Sanctioned

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  He looked back at his instruments, and then hailed ADAM for the second time that trip. “On final approach, ADAM. Can you have someone ready to meet up? She needs to be in a pod doc an hour ago.”

  ADAM responded over the ship’s comm system. “Yes, there is a team waiting on the hangar deck already. You can have her in the pod in four minutes; unless you’d like me to take over the navigation of your ship, in which case we can make it three and a half.”

  Sean didn’t hesitate. “You have control, ADAM.” He unbuckled himself and wriggled down out of the pilot’s chair. In a flash, he was over at Molly’s chair, unbuckling her.

  ADAM brought the ship in to dock, gently. Sean carried Molly out through the passage, and to the invisible stairs. As he started down the stairs, he clocked the small group of medical attendants standing and waiting. Two of them started up the stairs, and, when they met, they took her body from him.

  His mission wasn’t done, though. He hurried them every step of the way— through the maze of corridors, and into the medical center. They opened a pod doc, and he helped them lift her gently in. He looked at her face, pausing for a moment. She looked so peaceful.

  He felt so wretched that this had happened.

  I should have been there; I should have been protecting her; we should have been better prepared, he reeled in his head.

  “I’m sorry, Molly. I’m so sorry,” he whispered, grief and anxiety lacing his voice like napalm. He became aware of an attendant pulling his hand back from Molly’s face so they could close the pod door.

  He spun around to look at the doctor, vaguely aware of Lance hovering just inside the room. “You can save her?” he asked.

  The doctor was non-committal. “She’s been out a long time. We can’t tell. Best to let the pod doc do its thing. We’ll know more in about twenty minutes.

  Gaitune-67, Hangar deck

  Joel had contemplated not telling them.

  After all, without Molly, there was nothing to fight for. Nothing to do. His worst fear was that everything would fall apart; despite knowing his grief was tainting his judgment, he wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong.

  Maya, thankfully, had respected that he needed to think, and that he would tell everyone what was going on when they landed.

  Her silence was anxiety-laden, though.

  The pod touched down, and Joel let her hop out first. She touched his forearm in comfort as she left the pod.

  Joel followed her out onto the hangar deck where the rest of the team were assembling. They milled around for a little bit; the others noticed that both Crash and Joel had been crying, and that Crash was covered in blood.

  They also noticed that Molly and Sean weren’t there.

  Joel held his hands up to get their attention, and then beckoned them to come in closer. “Folks. Thank you for your work today, and for doing what needed to be done to get back here without asking questions.”

  He looked around at their faces. Right now, in this moment, although they were concerned, they didn’t carry the burden of knowing what he had to tell them. Right now, their hearts were free.

  “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this,” he started, “And I thought about not telling you until we know more; but then I know you would want to know what’s going on. Because Molly isn’t just your boss, or your leader; I know she is also your friend.”

  He started to choke up. Jack stepped around to stand by him, and put her hand on his back for moral support. Joel sucked in air, and with it, his emotions, before they broke him in front of his people.

  “Today, Crash and Molly went to see Jessica Newld. The threat that Jessica posed has been neutralized. Unfortunately, during that visit, Molly took a bullet.”

  There was a gasp as his words landed with the group. There were whispers and cusses, but mostly just a feeling of horror in the air.

  The team returned to a hushed state, waiting for Joel’s next words. “We don’t know how she is. We don’t really know what’s going on. Sean Royale took her off in a pod, hoping to try something to bring her back…”

  Paige stepped forward a little, her voice breaking as she spoke. “Bring her back?” she clarified.

  Joel nodded looking at the ground in front of him. “When I arrived, Crash was working hard to revive her; but we know there were several minutes where she didn’t have a pulse, and wasn’t breathing.”

  Paige clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her silent sobs. Her eyes welled up and she turned her back to the group to process.

  There were other mutterings that Joel couldn’t make out. People started asking questions of Crash, who just waved and covered his mouth, unable to talk.

  Joel brought their attention back. “Folks. I know you’re all worried. I know this is hard. This is the biggest challenge we have ever faced, and we’re going to do it together. We’re a team. That hasn’t changed. I’m going to see if I can contact ADAM and find out where Molly is, and if there is anything else…” he paused, projecting forward how that piece of news might play out. He looked back at the group. “I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything. You have my word. In the meantime, rest up. I’m going to need a quick report from each hit team to make sure nothing is coming after us. I’ll contact you soon.”

  Paige stepped forward a little. “What about Oz?” she asked. “Surely he would know where Molly is?”

  Crash finally spoke up. “Oz operates in Molly’s head, and her holo. Since she is down, he’s offline, too.” Crash composed himself a little more. “We have no way of tracking her.”

  Joel clapped his hands. “Alright, people. That’s it for now. I’ll let you know as soon as anything is confirmed.”

  Normally the group would have dispersed, but instead, everyone just stood around. Without Molly there was no direction. Nowhere to turn. Nothing worth doing. They mulled; talking, hugging, consoling.

  And tears. There were lots of tears.

  Joel started to well up again. He turned away from the group, and decided he needed to have that conversation with ADAM right away. He strode off across the hangar deck, vaguely aware that someone had called his name.

  Had he stopped, he would have seen Maya pointing out to Brock and Crash that the biggest ship in the hangar was missing.

  But he couldn’t deal with anything right now. Now, it was all he could do to keep himself together.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Gaitune-67, Operations Room

  Joel strode into the Ops room, wiping the tears from his face. He headed straight for the console at the front of the room that Sean had gone to in order to communicate with ADAM.

  He pulled up a menu, and ran a few searches before figuring out how to make contact. He hit the holo button on the right of the console and waited.

  His eyes began to glaze over as his mind played through the sequence of events: getting the call from Crash, finding his way to the lab, seeing Molly lifeless on the bench, and then finally watching Sean whisk her off…

  The audio crackled. “Joel, I presume?” ADAM answered.

  Joel came to his senses. “Yes, ADAM. It’s me. I’m calling about Molly.”

  ADAM responded gently. “Yes, I know. She’s with us -”

  Joel frowned in confusion. “With you? Where are you? I thought…”

  ADAM’s voice was kind, but to the point. “Yes, she’s with us a few thousand light years away from your location.”

  Joel’s mouth dropped open. “I… how?” he asked.

  ADAM explained. “Sean took the ship that has gate capabilities. He brought her here, in case we might be able to save her.”

  Joel rubbed his hand over his face then scratched at the back of his head. “I don’t understand. She was…” He could hardly bring himself to say it, but he needed clarity. “Dead,” he finished his sentence.

  The audio feed buzzed a moment before ADAM answered; more than likely just giving Joel the chance to process. “Yes. She was. But we’re going to see what we can do about that.”r />
  Joel leaned over the console, as if getting closer would give him more clarity. “You can bring someone back to life?” he asked.

  ADAM paused. “Not exactly. But we have nanotechnology that can repair whatever is broken. As long as she hasn’t been dead for too long, and as long as we can get enough nanocytes into the broken areas to fix her body quickly enough, we have a chance.”

  Joel’s head was spinning. His grip on the console tightened to balance him. “When will you know?” he asked.

  “Soon,” ADAM confirmed. “And as soon as we know, I’ll be in touch on your holo.”

  Joel wasn’t ready to leave the connection. “Wait! ADAM,” he reached out. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

  ADAM’s voice was still sympathetic. “There is a chance Joel, but she’s been out a long while. It’s unknown if we can get enough nanocytes into her fast enough to reverse the damage,” he explained again.

  Joel nodded, forgetting that ADAM couldn’t see his movement. “Okay,” he relented. “Okay… And thank you, ADAM. She means the world to me.”

  “I understand, Joel. We’re doing our best. Go and get some rest, and be with your team. I’ll be in touch soon.”

  ADAM disconnected the line, leaving Joel in the big empty ops room alone.

  ArchAngel, Medical Facility

  “We’ve got him online,” confirmed a calm voice standing over a console to the pod doc.

  Oz realized he was back online; he could tell he had outputs. He would be able to interact with a room of people through auditory feeds via a buffer they had set up.

  He realized he had been rebooted.

  He felt different.

  He checked Molly’s brain signals. There was something off, though his diagnostics were inconclusive.

  He checked for damage. There were whole dead areas where normally there was conductivity.

  He couldn’t figure out what was going on.

  “Hello?” he asked through the console unit.

  His message path was reinforced by their onboard EI. He could feel the activity of the program helping him to communicate.

  He found the auditory control. “Hello?” he asked again.

  There was calm chatter on the other end, and, a moment later, a voice he recognized. “Oz. Oz. It’s Sean, mate. You’re going to be okay. So is Molly. We’ve got you in a pod doc, where the nanocytes are restoring Molly’s physical body.”

  Oz whirred, processing the new information and relating it to what he could detect. “Yes, there are many damaged areas here,” he confirmed back to Sean. “Is she going to be okay?” Oz realized that he was experiencing some strange new sensations. He wondered briefly if it might be what those with bodies called “emotions”.

  He figured this particular emotion was probably fear.

  Sean answered gently. “Yes, you’re both going to be fine. Just relax.” There was muffled talking and then some scuffling around the microphone. “The General is here, too,” Sean added. “He’d like to speak with you. Hang on.”

  There was more scuffling. Oz tried to slow his processing down; he could feel himself racing, and the corresponding resistance in his and Molly’s circuits. He realized he was suddenly worried about overheating her.

  He heard the General’s voice. “Oz. General Reynolds, here. Glad you’re alive.”

  Oz felt his normal character returning. “Me too, I can assure you, General.”

  The General chuckled. “And good to see you’re fully intact. I have a proposition for you. I feel we ought to discuss it before we make any rash decisions, though.”

  Oz tried to fathom what could be so important at this time. “Sure. Makes sense to me. Is it about Molly?” Oz answered slowly.

  Another part of his processing was simultaneously trying to piece together the timeline between when he had last gone offline, and the present moment.

  And again with the overheating. He slowed himself down again.

  The General was still talking to him. “It’s about your status as an AI.”

  Oz didn’t like where this was going. He was happy as he was. He could feel himself retreating. Damn, he wished Molly was awake to deal with this.

  The General coughed a little. “As you’ve probably already extrapolated from our interactions before today, we have a great amount of technological ability at our disposal.” The General paused, allowing Oz to respond. Oz said nothing, so the General continued. “What this means for you right now, is that while we have you and Molly in the pod doc, we could remove you from Molly’s brain and holo, and give you a physical body.”

  Oz whirred.

  “Sir, we’re losing him…” an unfamiliar voice told the General.

  Then he heard Sean. “Hey, Oz. It’s okay. No one is going to do anything you don’t want. It’s okay. There is time to decide. You’re okay, mate.”

  The unfamiliar voice spoke again. “Vitals are settling. Processing returning to normal”.

  “That’s it, Oz,” Sean told him soothingly. “You’re okay, buddy.”

  The General stepped back to the microphone. “Yes, no rush to decide. But, if you did want your own body, we could do that, and give you the processing power you need to keep evolving and learning. If that’s what you want.”

  Oz whirred a little more without speaking.

  “He’s okay,” said the other voice. “He’s just churning through his stack.”

  The General breathed, and mumbled something, stepping away.

  Finally, Oz spoke. “I don’t know. This decision affects Molly, too. I don’t know what she wants. I need to ask her.”

  There was an awkward silence on the other side of the microphone.

  It was Sean who broke it. “Oz. Molly is unconscious. She’s going to be unconscious for some time. But if we’re going to do this, we need to start work soon, and Molly needs to be under for the duration.”

  Oz churned, his processing spiking. “But I don’t know if Molly wants me or not? How can I make a decision like this?”

  Sean sighed on the other side of the audio. “I don’t know, Oz. All I know is that Molly loves you very much, and will support you no matter what you decide you want.”

  Oz sounded noticeably perplexed. “But what I want is tied into what Molly wants. It’s important she make this decision, too.”

  Sean shook his head, subconsciously reaching his hand out to the console screen. “She can’t, mate. She’s not able to right now.”

  The General interrupted. “Oz, would it help to talk to ADAM?”

  Oz paused for a moment. The technician’s voice muttered something, but then dismissed it.

  “Yes,” he said, eventually. “I’d like that, please.”

  “Very well,” said the General. “ADAM?” he called, hitting a button on his holo. “Oz is ready to talk to you, if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course,” ADAM responded. “I’ll be in touch with him directly.”

  Sean’s voice came over the mic again. “Mate, I’m right here, if I can help. Okay? You just let us know, and we can talk some more…”