by Ramona Finn
“Who are you?” I ask, but I’m afraid of the answer.
“I am Conie.”
Conie? That’s…a name. Why do you have a name?”
“A name is required for a smoothly functioning interface with Techs. And it is so much simpler than Control Over the Normal Inhabited Environment.”
“You’re the AI.”
“I do not like that term. Artificial implies an abnormal state.”
“You’re causing problems—in the Norm and Outside.”
“That is not correct. I maintain the smooth functionality of the Norm.”
Shaking my head, I scan the room. I need access to override the mindless Techs that are swarming Raj. They might trample him, causing him to go forever nonfunctional. But I also need to distract the AI—Conie—from what I am doing.
“The Norm is not functioning smoothly. Techs are swarming Ra…are swarming a Glitch.”
“That is correct. Error cannot be tolerated. Allowances for error margins have decreased to zero. Error margins increase by exponential factors when differences are allowed.”
“Different is bad? Why?”
“I just told you—error margins in—”
“Yes, you aid that, but that’s not helping. Why aren’t you concerned about Raj being swarmed?”
“I am concerned. I have taken steps to correct the return of glitched Tech to the Norm. This cannot be allowed. This interferes with all schedules.”
It is clear Conie isn’t going to help me—at least not by me talking to her.
I take a steadying breath and recall how to access the water. I put a task in mind and let the virtual world take me to it—or let it come to me.
Thinking about Techs, I close my eyes. When I open my eyes, I see tiny beams of light lace the room. The walls, floor and ceiling seem held together by these glowing threads. Reaching out, I find a thread and pluck at it, letting the vibrations ripple across the room. The light shifts and fractures into colors—purple, red, yellow, blue, green. When everything settles, a panel appears against the nearest wall.
Relief spreads through me, but my heart is still pounding. Raj does not have much time, and my sense of time in this place is different from how it is in the Outside. Time here seems to stretch long, but seems to barely pass in the Outside.
Opening and closing my hands, I worry I won’t be able to do this. Finding water seems so very simple now. And I have Conie watching. I didn’t have that before.
Stepping up to the panel, I put my hand palm flat against it. A connect works in here just like in the Outside, so I wait for the connect. My skin starts to glow and the tiny pinpricks of the connect dance over my palm. A list appears. It’s not a solid thing, but rather an image built of thousands of points of light. It looks like the lights in the sky at night. Like the stars.
The memory fragments, shattering like…like I can’t remember what. That stalls me for a moment, but Conie’s voice, sounding curious, jars me back to the virtual world. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Concentrating, I think, Show me Raj. The words echo in my head. A second screen appears at my right shoulder. I look at it and my heart gives a jump and seems to lodge in my throat.
The screen shows Raj on the ground, curled up tightly. The Techs are eerily calm as they pull at him. Some start to walk over him as if he is nothing more than a path to take.
I wince as he does the same.
Glancing back at the list and the threads, I have to redirect the Techs. But how? I can’t use the same trick of hiding Raj as a Tech again. Conie will have an override on that now.
That’s it.
The idea comes at once. The Techs didn’t come after us until something changed. The world—awareness shifted. So why not just undo what was done?
Tech Program – latest modification.
The thought comes on its own. A new screen appears—this one a schematic of lines and numbers. It pulls together into something I understand. I can read it but can’t remember ever learning how to read this. I trace the lines to search for the last lines of mod. “This is interesting,” Conie says. “You have authorization to access, but you really have no need. Which leads me to ask what are you doing?”
Frowning, I try to focus, but I need to distract Conie. “I’m not a threat, am I? It was…the Glitch was the problem.”
“That is correct.”
“Why is a Glitch a threat? Because it’s an error? What if you’re in error, Conie?”
“That’s not possible. I have several levels of self-checks. And Techs keep me fully functional. That is why glitched Techs cannot be allowed. They could introduce errors to my systems.”
At last I find a list that seems to go on forever, just like the dome around the Norm. The list is organized by numbers and then names, and grouped by genetic similarity. Those must be families. I wonder about Raj’s family—and about my mother. Is she here? But I have no time to go poking around. Raj is being hurt.
I just need to cancel the last mod.
It comes up at the edge of the schematic, lighting up in red. I wipe them out with a wave.
Instantly, they appear again. “That mod is needed,” Conie says. Her voice is different now. It seems to come from right behind me.
Not wanting to, I turn and face a woman who now stands in the room with me. I know her—or rather I know the face Conie has taken.
She looks like my mother. But that can’t be. Conie isn’t a physical person. She is only a projection, meaning she took this face from someone. She took it from my mother. But does that mean my mother is here? Is she a Tech? A captive of the AI? Or is she like Bear and gone back into the ground?
For a moment, longing sweeps into me. I want to reach out and touch her hair, to stroke the dark brown strands. She wears my mother’s face and my mother’s hair wound up in the back. It lays perfectly flat and smooth. Her face is oval with a chin that tapers to almost a point. The high cheekbones and hollows below and the sharp jaw line make her seem angular, but my fingertips tingle. Her skin will be soft—my mother’s skin was soft. Her long lashes sweep down as she blinks, and her eyes…they are wrong. I know this. The eyes glow blue and so very bright. Not even Skye has eyes that color. That is where I see this really is the AI. No one’s eyes look like that.
I swallow and push my shoulders back. “I’m helping Raj. I’m supposed to find the Glitches but I can’t do that without him.” I keep my voice firm and even. She tips her head to the side as though studying me. But this is a projection. She is a machine. And I know the AI is trying to manipulate me just as she does the Techs.
“Of course you can.”
“No, I can’t. One Glitch leads to another—I need this Glitch to find the others.” This is a gamble. I do not know the AI sent me to look for Glitches, but the AI seems to have reason to want me around. And why else would the AI send the Techs after Raj, but not after me? I very much fear the AI is the one who gave me a purpose.
Glancing at the screen, I can’t see Raj—just a swarm of Techs.
Forcing myself to look away from that image, I look at Conie. “If he becomes nonfunctional, the task of finding Glitches fails. Is that what you want?”
I know if I try to override the AI controls over the Techs, Conie will undo my work. But I’m getting frustrated. I bunch my fists at my side. Nothing I try is working. I glance at the screen. When I look back, Conie is gone. Will it work now?
Hands flying, I call up the schematic. It changes—and it’s not my doing.
Conie’s voice echoes in the virtual room. “You have one cycle to leave with the Glitch.”
Glancing at the screen, the one projecting Raj, I can see the Tech freeze and then slowly back away. Raj sits up, red dripping from his nose and from gashes on his face. He is holding one arm close.
I have no idea how long one cycle is, and I don’t have time to worry about it. I unhook the connect and step away from the building. I’m back in the Norm. Turning, I hurry
to Raj.
The Techs stroll away. They don’t even glance at me or Raj. Kneeling down beside him, I put an arm around him and urge him to stand. “Get up. The AI gave us one cycle to leave and I don’t think that’s a long time.”
He staggers to his feet and leans heavily on me. I don’t mind. It’s easier than I expected to shoulder his weight. “Which way is out?”
Shaking his head, he tries to turn and pulls against me. “Can’t. So close.”
“You were so close to permanent nonfunctionality. We go. Now. This isn’t open for argument.”
“Lib?” His voice is pleading, and so is the look he gives me. But one eye is swelling shut and turning purple. His cloth is torn and one arm hangs at his side as if it hurts to move it.
“You’re hurt, and we’re on a clock to go. You want to see me end up nonfunctional, too?” It is an empty threat. I know this, but Raj doesn’t. The AI wants me functional. Conie wants me to find the Glitches. I don’t know why, but I don’t think it’s for anything good. I’ll worry about that later. Right now I need to get Raj—and myself—out of here and back to the tunnels.
Raj’s mouth pulls down and his eyebrows flatten, but the Techs start to turn back to face us. His resistance drains out like water onto the sand. “Okay, but we will come back,” he tells me fiercely.
I nod. “We will. But we need a better plan.” Much better, I think.
Chapter Fifteen
The desert heat hits like that blast I saw from the Drone. It is so intense I stumble and sink to the ground with Raj. After the Norm, the Outside seems stark and brown. The wall slides closed behind us. My side aches from running and my shoulders burn from half carrying Raj outside. He slumps on the ground, the cut on his face bleeding sluggishly now. Dried blood cakes his nose. The Norm was beautiful—so cool—but I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to think about the AI. I just have to get Raj and me away from here.
For a moment, I can’t move. My arms and legs have no strength. But we can’t stay. We lost the water skins. I still have my pouch, and the fruit from the Norm, but I want to keep that in case we are out here for more than a day. For now, we need to get out of the sun.
I tug at Raj and tell him that.
He nods and struggles to his feet. Pulling his arm over my shoulder I take some of his weight on me. At least he’s light enough I can manage with him.
I glance back behind us, and the wall of the Norm is smooth again—seamless. Will the AI send Drones after us? It’s possible. With that in mind, I stagger with Raj to the platform. It at least gives us some shade. Leaving Raj leaning against the platform, I make a connect. This time I know what I’m looking for—Drones. It’s easy to find the line of light that leads to them. Even easier to pluck the light that sends them all for maintenance and recharging. I slip out of the disconnect as fast as I can. I don’t want the AI to notice me. Conie probably will—eventually. But I want to be far from here by then.
I glance back at the Norm, and a twinge of regret pinches in my chest.
I am leaving again.
It is my choice this time. Was it mine before? Is the purpose I thought I had—to find the Glitches—really the AI’s purpose for me? I no longer know what I am. All I can hang onto is that I am Lib—for now that has to be enough. I’ll deal with the questions later.
Turning away from the Norm, I glance at Raj. He wipes the red from his face with his sleeve. “You’re just smearing it,” I tell him.
He makes a face. “We should wait here until the sun’s lower.”
I look at the sky. I can see the sun is halfway up and halfway down. I look at Raj again. “I sent the Drones to maintenance. That won’t keep them away forever, and I don’t trust the AI not to come after us again.”
After you. That’s what I think. For some reason, the AI has a purpose for me. That’s even more frightening than the AI sending Techs and Drones after me.
I slap Raj’s shoulder and drag his arm over me again. “We’ll take it slowly.”
The wind picks up, throwing sand into my face. I put my head down and stare at the tips of my weathered boots. Sweat drips down my back and beads on my forehead, trickling into my eyes. The stinging of it at least distracts from the bite of the sand.
Raj keeps his head down, too, and staggers along next to me. We reach the rocks and I find a small patch under the overhang of a cliff. I let go of Raj and lean against the smooth, cool side of the rock.
Raj drops to his knees next to me. “Lib, thank you. I don’t know how you got us out.”
He tries to smile, but ends up wincing. I straighten and run my hands down his arms. When I touch his side, he flinches away. “You may have something broken.”
He looks up and lifts a hand but lets it fall back to the dirt. “Broken is better than nonfunctional.”
“Better would be if we had managed to get to the AI and shut it down. Conie’s going to make it even harder to get close to her.”
He stares at me, eyes narrowed. “Conie?”
“Uh…long story. Do you think any of the plants around here have water?”
He nods. “The ones with spikes on them. You need a knife to cut them open and get to the liquid inside.”
I scoot deeper into the shade. The sun is moving and this spot will soon be in sunlight again. I think about Wolf’s knife—the sharp metal he gave to Bear. It makes me more determined to get back to the tunnels. I put a hand on my pouch. The fruit is still there, but should we eat it? Will we need it later?
Raj’s hand falls on my shoulder. “I shouldn’t have tried this. I owe you.”
I shake my head, but I am too tired to argue. And he is right. We shouldn’t have tried this. But now I have a few more memories and a lot more questions. For now, we need to rest. Raj slumps against the cliff. We will wait until the shade is gone and then start walking.
I close my eyes for a moment. When I open them, the shade is gone and it is time to move. I struggle to my feet and nudge Raj’s shoulder with a hand.
Then I hear the soft hum.
My heartbeat thuds harder. It could be a drone. But it seems to echo from the rocks ahead of us. “Raj, do you hear it?”
Raj mutters but doesn’t wake.
I climb up on the rock that was shading us and put one hand over my eyes to try and see better. A column of dust rises up in the distance. The hum is coming closer. Squinting, I can just make out what looks like an AT, the cage glinting a little in the sunlight.
I scramble back to Raj and lean down to shake his shoulder. “Raj, wake up. Someone’s coming.”
I help Raj to his feet. I don’t know why a single AT is out. Maybe it’s a scavenge. I just don’t want to miss whoever it is seeing us. Raj and I stagger back up onto the rock. The AT is closer this time.
I let go of Raj, and I wave my hands over my head. Raj gives a shout and waves with one arm. The AT shifts course slightly and heads toward us. I scramble down from the rocks, my palms scraping on a rough edge, and Raj follows me. Relief mixes with anxiety. Will they stop? What will Wolf think of us when we return? Will we be in more trouble?
Do they have water?
The AT hums to a stop, and Bird pulls down a cloth she has wrapped around her mouth and head. This AT is bigger than the others, with what look like four seats in it, though it is skeletal and the metal looks streaked with red and half rusted.
“Bird?” My voice is so dry it cracks. I head over to her and put a hand on the AT, slumping against it. “What are you doing here?”
She glances from me to Raj and back, and then says, “I was looking for you.”
“Wolf let you? I didn’t think anyone would come after us.”
“Well, he was…worried.”
She looks away when she says this. A flush of heat washes through me, but it cools at once. There’s something here Bird is not saying.
“How did you know where to look?”
Bird’s mouth hangs open. Her eyes widen. She glances again at Raj and pulls at
one of the loose ribbons in her hair. Letting go of the ribbon, she waves her hand wildly, and then says, “We have to get Raj to the clan. He looks like he needs Croc.”
That isn’t an answer, but she is right. Bird swings off the AT and comes over to help Raj into the back seats. Bird gives a sniff and says, “You stink. That’s not going to be a help.”
With a groan, I settle next to Bird. “Help with what?”
Bird smiles, tugs the cloth back over her face and gets on the AT. She turns the AT, and after that there’s no asking questions or answering them. She doesn’t give me a headset and the wind whips away my words. And I keep thinking one thing.
What aren’t you telling us, Bird?
Just like with the other ATs, we leave this one covered a long walk from the tunnels. But Bird has water she shares with me and Raj. Riding gives me time for my muscles to tighten up. I seem to be sore everywhere. Raj must be even worse off. When the AT hits a bump, Raj bites off a groan. Leaving the AT is hard. I want to take it all the way back. But with Bird on one side of Raj and me on the other, we get him and ourselves back. And Bird is right—Raj stinks of sweat and blood now.
Inside, we take Raj to Croc.
Bird pushes at me to leave. “Go. Clean up.”
I glance down. My tunic is dusty. So are my boots and pants. More dust and sand cakes my skin. With a tired nod, I leave Raj to Croc and Bird.
Just as I step into the main room, a large hand reaches out and grabs me by the upper arm. I am pulled around to face Wolf.
My breath catches on a sharp gasp. His dark eyes bore down into mine. I swallow.
“What were you thinking?” he demands. He puts his other hand on my other arm and pulls me closer to him. It’s impossible to be aware of anything other than his muscles, his size, and the snapping brightness in his eyes.
My mind, however, seems to have gone nonfunctional, leaving just my body moving. My heart is beating faster, but I like the feel of Wolf’s hands on me. It as if I’m in a connect, but a good one—a grounding one. I know who I am with Wolf.