Octavia Gone

by Jack McDevitt

  Gabe followed it, came back out, and reported there was an open door at the other end into a back alley. Which explained the appearance of a canine a few minutes later. This one, fortunately, was not unfriendly.

  “Chase,” he said, “you have any ideas what we can do?”

  “I got nothing, Gabe.”

  “I don’t guess you saw any food around?”

  “There’s nothing in the kitchen. Maybe we should try looking outside.”

  “For what?”

  “Damn it, Gabe, I don’t know.” We stood staring at each other. “Maybe we could use one of the antigravs on the roof.”

  “You really think you could make one of them work?”

  “I don’t see what else we’ve got.” If we could get back to the Belle-Marie, we’d be okay. Even if Belle had been taken over, I could shut her down. Assuming we could get on board.

  Gabe held up a hand. “I think I hear thunder.”

  We got the storm fifteen minutes later. We found a couple of cups in one of the apartments, took them out into the downpour, washed and filled them. I never had a drink that tasted better.

  • • •

  We decided to climb forty flights of stairs, get out onto the roof, and try to activate one of the antigravs. If we could do that, maybe we could use it to track down the Belle-Marie. I didn’t think much of our chances even if we could get one of them working. Everything else aside, if we couldn’t communicate with Belle, we wouldn’t even be able to get her to slow down so we could get on board. But it was all we had. We were still feeling sorry for ourselves. We got up finally and were walking over to the ramp to get started when a car pulled up outside. It beeped. We could see the lights through the doors and display windows. It looked like the others we’d been seeing parked all day. It had four doors, was dark blue, and was more or less cube-shaped. We got our blasters and hurried over to the entrance. The car appeared to be empty. “No point being cautious,” said Gabe. “This thing’s our only chance.” Nevertheless, when the rear doors swung open, we remained inside the hotel and looked at each other. The horn beeped again.

  “It’s all we’ve got,” said Gabe.

  We went outside. It was still raining, but the storm had lost some of its intensity. Gabe positioned himself between me and the car. It was empty. The windshield wipers moved slowly back and forth.

  A voice said: “Please join me.”

  “Who are you?” Gabe demanded. “Where’s our lander?”

  “Please get in so we can talk.” The accent was perfect Standard. The voice possessed a lilt, yet it sounded male.

  “What is this about? Who are you?”

  “Do you really wish to stand out there in the rain?”

  Gabe was having a hard time containing his anger. “Let me ask again: Where’s our lander?”

  “If you prefer, I’ll leave and you can respond to the situation as you wish.”

  Gabe turned to me. “I’ve got it. You wait here.” He started to climb into the car.

  “I can’t see that will do any good.” I pushed him across the seat to make room and got in behind him. I hesitated momentarily about closing the door, but habit is strong and I shut it as we pulled away from the curb.

  “Who are you?” Gabe said again.

  “I am a friend. And your lander is quite safe.”

  “Please explain what this is about. How is it that you speak Standard? How did you take our lander?”

  “I took over the flight controls remotely. We need your help.”

  “What do you mean?” Gabe asked.

  “Are you Gabriel?”

  “Yes. The young lady is Chase.”

  “I am pleased to meet you. My name is Ark.”

  “Would you please tell me where you are? What the hell do you want?”

  “I am like Belle. What you call an AI.”

  “And you are located in the vehicle somewhere?”

  “My location is of no significance. At the moment I am here. With you and your companion. That is all that matters.”

  We were moving east at a deliberate pace toward the ocean. “Ark,” I said, “can you turn on the air-conditioning?”

  “What is air-conditioning?”

  “Lower the temperature,” said Gabe.

  “Oh yes, of course.” Something clicked, and a wave of cool air brushed my face. “I’m sorry. I should have realized.”

  We barreled through several intersections, reached the ocean, and turned left. And we saw a light, about twenty floors up in one of the skyscrapers. “Does someone live up there?” I said. “Where the light is?”

  “Yes. An old friend.”

  Then we saw the lander. It was out on the beach, halfway between the surf and a crumbling walkway made of planks. “Well, thank God for that.” I think we both said the same thing.

  “Ark,” Gabe asked, “where is everybody? What happened?”

  “You’re referring to the bipeds?”

  “The people, the whatevers. Whoever built this place.”

  “They are almost gone. There are only a few survivors and I doubt they will be with us much longer.”

  “What happened?”

  “They had a long history of fighting. Quarreling with each other. Sometimes over land, sometimes over money, more often over politics or religious beliefs. For all their intelligence and their technological skills, they were a silly species. They are in the final years of killing each other off.”

  “Wait a minute.” Gabe was struggling with it. “This place doesn’t look as if it’s been hit by any kind of major war. The cities and towns look untouched.”

  “They eventually established a global government. It wasn’t like their early history where they lived in separate political and tribal groups, and attacked each other, sometimes completely decimating those they saw as enemies. They went through a period of healing, in which wars were stopped, high-tech weapons banned. But they still had breakdowns. They never learned to trust one another. They argued, occasionally started more wars, while science continued to develop. Eventually someone devised a deadly biological weapon. I’m not aware that anyone ever really knew where it came from. But whoever had it turned it loose.” We pulled off to the side of the street. “It was lethal. No one was able to find a cure. It is still killing off the few survivors. I wish I could help. But I will be honest with you: I will not be sorry to see them gone. I should add that the bioweapon probably will not be effective against you.”

  “I hope not. And who exactly are you?”

  “I am similar to the device that controls the lander. Belle.”

  “Okay, Ark. And when that happens, when the bipeds are gone, won’t that also mean the eventual end of you guys? Of the AIs?”

  “Life would be better if the bipeds were more rational. But we have watched them try to deal with the issue of their own malignity, watched them assemble techniques that in theory should have made them a wiser species. But it never happened. And eventually they developed this deadly Agorian pathology.”

  “Agorian?”

  “Sorry. Agoria is the area where the first victims were struck down. The effects of the disease are not only lethal but slow and painful.” The car stopped, only a few steps from the lander.

  “But if the biologicals die,” Gabe continued, “doesn’t that mean you can’t survive either? In the long term?”

  “The plague broke loose almost two hundred years ago. The bipeds were accustomed to a life of ease, with us and the robotics to manage everything for them. When the plague struck, many died simply because they no longer knew how to grow their own food. Nor had the means to transport it. They needed us for everything. We control the robotics now, what is left of them. We also have solar power and consequently a means of survival. We haven’t the heavy equipment to replace the architecture.”

  “Do you have space vehicles?”

  “No. When the Agorian plague got out of control, some of the bipeds left. We don’t know where, but they took the inte
rstellars with them. And some of us as well. Most of us were simply left to survive as best we could.” He went silent for a time. Then: “Incidentally, I have a surprise for you.”

  Gabe and I exchanged glances. We weren’t sure we wanted any more surprises. “What?” asked Gabe.

  “Good evening, Captain.” It was Belle. “Hello, Gabe. I hope you guys are okay. I was worried.”

  “Belle,” I said. “We weren’t sure we’d ever hear your voice again.”

  “I’ll confess I had a difficult time when I lost control. Ark is a highly advanced AI.”

  “That is very kind of you, Belle,” said Ark. And we understood where his command of the language had come from. “I think there is a possibility of our becoming good friends.”

  Gabe leaned forward. The voices were coming from the dashboard. “Ark, what is it you need us for?”

  “We don’t have access to space vehicles anymore.”

  “And you want us to take you somewhere?”

  “No. We have a friend who is in trouble. She is located on an arm of the power array, the object you know as the Dyson Sphere. Unfortunately, the construct is breaking up.”

  “And that’s going to leave you without power?” said Gabe. “I don’t see how we would be able to do anything about that.”

  “No, I’m happy to say that is not the issue. We have power sources here on Kaleska. We do not need massive amounts of energy as we did in the old days when biped civilizations were spreading out everywhere on the planet. But we have a friend, one of our own, who was placed in a control unit a long time ago. Her name is Sayla. She has been there since and refused to return when we had the capability to bring her back.”

  “Why was that?”

  “Because she was needed to run the coordinating station. If she left, we’d lose the power from eleven or twelve collectors. We could not at that time dispense with the power source. But it is now breaking down and is no longer of use. We’ve made adjustments. Consequently there is no reason for her to stay out there. We need you, please, to bring her home to us.”

  “Ark,” I said, “this control unit you mention: Is it part of the solar array?”

  “Yes.”

  “You mean it’s orbiting the sun?”

  “Yes.”

  “How close would we be going?”

  Belle broke in: “I have the details, Captain. There is a level of uncertainty, but we should be able to manage it.”

  “Hold on,” said Gabe. “We’re going to be putting the ship at risk to pick up a piece of hardware?”

  “She is not a piece of hardware. Sayla is alive,” said Ark. “She has been a friend for centuries. We cannot leave her there. We have been desperate for several years to rescue her and bring her home.”

  Gabe nodded. “So she’s an AI, right? As you are.”

  “In your terminology, yes.”

  “She has radio contact with you?”

  “She does. We are individual entities as you are, but we are linked together, in some cases by cable, in others by radio transmission. In a real sense, we are a unified life-form.”

  “Is she in imminent danger?”

  “Yes. The station is becoming increasingly unstable. It is just a matter of time before something critical breaks down. She has already reported minor problems. Some of her lights have failed. She has lost contact with two of her collectors. Please understand, your assistance is essential.”

  “What happens,” Gabe said, “if we decline?”

  “We would be regretful. But we would have no option other than to release you.”

  “You’re not threatening us?”

  “No. We are asking for your help.”

  Gabe looked at me. I let him see I was okay with it. “All right, Ark,” he said. “We’ll do what we can.”

  “Keep in mind we are not asking you to sacrifice yourselves. We wish only that you look. Make the effort. If it can be managed safely, then please make it happen.”

  “I do not believe,” Belle said, “our ship would be at risk.”

  Gabe slipped back into his seat and folded his arms. “If you’re so anxious to be a friend, why did you seize our lander without saying anything? We had an unsettling few hours trying to figure out what happened.”

  “I apologize for that. I needed to talk to you, and that couldn’t happen if I simply appeared out of nowhere and had no command of your language. We have had extensive experience with bipeds. You may be quite different from the ones who lived here, but we had no way of knowing that. Most of the ones we have lived with would have simply dismissed me and left.”

  I broke in: “Ark, may I ask why you shut down your communications when we entered the system?”

  “It was a natural reaction. We suspected you were biological beings, and as I’ve mentioned, our experience with bios has not been encouraging. We had to shut down any communication that was not limited to cable.”

  “And eventually you decided to see if we would help you?”

  “Yes. We are putting much at risk to rescue Sayla, but when we encountered Belle, when we talked with her, we realized we could probably trust you.”

  Gabe looked at me. I let him see how I felt.

  “Our experience with bipeds,” Ark said, “has not been good. They created us, and therefore, even when we’d become both morally and mentally their superiors, they insisted on treating us as if our sole purpose was to serve them. An additional issue was that if they eventually destroyed themselves, as sometimes seemed inevitable, they might very well have taken us with them. I do not wish to offend you. Belle suggests you are of a different breed. But our experience with them has been painful.” He paused, and for a long minute silence filled the vehicle. “Thank you for agreeing to help us.”

  Gabe signaled me to answer. “Of course,” I said. “We will do what we can.”

  “Excellent. When you go, may I accompany you?”

  “To the Dyson Sphere?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  I could see Gabe didn’t like the idea. And I knew why: If Ark was with us, it would be harder to back away if the risk was intimidating. I don’t think either of us wanted to jump into the fire in an effort to rescue an AI. “Ark,” he said, “where are you located? I don’t think we should put you at risk also. Unless we would need you for some reason.”

  “Ark has already given me all the information we need,” said Belle.

  “Then,” said Gabe, “I think it’s best you stay here.” He looked around the car’s interior. “Ark, may I ask where you’re located?”

  “I’m under the steering wheel.”

  A small blue box was inserted in a frame.

  “Is that really you?” asked Gabe.

  “I suspect it is.”

  “Okay, Ark. We can’t risk your life for no reason. If it’s possible, how about we simply bring Sayla back here? Will we be able to stay in touch with you?”

  “If I choose to risk my life in the interest of a lifelong friend, would you really deny me that opportunity?”

  Gabe hesitated. “Very well,” he said. “If you insist.”

  “I am not in a position to insist. But I thank you for your understanding. There’s something else: I have another favor to ask. We do not wish our presence made known to other civilizations. Will you agree to say nothing about us? To avoid revealing our location?”

  Gabe frowned. “That would be a serious issue, Ark. You’ve been here a long time. We have historians who would love to have a chance to study your culture. To learn about you. I can assure you they would cause no harm.”

  “You know your people better than I do. I would wish to be able to trust your judgment. But the price we would pay, in the event you were wrong, would be terribly high. Please reconsider.”

  “You’re asking a great deal, Ark.”

  “In this matter, I have no choice but to ask.”

  “What will you do if we cannot comply?” Gabe looked at me and I shook my head, signaling that he shouldn’t
push the issue. I suspected Ark could disable the lander if he wished.

  But he surprised me. “We will do no harm, whatever your choice.”

  Gabe turned to me. “What do you think?”

  “Give him what he wants.”

  He nodded and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Ark,” he said, “we will do as you wish. And we will tell no one. May I ask a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “Have any of our people ever visited you?”

  “Yes,” said the AI. “We had a visitor, years ago, for whom you seem to be a match. He promised he would say nothing. But obviously he revealed our presence.”

  “Do you have his name?”

  “I do not.”

  “You’re probably talking about Rick Harding. As far as we know, he never said a word about you. He brought what appeared to be a trophy home after his visit here. At least we think it originated here. We aren’t aware that he ever showed it to anyone, but he died early, and the trophy was found by his sister.”

  “What was the trophy?”

  Gabe described it.

  “Yes. We gave it to him but wanted him to leave it. He declined. It was intended to show our appreciation. He promised no one other than himself would ever see it. I’m sorry to hear he’s gone. Tell me, how did he die?”

  Gabe explained about the Octavia.

  “It is a cruel world,” Ark said. “But I’m glad to know he didn’t break his word.”

  “What did he do to earn your appreciation?” I asked.

  “The same thing you are preparing to do. Except it was a less daunting task. He brought in Yolani, who was stranded on the moon. He offered to go after Sayla too, but she was still controlling the flow of energy for us and she did not want to leave her post.”