by Scott Baron
Daisy would have liked to do as the captain ordered, but a good night’s sleep was something that hadn’t been in the cards for her for quite some time. Sure, she’d sometimes wake truly rested, though more often than not, those were the mornings after Vincent had kept her up well past her normal bedtime.
As she lay in her bunk, running the day over and over in her mind, Daisy could find no fault in her actions. Nevertheless, she still felt like somehow, someway, Sarah’s death was partially her fault.
Never should have run those diagnostics from up there. What if that little tweak to the command structure started the whole thing?
She knew that hadn’t been what happened, just like she knew none of the other dozen scenarios playing out over and over in her head would have changed things. Still, her friend was gone, and no amount of replaying the events would change that.
“Let it go, Daisy. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Stay out of my head, dead girl,” she muttered. “That shit’s not helping.”
“It’s your psyche, hon, not mine.”
“Touché,” she said to the air, then turned out the lights, hesitating as her fingers touched the neuro stim beside her bed. Not tonight, she decided, and settled into her bed, leaving the device where it sat as she gradually drifted off to sleep.
Daisy found herself in a busy metropolitan area. The skies were a clear blue, and happy clouds dotted the horizon. In the distance she could see the mountains, covered with lush trees, their peaks capped with pure white snow.
It was a dream she’d been having since they first emerged from cryo. Memories of home, but now something felt different. Wrong.
Daisy turned her gaze from the mountains and looked to the sea. Logically, she knew the sea and mountains were much farther apart than that, but in the construct of her slumbering mind, distance held no sway over her environs. The water was a deep blue, a salty breeze blowing the fresh smell of clean ocean air across her face, leaving the faintest deposit of salt on her skin. Seagulls circled above as she strode onto the beach, the warm sand squishing between her toes.
All I need now is a margarita, she thought. A feeling of cool moisture tingled in her fingers, and looking down, she noticed a chilled glass was already in her hand. That’s more like it.
Sarah was there, wearing a scandalously small bikini as she lay out on a beach chair. A vacant seat waited beside her, inviting Daisy to get comfortable.
“This is the life,” she happily murmured, sinking into the soft material.
“It is for one of us,” Sarah replied.
The two women sat quietly for a while, sipping margaritas and watching glistening-bodied surfers jog through the waves. One of them exited the surf and spread a towel on the sand nearby. Rather than laying out for some sun, the rippling-muscled man started doing some yoga stretches.
“Oh, thank you for that.” Sarah smiled.
“For what?”
“You know what. Always looking out for your little sis, aren’t you? But I still have to wonder if it has different speeds.”
Daisy sat up in her chair.
“What are you talking about, Sarah?” Then her gaze fell on the man as he pushed up into a cobra pose.
Shit. That’s—
“Hi, Daisy,” Barry said. “You know, I always wanted to see a real beach!”
Daisy lurched awake, sitting up in her bed.
Jesus, Barry was in my dreams? What’s the world coming to?
She took a long drink from her water bottle, then lay back down to sleep.
No more cyborgs visiting my dreams, please, she thought as sleep took hold once more.
She found herself in the middle of the city, just as before. Once more the mountains rose, majestic yet surprisingly close, while the sea was likewise both near and far. In her dream, she was in the city, the mountains, and the beach all at once.
Daisy wished for a margarita, but when she looked down, she found a portable environmental scanner in her hand rather than a refreshing beverage. What’s more, Sarah was nowhere to be seen.
The machine in her hand began to beep, a faint rhythm invading the tranquil world surrounding her. None of the scores of people seemed to notice. In fact, now that she thought about it, none of the people paid her any heed at all. They all seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere, but she had no idea where that might be.
“Excuse me,” she called out to a well-dressed man walking past. He ignored her and continued on his way.
“Well, that was rude,” she grumbled. “Hey, you,” she directed toward a woman walking a small dog. “Where is everyone going?” The woman didn’t seem to hear her, instead, turning from her and walking away.
Didn’t even pick up her dog’s poop, Daisy noted.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched, but when she spun around, scanning the crowd for observant eyes, she came up empty.
Okay, this is getting silly, she thought, just as the device in her hand began beeping louder. A steady noise that only she seemed to hear. She looked down at it and noted a steady stream of letters she couldn’t read scrolling across the display. When she looked up, she was no longer in the city, but now stood in a crowded transit port surrounded by hundreds of men and women. Determined, she strode across the terminal to a ticketing counter.
“Hey, where’s everyone going?” she asked the woman typing away at a computer terminal. “Hello? Earth to ticketing lady, come in, ticketing lady.” As with the others, there was no reply. “All right, this is ridiculous.” She reached out to grab the woman’s wrist. “Hey, I was asking you—”
As soon as her fingers wrapped around the woman’s wrist, she shrieked. It wasn’t just the one woman who screamed. Every single person, both in the transit port and outside—in fact, the whole population of her impossible dream world—all cried out at once as their bodies turned to dust before her eyes.
Daisy looked at the handful of human powder and screamed.
She snapped awake in her bed, heart racing as sweat beaded on her brow. Her hands felt for the device she’d become so accustomed to wearing, but the thin band was still resting beside her bed.
Holy shit, what the hell was that? she wondered. That’s never happened before.
Gathering her wits, Daisy took several deep breaths and focused her mind on slowing her racing heart. In a few moments she felt her panic subside. The dream had felt so much more real than a regular one. Almost tangible. As if she was really there. On top of that, it had the multi-layered reality feel of a neuro stim dream, all those dozens and dozens of drip feed streams trickling into a single reality, but she hadn’t even been wearing it.
No, it was just a strange dream, that’s all. Nothing to it, just my mind processing things, like Doc McClain said.
The beeping jolted her out of her calm.
Sitting across the pod among her pile of work gear was Sarah’s portable environmental scanner. And just like in her dream, it was trying to tell her something.
Chapter Twelve
Sleep simply wasn’t an option. Not after those terrible dreams. On top of that, the flashing light on Sarah’s scanner kept blinking at her, an accusing eye gazing in disapproval, nudging her into action.
“All right, I’m getting to it!” she grumbled to the inanimate piece of machinery. “It’s not like I’m a super-genius environmental engineer like Sarah is.” She caught herself.
Was.
The innocuous device didn’t care about her protests, nor were her rationalizations holding any sway over it. Rather, it just continued being true to its nature. Persistent. Continuous. Incorruptible.
Hang on a minute. It’s a dumb machine. No AI at all, which means if it wasn’t networked in with Mal’s systems, it would be true to its own readings regardless of what the other scans said.
It was an interesting theory, but one that still didn’t help much, given her lack of understanding how the cursed thing functioned.
Daisy glanced at the clock mounted to her wall. Nearly midnight. So much for a full night’s sleep. She threw on her sweats and headed for the door. If she couldn’t sleep, at least Vince might be able to take her mind off of things. Even if they just wound up sleeping and nothing more, his warmth would help put her at ease.
Daisy reached out for the door controls, then glanced back across her quarters. Sarah’s scanner steadily flashed its light, staring at her like a lonely puppy being abandoned for the night.
Oh, all right, Daisy thought as she picked it up. Might as well take it along. Maybe Vince will have some ideas.
“Babe, I have no idea,” he said as he showed her into his quarters. “I mean, I know what basic type of device it is on a basic engineering level, but this was totally Sarah’s ballpark.”
“Well, it was worth asking.” Daisy sighed.
“Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.” Vince took the scanner from her hands and rested it on his desk, then wrapped her gently in his arms. “You know, I can think of one thing I can do for you. If that’s what you want, that is. Or we can just talk. Or sleep. Whatever you need.”
“I just want to turn my damn brain off for a while. If only it were so easy.”
“Maybe I can help.”
He gently laid her down on his bed, softly kissing a trail from her collarbone, slowly moving lower and lower.
“That’s really nice,” she said with a shudder, “but now that I’m here, I don’t know if I’m in the right headspace for it.”
"Sorry, babe. I just thought it might distract you," he said, resting his head on the pillow beside her, then wrapping his in his arms and holding her close. Like I said, whatever you need."
“You sure? I don't want to leave you with blue balls.”
“Daisy, that's not even remotely a concern. It's been a really tough couple of days, and besides, we’ll have plenty of time once the captain removes that ‘don’t exert yourself’ restriction for the crew. It’s not like we’re going to actually run out of oxygen before we reach Dark Side anyway, right?”
Daisy glanced at the portable scanner sitting on his desk.
“Not likely, no, but I really do need to figure that thing out. Captain’s counting on me. I’ve got some ideas, and I’ve seen Sarah run the inputs in the past, but it’s not really my thing, so I didn’t pay much attention.”
“You’re a smart cookie. I’m sure you’ll work it out.”
Daisy shook the sleep from her mind, slid off his bed, and slipped out of his bunk.
“Look, I’m gonna grab a snack and work on this some more. You get some sleep.” She kissed him deeply. “And thank you for listening. That was just what the doctor ordered.”
The galley was empty at that late hour, as one would expect. It was a little unsettling not having Finnegan in his usual spot, chattering away non-stop while he whipped up some new dish, but the silence would be good. Daisy needed to brain, and distractions would not help things any.
With Sarah gone now, Daisy really had her work cut out for her. She knew it would be a lot to cover, and the more she thought about it, the more daunting the task seemed. Her specialty was comms, with electronics and environmentals being a tack-on skill set that conveniently allowed her to help when Sarah needed it. Their parallel and overlapping talents provided a taken-for-granted redundancy that the crew would have been very glad to have, now that they found themselves in a low-oxygen crisis.
Okay, we’re down one, so that’s nine crew remaining, sucking up our precious air. Daisy pulled a cocoa packet from the storage pantry and inserted it into the hot beverage dispenser. “Cocoa, full-fat milk,” she said to the machine. A whirring buzz sounded behind the metal panel, and moments later, it swung open, a perfect cup of cocoa waiting for her.
So, nine crew, she continued her machinations. Of course, Barry doesn’t consume more than a minute amount of oxygen to keep his flesh covering alive, so really, we’re looking at oxygen needs of eight. I have everyone’s weight, muscle ratio, and cardio fitness from the basic med logs, so it should just come down to doing the math.
She plunked Sarah’s scanner on the dining table and pulled up a seat. The data was mumbo-jumbo, and became even more unreadable the longer she stared at the screen. She took out one of the small flexible data tablets that Sarah liked to use and tried to reconcile figures between that and the frustrating machine resting in front of her.
A solid hour and three cups of cocoa had gone by, but Daisy, stubborn and bleary-eyed, re-entered the figures again for the umpteenth time. It was a losing battle. Without Sarah’s ready-knowledge to interpret all that complex data, it was taking far too long to assess the results.
At long last, something she keyed in seemed to have finally worked as the little machine sputtered out a line of data on the screen.
“About fucking time,” she muttered.
“I’m sorry, did you need something?” a disembodied voice asked in the dimly-lit room.
Shit. She’d forgotten she was working in a public space and not her private quarters. Of course the ship’s AI was listening. She was always listening.
“No, it’s nothing, Mal. Just talking to myself.”
“Very well. Please inform me if you need my assistance. I’d be ever so glad to help.”
“Thanks, I’ll let you know.”
Daisy picked up her tablet and the portable device. Better if I continue this in my pod, she thought. She gathered her things, grabbing a couple of protein bars from a drawer and sliding them into her pocket, then turned to head back to her personal space. At least there will be no intrusions there, she mused. And what was with Mal’s speech pattern? ‘Ever so glad’? Where the hell did it pick up that one?
She paused a moment longer, slipping a few electrolyte pouches into another pocket, then cycled the doors and stepped out into the hallway.
“Oh, pardon me,” Barry said, nearly bumping into her. “Can I be of assistance, Daisy?”
Daisy jumped, nearly dropping the scanner.
“Barry, what are you doing here?”
“I do not understand the question,” he said, puzzled. “I thought you were in your quarters.” He looked her up and down curiously. “Are you all right, Daisy? May I be of assistance?” he asked, eyeing the scanner in her hands. “I can help interpret the data from that device if you wish.”
“Um, no, thanks. I’m good. Just doing a little work and having a snack.”
“I see. Unable to sleep? Perhaps I could make you a nice cup of herbal tea. I understand that often helps with a restless mind. And really, I do not mind running through the data for you.”
“No, really, I’m fine. Thanks, though.”
It really is creepy when he just stares at you, she noticed as Barry paused, formulating a reply to her statement.
“My pleasure, Daisy. Please do not hesitate to ask if you need me,” he finally said.
She nodded and turned away from the odd cyborg, making her way down the passageway toward her quarters.
What does he actually do when we’re all sleeping? she wondered.
Back in her quarters Daisy did some quick math and made a decision.
There are still four inhibitors left, so I should be fine if I only pull a couple. One way or another, I need to process Sarah’s data, especially if Barry and Mal are sniffing around it. Something about this just doesn’t feel right.
The lid to the neuro-stim device slid off easier than usual as she gave it a now-practiced twist. The tiny inhibitor control switch stared at her, its solid red light daring her, tempting her to throw caution to the wind.
Okay, I’ll only disconnect two of them. That’ll leave two still running, which should be plenty.
She took a fine probe and depressed the left-hand inhibitor deactivation button for ten seconds until the light pulsed five times.
That’s one.
She repeated the process until the light slowly pulsed five times again, though this time it followed with a sixth, flickering
pulse.
Huh, that’s new. Probably a warning light. Well, I’ve got two left, and even I am not foolish enough to remove those.
With the device ready, Daisy plugged in a new series of protocols that would help her understand Sarah’s work. It was a huge amount of information on top of the other things she had been trickle feeding herself, but it was critical she understand those readings. Nevertheless, she hesitated. It was a lot of data, but her only other options were letting Mal and Barry handle it—which would put the accuracy of the results in question in her mind—or learning the codes and processes the old-fashioned way, and that would take weeks, if not months. They simply didn’t have that much time.
She looked at the clock—2:17 am.
I’ll just put all of the feed’s focus on this new stuff and turn the others to their lowest settings. I just hope that gives me at least a little understanding of what she was talking about.
Daisy slipped the delicate neuro band around her head and sat on her bed.
Two for Tai Chi, two to learn chess, two for kung fu, two more for those hacking skills for Vince’s birthday surprise, and now two more so I can understand Sarah’s work. Ten inhibitors down, two remaining. Piece of cake, Daisy. Okay, time to do this.
She pushed the activation button on the device and swung her feet up onto the bed. It would take the neuro-stim a minute or so to begin gently nudging her mind, and then, if all went according to plan, she’d wake up several hours later, well-rested and able to understand Sarah’s notes enough to be of some real use to the ship.
Tai, Chi. Chess. Kung Fu. Hacking. Sarah’s work. All in all, not bad for an untrained tech. She’d been good about fiddling with the machine, despite what her friend had said about her recklessness.
Besides, tweaking the stupid thing was what let me finally sleep decently in the first place. Her eyes went wide. Shit! Two more for sleeping! That’s all twelve of them!
Daisy tried to snatch the deceivingly delicate-looking band from her head, but the now-inhibitor-free device had already taken hold. Her arms wouldn’t obey her commands, and a millisecond later, she was yanked under by the powerful machine.