by Jade Kerrion
“Huh?”
“That was very ineloquent, even for you. I’ve always needed to be alone to recharge my energy. The social interactions are as draining for me as they are for you, even though I look like I’m handling them far better. I knew you were the one when I realized that I no longer needed to be really alone to recharge. Being with you is like being alone for me.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“That didn’t come out right, did it?” Rio asked with a sheepish smile.
Jem shook her head. “No, but I understood it.” Nowhere in his declaration of love had he mentioned or even implied Livia Jemeran Meira. Had she finally found someone who wanted Jem Moran? She threw her arms around him and held him tight.
Rio returned the hug with equal fervency. “Is that a yes?”
She smiled through the tears trickling down her face. “Yes.”
The week she spent with Rio offered a much-needed break from the endless grind of the simulation, though she checked in daily with SimOne, who apparently had no planetary disasters to report. Jem was briefly assuaged, until she realized that her definition of “major disaster” likely differed from SimOne’s definition of “major disaster.” Jem spent an hour or two each day scanning the reports that SimOne dutifully delivered, but it appeared that SimOne was right. The planet was thriving in spite of, or perhaps because of the neglect from their questionable managers.
Jem, nevertheless, went back to work the day she returned to the university even though the winter break would last for another two weeks. The classroom, as she had expected, was empty except for the android. It was just as well she had called ahead to have SimOne meet her. Jem was not afraid of the simulation laboratory, but the universe could feel dreadfully cold and empty if she knew that she was the only one in there.
She smiled at the android. “Good evening, SimOne.”
“Good evening. Did you have a good vacation?”
“Yes, I did. Thank you. Did you have a break, too?”
“I was at maintenance. The technicians refused to implement the sarcasm program that Kir Davos requested. They insist that no such program exists.”
“It’s a conspiracy,” she told the android. “They just don’t want to give it to you.”
“Should I report them to the university’s Android Oversight Committee?”
“Sounds like a great idea,” Jem said, straight-faced, and then nodded at the door of the laboratory. “Let’s go.”
It was miserably cold in the simulation laboratory, far colder than she had remembered. “Is there any way you can warm up this place, SimOne?”
“No, I cannot. Raising the ambient heat of the universe will throw off the planetary heat regulation systems and lead to global warming.”
“Got it. Bad idea. How’s my little eastern empire doing?”
“Brilliantly. Two succeeding dynasties have driven technology and culture to its zenith. Philosophy and the arts have prospered. The population doubled within a hundred star revolutions as a result of expanded agriculture and the production of abundant food surpluses. There are now in excess of a hundred million people within your borders.”
Jem looked down with surprise at her little empire. It was not so little anymore. “Maybe I should take a vacation more often. How is Kir’s western empire doing?”
“Poorly.”
“What?”
“A period of cultural and economic deterioration followed the decline of his fourth empire.”
“Is his empire gone?” Jem asked.
“The vassal states have broken away. In contrast, another empire is rising to the south and it is flourishing. Its philosophers, scientists, and engineers have contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations. Scientific and intellectual achievements have blossomed.”
“So, you’re saying that two out of three empires are doing well, and one less so.”
“Precisely.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” Jem asked.
“That would depend on your point of view,” Kir said as he walked toward them. “How was your vacation?”
“Good.” She shoved her hands into her coat pockets, as much to keep them warm as to conceal her engagement ring from him.
“I’ve been thinking about my empire, wondering whether to intervene,” Kir said.
She arched an eyebrow in mock surprise. “You, really? You’ve finally decided to do something?”
He shook his head. “I thought about it, but decided not to. We need an experiment to determine whether empires are drivers or roadblocks of innovation.”
She waved her hand at the planet. “The evidence would suggest that empires are drivers of innovation.”
“You weren’t saying the same thing when your first emperor burned all the books.”
She shrugged. “A necessary though temporary measure. What’s your point?”
“Risk diversification. Empires rise or fall on the whim of a single person. Under benevolent and enlightened rulers, they soar, which is what the eastern and southern empires are doing now. Under weak rulers, they collapse, as the western one did, and when they do, it’s not pretty. They drag vast areas of their empire under with them.”
Jem snorted. Great. She would have to work on adding “benevolent” and “enlightened” to her personality profile. No pressure there either. She refocused on Kir with a scowl. “So?”
“So, I’m diversifying. I’m spreading out the risk across many small countries in the hope that not all of them will be pathetic at the same time. If an idea fails in one country, it may have a chance of succeeding in another.”
“Competition.”
“Precisely.” Kir grinned. “I’m creating competition.”
Jem rolled her eyes. “You mean war.”
“Sometimes, but not necessarily. Competition isn’t a bad thing. You, of all people, should know that.”
“So you’re okay with your empire falling apart?”
“I like to think of it as an interim state on the way to something better.”
“Which is?”
“I haven’t decided yet. The rest of my brain is still on vacation,” Kir confessed.
Jem folded her arms across her chest and glowered at him, her eyes narrowed. “We need a plan.”
Kir chuckled. “Plan. Right. It seems I’ve heard you mention something like that before. How about we put one together over dinner?”
“Why?”
“Because I need to eat at some point, and it’s cold in here. Besides, I owe you one for helping me salvage Genitura for a little boy.”
She smiled faintly. “All right.”
Kir looked at the android. “Coming, SimOne?”
The android’s blue eyes widened.
Jem laughed softly. Kir had done the impossible. He had shocked the android into silence.
“Yes, I will come,” SimOne said.
“Shall we head back to my place?” Kir suggested. “I can cook something up, and we can talk over dinner.”
“Sure. I’ll just let Rio know.” She turned on her personal device and sent Rio a quick message.
“Nice ring,” Kir said quietly as they walked out of the laboratory together, SimOne trailing along behind them.
Jem glanced at it and flushed. “Thank you.”
“It looks like dinner with his parents went well.”
“Dinner was actually a disaster.”
“Well, we’ve got lots of experience turning disasters into successes. Congratulations. Have you set a date?”
“Not yet. We thought we’d wait and see how the simulation turns out. Rio’s been accepted to the Academy, and if I do well enough here, I might get in too.”
“That explains the obsession with winning.”
Jem’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Wanting to win the simulation and attend the Academy has nothing to do with Rio.”
“Then what?”
“You w
ouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
Jem shook her head and changed the subject. “Where’s Kav?” she asked as she stepped into Kir’s quiet apartment.
“At daycare. I dropped him off when I went down to the lab to meet you.”
“Bring him home. He can have dinner with us, right?”
Kir arched his eyebrows. “Are you sure? Won’t it be too chaotic?”
Jem shrugged. “There’s no planet to spill water on. How chaotic could it be?”
“Okay, great. I’ll call the center. They’ll bring him home.”
Jem glanced over her shoulder. SimOne stood in the center of the living room and looked completely out of place. “Is this the first time you’ve been to a residence?” Jem asked the android.
“Yes. I am an academic android. My experiences thus far have been limited to the university.”
“And to dirty oyster bars,” Jem added.
“Yes, and to dirty oyster bars.”
“Well, relax. It’s going to be hard enough eating dinner with you just looking on.”
“I have not been programmed to understand or appreciate the virtue of eating.”
“Depending on the cook, it may have more or less virtue,” Kir said as he put down his personal device. “In this case, it’ll tend toward less. Kav will be here in about twenty minutes. I’m going to get dinner started. We should talk before he gets here because we may not be able to after he arrives.”
Jem leaned against the wall and watched him move around the tiny kitchen with efficient grace. “So, the plan…”
“Right, the plan.”
“Where exactly are we going with this?” she asked.
“I thought you knew.”
“Very funny, Kir. We’re in the middle of the course, and our humans are finally starting to get a glimmer of inspiration, sans Atlante interference. We can’t shut out the rest of the universe forever. We need to start thinking about how to integrate their influence without freaking our people out.”
“Consider them freaked. They’ve seen Niseag, by the way,” Kir said, a chuckle in his voice.
“What?”
“Apparently, Niseag mistook a human for a midday snack. Several of the human’s companions got away, and it’s now officially known that a water beast exists.”
Jem pressed her lips together to keep her mouth from twitching into a smile. “You’re having way too much fun with this.”
“Got to get fun from somewhere,” he agreed. “But, as you were saying: the plan?”
“We can’t have a portion of the planet lagging behind. We’ll need to get your part up to par again.”
“My part?”
“Yes, the remnants of your fallen empire.”
“Honestly, my preference is to leave it alone. There are two flourishing empires. You can work with those. The remnants of my empire will find its own way.”
“It’s not working, Kir. What will it take to convince you that indifference is not the way?”
“And what will it take to convince you that these humans we’ve created are smart enough to figure things out on their own? We’re not going to be around forever. Our job is to diversify the risk, not breathe their air for them. The sooner the humans figure out how to think for themselves, how to get into trouble, and how to get out of it, the better it’ll be for them and us.”
Jem scowled and shook her head. “There are appropriate levels of independence. You don’t give a toddler the launch codes for a space shuttle. The humans aren’t ready.”
“And they never will be if you keep coddling them. We’re halfway through this course. When are you going to start letting go? The day before graduation? Suddenly letting go of the reins is the surest way to drive human society to collapse.”
Jem rolled her eyes at him.
Kir sighed. “Look, I know you want a plan. I’d be happy to sit down and help you come up with a plan for your empire and the southern one too. But the west? I say we just leave it alone.”
The doorbell rang. Jem pushed away from the wall, went to the door, and opened it. “Hi there, Kav.”
“Hi, Jem. Hi, Jem. Hi, Jem,” he greeted cheerfully as he dashed into the apartment. “Let me show you all my cool new toys and books.”
“Sure.” She let him take her by the hand.
Interacting with a child was not as difficult as she had feared. Kav was more than happy to fill the silence with chatter, and all she had to do was fill in the gaps with the appropriate sound of approval. After the toy inspection, he had wanted her to read to him. She could do that, too. In less time than she had expected, Kir called them to the table for dinner.
The meal was simple, but tasty and filling. SimOne was quiet, but the alert glow in her blue eyes confirmed that she was paying close attention. What was she learning, Jem wondered, and more importantly, was SimOne allowed to learn it, or had that part been deliberately omitted from her programming?
“The plan?” Jem asked deliberately once dinner was done.
Kir chuckled. “Damn, but you’re tenacious.”
“What good is an experiment if you can’t actually draw meaningful comparisons from it? We have two empires at their height and one cluster of countries down in the dump. That’s not comparable. They’re not starting in the same place.”
Kir sighed. “Fine. I give up. If it’s going to make you happy, I’ll focus on getting the remnants of my former empire up to par, and then I’ll turn them loose to run and see where they go. Happy now?”
“Can I go to the lab tomorrow, please, Kir?” Kav asked. “I promise I won’t spill water.”
Kir snorted. “That would be because you’re not getting anywhere near the planet with water.”
“Can I go, please?”
Kir looked over at Jem and then at SimOne.
Jem concealed a chuckle. Kav was such a sweetheart; his eyes were large and pleading, and his smile winsome. Jem shrugged, and SimOne did a reasonably good job of mimicking Jem’s shrug.
Kir hesitated and then said, “Sure. Just for a while. Don’t let me regret it, okay, Kav?”
9
The Kamikaze (Japanese for divine wind), were two winds or storms that are said to have saved Japan from two Mongol fleets under Kublai Khan. These fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and again in 1281.
– Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* * *
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century. The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history.
– Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
* * *
When Jem, Kir, and Kav met up in the classroom the next day, the first thing she saw was the scoreboard. She winced. “You check it out.”
“Don’t be a wimp,” Kir said, grabbing Jem’s hand and dragging her to the screen.
For a moment, they studied the information in silence. A smile spread over Jem’s face, and the heavy weight on her chest eased.
“Wow…” Kir said quietly.
Jem nodded. “Ten out of twenty…well, nineteen, isn’t bad.”
“It’s a huge improvement from our interim semester grades,” Kir agreed.
“I guess each planet is assessed relative to where it started out, and after that mass extinction, the only way for our grades to go was up.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
“Did we ever hear back from the Shixar or the Atlante teams?” Jem asked as they walked into the simulation laboratory together.
“No, it’s been quiet. It helps to be a little backwater planet. The Shixar and Atlante are so busy fighting each other on the other side of the universe that we’ve been able to escape their notice. It also
helps that we’re technologically primitive. No one wants the hassle of raising toddlers if they can help it. All right, Kav. Remember, hands behind your back. Don’t touch anything.”
“Got it.” Kav laced his fingers behind his back. His eyes were wide, and his head swiveled from side to side as he tried to take in everything.
“It looks like lots of teams are back,” Jem murmured, nodding to another student who passed by them on his way to his own planet.
“I think many teams didn’t even take the week off,” Kir said.
Jem snorted. “Now I feel like a slacker.”
“On the other hand, I feel like I’m giving up two weeks of my vacation, and I’m moderately resentful about it.” Their planet came into view. “Good morning, SimOne.”
“Good morning, Kir. Good morning, Jem. Good morning, Kav.”
“How are things going?” Kir asked.
“Well,” was the android’s succinct reply.
“Let me see. Let me see.” Kav stood over the planet with his fingers interlocked behind his back, and stared down at the blue-white world spinning serenely in space. “Is that the moon?” he asked, as something brushed by his head.
Kir nodded. “Yes, and step back. You’re in its orbital path.”
“What’s that stuff down there?” Kav asked.
Jem leaned in over his shoulder. Her eyes narrowed. “It looks like a fleet of ships.”
Kir leaned in too. “That you can see from up here? That’s got to be a lot of ships.” He whistled low. “I’ve never seen so many ships. It will probably go down in history as the largest naval assault to date.”
“It isn’t going to bode well for that island,” Jem said.
“You’re not intervening?” Kir asked, sounding surprised.
“No. Both countries are somewhat peripheral to my plans. Contrary to what you may think about me, I don’t make every single decision for them. I step in only where it matters.”
Kav suddenly sneezed.
The fleet of ships vanished beneath the violent exhalation of air that tore up the waves. “Oh, no…” Jem choked back a giggle.