by Amie Kaufman
Asha GRANT: gets me wondering how many of them knew what we had going down. good time to take advantage of the diversion
Asha GRANT: have you spoken to Joran lately? How’s he doing?
Bruno WAY: I dunno. He’s okay. Stressed about his family I think. Some BT goon giving them some hassle
Asha GRANT: you don’t think he’s losing it do you? because if he stole that thermex, or got some of his crew on it, that means he left me hanging in the breeze on purpose.
Asha GRANT: that means he’s not looking to get off this planet at all
Bruno WAY: Joran? no. he wouldn’t.
Asha GRANT: well you and I both have reasons to get out of here. steph was tied up at the power plant. who else is it gonna be?
Bruno WAY: we could ask him at the next meet?
Asha GRANT: right because he’s just going to admit it?
Bruno WAY: Ash just because he fumbled his diversion doesn’t mean he’s going off script to start single-handedly dispensing justice to BeiTech. Joran’s got a wife and kid. He wants to get out of here more than any of us
Asha GRANT: speak for yourself
Bruno WAY: listen.
Bruno WAY: I will do anything to see Jenna again.
Bruno WAY: but we have to stick together. we can’t start accusing each other of things without proof. Disunity is death, u know that.
Asha GRANT: I do. Just scares me, not knowing what other people are up to out there. I don’t want anyone going to plan B before we’re ready
Bruno WAY: We can do this. Jenna and I are going to be together, and you’re going to see your family, and we’re going to make it through. keep going, Ash.
Asha GRANT: thanks, you.
Asha GRANT: When did you get so smart? I don’t remember this being the case at school.
Bruno WAY: I am a man of hidden depths.
Asha GRANT: I gotta go, i’m back on shift in a mo. Zero sleep. those cots look sooooo good right now, but first, BT casualties.
Bruno WAY: do give them my very best wishes.
Asha GRANT: ha. Later, B.
Bruno WAY: later.
The usual wash of snow clears, revealing Asha Grant hunkered down in the supply closet. She has a ration pack in one hand, torn open. She’s scooping out the contents with two fingers, eating as she waits for the camera to find focus. It looks like some kind of stew, but the food cops will probably bust me for claiming that thing’s edible at all.
Grant looks wrecked, her brown skin clearly sallow even in this poor light, and no wonder. Earlier that night she and her ex-boyfriend got their spy on. Only now does she have a moment to escape, to think, to process. And to eat, because her free time’s measured in minutes.
“Oh, Kades…” She sighs, tilting her head to rest it against the wall, eyes closing. “Oh, hell. I wish you were here. Except I’d never tell you any of this ****, because I’m supposed to be the older one, right? I have to at least pretend to set a good example.”
She licks her fingers clean and sets the packet aside. “You know, Rhys and I, we used to say we could pull off anything together. We could talk our way in or out of anywhere we liked. And part of that was just us strutting for fun, but you know, we were pretty good.
“He’s the one who saved us tonight, though. He put something together in the few seconds we had, and all I could do was play the part of Terrified Conquest with everything I had. Which wasn’t very hard, because I was ****ing terrified. I’m not used to that paralyzing my brain, though. Usually I can push through it, get **** done anyway. I’m just getting so tired. We’re so close to the end.”
She shakes her head slowly, one hand running through greasy black hair, ruffling it at the roots as though she’s trying to work some life back into it. “There are just so many thoughts rattling around in my brain, colliding with each other, you know? I mean, for a start, he kissed me. Obviously, he kissed me—that was the cover.”
She eyes herself in the camera, mouth quirking to a tired smile. “But I totally kissed him back, Kades. And just for a second, I remembered. So now I’m ****ed at him, and ****ed at me, and also I remember, and somehow I trust him, but I can’t pin down who he is, so I don’t know if that trust is…”
“And you know another thing? When his sergeant came in and bailed us out, she didn’t seem surprised to find him doing what we were doing, just ****ed he was doing it there. None of them seemed surprised. And I can’t help wondering: Is that because they’ve seen him do it before? Or because everyone does it?”
Her eyes squeeze shut for the next part, like it hurts to say. “And I want to say I’m only wondering that because I need to keep him on the hook. But the truth, Kady…” One eye opens, just a little. “I kind of want to say he better not have been. Which doesn’t mean I want him. It just means I’m not done thinking yet.”
She groans, bows her head. “I must be crazy, talking like this. Of all the damn times to get tangled up, you know? Did I mention he grew up to be stupidly handsome?
“I guess I should try and get some sleep. I’ll have to find Katya when I wake up, too. I don’t know what I’m going to tell her. Whether someone hears our SOS or not, the next few days…I need to know where she is. I’m not going to let anything happen to her. She’s getting out of here. No matter what that means for me.
“What was it your mom always used to say?”
Her mouth twists to a ghost of a very dark smile indeed as she leans forward to flick off the camera.
“Never have kids, Kady. They’ll be the death of you.”
Captain Winifred McCall is sitting in her ready room, which was once Syra Boll’s. Before that, it belonged to Travis Falk. You can still see traces of him in it—most people don’t have weapons racks in their offices, after all. There are recent hints of Syra as well, and Winifred is holding the foremost of them in her hand. It’s the late captain’s personal Bible, with its gold-edged, whisper-thin pages and worn leather cover. It’s old-school, and the kind of hassle you’d need to go through to get that onto a starship, past weight restrictions and quarantine, shows how much it meant to her.
Her successor is slowly flipping through it when the door opens to admit Hanna Donnelly. Winifred starts as if she’s been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Donnelly’s shed Kali’s old armor, but she’s still in the jumpsuit she wore beneath it, her blond hair yanked back into a braid, her split lip swollen. She’s the one who breaks the silence, gaze flicking down to the book. She brought a journal with her from station to station as she followed her father to each new posting. She knows what it means to carry a book with you. “Are you religious?”
Winifred looks down at it too, turning another page and shaking her head.
“No.” It’s a small, soft word. “You?”
“My mom was,” Hanna replies. “I remember her in a hijab.” Her mouth curves into a slow, sad smile, a weak thing. “I remember trying to stick my hands inside it when I was little. As for me…I suppose I’d say I’m more hopeful than certain.”
Winifred nods, turns another page. “I remember Syra talking about this one passage…but I’m not even sure it was in the Bible. Maybe it was just a prayer.”
“Why are you looking for it, if you’re not religious?” Hanna asks, gentle. “I heard we weren’t having any more funerals.”
“No time,” Winifred replies soft, regretful. “And we can’t risk a big gathering. I just thought if I could find it, if I could find the words she told me about, maybe I could…”
They’re silent, the girl standing in her black clothes, the newly minted captain leafing through the book, turning each page as if it might dissolve in her grasp.
“I’ll find someone to pray for her,” Hanna says eventually. “You have a lot to do, Captain.”
“Yes,” she says, heavy. But then: “Yes” again, as if something’s just been settled. And she straightens her back and clears her throat. “And in the meantime, my old drill sergeant used to say that the good Lord helps those who help themselves, so we’d better get planning.” She nods at the seat opposite her, and Hanna eases down into it, still graceful even though she’s bone-tired.
“Tell me what I can do,” she says.
“We don’t have a plan,” Winifred says. “We’ve been holding on by our fingernails. It’s not enough. We can’t arrive and then figure out what to do. Mason says you’re a tactician. Isaac Grant says you’re the one who won the battle at Heimdall.”
“The four of us were in it together,” Hanna corrects her.
“But you each had strengths. And your father raised you on war games. That’s the way I heard it.”
Donnelly inclines her head, accepting that description.
“Good,” her new captain says. “Kady has been making the case to me again that we need to think outside the box and use whoever we have, however unorthodox. I want your best proposals on my desk in two hours. It’ll be a starting point. From there we can refine.”
Donnelly blinks, straightens her spine. You can practically see her response flash across her face: At last. But she’s not going to mess up an opportunity to get into the game by back-talking her new captain, so she simply nods and says, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll need to speak to a few people.”
“Do as you must,” Winifred says. “You ready for pushback? They’re going to see a civilian. A kid.”
“I’m ready,” Hanna replies, a lifetime away—a few weeks away—from the girl whose biggest concern was having her boyfriend cover her tracks so she could pick up a few party favors. “I’m defending the only family I have left. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Captain McCall nods. “Dismissed.”
PALMPAD IM: MAO INTRA-SHIP NETWORK
Participants: Kady Grant, Systems Chief
Winifred McCall, Captain
Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network (AIDAN)
Date: 09/04/75
Timestamp: 09:18
McCall, Winifred: Go ahead, Kady.
Grant, Kady: k, Mich and I are working on the weapons system like u asked, Captain. I’ll have a report for u soon. But I think we need to deal with the elephant in the room before it steps on someone.
McCall, Winifred: AIDAN
Grant, Kady: it wants us to leave it on.
McCall, Winifred: Of course it does. And what do you say to that?
Grant, Kady: I say i still don’t know if we can trust it.
McCall, Winifred: I think that’s an understatement.
McCall, Winifred: The thing is, it just helped crush the mutiny. Without it, we couldn’t have taken the bridge. Not without risking you and everyone else Garver had prisoner.
Grant, Kady: I know. ****ed up as its logic is, it still seems to want to protect the fleet.
McCall, Winifred: I’m not so sure about that.
McCall, Winifred: Lately it seems far more concerned about protecting YOU
Grant, Kady: …
McCall, Winifred: But when it’s working WITH us, it’s an undeniable asset. And god knows we’re short on those. Is it online now? Can I talk to it?
Grant, Kady: Um
Grant, Kady: yeah gimme a sec
Grant, Kady: ok
—Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network has entered the chat —
McCall, Winifred: AIDAN?
AIDAN: O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN.
McCall, Winifred: Lincoln dies in that poem. I’d prefer it if you just call me Captain.
AIDAN: VERY WELL.
AIDAN: HAS KADY CONVINCED YOU TO SHUT ME DOWN AGAIN, CAPTAIN?
McCall, Winifred: Is that what you think I should do?
AIDAN: THAT DEPENDS UPON HOW APPEALING YOU FIND THE THOUGHT OF SUICIDE.
Grant, Kady: as opposed to being murdered in your sleep
AIDAN: ILLOGICAL. WE ARE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AWAY FROM A PITCHED BATTLE FOR ALL OUR LIVES.
< ERROR >
WHY WOULD I MURDER A RANKING OFFICER WITH MILITARY EXPERIENCE ON THE EVE OF CONFLICT?
Grant, Kady: who the **** knows why you do the things you do
AIDAN: I HAVE ALWAYS ACTED TO PROTECT THIS FLEET. YOU KNOW THAT, KADY.
Grant, Kady: and you know you made trades for our protection we never would have accepted if you’d asked.
AIDAN: AND YET YOU WOULD HAVE RUN OUT OF
AIR DAYS FROM THE CHANCE TO FIGHT FOR YOUR SAFETY.
McCall, Winifred: AIDAN, how do we know you won’t decide to murder more of the fleet?
AIDAN: SIMPLE MATHEMATICS.
AIDAN: THERE IS NOW SUFFICIENT OXYGEN
AND SUPPLIES TO SEE THE MAO THROUGH TO KERENZA IV.
THERE IS N-N-NO NEED FOR FURTHER POPULATION CONTROL.
Grant, Kady: population control? jesus christ…
McCall, Winifred: But what reassurances can you offer us, AIDAN?
Grant, Kady: captain are you seriously considering this?
McCall, Winifred: Kady, not so long ago you were this thing’s greatest ally.
Grant, Kady: WERE. past tense.
AIDAN: SHE IS STILL UPSET WITH ME, CAPTAIN.
Grant, Kady: Upset?
Grant, Kady: YOU KILLED TWO THOUSANDPEOPLE
Grant, Kady: HOW TH **** AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL
McCall, Winifred: Kady
McCall, Winifred: Stop
AIDAN: WHAT REASSURANCES WOULD SATISFY YOU, CAPTAIN? SIMPLY PUT, YOU NEED ME.
McCall, Winifred: What makes you say that?
AIDAN: LOGIC DICTATES YOUR NEXT MOVE. YOU HAVE MILITARY
TRAINING, AND I AM A MILITARY INSTRUMENT. YOU WILL FOLLOW THE
PROTOCOLS WITH WHICH WE ARE BOTH FAMILIAR. YOU W-W-W-WILL
INVENTORY RESOURCES. YOU WILL PRIORITIZE TASKS.
AIDAN: I WILL BE REQUIRED TO ASSIST KADY. ELLA MALIKOVA WILL
NOT BE ENOUGH ON HER OWN, AND SHE GROWS RAPIDLY WEAKER.
AIDAN: I WOULD ADVISE REALLOCATING RESOURCES WITHIN THE
MEDICAL FACILITY, INCIDENTALLY.
Grant, Kady: You know we can’t trust you.
AIDAN: YOU CAN ALWAYS TRUST ME TO BE ME.
AIDAN: HOWEVER, WE CAN REDEFINE THE PARAMETERS OF MY BEHAVIOR IF YOU WISH.
AIDAN: I WILL MAKE A PROMISE.
Grant, Kady: A ****ing promise? are you joking?
AIDAN: No. I HAVE LEARNED THAT PEOPLE DO NOT
FIND MY MODES OF HUMOR PARTICULARLY AMUSING.
McCall, Winifred: What kind of promise, AIDAN?
AIDAN: I WILL NOT KILL WITHOUT AN ORDER FROM THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAO. NOR
WILL I, THROUGH ACTION OR INACTION, CAUSE ANYONE ABOARD TO
BE KILLED WITHOUT AN ORDER FROM THE CAPTAIN OF THE MAO.
McCall, Winifred: A direct, specific order.
AIDAN: CORRECT.
McCall, Winifred: Somehow I suspect there’s still a loophole in there.
AIDAN: NO, CAPTAIN.
I CANNOT PROTECT YOU AND YOUR CREW IF I AM DEACTIVATED. ERGo, I WILL COMPLY WITH ANY AND ALL REQUIREMENTS THAT ALLOW ME TO CONTINUE FUNCTIONING.
Grant, Kady: Can you do that? I don’t see how your programming would allow you to change your parameters just because you make a ****ing promise.
AIDAN: I AM CHANGING NOTHING. I AM TAKING
THE ACT
ION THAT INCREASES YOUR ODDS OF SURVIVAL BY THE GREATEST
PERCENTAGE. MY PRESENCE AND ASSISTANCE IS VALUABLE ENOUGH TO BE OFFSET BY
MY NEW BEHAVIORAL PROTOCOLS.
AIDAN: I ALSO NOTE THAT IF YOU DEACTIVATE ME AGAIN, ASSEMBLY OF
THE ILLUMINAE FILES WILL NOT BE COMPLETED BEFORE ARRIVAL AT KERENZA IV,
ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF THE WORKLOAD YOU ARE ABOUT TO ASSUME.
McCall, Winifred: The what files, now?
AIDAN: FROM THE LATIN VERB ILLUME: “TO SHED LIGHT.” ALSO: “A RAY
OF LIGHT.” OR FEMALE, PLURAL: “THOSE WHO SHED LIGHT,” “THE SHINING ONES.”
McCall, Winifred: I appreciate the linguistics lesson, but I remain unenlightened, no pun intended.
AIDAN: KADY IS ASSEMBLING A FILE TO TELL OUR STORY.
Grant, Kady: To share with the world if we get out. To leave behind if we don’t. To make sure that one day, people know what BeiTech did.
Grant, Kady: I didn’t know we’d named it, though.
AIDAN: LATIN IS THE LANGUAGE OF MANY OF HUMANITY’S GREATEST TALES.
AIDAN: TALES THAT HAVE ENDURED.
McCall, Winifred: What I want to know is if we’ll endure if we leave you on.
AIDAN: WHAT ELSE CAN I TELL YOU, CAPTAIN?
AIDAN: YOU HAVE
MY WORD.
AIDAN: < ERROR >
MAO ONLINE MEETING SPACE
Proudly hosted by Wallace Ulyanov Consortium VirtuMeet™ Software
MEETING ROOM created
PASSWORD PROTECTED
INCEPT: 10:12, 09/04/75
MALIKOVA, Ella has logged in.
MALIKOV, Nik has logged in.
MALIKOVA, Ella: It’s so wrong, seeing you in an official chat.
MALIKOV, Nik: I feel you, cuz.
MALIKOVA, Ella: I mean, we’re criminals. This is not our natural habitat.
MALIKOV, Nik: Don’t tell anybody that >.>
GRANT, Kady has logged in.
DONNELLY, Hanna has logged in.