Hella

by David Gerrold

  “If you want anything, just tell Sasha. She’s your support team. Sandwiches, tea. A bathroom break?”

  “Thank you,” I said. “But right now, I just want to get the best video we can.”

  “Of course.”

  Commander Khuri patted me on the shoulder, she didn’t know, but I didn’t say anything. She meant well. Then she walked down the hall with Captain Skyler and Madam Coordinator to chat for a while, I guessed they were planning what to do next, but now that the cameras were running I couldn’t understand why they weren’t in the room, interrogating Marley.

  “They’re doing it on purpose,” Jamie said. “They want her impatient and off-balance. It’s an interrogation trick.”

  “Does it work?”

  “It works in all those old movies. I think.”

  Finally, after what seemed like forever, Commander Khuri came back up the hall, picked up a chair, and went into the room. Captain Skyler and Madam Coordinator stood behind me, watching my displays.

  On the monitors, Commander Khuri sat down opposite Marley Layton and studied her. Marley studied her back. It wasn’t friendly in there. I was glad to be in the hall.

  Commander Khuri spoke first. “Do you remember me, Marley?”

  Marley Layton shook her head. Then suddenly her eyes widened. “You’re supposed to be dead. Two years dead.”

  “No. I’m not. No thanks to you. No thanks to your father.”

  “Where am I? Where is this place?”

  “We are someplace that doesn’t exist. A place where your father can’t find you.”

  “You can’t hold me prisoner. You won’t get away with this.”

  “Well, let’s talk about that. No, better yet. I’ll talk and you’ll listen. You’re about to face some serious charges—”

  “What charges?”

  “You’re an accomplice to an attempted murder.”

  “What? Knocking Kyle out of his chair—? That was an accident. I bumped into him.”

  “Please, Marley. We’ve seen the video. We know what you did. You’ve been harassing Kyle Martin for years.” Commander Khuri paused. “Here’s the thing. You can make things better for yourself. Or worse. A lot worse. It all depends on you. Do you understand?”

  Marley didn’t answer. She just glared.

  “Do you understand?” the Commander repeated.

  “I understand what you’re saying.”

  “Good. I want you to tell me everything you know about the crash of Captain Skyler’s lifter.”

  “Huh? What are you talking about? I don’t know anything about that!”

  “Marley, please. Don’t insult me by assuming I’m just as stupid as you are. We know that the lifter was sabotaged. What we want to know is whether or not you knew that before it launched.”

  “Why are you filming this? What’s this all about? Am I on trial?”

  “No. You are not on trial. Not yet. This is . . . well, it’s an opportunity to clear up some things. Let’s call it a deposition.”

  Marley’s expression got weird. “I don’t have to cooperate with you.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  Commander Khuri made as if to leave, then turned back. “We don’t have to feed you either.”

  “Huh?”

  “What’s that thing your father says? Work or starve? We have no work for you here. Nobody here would trust you anyway. So we can’t keep you, can we? And we certainly can’t send you home.” She paused, frowned in thought. “Are you familiar with the station at Misery Point?”

  “It’s abandoned. There’s nothing there.”

  “That’s right. There’s nothing there. Do you think you could survive the winter at Misery Point?”

  Marley’s expression changed again. This one I recognized. Fear. “You wouldn’t. You can’t—”

  Commander Khuri didn’t say anything to that. Instead, she said, “Would you like to reconsider your options?”

  “This isn’t fair—”

  “You’re right. It isn’t fair. Now, what did you know about the lifter crash?”

  “I didn’t know anything—”

  “You’re running out of time, Marley—”

  “I didn’t know anything!” Marley cried. “Not until afterward. All I know is that my father said he was working on a plan to bring me home, but he didn’t say what.”

  “Go on . . . ?”

  “There’s nothing else. He told me there was a hold on the supply truck. Maybe I could ride it into Winterland. He’d let me know. And then he did.”

  “And when you got back? What did he say then?”

  “He said there was an accident, and he was taking over as Coordinator. He never said anything else.”

  “What did your mother say?”

  “She—no. Nothing.”

  “Marley, we know that your father doesn’t pick his nose without your mother’s permission. What did she say?”

  Marley took a breath. She stared at the floor. She looked at the ceiling. Finally, she said, “My mother says a lot of things. She doesn’t always mean what she says. Sometimes she just, you know, says stuff. She’s always talking about Kyle or Kyle’s mom. I don’t know why. It’s just, you know, the way she is.”

  “What did she say?”

  “I don’t think she—I don’t know, maybe she did. I don’t know. She was angry about something and she said it’s hard work arranging an accident. Something like that. But maybe she was joking—”

  Commander Khuri shook her head. “She wasn’t joking and it wasn’t an accident. The software on the lifter was sabotaged.”

  “How do you know that? Nobody has been able to get to the wreck. They can’t find the black box.”

  “Well, yes. That’s a very good point, but I have someone who can explain it better than I can. I’ll have him come in and tell you about it. I suggest you consider your position carefully.”

  Commander Khuri came out of the room and nodded to Captain Skyler.

  “You did good,” he said.

  “This isn’t my first wrestling match,” she replied.

  “Do you want to wait a bit?” he asked.

  “No. Let’s do it.”

  Captain Skyler grinned, picked up a second chair, and followed her back into the room.

  We watched on the displays. Before Captain Skyler could put his chair down, Marley recognized him. If she had been surprised before, when she recognized Commander Khuri, this time she screamed and almost leapt backward out of her seat.

  Commander Khuri sat down. Captain Skyler sat down. They waited.

  Marley Layton recovered herself. She folded her arms and glared.

  The three of them sat silently. Nobody spoke. I watched the clock. The silence went on for a while. Several minutes.

  When he finally decided the time was right, Captain Skyler took a breath and began. “We don’t have to get to the wreck, Marley. I don’t need the black box. I downloaded the diagnostics before it launched and I’ve had plenty of time to examine the code. The software was hacked. The hack wasn’t hard to find. It was set to shut down the engines and then erase itself, so it didn’t need to be hard to find. Kinda stupid, but . . .”

  Marley’s eyes narrowed. Captain Skyler added, “You’re not a very good programmer, Marley. Yes, you almost succeeded. But almost isn’t good enough. Because if you had been good enough, I wouldn’t be here. And you’d be home in bed.”

  “You can’t prove it was me.”

  “Marley, please don’t assume I’m as stupid as you are. Your coding style is unique. Every programmer has his or her own style. But even if you’d taken the time to hide your obvious idiosyncrasies, you still used several of your own personal subroutines, with your own copyrights in the meta-tags.”

  “So what? That still doesn’t prove anything. Anyone c
ould have—”

  “The source code is still in your private files.”

  “You don’t know that! Not without a warrant.” She took a breath. “I want a lawyer.”

  “Oh my, yes,” said Commander Khuri. “You are definitely going to need a lawyer. Attempted murder is a very serious charge. Right now, the question is whether or not you stand trial alone—or with your family. There’s no leniency for you if you’re the sole perpetrator. On the other hand, if there are others involved . . . someone who had a much more compelling motive, perhaps someone who ordered you to hack the lifter—well, your cooperation could go a long way toward leniency.”

  Commander Khuri stopped talking. She waited for Marley to respond. Marley looked frustrated. Trapped. Scared.

  I could recognize her feelings clearly.

  Marley sniffled.

  Captain Skyler took a deep breath. His next words were deliberate. “Listen to me, Marley. There are going to be consequences, no matter what. We’re giving you a chance to choose yours.”

  Now Commander Khuri spoke. She said softly, “We don’t want you, Marley. We want your mom and your dad. They’re the ones who ordered this. They’re the ones who put you in this position. This is a chance to get out. This is your last and only chance.”

  Marley’s voice was a squeak. She was weakening. “But they’re my family—”

  “Yes, they are. But so is the colony. Who do you want to trust?” She left the question hanging.

  “No, I—” Marley stopped. She looked like she wanted to run away. She hung her head, buried her face in her hands and disappeared inside herself.

  That’s when Jeremy touched my shoulder and whispered. “Okay, now it’s my turn.” He went into the room.

  On the displays, he walked over to Marley and knelt down before her. He put his arms around her and pulled her into an awkward hug. He whispered into her ear, but the microphones picked it up clearly. “Hey, sis. It’s me, your big bro. You’re not alone here. You got me. I’m here for you.”

  She pulled back and looked at him, confused. “Yeah? Really? Why should I trust you? You’re with them.”

  “Right now, I’m with you. You’re my sister. We don’t have to like each other, but we’re still family. Let me help you.”

  “No. I can’t believe you anything you say.”

  “We used to be friends once. That has to count for something.”

  She didn’t answer. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

  Jeremy bent lower to her. “You don’t have to trust me. You don’t have to believe anything I say. I just want to ask you one question. Then you can make up your own mind.”

  She pulled back to look at him. She was still suspicious. “What . . . ?”

  “Just this. Just one thing. Remember how Dad was willing to throw me away when it was convenient. Are you so sure that your mom and our dad won’t do the same to you one day?”

  “They won’t! They wouldn’t!” She said it angrily, but almost immediately, she stopped being angry. “Jeremy—? Wait. Do you know something?”

  Jeremy stood up. “You’ll have to make up your own mind. But I think you already know.” And then he turned and walked out, leaving Marley staring wide-eyed and scared.

  That was when she broke.

  Captain Skyler lowered his voice, almost to a whisper. “So, Marley . . . ? Do you want to tell us what really happened?”

  That’s when Marley Layton started crying.

  I almost felt sorry for her.

  Until she told the rest of the story. That was ugly.

  * * *

  —

  It was the hardest video I’d ever put together. There were several times I started to cry.

  But Jamie was there. And Jeremy too. And Charles and J’mee offered to help pick out music. And HARLIE made some good suggestions too.

  Commander Khuri kept me supplied with sandwiches and tea. Captain Skyler and Madam Coordinator both recorded statements, so did Jamie and Jake Brickman, and everyone else who was supposed to be on the lifter. This was so the whole colony could see that everyone had survived.

  The video also presented all the evidence of Councilor Layton’s conspiracy. Wherever appropriate, we cut in bits and pieces of Marley Layton’s testimony—how her mom had planned it, how her dad had put the plan into place, and how she had written the software to bring the lifter down. She said her parents made her do it. They threatened to estrange her. So she had to choose between writing the code or . . . being alone.

  That last part—none of us believed it, but it was useful to include because it put even more blame on Councilor-now-Coordinator Layton.

  We looked at the finished video three times—all of us, Jamie, Emily-Faith, Charles, J’mee, Captain Skyler, Madam Coordinator, Commander Khuri, Jake Brickman, and a few of the exiles who had deliberately not given their names. And HARLIE. He uploaded it directly into his memory.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think it makes the point.”

  “It’s not my best,” I said.

  “Doesn’t matter. It gets the job done. Sometimes that’s enough.”

  “So it’s a go?” Madam Coordinator looked around the room. “It has to be unanimous. Does anyone object?”

  Nobody objected.

  “Okay, I’ll take that as a go-vote.”

  And then nobody said anything. Not for a long minute.

  “Right,” said Madam Coordinator. “So how do we deliver it? How do we get it into the system?”

  There was silence around the table. I looked to Jamie, to Jeremy, to Charles and J’mee. Nobody said anything. None of us had any ideas.

  “That’s what I thought,” Captain Skyler finally said. “This is going to need something big. A public demonstration.” He looked around the table. “So, that’s it then. I’ll go. I’m the best choice.”

  “No, you’re not,” I said. They all looked at me, surprised that I had spoken so strongly. That I had contradicted the Captain was even more startling. Especially to me. “I should go.”

  “Kyle—!” That was Jamie.

  “It has to be someone they won’t arrest. That’s me. Coordinator Layton thinks I’m a freak. He doesn’t take me serious. He’ll just send me home. I’ll take HARLIE. Then when no one’s looking, we’ll plug into the grid somewhere and he’ll hack in—”

  Captain Skyler held up a hand to stop me. “All right, wait a minute, Kyle. You’re making this personal—”

  “It’s not personal. It’s the colony.”

  “Yes. But—” He took a breath. “Let’s look at this carefully, okay? This is all based on the assumption that HARLIE can hack the grid.” Captain Skyler turned to the monkey. “Can you, HARLIE?”

  I’m not sure how he did it, but the monkey managed to look insulted. “Does a black hole eat starslight? Does a cat lick its butt?”

  Jamie put his hand on my arm. “It’s a joke, Kyle. I’ll explain later.”

  I shook his hand off. “I know it’s a joke. I’m not—omigosh. I’m not.” I stopped in surprise.

  Jamie laughed. So did Captain Skyler. So did a couple other people. I even understood why they were laughing. Even in the middle of all this. So that was good.

  “Ahem,” said the monkey.

  “Go on,” said Captain Skyler.

  The monkey stepped to the center of the table. “There’s a transceiver on the executive level. It’s an orange box. Charles told everyone it was me and they believed it—at least until Marley Layton took it apart. But I know they didn’t smash it. They only shut down the channel, but they didn’t shut off the machine. It’s still pinging. Or it was when we left Winterland. If I could get close enough, I could reopen the channel. I could alert the Cascade immediately, that would solve one problem. As for hacking the grid—it sounds like it’s just a simple block, s
omething they can pretend is a system problem. I’ll need to get to a secured terminal. I can root the system and look at the processes they’re running. If necessary, I can rewrite binaries on the fly.”

  Charles nodded. “He broke Invisible Luna. They pissed him off. He opened all their files to public access.”

  Captain Skyler looked unhappy. “Yeah, okay. I see the problem. The exec-level is heavily guarded. There’s no way you’re getting in.”

  That’s when J’mee spoke up. “That’s why Charles and I have to go too!”

  “What—?! No!”

  “Yes, we have to! We’re the distraction!”

  For a moment, everybody was talking at once. Nobody could hear anybody. Until HARLIE whistled so loud that everybody had to stop.

  “Please listen to me,” said J’mee. “They won’t arrest us. They can’t. Not me and Charles. We’re the lost children, everybody’s looking for us. It’ll be very dramatic. They’ll have to turn us over to my daddy. We’ll say we got lost in the caves, but Kyle found us and brought us out. He’ll be the hero. They’ll take us to our apartments on the executive level. As soon as we can, when no one’s looking, we’ll get HARLIE to the transceiver and he can do his thing—”

  “Wait, wait, wait—” That was Captain Skyler. “No, just no. We can’t let you do this. It’s too dangerous.”

  “For you, yes,” interrupted Madam Coordinator. “But I think J’mee may be right. There’s one thing she can do that you can’t.” She looked to J’mee, smiling. “Do you want to explain it, dear? Or should I?”

  Captain Skyler looked to J’mee, as if he had a lot more to say about why this was a bad idea, but suddenly J’mee started screaming and sobbing, as loud as she could. “Help! Help! Somebody help us! Please! We were in the caves! Something chased us and we got lost! I don’t want to be here anymore, I want to go home! I want my daddy! Help! Please help! Don’t let it get us! I don’t like Hella! I want to go home!” J’mee stopped just as suddenly. She looked to Madam Coordinator, then to Captain Skyler, and her voice was normal again. “What do you think? Will that work?”

  Captain Skyler held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, okay. I’m convinced. I apologize. I’d forgotten that little girls have a super-power.”