The Battle of Hollow Jimmy

by Becky Black

  "Okay. Where?"

  "I'll come get you and take you there," Wixa said. "I've got something to give you anyway. See you in fifteen minutes."

  The line closed and Maiga decided a quick change was in order, if she was going out. She'd been working on the ship with Jaff earlier, finishing the last of the repairs. It had left her somewhat grubby.

  A fast shower and a quick change later, she was putting on her shoes when the door chimed.

  "Wixa?" she said, thumbing the intercom. But a stranger's face appeared on the vid screen by the door. A woman younger than Wixa. She held up an ID.

  "Maintenance, ma'am."

  Already? She hesitated a moment. Was this all a little too convenient? Her power systems broken, maintenance showing up after only minutes instead of hours. Before she opened the door she grabbed her knife in its holster and clipped it to the back of her belt, then draped her shirt tail over it.

  Only then did she open the door. The maintenance tech appeared legitimate, wearing the right overalls, carrying a standard issue toolbox. She walked in, and seeing the dark area she headed towards that at once.

  "Power failure? Soon have you fixed up."

  "Are you people quiet today?"

  The tech laughed as she levered off a wall panel. "We're never quiet."

  "I only put the call in twenty minutes ago." Maiga stood over the woman as she started fiddling inside the panel.

  "I just go where the schedule tells me to go next."

  "So, busy job yours, is it?" Maiga asked. Jaff had said as much to Maiga. Always busy.

  "Yeah. It's the mix of systems you see. This place is so old and so, well frankly, thrown together over so many years, I'm amazed any of it works. There's times we end up fixing systems we didn't even know were there until they broke down."

  "Really?"

  "This whole place is held together by luck, I'm sure."

  "Or by the maintenance crews."

  She laughed. "They'd be in trouble without us, for sure. Ah, here's the problem. Just some corroded wiring. I can replace that straight away." She sat back and rummaged in her tool box.

  The door chime sounded again and this time Wixa's face appeared on the screen. Maiga let her in.

  "I'll be a few minutes," Maiga said, gesturing at the technician. She wouldn't leave the woman alone in here. The maintenance people were considered trustworthy enough not to steal you stuff or rummage through your underwear drawer, but Maiga had a little more privacy to protect than most people.

  "Right. Hey, Kiral," Wixa said, as she came into the quarters, carrying what looked like a rug.

  "Hi, Wixa," the technician said. "Won't keep you long."

  "Do you know everybody?" Maiga asked. Then she stared to see Glyph close at Wixa's heels. "Um, I think your cat followed you here."

  Wixa smiled, shook her head, and then handed Maiga the rug she carried.

  "For you. It would look nice on that sofa."

  "What?"

  "It's a throw. I saw it in the market and they were going cheap and I thought it could warm this place up a bit. I mean, it's so…" She snapped to attention and saluted. "Ready for inspection, ma'am!"

  Maiga rolled her eyes, but shook out the throw. It had gold thread embroidery on a bed of sea green, printed with patterns of misty swirls. Wixa had a point, she supposed. The quarters looked like a barracks room. Since Maiga seemed to be staying for a while she might as well add a homely touch or two.

  "Thank you. It's very nice."

  As Wixa watched, Maiga draped it over the back of the sofa, adjusted it, making it straight.

  "Well, it's a step," Wixa said. "You done, Kiral?"

  Kiral nodded, packing her tools away. A last couple of tweaks in the panel and the rest of Maiga's lights came on.

  "That's service for you," Wixa said.

  "Very fast service," Maiga added, wishing she had an explanation for that and then wishing she could stop looking for trouble in everything. Maybe the maintenance department's own system had a glitch and shoved her call to the top of the list. Maybe Jaff was at work down there and had done her a favour. She thanked Kiral and together with Wixa, walked out of her quarters and locked them.

  "This way," Wixa picked up Glyph and set off. Maiga followed.

  "Um, Wixa, can I ask, why are you taking your cat to the party?"

  "I have to; it's the Cat Club's party."

  If that was meant to be an explanation it stretched the definition to breaking point. Maiga tried for some clarification.

  "Cat Club?"

  "Cat owners. We get together, have a brew, have a chat."

  "About your cats."

  Wixa laughed. "Mostly. The party is at Mrs Jasini's; she's the chairwoman of the club. She used to be black ops, before she retired, you know. Covert jobs, maybe assassinations." Wixa gave a sly smile. "A ninja."

  Maiga clicked her tongue at the word ‘ninja'. Some people thought that was so damn funny. But these so called ‘ninja's' had been responsible for murdering Rin right here on this station. And High Command had sent ‘ninjas' to try to murder Ilyan too. Maiga wasn't laughing.

  "So, Jasini's giving the party?"

  "No, no." Wixa shook her head, in a ‘don't be silly' gesture. "Cloud is giving the party."

  "Oh, Cloud. Of course. Cloud. And Cloud is who exactly?"

  "Jasini's cat."

  Maiga felt her temples start to throb. Maybe this party wasn't a good idea after all. It had already started to give her a headache.

  "Her cat is giving the party?"

  "I know, it's silly," Wixa admitted, laughing, slightly embarrassed sounding. "It's just the tradition of the club. Officially, it's the cats who give the parties, or hold the meetings. And they invite the other cats. The owners count as guests. Or two guests in this case."

  Maiga let that sink in and tried to straighten this madness out in her mind. They reached a lift, and stepped inside to travel up to the top level of the human sector. The largest sets of quarters were up there, Maiga knew. The nice end of town. Maiga's own quarters were on the second from bottom, Wixa's second from top level.

  "Right," Maiga said, as the lift got underway. "Just so I'm clear. I'm going to a tea party thrown by an ex-ninja's cat, as the guest of your robot cat?"

  "And people think life on the station is dull. Don't look like that," Wixa protested when Maiga gave her an incredulous stare. "Just go with it. Embrace the insanity, that's what I do. If you wait around for life to make sense you'll wait a long time." Glyph started to squirm in her arms, but she held onto it. "Hang on, boy. I'll put you down after we get off the lift. Oh stop wriggling will you?" She sighed. "I've been tweaking his programming, but I think I've made him too unfriendly."

  The lift doors opened and they stepped out. Now Glyph didn't want to get down and clung to her when she tried to set it on the floor. Well, Maiga thought, smirking for a moment, she had the contrariness setting just right. Wixa straightened up again, with Glyph cuddled against her chest, claws dragging on the shoulder of her shirt and they set off along the wide corridors.

  "Are all the cats like Glyph?" Maiga asked

  "What, robot? No, there's some real ones." Wixa grimaced. "Cloud is real and, oh boy, does Jasini make sure nobody ever forgets that! Mrs La-di-da flesh and blood cat, thinks she's better than the ones with artificial ones."

  She seemed quite annoyed about it and Maiga stared. How could a person get annoyed at something so mind bogglingly trivial? She sighed. Maybe Wixa was right in her advice not to try to make sense of life. Maiga's life had always made sense. Until she met Ilyan that is. Until he'd made her realise that so much of what she thought she knew, was wrong. And she smiled to herself suddenly, as it occurred to her that Ilyan would probably have found this whole cat-hosted, ninja-catered tea party very amusing.

  They arrived at Jasini's large and comfortable quarters. Tidier than Wixa's, but also homely with decoration and ornamentation. Mrs Jasini greeted them and Maiga wondered about the "Mrs." That
meant she was someone's wife, didn't it? She was taller and a little younger than Wixa, but rather well padded about the middle, her old training obviously forgotten.

  "Wixa, how lovely to see you," Jasini said Do let Glyph down there."

  Wixa set the cat down and it at once joined a group of cats in the middle of the floor where it began to cats studiously ignore all the other cats. They returned the favour. Maiga looked closely, but couldn't tell which were the real ones and which the robots. She didn't know much about cats. How well could they smell? Could the real ones smell the robot ones weren't for real?

  One cat, who Maiga assumed must be the ‘host', Cloud, sat on a plump cushion on a chair and watched the other cats with an air of condescension. It was a long haired white and grey animal, with its fur brushed to perfection.

  "This is my business partner, Maiga." Wixa introduced her to Jasini.

  "Charmed. Are you a member of the fancy?"

  "Ah… fancy?"

  "She's not an owner, no." Wixa's smile went a little sly again. "If you ever have any kittens to give away, I'm sure she'd give one a good home."

  "If Cloud were ever to have a litter, I assure you they wouldn't be given away," Jasini answered in a frosty tone. But she covered the offended look after a moment. "Now, food is through there in the kitchen, feel free to help yourselves. Ah, more guests. Excuse me."

  "Silly old moo," Wixa muttered as Jasini swept away to answer the door buzzer.

  "Old?" Maiga said. "Wixa, she's younger than you."

  "No, I'm actually only seventeen. I've just had a hard life. Hang on, there's someone I want to talk to. Go ahead and mingle." Wixa hurried off. Maiga looked around for a moment and then decided to mingle with the food.

  She found Chervaz in the kitchen, sitting at a table with sandwiches and cake and teacups laid out on it.

  "Oh, hello," he got to his feet, smiling. "I didn't know you were coming."

  "Wixa invited me. On behalf of her cat."

  Chervaz laughed. "It's very silly, isn't it? Let me pour you some tea."

  While he did that, she sat down and found a slice of pink cake, frosted with white and red icing, and cut it into smaller pieces on her plate. Chervaz handed her a cup, a glass one, the tea as golden as amber where the light shone through.

  "So are you covering the party for your paper, or are you a member of…" She smiled, recalling Jasini's word. "The Fancy?" She bit one of the small pieces of cake she'd cut and tasted the memory of strawberries.

  "The paper isn't quite that desperate for news at the moment." He poured himself more tea and sat down again. "No, I'm a guest of Smoke. That's Jaff's cat."

  "Jaff has a cat?" He didn't seem the type, not much sentiment about him. "Is it a real or fake one?"

  "Oh, fake, robotic. He says it's a masterpiece of engineering. He's always fiddling with it. Quite disturbing sometimes. I'll visit him in his quarters and he'll have bits of cat spread over the table."

  Maiga grimaced. At least Wixa only messed around with Glyph's programmed personality. Not quite as visceral. She put the image of the dismembered robot cat out of her mind and ate more cake. The icing broke like the crisp top of frosted snow, soft underneath.

  "Have you and Jaff been friends long?" She took on the questioning role again, interviewing him. She'd learnt this over the last few months. Ask people about themselves and it keeps them too busy to ask about you. Chervaz nodded in answer to her question.

  "Oh many years. We served together on a couple of different ships. We were heading back to Earth after the recall order, and the ship got into a battle. It was destroyed, but most of the crew managed to abandon ship. Jaff and I got out in one of the escape pods. The pods were picked up eventually and by the time we ended up here, it was too late to do anything but stay."

  He took on a haunted look, perhaps thinking about being trapped in the escape pod with the battle still been going on them. How terrifying to be helpless in a tiny fragile pod while star ships fought all around you. Like an egg on the floor of a crowded room.

  "Jaff easily got a job on the maintenance crew. Seems to enjoy it. But he's enjoyed working on your ship too, he told me. Like the old days, he said. He's finished now isn't he?"

  "Yes." Maiga nodded. "So we'll be off on a new job in a couple of days. Jaff won't let me pay him anything, but I've insisted I owe him a dinner."

  That reminded her of his dinner invitation of few days ago, that she hadn't called to follow up on yet. Chervaz looked away and picked up a small cup cake. He held it carefully between thumb and forefinger, as if worried he'd crush it if he didn't pay attention.

  "Um, Maiga, perhaps we could--"

  A sound behind Maiga interrupted him and made her spin around. I sat with my back to the door? What the hell is wrong with me? She relaxed. Just Wixa. Wixa came in and started filling a plate with food.

  "Are you two going to hide in here all day then? Come on and mingle. Meet the cats."

  Meet the cats. Maiga caught Chervaz's eye and rolled her eyes. But they both got up from the table, to follow Wixa back into the living room. The guests were standing around, watching the middle of the floor, where the cats milled around, playing with various toys. Some of them ignored the toys and instead washed themselves, or sat or lay around.

  Herding cats, Maiga thought. Seems these people had the knack. Some kind of argument seemed to be going on.

  "But," Jasini said. "Only the real cats are actually curious. The artificial ones are simply acting curious. She pointed at one poking a paw at a clear, hollow ball, half filled with a thick multicoloured liquid. When the ball rolled the liquid roiled and the colours ran like paint drips. "See, Smoke there is only acting as if he's curious about the ball."

  Jaff, out of his maintenance department overalls for once, dressed all in black, didn't look pleased to have his cat picked out as the example.

  "What's the difference?" Wixa said. "The real cats and the robot cats show the same behaviour, so what's the difference?"

  "Is it a question of experience, perhaps?" Chervaz said, making the group stare at him, some with ‘and what do you know about the price of cat litter?' looks. He went on. "The real cats experience curiosity and act on it. The robot cats only display the behaviour, but they don't actually feel curiosity." Jasini smiled at him now, a couple of the other owners too, with approval. You can come back. Jaff bent down to pick up Smoke, a short haired grey cat.

  "You're going to start talking about qualia again, aren't you?" he said to Chervaz.

  "Still," Wixa persisted. "What's the difference from my point of view? I can't see into the heads of any of those cats, all I can see is the behaviour, so what does it matter if they are feeling curiosity or not?"

  "Of course it matters!" Jasini sounded quite outraged. "They have thoughts and feelings, not just programmed reactions."

  "But aren't thoughts and feelings just processing input, but in a biological way," Jaff argued.

  "Actually," Chervaz said, "I suppose in a way the robot cats are a form of philosophical zombie, which appears to display all the behaviours and emotions normal to some particular type of being, in this case cats, yet has no… no inner life. Their behaviour is the same, but what value do we place on that inner life, actually feeling something, even if it is biological processing? Does that make the being that has an inner life more intrinsically valuable than the zombie, even though they are superficially the same?"

  A long silence followed, broken after a while by Wixa.

  "Did you just call my cat a zombie?"

  Maiga lifted her teacup to hide her smile as Chervaz flushed and then rallied and spoke again. "Let me put it this way. If a real cat and a robot cat were in a room, and the room was on fire and you only had time to save one of them, which would it be?"

  Jasini was the first to answer, her response predictable. "The real one of course!"

  Voices babbled as people argued or agreed with her.

  "Maiga?" Chervaz turned to her, as she hadn'
t spoken yet. On the spot, yet she had no real hesitation in her answer, only the fear of who she might upset.

  "The real one." Wixa and Jaff both glared at her. "The robot cat might be more expensive than the real one, in money terms. You could even be very fond of it. But in the end it's just property." Jasini was beaming and Maiga knew that just like Chervaz, she could come back. "Wixa, you even back up Glyph's personality. You could buy one of the same model, upload that backup and it would be Glyph."

  "Glyph 2.0," Jasini said, with a smile, no a smirk.

  "But if one of the real cats dies, all they were is gone forever. Sorry." Maiga smiled at the frowning robot cat owners. "It would have to be the live one. No question." Now she wanted to get out of the range of the glares. "I think I want some more tea."

  Chervaz followed her into the kitchen.

  "That was a very good point about uploading the personality into another physical cat."

  She didn't care. Her interest in cats had been exhausted already. She turned to Chervaz and handed him a teacup.

  "It would be a good idea to set a date for dinner, before Wixa and I leave on our next trip."

  Chapter 10

  Jaff had worked overtime and it was late into the evening when he dropped into Dav's bar to get a drink. He hoped to find some of his maintenance crew buddies in there, but none were around for a change. Well, he'd have to take up the slack.

  He sat down at a table with a beer and found a copy of the Chronicle discarded there, stained with drinks. People should have more respect. Chervaz put his heart and soul into this thing, and he had a hell of a heart. Big enough to love this whole station. Not that he was the only one. Jaff had grown fond of the old beast too. Beast felt like a good word for it. As if it had grown rather than been built, accreted around the central hub.

  His school barracks had been near the sea, and as a child he'd often played on the beach with his friends. What he'd liked best was climbing on rocks and exploring the pools left isolated by the outgoing tide. The creatures in the pools fascinated him, but none more so than the crabs, armour plated, like soldiers of the sea. One day he found a crab with a shell thickly crusted with barnacles. Perhaps they thought it was a rock. But whatever had made them choose to attach themselves to this crab; it amazed Jaff to see both a single creature and many, all in one.