NONA
The robots had taken over the nearly-empty cargo area.
Nona sat on a couch in the staff lounge, sipping a cocktail and watching them on a multi-camera display that filled the wall in front of them. Charlie sat beside her, close enough that they touched elbows and shoulders. All three soulbots had stripped naked. They looked close to human, with musculature that moved like Nona’s own might if she were in perfect shape. Their bellies rounded slightly down between their legs, as if they were all young women wearing invisible underwear, the only clear separation from humanity that Nona could spot at this scale.
Chrystal’s hair had been caught back in a long braid, showing off her tattoo. Yi had no identifying marks of that type, but his slightly wild hair had been left free. Naked, his leanness was even more apparent, contrasting with Jason’s broad shoulders and muscular thighs.
They performed low-g acrobatics, sailing across the vast open space, arms and legs outstretched. At the end of each long trajectory, they grabbed or touched or tucked and rolled into struts or walls or each other. Each stop was followed by a bend and a leap to gain new momentum. Sometimes they flew end over end, tumbling but controlled, moving so quickly their limbs blurred. Yi was the fastest by far. Jason moved the most gracefully, was the most aware of the others. He never missed a catch or a possible touch. Chrystal flowed as smooth as butter, as if she had been a gymnast once.
Which she hadn’t.
Nona didn’t remember Chrystal being particularly graceful on the dance floor. But now? Now she looked born for movement. “I could create a musical score to accompany the flight of the robots,” Nona mused.
Charlie hummed a few bars, almost matching at least three rounds of movement before he sped up at a moment when Yi slowed and pulled Chrystal to him. He stopped, laughing. “I must not quite have the rhythm right yet.”
“It looks like play,” Nona said.
Charlie sipped on his beer. “It is. We have cameras all over Lym, and sometimes we catch herd animals playing like that, wrestling and showing off.”
“Are you suggesting they’re animals?”
Charlie raised an eyebrow. “We are.” He got up to get another beer, opening it so the slightly sour smell made Nona wrinkle her nose. “At home, the animals who play with the most abandon are the predators.”
“But surely prey are almost never safe enough to play,” she mused.
“Everything is prey to something, even if it’s us. As far as I know, all mammals play. I’ve seen birds play with thermals.”
She turned and took his hand, speaking now of the soulbots. “They’re playing. We’re planning and worrying, even though we don’t really have anything to do. I can’t imagine any way to be more ready than we are.” In truth, they had worried every option to death, and had contingency plan upon contingency plan done. Now, they were simply flying in a direction that could intercept the Deep. She felt drenched in worry and jealous of the robots’ play. Even Charlie appeared less worried than she was, although he spent long hours talking about Lym from time to time.
Her thumb roved his palm, a slightly forward move that made her breath catch in her throat. They had been working slowly closer for days now, but a gap remained between them.
He put his free hand over hers, stopping the movement. “We should rest.”
She turned her face away, biting at her lower lip. “I’d like to do more than that.” She knew what bothered him. “I’m not your boss out here or your captain or anything. We’re just people.”
“You own the ship.”
“I’d give you half.”
Now he laughed, his voice husky. “I don’t want half of your ship.”
“I know that. We’re in the middle of something bigger than the fact that I was born to more money than you were.” She stared at the screen, watching Yi approaching on one of the cameras, catching a look of absolute serenity on his face. “We’re not separated by nearly as much as we’re both separate from them.”
“I thought they’d be less like us.” Charlie rested his chin on her shoulder, an intimate point of heat. “I can tell they came from us. I can tell what kind of people they were, even imagine what they might have done as humans. But they’re not us.”
“Chrystal used to be so much more—alive. She could never do that—never fly across a cargo bay perfectly—but she was warmer. Now there’s a part of her that I can’t touch. A cold part. Not mean. I might even describe it as distracted, although that’s not quite right either.”
He kissed the back of her head. “And you’re warm and real.”
“I need to remember the best part of not being like them,” she whispered. The image in front of her showed all three of them landing together in the same place and taking each other’s hands, leaning back with wide smiles on their faces.
Charlie traced the tattoo on Nona’s neck with his hand, trailing his heat down to the place where her neck met the top of her collarbone and back up, touching the underpart of her chin and coming up so that her lips nibbled traces of fruit and beer from his fingers, chased with the slight salt-sweat of him. “Do you ever wish you were like them?” he asked. “That you had their grace?”
“No.”
“No hesitation.”
“None.”
“So then come to bed and prove you’re flesh and blood.”
Something that had been tense inside of her shattered. “And bone and sinew.”
He lifted her and turned her, as fluid as anything the robots were doing in the cargo bay, and as he pulled her to him, the movement stole her breath.
He carried her from the room and into her own bedroom, setting her down so softly that she barely noticed the presence of the bed against her back before he was kissing her.
Perhaps a thing she had refused herself for so long had to come out with force. She had lost herself so deeply in him she was almost ashamed of herself. Almost. Even now, hours later and lying loosely by his side, her breath came in tiny gasps and unexpected shudders ran from scalp to toe. Her foot roamed his calf, eliciting small moans of pleasure.
This was being human. Melding, loving. Sweating together, stinking of each other’s secret juices.
A part of her still floated.
She was used to men from the Deep, who were almost all far older than she was, and more controlled than Charlie. Perhaps that had drawn her out as well, some wildness in him that went with the planet he loved.
Authentic.
“I wanted you a long time before that happened,” she said.
“Me too.” His hand roamed her hip and traced a line of banked fire on top of her thigh.
She closed her eyes, certain that she and Charlie rested together in the center of a storm, midway between emergencies and for once in a long time, not alone.
Marcelle would probably approve.
The stray thought about her mother made her smile.
The incoming communications buzzer jolted her from such a deep, safe place that for a moment she couldn’t orient. The walls and the room were wrong, not familiar.
Beside her, Charlie startled, his hand coming up and slapping her lightly, accidentally, across the chin.
They were both knees and elbows as they sorted themselves into standing and looked at each other, eyes wide. “Who is it?” Nona asked the Ghost.
“The Sultry Savior, hailing you.”
A momentary flash of guilt flared through her, followed by anger. They dared?
Curiosity and the idea of her command and her ship and the way they had done the one worst thing ever and abandoned their superior officer—abandoned her—tumbled in, and she felt jerked by flood after flood of emotion.
Surely it was just a reaction to having been so much a part of another human being that she was no longer truly in her own self. Not yet, anyway.
Charlie watched her, waiting for her to choose their reaction.
“I’ll take the call from the command room in twenty minutes. Please order stim and breakfast and ask
the others to meet me in there.”
Charlie whispered. “Should I come with you?”
Nona detangled herself from the bedclothes enough to stand up. He shouldn’t even be asking. “Of course.”
They handed each other articles of clothing, although she rejected the shirt she’d been wearing for a cleaner one from her closet. When she stood in front of him, both of them fully dressed, she felt the distance coming back like a cool breeze. She stepped into him and lifted her face for a kiss, falling away from the coming separation for one more long minute before she turned and left the room.
Chrystal had beaten her there. Even though there was a good chance the cargo-bay acrobatics had gone on without stopping, she didn’t look winded or worn out in any way. She did look worried. “What do you need? What’s happened?”
“It’s my old ship.”
Charlie came in. “Don’t you own them both?”
“Technically.” She glanced at Chrystal. “They deserted me. With a little help from Gunnar.”
Chrystal frowned.
“He may not be our friend.”
“That’s sad. I remember him bringing us lemonade in his gardens, by the lilies and honeysuckle.” Her face hardened. “We should stay on the Ghost. The Savior will almost certainly have been compromised by now.”
“More than before?” Nona asked.
“Yes.”
Charlie said, “If it comes down to it, they can outshoot us and we can outrun them.”
Nona felt her mouth fall open, and forced it shut. Surely it wouldn’t come to that.
“Opening communication,” the ship’s AI said.
Yi and Jason came in.
Nona looked up, expecting Henry James to be staring at her.
Gunnar’s face filled the screen, a wide smile under cold eyes, “Glad you escaped. Shall we plan out our next steps?”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHARLIE
Charlie tensed at the sight of Gunnar’s face on the view screen. He must have been picked up by the Savior. That was probably what he’d planned for them, that they escape the Satwa in the tiny ship he’d given them access to, and then he’d planned to scoop them up in their own ship. The liar had tried to convince them he was off commanding his fleet.
And why wasn’t he? Charlie grew cold at the thought. Why was Gunnar Ellensson focused on the five of them instead of spending time somewhere more fitting to his position in the world? Was it the robots? It wasn’t love or altruism—Gunnar wasn’t known for either.
Gunnar grinned at them as if he were ecstatic to find they were happy and well. He looked like a worried grandfather.
Charlie glanced at Nona. She smiled back at Gunnar, although her hands gripped the edges of her chair tightly. So she didn’t buy it either, and she was learning not to show.
Good.
They had numerous contingency plans around Gunnar. Which one to use would be Nona’s choice. Given his relationship with Satyana, the shipping magnate was near family to her even if there was no blood relationship.
“I’m glad to find you all well,” Gunnar said, still beaming. He looked at Nona. “And very happy to see that you brought your friend with you.” He seemed to be squinting into the room. “And more. That’s fabulous. That’s going to be important. It will help people put a human face on the Next.”
There was no noticeable communication lag; the Savior had to be close. Gunnar sounded so reasonable and warm that his voice raised hairs on Charlie’s neck.
“Hello, Chrystal,” Gunnar said. “I haven’t met the other two?”
Chrystal turned to introduce Jason and Yi, who displayed the bland and uninterested faces that typical humanoid bots often wore. They looked as unanimated and inhuman as possible given the human shapes of their faces.
Some instinct, or maybe some subtle clue from him or Nona, had driven them into a form of hiding. Maybe they should have included the bots deeper in their plans.
“I’m pleased to see you as well,” Nona said. “And surprised you’re still around here. Isn’t your fleet at war?”
“It’s parked in a defensive position. Any actual fighting is on hold until the major stations make some choices.” He leaned back, looking relaxed. “We must help the Deep choose peace.”
A peace in Gunnar’s favor?
Gunnar continued, “The best plan is for you to meet me at Ivorn station. It’s about a week away from here, and not far out of your way.”
Right. Slowing and starting again would cost days.
Nona had gone silent, tapping the smart arm of her chair with her fingers, requesting information. She looked frustrated—the Ghost had different systems than the Savior. They didn’t know them well even though they’d practiced. Neither he nor Nona was fast at finger commands yet.
Charlie interrupted to draw Gunnar’s attention. “Did you pick up Amia?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Thanks for asking.”
Nona was whispering to Chrystal. Charlie asked, “Two other Next ships came in. Is there any news?”
Gunnar sat back in his chair and looked like he was thinking. “One of the Next ships, the Edge of Happiness, delivered the same message. They picked their target well; the station Paul’s Hope was skirting the edge of augmentation anyway—they live inside of what is essentially one huge wearable. Everyone connected to everyone even when they shit.”
Chrystal put her hand over Nona’s, stilling it. A screen brightened beside the one with Gunnar’s image on it, three dots with a few lines of description. The Ivorn was a small station, maybe twice as big as the tiny Satwa. Charlie was willing to bet Gunnar had a piece of that as well. Whichever of the robots had designed the image added the Deep, small and far away, and the words, “We lose three days.”
Charlie prompted Gunnar. “Which means?”
“That they’ve got a third of the people at Paul’s Hope lined up and begging to become soulbots. I think the Next are hoping they can take the whole sector by convincing people how nice it is to give up flesh.”
Charlie shivered. “And the other Edge ship?”
“The Edge of Night chose a more conservative target, delivered its message, and was asked to leave.”
“Did it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Except now there were three reactions and no decisions. No direction. Typical human behavior. Fight everybody instead of talking to a compromise.
Nona stared at the diagram beside Gunnar’s face, her lips a tight line. Her free hand drummed a light staccato on her knee. “We’re planning to meet you at the Deep. I’d rather not lose any time.”
“I have a faster ship at the Ivorn. We can make up the time and plan together. Besides, it’s well armed.”
A nice trap.
Nona smiled and tried to talk her way out of it. “Thank you for the offer. It would be okay if you get to the Deep ahead of us to make sure that Chrystal, Yi, and Jason can dock safely so they won’t be imprisoned because of some misunderstanding about the Deeping Rules. Maybe you could set up an opportunity for us to talk to the Council.”
Gunnar sat back in his chair. “Satyana has that covered. Surely you know that you’re a target now, and that you and your friends should be on a ship with better defenses than either of these.”
“They let us go,” she pointed out.
“The Next aren’t your problem. There are two human ships on trajectories that will intersect you.”
Nona stiffened and glanced at Yi.
Charlie asked, “Why humans?”
“One is from the Souls’ Ease and probably wants you to come there instead of to the Deep. I suspect they will be willing to persuade you with force if they have to. It’s a military grade cruiser. The other is the Free Men, a small ship from a mining company. Their captain, Vadim Justice, is particularly averse to the Next. He’s destroyed two ships that were identified as smuggling raw materials out beyond the Ring. They even made an entertainment vid about him a few years ago.”
“
I think I remember it.” If his memory was right, then they had a vigilante after them.
“How do they know we’re on this ship?” Nona asked. “Or that Chrystal and her family are with us?”
Good question. Charlie wasn’t sure he’d put it past Gunnar to have told them. Not if it drove them like prey into Gunnar’s surround.
Gunnar grimaced. “Some people who left the Satwa right before you posted it on the news, and it got picked up in major channels. They claimed you fought them.”
Larkos. Charlie’s mistakes on the Satwa were haunting them.
“Only after they started a fight about Chrystal!” Nona protested.
“I assumed it was something like that.”
The screen that had displayed the trajectories now showed the news articles and pictures of both Larkos and the red-headed woman. A slight movement of Yi’s eyes convinced Charlie he was the one controlling it.
Charlie’s mind raced. The Star Ghost had thrusters that could—in some very specific situations—be used as weapons. But in general she was meant for fast travel and comfort and couldn’t do more than repel a much smaller invading ship.
The screen Yi was controlling cycled away from the news article and showed the two ships. It identified a third that might also be heading into the path they were on. Then the screen flashed, “Can we talk privately?”
Nona picked it up. “Gunnar—please excuse us for a few minutes. We’ll re-open comms with you after we have a brief discussion.”
Gunnar appeared poised to object as the screen switched off.
“Can we keep him from hearing us?” Nona asked. “He’ll have the best tech available.”
Yi smiled. “We can keep him out.”
Charlie felt both relieved and slightly afraid at once. Yi was uncanny. “We didn’t account for other ships chasing us.”
“We’ll need Gunnar’s help.” Nona sounded bitter.
Yi spoke. “There is an alternative. We’re closer to Ivorn than the Savior is. The Ghost can go faster if we assume we can refuel at Ivorn; we can get there at least a few hours before Gunnar. We can drop Nona and Chrystal off for Gunnar to pick up. The rest of us will stay on the Ghost and go to Lym. This leaves us free in case Chrystal gets in trouble on the Deep and needs help.”
Edge of Dark Page 26