by M. D. Cooper
Noa paused, drew a deep breath.
Weak, Sakai. Weak! he berated himself mentally, holding himself preternaturally still, awaiting the Matsu-kai leader’s decision.
There was a pause on the other end.
Noa had his avatar bow its head in compliance.
He sensed a surprised pause at the other end as Hiro contemplated his words.
Noa was counting on Hiro not knowing much about physics in general, or of nanophotonics. Even in the thirty-third century, most laypeople were still unaware of what a physicist did. His particular field remained a black box for the masses, as most of the physics disciplines had for centuries; Noa had just traded heavily on that fact.
He paused, contemplating how else he might persuade Hiro. An idea occurred to him.
He managed a shaky laugh he was certain had convinced neither himself nor Hiro.
Nothing. Hiro remained silent.
Noa took a deep, fortifying breath, and then played his final card.
A long, drawn-out pause at the other end confirmed that he had succeeded in shocking Hiro. One moment passed, and then another.
Finally, Hiro’s avatar nodded reluctantly.
Noa jerked a nod, released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and then closed the connection, his hands shaking.
What have I done? he thought. If they ever discover the AIs alive, my daughter's life will be forfeit.
And yet there was no other path.
He must trust in two things: his abilities as a scientist, and the altruism of two complete strangers. He could only hope that they were as worthy as the ais he knew here in Tau Ceti.
THE STONE SEA
STELLAR DATE: 02.18.3235 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Spa Shuttle, departing Kalypso Waystation
REGION: Inner edge of the Nereids Dust Belt, Tau Ceti
The Sea of Stones Spa was a work of art.
As its name implied, it had been built within the Sea of Stones, as Tau Ceti’s great dust belt was named.
The spa’s creators had taken great pains to move the asteroids surrounding the facility, positioning them precisely and to great effect. The results, combined with artfully employed nanotech, yielded stunningly beautiful space sculptures.
Spirals, graceful arcs, and complex geometric shapes spun through the spa’s nearspace, well-hidden thrusters programmed to shift the giant rocks in an intricate dance. The amount of effort it had taken to move each piece into position was staggering, and the design work that followed to augment each piece had taken more than a decade.
Private shuttles transported guests from the first-class lounge at the Kalypso Waystation, a public rest stop and refueling station hosted by Kalypso Mining, to the spa’s entrance. The mining company’s torus—located at the inner edge of the Sea of Stones—kept pace with the spa, both structures orbiting in a one-to-one resonance with each other around Tau Ceti.
All of this information had been provided by the introductory holo that played for the patrons as the shuttle transited from the Kalypso Torus to the spa, two-tenths of an AU inside the Sea of Stones. As the sea itself was over an AU thick, the resort had opted to maintain a debris-free corridor directly between the torus and its property.
‘Debris-free’ was a bit of a misnomer, as it had much more to do with identifying obstacles than it did with physically removing them.
She had been recently appointed to a small, fourteen-person Marine Special Operations team, and it was that position that made her first-ever pairing with an AI possible.
Khela snickered as she sat back in her seat, and glanced over at her father. Noa hadn’t bothered watching the holo—instead, his eyes focused at a distance, as he was lost in holovisuals only he could see. He had, unsurprisingly, taken advantage of the twelve-hour shuttle trip to ‘get some work done’.
When she’d reminded him that the vacation was his idea, he’d merely raised a calming hand and assured her that he was wrapping up loose ends so that he could enjoy the time with his daughter once at the spa.
Neither Khela nor Hana had believed him, though. Hana had noted Khela’s doubtful expression and had sent her human partner a knowing smirk as Khela stretched her legs out and shifted in her seat to make herself more comfortable.
Khela sent her a look.
Khela shrugged.
But actually, she could. It had been six months before her mother was killed.
Her parents had met when Noa worked for a government contractor, and Irene had been a Marine in Galene’s Space Command. Khela smiled, recalling the unusual pair they had made: a tough, space-hardened soldier and a thoughtful and reserved scientist.
Since her mother had passed away, her father had chosen to bury himself in his work.
The explosion that took her from us happened almost ten years ago. It’s time for him to move on. Maybe find someone else who can give him companionship.
Hana’s response brought Khela back to the present.
Khela reached over and touched her dad’s arm. “Want anything?” she asked, nodding back toward the shuttle’s galley.
He smiled and shook his head, then resumed staring at whatever it was he was reviewing.
She pulled off her harness, allowing her body to float gently away from her seat as she glanced around at the plush interior. Blue-black hair haloed around her as she pulled herself past rows of passengers, each ensconced behind his or her own private enclosure.
Khela sent her a non
committal agreement as she anchored herself by hooking one leg around a stool that was bolted to the galley’s deck. She tapped the surface of the galley countertop, pulling up a holo of the menu to peruse the selections.
Khela sent her an offended look.
Hana’s avatar threw up her hands.
Khela sent her a smug smile and took a generous bite out of the warm, gooey goodness, looping a finger around the string of cheese that stretched between her mouth and the sandwich as she pulled it away.
Hana’s avatar crossed her arms and shot her a glare.
She finished her snack and returned to her seat just as the shuttle’s NSAI requested all passengers to strap in for their arrival.
Ten minutes later, the shuttled was docked, and she and her father stepped off—but not onto some drab terminal. Rather, they found themselves in a passenger terminal so extravagant, it beggared the imagination.
As they walked down the concourse, Khela had to work to keep her mouth from hanging open at the opulence on display. She had assumed that much of the spa’s annual budget went toward its employment of groundskeepers responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of its various art installations within the surrounding nearspace. Now she wondered if it wasn’t just as equally tied up in its interior.
Her scan of the illuminated fixtures—floating above them like crystalline clouds—triggered an icon that invited her to join the spa’s guest network, where a helpful holo sprang to life, informing her that the lighting had been designed by one of Ring Galene’s premiere artisans. The description of the design, commissioned exclusively for the spa, indicated that the glow came from bioluminescent sea creatures engineered to emit a pleasant ambiance. They were shaped into the kanji ideograms for peace, beauty, and harmony, and were formed entirely of diamond.
She looked down as they reached a foyer at the end of the concourse and a servitor approached to escort them to their rooms.
“Amazing,” Khela murmured, feeling clumsy and out of place in this magical world of illumination.
Her father glanced over, gave a slight smile, and squeezed her elbow lightly where he grasped it as he gestured for her to follow the bot to the lift.
“Something tells me it won’t hurt you to experience a bit of amazing, Khe-chan,” he said, and Khela heard the affection in his voice as he called her by the diminutive he’d used when she was but a child.
One brow rose slightly as he considered them both. “I would imagine Marines don’t often have the opportunity to see amazing. In fact, I shudder to think what you two are used to seeing on a daily basis,” he chastised gently. “I still hold out hope that you will find a career outside the military that appeals someday, Khela. A father’s heart can only take so much, you know.”
It was an old refrain, and it was said without condemnation. Noa knew that Khela had the same wildness in her that her mother had, a thirst for adventure and a restlessness not easily contained.
She tilted her head to one side and looked up at him. He wasn’t overly tall, unlike her mother; she had stood half a head taller than he. Khela took after Noa in that regard, her build decidedly on the petite side.
“I’ve thought about it,” she admitted. “But I can’t imagine sitting in an office for the rest of my career.”
She glanced contemplatively out the clear plas walls of the lift as it transited from the main building to the outer dwellings. A vista of illuminated stones greeted them, and as she watched, the nearest sculpture twisted in on itself in a design reminiscent of a Howe kinetic sculpture.
She glanced back up at her father. “I thought I might look into doing some work planetside, perhaps maintaining some of our national parks and gardens after I do another tour or two. I still want to make captain someday, you know.”
She grinned up conspiratorially at her father, and Noa smiled once more, even as he shook his head.
He gave her a considering look. “I could see you doing that,” he said, as the lift opened directly into their suite. “The planetside work, not so much the captaincy,” he clarified.
As they walked into the corridor, Khela gaped at the view afforded by the floor-to-ceiling plas window that comprised the suite’s exterior bulkhead.
Light danced along the surface of the stones nearest their room, illuminating them in an ethereal glow. Bending magnets had been placed among some of them, in concert with narrow ES fields. These formed delightful, curving pathways through which gases had been piped. As they curved their way through the stones, the gases were sequentially detonated to create explosions of varicolored light that mimicked ancient fireworks. The display lasted two or three minutes then lapsed back into the inkiness of space.
She shook her head. “I don’t even want to know what this cost you, Dad, but thanks.”
He smiled, then nudged her toward her room. “Go on, take some time to get settled in. Why don’t you and Hana wander the grounds for a few hours? We can meet up at the Pebble Garden right before dinner.”
She grinned. “I’m dying to see that.” Impulsively, she pecked him on the cheek. “Thanks, Dad.”
* * * * *
Noa’s smile fell as the door closed behind Khela.
Stars forbid she ever finds out the true reason we’re here.
He’d been monitoring the progress of the AI drone during the entire twelve-hour shuttle ride. His Sakai-musuko token had given him complete control over the inbound spacecraft, and he’d arranged with the spa’s concierge to have a private bay off the spa’s main cargo area made available for his convenience, to receive his delivery. The spa had a reputation for catering to high-powered business executives and was known for its discreet and utterly secure accommodations. The drone had docked an hour earlier, and the spa had sent notice that it had been routed to a reserved, private location moments ago. Along with the notification came a secured token that he would use to access the bay.
He glanced at Khela’s closed door, then called for a lift and quietly exited the suite.
Once inside the bay, he sealed the door behind him and set down the case he carried with him. Ignoring the spa’s privacy token, Noa rested his hand over the door’s controls, trusting the hackit he’d received from the Matsu-kai to sever any monitoring devices. When the packet indicator turned green, he turned and approached the thirty-meter-long drone.
Its front end was scored in several places from the impacts of various micrometeorites it had encountered during its long journey from El Dorado. He placed his hand alongside the aft access panel, his own ident serving as the unlock code. The panel recessed and slid back, revealing a narrow passage. He didn’t step in—the drone’s display indicated that the cargo was being brought to him.
A minute later, a small bot emerged from the inky darkness of the drone. Strapped to it were two
isolation chambers. Within each, he could see an AI core, their cylindrical housings both flashing the pattern of non-organic beings held in their dormant state.
As he reached in, the movement—and the passing of his token—triggered a message.
Noa breathed easier upon hearing this. He’d worried when Hiro had ordered him to ‘purchase’ the AIs in the Sakai name. His mouth held a bitter taste as his mind framed that word. But more bitter yet would have been the thought that, somehow, the El Dorado Family would consider it a favor owed. Had that been the case, the favor would have fallen on him to redeem, and not the Matsu-kai chapter of the organization on Galene. He was relieved to know the transaction had no strings attached and that, once this business was concluded, he would be able to put it this entire event behind him.
He hesitated, then wrapped his hands around the isolation chambers and pulled them free of the drone. Turning, he knelt and placed the chambers next to the case he’d brought with him. Opening it, he retrieved two SC batteries. He set them alongside the chambers and then pressed a sequence into the case itself, triggering a three-meter-cubed isolation field.
He then removed the cylinders from their chambers, carefully connected them to a harness he’d brought that contained SC batts, entered the ‘wake’ sequence, and respectfully stood back, hands folded inside the sleeves of his jacket.
He waited patiently for the AIs to rise from their dormant state, and was rewarded after a few moments when tendrils of thought reached out to him in query across the limited private network the harness provided.
* * * * *