“Captain Rostron said you were coming, ma’am. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“You don’t have a towel, do you?” I took off my cap and shook my head, scattering water everywhere.
She stepped back, looking confused. “No. No towel, ma’am. Maybe in one of the treatment rooms. You can change later. We’re having a crisis.”
“Yeah, me too. Is there a back way out of the hospital? Where did you leave shuttle six that brought you down here? I need to get back to the Hoog Schelde shipyard as quickly and quietly as possible. I need your help, and you and Sergeant Hurtado should come with me.”
“Um, no. We’re having a crisis. You have to fix the neonatal AI, ma’am.”
“Um, no,” I replied, imitating her voice. “If I fix that AI I’m going to die.”
“There’s a baby dying right now. He’s only a few days old and he has a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. It should have been fixed before birth, now he has respiratory failure.”
“There are no doctors here?”
“They depend on the machines for delicate surgery like this. They’ll try, but the baby probably won’t make it. Maybe two days if you fail, then we’ll lose him.”
“If I fail?”
“Yes, you. You’re good at this sort of thing, right?”
I could hear it in her voice, the desperation. Marine Corporal Kim, Certified Medical Technician, had bonded with the tiny new life struggling to breathe. The Corps had trained her to treat combat injuries efficiently and dispassionately, but not little babies. “Is there somewhere we can talk without anyone listening?”
“Sure.” I followed her into a small room outfitted as a chapel. “The Hospital Chaplin insists that no listening devices be installed in here. I think he has a jammer running too.” She sat down next to me. “I’ll bring you anything you need, ma’am. A towel, a blanket, fresh clothes, anything. Hell, I’ll blow warm air on the back of your neck if that will help get that AI working faster. Captain Coleridge was getting close before he was taken.”
“I’m going to get him back.” I dumped my bag upside down, looking for my spare Union uniform.
“Yes, ma’am. I know he loves you.”
“Turn around. I’m going to change.”
She turned and I stripped.
“Ma’am, why did you say that you’ll die if you fix the AI?”
“Colonel Gerbrandij plans to have me murdered after I fix the AIs and blame it on one of the factions. He thinks it will help him gain political power.”
“He told you that?”
“Not exactly. He’s taking me to dinner at 20:00 tomorrow to discuss alternatives to killing me, I think. You can turn back around now.”
“How can you sit across a table from him after that? I’d kick him in the balls and run like hell, assuming I didn’t just put one between his eyes.”
“Both of those are good options. I’d hoped to be back at Hoog Schelde tonight. I guess that’s not going to happen. Where can I access the AI?”
“Follow me, ma’am. Do you want to see little Evert first?”
“Why not? If I pull this off, he’s going to owe me one.”
Evert Machiel Kornhauser wasn’t doing well. His tiny body was working hard trying to get enough air. The tubes and machines attached to him were helping, but it looked like a losing battle. A woman was sleeping in a chair next to him, with her own set of tubes attached to her arm.
“His mom?” I whispered.
“Elisabeth. She’s not doing too well either. Lost a lot of blood giving birth to the little guy and she hasn’t left his side since. Her husband’s working one of the orbital mines. Lucky to have a job, the way she tells it.”
A medical attendant stopped by, nodded to us, and then checked the patch on Elisabeth’s arm that showed her pulse, blood oxygen and other stats. He did the same for Evert, not looking happy.
“OK. Take me to a terminal and let’s see what kind of mess Sam left for me.”
“He’s pretty good, ma’am. I was helping him, and like I said, we were close to getting it up.”
“Uh huh.” I sat at the terminal and tapped the overview. Red icons several layers deep greeted me. “Yuck.” I tapped the diagnostics tree and waited for the display to respond.
My pad chimed, and chimed again. “My messages finally went out. The rain must have passed on by. I can’t wait to find out what Captain Rostron’s reaction will be and what she’ll do with me.” I unrolled the pad next to the AI terminal.
“The Captain doesn’t know?”
“She does now.”
“Wow. I think this is the first time that I’ve known something before she knew it.”
I smiled, sympathizing while I tapped deeper into the red icons until I found green. “Finally. This looks better.” I dug deeper. “Do you and Sergeant Hurtado want to go out to dinner with the Colonel and me tomorrow night? I might need an armed escort.”
“My Sergeant is on night shift. He’s asleep right now and comes on duty at 19:00. I should stay here working with the medical staff, but it’s usually quiet in the evenings.”
“That’s OK. I don’t think he sees me as much more than a political tool. I hope. I should be safe for now.”
“I’ll go if you want me to. I’m not afraid to punch a KDF officer if he needs punching. I’ve punched officers before.”
I looked up from the display at her. There was a no-nonsense fierceness about her. I could imagine her doing it. “Captain Coleridge. Did he ever need punching?”
She made a face. “The Captain’s a gentleman. I don’t think he knows how to be anything else.”
I blushed, knowing how not true that was when he had me alone. “Thank you, Corporal. Let’s see if we can make some of these icons green tonight.”
At 16:35, my display pad dinged at me with an encrypted reply from Captain Rostron. Reviewed recording with Lieutenant Killdeer. Follow your existing orders. Will forward to sector command when our interplanetary comms are restored.
I showed the display to Corporal Kim.
“Looks like Esprit Orageux is having comms problems too. What were your orders?”
“Don’t die.”
“Those are good orders, ma’am. You should obey them.”
CHAPTER 18
PANNENKOEKEN
My Samuel is not the idiot Winona says he is, but he’s a biologist, not an engineer. The Captain never should have sent him to try to fix a FUBAR’d AI; that’s my job. And he is an idiot when it comes to risking his life for something or someone he thinks is important. That’s a big part of why I love him so much.
The core code inside a medical AI isn’t that complex. Once I had the foundation straightened out, the rest started to slowly fall into place, branch after branch of cascading green icons.
“Do you see how I’m doing this, Kim?”
“It looks like it’s healing itself.”
“Yep. Isolate each subroutine, fix the supervisor code if it’s pooched, usually just by reloading it from the onboard archive, but sometimes you have to be creative. Then let it diagnose and repair everything downstream. We’ll do that for each personality silo and then reintegrate everything back together. Maybe eighteen or twenty hours work if we’re lucky. This is easier than the FAC back at Costrano’s Redoubt. No weapons systems, no thrusters or power schemas…”
“We’re going to save the little guy, aren’t we.”
“We’re going to try. It’s not fixed yet.”
I was still working on it when Sergeant Hurtado joined us at 18:30, coffee cup in hand, looking well rested and ready to start his day. And I was still working at 19:30 when Corporal Kim brought me dinner.
At 20:30 I told them, “I’m going to take a quick shower to wake myself up a bit and then we can work a few more hours.”
“More coffee, ma’am?�
� Hurtado was on his fourth cup. It didn’t seem to be affecting him at all. He had the perfect calm, solid demeanor of a seasoned medic, as if nothing could ever bother him.
“No. Thanks anyway, Sergeant. I’ll be fine.” I was already shaking, and I didn’t want to admit it to him or Corporal Kim. The last thing I needed was more caffeine roaring though my body.
“Corporal, I know you’re off duty, but if you and Sergeant Hurtado want to work on the AI while I’m gone, that would be great.”
“Without you?”
“You can do it. You understand what I was doing. See what you can do with the next silo.”
“What if I break it?”
“It’s already broken, Corporal, you can’t hurt it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I held my watch up to the keypad outside Sam’s room and the door slid open. The room smelled like Sam. It didn’t stink; there was just the slight scent of him. I picked up his pillow and buried my face in it, nudging his emotions. He answered, and it was like a warm hug. I talked to him while I showered, even though he couldn’t hear me.
“When this is over, Sam, you and I are going somewhere far away, just the two of us.” I scrubbed my hair and let the warm water pound the suds from my head. “Maybe Winn and Kal too if they want to come. What was the name of that planet you surveyed, back when RuComm was still in the exploration and colonization business, and you were still a biologist?” I cleaned my face and under my arms. How had I gotten so sweaty and smelly? “Kempner something, I forget the number. Let’s go there and build a house next to the ocean.” I washed down my legs and between my toes, and then rinsed everything for a long time, not wanting to get out of the shower. “You told me how pretty it was, watching the moons set over the water and the sounds those bird-things make when they settle themselves in for the night. That’s where we’ll go, OK?” I shut the water off and sighed.
I dried myself, put on my spare RuComm white shirt, tan pants, and uniform jacket with my rank on it.
I worked until I fell asleep in my chair, finishing two more personality silos and two and a half cups of coffee along the way. Sergeant Hurtado had to guide me back to Sam’s room sometime after 25:30. I brushed my teeth, stripped off my clothes, and snuggled into the Sam-smelling bed. He and Merrimac haunted my dreams.
Merrimac’s plan to keep us together and alive was still on track, but I woke up crying anyway. Something in his plan for me was horrifying, something I had chosen willingly and now wanted to escape.
I was back at the medical AI console at 06:00, coffee and a hard roll in hand. Corporal Kim was already there, puzzling over error messages. She had a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast perched on her lap while she tapped icons.
“Can I get you something more to eat, ma’am? The cafeteria here isn’t too bad.”
I shook my head. “No, thank you. Maybe once I wake up.” She looked alert and beautiful. I’d been afraid to look at my face in the mirror and had combed my hair with my fingers as I walked out the door.
No Escape, Merrimac had told me in my dream. Be brave, Little Soul.
Little Evert Kornhauser was worse when Corporal Kim and I went to see him at 16:30. We had three silos rebuilding themselves and needed a break.
She touched his toes with one finger. “Monday’s more than half gone. Tomorrow afternoon they’re going to operate on him. The doctor said he’d be too weak to even attempt it if we wait any longer. Are we going to be ready before that?”
“Absolutely. Two more silos and then we’ll reintegrate.” I looked at my watch. “I’m going to be with Colonel Gerbrandij by then, but you can do it. Tell Doctor Franzen to be ready to operate tonight.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She moved her finger up to his hand and he grabbed her fingertip, holding on even though he was asleep. “Lieutenant? I’m sorry that I misjudged you.”
“Oh? How’s that?”
“When you first came on board, I thought I’d never seen anyone so out of place. I was wrong. You belong, you just look a little weird.”
“Thanks. Shall we get back to work?”
“I will, but not you. You’re going to go take a nap.”
“Is that an order, Corporal?” I grinned at her.
“Off the record. One woman to another. I can finish the neonatal AI; you’re a good teacher. You sleep and then freshen up. You need something from Colonel Gerbrandij, and I want Captain Coleridge back too. A man with the Colonel’s reputation, well…”
“I see. I appreciate your concern, but we have work to do.”
“I can get Sergeant Hurtado to help take you to your room if I need to.”
“I suspect you could handle me on your own.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
I didn’t like admitting it, but she was right. “I’ll rest if you promise to fetch me if you have the slightest problem.”
“Oh, I will. We have to save this little guy.”
It was raining when I woke up at 19:00, another thunderstorm moving across the city. I showered, changed clothes, and spent some time using the mirror. At 20:00, I was ready to meet Colonel Gerbrandij for dinner and whatever else I needed to do to rescue Sam.
I was staring at the sky when the Colonel’s car stopped next to the security barricade. The clouds and rain had moved on, but the warm humidity remained. I could hear little creatures calling to each other. Life loves warm, wet, and sticky. I let the Colonel wait for a moment, unable to tear my eyes away from the sky, almost unable to blink. Five of the asteroids that Kastanje was mining were visible, with a sixth just rising over the black outline of mountains to the east.
“Come along, Lieutenant, you can stargaze later. I’m hungry.” The man calling to me from the car was planning to end my life in a few days. I should have been terrified, but I wasn’t. He was smiling at me, amused.
“Yes, sir. Coming. Your night sky,” I pointed. “It’s kind of amazing.”
“Yes, it is,” he answered without looking up. “I used to lie on my back on warm nights like this and watch it for hours.”
“When you were little?”
“When I was younger.”
I got into the back of the car with him. There were two men in the front wearing gray uniforms. Colonel Gerbrandij apologized to me for their presence.
“A silly precaution. The Provisional Government thinks I need protection to walk around the city that I’ve known all my life. It’s easier to let them do their jobs though, than to argue.” He shrugged and reached over the seat to pat their shoulders. “A boring night for you boys, but you’ll have a fine dinner out of it, niet waar?”
“Yes, sir,” they answered in accented English.
Fourth Street Cafe, which had looked like nothing from the outside, looked more like nothing on the inside. Faded signs had hard copy images of the food, and generations of passing feet had scuffed and worn down the floor. What it lacked in ambiance it more than made up for in aroma. I knew instantly that I was going to love pannenkoeken, whatever they were. Colonel Gerbrandij led me past the front counter where patrons were placing their orders, and through a narrow doorway. We sat at a table near the rear emergency exit, at least that’s what I assumed nooduitgang meant when paired with a crude graphic of a person running. He pulled my chair out for me, forcing me to sit with my back to the front door. There were twenty tables, all but a few of them occupied. Our escorts sat on the other side of the restaurant near the entrance.
“What would you like in your pannenkoeken?”
I shrugged. “They look like pancakes and smell kind of like pizza. Ham and cheese?”
“A safe choice.”
“It will be the first safe thing I’ve done all week. Ham and cheese, definitely.”
He excused himself to place our order and I whispered softly, “Storm, are you back with me now that the rain is gone?”
&
nbsp; “Rain is not much of a problem for me. It is the overlapping jamming fields on the surface maintained by the various factions, the Provisional Government, and the KDF that I need to punch through. I’ve been able to track you most of the time and I listen to almost everything you say.”
“So, the Colonel is lying to me about the rain. Thanks, Storm. Wait. Does Captain Rostron listen to me too?”
“I provide her with summaries. She says that she’s heard that Kempner twenty-seven is beautiful. There’s a small colony there now and they’ve renamed it Chéng Nuò. Lieutenant Killdeer says you’re an idiot, but I think she still loves you. Also, Corporal Kim has completed repairs to the Medical AI and Evert Kornhauser is now in surgery.”
“When this is over, I’m going to learn Chinese, go to Chéng Nuò, and no one will ever listen to me again. Just you wait and see.”
The Colonel placed his hand on my shoulder as he squeezed past to reach his chair, making me jump. “Order is in. Were you talking to someone?”
“My ship. Status check.” I pulled my hair back and touched the comm pin.
“Ah. They are so small these days. Clipped to the top of your ear like that, it looks more like a pretty decoration than a way to communicate. Your ship listens to you all the time, doesn’t she?”
“She does.” I shrugged. “There’s always an AI listening. It’s part of being in the Aerospace Force.”
“Part of being in the Union, you mean. I’ve been to Earth a couple of times. Every public building, every street and park, even in my hotel. It’s what keeps you safe. Kastanje didn’t have that, the Separatists were able to grow unnoticed, and now the factions keep us in chaos for the same reason. It’s why I need your help.”
“The heightened surveillance is because of the reunification war. We’ll go back to the way it was once the wars are over. People don’t like being watched or listened to, even if it’s just an AI doing it.”
“Do you really believe that? Any of it? Your government watches everyone because they want to protect you. They’ll never stop doing it, and the people like it that way. Some people are hiding behind masks here now, making a show of wanting privacy, but that will fade quickly when they see bad actors being arrested, stability restored, and food on their tables.”
Wandering Storm Page 27