"So, he made all the information in the Iron Mind part of himself and left?" Spin asked. It was the last thing she expected; an artificial intelligence absconding with the data she needed.
"Not just the Iron Mind. Many terabytes of information from many similar archives, most of which he said shouldn't be in the hands of humans or their creations," Med Three said. "Not all of the data is gone, though. Much was left behind."
"Humans are very good at complicating themselves to death," Leaper Six said, nodding.
"Did he cure the people he saved? Fix their life caps and other genetic limitations?"
"Yes," Med Three said. "I assisted in formulating the corrections."
"Wait." Leaper Six said. The Ando model android, human looking but not so much in behaviour with his stiff jaw movements said the same.
"You scanned me, can see I have the same problems," Spin said, trying not to get her hopes up. "Can you formulate a fix for me?"
"Using the genetic key and systems I have on board?" Med Three asked. "Of course, I'll start formulating the compound that will unlock your full potential now."
"Wait!" Leaper Six screeched. "Make a bargain!"
"What do you want?" Spin asked before thinking.
"Careful," Frost said so low that it was almost a grunt.
"To leave!" Leaper Six said.
"Yes, I want to see more," the Ando model android agreed. "Out there."
"I want more humans aboard the station," said a large robot with eight padded arms as it rose up from a cubicle several rows back.
"A new processor cluster, at least three hundred sixty cores," said another machine three cubicles to her left. It was a polished black box on treads.
"Whoa!" Frost said, holding his arms out. "There are only a few of us here, and we don't exactly have a lot of supplies."
"I want you to save the humans," Med Three said pleadingly. "We watch them, used to speak to them, but they have lost faith in us. They used to ask us to destroy the Centirion, or to make a plan that would have them safely freed from the vault, and we tried many times."
"I used to be Leaper Twenty," the monkey repair bot said, scratching its small head then shaking it slowly. "Now, thanks to all the crap we did trying to help those humans escape, I'm Leaper Six. Do the math."
"They stopped talking to us a while ago, and sleep through most of their days to conserve air and supplies. We try to talk to them but no longer get a response. They have no faith in us, nor should they," Med Three said. "We lack the will or the security bots to fight the Centirion."
"Can we take it out?" Boro asked Frost. "With what we have?"
"If we're organized? Ready? Aye. This gear was made to slag frameworks and machines."
Leaper Six's round sensor eyes widened, then he retreated behind a partition barrier slowly, peeking over the edge at Frost. "Guns for killing robots?" it whispered in horror.
"Only the ones we can't get on with," Frost reassured.
"We can kill the Centirion," Spin said, already working on the problem of taking the armoured menace apart. The idea of facing it again was frightening, but she pushed that down, hoping that going in aware of what they would be facing would help.
"Save the humans," The Ando android said. "Then take me with you."
"It's peaceful out there, well, sort of, but you can go wherever you want now," Frost said.
"You can find your way out of the system in who knows how many ways."
"That's an Ando model, they're not exactly seen as independent," Spin said. "By show of a… limb, how many of you want to leave?"
Dozens of appendages of every shape and size rose from the cubicles, there were at least a hundred.
"Bloody hell," Frost and Boro breathed at the same time.
"Now, how many want to leave if we destroy the Centirion?" Spin asked.
All but three retreated back down, leaving a pair of Ando androids and Leaper Six's hands raised. "That's it?"
Two more went up, including Med Three and another bot who clicked their gripper together above the cubicle further in. "I think we can take you five," she said.
Frost nodded. "Aye, sure we can find room. With the nine other passengers, we'll only have to expand one compartment. It'll keep us viable to get out of the system if things go bad."
"All right, so, treat me, and we'll kill the Centirion then transport those five bots and the humans off the base. I promise to get them to a safe place."
A spritz aimed at Spin's chin was stopped by her energy shield and an analysis window appeared, projected by the collar of her armour. "Did you?" she asked, watching the program work, unable to speak through the flood of disappointment and hope that filled her at her cure being deflected by her own energy shield.
"I'm on it," Leland's voice said in her ear. "Wow, the medical systems in that suit are amazing, it's already finished analysing everything in that compound. I'm running simulations right now, let's find out what that would have done to you."
"I'm sorry, I tried to treat you with the cure, but I failed to notice your energy shield. My tertiary sensors have been damaged for three weeks."
"You're not supposed to give her anything before she kills the Centirion!" Leaper Six exclaimed.
"That's it!" Leland exclaimed from where he sat in the rear of the Sector Jumper. "That little bot made you a cure-all for your genetic lock, age restriction and infertility. Oh, and there are some emotional blockers here that we didn't see before, they're removed as well. Your suit's medical system is making a new dose right now."
"Are you sure it's safe? I can't afford to lose more time," Spin said, she could feel her heart hammering in her chest, and she was barely able to contain her excitement.
"Twenty-one simulations, and twenty-one successful treatments don't lie. Are you ready?"
The robots were bickering, several of them scolding Med Three for offering the treatment before Spin and her people had done anything to earn it. Spin ignored them for the moment, talking to Leland instead. "Will it knock me out?"
"No, it's going to take about three days to finish working. Day three will probably be a little rough, with influenza like symptoms, but you'll be able-bodied for at least thirty-five hours."
"Do it," Spin said. Her wrist felt cold for a moment, and her heads' up display confirmed that she'd received a new treatment. "Tell me this is really happening."
"Oh, it is. That key is working, moving across your whole system, already removing the genetic safeguards. In the next few days your life expectancy will go from triple digits to who knows how long? Now, don't ruin it by getting yourself killed."
Thirty-Six
Gavin's mind was always working. That was one of Skylar's favourite sides of him, the part that looked at the universe as an endless puzzle. Normally he thought so far ahead that some of the things he said seemed unusual, even prescient to people who didn't know him, and Skylar made sure he felt free to push his thought process as far as he could for as long as he could.
They were designed to be counterparts for each other. He, a deep thinker who loved a puzzle. He could be a soldier, firing a rifle and rushing an enemy as bravely and adeptly as anyone, his place was really behind the front, working on advanced strategies.
Skylar was her own kind of strategist, able to process information from many sources at once and a gifted multitasker, but her thinking was more immediate, as if she was designed to create a safe space around Gavin. They were never told their roles, but over the years that's how she managed to interpret them.
While they worked on finding and verifying the genetic key that would set them free using the considerable data and progress their new friends or captors made, she watched the conditions around them. They had everything they needed, even privacy. After sleeping in their new quarters the first night they were late to work the next day, taking hours to make love, to forget everything that happened, and to celebrate that they were still together.
At Skylar's suggestion, they took their w
ork into the courtyard, where they were surrounded by trees, the sounds of birds and a trickling stream in the distance. She didn't expect to see any kind of feathered life, it was common for artificial biomes to include the sounds of birds and insects in the sound scape, so she was surprised when a red breasted bird dropped from the branches overhead and started pecking for something in the lawn barely three metres away from them. "I wish I had a scanner," she said, wondering if the convincing little being was mechanical or biologically fabricated.
"I've noticed that's the one thing they won't give us; any kind of broad spectrum general scanning device. All we have are these cellular readers," he touched the small circle on the top corner of his tablet sheet.
"They're only giving us what we need," she said, looking at a simulation of the genetic key they just put together on her screen and how her cells reacted to it. They were finally up to testing the keys on real samples they drew from each other, Terry and Farrah. So far, Terry's sample was completely unlocked. According to the simulations they were seeing, Citadel had the cure working for the couple they'd come with. It looked like they were a few tweaks and tests away from having their own genetic key made. "The simulations look good, I'm still trying to find a flaw, or create conditions where the key fails for Terry."
"That's good, maybe they're telling the truth; that they'll be able to free all synthetics in a few weeks," Gavin said, not looking up from his screen. "That's if they can get a public version out that synthetics can figure out on their own."
"You're running a distribution analysis now, aren't you?" Skylar asked.
"Three of them. One to see how fast a key could get across the galaxy if it was transmitted in the open, another to see how long it would take if a military organization spread it, and another to see how fast synthetic couples would start populating the galaxy that's dependant on my first analysis." He looked up from his worksheet, a one-millimetre thick screen worked as a computer, an interface and a personal holographic projector. "I've been trying to find the right moment to ask, but it's just not coming."
"If I want a baby?" she asked, smiling at the notion. She thought he'd know the answer already.
"How soon you'd want to start having children, actually," he said, a little smile starting at the corners of his mouth.
"As soon as we find somewhere to raise them," she said. "Somewhere safe. It sounds like you expect me to have a few."
"Well, the likelihood is that most synthetics will have twins because the fertility is so much higher."
"Let me guess…"
"I ran a simulation on known doll physiology," he said, rolling his eyes.
"That's good to know," Skylar said. There was an image in her mind of having one child, and she'd kept it close to her heart for a long time. Adding another new born face to that image was a little intimidating, but it made her happier than she expected. The awareness of where they were, of what they'd seen that week, and how lucky they were to be alive was close, and she put it between those comforting dreams. "We'll see how many little ones we bring into the universe after I have a chance to have the first one or two," she said, keeping her voice down as one of the Larkens passed by on the path near their table.
"I don't care how many, as long as we're together," he said.
He was looking far into the future, that was good, it was a sign that Gavin was back to being himself again, but she would have to bring him back to the present. "What are your thoughts about our current situation, now that we've been here awhile?"
The hopeful expression on his face faded. Skylar took his hand, their digits intertwining in the middle of the table, and he looked back to his display. "There are so many unknowns. We have hard limits here that are obscured by this garden, our nice apartment. Even our clothes are too nondescript." He glanced down at the grey and green jumpsuits they wore. They were all-purpose comfort wear for long term ship dwelling and had all the safety features built in, hidden in the seams and larger fabric panels. He was right, they told them nothing certain about where they were going or what they should prepare for. "We haven't seen Terry in a while and every time we cross paths with Farrah…" He looked over her shoulder then and waved.
Skylar followed his gaze, turning, and spotting Farrah, who was with one of the Aspens. She nodded at them, then turned to the Aspen and seemed to plead with her for a moment. Skylar rolled her interface sheet up into the half-centimetre stick it collapsed into and pushed it into her pocket. "Something's not right."
Farrah turned towards them and strode across the lawn, a false smile on her lips. "It's good to see you," she said.
"Do you have time to sit with us?" Skylar asked, keeping a pleasant façade. "We were just about to order lunch."
"No, I'm on my way to processing. They have a key ready for me, I'm so excited." She leaned down and hugged Skylar. "They treated Terry yesterday and he died this morning. They don't have any complete genetic keys. Find a scanner, use it when they're not looking."
"It's time to go, Farrah," the Aspen said from the path.
"Corridor Fifteen," Farrah said the instant before she broke her embrace with Skylar. "Wish me luck," she said with well feigned gladness. "Next time you see me, I'll be unlimited."
"Good luck," Skylar said, the Aspen was coming. "Can I do anything?"
"Just follow their lead, they really want us to be free," Farrah said, leaving to return to the Aspen's side.
Skylar and Gavin watched them leave and when they were out of earshot, Gavin asked; "What did she tell you?"
"She gave me directions. We need to go for a walk," Skylar said, eager to find somewhere where she could tell Gavin everything so they could start putting the pieces of the new, more important puzzle together using both their skillsets.
Thirty-Seven
The journey to Corridor Fifteen was less nerve wracking than Skylar or Gavin imagined. It was visible from one of the outer paths in the garden, which they were welcome to walk along. "Farrah is probably their victim or under their influence," Gavin said. "We have to be careful, they could be using her to trap us."
"Why? They're trying to recruit us. If they kill Terry and Farrah, then they have to know trust with us will be unachievable," Skylar countered. She didn't completely believe Gavin was wrong, but she wanted him to expand his thinking, to keep putting the puzzle they were in together.
The narrow door to Corridor Fifteen slid open, just large enough for both of them to fit through. Unlike the garden they were leaving, it was bare, only deck plates and a well-lit metal hallway that matched some of the other parts of the ship they’d seen. "I keep getting this feeling, like someone is watching, or listening to us. I've even thought I've seen something in the corner of my eye a few times and when I look there's no trace of anyone there. I keep remembering that we're two of the highest scoring scientists that the Prince had, that we score very high on the adaptability charts. I find myself daydreaming about training, about sitting with tutors and reviewing test results."
"What does that have to do with Terry and Farrah?" Skylar looked down the corridor and moved inside after she was sure there was no one there. As they passed through the door she looked over her shoulder, noticing right away that a panel just on the inside had been tampered with. Pulling her sleeve up over her fingers, she pushed the panel up and saw that some kind of bypass was in place. "Besides, you always had trouble getting over bad test scores."
"That's one of the things that doesn't make sense. Those tests, tutor sessions, that training has been over for a long time. At least, it feels like a long time. The test results I keep on thinking about are some of my highest, too. Moments of triumph in the most complex subjects, conversations about advanced genetics, complex tactics, and high-end technology. You're right, I used to dwell on anything where I thought I came up short, but this is completely different."
Paranoia can be healthy, that was something that was drilled into her during training, and in her own strategy training. The thought that struck
her next felt like it crossed the line from healthy paranoia into foolishness: Something was reading Gavin's mind. The notion wasn't helpful. If it was true, and she doubted it was, then there was little she could do about it. If it wasn't, then the thought was nothing but a distraction. She decided to push his focus elsewhere. "Farrah seemed nervous, you're right. But why kill Terry?"
"Maybe he crossed a line. He was aggressive by nature, I could see him getting impatient," Gavin replied, looking over her shoulder inside the small open panel. "What did they tamper with?"
"This is a blind hall," Skylar replied. "All the sensors in this corridor and a couple further down are dead. I don't know why they wouldn't have detected it. There's also some kind of charge flowing through the ceiling, someone connected live wires to the frame that hold the ceiling tiles up."
"That's strange." Gavin turned away from the open panel and watched the doors close behind them. "It's a big ship, there's always going to be a lot going on, but maybe Farrah and Terry knew something they weren't supposed to. What if they left us a path that leads right to it? We shouldn't go on."
Skylar thought for a moment as she carefully closed the panel. No one would be able to tell it had been tampered with. Gavin's thinking was ruled by the need to keep them both safe. She understood it, appreciated it, but they had gained nothing real since they surrendered, only lost. Farrah was out of reach, Terry may be dead, and the moment they met their captors, all the soldiers with them were murdered.
"What are you thinking?" Gavin asked her.
"We are the more intelligent pair out of the people they captured. What if they needed what we know, our skills in genetics and maybe something else enough to keep us alive, motivate us to help them finish their work on a code that can genetically unlock every doll in the universe?"
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