by I. O. Adler
Barrett was no longer bowing. “It was wrong for her to steal it. It was a gross mistake. First, Jenna’s going to return control of this ship to these Cordice. Then we humbly ask for you to bring Sylvia Vincent and Hamish Townes to us and take us home. Jenna, please disconnect yourself.”
“No,” Carmen said. “Jen, don’t do that yet.”
“That’s enough out of you. We have to give them their ship back. It doesn’t belong to us. It’s the only way we get your mother home.”
“She Who Waits hasn’t told us everything. Like why didn’t these Cordice return Mom and Hamish after saving them? Why didn’t they at least send a message they were okay? Is my mom a prisoner? Is that why she had to steal the spaceship?”
She Who Waits spoke in a gentle tone. “I sense discord.”
“We need answers before anyone does anything.”
The alien’s colors went a darker brown for a moment. “When designate Sylvia Vincent made it to the Cordice home ship along with designate Hamish Townes, both bioforms were damaged. The Cordice caretaker preserved their consciousness along with their neural net matrix in their mainframe.”
“You mean like how me and Jenna were placed inside the robots? What about their bodies?”
“I do not know their bioforms’ condition. Preserved if possible.”
“But they’re alive inside this mainframe? Like inside a computer?”
“An acceptable analogy. The Cordice are accomplished engineers and designers. It has preserved them and allows them to benefit others who likewise might have suffered death. But their ship requires large amounts of resources and power. Power requires fuel. And this ship is what is needed to gather fuel. It must be returned. That is the wish of the Cordice.”
“So her mind is still alive. Is she trapped? Why did she ask for me and Jenna to save her?”
“I do not have the answers.”
“But the Cordice do. Will they release her if we surrender the ship?”
“I do not know. I do not know if it’s possible due to her bioform’s condition.”
Agent Barrett had been waiting patiently. “Carmen, ask your sister to disconnect. We have to give the ship back. We’ll figure out how to get Hamish and your mom. But it needs to start with returning control.”
“Jen, have you been listening?” Carmen asked.
The Jenna bot came to life. “I’ve been looking for her. It’s like a maze of lights some distance away. I saw where Mom went, but the connection is closed or broken.”
“You’ve been in there too long. Come back. Unplug. Can you do that?”
The bot’s head monitor went dark. On the couch, Jenna began to stir. Carmen went to her side. Her sister looked pasty. Then she turned her head and vomited onto the floor. When she was done she was too weak to sit up.
“It’s okay,” Carmen said. “I’ve been wanting to do that since this trip started. You look exhausted.”
“So thirsty. Look what I made.”
A sink identical to the one in the restroom had appeared. With a blurp the faucet began to trickle water.
“I couldn’t figure out how to make cups though.”
“You did fine. Let me help you.”
Carmen got Jenna up. It took her sister a moment to be able to stand and she leaned heavy as Carmen brought her to take a drink. She coughed a few times as she slurped down several mouthfuls. Once finished, Carmen placed her back on the couch, where she sagged.
She Who Waits flashed the diamond pattern. Bands of yellow appeared, and then deep brown.
“Okay, we did our part,” Barrett said. “The ship is no longer in our control. Do we talk to the Cordice or do you?”
The red light before She Who Waits twinkled. “I will continue to perform my requested function as mediator. I am attempting to contact them.” The alien remained silent for some time. The sands displayed momentary sparkles within the stirring dust. “The Cordice caretaker isn’t answering.”
“Is there someone else you can call?”
“The caretaker is the only Cordice not preserved in their simulation and should answer transmissions directed to their home ship. I am attempting to connect to the communication nodes to speak with their council leaders within their mainframe but am currently unable. It is time for you to bring the ship to them.”
Carmen felt like she had missed something. “Wait, we relinquished control. Don’t they just recall it?”
“The ship requires a remote pilot to initiate a programmed course. Designate Sylvia Vincent blocked any such attempts when she took the vessel. You and your sister also hold the encryption key based on your bioform signature. This must be relinquished to them. But without their remote presence this isn’t possible.”
“Then you take us there.”
“I cannot. This is a dispute between your people and the Cordice. I negotiated and relayed their needs to you. I can assist with implementing your decision and advise in understanding the interface of the ship.”
“I’m not plugging into this thing again,” Jenna said.
Carmen put a hand on her sister. “No one is asking you to.”
Barrett moved to where his couch used to be. “I’ll do it. How does this work?” He sat as if expecting the couch to reappear and tumbled onto the floor.
She Who Waits flashed a swirl of yellow. “Designate Jennacarmen daughter of Sylvia Vincent is the only person here authorized by the ship’s reconfigured encryption.”
“That’s what Mom called us,” Carmen said. “So the ship will only listen to us. We either wait for them to answer or go deliver it.”
“Stated accurately. They are not responding but I will continue my attempts. My recommendation is to return the ship and establish direct communication, bypassing whatever technical issues the Cordice are experiencing. They resume command of this vessel. You become reunited with your mother.”
Barrett had gotten back up. “Give the ship to me. Let me have the controls. How do they do that?”
“It will require designates Sylvia Vincent’s daughters to familiarize themselves with the encryption software.”
“You can help them do that.”
“It is not my function.”
Jenna gripped Carmen’s arm. “How long will this take? I’ve lost track of time. I need to get back to Zach and Landon. It’s been hours since we left.”
Carmen suspected it was more than just a few hours. Their journey had been a blur. But the lack of food and real sleep weighed on her. It felt as if she had been running on empty for at least a couple of days.
“Jenna’s right. We can’t waste more time figuring this out when it should be straightforward for Jenna and me to bring this thing to the Cordice. And isn’t Peter’s mom picking the boys up from school? They’ll be fine. She’ll worry, probably call the cops, but it’ll be okay.”
Jenna appeared anything but consoled. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Barrett’s jaw was clenched tight. “Fine. Let’s do this. Carmen, you need to plug in. But our crash chairs have vanished.”
Carmen moved to the spot where her couch used to be. Even as she got close the couch appeared, rising from the floor to meet her. She sat and ran her hands along the smooth contours. Her mom and Jenna had both figured out how to make the ship work. But judging from their experience, it didn’t come without a price. And whatever had happened to Peter still remained a mystery.
Barrett kneeled next to her. “All you need to do is connect. Then take a minute and figure out how to hand over authority of the ship to me. Let me take it from there. You and your sister have done enough. I’ll get us to the Cordice. We’ll retrieve your mom and make it home. Understood?”
She was already lying back and getting comfortable. He kept talking. But she closed her eyes. And even as she began to wonder what she needed to do to connect to the ship, she felt herself slip away.
Chapter Eighteen
Carmen had never been much of a video game player.
Before the Big Wipe,
her then-boyfriend had gotten her to play on his VR set, where the displayed graphics on his favorite shoot-’em-up dominated her field of vision and the surround sound was loud enough to hurt even her ears.
An array of light expanded before her. There was an instant tactile element as she considered each section of the growing display before her. She could touch them. She could move them. Each was part of the controls that could help navigate their spaceship towards Mom and Mars or send them off into the void. The lights hung as ornaments on a Christmas tree, drawing closer when she focused her attention on one, and receding when she looked at another.
If Jenna can figure this out…
She felt an immediate burn of guilt at the thought. Her younger sister was always the better student, even though she had given up her budding career as a hospital admin when she got married and had her kids. But Jenna was, as their father put it, more heart than smart.
Telling Jenna that to her face hadn’t been the best move on their dad’s part.
Orienting herself was easy enough. With a thought she “saw” their original sphere, now just one room among a hundred, most of which were now connected and had reshaped themselves into a ring. The few trailing spheres including one which she “saw” held a reactor propelled them along on their current course.
She found the bot Jenna had used. Touched it. Instantly her point of view was from within the bot. She once again had hands and feet, and could see and hear.
She Who Waits remained where she had been standing, while Jenna had reclined on her couch. Seeing her own body lying there made her feel disoriented. Barrett remained at her side.
She made a throat-clearing sound. “Agent Barrett, you’d better get yourself settled in.”
Bringing up his couch was as easy as Carmen wanting it to happen.
He approached the bot. “You’re in. Good. Now try to find out what’s involved in removing this encryption.”
She directed her attention to the virtual controls. Became distracted.
A myriad of choices blossomed before her. The ship could be morphed into a variety of configurations, and each component sphere could be disconnected and sent away, as long as it remained in range of the electromagnetic tether linking each section. There was also a power source. She determined the vessel had enough juice to reach their current destination. Even as she pondered the nature of the fuel, she dipped down into another level of data on the reactor and its operation.
Jenna was calling her name. “Where are you?”
“I’m here. I’m trying to understand all this.”
“You can’t. It’s too much. You’ve been gone for what felt like an hour.”
An hour? Carmen thought she had only been browsing the controls for a moment.
“Agent Barrett has been asking for you to let him take over. I think he’s right.”
Again, the request. The thought of handing over the ship to Barrett was comforting. Let someone else take charge. She wasn’t an astronaut. But then again neither was he. And their mom had sent the ship to them for help after her own people had abandoned her.
“She Who Waits, how long will it take to get to the Cordice home ship?”
A new light appeared within Carmen’s new field of vision. “Ten hours. Faster, if no bioforms were on board to protect from further acceleration and deceleration.”
“And how long have we been in flight?”
“Twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes.”
She was taken aback by how long it had been. Could only wonder at how worried her nephews would be, or what trouble her father might have gotten himself into. But she guessed the trip back might take even longer. She examined the ship controls that would allow her to set a new course but resisted the temptation to try to understand it in case it would cause her to once again lose track of time. To go faster or to suddenly decelerate in order to change course would mean further discomfort for Jenna, Barrett, and herself, even if she wasn’t inside her body.
“She Who Waits, it looks like we’re already heading in the right direction. Tell me what else I need to do.”
“Continue on the current course,” She Who Waits said. “You all should recline and allow the ship to make the passage easier on your bodies. When we make the rendezvous, we will dock with the home ship and contact the Cordice caretaker.”
Barrett finally settled into his couch. He was scowling. And Jenna wore creases on her face. But there was little to do but endure the ride.
They’d need to eat.
Time to search the ship and see what it could do for them. She imagined food, an apple, a bag of groceries, bread, roasted veggies, anything but cooked meat in case the thought might offend the Cordice, who could be watching. She also didn’t want to give them any ideas. But her mental tour of vegetarian offerings yielded no results from the ship.
“What about food?” she asked.
She Who Waits displayed her yellow colors for the briefest moment. “The Cordice ship isn’t equipped in its current loadout to provide physical sustenance. This would require additional resources not available in its stores. But my shuttle can print acceptable foodstuffs. I will have it delivered here.”
“Do you need to know anything about us?”
“I know everything.”
Carmen didn’t want to challenge the assertion and found herself curious at what might show up. While her hunger pangs had vanished with her logging into the ship, she understood getting sick from not eating would be counterproductive.
A small blimp-shaped drone with a shoebox-sized container arrived in minutes. It hovered at ankle level and set its offering down near the flowing sink. Barrett stood up off his couch. The box opened when touched. Inside were three stacks of what might be bars of brown soap.
She Who Waits bobbed closer. “You can be sustained by those. I can outline their contents and nutritional value if requested.”
Barrett picked one up and sniffed. “Smells like salty oatmeal.”
Carmen watched as he nibbled on one.
He appeared to have trouble swallowing and got a drink of water. “Pasty, like peanut butter. It tastes like dry cereal without any sugar. Edible.”
Carmen used her bot to fetch a food bar for Jenna. Jenna took a bite and made a face but managed to get some of it down. When Carmen offered her more, her sister shook her head.
“We’re going to make it back,” Carmen said. “I promise. You’ll be with Zach and Landon again.”
Jenna nodded before settling on the couch and closing her eyes.
Carmen considered her oath and repeated it silently. Faced She Who Waits. “Thank you for this.”
Barrett finished his bar. “You’ll need to eat too, Carmen.”
“Later. There’s so many questions, things we’ll need to know before facing the Cordice. I’d like to see where we’re going and learn more.”
“I agree. Where exactly is this Cordice home ship?”
As Carmen considered the question, a visual appeared in midair. A narrow ship with a pair of prominent rings around its midsection hovered in space near a massive lumpy object. Carmen decided the lump was one of Mars’s moons.
Barrett walked next to the projection. “It’s Deimos. So if that’s the Cordice ship, then your mom and Lieutenant Townes made it outside their orbit from Discovery. Either someone picked them up or they used the Constellation Three.”
“You said they saw something. Maybe they went to make contact.”
“I can’t imagine they’d attempt that kind of maneuver. It’s too risky. Unless the Constellation somehow survived the Big Wipe and they figured they had nothing to lose by making the trip.”
“Something to ask my mom when we find her.”
To She Who Waits, Barrett asked, “So what can we expect from the Cordice? We can communicate with you, but what about them?”
“I will assist. The Cordice are builders. Their ship designs are a sought-after commodity. This harvester is the only one of its kind in this sy
stem. So until another of the marooned survivors manages to build one, the Cordice have the advantage in harvesting hydrogen and other resources within this system.”
The comment begged a dozen follow-up questions, but Carmen held back.
“So we’ll be able to talk to them through you,” Barrett said. “Did our two astronauts use you to speak with the Cordice?”
“I assisted remotely. But this was after they were recovered.”
“Are the Cordice capable of direct communication?”
“After a fashion. Your speech and hearing ranges aren’t compatible. I am pleased to bridge that gap.”
Barrett bowed his head. “Thank you. I would like to anticipate any possible friction. Sylvia Vincent stole something valuable of theirs.”
“The Cordice will not require restitution, if that’s your concern, designate Raymond Barrett. Surely they realize that your species has nothing with which to pay.”
“Uh, yes, I suppose not. So our people will be returned and we can go home.”
“I do not know designates Sylvia Vincent and Hamish Townes’s physical conditions. Their bioforms may have been damaged. And the Cordice will have to volunteer the harvester to bring you back to your world. A possible point of friction in the negotiation will be their sense of urgency to leave this system. They require the harvester to begin resource-gathering operations. They may see a delay as objectionable.”
Carmen took advantage of Barrett’s pause to ask her own question. “Please explain the sense of urgency. You’re talking about them wanting to leave our solar system?”
“Yes, Carmen Vincent. During the enemy’s attack on the coalition fleet, your kind on Mars and Earth suffered. It is the best estimation of those who remain alive that our enemy will strike again soon and won’t be so careless as to leave anyone living behind.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Who is this enemy?” Carmen asked.
She Who Waits answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “They are the destroyers of worlds. They bring death to all, and hunt down any who survive. They found the coalition here and attacked and devastated most of the fleet. The Cordice and several others survived and have been trying to rebuild so they can leave before the enemy returns.”
