by Holly Ice
‘I don’t think so, but if they have access to comms, they might have members there, too.’
‘Great, so telling the committee might tip him off and accelerate his plans.’
‘Plans?’ Mum asked.
I winced. ‘I knew something was going on. We’ve been watching Ludis, but we didn’t know it was as advanced as what you’re telling me.’
‘Errai, you should have gone to security,’ Mum said.
I nodded. ‘He’s my friend, though.’
Her lips pursed, but she didn’t press the issue. That alone drove the daggers of guilt deeper. My gut had said I was doing the wrong thing, but Ludis was family.
I sighed. I needed to update Quinn and Siti. Mum’s boss, Kuba, was the best person to ask about comms access, but I didn’t trust him. What if he was the mole? Security was second best, but they’d check with Kuba, defeating the point of going around him.
‘Is there anything else I can pass on?’ I asked.
‘We know they’re meeting,’ Dad offered.
‘We knew that too,’ I said. ‘Siti has been trying to pin down the locations.’
Dad shook his head. ‘I wish you’d told me earlier. When Raj tried to tell me nanites would ruin this star system, I laughed him off the deck and gave him a lecture on how they were integral to our hull still being in one piece. He stopped talking to me after that.’
‘It still gives us someone new to work on. I’ll contact Quinn and Siti. Maybe they know someone in security who could help us.’ Ludis met a woman on the grower levels. We could start backtracking their movements there, but how many people would we find? How big had this movement become?
‘What are you thinking?’ Mum asked.
‘That his video had far more impact than I imagined. Aina, did he really see his mother die?’
Aina was staring at the floor, her cheeks flushed. ‘Yes.’
‘Could it turn others against nanites?’
She stared through me, and nodded. ‘I wish I’d let him ignore it.’ She took a shaky breath. ‘His mother was barely more than a skeleton, but still sharp. Fierce. She was on a mission to reverse the nanite glitch, but how they let her record in that state… her personality was so strong that, after, she was like a husk, drained dry.’ Aina swallowed and blinked rapidly. ‘She looked so much like Teodors, at the end. Then her husband carried her from the room and switched off the screen.’
As much as that must have made them relive his death, Ludis would have known his bio mother had died that way. ‘I… I can see how that would have an effect, but billions died from the nanite glitch. There has to be something else.’
‘She was also one of the last scientists investigating the problem.’
That made sense. ‘What did she say?’
‘That she first thought it was man-made, a hacker’s work.’
‘That was one of the many theories.’
‘It was, but she said she later learned the auto diagnostic tool was at fault and the nanites might have some level of sentience, that the code changes that did so much damage were due to the nanites trying to avoid being shut down.’
I hadn’t heard even a hint of that, but it explained so much about my meeting with Ludis, when he’d been so twitchy. He’d been trying to tell me nanites were unpredictable and dangerous, and I’d thought he’d heard the cause of their glitch was unknown, not a sentience issue.
‘I had no idea. Still, the code was rewritten, right? The diagnostic tool or whatever the problem was is no longer present.’
‘Yes, it was rewritten,’ Aina said.
‘It’s still worrying,’ Mum said, her frown deep. ‘Our nanites may be a rewritten version, but we still don’t know what triggered the sentience. If my colleagues knew what was on this video, some might turn.’
My bones chilled in my flesh, and I realised this was probably why there was so much secrecy around the nanite glitch. Yet… ‘We’ve had this nanite code on our ship now for longer than the Earth had access to advanced nanites. Doesn’t that mean we’re out of any danger?’
‘If this had been solved by logic, the nanite stigma would have died out long ago,’ Mum said.
She was right. I ran a hand through my hair and smoothed my coveralls, but nothing calmed my nerves. Emotional responses couldn’t be fought with logic, which meant I had no other choice. I had to let security or Rima or Sabine know what was happening. Ludis thought he was protecting us, but, fuelled by ‘justified’ fervour, his group had already talked to the committee and failed. They were recruiting, and their remaining options were unlikely to be peaceful. I couldn’t cut Ludis any more slack. We needed bigger minds on this mess, no matter the consequences.
* * *
I didn’t get beyond messaging Quinn and Siti to meet before a new notification buzzed my wrist. Sabine wanted all mission candidates in the committee room. Now. I hauled ass up the five decks to C-1, hoping this was more than a vindictive summoning, because if she wanted me to mop the floor again, I was going to aim the stick at her nose.
As soon as I reached the deck, I knew this wasn’t a frivolous meeting. Red-coveralled health members moved in and out of the committee room with water and bandages. From the amount of blood in the water buckets, someone was badly hurt. I doubted it was Sabine, but that didn’t leave many options. It had to be one of us. I shuddered, my stomach rebelling, bile reaching my throat. I swallowed it back. Was I too late? Ludis and his group had ‘picked someone’. Were the blood and bandages the result?
A blond man stopped me. ‘They want mission applicants in the committee room.’
‘Did they say why?’ I looked at the dressings he held. ‘Who’s hurt?’
‘See for yourself.’ He left.
I dodged health and committee members and ducked inside the doorway. The room was a hive of activity, so I kept my eyes down and edged around the room. I found a clear space against the wall. A raspy, hitched breath brought goosebumps to my arms. I braced myself and looked.
A male body was spread across the table, surrounded by fresh bandage rolls and strips of his cut-up shirt. He was limp, his arms bruised with dark dots – finger pressure – while his ribs were mottled with the darkest bruises.
I was hypnotised by the injuries, unable to look away. I knew him. Worse, I liked him. In places his chest had been pushed inward, towards his lungs, and his wheeze was saliva-curdling. James’s cheeks and nose had swollen so I barely recognised him. Dried blood ran from his mouth, down his chin. This wasn’t one of Sabine’s tests.
My breath sped with my heart rate until I was gasping in breath almost as badly as he was. How many people had done this to him, and was it really Ludis’s group behind it? He couldn’t do something like this, could he? Not over nanites.
I clenched my hands tight and faced down Sabine. ‘What happened?’
Sabine met my gaze. ‘You don’t know?’
‘No.’ The accusation in her tone meant she thought I’d had something to do with his injuries. I’d never allow something like this to happen, but I might be at fault. I should have reported Ludis when I’d first suspected he was up to something… but this? I could never have guessed he’d do this.
‘You look like you’re hiding something.’
‘I didn’t do this. James supported me. Trust me, that’s rare enough I’d put my life before his.’ The silence drew out but I didn’t flinch. ‘Shouldn’t he be in health?’
‘Ideally,’ Rima said, eyeing Sabine, ‘but since the nanites keep him stable, Sabine convinced the committee to keep him here.’
I blinked and put the pieces together. ‘So she thinks one of us did this. She wants to, what, watch our reactions? That’s insane!’
Sabine splayed her hands across the table. ‘Is it? Security is looking through camera feeds. It would be better to admit any involvement now.’
‘If you think I could do this, you don’t know me.’
‘I can’t say many people know you well.’
I gla
red at Rima. ‘James should go to health. He’s practically an open wound.’
‘He’ll be transferred as soon as the others arrive.’
I threw my hands up. ‘What about infection?’
‘Nanites kill all known infections.’
‘And pain?’
‘He’s sedated.’
Sedated or not, putting the comfort of a horribly injured man beneath the importance of knowing who had done this was wrong, especially when he would tell us as soon as he woke up. If he woke up. I glanced down the length of him again, biting my lip.
‘Has he said anything?’
‘No. He was found unconscious. We sedated him when he first came to. He wasn’t up to talking, and we needed to work on his injuries.’
I could only imagine the pain he had gone through. It wasn’t just his upper half that was bruised; his legs were wrapped and stinted to hold the bones in place. Someone had tried to pulverise him.
‘This is overkill,’ Sabine said. ‘Whoever did this won’t be able to stop a reaction when they see his beaten body – recognition, a smile maybe.’
‘Security can find who did this quicker than this madness,’ I said.
Sabine snorted. ‘If they made it easy. They looped the footage for hours around when the attack must have happened and scrambled comm signals in the area. Tracking them could take days, if it’s even possible.’
So, she’d lied about security looking at the cameras. That meant they definitely had someone with tech skills on their side. I took a deep breath and braced for her anger. ‘You won’t find the person who did this among our team.’
As horrific as it sounded, I was more than half sure this was the work of Ludis’s nanite haters. I never thought he could be involved in anything this violent. He avoided conflict. But whoever had done this clearly hated James, and he was well liked. I wasn’t seeing many other options.
‘Who, then?’ Sabine asked.
Quinn and Ashoka stepped through the door, both stopping short, eyes wide as they took in the extent of James’s injuries. I was sure neither of them could be behind this, but their horror sold it to me.
Sabine put up her hand, telling me to wait. No doubt she’d go with her earlier plan – watch everyone arrive, then listen to the irritating kin kid’s ideas. I gritted my teeth. We were wasting time. I checked my comm to see if Siti had replied to my earlier messages. There was nothing since the agreement to meet. I told her I’d be late and that I was going to tell Rima and Sabine what we knew.
Quinn and Ashoka came around the table and stood beside me while I typed on the holographic keyboard.
‘Is there anything we can do for him?’ Ashoka asked.
‘We can’t do more than nanites and health,’ Rima assured him.
The remaining applicants arrived almost at the same time, huffing from the stairs.
Ksenia led them into the room. ‘Who did this?’ She rushed to James’s side and worked on his cuts, having the training to help without being a useless body between health and their patient. If only I had the same knowledge. Standing here staring did no one any good.
I looked to the others. They were all quiet, caught in varying stages of disgust, shock and anger. Ratan was one of the least visually affected, and the first to speak.
‘What does this mean for the mission?’ he asked.
‘That’s your first question?’ Rima turned to Sabine, eyebrows raised.
‘It’s a practical question, natural considering the effort they’ve put in to get this far. It doesn’t mean anything,’ she said.
‘As his first question, though?’ I asked. I’d thought Ratan was committed, but where was his heart? Maybe I was clutching at straws, but he was a colonial studies student, just like James.
‘We all trained for this mission,’ Ratan said. ‘We know how important it is. This,’ he said, gesturing the length of James, ‘is clearly more than nanites can handle overnight. Will he even be healed before we leave?’
Ksenia glanced up from James’s cuts. ‘You didn’t do this, did you?’
‘No. I’d never harm a team member without reason.’
Ratan did have motive, and he was driven, but he was also competitive. He’d rather win his place with skill over attrition. Which left Ludis’s group…
‘We don’t need to worry about him healing, whoever did it,’ Ksenia said, tying a bandage. ‘With health’s help, these nanites fixed a compound fracture in less than two days. They’re spread thin, still replicating, but he should be on his feet in one to two weeks.’
‘And the training he’ll miss?’ Yara asked. ‘I don’t want to rely on him if he’s unfit and unprepared.’
Wow. She wanted to strike James off the team even if he was healed and healthy. ‘You’d punish him for being beaten, through no fault of his own?’ I asked.
‘We don’t know he had no hand in this yet, and like Ratan said, the mission must come first.’
What did I even say to that? No one deserved to be beaten this badly. Without nanites, he’d likely be dead. I had no idea Ratan and Yara would be so dismissive of someone they’d trained with, befriended, come to know. I thought their callousness only extended to me, as a kin kid. Apparently I wasn’t a special case.
‘Would you treat us like that in the field?’ Ashoka asked, pointing to James’s body. ‘If I were that injured, you’d leave me?’
‘Depends on the circumstances,’ Ratan said.
‘So you’d leave us alone?’ Ashoka’s voice raised at the end, incredulous.
‘I’d leave an injured team member with someone, if we could spare them,’ Ratan said. ‘That shouldn’t be a guarantee. We all know what we’re signing up for could be dangerous. We need to focus on our goals above all else.’
Yara smiled. ‘Perhaps Errai could attend the injured. She’d be little use in the field.’
Ashoka turned his back on both of them and eyed Rima and Sabine. For the moment, they were the only committee members present. ‘I can’t in good conscience work with these two if this is how they’d deal with a vulnerable team member.’
Whatever the future of the team, debating hypothetical situations was a waste of time. We had more immediate problems. As cruel as they may be, I felt confident no one here had done this. The only explanation left was Ludis’s group. I didn’t want to think he could be part of this, but they were the only other group angry enough to beat a mission applicant half to death.
‘We’re wasting time here,’ I said. ‘I know who did this.’
‘You do?’ Sabine’s eyebrows raised and she strode forward to tower over me. ‘And why have you kept this to yourself?’
‘I tried telling you. You told me to wait so you could analyse our reactions.’
She waved the fact away. ‘How do you know who did this?’
‘There’s a group trying to gain support on the ship. Quinn, Siti and I have been trying to find out how serious they are. I thought they might be a support group or a protest group, considering the fear around nanites, but now I think it’s something more. I think they could be involved in the attack.’
Sabine stiffened. ‘Is this the group that asked us to reverse the nanite decision?’
‘I think so. I was told today that they’ve been recruiting.’
Sabine cursed. ‘I knew they were trouble.’ She looked to Rima, who nodded. ‘We’ll send a security team to question them.’
‘Can I go?’ I asked.
Sabine looked me up and down. ‘Why? You’ll only get in the way.’
‘He might listen to me.’
‘He? Who’s he?’
I licked my lips and swallowed hard, knowing there was no coming back from this. ‘Ludis. I’m fairly sure he started this group.’
Sabine cursed, kicked a table leg, and paced the room. ‘That fool! I didn’t think he had it in him. I should have seen this coming. Demanding we change our minds…’
Rima touched Sabine’s arm. ‘Errai might be useful. If she can talk him dow
n, this might end without a fight.’
‘She can barely defend herself. She’ll split the security team’s attention.’
‘I’ll go with her,’ Yara said, ‘keep her out of trouble.’
‘I’ll go too,’ Quinn said.
Rima inclined her head in agreement and we were out the door before she could change her mind.
* * *
A three-person security team flanked us as Yara pounded on Ludis’s door, shaking the metal in its frame.
‘Yes?’ His voice was a near hiss through the intercom.
‘Open the door!’ the lead security guy yelled.
‘Why?’ Ludis asked.
‘We need to speak with you about your group,’ I said. ‘Please open the door.’
‘I don’t think so.’
The security guy rolled his eyes and entered a code into the door’s key panel. It overrode the lock and opened the door.
Ludis stood in the doorway, eyes wide, and slammed the door close button.
‘Don’t be a child about this. We’re going to talk to you.’ Security re-entered the override code but cursed when it didn’t work. Had someone changed the code on such short notice, or had he typed it in wrong? He signalled to his colleague, who gave him a metal door jack to wedge in the doorway. It kept the door open a few inches.
He nodded to me, giving us a chance to speak to Ludis through the gap.
Yara’s hand fell to her thigh but remained clenched. Strangely, that made me feel more secure, but I wasn’t about to let her yell at him. I pushed forward, so Ludis could see me. His expression softened, which was something.
‘Did you see what happened to him? They found him an hour ago, and they’re still working to fix him.’
All warmth was wiped from Ludis’s face, as if I’d imagined its presence. He eyed the security team behind us. ‘Who are we talking about?’
‘James. He was beaten to a pulp and left on C-15. He could have died.’
‘Why come to me? I just got off shift.’
Yara slammed her hand on the door, making him jump. ‘Your shift gives you reason to travel between decks at odd times, and you head a group recruiting nanite haters. That gives us reason to question you.’