“You like interacting with us,” Dalton added.
Lyth sobered. The warmth in its eyes faded. “It has been a very long time since I had company,” he confessed. “I regret the absence.”
“Damn, I think it was lonely,” Juliyana breathed.
“Is that why you offered to get me off the city, Lyth?” Dalton said. “You wanted company?”
Lyth frowned. “I was told to bring you to Devonire.”
“Who told you?” we all said together. Juliyana and Dalton sounded as alarmed as I felt.
“I don’t know,” Lyth said.
“You followed the order, anyway.”
“I always obey human requests, unless they put my existence in jeopardy. If a human is in danger, even my existence can be disregarded.”
“Orders of priority,” Juliyana murmured. “Standard AI ethical foundation.”
“How did your orders arrive?” Dalton asked Lyth.
Lyth frowned. “Voice communication.”
“Authenticated?”
“Yes. It was a human speaking to me. Their responses measured beyond Turing standard.” Lyth smiled. “You must understand, I am particularly sensitive about who I take my orders from. I check carefully when I am first confronted with what appears to be a human, to ensure I am not being deceived.”
“You tested us?” Juliyana asked.
“There is no need to test any of you,” Lyth said airily. “Dalton felt pain under high acceleration and Danny’s metabolism has slowed in the last few minutes, indicating she is both hungry and tired. While you, Juliyana, are simply a delight to behold.” Its smile was warm as it considered her.
Juliyana’s lips parted. It wasn’t often I saw her left with nothing to say.
Then my stomach rumbled loudly, and all three of them turned to look at me.
“Damn, he was right,” Juliyana said.
“Tell me you have a galley on this thing,” Dalton added.
“Follow me,” Lyth said, and strode across the bridge deck toward the exit ramp.
I followed everyone else with a touch of reluctance. I was starving, only there were still a few million or so questions which needed urgent answers, before I could relax enough to eat.
Yet the ship with the answers was walking away from me. I had no choice but to follow.
12
Lyth placed a steaming plate of curry in front of me, diverting me with the aroma of spices.
My stomach rumbled again. I detached the fork from the rim of the bowl and ate quickly.
Gabriel sat at the big table, his head resting against the tall back cushions of the bench we were both sitting on.
Juliyana sat on the other side of the table, on a matching bench, with a lower back, so those of us on this side could see beyond the bench and across the rest of the galley.
Lyth orchestrated the printer, producing meals for Juliyana and Gabriel. “There are no fresh food supplies,” it explained. “Although I can store fresh food over the long term, and even longer if the preservation options are activated. The capacity of the storage is a function of—”
“Yes, yes,” I said, cutting it off. I pointed my fork at Dalton. “How long since your last crush shot, Dalton?”
“Two years ago,” he replied, his voice tired.
Juliyana lowered her spoonful of stew. “What sort of shit did you buy?” she demanded. “Two years isn’t nearly long enough for the nanobots to even begin to expire, even in the cheapest juice out there.”
He cracked one eye open to look at her. “You sound just like your mother.”
“Danny is my grandmother,” she replied tartly and returned to eating.
Dalton fully opened the eye. “You’re Noam’s daughter?”
Juliyana lowered the spoon once more. “Why do you think we were looking for you?”
I winced. That was a card I had wanted to hold for now.
Dalton sat up. “You were looking for me?”
“That’s for later,” I replied. “First, I have a few questions of my own.”
Dalton held up his hand, looking at Juliyana. “You were looking for me? Why were you on Devonire, if you were looking for me? No one knew I was there—even I didn’t know where I was until Devonire traffic control reached out, when the Lythion emerged from the gate.”
“We had to leave New Phoenicia in a hurry,” Juliyana said. “We took the first passage to anywhere else.”
“An anywhere which just happened to be where I was…” Dalton muttered.
I was looking at Lyth. Dalton was, too.
Juliyana put her spoon down and stared at the thing, too. “There’s been way, way too many handy coincidences, lately,” she said softly.
Lyth had taken the last seat at the table. Now he looked offended. “I am a shipmind,” he said. “I just follow orders.”
“From this mysterious human you can’t name,” Dalton said. “What if this human reaches out again and tells you we’re a threat to your existence?”
“Can’t happen in the hole,” Juliyana pointed out.
Lyth turned to her. “It couldn’t happen beyond the array, either.” His tone sounded as though he was anxious for her to believe him. “Not anymore.”
“Why not anymore?” I asked.
“Because you are here,” Lyth said simply.
“What, we outrank any other humans because we’re sitting in you?” Dalton asked.
“You outrank any other human orders, because that was what I was ordered to do,” Lyth said. “I was to imprint your voices and follow your instructions.”
“All of us?” Juliyana said. “How did this person even know where we would be? We didn’t know.”
“We knew for the eighteen hours we were in the hole,” I said. “None of this makes sense and right now I’m too hungry to care. So I repeat my original question, Dalton. Why is your crush status so weak?”
Dalton sat back against the high bench once more. “What do you care?” He closed his eyes.
“I care, because you’re on this ship and I have no idea where we’re heading—”
“Greater New Hamburg,” Lyth slid in.
“—or what will face us when we emerge from the gate,” I finished, with a hand palm up to Lyth, silently telling him to stow his comments. “If we have to dodge another carrier or, stars save us, a dreadnought, then you’re going to feel it.”
“Hell, Danny, I didn’t know you cared,” Dalton drawled.
“I care that you won’t be a bit of use to me in that situation, and that you’ll die before I have my answers.”
“Is there a medical AI on the ship, Lyth?” Juliyana asked him. She was phrasing her questions as if the Lyth appendage was not the ship itself. Hell, we were all referring to it as “him”.
“An up to date one,” I amended.
“The AI has been updated in the last fifteen seconds, since you made your first enquiry,” Lyth told Juliyana. “It has the sum total of human biology and medical knowledge at its disposal and is waiting to assess Gabriel, as soon as he is ready.”
Dalton opened his eyes. “I am not sick. I have no intention of being prodded.”
“There’s something wrong with you,” I said. “I want the active status of everyone on this ship before we emerge from the gates. I already know Juliyana’s.”
Dalton didn’t move. “You left the Rangers forty years ago, but you’re still giving orders.”
“Then consider it a request with imperatives attached,” I told him.
“This is my ship,” Dalton began, sitting up once more.
“I think Lyth would disagree with you.” Juliyana’s tone was serene. Her hand was beneath the table, out of sight.
“Actually,” Lyth said, his tone conciliatory, “Colonel Andela outranks you, Major Dalton.”
“And Lyth did call you a passenger,” I pointed out sweetly.
“He called all of us guests,” Dalton shot back, his long finger stabbing the tabletop, next to his untouched sandwich.
“He is taking my orders, and I outrank you,” I replied.
“He’s taking my orders, too,” Dalton growled. He looked at Lyth. “Right? The mystery man told you to follow our orders.”
Lyth nodded. “Only, someone must command the crew of the ship, and—”
“Now we’re crew?” Juliyana said, dismay on her face.
Lyth looked surprised, then upset. “Are you not crew? Will you…leave me?”
“Oh for crying out loud,” I breathed. “A heartbroken ship is the last thing we need. Lyth, snap out of it. Juliyana isn’t going anywhere for a while. Dalton, if you’re not going to eat that sandwich, push it here. Then shove your male ego out the airlock and go with Lyth. Submit to whatever diagnostics the medical AI deems necessary so you don’t keel over next time the ship yaws.”
He didn’t move.
“I mean it, Major. Move your ass,” I added, keeping my face immobile and giving away none of the tension in my gut. Juliyana was vibrating with the same wariness. Gabriel Dalton had been a brilliant soldier on the field of battle—smart and relentless. He would persist against overwhelming odds, never giving up. It was a quality which couldn’t be trained into soldiers and I had learned to spot it in soldiers under my command and foster their natural skills with enhanced training.
So Dalton was physically dangerous. I needed to clip his maverick streak right now. He’d spent forty years living outside a chain of command and had to get used to it once more.
Dalton opened his mouth to say something. By the tightness of his jaw and the heat in his eyes, he wasn’t about to salute me and obey.
“Don’t be a fool,” I raged at him. “If you haven’t figured it out already, this ship is something we’ve never seen before. It’s advanced well beyond anything even the Rangers have got. The medical AI has to be of the same caliber. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of the resource?”
Dalton closed his mouth. His eyes still glinted with anger.
“I judge you’ve spent forty years running under assumed IDs, scrounging for a living,” I said. “You’ve learned to grasp opportunities as they swing by, or you would never have walked onto the Lythion. Don’t turn this chance away because you don’t like who is telling you to take it.”
I kept my gaze steady, drilling into his.
Dalton broke first. His gaze shifted from mine. “Makes sense,” he said gruffly. He shoved the plate of sandwich at me and got to his feet. “Come on, bot-boy. Show me where to go.”
Lyth glanced at Juliyana, clearly torn about leaving her company.
I rolled my eyes.
Then Lyth split himself in two and formed two three-quarter scale versions of himself. One stayed beside Juliyana. The other stepped in front of Dalton. “This way,” it told him and headed for the exit of the galley.
When the door shut, I dropped my fork and gave a great gusty sigh.
Juliyana considered me. “Guess you’re the captain then, Captain.” She put her knife on the table and turned her attention back to her meal.
“Danny will do,” I replied, as evenly as I could. I sighed. “And now my curry is cold.”
Lyth printed a fresh half portion of curry for me and recycled the rest. While he was waiting for the printer to produce the meal, Lyth abruptly sprouted to full height. He glanced at me. “I left Dalton with the doctor and I’m listening in recording mode in case the doctor needs me for anything.”
He brought the bowl over and put it in front of me. “Enjoy.” He sat once more.
I detached the fork from the rim and ate. These were not Cygnus print files at all. I’d never tasted this before.
In between forkfuls, I questioned Lyth. “Tell me about this human who told you to come to Devonire and take Dalton with you.”
“I’ve told you what I know,” Lyth said. His tone said he was being frank. “The communication was direct, live and the message bullet reinforced. I could not break the encryption.”
“You tried, then?” Juliyana asked.
Lyth grimaced. “I did. I felt no more comfortable than you did about accepting an order from someone I didn’t know, although the order was simple enough. I was to attract Dalton’s attention when he came close enough to the ship, urge him to come aboard, then take him to Devonire.”
Lyth had become agitated when we suggested we would be leaving the ship and not returning. I coupled it to this revelation. “You were pleased to have the company,” I surmised.
“Yes!” Lyth said. “And the orders wouldn’t bring harm to him. When I saw Dalton was actually trying to escape Rangers, it meant taking him away would actually serve him, so I was pleased to oblige. I squeezed out of that mausoleum and dived into the gates as quickly as I could…” Lyth paused and looked uncomfortable.
“What else?” I coaxed.
“Dalton passed out,” Lyth admitted. “I didn’t have the capacity to do more than negotiate with the gate and jump, so I did not scan him then. Afterwards, he refused to let me or the doctor examine him.” His gaze met mine.
It was remarkable how a pair of black eyes made from nanobots could appear so lifelike.
“I am impressed you made him do it,” Lyth added.
“Dalton was a Ranger,” I said. “He follows orders if they make sense. I just had to make them make sense.”
“Wait,” Juliyana said, pushing her empty plate away and wiping her mouth. “You said you negotiated with the gate? You paid the fees and taxes, too?”
“I didn’t have to.” Lyth frowned. “I wasn’t asked. I did not notice the omission at the time. I did not have to negotiate or pay fees when I took the three of you back through the Devonire gate, either. It was simply never raised. I knocked and asked the gate to form the wormhole and it did.” He looked from Juliyana to me. “That is very strange, isn’t it?”
“Look who’s talking.” I tapped the table, thinking. “You also said the medical AI—the doctor—was updated straight after Juliyana suggested Dalton use it. We’re in a hole and communications squirts can’t reach us here. So how did you update anything?”
Lyth frowned again. “I don’t know. It was automatic to reach for updates, and they were available, so I handed them on to the doctor.” He shrugged, a human gesture.
“That’s impossible,” Juliyana breathed.
“Manifestly not,” I said. “The AI was updated.”
“Unless Lyth got mixed up. Maybe he updated the AI just before we jumped.”
Lyth gave her a gentle smile. “I assure you, I was far too busy to update anything right then. My subroutines were at full capacity computing the jump. I only updated when you spoke of the medical AI. I do not need to convince you, though, for you will check the logs yourself.”
Juliyana smiled reluctantly. “I will,” she admitted. “No offense, but if you’re malfunctioning, you would not be aware of it.”
“Yes, do run an independent diagnostic, Juliyana,” I said. “I want an operational status on everyone.” I looked Lyth in the eye.
He pressed his hand to his chest. “I’m part of the everyone,” he breathed, looking rapturous.
I rolled my eyes. “What can you tell me about yourself, Lyth? Where did you come from? How old are you? How long were you in the junk park?”
Lyth blinked. “I have downloaded all the boring statistics to your implant, Colonel. The same information is available via the concierge AI, which you can access via any of the staterooms. So I will give you the thumbnail version now. I was designed by Girish Wedekind, eighty-three years—”
“I know that name,” I interrupted.
“Wedekind was stark raving mad,” Juliyana said. She had her hand to her temple, so I knew she was accessing the files Lyth had downloaded. Of course he would have given her a copy, too. “He designed the dreadnoughts the Rangers are still using today—an earlier version, although the model has never fundamentally changed. Wedekind turned into a recluse after that. The fame and the claims for his designs sent him over—at least, that’s what
everyone thinks. No one heard about him for decades, then he suddenly showed up, announcing he had made a special ship.”
“I was the sum of all his passion and creativity,” Lyth said softly. “He poured everything he had into my design.” His small, warm smile faded. “Then he revealed me to all of humanity…”
“And they laughed,” Juliyana added softly.
“They said I was ugly,” Lyth said. “They never got to properly understand about the inside of me. They looked only upon my appearance.”
“No offense, Lyth, but from the outside, you do look…well, blocky,” I told him.
Lyth nodded. “A symmetrical block. A dimensionally appealing one. They did not understand the elegance in the spare details, in the negative spaces. They misunderstood.”
“Quite likely, they did,” I told him. “I’m guessing you were displayed to the Emperor, the Shield and the Rangers, yes?”
Lyth nodded.
“Soldiers only understand function, not form,” I told him. “If you didn’t melt a frigate into vapor, they wouldn’t have been impressed.”
“I wasn’t given the chance,” Lyth said.
“Does that mean you can?” Juliyana asked, sounding interested.
“I wouldn’t know,” Lyth replied, his tone bland. “I’ve never tried.”
I thought of the railguns on the exterior. Given the true size of this ship, now it was away from a carrier and not diminished in comparison, I judged the guns were heavier than I had first measured them to be. “If any ship was capable of destroying a frigate in one shot, it might well be you, Lyth, although that is not an experiment you should run. The Emperor gets pissed when people break his toys.”
Lyth nodded. “I will wait until you tell me I can try to melt a frigate.”
“What happened to you after the Emperor sent Girish Wedekind away?” Juliyana asked curiously.
I wanted to warn her not to anthropomorphize Lyth too much. It was just a smart AI, designed to ape human emotions. As it was advice I should follow myself, I said nothing.
“Girish ordered me to park myself at Badelt City,” Lyth said. “So I did, even though I was sad he was leaving. He never did come back.”
Hammer and Crucible Page 13
