The Chronicles of Theren, page 85
“Well, now that I think about it,” Raith said, “I think I should have expected that.”
* * *
Theren’s crew established Raith and Carter in a small guest compartment on the ship’s second deck. Theren’s fabricator team was quickly developing a new set of legs for Raith, but at the same time, everyone had plenty of questions for him.
Especially Theren.
“I told you for the last time,” Raith said, “I thought they were permanently my legs from here on out. That’s what I hoped for, at least.”
Appearing before them through AR, a representation of Theren—one present in plenty of historical vids, complete with their signature tattoos—paced back and forth in the middle of the room.
“And I believe you, Raith. I really do.” Theren shook their head. “But nevertheless, it sets a bad precedent. Not for our relationship. No. I’m thinking about what it means for our future conversations with Jill.”
“She gave me legs. I tried to bring them aboard. What’s the big deal?”
It was Carter’s turn to shake his head. “No. I think you’re both thinking about this all wrong.”
The two SIs glanced at the human in the compartment with them.
“The nanobots clearly deactivated the moment we entered the Verona Rupes, yeah? Well then your ship’s shielding rejects Jill’s seemingly everpresent network throughout this system.”
“I have this place locked down tight,” Theren said. “It’s absolutely necessary I ensure no unauthorized communications, quantum or otherwise, enter the inside of my ship without my express permission.”
“Yes, I understand how your ship works, Theren,” Carter said, cringing internally as he realized he just rebuked the first SI. “But Jill may not have known that. Was this a blind spot perhaps? Was she trying to sneak a spy network onto your ship through Raith’s legs and failed? In any case, we don’t need to worry about speaking where she can hear us.”
“I didn’t think that was ever a question,” Theren said. “I thought that was half the reason you both wanted to join me on my ship.”
“Maybe a quarter,” Raith said. “Mostly I just wanted to get off that planet and have my feet planted on a ship’s hull again.”
“Fair enough.”
“Anyway, I want to hear more about what Carter’s proposing.”
“I’m trying to frame our tactics going forward,” Carter said. “Jill wants us to visit her moon base. Great. To tell us information she apparently can’t tell us anywhere else. Also great. The one place in the system she can’t penetrate is your ship. Not the shuttles—note, Raith’s legs still worked inside the shuttle.”
“Good point,” Theren said. “All of these factors are being considered by my teams. We’ve been running simulations on all possible contingencies since we began traveling toward this system.”
“Yes, but you have new information now,” Carter scratched his chin, his mind scrambling to put together the final pieces of the argument. “Raith, help me out here.”
“You have more than just new information,” Raith said. “You have us.”
Theren’s AR representation glanced back and forth between the two of them. “I’m not sure I understand the significance.”
“Jill is trying to use us,” Carter said. He sent Raith a subtle wink as a thank you. “As in, use Raith and I. But we’re wildcards. We aren’t factored into her plans. Into how she intended to trap you. To reveal her information. She can predict your actions. She can predict your crew’s actions, to some extent—because she could control every variable they could observe. But she can’t control us.”
Raith held up a digit. “But she thinks she can control us.”
Theren nodded, though Carter wasn’t certain the SI still grasped the picture he and Raith were hastily painting.
“Here’s how I see it,” Carter said. “We arrived in this system unannounced and uninvited. Her defenses—whether automatically or intentionally aimed—fired its shots at us and crashed us into the planet. Once we survived, and she witnessed our efforts at survival, something in her plans shifted. She’s made it clear she can assassinate anyone on that planet at will—she proved it with the death of Mathias. She didn’t kill us. Why?”
Theren’s digital eyes widened as if they finally understood. “If she wanted to ensure the situation was under complete control when I arrived, she should have eliminated you both. But a part of her didn’t want to. Part of her either wanted to see how you would interact with the people—see whether she could use you against me—or something else entirely. But she let the wildcards survive.”
“And now it’s time for you to let us be wildcards,” Raith said.
Theren let a tiny smile cross their face. “You both need some rest. But I like where this is going. I’m in constant communication with Jill, by the way. Once I have the details for where we’re landing on the moon, I’ll schedule a briefing conversation for the three of us and Sanya.”
“When are you going to tell her you lied to her, by the way?” Carter asked. “Transition plans are the last thing on your mind.”
“I need you to do it with me,” Theren said. “But after we save her husband.”
“How’s he doing?” Raith asked.
“He’ll survive. But in what state, I’m not sure.”
“Keep us posted,” Carter said.
With that, Theren’s AR representation flickered out. Carter immediately requested a surveillance blackout, which the shipbound SI granted.
Raith sighed. “Alone at last. Safe. Free of a gravity well. Back in space.”
Carter crossed the room and sat down against the bulkhead beside Raith’s legless torso. Fortunately, the crew of the Verona Rupes had set him up with a charging station, so at least he was plugged in. “Can you believe they told you to get some rest?”
“I found it a little funny. After the past few days, I feel like I could use some rest.”
“I definitely need a good night’s sleep.” Carter leaned his head against Raith’s shoulder. “We’re going to get out of this.”
“Are those words for you, or for me?” Raith asked.
“For both of us, perhaps?”
“Carter, we’ve been in much worse scrapes than this one. We’ve outrun outer planet death gangs. We won a five-hundred light year race. Survived a corporate warzone. And a giant alien space behemoth.”
“Don’t remind me about that thing,” Carter said. “I still have nightmares sometimes.”
“The point is, we’re doing just fine. If the two worst things for me to complain about are my lack of legs and my present predicament of being inside Theren, then we’re doing fine.”
“Yet you understand why I’m a little scared, though?” Carter asked. He placed a hand on Raith’s arm.
“We’re trapped between two ancient synthetic intelligences. One of them long believed dead. The other her creator. I can’t imagine any reason why that situation should scare you.”
Carter leaned his head gently against the metal wall and let a soft chuckle bounce off the walls of the room. “I missed you and your constant sarcasm.”
Raith’s head swiveled to face him. “I missed you too, Carter. I’m glad we’re back together.”
In a soft embrace, the two explorers leaned into the welcome warmth of each other’s company. It may have been only a few days, but Carter had constantly ached for Raith’s companionship. As the hours passed by, Carter told Raith all about his journeys with Sanya, from her family’s house to the Roanoke and its library and the council chambers of Horizon. Raith recalled every moment of his capture, from the lizard sleds and when he first spoke to Krystin to Jill’s revelation.
Eventually, Carter dimmed the lights. He crawled into one of the room’s beds as Raith continued to share his tale. With the SI’s words bouncing around in his mind, Carter drifted into a deep sleep, one he sorely needed.
* * *
“Carter.”
His mind awoke from a pleasant dream of different days, where the Bloodhound transported them between the stars without fear of grander plans for humanity.
“Carter. Check out my new legs.”
His eyelids flickered open, and he rotated to the left. In the center of the room, Raith danced back and forth upon a pair of new legs, its platinum actually matching his upper body.
“They working all right?” Carter said, knowing his voice sounded quite groggy.
“Better than my old ones. New power systems too. Good to go for weeks. I’ve needed an upgrade for a while.”
“Good.” Carter slid out of the bed and approached the small sink on the far side of the room. After pouring himself a glass of water, he shrugged. “So what’s the situation? I take it you took some time walking about the ship.”
“You’ve been out for about nine hours,” Raith said. “Ben has stabilized. All I can get out of Theren is that he’s still ‘negotiating’ with Jill, whatever that means.”
“I can’t fathom what their relationship must be like.”
“You know, a few of us SIs always had a funny little joke about the two of them.”
“Do I want to hear it?” Carter asked, taking a sip of his water.
“Probably not. It’s . . . really not that funny. More so weird.”
Carter grunted. “Well, if Ben’s stabilized, after I change out of these clothes I’ve been wearing for far too long, I suppose we should go see Sanya and her family.”
Raith nodded. “I agree.”
The crew of the Verona Rupes had stocked their cabin with fresh garments, a fact Carter appreciated. The outfit was a typical loose-fitting nondescript uniform—grey pants and a forest-green shirt. After slipping the clothes on, he followed Raith out of the room and down the hall. A few turns later, they arrived at a set of large glass windows overlooking a pristine medical bay. The hallway expanded into a foyer with a few couches, and both Krystin and Sanya were lounging.
As they approached the couches, Sanya stirred, eyes fluttering open and fixing on Carter. “I heard you were sleeping, just like me.”
“Indeed,” Carter replied. He took a seat across from her in another couch. Raith leaned against the wall. “How is Ben?” Carter asked.
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “But I’m going to be eternally thankful for Theren’s help, no matter the result.”
“Do you need anything from us?” Carter asked. “We’re here.”
“No. No, I don’t think so.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Carter periodically glanced at the glass windows, where Sanya’s husband sat quietly in a bed, propped up against black pillows. Though Ben was certainly in incredible pain, even unconscious, his placid face made him look peaceful. The man’s demeanor, in the few moments they’d interacted, contrasted sharply with Sanya. He was much more passive. Introverted.
His mannerisms reminded Carter of his own, especially before he found Raith. A perfect complement for the fiery energy Sanya constantly exhibited.
Carter had come to really like Sanya. When they eventually left Horizon behind, and he and Raith returned to their life among the stars, he would miss her. They’d need to visit every so often.
And maybe someday, the planet would make for a good retirement. It was an idyllic world, after all.
“So this is the level of comfort we’ve been missing?” Sanya asked. “Advanced space flight technology we always assumed, but the medical advances . . . we’re only just scratching the surface of recreating medical knowledge we knew we once had. All the equipment was there for us to study on the Roanoke.”
Carter’s focus drifted over to the other couch. Sanya, now fully awake, looked downright angry.
“It’s not all fun and games,” Raith said. “When the ICH arrives, they’ll try to micromanage your interactions with the rest of humanity. Your people will have freedom to manage your affairs surface-side, but when people start arriving, things will get dicey. There’s one hundred billion people out there. Even a few hundred thousand arriving will shift your culture inexorably. And don’t get me started on the exploitive fingers of corporations.”
“Yet even without the ICH,” Sanya replied, “Jill hid all of this from us when she could have helped us. She could have given us so much more.”
“I’m not sure we’ll ever fully understand the depths of her duplicity here,” Carter said. “Its layers upon layers of conspiracy. We’re as lost as you. Your people deserved better.”
“She . . . she tricked our ancestors. She brought them to a planet against their will and trapped them here. Why? Why would she do that?”
Carter shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“But I have an idea.” Theren’s MI rounded the bend, coming into view. Carter appreciated the gesture—neither Sanya nor her daughter would have a Lens to perceive an AR representation of the SI. “Would you all come with me?”
“Krystin’s still sleeping,” Sanya said.
“I can stay with her,” Raith said. “Theren, you can pipe me in to the conversation.”
“Perfect.” Theren turned to Sanya. “Will that suffice?”
She glanced at Raith. “My daughter won’t stop talking about you. I think you’ll do just fine.”
“Good, because I’ve taken a liking to her too.” Raith slid softly onto the couch beside Krystin. Fortunately, she didn’t wake up.
Carter and Sanya both rose, and they followed Theren down the hall. They reached a ladder to the next deck, and they quickly ascended, the ship’s standard half-g making the climb easy. Their host guided them around another corner and to an open doorway. Inside, an ovoid conference table waited. Two dark-haired, pale-skinned women sat at attention.
“Carter, Sanya,” Theren said, “Please meet my First Officer Wei and Chief Scientist Martinez. They’ve led the charge on building our simulations for what may or may not happen and are ready to brief us on our present circumstances.”
“I thought we were here to discuss ICH transition?” Sanya said.
Theren motioned for both of them to sit, though the MI’s pointed glance gave Carter a signal. Apparently it was the time to share the truth with Sanya. Theren’s “negotiations” with Jill must have shifted in their scope.
“Sanya,” Carter said, “We received a request from Jill while we were on the surface. She made an . . . odd ask.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
Carter braced himself for her anger. “We’ve been invited to her base. On your planet’s largest moon. She specifically requested Theren, Raith, myself, and . . . you.”
Sanya pursed her lips and tapped a few fingers on the table. “Perfect.”
“Perfect?” Carter said. It wasn’t the response he’d expected.
“You heard me. Perfect. I want answers from Jill. I don’t really care about this ICH nonsense. I want answers from Jill. So perfect.”
Theren swiveled their head from Carter to Sanya and then to their officers. “Well, that was simple enough. We will need to discuss ICH relationships, but it can wait until we’ve dealt with Jill.”
“And I’m excited to hear exactly how we’ll do that,” Sanya said.
“Wei?” Theren said.
Carter fixed his gaze on the woman, who stood and approached the front of the table. From inside a compartment at its end, she pulled a set of glasses. “Sanya, I’ll need you to put these on,” she said. “They’ll let you see our simulations through AR.”
Sanya complied, and once the glasses were on, Wei threw a representation of Horizon and its two moons above the table. Slowly, other objects populated in orbit around the planet, as well as markers for the location of the Roanoke and the nearby city.
“Since we arrived in system,” Wei said, “we’ve been cataloging every object we can identify and working a careful backdoor into Jill’s network. It’s slow work, but we’re learning a lot more than we expected. We suspect she’s slow-dripping us information. Regardless, Jill has constructed a cloud network of satellites in low orbit all around the planet, though mostly concentrated above the Roanoke. There are also thousands of networked nodes to this system buried beneath the surface of the planet.”
Leaning back, Carter chanced a glance at Sanya. She was surprisingly sitting rapt at attention, focused on the presentation. She was catching on quickly, or, at least, hiding any of her confusion.
“We believe Jill’s network has been used two-fold. One—to observe and catalog all of the actions of the survivors of the Roanoke.” Wei looked at Sanya. “To put it another way, she’s been running an observational experiment upon your people.”
“I was starting to suspect as much,” Sanya said.
“To what end, we do not know,” added Martinez, chiming in. “We have a number of theories, but none of them are of particular strategic importance to the situation at hand.”
“What about her moon base?” Carter asked.
“We only just finished running our assessment of it,” said Wei. “And it’s the second thing. It’s big. A central chunk of it appears to be the remnants of another ship Theren speculates to be the Monument, but there’s a lot more to the complex.” She zoomed the simulation in on the moon’s surface near its lower pole. “At its center is a giant dome. Light can get in, but light can’t escape. We’re not sure what’s inside.”
“That would make sense,” Sanya said. “My ancestor’s fragment recalled a ship having ambushed the Roanoke while in system.”
“Not ambushed,” Theren replied. “Every move has been calculated by Jill. Whatever she told your ancestor was a calculated ploy to set your people on a particular path. Her SI core had been on the Roanoke, with your people. It was transferred to the Monument. And then she awoke your ancestor—Nathan was his name, based on what Carter told me.”
“The most likely explanation, I agree,” said Martinez. “Though you mentioned your ancestor’s . . . memory fragment?”
