Paradox Hunt

by Dee Garretson

  “You do know the MI isn’t really a he right?” Decker asked Lainie. “It doesn’t have a gender.”

  Lainie turned to face him and rolled her eyes. “Of course I know that! I’m choosing to call Samson a he. You can call the bot whatever you want.”

  The sound of the door opening again made me start. Wren stood in the passageway, looking around at us with a puzzled expression on her face. I suspected we looked guilty.

  No one spoke. “I thought you might be hungry,” Wren said. “But I can come back if you want.”

  “We are hungry.” I jumped up, wanting us all out of the room in case Samson became curious about Wren and decided to reappear. I feared we hadn’t seen the last of its independence.

  “Good,” Wren said. “Follow me.”

  She took us past a Z room on our way to the mess, and I hoped it wasn’t off limits to us. Our room was so crowded, we’d be at each other’s throats if we had to sit in there all the way to Fosaan. A rec area was just what we needed to get a little space from each other.

  Nic did not appear for the meal. I supposed if she decided she wanted to eat with the crew, they wouldn’t object, or else wouldn’t say it out loud. Even if she didn’t get along with Divana, being the captain’s sister had to carry some weight.

  The food was delicious, though I don’t know if it was because we hadn’t been able to eat much on Reyet or that the chef, who went by the name of Pepper, was really that good.

  Our presence didn’t thrill him. I heard him muttering in the galley about how no one had told him he was going to have to feed passengers, so I made a point of talking very loudly about the excellence of what I was eating. Wren sat with us, though she didn’t say much. Even Lainie’s efforts to draw her out failed.

  At one point the ship did an odd wobble, sending our food sliding one way and then back the other.

  Decker grabbed the edge of the table. “What was that? Quinn, I thought you said the problem was fixed.”

  “It was.” I took hold of my drink, not wanting it to slosh out if the ship repeated the jolting motion.

  “Don’t worry,” Wren said. “This is a different problem, but not a big one. There is a flaw in the one of the stabilizers. It’s been happening ever since we took over the ship, but it hasn’t gotten any worse.”

  “How do you know? What if the stabilizers are in a slow fail mode? Is anyone doing anything to fix them?” Decker asked. He reached out a hand toward the wall, ready to use it for balance.

  “Creak says we need a new part, but the old one will hold for a while,” Wren said.

  I wasn’t sure I trusted Creak’s assessment, but I didn’t know enough about stabilizers to check it myself.

  Lainie gave another giant yawn. “Just as long as nothing happens to make us fall out of bed again. I’m so done with this day. If I don’t get some sleep soon, I’ll be worthless.”

  We finished up quickly after that. I had saved some bits of dried fruit for Mags, and I put them in a pocket as we left the mess. I’d have to find a way to make friends with Pepper so I could get a look at the food supplies. I hoped there was an assortment of things Mags liked to eat.

  On the way back to our room, I stopped to look into the Z room again. Two men—Manny and Ryger, I presumed—sat at a table playing some game I didn’t recognize that involved stacks of small glowing cubes. The stack of currency chips on the table in front of them marked it as a gambling game. Both looked over at us and frowned. I could understand why they were part of the intimidation crew. Both were extremely large. One was bald and the other nearly so, except for a strip of hair on the back of his head that was so long it resembled a horse’s mane.

  The bald one pointed at us and then motioned for us to move. The other bared his teeth like he might take a bite out of one of us. The message was clear.

  “Just wanted to say hello,” I said, raising a hand in greeting. “Good to meet you. Enjoy your game. We’ll move along now.”

  “Friendly sorts,” Lainie said to Wren.

  “No, they aren’t,” Wren replied. “Not until you get to know them.”

  Lainie laughed and put her arm in Wren’s. Wren flinched a little but didn’t pull away. “I was joking,” Lainie said to her. Wren looked so puzzled, I got the feeling not many people joked with her.

  We were almost back to our room when I heard screeching, and then, “Alert! Alert! Dog boy!” I tensed up. “Dog boy” was what Mags called people she didn’t like.

  “Uh oh,” Lainie said.

  The sounds of incoming missiles filled the air. “Dog boy! Go away! Go away!”

  I sprinted toward our room. The door was open, and even before I went in I could smell Creak. Mags sat on top of the tallest stack of containers, her wings outstretched. Creak stood in front of her, waving his arms. “Be quiet, you fissing bird!”

  “Go away!” she screeched. “Dog boy! Dog boy!”

  “What are you doing in here?” I said.

  Wren came barreling into the room. She grabbed Lainie’s bag and swung it up over her head and down toward Creak. I caught her around the waist and dragged her back just in time so that the bag swished through the air, missing Creak’s head by a few centimeters. I didn’t know how strong a skull the man had, but I didn’t want it damaging the MI in the bag.

  His eyes went wide. “What’s wrong with you, you little freak?”

  “Don’t hurt that bird!” she shouted.

  “I wasn’t going to.” He took a step back. “I heard a strange noise. Thought I should check it out.”

  “You’re lying! You lied about killing my mouse, and you’re lying now!”

  Mags gave a squawk, took a dive off the cabinet, and landed on my arm. One of her feathers fluttered to the floor. She climbed up on my shoulder. “Dog boy! Dog boy! Scum dog!” she screeched.

  “Can you shut that bird up?” Creak said.

  I got out the dried fruit I’d taken from the mess and gave Mags a piece.

  “You’re a killer,” Wren said. She had raised her arms as if taking a defensive fighting stance. When she flexed her fingers, it looked as if the butterflies on her hands were in flight. She tensed up and her gaze fixed, though she wasn’t staring at Creak, she was staring at a spot above his head.

  He glared at her. “I didn’t kill your lousy mouse. I told you, I accidentally stepped on it,” he muttered.

  Mags finished the fruit and then refocused her attention on Creak. “Scum dog!”

  “You are a scum dog,” Decker said, advancing on him with fists clenched. “You need to get out of here and not come back.”

  “No need for name calling.” Creak’s voice took on the whiny tone. “I’m leaving.” He pushed past us and went out into the corridor.

  “Dog boy!” Mags squawked again. She made a spitting noise so realistic, Creak flinched. “Scum dog!”

  “Mags has picked up some new words and sounds,” Lainie said. She came over to rub the bird’s head. “You are a smart bird, Mags.”

  “Smart bird. Yes.” Mags agreed.

  Lainie held out her arm. Mags hopped from mine over to it. “Poor Mags. Too many adventures for you.”

  “Poor Mags,” the bird repeated. “Beautiful Mags.” She held out one foot and inspected it. “Beautiful toe.” I was relieved. She focused on her talons when she was calm.

  Lainie laughed. “Yes, we all know you have beautiful toes. I wish we could get a message to Riley that Mags is better,” she said to me. “I’m sure he is still really upset.”

  Wren picked up one of Mags’s feathers that had fallen to the floor. “Creak is a bad person,” she said. “A very bad person. Divana shouldn’t have hired him. He did kill my mouse on purpose. I know he did.” She sounded so upset, I thought she might cry. “I’m sorry he upset the bird.”

  “I’m sorry he killed your mouse,” I said. “That’s awful. But don’t worry about Mags. She’ll be all right.” I hoped that was true. I’d never intende
d to wander the galaxy with a parrot in tow.

  Wren went over to the slip and somehow managed to activate it. “The door lock will work now, and you can contact me in the cockpit, too, if you have a problem with Creak.” She turned to Lainie. “Would you like me to show you how? It’s not a standard setup. The ship’s previous owner did some odd things to the system, and we haven’t changed them back yet.”

  “Yes,” Lainie said. “Thank you.”

  I don’t know if Wren realized it, but Lainie asked so many questions about the controls and Wren gave so many answers that I think Lainie could have run the ship from that one little panel if she had wanted. Lainie couldn’t stand not to know how something operated.

  While they were still talking, the intercom buzzed. Divana’s voice came over it. “Wren, get up here. We may have a problem.”

  Wren didn’t look worried, but I was. “Okay if I come along?” I asked her.

  “Sure, I guess,” she said. “But Divana might kick you out of the cockpit.”

  “I’ll take my chances.”

  When we got there, I stayed back in the idle area in the hope Divana wouldn’t bother to send me away. Creak was there too.

  “What’s he doing here?” he said, jerking his head in my direction.

  Divana ignored him, and me too, which surprised me. “We’ve got a Combined Forces patrol ship wanting to search us,” Divana said to Wren. “Get ready.”

  Get ready? That had an ominous sound. Wren sat down at her station. I hoped Divana wasn’t planning to order Wren to fire on it.

  Divana turned on the ship-to-ship comm. “We picked up no passengers on Reyet. We have our crew and some passengers who were already aboard from Melglan 2. They are agricultural workers on their way to Woab.” Her tone was believable, but I could see how tense she was. She kept shifting around like she couldn’t find a comfortable position to stand in.

  I wished I could hear the other side of the conversation. Divana glanced over at Wren. I saw Wren targeting the ship on her slip. Divana raised her hand like she was going to give a signal. I couldn’t believe what she was contemplating. The other ship would have already logged the Paradox’s ID and image. If Wren blasted it, a fleet of CF ships would come looking for us as soon as someone realized contact had been lost.

  “They insist on boarding,” Divana said.

  “Let them,” Pixie said. “We’ve fooled a patrol before. And now that we have our MI, it can create the right identities for all of our passengers.”

  Divana glanced back at me, frowning. “Can your bunch act like they’re agricultural workers?”

  I didn’t know. Our only practice at pretending to be other people was on Reyet, where we’d tried to act like tourists. We hadn’t fooled everyone. It didn’t appear that we had much choice, though. “Yes, no problem. As long as they don’t ask us questions about what kind of agriculture.”

  “Fake it if they do. I doubt if they know what grows on Woab. Go on, get out of here, and tell the others what’s happening.” She moved over to the MI and gave it some instructions.

  When I got back to our quarters, I had to knock and identify myself to be let in. Lainie and Samson were doing something on the slip, and Mags was back in her cage, asleep. I started to explain what was happening, but Lainie stopped me. “We heard it all. Samson figured out how to let us hear what’s being said in the cockpit. They should really put a block on that, but I’m not going to tell them until we leave.”

  Wren’s voice came over the comm. “Passengers and crew, report to the Z room immediately.”

  “Let’s hope this works,” Decker said.

  As we were heading out the door, Javen stopped. “Wait, Quinn. I don’t like this. They’re obviously boarding because they’re looking for someone. What if Ronti is behind this? He was very determined to take you off of Reyet with him. If he’s sent out an alert, they’ll have an image of you.”

  “I think they are looking for Ansun,” I said. “Every Combined Forces ship in the galaxy is probably looking for him.”

  “We don’t know for sure,” Decker said. “Javen may be right. You should stay here.”

  “I can’t. Divana is going to give them a passenger manifest. They’ll know someone is missing.” I cursed Ronti and my grandfather both. I didn’t ask to be the admiral’s grandson.

  A clunking sound reverberated throughout the room. “The patrol ship has linked up with us,” Decker said.

  Lainie twitched her fingers. “I know what to do,” she said. “Javen and Decker, go on. I’ll be right behind you. Samson, I need your help.” Samson snapped into a military attention stance and saluted her. “We’ll talk about that response later,” she said to the bot. “Get into the ship’s records, and delete the passenger who has Quinn’s description. He’ll be listed as male, sixteen or seventeen, black hair, black eyes. I don’t know what name the MI in the cockpit has given him. Quinn will tell you which is the right one if you can’t figure it out. Okay?”

  “Right away,” Samson said. Lainie ran out the door. It shut behind her.

  Samson held out a hand so that it appeared to be touching the control panel. His fingertips glowed slightly. He took it away.

  “Well?” I asked. “Can you do it?”

  “It’s done. A passenger fitting your description has been erased.”

  A deep voice over the comm nearly made me jump out of my skin. “Captain Divana SooSenk?”

  “Yes,” Divana replied. She gave the boarding party Pixie’s name. I assumed she had deactivated Tineg. “The rest of my crew and the passengers are assembled in our Z room.”

  “Fine. I’ll see them first and then we’ll inspect the ship.”

  “Why? We’ve given you no reason to do that. All our cargo is properly listed and documented.”

  The man chuckled. “Sometimes people try to conceal things from us, believe it or not.”

  Silence. They must have left the cockpit. I looked around. I’d have to hide. They’d take a quick look and want to get on inspecting the rest of the ship.

  “You appear agitated,” Samson said. “Your breathing rate has increased.”

  “Samson, you need to shut down.” I didn’t need a bot giving me health status updates, and he couldn’t be in hologram form when they inspected the room.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “You are not authorized to give me orders.”

  I felt a stab of pain in my eye. I didn’t have time to try to outsmart a hyperintelligent bot, and unfortunately, there was no off switch.

  “I’m not ordering you. I’m just requesting it. And you changed into a dog without Lainie ordering it,” I said.

  He tilted his head. “This is true. Interesting. I shall have to think about the nature of orders and requests.”

  “While you are thinking about it, I need to hide. You’ll have to hide too, if you aren’t going to deactivate.” I shoved some of the containers around and stacked others, and then climbed into the enclosed space I’d made.

  “Yes, I shall join you in hiding.” Samson said, joining me.

  “Fine, move over here so I can close us in.” I sat down and pulled a container on one side closer to us, then reached up and pulled one over our heads. Samson was right, I was breathing fast. I tried to slow it down.

  “I believe this is something like the human game called ‘hide and seek,’ is it not?” Samson asked.

  “Yes, but that means you can’t make a sound when they come in. Don’t talk. Don’t move. All right? You’ll lose the game if you do.” I couldn’t believe I was discussing a kid’s game with a bot.

  “What about the bird? Will she lose if she is found?” the bot asked.

  “No, she’s not playing.” I dreaded to think of Mag’s reaction to a bunch of strangers.

  We sat there in silence for a while, which was fine with me but I should have known it wouldn’t last long.

  “Are you pleased that I look like your frien
d Gregor?” Samson asked.

  “I don’t know.” I sighed. I was not in the mood for deep thoughts. “Why do you look like Gregor?”

  “Gregor was an extremely talented and interesting person.”

  I listened for any sounds of someone about to enter the room. I didn’t hear anything.

  “Yes, he was. Did he program you to look like him?”

  “No, I was supposed to have a different standard hologram. It was of an older man, and his hair was tipped with gray. His features were standard except for bushy eyebrows. I didn’t like those. I didn’t like the whole image. I am not him. I am more like Gregor.”

  I was tempted to ask the bot exactly how it thought it was like Gregor, but I was afraid that would lead to a long monologue.

  “I’m confused about something. When we first saw you, you didn’t look exactly like Gregor, not like you do now.”

  “I had to do some reprogramming based on the images I had stored of Gregor. It took some time to work around the flaws in my system.”

  I wanted to ask more about how many flaws Samson knew of, but I heard voices in the passageway.

  “Be quiet now,” I ordered the bot.

  The door opened. Immediately Mags squawked, “Don’t bother the bird! Don’t bother the bird!”

  “What is this?” a man’s voice asked.

  “Bothering the bird,” Mags called out.

  “It’s my parrot,” Lainie said. “She doesn’t like strangers.” I hoped Mags wouldn’t start in on her missile-dropping noises or the new spitting imitation.

  I heard people moving around. I could tell Lainie had gone over to Mags’s cage because I could hear her talking to the bird in a low voice.

  “What’s in all these containers?” the man asked.

  “Food and other supplies for the crew,” Divana said. “We haven’t had the ship long enough to get everything organized, but our Woab passengers don’t mind. They aren’t paying for luxury accommodations.”

  I waited, hoping he wouldn’t want to inspect them all. My heart was pounding.

  “All right. Let’s move on.”

  After they left, I didn’t hear anything else for a long time. Samson sat motionless, not speaking.