It was a little after 0500 when he finished. I was looking forward to returning to my cabin and maybe sleeping another hour before breakfast. Captain Kelang had other plans for me.
“Walk with me, Ms. Holloman.”
I followed him back to the bridge.
“The rest of the tech team thinks you’re getting your ass chewed right now, so let’s get that out of the way first. When you go back to your cabin I want you to practice putting that suit on until you can do it fast, in the dark, and in your sleep. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“You’re never going to be the last one to the rally point again.”
He didn’t say it as a question but I answered anyway. “No, sir. I’ll be first.”
“Good. Have a seat and take your helmet off.”
I sat across from him and tried to push my hair back into some semblance of order. Long hair and helmets don’t go well together.
“You mentioned that you wanted to talk to me about your parents. What would you like to know? Keep in mind that I only knew them for the short time after we picked them up on Cleavus until we docked at Bodens Gate.”
0500 seemed a little early for this conversation, but I wasn’t going to refuse it. He seemed to find it perfectly normal. I’m not sure the Captain ever slept. He always looked just as awake and sharp at 0500 as he did at 2300.
“What were they like together? Did they love each other?”
He laughed. “Shouldn’t you be asking him that?”
“He says they did. But there’s Hannah.”
“Yes, they loved each other. Did he ever tell you about when we brought them up from Cleavus, how the tech team lead tried to assign them separate quarters per RuComm policy? Your dad asked her to take them back down and maroon them again on Cleavus. He would rather be alone with her there on a dead world than spend a week sleeping in separate beds. So, yeah, he loved her.”
I smiled, imagining the look Dad gets in his eyes when he’s being stubborn.
“You mentioned Hannah.” He sighed. “I tried to talk him out of trying to find her because the risk was too high. No one gets rescued in the Warrens, people just die there. I didn’t try to talk him out of it as strongly as I should have, because before I met with him I reviewed Hannah Weldon’s RuComm file.” He frowned, seeming embarrassed about what he was about to tell me. “I almost took a leave of absence to help him go after her. Even looking at her life in a series of reports and video clips there was something about her, something almost magical in the way she can get stuck in your mind. And being from Eindhoven, I’ve followed her career with the Union Commission for Bodens Gate. I understand why your father was still in love with her then and is still with her now. She’s a remarkable and dangerous woman.”
I looked down at my hands, frowning.
“I’m not helping you, am I? I believe your father was in an impossible situation. He was fortunate enough in his life to love two amazing women and have them in love with him. Could he walk away from the one that was lost to him in the Warrens, believing that she had been sold into unspeakable slavery? He risked everything, and finding and rescuing Hannah cost him your mother, and almost you, and almost his own life.”
“He told me that he and my mom were going to leave Hannah on Bodens Gate working for the Commission. They were going back to Dulcinea with me.”
The Captain nodded. “You should believe him. As powerful as Hannah is, your mom had her beat. She owned his heart and I suspect she was a jealous lover.”
I hugged him, even though I knew I probably shouldn’t. “Thank you.”
“And what about you?”
“Me?”
“You’re sixteen, just figuring out how hearts work. Would you do me a favor?”
“OK,” I said hesitantly.
“Samuel Coleridge.”
I felt myself blush at the mention of his name and the Captain shook his head.
“Star has been keeping me updated on the two of you. We’re less than a week away from you and Mr. Coleridge going your separate ways. Please don’t try to make the most of it. Will you promise me?”
“Yes, sir. He scares me a little anyway.”
He sighed. “That’s how it always starts.” He stood, dismissing me. “Go change and get some breakfast. I suggest you sit with the engineers this morning, not Mr. Coleridge.”
It was a little after 0600 by the time I made it to the mess hall and picked up orange juice, a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and sausage. The pancakes looked good but there wasn’t room for them on the tray. Tobias and Sandy had their heads together looking at something on a display pad when I sat down across from them. Sandy looked up at me and took a sip of her coffee.
“I remember when I could eat like that at this time in the morning. Or any time, really.”
“I guess the older you get the less food you need,” I commented. “My mom is the same way. Every year it’s more coffee and less food.”
She scowled at me but her eyes weren’t angry, just amused. “Your day will come, sweetheart.”
I smiled back at her while I shoveled eggs into my mouth thinking, ‘No it won’t. I won’t let it.’ I didn’t say anything out loud, though.
Tobias turned the display around so I could see it. “Your engine went down again this morning.”
I stopped chewing and leaned forward to see the logs. “It happened during the safety drill? Could there be a connection?”
“You mean did Star take the exercise too seriously and manifest the damage in the real world?” He shrugged. “There’s a whole industry built by people who claim to be able to diagnose and cure neuroses in AI systems. Most of it is pseudo-scientific nonsense, but if ever there was an AI that had cause to be neurotic, it’s Wandering Star. The Bovita clan punched thousands of holes in her brain, Captain von Muller’s team erased ninety days’ worth of her memories trying to restart her and then Ms. Weldon, your stepmother, spent two and a half years messing around inside her code while she and your dad were chasing after mythical creatures. Ow!”
Sandy had kicked him under the table.
“Her messing around inside the code is what saved my dad’s life. And mine,” I said quietly. “She brought the medical AI back online in less than thirty minutes. Because she’s brilliant.”
“We know that,” Sandy replied gently. “There’s not a week that goes by that we don’t see a patch or bridge that she wrote. It’s just that there are so many of them and Star has been modifying them more and more. She’s not stable.”
I nodded and went back to my eggs and toast. “And the Tarakana are real,” I whispered.
Tobias glanced at Sandy, a look I’ve seen all my life; weird Mala Dusa, it said. Let them think that. I was right, and I knew what was going to come next.
CHAPTER 7
ADRIFT
“When are you going to try to restart the engine?” I asked Sandy.
“As soon as we finish here.”
“Can I help again? At least watch, if you think I may have messed it up last time?”
“You didn’t mess it up. We were watching every move you made. I think this one is Star’s fault, to be honest.” She glanced at Tobias, who was busy studying the logs so he didn’t have to look at me. “Sure, you can come. Fixing things that break is the best way to learn and Wandering Star is probably the best learning opportunity you’ll ever have. Meet us there in about an hour?”
I quickly finished eating and ran back to my cabin to have Star print a new set of coveralls for me, ones that fit. My display pad chirped at me just as I was adjusting the belt. Winona, of course. Not now, I had a job to do, a job that let me be with the engine again.
“Sorry, Winn, you’re going to have to wait,” I told my pad as I left.
I jogged all the way to the engine room. The hatch was open when I got there,
so I went in, calling to Sandy as I stepped over the threshold. There was no answer. The access panel had been removed from the engine so I got down and crawled in, enjoying the pulse of the engine beating against my hands and knees.
“Sandy? Tobias?” Still no answer. I looked up at the engine, feeling sorry for what I was about to do. “Star, can you hear me?” The silence was reassuring. All I could hear was the throbbing of the engine at idle and all I could feel was the hum of the Tarakana somewhere close by telling me, “Go quickly, Mala Dusa.”
I glanced at my watch and smiled to myself. I should have plenty of time to do what I needed to do.
I tapped on the control panel, going deep into the underlying settings. Mac was in my head with me, telling me exactly what to change. I modified parameters and thresholds and alert settings that no one would be able to find in the few days we had left before Bodens Gate. The engine would seem fine until it was pushed. After that it wouldn’t matter.
I checked all of the logs when I was done, wiping entries and making sure no trace had been left. I looked at my watch. Only eleven minutes had passed since I had entered the engine room. I closed the control panel and made my way back through the tunnel. Sandy and Tobias were just coming through the main hatch when I emerged. I sat on the floor, looking up at them.
“Did you leave this hatch open?” Tobias asked, angry.
“No, sir. It was open when I got here and so was the access panel. I thought you may have already started. I was looking for you,” I lied.
Tobias was looking around the engine room as though sensing something wrong. I felt Merrimac sliding out of my brain, receding to somewhere hidden, but not very far away.
“That’s odd. For a moment it felt like it did before.”
“Before?”
“Before you cast out all of the demons,” Sandy answered, sounding worried.
“No demons in here. Just me,” I lied again.
“OK, let’s see if we can’t get your engine running,” Sandy smiled down at me.
“Yes, ma’am. Let’s do it.”
We crawled back inside and Sandy went through the restart procedure with me while Tobias took physical readings of the engine and compared them to what the internal sensors were reporting.
I tapped the icon to restart the engine and we hustled out through the tunnel and into the cooler air of the passageway. It wasn’t quite lunch time and I felt like I had already had a good day.
“You look happy,” Sandy commented.
“I am. Being in there, it’s fun.”
Tobias didn’t look happy or like he was having fun. “Hatch left open, access panel removed, engine that keeps shutting itself down, with nothing in the logs and Star telling us everything is just fine, when we know it’s not.” He shook his head. “We need that engine to get us through the Deep Space Hole in less than three days. After that I’m going to shut it down for the rest of the ride into Bodens Gate. I should shut it down now and run full system diagnostics but the hydroponics heaters went down again while we were in there and that’s our next priority.”
Sandy touched his cheek. “Just a few more days.”
He took her hand and gave it a quick kiss. “I’m not sure I can wait that long.” They were staring at each other, having forgotten I existed.
“Um, if there’s anything I can help with and not just be in the way, let me know.” I smiled at them but I doubt they noticed. I went back to my cabin to change and to see what Winona had to say.
Watching her reply to my message was odd. Had I really been so scared of the Tarakana when I sent it to her? It seemed silly to me now that I understood them. I wasn’t afraid of them at all. If Hannah and Dad could just accept that the Tarakana needed to remain hidden, and that they were beneficial to us as a species, they wouldn’t need to feel afraid either. Nobody needed to be afraid, really.
I watched Winona’s message a second time, smiling at how serious she looked. I was going to have to apologize to her for making her worry. She said they were going to be on Bodens Gate four days after I arrived, traveling on board the Moebius, a merchant clipper. I’d have to think of some way before then to make it up to her. It was too bad I couldn’t introduce her to Merrimac. I was sure she would enjoy feeling the way the Tarakana think, but he and the rest of the colony would be long gone by then.
A couple of days later, Sam was staring at me again. I was finding that I didn’t mind so much. We had just finished running our favorite part of the Camino de Santiago and he’d tried to race me for the last kilometer and a half. I’d managed to stay about twenty meters ahead of him and now he was walking around complaining that his side hurt and that it was my fault.
“I think you cheated, Mala Dusa.” He looked up at me from where he was bent over, trying to get the stitch in his side to relax.
“You need to learn how to breathe while you’re running. You’ll be faster and,” I gestured at him, “you won’t hurt yourself.”
He nodded, still staring at me. “OK, Mala Dusa. I want a rematch. In a minute or two.”
I looked closely into his eyes. “Sam, you always pause just for a fraction of a second before you say my name. Are you still calling me ‘MD’ in your head and then translating it before you say anything?”
I thought he’d look away from me or deny it, but his eyes never left mine. “Yes.”
“Huh.” I shook my head. “Just call me MD.”
He smiled, like he was the one that had won the race. “Thank you.” He sat down in the middle of the trail and rolled over on his back, stretching.
I watched him for a moment and then joined him, although I usually don’t stretch after running.
“Lean your back against mine for a moment?” he asked a little too innocently.
I did and he bent forward while I pushed against him until I heard something pop.
“Did that hurt?”
“No, it felt great,” he responded. He stood and helped me to my feet. “There’s some stretches that are better with two people pushing against each other.” He smiled and glanced briefly at the ceiling, like he’d gotten away with something.
I smiled back. “I like you,” I told him. “You’re devious.”
“Thanks. Do you want a new trail or shall we continue along this one?”
“Let’s keep going the way we are. Slow and steady for now. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to race.”
“Fine, MD, slow and steady it is. Just let me know when you want to pick it up a bit.”
“You’ll know.”
I went back to my cabin after beating Sam again, feeling all tingly inside, a feeling that being in the shower for twenty minutes only relieved a little. I got dressed and practiced with my pressure suit for another hour before dinner. I was getting faster, but the helmet was still giving me trouble.
“Star, is there someplace I can get my hair cut?”
“I have an avatar for that,” Star answered, proud of herself.
“Great. Guide me there?”
“Follow the green ball, MD.”
MD? I sighed. No doubt Star had already provided Captain Kelang a full report of all the time Sam and I had been spending together on the Camino de Santiago in the mornings and after Sam finished work each day. I don’t think it was ever possible to out-devious Wandering Star.
When I walked into the mess hall I felt like everyone was staring at me. My hair just brushed the top of my collar, the long blonde locks that had reached most of the way down my back were now working their way through the ship’s recycling system. I picked up my food and sat with Sam, the Captain and his ‘don’t make the most of it’ request be damned. I couldn’t make as much of it as I’d like, for a lot of reasons, but Sam was my friend and I was going to eat dinner with him if I wanted to.
Sam stood when I approached the table and didn’t sit back down un
til I did.
“Wow, MD. That’s stunning. I liked your hair long and would have told you not to cut it. I would’ve been wrong.”
“Thanks.”
After dinner we walked for a while through the Sonoran Desert and watched the simulated sun go down, then we went to the observation chamber and sat watching the stars slowly rotating around us, making it feel like we were alone at the center of the universe.
“We transit the Deep Space Hole tonight,” Sam whispered.
“At 0206,” I replied.
“And then two and a half days into Bodens Gate.”
“You’ll be on the Buena Vista before dinner on the last day.”
“And you’ll be in the Warrens even before that.”
I nodded. “That’s the official plan.”
He was quiet for several minutes, then shifted on the couch, his shoulder rubbing against mine for a moment. The tingle came back into my body and I closed my eyes.
“I wish you were a couple of years older.”
I turned my head and opened my eyes half way to look at him. “Look me up in a couple of years and I will be. If you’re still interested.”
“I will be. Where will I find you?”
I watched the stars rotating past. “The Academy, most likely, if my parents don’t kill me or lock me in the basement when I tell them I’m going. If you can’t find me at the Academy, check my parents’ basement.”
“They’ll understand. There’s something about RuComm that’s irresistible to some people, even with the sacrifices it requires. Admit it, you love it here.”
I nodded, but couldn’t think of a good response. My brain felt a little fuzzy being this close to Sam in the darkness.
He walked me back to my cabin and I opened the door. He glanced inside and smiled.
“Pressure suit all laid out and ready to go, I see.”
“Yes. I’m going to beat you and everyone else next time. I’ve been practicing.”
He nodded, still staring at me.
Wandering Soul Page 9
