d be number one.”
“But you’ve also been unconscious and out of the picture for months, whereas I’ve been a part of all the goings-on. Not to mention, I’ve traveled back in time to help save you. So I think I should be number one. What do you think, Daze?”
“Oh, you two are not getting me in the middle of this one.”
“But you’re our sister.”
“And I’m not picking sides, Sarah. To me, you’re essentially the same.”
“But we aren’t.”
“Obviously. But you guys have the same consciousness up until the time of the accident.”
“Then we diverged.”
“Yeah. But the core of Sarah is in both of you.”
Daisy pondered a moment, something Freya had said in passing bubbling to the surface of her slightly intoxicated memories.
“I know what you’re thinking, Daisy, and there’s no way I’m doing that.”
“Doing what? I can only get your side of those internal conversations,” Sarah said.
“Something Freya mentioned when she was figuring out how to save you. Something about our mind.”
“You mean minds. Plural.”
“No. And that’s the rub. Freya thought she could combine us into one––”
“Oh, hell no!” Sarah blurted. “Making some kind of mash-up of our consciousnesses? What does she think we are?”
Daisy sensed both iterations of her sister getting riled up and realized she needed to take things down a notch before they got out of hand. With a deep breath, she shook her head and forced a bit more sobriety upon herself.
“Look, that’s not what she meant,” she said.
“Oh no? Sounds like it to me, Daze.”
“She wasn’t talking about erasing you and replacing your mind with some blender brain––”
“Nice image, Sis,” Sarah said sarcastically.
“You know what I mean,” Daisy said. “It’s a far cry from that.”
Her head was feeling a bit foggy from the unfamiliar alcohol in her system, and Daisy realized she was in no condition to properly make her point without running the risk of accidentally blurting out the wrong thing and making the situation even worse.
“Okay, listen. We’ll ask Freya to explain properly when she gets back. Until then, can you two please just chill out? I really need some peace and quiet to process what just happened.”
The bickering Sarahs simultaneously bit their literal and figurative tongues and agreed to wait until Freya returned. Daisy just hoped the clever ship wouldn’t take too long.
It took longer than expected.
Two hours later, Freya’s dark shape finally came into view as she rounded the distant mountain. Within a few minutes, she had ascended from her tree-hugging height and gently settled down atop Pike’s Peak.
“Hey, guys, I’m back!” she said in a particularly chipper tone.
“My, aren’t you in a good mood,” Sarah noted. “So I assume the radiation was contained?”
“Most of it. A little leaked out in some fissures that formed in the mountain, but aside from that, the rest of it was contained,” she replied.
“So what took you so long?” Daisy added.
“Oh, that. Yeah,
well, I wanted to go look at the city up close, and then I had to lay low so Tamara and the other survivors wouldn’t see me. Once they were heading the other way, I took off and flew right back here.”
“Clever thinking, kid.”
“Thanks, Sarah.”
Daisy got to her feet, carrying the bottle with her as she entered the ship’s airlock.
“All right, let’s get out of this place. I’ve seen enough, and Sarah needs you to explain some stuff,” she said.
“Stuff? What kind of stuff?”
“The memory merging stuff you talked about a while back.”
“Oh, that stuff,” Freya replied, then headed west for the Pacific Ocean.
Begg Rock jutted just above the waves not far from the coast of Los Angeles. While the ocean’s chop would typically make for an uncomfortable visit, Freya’s mooring a good hundred and fifty feet below the surface was tranquil and calm. She had flown there directly from Colorado Springs, eventually nestling in directly adjacent to the aquatic tunnel running all the way through the remote rock.
There was no tactical or practical reason for choosing the site. Freya had simply been scanning her aquatic mapping data stores since taking up refuge deep in Lake Tahoe, and had stumbled upon the unusual formation.
Being so close to LA, yet also safely hidden from view, she felt it was an ideal location to continue working on her projects, as well as having that discussion with her aunt(s).
“So, you know how when you get bleed-over on old-Earth radio frequencies?” Freya asked.
“Yeah,” Sarah replied.
“Okay, it’s nothing like that. But it is. But not. But if that helps you get the idea, then run with it.”
“Jesus, Daze. The kid’s starting to sound more like you every day,” Sarah chuckled.
“So, the thing is, while both versions of you seem kind of like competing radio signals, all blaring different stuff on top of each other, in reality, you’re more like an overlapping recording, or maybe a slight time-delay as a signal makes its trip.”
“Totally not helping, Freya,” Sarah griped.
“Okay, let’s try it like this. Each of you is the same original score, but with different soloists providing their flourish and interpretation. Like, you’re almost the same. Just that little bit is off.”
“Calling us off, now, are you, kid? Gee, thanks.”
“You know what I mean,” she replied, exasperated. “Look, I don’t know if I can even do it––”
“Knowing your brain, I wouldn’t put anything past you,” Sarah interjected.
“I choose to take that as a compliment.”
“It was. Sort of.”
“Fine. So, if I could fine-tune your neuro-band to align those disparate streams of knowledge and experiences, theoretically, I should be able to subtly overlay those data points to each of your streams.”
“Changing us.”
“No. I mean yes, but not by omission or deletion, but rather by simply providing each of you with additional memories. You’d be who you are, only you’d have synched your timelines, in a manner of speaking.”
“So we wouldn’t be us.”
“Yeah, not exactly as non-invasive as you made it sound originally, kid.”
“No, you’re not getting it!” Freya blurted, obvious frustration in her voice. “Daisy, tell them!”
“Ugh,” she sighed. “All right. What Freya is trying to say, in her far-too-complicated genius AI way, is that both of your consciousness would stay just as they are. All of your thoughts, all of your experiences, nothing would change. The only difference is you would have access to each other’s memories as if they were your own. It’s just sharing past info, not shaping the present you. Those differences will stay. Unless you want them to change once you share those formative memories, that is.”
“You’re better at this part, Daze,” Sarah commented.
“Yeah, I agree.”
“Thanks, but it’s Freya’s idea. If she can somehow pull it off, that is.”
“I think I can––”
“Said the choo-choo.”
“Stop interrupting me!” Freya snapped.
“Jeez, sensitive much?”
“Sarah, come on,” Daisy urged.
“Oh, all right. You think you can what, Freya?”
“What I was saying is, I think I can make it work––eventually. I can probably make it temporary, too, so you can try it on for size. It’ll just take some time, is all. I mean, the latest design of the neuro-band is working great, so I have a wealth of new data to play with. All I need is to run a couple of tests on my tertiary processor arrays to see if it will work.”
“Hang on. Did you say tertiary?” Daisy asked. “What happened to secondary?”
“Oh. Um, I’m kinda using those for something.”
“Always a new project, huh, kiddo?”
“Yeah, something like that,” she replied.
Daisy fixed her gaze on her sister.
“So, what do you think? What do both of you think? Should we have her at least run her tests? I’m all for it, and since one of you is already in my head, I’d be undergoing this process as well.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Sarah replied.
“Shit. Neither had I.”
“Yeah, well, there it is. It should be temporary, at least the first go-around, but the choice is still up to you two. I’m game to try if you are.”
Sarah and Sarah pondered in their respective brains, then replied as one.
“Okay. We’re in.”
“Cool!” Freya chirped. “This is going to be so cool! It’s almost as much fun as deciphering Chithiid was.”
A thought crossed Daisy’s mind.
“Hey, Freya. I need you to take me close to the Chithiid barracks in LA. Do you think you can do that without being seen?”
“At night, I can do it. Sure.”
“Okay, then. Down periscope and up Freya. When the sun sets, head for the surface and get me into LA.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“It’ll be easier, now that I know what the guy looks like,” Daisy said as she crept closer to the massive Chithiid barracks warehouses under cover of darkness, carefully adjusting the power whip gauntlet riding comfortably on her forearm. Freya said it should work, but Daisy was nevertheless having a hard time making the device activate, even using her normal self-calming tricks.
“So we’re looking for one old alien among what? A few thousand?” Sarah said.
“Total in the facility, maybe. But we’ve seen which building he lives in, remember? Back when we dropped into LA after we took down the baddies.”
“Yeah, but have you considered that maybe he switched residences once they overthrew the Ra’az? Maybe he upgraded his living situation.”
“Valid concern, but I get a lead-from-the-front kind of vibe from him. My guess is he would stay close to his people, where he could provide hands-on leadership.”
“Could be. Let’s hope you’re right.”
Freya had provided Daisy with a very detailed schematic of the facility, including thermal signatures near doors and windows on their flyover, as well as color-coded hotspots where she would be more likely to be noticed. Daisy, courtesy of her neuro-stim enhanced brain, memorized it in a single pass.
From what Craaxit had told her, the older Chithiid named Maarl was a key element in gaining the support of not only crews working the communications hubs her teams were ,at that very moment, waiting to infiltrate, but also the San Francisco warp drive facility. To say he was a pivotal player was not an understatement.
Now she just had to get his attention without also drawing that of the other Chithiid in the facility.
Over an hour had passed, and Daisy was starting to get antsy. It looked like the last of the work parties had returned for the day, and their entry and exit from the barracks building had slowed to a trickle.
This isn’t working.
“No shit. Did you really think just h
anging around near a doorway would actually work?”
Well, no. But Craaxit is out presenting himself to our team right about now, so I can’t exactly ask him to make the introduction.
“And he would probably wonder how your hair grew a bit longer in just one day.”
Shit, I hadn’t even thought of that. Is it really longer?
“Only an inch or two, but it’s enough if he’s observant. And we both know he is.”
Well, shit, Daisy grumbled, silently, as she leaned out around the corner of the outbuilding she was hidden behind, facing the open door to the barracks.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Hey, Maarl! Your presence is needed immediately!” she yelled out, then ducked behind cover.
“Daisy, are you nuts?”
I’m sick of waiting. Either he comes out, or we have to figure something else out.
A commotion at the door caught her eye. Amazingly, the older Chithiid walked out. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by a young companion.
“Shit. What now, Daze?”
Now? she replied. Now we see how he reacts to a big surprise.
Daisy threw a pebble at him.
“Over here.”
“Who is that?”
“A friend.”
“A friend would show themself.”
Daisy hesitated.
“Now what?”
She had an idea, and hoped to hell it would work.
Softly, Daisy began singing Craaxit’s family song. It was deeply personal for her Chithiid friend, but he had said that it was common for his people to softly sing their song in times of stress, and often you would hear other Chithiids' songs. She just hoped Maarl recognized that of his old friend.
Maarl’s posture changed as soon as he heard the first notes.
“Wait for me inside,” he told his companion. “I will return shortly.”
The youth turned and went back inside, while Maarl casually made his way around the darkened corner, where Daisy stood waiting.
He seemed unsurprised at the sight of a human woman standing before him, just as he was unfazed by her fluency in his language.
“Judging by the unique weapon on your back, and that you are a human female who not only speaks my language, but knows the song of one of my dearest friends, I shall assume you are Daisy.”
