Stealing Light

by Gary Gibson

  This increased entourage swept across the Circus Ring, before disappearing through a door leading into a part of the complex for which Dakota didn’t have clearance.

  It was the first time she’d ever seen one of the Shoal in the flesh.

  She’d heard arguments day and night throughout the mess halls and these temporary barracks about how none of them would be here at all if it were not for the Shoal’s restrictive colonial contracts. There had been something terrifyingly random, even meaningless, about the expulsion of the Uchidans from their original colony, so it was far easier to blame the Shoal for the current unhappy state of affairs than anything else.

  She recognized the guard posted outside the doorway Josef had just passed through along with the alien. She’d met him at a drinking session, just before dropping down from orbit, and recalled his name was Milner. He had made the mistake of trying to match her, and three others, shot for shot before he wound up comatose under a bar table.

  He grinned as she came up to him. ‘Merrick, right? And my head still hurts.’

  ‘Call me Dakota,’ she said, then, ‘What’s with the alien?’ nodding towards the door he was guarding.

  Milner shrugged. ‘Beats me why that thing’s here. And even if I knew . . .’ he shrugged.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I know, you couldn’t tell me. I wasn’t asking you for any secrets, I was just wondering if I’d missed something in the briefings this morning. I had to go to see the doctor.’

  ‘It’s here just to observe,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Like maybe it’s curious to see how we handle these things, but I don’t think anybody really knows.’

  Part Two

  Thirteen

  Dakota was relieved to find no one else on the bridge of the Hyperion when she got there.

  For a sophisticated piece of technology, an imaging plate didn’t look like much. Just a circular platform: you took an object, stuck it on the plate, and waited while the item was scanned. That simple.

  Except, it wasn’t really so simple as that. Placing her figurine on the plate wouldn’t just return data concerning the raw composition of the materials comprising it. If the imager’s database was up to date, it could also return a whole slew of information about the figurine’s probable cultural origin and significance, and maybe even the name of whoever had created it. Beyond that it could also return reams of forensic data, including the DNA traces of every human—or non-human—who had ever handled it.

  Accordingly, any number of artefacts—jewellery, mementos, even works of art—had been designed specifically with imager technology in mind. A ring placed on such a plate might generate a wide-band artificial sensorium representing the sight, sound, memory and tactile experience of an associated loved one. The pornographic potential of this technology had therefore been explored for centuries. On top of which, plate-readable data could be encoded into almost any substrate, and often was.

  Perhaps this, then, was why the alien had handed her the figurine—because it contained some form of encoded data.

  She had muttered curses at the empty corridors as she passed through them on her way across the ship, wondering why she’d taken so long for this to occur to her.

  She pushed back the cover over the imager, a horizontal flat black disc set into a wall recess. Dakota pulled the figurine out of her pocket, placed it on the plate and stepped back. A few seconds passed and nothing happened.

  She began to wonder if she’d been wrong after all.

 

  The Hyperion shuddered and the bridge lights flickered.

  Piri! What was that?

 

  A light blinked and she realized the imager had begun its scan, although it was taking a lot longer to do so than normally. Numerical and compositional data began to spill across the imager’s screen:

  COMPOSITION

  88% ferric alloy, 10% organic matter, 2% other factors

  *

  ORIGIN OF COMPOSITE ELEMENTS

  unknown/not on record. Phylogenetic analysis of organic materials suggests: Indonesian maize hybrid.

  MICROSCOPIC SOIL TRACES DETECTED

  (<0.0002% of overall composition): ORIGIN: unknown.

  GENERAL TACH-NET ENTRIES None

  MANUFACTURED BY Unknown

  PRIOR OR PRESENT OWNERSHIP Unknown

  INTERACTIVITY INDEX Zero/not known

  *

  SAVE SUMMARY OR RE-SCAN?

 

  Piri, I felt something happen almost the instant I put that statuette on the imaging plate. There’s no way that’s a coincidence.

  the machine repeated pedantically. Dakota quelled her frustration and picked up the figurine, stashing it out of sight behind a panel.

  She turned and saw several message icons were now flashing on screens and in the air. It appeared her passengers, too, were concerned at this fresh turn of events.

  —

  ‘Look, I don’t have a fucking clue what just happened. You ever flown a ship before?’

  ‘A low-orbit glider,’ Gardner replied, studying Dakota with eagle eyes. ‘That isn’t the point.’

  ‘Well, my point is, this isn’t a glider,’ Dakota snapped back. ‘I need to check every system is functioning, and that’s what I’ve been doing. So frankly, if the lights go dim or the ship shakes again, don’t be too surprised—’

  ‘I’m not happy about this, Miss Oorthaus,’ Gardner replied, glowering at her.

  ‘Fine.’ Dakota folded her arms. ‘Want to find another pilot? Go ahead.’

  Gardner stared at her in silence for long seconds then let out a long sigh. ‘Mala, the Senator and the rest of them here aren’t nearly as reasonable as I can be. When things go wrong, they tend to react badly.’

  He spoke quietly, leaning in towards her as if sharing the details of some secret indiscretion. ‘Josef Marados assured us you were one of the very best. If you’re not being straight with me now, we can trace the source of the incident through the stack records. After that it’s in the Senator’s hands.’

  She gazed into Gardner’s eyes and suddenly felt sure he had no idea what had happened to Josef Marados. But surely he knew? How could any of them not know?

  But Gardner wasn’t questioning her about Marados’s death. He was concerned about the sudden, violent spike in the Hyperion’s computer systems while she’d been on the bridge on her own.

  ‘I am,’ she told him fervently, ‘one of the best. I can take you through the necessary protocols and show you everything I’ve done since I came on board. And the fact remains that this ship’s been quietly falling apart in orbit for the best part of a century. It’s like a three-legged dog. That they’ve managed to keep the thing flying at ail is remarkable.’

  Gardner put his hands up. ‘That won’t be necessary. I’m going to go talk to Senator Arbenz now, and I can guarantee he’ll run an independent systems analysis. Is there anything else you want to add?’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, holding his gaze, and injecting what she hoped was just the right mixture of irritation and outrage into her response. ‘This vessel is a shit-can. If you don’t let me do things my way and it ends up dumping the internal atmosphere because I wasn’t allowed to fully test the systems, it won’t be my fault. Otherwise, I need to know how it works and what holds it together, and that means running checks on systems that haven’t been properly maintained in a very long time.’

  ‘All right, but if there’s any chance whatsoever of any further disruptions occurring, I want you to clear it with me first. Understood?’

  Dakota nodded her assent and watched Gardner depart.

  Piri, who else has been reading the news reports coming out of Mesa Verde?

 

  She then had the Piri Reis recheck the Mesa Verde bulletins and found to her amazement that t
he news item about Marados’s death had been erased. She had her ship backtrack, but the original item Dakota had read no longer existed. There was no longer any evidence it had even been picked up by the Hyperion’s tach-net monitors.

  Dakota found herself gripped by an overwhelming sense of paranoia, a feeling that her grip on reality had become deeply tenuous. Dakota had read one thing . . . and, somehow, Gardner and the Freeholders had read another.

  Either she was going crazy and she’d imagined it all, and Josef was still alive back on Mesa Verde, or someone on board the Hyperion had reprogrammed the tach-net transponders to exclude any mention of his murder.

  She turned and glanced behind her. ‘You can come out now, Udo.’

  Udo Mansell emerged from the shadows to the rear of the bridge like a looming ghost.

  ‘Very good,’ said the Freeholder, stepping towards her. ‘How long did you know?’

  ‘Ever since you arrived through the service hatch. I know where everything is on this ship, at all times.’ She reached up and tapped the side of her head. ‘Remember?’

  He kept coming forward until he was peering down at her from his imposing height. He reached out to touch her cheek. She flinched, then stepped back till she had put a work console between them.

  ‘Why afraid?’ he asked her.

  ‘Who says I’m afraid?’

  ‘The problem with your kind is you don’t know how to talk to normal human beings. You’re all so busy being wired into each other’s brains, you’ve forgotten all the subtleties of normal human interaction. I’m sure you can’t be beaten when it comes to operating machinery like on this vessel, but when it comes to deception, you’re more of an open book than most. That’s how I can tell when you’re lying.’

  He kept moving closer to her, and Dakota found herself being gradually forced back towards the entrance to the bridge. At the last moment, Udo stepped around her, putting himself between her and the exit. She tried to push past him and he reached for her shoulder.

  She brought her fist up in instinctive response, aiming for his head. But he caught it with ease, as if she’d perfectly telegraphed the motion in advance. Her arm trembled under his grip as he forced it back down to her side. She yanked herself free and again put distance between them.

  Udo moved towards her once more, grinning widely. ‘Let’s look at some facts. We need you to perform a specific and important task. You obviously need us too, as you’re an illegal. It’s like that idiot Gardner said—the very fact you’re working for us makes you by definition a liar, because it’s the lies you tell that keep you alive. We both know that, right?’

  She went on the offensive as he reached out to her again. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her, but again he anticipated the move, and pushed down on her chest with his free arm.

  It would have been easier if the Hyperion’s bridge hadn’t been under spin, but instead provided anyone on the ship’s central ring with a close to Earth-normal gravity. She was always a better fighter in zero gee.

  She hit the floor hard, Udo twisting her arm so she was forced into a prone position beneath him, her face to the floor. A long, wicked-looking knife appeared in his free hand as he kneeled over her. Her throat constricted with horror as he brought the serrated edge close to her neck.

  She could smell the rank stink of his breath over her shoulder. She tried to push herself back up with her free hand and felt an explosion of pain in her other shoulder.

  ‘See that?’ he muttered, bringing the blade up closer to her face so she could see it more clearly. ‘Maybe you’d like to know how many throats it’s cut.’

  Dakota said nothing, her breaths erupting in short tight gasps.

  ‘Let’s get this straight,’ Udo continued. ‘I don’t like your kind. I saw what happened at Port Gabriel, and I don’t buy this crap about how it wasn’t really any of their fault. You’re all a bunch of untrustworthy walking fucking time bombs. That’s bad enough, but you—you like being that way. You like it so much, you’ve still got those chips in your head. What the fuck is that about, huh?’

  ‘I wasn’t there,’ Dakota gasped.

  ‘I really hope so,’ Udo snarled. ‘Because if you had been, you’d already be dead and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Gardner’s a businessman, he avoids seeing the messy side of things. Even the Senator and my brother have to play by certain rules. That’s how things are for them. Me, I prefer to get straight to the point and fuck the politics. So let’s be clear on this, Mala. I’ll be watching. Closely. The instant you screw up and I think it’s deliberate, or I think you’ve been lying to us, you’re dead.’

  ‘Well, you’re going to have a hell of a time steering this ship without me,’ she spat back.

  Udo laughed, and there was a momentary relaxation of pressure. ‘Steering this ship? If you only knew. Maybe it’s time you did.’

  ‘Hey, let her go.’

  She didn’t recognize the voice. With her arm twisted back and bent over, all she could see was the floor beneath her.

  ‘Hey. I said let her go.’

  The pressure on Dakota’s back relented momentarily, presumably because Udo was distracted by the sudden interruption. She took the opportunity to twist free of the Freeholder’s grasp, rolling over to one side as fast as she could move. He mumbled profanities and aimed a hefty kick at her: his boot struck home and sharp pain lanced through her hip. She yelped, and a moment later Udo had her by her hair.

  She caught sight of Lucas Corso, who stepped forward and locked one arm around Udo’s neck and tried to pull him away. Udo responded by reaching behind himself and grabbing at Corso’s shirt. He had to let go of her again to do this, and she took the opportunity to twist round and punch him hard in the stomach.

  Dakota scuttled out of Udo’s reach and watched as Corso tumbled to the floor of the bridge, winded by a blow. But Udo had his back to her for the moment, and Dakota’s military training kicked back in. She locked one arm around his neck, delivering a series of rapid punches to the side of the man’s head.

  It had almost no effect, and felt like punching hard granite. Her knuckles ached from the effort.

  ‘Stop this. Stop this now.’

  Dakota looked up to see Gardner had returned.

  ‘Udo. I’ll want to speak to you later. In the meantime, get the fuck off of the bridge.’

  For a moment, Dakota wondered if the Freeholder was going to do what he was told or if he’d attack Gardner as well. She could see the businessman had his own doubts, judging by the pallor of his skin, but he held his ground.

  ‘I’m telling you now, Udo,’ Gardner repeated, his voice pitched higher than usual, ‘I don’t want to see anything like this again. If Senator Arbenz has any sense, he’ll have you thrown out of the nearest airlock the instant he gets wind of this. Until then, return to your quarters.’

  Udo Mansell stood like a statue, a solid carved block of hatred focused on Gardner. Then he relaxed, and smiled, as if he’d just lost a friendly game of cards.

  ‘I think you’ll find my approach to shipboard security tends to produce high dividends,’ he replied, his voice suddenly sounding breezy and relaxed. ‘Catch you all later,’ he added, and stepped past Gardner and off the bridge.

  Gardner closed his eyes for a second or two, as if steadying his breathing. Corso sat quietly where he was, one hand pressed against his belly.

  ‘How did you know to come back?’ Dakota croaked. She let herself slide to the floor with her back resting against a console.

  Gardner shrugged. ‘I’ve only known Udo a little while, but he tends to be extremely predictable. Besides, I’m keen to protect my investments.’

  ‘And is it really worth it?’ Dakota asked, keeping her eye on Corso who was, after all, a Freeholder like the others. ‘Working with people like that, I mean?’

  ‘Just remember you’re on their territory here, and we all know why a lot of them don’t trust machine-heads.’

  Dakota laughed incredu
lously. ‘Then why hire me?’

  ‘If we don’t secure our tender, we don’t have the option of returning home,’ Corso explained. ‘Losing the new colony would be more than our lives are worth. That kind of thing tends to make a man like Udo edgy.’

  Dakota looked to both of them, one after the other. ‘Let’s get this straight. If he tries something like that again, I’ll kill him. Got that?’

  Gardner’s expression was weary as he moved towards the exit. ‘Then you’d better watch yourself carefully,’ he replied. ‘Do your job, and try and keep the surprises to a minimum. For the sake of my health, too, not just yours.’

  Dakota stared at the exit for several seconds after Gardner had gone. To her annoyance Corso now had a wide grin on his face.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ she demanded, picking herself up.

  ‘Nothing, really. I just have a habit of getting into fights I can’t win.’

  She found herself at a momentary loss of what else to say or do before anger took over. ‘How am I supposed to do anything if I have to constantly worry about being attacked by you people? Give me a reason why I should even stick around after what just happened!’

  Corso eyed her thoughtfully and shrugged. ‘So why are you sticking around?’

  Dakota struggled to find an answer and instead felt an intense wave of embarrassment wash over her. She stepped over to Corso and offered him a hand. ‘Thanks,’ she mumbled.

  Corso took the proffered hand and stood up laboriously, wincing as he pressed several fingers to his belly. ‘Forget it,’ he replied. ‘Udo’s a moron. As far as I’m concerned, he shouldn’t even be on this ship.’

  ‘So . . .’ she shrugged, ‘why did you help me?’

  Corso shot her a curious glance. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

  She gave him a bewildered look. ‘You’re on the same side as them.’

  ‘You think we’re allies?’ Corso laughed. ‘Anything but. These people are my enemies.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘You couldn’t have known,’ Corso replied, making to leave the bridge.

  ‘Wait.’ She put out a hand and stopped him. ‘Should you even have told me that?’