by B. V. Larson
Our ring orbited a frozen, moonless planet the size of Venus. It was a ball of ice coated with frozen volatiles. The surface was riddled with cracks and cryovolcanoes, which wasn’t surprising with so many suns tugging at it. Personally, I couldn’t have asked for a better position. We were well away from the system’s inhabitants. We were in no shape to either fight or run, and we desperately needed time to repair and refit.
Stalker remained ahead of us and decelerated on the same trajectory apparently with a similar idea about recovering the Raptors. As I saw no alien ships anywhere nearby or any other reaction from the inhabitants of the system, I decided not to worry too much about where we were headed or what our formation was. We should have hours, or more probably days, before we were treated to any conceivable encounter.
“Where’s Greyhound?” I asked Valiant.
“Searching. No transponder signal found.”
“Patch me though the ansible and hail Marvin.”
“Captain Marvin here,” he answered immediately. “Welcome to the Marvin system.”
“This isn’t the Marvin system, Marvin.”
“I was given to understand that the discoverer of a system got to name it.”
“That’s an unofficial convention. Naming it ‘Marvin’ would be horribly confusing, and besides, the officer in command of the exploratory mission gets the final say. I’d be happy to entertain any more sensible suggestions.”
“I thought you might object, therefore I have a list of alternatives.”
“How many alternatives?”
“One million, nine hundred seventy—”
I rolled my eyes. “Just give me to top ten, all right?”
“Transmitting.” A list of ten names appeared on one of the auxiliary screens.
“Hmm. I like number three: Trinity, for the three central stars and the three civilizations you identified. You happy with that?”
“I am satisfied with the name, Captain Riggs. I wish it to be clear in the footnotes of your log which officer and ship officially first reached Trinity.”
“All right, fine,” I said. “Have you found any rings?”
“Yes.”
Silence. “Well?”
“That term is vague in your current usage. Am I to assume you meant to form some kind of an interrogative?”
“Marvin, why are you dodging? Aren’t you happy with your captaincy and having your own ship as well as having named this fine star system? You’ve been a valuable member of my fleet and crew.”
“I apologize if I seem distracted,” Marvin said a moment later. “Greyhound is annoying. I’m constantly forced to convince the brainbox you installed to follow the particulars of my instructions.”
That puzzled me. “Why? It should recognize you as command personnel.”
“It remembers being your suit. It likes you better.”
That made me roar with laughter and the rest of the bridge crew did the same. “Now you’re a real captain, Marvin, with a less-than-cooperative subordinate. Deal with it, and not by subsuming or turning it off. That brain is Star Force property and I want it to run your ship.”
“Understood. Marvin out—”
“Hold on, not so fast,” I said quickly. I realized then that he’d distracted me by talking about his distraction. Was that all bullshit? If it was, he was getting better at it. The very idea was alarming. “Marvin, do not close this channel until I do it first. I need to know of any rings you’ve found. Also, before you sign off, I want you back here. We have a ton of repairs to do and I need your help.”
“Approximately four hundred seventy-three tons of repairs are required according to my current estimates.”
“Whatever. Just get back here.”
Marvin didn’t acknowledge, but shortly thereafter Greyhound showed up on the holotank on a lazy, curving course that would see him arriving in twelve hours or so. I didn’t push him further. We had plenty to do.
At length I got him to send a sensor data update from Greyhound. In the holotank, three ring icons appeared. One orbited the brown dwarf, and the two others sat near the homeworlds of the other technological races. It appeared that each culture had possession of a ring. I wondered if all of them, or any of them for that matter, were actually native to the system or if they had arrived here and colonized.
Finally satisfied with his cooperation, I closed the channel.
Both Nano ships came through our ring sometime later followed by the two drifting Raptors in their suits. I left them for Stalker to recover, figuring they would be happier with their own people. I ordered Valiant to brake harder to kill our velocity, which was sending us deeper into the Trinity system.
“Should we land on the planet closest to the ring?” I asked my officers on the bridge. “Let’s call it Trinity 22—or should we look for some asteroids to mine?”
Bradley, Adrienne and Hansen considered my question.
“I don’t like the look of those cryovolcanoes,” Hansen said. “The surface is very unstable except near the poles, and it’s mostly volatiles anyway. Any metals or silicates will have sunk beneath the frozen methane and stuff. Hard to get to.”
“I agree,” Adrienne said. “We do need some water ice from somewhere, but metals to replace what we dumped are much more important.”
“Fine. Someone find some asteroids.” I turned to the holotank to look. Valiant obligingly highlighted a belt between the main stars and the brown dwarf system, which was home of one of the technological civilizations.
“Hansen, set us an easy course for a clump of stuff with a good mix, but well away from any of these spacegoing races. I want to delay direct contact as long as possible.”
“Sure, Skipper.”
Once my tiny fleet was on its way, I felt relaxed enough to order rotating rest periods. Everyone had been run ragged lately, and I had a feeling once we started interacting with the people of this system we’d need to be at our sharpest. I got some sleep myself, though it only barely overlapped with Adrienne’s time off.
During that brief window, Adrienne reassured me in an age-old way that I was still her one and only, which boosted my morale to no end. Afterward, still lying in my arms, she brought up Cornelius. “That woman did an amazing job. The evidence checked out, so as far as I’m concerned you’re off the hook.”
“That’s fantastic!” I said, kissing her. She responded nicely.
But she pulled away after a minute or so of what she might term “snogging” and looked at me with a frown. “How many times do you think Cornelius had to watch that tape in order to analyze it?”
“Uh…I don’t know. Once or twice, I’m sure.”
“More like thirty or forty complete viewings. I can just imagine her smirking and drinking while she—”
Shaking my head, I laughed. “Now you’re jealous of Cornelius? I have to cry foul.”
“It just seems odd that she would spend so much time looking at that tape and working on it.”
“She wanted to help us out. Think about it. If she had underhanded plans she wouldn’t have given it to us to get us back together.”
Her face brightened. “I guess you’re right.”
I kissed her once more, sensing an opportunity. Things proceeded in a natural fashion, with me going for broke by the end. Afterward, I left her sleeping on the bunk.
Refreshed and back on the bridge, I noticed Greyhound approaching. I opened a channel. “Marvin, come over here as soon as you can for a private captains’ conference.” I figured that would pique his curiosity and get him moving faster.
I met him alone in the assault airlock. It appeared he had returned to normal size. “Marvin, you’ve grown up again.”
“I slowly regained my usual dimensions as I moved farther from the golden planet.”
“No wonder you were eager to get some distance.”
“Is this the captain’s conference you spoke of?”
“Just pleasantries, Marvin. Remember when I said you were my special inve
stigator?”
“I remember. However, considering all that’s happened I’ve been given very little opportunity to pursue—”
“I know that, Marvin. No problem. But now that you’re back, I need you to secretly perform cyber-forensics on Valiant’s AI systems in the guise of repairing the ship. No one but you and I will know about this, and you’re not to install backdoors or any other software without my express authorization, do you understand?”
“Are you certain? Remember, you wished you had some backdoors when Sokolov usurped your authority.”
“I’m sure. No backdoors.” I thought it extremely unlikely some new megalomaniac would slip past me.
“I understand, Captain Riggs.” Marvin’s tentacles and cameras increased their usual level of animation. “When can I get started?”
“Right away.”
“I will need the core command codes.” His body parts ceased their motion, which for Marvin equated to “holding his breath” in anticipation of an important decision.
“No problem,” I said, and passed him the codes on a data stick. “Wipe that when you’ve—”
“Transferred and wiped,” he said, handing it back to me after briefly sticking it into a socket on his torso. “Was there any specific information you are trying to ascertain, or shall I merely ensure that Valiant’s systems are in order?”
“I want to know who tampered with my suit telemetry, who created the fake sex vid, and how those things were done. After that, compile a complete report on any recorded activity that violates Star Force regs or any of my orders—including anything you did, Marvin.”
“I believe I’ll have to stand on my rights against self-incrimination under Earth’s constitution.”
I smiled a catlike grin. “I checked my law books, Marvin, so listen carefully. I’m giving you complete immunity for all acts from when you came aboard Valiant until this moment, so you can’t be prosecuted for anything you did during that time. That means it’s impossible to incriminate yourself, which in turn means you’re not legally authorized to withhold any of your findings. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Captain Riggs,” he said, seemingly disappointed.
“Then get to work, Special Investigator Ensign Marvin.”
“In light of the immunity you have just granted me, I would like to make an immediate confession, just in case the immunity is later withdrawn.”
My eyebrows went up. “What confession?”
“I have been collecting samples of all crew DNA.”
“Really? For what purpose?” I began a slow pacing as my worry factor increased.
“Research. Also, in case you all were to tragically die, I might be able to clone you and recreate a colony of humans.”
I laughed uneasily. “With you as the Great God Marvin?”
“That seems a somewhat overblown title. Perhaps the word ‘Great’ is unnecessary.”
I thought about what he’d just admitted. “Are all the humans aboard today…human?”
“Yes, Captain Riggs, though I did discover some interesting facts.”
“Interesting? In what way?”
“For example, Miss Turnbull shows that one of her great-grandmothers must have been of the Finnish Saami people, which is where her blonde hair and peculiarly even skin tone come from. In the case of Hansen—”
“Thanks, Marvin, but is there anything that I would actually care about?”
“You don’t care about the DNA of your sexual partner? I can model what your offspring might look like.”
“I don’t care about that unless we decide to procreate. To have children, I mean.” The longer I talked to Marvin, the more I found myself speaking like him. “Anything with any bearing on ship operations, or who tried to kill me?”
“Sakura has undergone Microbe treatments.”
I turned to face him, stopping my pacing. “Really? That’s interesting. Who gets Microbed these days?”
“Other than the child of Kyle Riggs?”
“Yes, other than me.”
“Certain specialized workers and engineers who must operate within high-pressure atmospheres or deep under oceans. Also, some who must spend long periods of time visiting alien worlds.”
“And has Sakura had assignments like that?”
“I do not have access to her personnel file.”
I chewed my lip in thought. “Thanks, Marvin. I’ll check myself. Any more revelations?”
“Do you remember when I acted as translator for communications between Captain Turnbull and the Pandas?”
“Of course.”
“I might have…mistranslated a few key terms. Purely out of necessity, of course.”
I placed my hands on my armored hips. “Really?”
“Yes. I may have distorted the part where the Pandas made clear they would eat the diplomatic delegation.”
-36-
I gasped and spun around within the large assault airlock, waving my hands over my head in disbelief. Marvin’s implication that he’d set our officers up to be killed flabbergasted me.
“Holy shit! You mean you knew the Pandas would eat Captain Turnbull and the officers?”
“A high probability existed.”
If I hadn’t had a battlesuit on I’d have been yanking on my hair—or maybe Marvin’s tentacles. “What in the hell possessed you not to point that out at the time, Marvin?”
“I calculated that with Captain Turnbull in charge, Star Force personnel had a significantly reduced probability of survival to return to Earth—including myself.”
The enormity of what he was saying struck me like a fist in the gut. “Let me get this straight, you little weasel. You let Captain Turnbull and the others get eaten in order to improve our chances to get home?”
“The term ‘weasel’ is not particularly apt in this instance.”
“Oh yes it is. Explain yourself.”
“Captain Turnbull was a liability. Replacing him with you as captain yielded the highest probability of survival. However, to do so, the more senior officers also had to be displaced.”
“Displaced!” I shrieked. “Displaced? They were murdered and eaten, Marvin. Eaten!”
“Would you rather they were merely murdered?”
“I’d rather none of them had died.”
“I apologize, but Star Force regulations regarding the chain of command are very clear. I had no other option. For you to be in charge, the others had to be removed. Their behavioral patterns were anything but confidence-inducing. I doubt we would have made it out of the first system alive if Turnbull and his team had been in charge.”
Walking over to a bulkhead, I pounded on it with my armored fist, leaving significant dents. I wasn’t sure what to do. I’d given him immunity—but I’d done so without expecting him to admit anything so horrid. As well, in the back of my mind, I wondered if he had been right. Playing back the situation as I remembered it, Turnbull almost certainly would have made errors in judgment, many of which could be fatal to the entire crew. But, even so, how could that justify Marvin’s action? Letting people be murdered because they would probably fail in the future? That wasn’t a defense.
“Couldn’t you have just…” I began. “I don’t know…manufactured some evidence against Captain Turnbull and the rest? Maybe Valiant could have been convinced to remove them for cause.”
Even as I said it I realized that wouldn’t have worked. Valiant’s brainbox wasn’t the only one that needed fooling. There was the whole crew. A hearing would have been necessary, maybe a court martial…no, horrible as it was, I could see Marvin’s rationale.
From a robot’s point of view it all made sense. All you had to do was place no special value on human life.
I took several deep breaths and pushed through my indignation. “All right, Marvin. I did give you immunity, so I can’t hold that against you. Is there anything else you would like to confess?”
“Not at this time, Captain Riggs.”
“Excellent, t
hat’s so encouraging. Well, when you do feel the urge to come clean, just put it in your secret report, all right? I don’t think my heart can stand any more shocks today.”
“Your heart is in superb condition according to your last med-bay record.”
“Good to hear, Marvin, since you don’t seem to have anything resembling one.”
“Of course I don’t—”
“Shut up, Marvin. Start investigating, would you? Just get out of my sight.”
Marvin hurried off, obviously eager to get started on his mission.
I wandered slowly back to the armory to stow my suit, still trying to think through Marvin’s revelation. No wonder my Dad had called him a devil and an angel all wrapped into one. As I recalled, he’d been moved to rip parts off Marvin more than once. Those stories had seemed pretty out-of-control to a kid—but now I understood all too well.
If he’d mistranslated the Pandas’ words, what other communications might he have warped or spun? The Lithos’ words? Had we fought a war with the silico-nanite communal beings over a Marvin-induced misunderstanding? Were we all pawns in Marvin’s game?
No, the Lithos had been inimical from the first. They were Frankenstein monsters that the Raptors had created and then lost control of. Their creations had turned on them as the Macros had turned on the Blues. That wasn’t Marvin’s doing. I had to keep from becoming paranoid and seeing the hand of the robot everywhere.
Back on the bridge, I saw we were approaching a cluster of asteroids. Within hours, we’d matched velocities with a ripe one and our marines flew out on repellers to begin carving it up with their lasers and cutters. Once I was confident mining operations were proceeding nicely, I hunted down Marvin again. I located him in Engineering.
“Found anything?” I asked once I was certain we could not be overheard.
“Many things, but nothing of significance to your major lines of inquiry.”
Sakura came in then, making a beeline for me. “Captain, I must protest. Marvin is accessing critical systems without consulting me.”