by M. D. Cooper
Tangel groaned and placed a hand on her brow.
Tangel nodded absently. The idea of forcing an AI to accept code that was self-altering felt wrong, but the alternative for them was worse.
The lesser of two evils.
The thought of ‘two’ brought the memory of the last time she’d seen Sera’s two sisters, their bodies torn and battered, tucked away in stasis tubes. That sorrow was followed by the one she felt over the loss of Iris.
It had taken a day for that pain to really hit her. She’d held it at bay for a time, forcing herself to focus on the myriad tasks laid out before her, but that denial had only lasted for so long. Iris had been one of Angela’s children, and the pain of her loss hit Tangel on two fronts.
Even so, she handled it better than Amavia. When Tangel had shared the news with the AI, the outpouring of grief that had come from Amavia had been overwhelming.
Als liked to behave as though they didn’t have an emotional connection to their children, but both Tangel and Amavia were half-human, so they felt Iris’s death from both sides.
Earlier in the day, Tangel had spent long hours doing nothing more than wishing Joe were back so she could fall into his arms and have him tell her that everything would be alright. It bemused her that, despite her in-progress ascension and the joining of two strong, independent minds, she still wished for Joe’s comforting presence and a few well-meant platitudes in times of need.
Bob said after not speaking for a time.
“I know,” Tangel said aloud. “Which makes it all the more foolish for me to get upset about this. She’ll be back, and she’ll have just been missing for a few days. There’s no need to get so emotional.”
“I didn’t know you felt at all,” Tangel scoffed.
Tangel nodded. She and Bob had spoken in the past about how he had his own form of ‘feeling’. It was entirely foreign to her, even with all of Angela’s knowledge and experience, yet she couldn’t deny that the multinodal AI did indeed have his own brand of emotions.
“Sorry, that was off-the-cuff flippancy.”
“I just wish I could get ahold of Jessica,” Tangel said after a minute. “They made the jump, but so far, no word. I’m tempted to send another ship to Star City.”
“Exactly,” Tangel replied. “I’m going to give it another day, and then head out there myself.”
Tangel couldn’t help but laugh. “Remember that time when Joe called you a city-sized puppy?”
The AI’s dour tone intensified Tangel’s laugh, and it was still going when Sera appeared in her office’s doorway. Her brows were raised, and a look of genuine concern was on the woman’s face.
“You OK? Not losing it on us, are you?”
Tangel calmed herself and nodded. “Yeah, Bob is trying to cheer me up.”
“So it would seem,” Sera said, and Tanis could see the weary sadness in the other woman’s eyes as well as hear it in her voice. “You got any of that for me?”
Sera rolled her eyes, a single laugh escaping her throat. “I’m being lectured on humor by an AI.”
“Hardly counts,” she replied.
Tangel shook her head, glad that a bit of happiness had come their way. “That what brought you here? I doubt it was the pursuit of Bob’s yuk-yuks.”
“Well, I got a message relayed from Earnest and Terrance,” Sera said as she moved beyond the doorway and walked into the office. “They’ve located the source of the star-shifting in the IPE. It’s an automated facility, but they believe they can take it offline without trouble.”
Sera’s tone carried a note of uncertainty, and Tangel wondered if it was related to what she felt.
“A core AI facility, totally automated, and there’s no cause for concern?” she asked.
Sera nodded. “Yeah, I had a similar reaction.”
“Sheesh,” Tangel muttered. “First Jessica disappears, now this. Something’s not right.”
“When is anything ever ‘right’?”
The question sent Tangel’s thoughts racing back over the past few weeks. Since she’d begun her ascension on the streets of Jersey City, everything had been like a whirlwind, events rushing by so quickly, they’d been a blur.
From meeting Rika and sending her into Nietzschea, to discovering that Airtha was also operating in the Large Magellanic Cloud, to Cary killing Myrrdan, battling—and nearly losing to—Xavia, to finding Jeffrey Tomlinson, and then taking the fight to Airtha….
And that’s just a partial list.
“Honestly, I think that things haven’t been ‘right’ since we got to Ascella,” Tangel said after a moment. “No, further back. Before Sabrina left in search of Finaeus.”
Sera laughed, finally sitting in a chair—or rather, draping herself across it in her usual fashion. “The way I see it, things weren’t ‘right’ for me even at that point. Finaeus was missing and I knew there were hard times ahead. But I suppose for a few fleeting weeks, things felt pretty good.” She leant forward, her eyes meeting Tangel’s. “What about those two decades you spent building New Canaan? Weren’t you at peace then?”
“Closer to fifteen years, and no, not really. I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop—which it frequently did.”
“Fun times.”
The two women regarded one another for a minute before Tangel gave a rueful laugh.
“What is it?” Sera asked.
“Well, I always said my plan was to sit on my porch and get old with my friends. Problem is, I had my porch, but Jessica was lost in Orion Space, and you were here at Airtha, so I was sitting on it alone—well, not alone, but you get the idea. There’s a reason people always say ‘friends and family’.”
Sera winked at Tangel. “You’ve got a perfectly good porch down below in Ol’ Sam. We’ve sat there a few times. Maybe that was always meant to be your real home, not Carthage.”
“I’m not sure if that’s depressing or satisfying.… Speaking of home, what are you doing up here anyway? Shouldn’t you be down on the ring, being Queen Sera or something?”
The red-skinned woman winked. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you. But after being ruled by a succession of increasingly…well, bad versions of ‘me’ over the past few years, the people of Airtha don’t really see mine as a friendly face. Thankfully, Krissy stepped in. She’s getting everything squared away,
imposing martial law and other fun things.”
“I heard about that. Strangely, no one really objected,” Tangel said.
“I think the general populace is more than happy to lay low until things get sorted out. Although…” Sera sighed and looked like she was going to rise from her chair. “There are still Widows down there, and her…”
“Helen.”
“Thought you’d left humoring us for other pursuits, Bob,” Sera said. “Have you found any signs of her?”
“Leaked?” Tangel asked. “I thought it was programmed to seek out Airtha and weaken her.”
“Is it chasing Helen, too?” Sera asked.
Tangel blew out a frustrated breath. “Well, we took an Airthan shard and broke it on purpose to weaken Airtha…so how is it supposed to behave?”
“OK…this is making me feel a lot less victorious.” Sera glanced at Tangel, her eyes laden with worry. “For all intents and purposes, there are two shards of my mother running around on this ring, and they could be up to anything.”
“I suppose there’s a silver lining,” Tangel said, winking at her friend.
“Oh?”
“It’s not very often that we see Bob frustrated.”
Sera gave a rueful laugh. “You hide it well.”
“OK.” Tangel rose from her desk. “We’ve relaxed enough. We need to catch these two shards and the Widows so that the president can bring the government back to Airtha.”
“Stars, I don’t envy my father that job,” Sera said. “Trying to merge the Khardine and Airthan governments while figuring out all the hidden agendas of everyone involved…that’s the stuff of nightmares.”
Tangel nodded. “Why do you think I accepted being the field marshal and got the heck out of New Canaan?”
“Tangel!” Sera put a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “Stars, I could blackmail you with that information.”
“Doubtful. My escape was incomplete. Even out here, Parliament constantly sends me things to weigh in on. Granted, I think that Jason encourages that just to get back at me for putting him in the governor’s seat again.”
Sera’s eyes took on a far-off look. “You know, once we sort things out on Airtha, I think I need a little bit of leave to go see him. Who do I put in my request to?”
“Not me.” Tangel held up her hands. “I’m not the boss of you.”
“Oooooh!” Sera grinned. “Orders from the great and mighty Bob! No one will question those.”
Tangel walked around her desk, placing an arm around the other woman’s shoulders as she stood. “C’mon. You can bask in the glory of an impending vacation later. Right now, reality beckons. Let’s go hunt your mothers.”
Sera leant into Tangel for a moment. “Stars, my family is so fucked up.”
WIDOWHUNT
STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Gingham Mountains, Airtha
REGION: Huygens System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
“I hate Widows,” Katrina muttered as she crept along the ledge, doing her best not to look at the ground three kilometers below. “And who puts mountains like this on a ring, anyway?”
They’d only had a few hours’ rest following the victory over Airtha when the hunt for the remaining Widows had resumed. Katrina had teamed up with Carl, Malorie, Erin, and Usef—all of whom were now traversing the Gingham Mountains, after a civilian tip had come in that there were Widows in the area.
“Someone with a sense of adventure,” Malorie tittered as she skittered around Katrina, causing the Voyager’s captain to bite her lip and thank her armor’s a-grav systems for keeping her steady.
Katrina was a bit surprised that Erin had opted to come along. While the woman was handy with a rifle—courtesy of some adventures she’d had back at New Canaan—she wasn’t a trained soldier. Her reason for joining the Airthan assault was the utilization of her technical expertise.
Granted, it was apparent that there was some sort of bond between the engineer and Usef. Katrina couldn’t tell if it was amorous, or if they were just really good friends.
I guess this is how our kind of people spend time together, Katrina thought with a laugh.
Usef sent a grunt of annoyance.
Katrina eased around the corner, the shelf coming into view. It was as the spider-woman had described, a small bowl of trees and grass nestled against the mountainside. A small pond was in the center…or perhaps a puddle, just a few meters across.
Usef grunted in disagreement.
Katrina said after a moment’s reflection.
Katrina considered their options and then wondered if she should run them past Usef; operational command was a bit muddy between the two of them. Technically, she had no rank in the ISF, and Usef was a venerated colonel.
But that was made more complex by their past relationships, such as back when she was a governor and he was a lieutenant. Plus the six hundred years she had on him.
Katrina rolled her eyes for no one’s benefit but her own.
you rolled your eyes at me,> Malorie said.
Katrina resisted the urge to roll them again.
<—but you really do have ‘eyeroll tone’.>
Usef cleared his throat.
Katrina chuckled, amused that she and Usef had the exact same plan without needing to discuss it.
the colonel replied.
A minute later, Malorie reported that she was in position, adding in a few barbs about the rest of the team being slow and proposing that their reluctance to evolve beyond using only two legs made them lesser beings.