by John Lane
“No. We need to move another four light hours out and wait an hour,” Alfred reminded her of their search pattern. Alfred Beta, his copy, sent out a radio signal at each stop, giving the next destination. He had explained that the instructions are sent to each ship, as they are needed. His copy had to wait until just prior to the jump so they wouldn’t get caught. The radio signal traveling at the speed of light would always be available at each destination. They just had to travel out far enough to catch it.
“Are we getting any closer?” she asked.
“Yes, we’ve cut almost a whole day of searching for the signal. We can’t risk getting much closer or we’ll be right on top of them and our chances of capture increase,” Alfred replied. Even as an AI, Alfred worried about Tommy. They had followed his trail for more than a month. Sometimes Alfred was jealous Tommy slept through this whole trip. But Tommy was safe for the moment.
“Hey, I’ve got the signal,” Alfred shared.
“We are getting closer. I’ll reset the engines and let Dr. Ann know.” Agnes stopped at the hatch of the cockpit and turned to where Alfred’s media unit was plugged into its console. She observed this habit when she wanted deal directly with Alfred. “Alfred. We are a team. Thanks for being here.” She had shared this sentiment before.
Alfred responded as he always did, “Yes, we are a good team. We’ll find him.”
*****
With her eyes shut tight, the light shone too bright. Tania moaned and tried to lift her arm to cover her eyes as she squeezed them shut. Her mouth felt like she swallowed a whole package of cotton balls, and her head pounded. The light bleeding through her closed eyelids was painful. But no matter how much she tried, her arms would not respond, and her eyes remained closed. Her eyes, which now that she thought about it, felt like a load of sand had been dumped into them. They itched.
“Sorry about the light and pain. I had to rush your reboot,” a familiar voice said. “Don’t try to talk just yet. You’ve still got a few minutes to recover.”
What did she mean, a few minutes to recover from this pain? That must have been some party, Tania thought. Tania relaxed with a deep breathing exercise she mastered in college. It had come in handy before those lecture classes the mornings after she’d gone to those parties. Tania realized that it wasn’t a party. No party was as scary or as serious as what had happened to her.
The light went away. “Here, drink this. Slowly,” the voice prompted. Tania felt a straw gently touch her lips. She accepted the liquid, and as it hit her stomach, she began to feel much better. Until she remembered more.
Like a good soldier, she reviewed what she knew. She was trapped, unable to move, in a strange place and blind. She remembered vague figures and arms hovering over her. She had been in an automated medical unit. That’s it. They prepped her for something and done something on her upper left chest near her shoulder. Right now, that same spot hurt. A readout appeared in her visual field accessing her condition.
“Wait,” Tania creaked out a whisper. “What am I seeing? Not rigged for combat data?”
“You’ve been ‘rigged’ for it now, agent Smith,” the voice informed her. This scared her. “Come now, let’s sit up and try to open those eyes.” The voice sounded concerned. Now it clicked. That was Admiral Sutton’s voice. But she shouldn’t be here. Why was that?
Tania put the pieces of her brain back together as the pain behind her eyes subsided. She had embarked on a mission to discover the central location of a terrorist group she had discovered while tracking a mailman. All of her data analysis had sent her to a tattoo parlor on the space settlement community of New Paris between the Frontier and the Fringe.
She opened her eyes and blinked out the ‘sand. She turned her head to Sutton with accusation in those same eyes. “You knew that I’d follow up on my data. I was a pawn. Were my promotions even real?”
Danielle Sutton smiled back at her, “You are good at analysis. I’d say you’re the best I’ve ever worked with. Your experience as a field agent is only average. You’ve gotten further than any other field agent, however, by your good intel.” She explained quickly as she pulled out a biometric patch and placed it on Tania’s chest. “You went looking for additional data and got caught up in its net. Our foe recruits through the tattoo parlor and others like it.” Now Sutton pulled out a tablet, connected it to the patch and started a program. Tania’s shoulder stung. “Hold still, this will hurt a lot.”
“What are you doing?”
“Part of your undercover data is the tattoo. It’s more than it appears.”
Tania, still recovering, simply gestured for Sutton to continue as the pain in her shoulder stung more. It wasn’t bad enough to pass out. Tania had training in controlling pain. It was basic to all undergrad battlefield courses. But the pain came pretty close to her passing out threshold. She was getting nauseous.
Sutton saw the pain on Tania’s face, but couldn’t spare the time to slow down the process or her explanation. She pressed on with the mission summary to date. “You’ve been more than four months in hibernation transit. Your tattoo is biomechanical and contains control circuits to pass data to your brain. You’ve been programmed.”
Tania interrupted, “We need that code. Are you deleting it?” She winced as a fresh sting of pain erupted from her chest.
Ignoring Tania’s pain, Sutton pressed on. “You’re right, we need it and we need to know what it does, but I won’t risk losing you.” Sutton lifted Tania’s chin and looked squarely in her eyes. “You really are the best analyst we have. No one got further than you in cracking this terrorist ring. You deserve your promotions.” Then Sutton smiled, “We’ll work on infiltration techniques when we get out of here.”
“Still, don’t delete it!” Tania insisted.
“I’m not. I’m installing a shell code that will filter the interface so you can retain control. You are still undercover. And so am I, now.” Sutton pulled down her pants. A reaper and scythe tattoo adorned her right hip. “Mine is an imitation. We will need you and your tattoo to access this base. You left a good trail. I followed it. But we need to go deeper, find their plan and stop it. If we can,” she finished.
“Oh, is that all.” Tania smirked. The sting subsided and the HUD on her vision field streamed fresh data. She received data, but did not transmit it.
“We’ll have some help,” Sutton said as Tania raised an eyebrow.
That’s when they heard the seal of another casket being breached in a rack below them.
*****
Tommy opened his eyes. He remembered everything. That was a relief. He had a fleeting moment of panic that he would wake up like Agnes with no idea as to whom he was and what he needed to do. “Alfred?” Tommy whispered, remembering where he should be.
“Relax,” Alfred Beta transmitted to Tommy’s earbud. “You are almost restored. Let’s do a physical check. Please follow my instructions. Wiggle your left toes.” Tommy did this inside the casket. “Good, now your right.” Again Tommy exercised his toes. “Make a fist with your right hand. And with your left.” Tommy did this as well. “Good, now take a deep breath, pause for a count of three and let it out.” Tommy did as Alfred asked. “Everything is looking good so far. Let’s open your eyes, slowly,” Alfred advised.
Tommy’s eyes fluttered open. “Ah, Alfred, there is nothing. I can’t see anything,” Tommy said. The icy fingers a panic crept into his mind.
“Of course not, it’s dark in here,” Alfred teased.
“Very funny. I see your copy got the Alpha’s sense of humor.”
“Yup. Really though, we’ll take this slowly. There isn’t much light in the cabin, but I’ll change the opacity of the casket lid until you can see the environment. You may be surprised,” Alfred shared.
Tommy waited with his eyes open. “How long?” he asked Alfred.
“Almost three months,” Alfred answered.
As the lid cleared, Tommy saw the racks of caskets around him. The caskets were p
acked tightly with walkways on the exterior of the bay and passing down the center of it. Other caskets slid out on runners to gain access to them. The dim light in the cargo bay was coming from the casket systems themselves. A glow from the walls cast shadows around him. He saw a bright pin light several rows above him on a walkway. Tommy’s casket was buried deep inside the stack. If he were to get out he would need to be slid to the center aisle and lowered.
“Alfred, how are we getting out?” Tommy asked.
“My avatars may be trapped inside this casket with you, but my cyber self has been busy infiltrating the ship’s systems.” As Alfred explained, Tommy felt the caskets shift around him. Not quite as he finished, but soon after, Alfred opened Tommy’s lid and he emerged from his tomb. “Now things get interesting,” Alfred announced. “We have visitors.”
Two stacks above and next to the wall, Tommy heard voices. The pin lights moved across the catwalk, but not quickly. Tommy pulled out his goo gun and moved in as much of a crouch as his protesting muscles would allow after three months of hibernation.
Alfred’s avatar opened the access panel and removed the media units. He inserted one into a slot on its back, the other he stashed in a bag and slung it under the body of the spider. “Those are new,” Tommy subvocalized over their link.
“I had a lot of time on my hands, so I learned to knit out of spare wire while you took your nap,” Alfred Beta signaled back. “The slot gives me direct access from the media unit to the spider. The other allows me to carry stuff.”
“Good ideas.” Tommy replied. He climbed ladders that led to the next level. Alfred’s avatar scaled the rack’s two levels and approached the lights from the opposite side of that walkway.
Tommy rounded a corner with his weapon raised in a ready stance. He prepared to fire, but was surprised by what he found. Admiral Sutton sat on the walkway cradling a young woman in her arms.
“Hello, Captain Judson.” The Admiral addressed Tommy with his formal military and postal rank.
“Admiral Sutton,” Tommy nodded his head in greeting. “So, I’m to assume that this is about more than finding my mother among a bunch of pirates.”
“Yes, but you knew all of that,” she said. Tania Smith turned over in the Admiral’s lap to look at Tommy and vomited down the grid of the walkway. “We need your help,” Sutton said as Tania continued to dry heave.
*****
Alfred Prime sat in front of his wall of virtual monitors. He processed incoming data from the Swift’s systems, reviewed data from the system dump of information and watched over Agnes as she’d gone EVA to tune one of the smaller A/W engines. Mostly, he waited.
They had moved out seven light days from their current system to catch Alfred Beta’s signal. Apparently, the pirates had made a quick stop here and moved on. So, they had missed the signal and moved out further to catch it. This also meant they would take more time to find the signal. So far, they had spent a week looking for it.
They had all gotten into a routine when they waited. Alfred reviewed data, Agnes fixed something and Dr. Ann Ai busied herself adapting first aid kits into surgical tools. She had been good at this out on the Fringe while stationed on the MOM.
Agnes dropped a Quick Response code reader, and it began to float away. “Agnes, are you okay?” Alfred signaled. He sent a spider to retrieve the QR reader.
“Yes, my mind just isn’t in the work,” Agnes signaled back. “This drive needs tuned, but on most ships, it wouldn’t even be touched.” The spider returned the QR reader to her, and she continued with her work.
“Yes, I keep reviewing the same data, and I’m no closer to discovering anything new to help us track Annie or Tommy,” Alfred confided. This was also part of their new routine. Alfred and Agnes would discuss their thoughts, hoping to spark a new approach to finding Tommy as they waited for the next breadcrumb. They both harbored a fear that Tommy and Alfred Beta had been found out and the breadcrumbs would disappear.
“We’ve got to keep trying.” She scanned a coded part and reviewed the data. Inserting a probe, she made the adjustment and moved on to the next part and scanned it.
Alfred made the observation, “It’s been my experience that your family is very stubborn.”
“What are you talking about?”
“As an Artificial Intelligence, I can use the processing and logic that comes from being a program. I can also rely on my coding to emulate human responses,” he explained. “So I have observed that your family pursues an objective long past where others would have given up. Even past the point where probability of success has fallen below reasonable parameters.”
“Maybe that’s Tommy you’ve been around too much,” Agnes suggested.
“You’re worse.” Alfred stated.
Taken aback by his blunt statement, Agnes was at a loss how to respond. All she could do was babble a few nonsense syllables in response until finally she came up with, “Say’s you.”
“Exactly.” Alfred acknowledged his correct assessment of Agnes. “I’m glad you can recognize this trait. Now, as I review your success rate in task and ability to move beyond the obvious, I for one, see this as a good thing.”
Agnes paused in her task. “Thanks, Alfred.” She continued to scan the next QR code, this time on a coupling she didn’t trust to be torqued properly shut. As she reviewed the data, she glanced back at the QR code on the side of the part. Instead of the usual square pattern, she saw the reaper and scythe tattoo. Agnes closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Fearing that this could be a symptom of her continued hibernation recovery, she opened her eyes and looked again. It was still there. In fact, they were everywhere she looked.
“Dr. Ann, are you monitoring?” Agnes whispered into her suit’s mic.
“Yes, always. On all of your EVAs,” Dr. Ann Ai responded in Agnes’ earbud.
“I’m having a little visual problem here.” Agnes worked to keep the note of panic out of her voice.
“Your heart rate and respiration are up. I also read an adrenalin spike in your systems. I’m increasing your oxygen mix. Just take deep even breaths,” Dr. Ann instructed.
“Agnes,” Alfred was back on the link. “I’m bringing you in.”
“No, I’ve got to finish this engine, or it will be out of balance,” Agnes said in protest.
“Thus proves my point. We need you. So, don’t be stubborn right now. My avatars will complete your adjustments. You are coming in now. Just relax.”
Agnes blinked her eyes and stared at the engine parts in front of her. The reaper had disappeared. All the QR codes looked normal. They were fuzzy, but normal. “Yes, please bring me in.” Agnes didn’t have to be strong for Dr. Ann and Alfred. Man, she really missed Tommy right now. She could be strong for him. At least he made her feel that way and didn’t pretend that he didn’t gain strength for her.
In the medical bay, Dr. Ann completed her examination of Agnes. “Everything seems normal now, but I still want you to take it easy for the next couple of days.” She continued firmly, “No EVAs.”
“Yes, ma’am. But what was it I saw?” Agnes had explained what happened during her exam.
“Give me a moment,” Alfred said. “I’ve got it. We will need to adjourn to the common room.” Which meant Agnes needed to move. Dr. Ann followed in a medical avatar.
In the common room, Alfred waited in his hologram. Agnes made herself comfortable, and Dr. Ann dressed her avatar in a hologram as well, but remained standing.
Alfred began, “Agnes, you’ve done it again.” Agnes gave him a quizzical look. He continued, “Your brain may be a mishmash of memories, but your cognitive processes have always been clear. This time, though, your brain needed its memories to process a leap in logic.”
“Alfred, I’m not sure I follow, yet,” Agnes confessed. Dr. Ann remained silent but nodded in agreement with Agnes.
“That’s fine. I’ll show you, but I must slow it down and isolate it.” Alfred created a blank wall where he could project info
rmation. “Agnes had her hallucination when she was scanning QR codes which hold data. We know that each of the pirates have a tattoo, also known as a stamp. A QR code is a stamp of data.” Alfred paused for them to follow his reasoning, and they did.
“The tattoos are QR codes on the pirates. Like they are some kind of manufactured product?” Dr. Ann asked.
“More actually. A QR code holds, well, code. Individually, the tattoo has identifying code attached to each pirate. It also contains program data.” He had lost them again.
“Right, Alfred, I get that. But to what purpose?” Agnes understood the purpose of a QR code but did not see the connection between that and how it could be used for humans.
“Watch, I’ll show you.” Alfred continued his explanation. “When you hallucinated, I believe you had put this together. So, I performed an experiment. I used a QR code reader subroutine and examined our database of the tattoos.” He displayed a tattoo, and the code reader interpreted the data for them. It was in binary, zeroes and ones.
“Now, a single tattoo has limited capacity, and several may give you a single line of program code. But we have a database of thousands of tattoos, and it doesn’t even crack the total that may be out there. Plus, there should be backup and redundancy in any good code. Especially a code this complex.” Now Alfred’s flare for the dramatic was showing.
“You’ve got our attention, oh great Alfred. What rabbit are you going to pull out of your hat?” Agnes asked.
“That is a very relevant choice of words, Agnes. I’ve isolated the database and QR subroutine. Dr. Ann, please install this filter in your optic pickups.” Alfred shunted a filter program to her, which she installed. The program manifested itself as a pair of sunglasses. Alfred also donned a pair for himself. “Now watch what happens as I scan all the tattoos in the database and the QR reader builds the code it is reading. Remember, we’ve already seen the pattern that orders the tattoos with the rocket ship flying across the sky.”