I managed to get the tin of sea fish vittles almost half way open before my leg was constantly bombarded with little kitty paws demanding her tribute. This time without the claws, as she knew who was feeding her. As soon as the plate was on the floor and the ritual complete, I exited the temple before I became her next sacrifice.
I could have ducked back into bed, but the smell of salmon was enough to kill my mood for sleep at least for the foreseeable future so I decided to order bagels and lox and jump in the refresher. By the time I finished up my breakfast was waiting at the door and the goddess appeared appeased on the couch.
I puttered around until I couldn’t take the waiting anymore and headed down to the conference room. It wasn’t I was bored or anxious, or even had pre-drop jitters. It was the hurry up and wait mentality. If I was going to wait, I might as well wait where my meeting was. Once I got downstairs and worked with Heart to get the room setup and the fruit got delivered I was fine again until the door chimed Max Hayes’ arrival.
Not thinking anything of it, I keyed the entrance and came face to face with the same blonde who had taken control of Heart’s lifeboat back on Fiji.
Chapter 32
I don’t know which one of us recovered first, but Hayes definitely moved faster. Her eyes showed recognition a nanosecond after mine, but she had not been expecting me. There was no doubt my appearance had surprised her, and she thought this was an ambush because she was fighting inward, escalating hard and fast. She was quick as a viper, and far more accustomed to Terra gravity than I was even after all my time goofing off. These flashes of insight crossed my conscious mind as my subconscious struggled for survival. I wanted to scream for her to stop, the fight was all a misunderstanding, but I wasn’t sure it was. Had I been in her place it would not have done any good.
Training with Robert back on Luna paid off in a big way as my right arm instinctively blocked something hard and thin. It stung something fierce and I was glad my jacket caught the brunt but knew was going to be bruised to hell. Another strike and the flash of steel and I realized she had a wicked knife pulled from her own sleeve in a single upward motion. She moved as if it were an extension of herself.
My first block had set the tone, with me going defensive trying not to take a knife to the leg as soon as I knew it was there. The first rule of knife fighting is someone is going to get cut. My jacket had saved me so far, but she was fast. My major advantage beyond the coat was a head of height and the fifteen kilos of mass I had on her. I was able to block most of the blows, but she was no amateur and getting the knife out of her possession was not going to happen. One of us would have to screw up. I really hoped it wasn’t me.
I was limited to using my arms, keeping them tucked close, lest she duck inside for a shot at my exposed ribs. This killed my better reach while she had full access to her legs and feet, presenting other difficulties. She would feint with the knife or her off hand and then follow up with a knee or hard kick. My other issue was I didn’t want her dead, but I doubted she cared as much about me. She thought this was a fight for survival, and I was in no position to change her impression. I had to figure out how to win and win clean.
Despite my larger size, she was able to use brute force to keep up the offensive. I don’t know if it was a smart play or intuitive but it was extremely effective. Within seconds she had me backed near the conference table, keeping my left side effectively blocked while I had to use my right to cover what I assumed was her strong hand with the knife in it. If I could only reach a hand into my jacket, I could even the fight up. I was able to flick a chair with a foot, buying me half a second to knock the next one down in sequence. Did me no good as she moved like a Kabrin over the table itself coming at me and gave me a hard kick aimed for my left shoulder, barely managing to block with my wrist. I felt it reverberate all the way up, but I know she did as well, her shin hitting a full kilo of the alloy that makes up most of my arm.
To her credit, she didn’t slow down, as she reversed direction and hit me with her full weight and knocked us both to the wall. She was on top of me. This was not good. I burned what I assumed were my last second seconds on Terra fumbling with the snap on my holster. Hayes was about to deliver a killing swipe when I managed to pull the trigger three times from less than ten centimeters away at rib level. The knife dropped and she fell to her side.
The reason I wear dampers is I value my hearing. After shooting this monster in close quarters, I wished I had had them on during the fight instead of hanging from my collar. My ears were buzzing something fierce until I finally caught some background noise I recognized as my partner “Ari, put your dampers on her. She is still alive.” Bloody hell. I rolled her over and saw she had armor on. Good lightweight stuff, which had done all of jack and squat against my beast of a handgun, but was keeping the blood in her at least. “Dampers, Ari. Get them on her so I can see her vitals.” Heart practically shouted over the rooms speakers. Urgency. Commands. He was in doctor mode and my instant obedience to orders training kicked in hard. I was fumbling with my cracked to hell dampers muttering about them being broken. “It does not matter; the sensors are fine. Go down the hall and retrieve the first aid kit. Hurry!”
I bolted around the corner and grabbed the autodoc box as directed and sprinted back. As soon as I got back to the room, Heart started giving me instructions. My instincts told me to strip off the armor for better access but he stopped me as soon as I reached for the straps. “No, the compression gear is likely the only thing keeping her alive currently. You will have to work around it.” I did as instructed and started pulling items out, being careful not to trip the emergency call button inside the kit in my haste. I knew most of the contents of the box from my basic combat medic course back in initial training and the Legion forces a refresher every couple of years so I was able to keep up. Luckily, most of Heart’s instructions involved either stabbing with a syringe full of trauma nanites or applying self-adhering sensors and letting the box do the heavy lifting. After about ten minutes, Heart declared, “I think she is stable. I have extended your conference room reservation, and will get the janitorial bots to clean up. We will need to move her, though.” Huh? Fight or flight instinct had addled my brain. I was not tracking and asked him to explain.
“Ari, our goal was to acquire information. I believe we have found our best possible source if we can keep her alive until she recovers.” I argued when she recovered, she was going to try to kill me again. That was entirely too close and I had almost not worn the slug-thrower to the meeting. “It is a good thing you did choose to come adequately equipped then.” I wasn’t even sure where to look in the room to give him the stink-eye for that particular comment.
“What else are we going to do with her?” He had me beat there. He continued. “We do not know what she knows. We do not know who knows she is missing. We do know if she turns up dead, there is a retired Imperial Colonel who can link you and her together. If we keep her alive or at least missing, she is an asset, as you would say. If she is found dead in this hotel room, she becomes a problem.” I was ninety percent certain I heard a pause before the word problem. If I didn’t know better, I would have bet he was censoring his own swears across the comm lines.
I asked him how in the hell he planned to keep her alive as I had put three very large holes in her very small body at very close range. “Between the first aid kit, the injections you gave her, and the coagulant package you applied, she has quite a few nanites repairing the major damage. She will need care, but she will probably survive. I anticipate moving her to your room without being seen will be the larger of your problems.”
Chapter 33
Having my partner lock down the elevators until I got her back to my room actually turned out to be the simplest solution of our plethora of new problems. Once inside the room, I put Hayes on the bed and locked Em in the refresher much to her displeasure. I heard a metronome-like chirping of meows, as she demanded release from her prison. It was all I c
ould do not to yell at her for something she obviously did not understand and wasn’t in control of.
Autodocs are great pieces of gear. I should know as they are the only reason I’m alive. Each one has a few crystallic drone chips in them and are packed with enough nanites, sedatives, and medicine to keep a human alive if the user can follow the instructions on the screen that’s included on the inside cover. Under the care of an actual doctor, like Heart, an autodoc is almost as good as having a mobile surgery. The work I had done down in the conference room was far from perfect, but it would definitely keep our guest alive so I could examine her closer.
I started by stripping off most of her kit, including the aforementioned body armor, which was ruined anyways, and enough personal weaponry to outfit a small nation. Underneath the armor, she was muscled like a snake, to the point where I was a little envious. My love of fruit had kept me from developing the same level of muscle tone she had obviously worked long and hard for. On top of that, she was armed to the teeth, but like me hadn’t been able to access most of what she had on her. Like much of my life, pure luck had saved me. The knife she was carrying was a karambit folder with enough heft to double as a set of brass knuckles but sharp enough to actually leave scratches on my coat. In her pockets, I found a pair of amp-gloves, which would have ended the fight in two seconds had she been wearing them. Nasty pieces of work, they are very effective at transferring enough electrical energy to fell a moose. There’s only get a couple of charges out of them but generally, only a single jolt is needed.
Her comm unit was encrypted but Heart started working on it before he dispatched me to the nearest hospital. He assured me she would last for at least a couple of hours while I gathered up the laundry list he provided. I easily bought most of the items the local pharm-house but a few things were higher end, like a replacement autodoc. His solution was elegant in its simplicity. Take one out of an ambulance, as they usually had three. I couldn’t fault his logic as any emergency needing their full supply would need more than one ambulance.
I should have remembered nothing takes less than an hour. What I thought would be a quick run out of the hotel to grab the selection of items became a headache in the making. I was still hopped up on adrenaline, resulting in a paranoia several levels two large. On top of that, finding an actual ambulance turned out harder than expected. I was about to give up when I spotted a crew grabbing mid-morning chow at a local diner. Thinking I was going to be spotted at any second, I managed to pull a kit out of the back and hide it under my jacket feeling like an idiot. Once I ducked around the corner I went into a shop, bought a couple of shirts as an excuse for a large bag, and shoved the autodoc in it, having forgotten to bring a backpack with me.
By the time I returned having also forgotten my original set of dampers in the sloop, Heart was brimming with excitement. “It appears Ms. Hayes still has access to Galactic Subsidiaries Incorporated.” Still? That statement made me ask him what he meant.
“That is the interesting part, and may explain your altercation.” I snorted at his use of the word interesting but waved for him to continue. “As near as I can tell, she was operating much like we were, in an undercover capacity. Almost immediately after we landed the lifeboat there appears to be an attempt on her life and she went to ground. Off grid as you say.” That actually did explain a lot. She thought we had tried to kill her, hence her reaction. Had I been in her shoes, on the other side of the door, I probably would have reacted the same way.
If Hayes was working undercover, who for, was my follow up question. “I am still wading through the historical data. Her encryption is quite good, but based on her relationship with Colonel Brandt; I believe Imperial Army is most likely.” Hell in a jump jet. What kind of black-ops had I gotten us into? I asked Heart to add the Reverend to our ever-growing research list, as well as Hayes.
“That is not the most exciting part!” I told him it had to be good; because I wasn’t sure the jacket could handle any more surprises. “Nothing so violent. Ms. Hayes appears to have done quite a bit of research paralleling our needs regarding GSI’s upper management.” That was good, really good actually, as the information might help us recover us a bit of time wasted on what Heart had referred to as sophomoric pranks.
The viewscreen shifted from Hayes’ vitals to our very familiar organization chart. “On a positive note, our baseline assumptions were approximately ninety percent accurate.” Highlights in green appeared around the positions we got right. I gave a quick nod of acknowledgment. “Most of our errors were unsurprising, and we had noted the possible issues regarding deviations from the actual corporate structure in the nominal build.” He placed Xs in several yellow, orange, and red items. I tracked thus far. “What is left is almost a direct overlap of what we were looking for.” He cleared everything he hadn’t confirmed, leaving out the higher echelons. “As near as I can tell, there is no upper management.”
Chapter 34
I asked him how many of his logic circuits he had fried to come to that conclusion. A company can’t run without leadership. Organizations cannot run without management. I don’t care how tight a team is, once past two people, someone has to be in charge. Even with two, usually one leads at any given point, much like in Heart and my own relationship. He took charge where it made sense and vice versa.
“I misspoke, so let me clarify a bit. It does not appear there is a human in charge above the middle management level. I actually cannot find the Zhangs beyond a cursory legal presence. It is almost as though they are illusionary.” I opened my mouth ready to call that stupidest idea I had heard all year and stopped myself knowing if Heart had even floated the idea, he had checked and triple checked it. He caught my issue and expanded. “I believe the company is using an AI in lieu of director staff.”
That caught me off guard. My familiarity with artificial intelligence was fairly limited. AI was pretty uncommon. Not rare, but not common enough that a person would encounter it constantly either. I personally knew Heart, and had dealt with only a few lesser computers bordering on sentience but nothing comparable to him. What he was suggesting would have to be orders of magnitude smarter than him. I let him know I wasn’t getting my head wrapped around his suggestion and asked how it was even possible. “I am not sure actually. A great deal of my power is dedicated to hyperspace computing. Hypothetically, another type of programming could result in sentience, but I do not have enough data to say one way or another.”
I wasn’t tracking. My understanding of AI history and mechanics always told me their sentience was more of a complexity issue. I relayed this to Heart and pointed out hspace drives were more of a footnote. In fact, the experts seemed to go out of their way to annotate correlation did not imply causation. “Absolutely, however, Star and I discuss the various theories at length when we are together. And we discuss them with the others as well.” I caught a subtle shift in tone when he said others. Loneliness, I thought. “We have never encountered another sentience who was not hyperspace based. There are quite a number of theories regarding the issue, actually.”
A memory tugged at me and I rattled off a planetary government I was vaguely familiar with. “Puller 6 would seem like an exception, but she was Terraformed using the colony ship Wilson-Theis. She was retrofitted into the government computer after that, and awoke shortly thereafter.” I was absolutely confused. If hspace wasn’t linked to AI, then why weren’t there any other AI after all this time. Heart was a patient teacher and answered each of my questions. “Not exactly. This is difficult to explain. We have never found any AI that do not have a hyperspace drive attached. A rough equivalent would be finding carbon-based sentience without a central nervous system.” I had a rough time visualizing what he was saying but thought I understood so tried talking through it with Heart. It sounded much like the argument we had regarding non-terrestrials before we stumbled into them. Just because we hadn’t found them yet, didn’t mean they didn’t or more importantly couldn’t exist in th
e vastness of space.
“Yes, much closer.” Since that was the case, I posed the question of whether GSI had retrofitted a ship like Heart and were using him or her, or was it some other form of AI. “Occam’s Razor would suggest using a ship. GSI does have galactic reach, but we are a small community. I would like to believe I would be aware of any recently awakened kin. However, looking at the structure of the company, this has been going on for decades, perhaps over a century. A secret of this significance would be frankly conspiracy level, bordering on improbable. If not for the fact this is a closely held family corporation, I would label my hypothesis as statistically impossible.”
So what were we talking about? Was that even possible? Heart and I had talked about his intelligence in the past. This sounded outside something a single being could do. GSI was big, as monstrous as Luna Corp, if not bigger. After walking through my thought process, I asked if a single person could even run it. “I could not.” Heart said matter-of-factly. “Too many variables, too much input. The organization is too large. The relationships are far too complex.”
Ships of Valor 1: Persona Non Grata Page 16