Fool's War

by Sarah Zettel

  “They don’t let me break into the Guild’s main data hold either,” she answered, watching the numbers change and trying not to wish they would hurry. If they moved too fast now, someone would spot them. They had to be glacial. It was their only protection. “I’m experimenting with rebellion.”

  “We’re both experimenting with rebellion,” Lipinski reminded her.

  “That’s all right.” She laid her hand on his shoulder. “If this doesn’t work, we’ll both be experimenting with unemployment.”

  She shouldn’t have said that, because it allowed her to wonder what would really happen if she were caught. There were no non-guild Fools. There were on-line members, field members, and station members. That was all.

  Except maybe it wasn’t.

  Lipinski moved the scan gently to the next sector. The counter flicked off the numbers as the scan commenced. The screen display stayed steady. The bottom row of stats flashed green.

  “Got it,” breathed Dobbs. “All right. We’re looking for anybody who made an emergency return here, or who doesn’t have a code in the current activities entry.”

  “What do you guys do when somebody dies?” Lipinski steered the searcher to a different sub-sector.

  “Fools don’t die,” she said and Verence’s memory squeezed her heart.

  “You just fade away?” Lipinski cocked an eyebrow towards her.

  “Something like that, yes.” Her index finger hovered over the FREEZE command, but the screen stayed steady.

  Thank you, Cyril. Thank you.

  The board beeped once. Success.

  “Finally.” Lipinski wrote a new set of coordinates and a new speed on the display. Dobbs opened her mouth and closed it again. Lipinski was preparing to leave as slowly as they had entered.

  Ground-side pilot, she chided herself.

  The screen flickered twice. Dobbs stabbed her finger on the FREEZE command. The display stopped dead. Dobbs’ heart filled her mouth. She pictured the Fool inside circling the strange signal, lifting it up, reaching inside it to see what was there, and finding something totally unfamiliar, and totally unauthorized.

  But the screen stayed steady. Dobbs wished fiercely that she was in there. She should have gone in. She could lie in there. She could fast talk the other members. She’d know who that little flicker was. Cohen, or Brooke, Guild Master Havelock, or a total stranger. She could reach into them and make them understand…

  I could get spotted and chased out in three seconds, she reminded herself.

  “Okay.” She squeezed Lipinski’s shoulder. “Try it.”

  Lipinski re-wrote the travel commands and the signal started its slow glide back to them.

  After another eon, the display wrote COMPLETED across itself. Dobbs let out a long breath and felt all the strength in her knees run away like water.

  “Damn, we are good!” Lipinski squeezed her hand where it rested on the counter. Dobbs hesitated just one second before she pulled her hand away and used it to fish out her pen and tap the READOUT selection on the open menu.

  Their slow, nerve-wracking search had found five answers. Four of them were hospital level admissions; one for injuries, three for illness. The last entry was for a Fool that did not have a current location or assignment.

  Theodore Curran. Registry number; five.

  Five? Dobbs’s mind almost refused to process the number. Five? The missing Fool was one of the Guild founders? A sick sensation crawled into her stomach. Cohen had said the stranger was somebody fast, somebody old.

  How long has he been gone? What’s he doing out there? Did they let him leave? Did he run away? What’s he doing out there? Why didn’t they say anything? Tell anybody?

  Why am I thinking of the Guild like I’m separate from them?

  The sick sensation reached up for her heart.

  “Evelyn?” said Lipinski quietly. “Are you going to be okay?”

  Her shoulders drooped all on their own. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

  He reached towards her but she stood up and moved away before he could touch her. “Erase that file, Rurik, and the system records. We’re in enough trouble as it is.”

  I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. I don’t want to think about what’ll happen if anyone found out I showed a Houston how to crack the network. Not even Cohen would forgive me for that.

  She let the stair hatch slam shut behind her and realized she didn’t have the slightest idea what she was going to do next. She leaned against the wall and pressed her palm against her forehead. The Guild was always the final answer. If there was a question, or if she was afraid, or in too deep, she went back to the Guild. That was the way it was. The Guild was what pulled her out of the war she had started with her birth. It gave her coherence and purpose and guidance. Where did she go now that the Guild wasn’t safe anymore?

  Dobbs straightened up. She couldn’t let anybody see her like this.

  It’s not the whole Guild, she told herself as she descended the stairs. It’s a few of the Masters, at most. We’re just proving we can be as stupid and paranoid as Human Beings, that’s all. Cohen will have some idea who we should go to with this. Maybe Brooke will have some ideas too. As soon as this is out in the open, it’ll all get sorted out. It just needs to get brought out. That’s all.

  A small, irrational surge of anger ran through her as she climbed the stairs. Verence, why aren’t you here to help me? Which Guild Master do I trust without you around?

  She let herself out into the Guild Hall. Her name on the entrance memory board caught her eye.

  MASTER OF CRAFT EVELYN DOBBS, REPORT TO GUILD MASTER MATTHEW HAVELOCK IN CONFERENCE TWELVE.

  Dobbs took a deep breath and forced her feet to move in the right direction. It was only a matter of time before she’d have to see him again anyway. It might as well be now. Once Guild Master Havelock was done with her, she could get back into the network and she and Cohen could figure out what to do next.

  No escort this time, at least. She mused as she crossed the park. Dinner time was approaching and except for herself, the plants and the birds, the place was deserted. There were seldom more than three hundred Fools in the Hall at one time, so finding even one of the parks empty was not too unusual. This time though, it emphasized her isolation and made Dobbs shiver.

  Get this over with, she told herself. Get back to the Pasadena and get back into the net. Tell Cohen what’s going on. He’s Hall staff. He’ll know who will listen to us, who’ll get this all out in the open.

  She passed through the bulkhead to the conference module. This was one of the few areas of the Hall that actually looked like a space station. It was a narrow, curved, low-ceilinged hall with hatchways set at regular intervals.

  There was still nobody else visible.

  Conference Twelve was the sixth hatch from the entrance on the left-hand side. Dobbs didn’t want to give herself any additional time to get nervous. She palmed the reader immediately and strode inside as soon as the hatch cycled back far enough.

  The conference room was full of chairs and tables on tracks so that they could be slid into different configurations as the meetings required. One long table had been assembled in the middle of the room. Its broad side faced the hatch. On the far side sat Guild Master Havelock and five others. Dobbs could only put names to three of them, but they all had the Guild Master’s star hanging from their necklaces.

  Dobbs throat began to close. There was nowhere for her to sit down. The hatch cycled shut behind her. Her hands opened and closed on nothing but air.

  What is going on?

  Havelock stood up and rested his fingertips on the table top. “Evelyn Dobbs, you have violated Guild security and policy, you have disobeyed direct orders and have placed all of us at risk. Do you deny any of this?”

  Dobbs staggered. What had gone wrong? How had they spotted her? Where was Cohen? Did they know how he had helped her? She couldn’t speak. She could barely breathe. She was facing down six of
the twenty-four Guild Masters and being accused of treason. Treason that she had in fact committed, but for a long, chaotic moment she couldn’t even remember why she’d done it.

  It took all her training in physical control to lock her knees so she could remain standing.

  “I do not deny any of it,” she said. “I did it because Guild Founder Theodore Curran kidnapped a newborn AI that I was responsible for and Guild Master Havelock to whom I report is not doing anything about it.”

  No one moved. No voice raised in question or protest. No one even blinked. The Guild Masters sat facing her as still as statues. Under their unflinching gaze, Dobbs felt her strength ebbing away.

  They don’t care why I did this, she realized. They don’t care that there’s somebody else out there. I’m the one who broke the rules and I’m the one they caught and they don’t care about anything else. With a sick lurch in her stomach, she realized something else. They all knew what Master Havelock had done, and they weren’t doing anything about that either.

  But that was wrong. That had to be wrong. This was Guild Hall and these were her Guild Masters. These were the ones who had made it possible for her to live at all. Without them she would be nothing, just a few scraps and shreds in a ravaged network, if that much. There had to be more going on here than she saw. There had to be.

  Havelock’s eyes bored into hers. “You are stripped of any and all ranks and privileges. You will be confined to one set of quarters without network access until a full sitting of Guild Masters can be convened and a final determination made in your case.”

  He seemed to be waiting for her to protest, to try to explain. Dobbs saw all the blank, impervious faces of her Masters and knew that anything she could think to say would be useless.

  But there had to be something else going on. Something was happening she didn’t know about. It had to be. Nothing else made sense.

  When it became clear she wasn’t going to say anything more, Havelock lifted his fingertips away from the table. “The decision of this panel is closed. You will come with me to your quarters.”

  That was all there was to it. The other Guild Masters, murmuring softly to themselves got to their feet, but didn’t move to the door. They let Havelock walk up to Dobbs. His hand closed around her elbow. Holding her tightly, almost painfully, he propelled her out of the room.

  He kept his eyes straight ahead as he took her out of the conference area to the core elevator bundle. In a car to themselves, they sank down to the next ring. Dobbs expected the doors to open onto the dormitory can, but they didn’t. Instead, they let in the sight of gleaming white tiles, bright red warning signs and the scent of antiseptic. This was the medical can. It was bare, sterile and full of closed hatches. Behind the hatches injuries were being healed and diseases were being cured, just like any hospital. Behind some of them, though, functioning human bodies were being assembled from vat grown parts so they could be ready for new AIs to be brought in, or for old members whose own bodies had aged too severely, or been injured too badly, to be useful anymore.

  Dobbs hadn’t been here since her last check-up. Then, it had seemed merely hospital-like. Now, it was a place of secrets, like the rest of the Hall. It was a warren of hidden ideas kept away from her by thick walls and blank eyes.

  Havelock palmed the reader on one of the closed hatches. It cycled back to reveal a small room with a bunk, a view screen, an intercom grill, a chair and a toilet alcove. It was a simple place, much like the room she’d been in when she first came awake in her body.

  Dobbs crossed the threshold. Havelock didn’t. She turned around.

  “Can you at least tell me why you won’t say what’s really going on?”

  For the first time, bewilderment crossed his face. He smoothed it away quickly. “Dobbs, this is what’s really going on.”

  He palmed the reader and the hatch cycled shut.

  For a long time after that, Dobbs could do nothing but stare at its blank, ceramic surface.

  Chapter Ten — Deceptions

  “Intercom to Al Shei.” Schyler’s voice sounded tentatively through the cabin.

  Al Shei paused in folding up her prayer rug and glanced at Resit, who was laying her kijab back over her hair.

  “What is it, Watch?” Al Shei closed her prayer rug in its drawer.

  “Guild Master Ferrand’s on the line. We…we’ve lost our Fool.”

  “We’ve what?” said Resit before Al Shei could even speak.

  “They are declaring Dobbs’ contract void for violation of Guild regulations.” Schyler’s tone vacillated between bewildered and incredulous.

  Al Shei wrapped her hijab across her face. “Send the line down here, Watch.” She checked to see that Resit had her kijab and her professional expression in place, then she lit up the view screen over the desk. After a moment, Master Ferrand’s face appeared.

  “Good evening, ‘Dama,” said Ferrand gravely. “I’m sorry to have bring you this news, but…”

  “Guild Master,” Resit stepped up to the screen. “We’ve gotten a partial message already. Am I to understand Evelyn Dobbs has violated Guild protocol?”

  Ferrand inclined her head. “There’s been a partial hearing on her behalf regarding the performance of her duties while aboard the Pasadena. The results were far less than satisfactory. Her status has been revoked and she is awaiting a full hearing.”

  Resit mustered a politely confused look. “What is the charge, Guild Master? I can assure you that that her employers have no complaints to file regarding her work…”

  “I am aware of that,” said Ferrand curtly. “This is an internal matter. What needs to be discussed is how you will be compensated for the loss. We can assign you another Fool. We have Master Hannah Dickens standing ready to take over the contract. Alternately, we can return the credit transferred to Evelyn Dobbs account.” Her eyes shifted to focus on Al Shei. “We can go over her contract together if there’s any confusion in the dismissal clause.”

  Al Shei shook her head quickly and Resit said, “Thank you, I’ll review it myself and contact you with any questions.”

  Ferrand appeared to relax a little. “We will be sending a representative to the Pasadena to collect her possessions,” she said. “I hope you’ll allow them to board.”

  “I understand this is an internal Guild affair.” Al Shei stepped closer to the screen. “But there’s some parting matters we’ll need to clear up with Dobbs before the contract is finished. I’d like a closing interview with her.”

  “I’m afraid not,” said Ferrand flatly. “Any exit situation can be handled through me, or can be entered directly into Dobbs’s service record. And as I said, we can assign you Master Dickens immediately.”

  Al Shei drummed her fingers on the desk and tried to think. What had Dobbs done to get herself into this much trouble? Did it have something to do with bringing the Pasadena to Guild Hall?

  It really isn’t any of my business. I should take the new Fool. If Dobbs has violated protocol, they have every right to call her up on it. But as soon as Al Shei thought that, her stomach tightened. Some part of her refused to completely believe what she was being told.

  “No,” said Al Shei. “Thank you. If there’s anything further we’ll contact you.” She reached out and shut the line down.

  Resit’s eyebrows were arched when Al Shei turned around. “What do you suppose that was really about?”

  “I don’t know.” Al Shei folded her arms and looked for the answer around the room. “But I’m having a hard time believing it’s just because she brought us here when we were stranded.”

  “I agree.” Resit smoothed her kijab. “Do you want me to call them out on it?”

  Al Shei tugged at her tunic sleeve. “No,” she said at last. “I’m not ready to start a war with one of the most powerful Guild in Settled Space, even if they did break a contract with me and my family.”

  “But you’re not willing to take on a new Fool to keep the contract whole?”

/>   “No.” Al Shei brushed her sleeves down. “The more I’m learning about them, the less I’m liking them. I don’t agree with their secrets and I don’t like their attitude, and I don’t like the way they’re treating Evelyn Dobbs.”

  Resit picked up her prayer rug. “I don’t like any of it either, but you’re right. We do not have what it takes to press a suit against them. Especially with this unholy mess about the AIs and our pair of Danes and the Farther Kingdom still sitting in our laps.”

  “Unholy mess is right.” Al Shei slumped into the desk chair. “But, Asil is following the wire trail. If there’s anything out there, he’ll find it.”

  For a moment, Resit concentrated on rolling her rug into a tidy cylinder. “Have either of you considered that that’s not the safest thing he could be doing?”

  Al Shei shifted her weight uneasily. “Oh, yes. We have.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. It means you’ll both be careful.” She studied the pattern of her rug for a moment before she looked at Al Shei again. “How much longer do we have to wait before we’re fully re-fueled?”

  Al Shei glanced at the schedule that lit up on the desk’s main board. “Just another two of hours.”

  “Good.” Resit pushed open the bathroom door. “Because between you and me, I don’t like the Guild’s behavior either. It’s going to be some long while before I laugh at another Fool.”

  Resit left and Al Shei straightened herself up. “Me too, Cousin,” she said to the closed door.

  “Intercom to Al Shei,” came Schyler’s voice again. “We’ve got one of the Fools up here to pack up for Dobbs.”

  Quick little jackals, aren’t you? Al Shei squashed the thought. He is not strong who throws another down, but he is who controls his anger, she chided herself. “Bring them down, Watch. I’ll meet you at Dobbs’ cabin.”

  Al Shei concentrated on keeping herself composed as she rounded the corridor to Dobbs’ cabin. As she activated her override on the palm reader, the hatchway to the stairs opened. Schyler stepped into the corridor. After him came a short man with slightly bowed legs and a broad face. The stranger wore a black tunic and trousers. He had the red-and-gold Guild necklace around his throat and an uncomfortable expression on his face.