by Nick Cook
‘Right,’ I said, resisting the impulse to crumple to the ground and bash my head on the earth. The moment to be honest and open up to Jack had just slipped through my fingers yet again. Instead, I glanced at my smart watch. ‘Only a minute to go.’
‘A minute till what?’
‘Just keep your eye towards the eastern horizon. You said you wished you’d seen that launch happen in person and now you can, or at least the later part of it. Starship’s upper-stage module should be coming into view any time now.’
‘Then I’m in the right place with a beer in my hand and a friend who means everything to me.’
My heart twisted again and I made sure I didn’t catch his eye. ‘Me too.’
As we stood shoulder to shoulder, almost touching, I found myself painfully aware of the tiny space that separated us, a space I’d just agreed to maintain. This wasn’t like any of the usual end-of-the-world scripts I’d seen in movies. In those we’d ripping each other’s clothes off by this point, having desperate we’re-about-to-die sex before admitting our undying love to each other. But this was real life and I didn’t seem to be the one writing the script any more.
A bright light appeared in the east, flying west across the sky.
‘Starship?’ Jack asked.
‘She’s certainly in the right part of the sky, but let’s find out for sure.’ I swapped the eyepiece out for a wide-field one and centred it on the moving point of light. ‘If it is Starship, then any moment now…’
Framed within the eyepiece, smaller points of light blossomed around the booster like dandelion seeds taking flight in the wind. ‘Quick, you’ll want to see this, Jack.’
He bent his head to the telescope. ‘Those are the TREENO CubeSats being launched, right?’
‘The first batch of ten. Starship will then go for another three engine burns, repositioning herself to deploy the remaining thirty that are still on-board into different orbits. Over the next month those CubeSats will use their manoeuvring jets to gradually get themselves into their final orbital positions.’
Jack raised his beer bottle towards them. ‘Safe journeys, little guys.’
We took turns to watch the diamond points of light moving away from the booster as she continued her onward flight towards the western horizon.
‘How long before the entire network of TREENO CubeSats are up there?’ Jack asked.
‘By Jodie’s reckoning we’ll need at least another ten launches to get the whole network in place. But this is a great first step. The sooner we pick up the next micro mind as it wakes up the better. I really want to be out there making a difference.’
‘That goes for me too. I mean, there’s only so much training we can do and Ruby’s high scores on the range just keep putting ours to shame.’
‘At least she’s going to be an asset when we eventually get deployed in the field again,’ I replied.
‘It’s good to hear you say that. I thought you might think otherwise with the attitude she’s been giving you.’
‘Oh, you noticed that?’
‘It would be hard not to, but I guess pretending it isn’t happening is one way to deal with it.’
‘You think I should have it out with her?’
Jack held up his palms. ‘Each to their own, but in your shoes I might have been tempted to take her aside for a chat.’
I shook my head. ‘My instinct is that acknowledging the elephant in the room would only make things worse.’
‘Maybe you’re right. Ruby certainly seems stubborn when she wants to be. But once we’re all on a mission together she’ll quickly learn to respect you as much as Mike and I do.’
‘I hope so,’ I replied.
‘I know so. And she’ll be a great addition to the team. I reckon she could shoot a tick off a dog’s nose at a mile away.’
‘I’d pay good money to see that.’
Jack laughed. ‘Me too. Anyway, here’s to us detecting the next micro mind waking up.’ He clinked his beer bottle against my whiskey.
‘Oh, I’ll definitely drink to that.’
We were watching Starship in companionable silence as she vanished over the western horizon when a chiming sound came from my watch. I glanced at it and accepted the incoming video call.
Alice’s face peered out at me from my watch’s display. ‘Hey, where are you, Lauren? I just went back to the party, and no one knew where you were.’
‘Topside with me,’ Jack said over my shoulder.
‘What have you both been up to up there…? Or shouldn’t I ask?’
I felt my face flame and was suddenly grateful for the cover of darkness. It had even come to Alice’s attention how much Jack and I were into each other. What would she make of the conversation we’d just had to cool it?
‘We’re watching the launch of the TREENO fleet through a telescope,’ Jack replied without missing a beat.
Alice smiled. ‘That must be quite the sight. All their systems are in the green according to Jodie and Mike.’
‘Please tell me they’re not already back in the lab,’ I said. ‘They of all people should be celebrating at the launch party.’
‘You try telling them that,’ Alice replied. ‘I would change the lock to the lab if I thought it would force them to have some downtime. But Jodie would only find a way to hack the system and break in.’
‘Look who’s talking, when you’ve been working non-stop on Ariel,’ Jack said.
‘I know, but we’re getting so close to her first test flight. I can feel it.’
‘Alice, with the greatest respect, you’ve been saying that for at least the last three months,’ I said.
‘I know, but that’s the other reason for you get yourselves down here. Jodie’s got the Cage ready for its maiden test run. If that thing works as planned, then it’s going to accelerate a heck of a lot of things around here. Perhaps most importantly we’ll be able to work much more closely with Lucy. Talking of which, any sign of her yet?’
I stared at Alice’s face on my watch screen. ‘You’re not telling me that tonight is her regular check-in?’
‘It most certainly is. And I’m desperate to run our latest designs for Ariel’s drive system through with her. So shake your tails and get yourselves down here already. And don’t forget to bring the Empyrean Key with you, Lauren.’
‘No problem. I’ll grab it on route,’ I replied.
Alice nodded and my watch screen went dark.
Jack glanced at me. ‘It’s not like you to forget when Lucy is due to show up.’
‘That shows how preoccupied I’ve been. But it’ll be good to see her.’
‘Yeah, Miss Understatement.’ Jack scratched his chin, then gave me a small smile as I started to pack the telescope away.
‘OK, Jack, what’s that meant to mean?’
‘That considering Lucy’s an AI, she’s become a very real friend to you.’
I paused, turning the thought over in my head. Lucy, a computer construct or not, was someone I felt I could spill my feelings to. And she was straight with me in a way that only someone close to you could get away with. Maybe Jack had a point. And a friend who wasn’t Jack was probably exactly what I needed right now.
‘Yes, perhaps she is,’ I finally said.
Jack nodded as he slung my telescope’s tripod over his shoulder and began to head towards the hidden entrance that led down to the underground complex of Eden. But I hung back, taking a last look at Tau Ceti. At once my sense of unease returned, a knot tightening in my stomach. I grabbed the telescope and headed after Jack. My time out was over.
Chapter Two
Jack and I entered the silo from the access lift to find Alice peering up at an inspection panel in the chrome belly of Ariel. This antigravity saucer-shaped craft had been at the centre of a maelstrom of effort for months now.
‘How’s it going?’ Jack asked as we approached.
Alice turned her wheelchair to face us. ‘We’re getting closer, but the magnetic gravity disruptor s
till isn’t stable. The good news is we’ve been able to make great progress with the vectoring supersonic nozzles round the edge of the craft.’
‘The what?’ I asked.
‘They provide direction propulsion for Ariel,’ Alice replied. ‘We’ve also just finished the cockpit. You should have a look at it before Lucy gets here. It really is quite something.’
‘It’s OK to poke around in there then?’ I asked.
‘Just as long as you don’t touch anything on the flight deck. You don’t want to find yourself airborne and not able to control the ship.’
Jack held his hands up, smiling. ‘I’m not touching a thing.’
We headed from the landing pad up a ramp into the craft. What we encountered as we entered the cockpit was the last thing I’d been expecting. Inside was a spherical room about ten metres wide, with a circular metal grid platform within it, connected by rotating gimbals to two rings. It looked designed to rotate like a gyroscope. Hexagonal darkened monitors lined the cockpit round the platform, almost giving it the look of honeycomb.
‘This so wasn’t what I was expecting,’ Jack said.
‘Me neither,’ I replied as we climbed up a short ladder to the platform. On it were six flight seats arranged in a petal formation that faced out towards the monitor screens. One of the seats had what appeared to be flight-like controls built into the arms. In the seat next to it was a large semi-circular glass screen with a HUD containing information.
‘That seat looks like the command information centre system from the Armadillo,’ Jack said.
‘The CIC is certainly based on it, although right now Ariel doesn’t have any armaments,’ Alice said to us through the open ramp. ‘There’s another important addition. That seat with the controls built into it is for the pilot.’
‘You mean you’re not going to let the Delphi AI system fly this?’ I asked.
‘Oh, don’t you worry, Delphi will still be there for backup and to make sure the various elements of the flight system play nicely together. However, the primary control will be down to the pilot as this is a completely new field of aviation for us. We’ve obviously tried to anticipate as many aspects as we can. For example, the spherical cockpit is designed to keep the flight-deck platform level as Ariel effectively rotates around it. With the exception of the TR-3B Astra, the experimental gravity reduction craft of the US military, this will be unlike any other aircraft our world has created. We’re going to be facing the unknown with Ariel on her maiden flight – it’s going to be difficult to anticipate everything that might be thrown at us.’
‘So you’re going to use a test pilot?’ Jack asked.
‘We most certainly are,’ Alice replied. ‘Me.’
‘You’re not serious?’ I said before my brain had a chance to clamp down the thought.
Alice’s eyebrows rose up her forehead. ‘Good to hear you have such confidence in my flying skills, Lauren.’
‘No, I didn’t mean it like that…’ My gaze travelled to her wheelchair before I could stop it. Bloody hell, I was on a roll today.
‘Oh, I see. You think that because I have a spinal injury I can’t pilot this craft? Is that about the gist of it?’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest—’
But Alice held up a hand to silence me. ‘Please relax, Lauren. I’m really not taking this personally. It’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. However, I would have thought you knew me well enough to realise that being confined to wheelchair won’t stop me when it comes to the opportunity to fly Ariel.’
‘Of course…’ I cast a desperate look round for Jack to jump in and deflect the conversation.
He raised his eyebrows a fraction at me before turning to gaze down at Alice from the flight deck. ‘So how will you actually pilot this thing? Will you clamp your wheelchair somewhere?’
‘Oh, I have something far better than that. The flight seat has been moulded to my body. And to fly Ariel I only need my hands – there’s no rudder control to speak of. So you see, this ship is perfect for someone who’s a paraplegic like myself.’
‘That’s great and everything, but surely a test flight is a risky thing anyway?’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t it be safer if someone else took Ariel out for her first flight?’
Alice shook her head. ‘It’s precisely because it’s risky that I’m going to do this, Lauren. This craft is primarily my design. There is no way I could just be a spectator whilst someone else puts their neck on the line. Wouldn’t you do the same in my position?’
I sighed. ‘Yes, I probably would.’
‘So we got there in the end. If it’s any comfort, Niki felt just the same until I sweet-talked him round.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ I said. ‘You, Alice, are a force of nature not to be argued with.’
‘Says Lauren Stelleck, our very own Lara Croft,’ she replied.
Jack chuckled. ‘Isn’t that the truth.’
Before I could object, a warbling alarm filled the landing bay and red light began to strobe on the wall.
‘Looks as if we’re about to get company,’ Alice said.
The sound of motors whirring echoed from somewhere high above us in the launch bay shaft. A round disc of stars slowly started to appear as a cover slid back. A single point of light blazed far brighter than even Venus in the night sky, growing larger fast. Then, without so much as a sigh of wind, the falling star stopped directly over the entrance to the silo. It was close enough to make out its form – a shining six-pointed crystal with shimmering blue energy rippling through its surfaces. The craft, made from two combined micro minds that had fused together, gradually descended into the silo.
‘Lucy still takes my breath away when she carves the sky up like that,’ Alice said.
‘Hopefully with her help it won’t be long before you’re doing the same with Ariel,’ Jack replied.
I felt the usual thrill at seeing Lucy arrive. This would be the sixth time Lucy had made a house call to Eden since our mission in Peru.
As she drew closer, her glowing crystal surfaces cast blue light across the shaft’s rock walls. A strong smell of ozone washed over me as the craft slowed to a complete stop just a metre above one of the vacant landing pads next to Ariel. Its hover was so stable that she could have even landed on solid ground.
Alice slowly released a breath as she gazed with childlike wonder at the micro mind ship. ‘It’s always so astonishing to see technology so in advance of our own.’
‘Don’t forget that you’re looking at the handiwork of the Angelus, the first sentient species. They’ve had a few billion years’ head start on us,’ I said.
‘Just so. And what I wouldn’t give to know what makes Lucy tick. But, that aside, this will be the perfect opportunity to test out Jodie’s Cage experiment.’
‘If it works as hoped, it will be quite something to see,’ Jack said.
‘Oh, that it most certainly will,’ Alice said. ‘Lauren, could you please contact Lucy and let her know what we’ve got planned?’
‘No problem.’
I took out the Empyrean Key, which I’d grabbed on the way down from one of the acoustic labs where Jodie had been testing it. This was the ancient stone orb I’d originally unearthed with Jack at the Neolithic site of Skara Brae back on Orkney. I also found my tuning fork in the small rucksack I’d slung over my shoulder and struck it against one of the rounded raised faces of the stone. As the clear note rang out, a constellation of icons appeared round the orb. Among us, only I could see this. The Angelus technology tapped into my synaesthesia ability, meaning certain sounds triggered visual effects. That was how I’d first discovered the Empyrean Key was actually a control device that enabled me to interact with Lucy’s micro mind.
‘Everyone ready?’ I asked.
‘It’s so disorientating, I’m not sure I ever will be, but please go ahead,’ Alice said.
I selected the star symbol for the E8 dimension and flicked my wrist forward. At once the world blurred away and a room c
ame into focus round us.
Bookshelves filled the floor beneath a carved wooden roof decorated with tiles. I instantly recognised it as the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford. In E8 Lucy could model whatever she liked. I knew the real-world version contained one of the oldest collection of literary works in the world. Of course, knowing Lucy’s attention to detail, this perfectly simulated version did too.
Alice stared slack-jawed at the shelves of books around us.
The first time she’d visited the E8 dimension with us, Lucy had given Alice functional legs. Alice had uncharacteristically had to fight back tears when she’d realised what the AI had done for her. Ever since, Lucy had respected Alice’s wishes that she preferred to be in her wheelchair, even when transported over to the higher reality of E8.
‘Oh my, this is incredible,’ Alice said in a whisper.
‘Why, thank you,’ Lucy replied from the doorway. She was wearing an academic cape and even had a black mortar board on her head, resting at a jaunty angle. ‘But I can’t really take the credit – you humans had an awful lot to do with the design.’
I smiled. ‘Thanks for that.’
Lucy grinned and held her arms out to me. ‘Hello, trouble.’
I crossed to Lucy and hugged her. Now, like always, it felt like the most natural thing to do in the world.
Jack raised his eyebrows at me. Maybe he did have a point about this AI becoming a true friend to me. Things certainly felt easy with her, just as they had with my real aunt, who Lucy was modelled on.
Lucy finally let go of me and shook Alice’s hand. ‘So how has Ariel’s antigravity drive been coming along?’
‘Actually, we have a name for it now: the Revolution Field Drive, otherwise known REV,’ Alice said. ‘We ran a competition at Eden and that was the clear winner.’
‘Oh, catchy, I like it,’ Lucy replied.
‘And, to answer your question, we’ve almost got it running smoothly. But there are a few kinks in the system that need ironing out with your help.’
