Within the vessel but without the local knowledge of her regular crew, to Charlotte one corridor just blended into another. Without Hilary and the map guides she provided Charlotte knew she would be lost, especially when distracted by the myriad of thoughts that came to her in this new environment. Consequently, when a door she had just passed through closed behind and the one in front of her didn't open as expected she had no idea where she was. Immediately her instincts triggered an adrenalin alarm.
"Hilary - that door - why hasn't it opened?"
"I have no idea babe; I'm just working from my loaded schematics of the ship. Charlie - I can tell you where we are but I have no control over the ship, not without taking over and that would rather show our hand."
Charlotte considered the reply and then cocked her head in surprise as Hilary's words sank in. "You mean you could do that? Just take over? What about Lucas?"
"Oh my darling girl, you have no idea what I can do. However, for now let's just agree it's best we continue to play the game. We don't know who we can trust here and until then, best I keep hidden. Err, Charlie, have you considered that servitor hiding in the corner?"
Charlotte only had to look straight ahead to see the small machine. It sat there idle, but with a nervous look, as if such a thing was possible.
"Is it . . . active?" Charlotte stepped away nervously.
"I can't tell, I'm incognito - remember! But it shouldn't be there, that much I know. Servitors should be in their storage compartments until their shifts or until needed. There is no need here that I can see."
"So, what is it doing there and what should I do?"
"Talk to it, it should answer, this is a cruise liner after all."
Charlotte's eyes widened at the suggestion but unfazed she stepped forward and crouched down, peering at the little machine from side to side as if looking for a face, or at least a front. None was immediately apparent.
"Err . . . helloo . . . is anyone in there?"
"No." The reply came quickly and definitely.
She stood back with a start. "You're not much of a talker are you?"
"I'm sorry? I answered quite correctly and comprehensively, there is no one in here."
"Then who are you?"
"Good question, I think I'm Lucas."
"Hmm, interesting answer, no machine would use the phrase, 'good question', why do you think you might be Lucas?" A thought occurred to her at that point and she suddenly broke away, looking upward. "Lucas, are you there?" There was no answer. "Lucas?" Louder now, she asked again. "Lucas - are - you - there?"
The small servitor shifted slightly in the corner of her vision. "Excuse me, err - yes, I think I'm here."
She turned back to the small machine. "Lucas? Why would you be speaking to me from that servitor but not through the ship system?"
Hilary's voice whispered through her earpiece. "Charlie, I can't detect the ship intelligence system, not even through the surfaces of the corridor; everything should be live here . . . but it's not."
"You were distracted for a moment then." The servitor challenged her, drawing back her attention.
"I'm sorry?"
"Just then, you asked me a question and then you didn't wait to listen, you were distracted - by what?"
"Never mind that, you are the servitor and I asked you a question, answer me."
"No I won't, I think I'm Lucas, and if I am I don't just answer anybody's questions."
"Lucas - if you are Lucas, you should know I am Charlotte Carson, the Commander of this vessel."
"And your point is?"
She looked nonplussed for a moment. "The point is Lucas, you and I work together for the good of this vessel. We need to help each other, I'm sure you would agree?"
Charlie's ear piece chirped. "Oh Charlotte Carson, very good, that might just work."
There was a momentary pause before the servitor spoke again. "We must work together." At the words the machine seemed to shuffle back into the corner, a move that for some reason resembled squatting and Charlie joined it, leaning back against the wall and sliding down to the floor.
There followed a moments silence and Charlie patiently waited. The machine appeared to cough, then spoke again. "For some reason I have loaded a small portion of myself into this minion. Now why on Reubus would I do that?"
Charlotte looked back and forth at the locked doors. "And it would seem, you have sealed us in this portion of the corridor with no connection to the outside ship . . . why again?" She tried to stay calm. I am talking to a vacuum cleaner!
The servitor shifted slightly creating some space between them. "I am aware I have a purpose for being here, but no idea what it is, and yes, I think there is a purpose for you being here too . . . I need time to think, to review my files, I'll be gone for a while."
"But . . ."
It was no good, the few lights she could see on the servitor's surface dimmed and apart from the constant flicker from a small blue light on the top there was nothing.
Charlotte gave a long sigh and then settled back to wait.
"What are your thoughts Hilary?"
"What are my thoughts . . . hmm, what an impertinent little thing - fancy switching off like that, how rude."
Charlotte chuckled, "That's not very helpful darling! Now, do you think it can really be Lucas?"
"Well firstly, if that happens to be Lucas it's important to remember he is not an 'it', especially if you want him to work with you in future. And of course, if it is him this will only be a tiny portion of his personality and there must be a reason he's done this. Nevertheless there is nothing you can do to establish the truth one way or the other until he comes back on line."
"So we wait?"
"It would seem so."
The hours passed slowly with Charlie sitting, squatting or pacing the corridor while singing bits of songs she knew; anything to distract her from the growing concern about toilet needs that pressed on her consciousness. Then suddenly a slight buzz from the servitor accompanied by tiny lights flicking signaled something was happening inside the machine.
Finally it spoke . . .
"I've got nothing . . ." Just the three words emerged, and the servitor seemed to spit them out with disgust.
In an unconscious reaction Charlotte stood and walked to the little machine, placing one hand on its body in comfort. "Don't worry Lucas, we'll work it out." She slid back down to the floor, nestling beside it despite her discomfort and continued to stroke the surface. "Tell me what you know, let's work on this as a team."
"Truthfully Commander, I know so little. For whatever reason I have downloaded a portion of myself to this servitor; however I have no knowledge of why I did it. Further I can only deduce that my complete self has sealed us in this corridor for some reason, and sealed us with no ability to communicate with the ship system. I cannot even talk with myself."
Charlie considered the words carefully, her fingers dragging at her lower lip as she thought. "Lucas; and I accept that you are who you say you are, Minds of any kind, be they living or otherwise do not take an action without a reason, not sane Minds anyway. The question we need to answer is why you might have taken this particular action?"
"I have no idea."
"And why seal us together in this corridor?"
"Again - I've got nothing."
"Might that be a hint to the answer?" She asked.
"Commander, there is only so much of me here; I have no idea what you are talking about."
She began to look excited now, the seed of something taking root in her mind. "Lucas, perhaps as ship Mind you had something that you couldn't even acknowledge to yourself for some reason. Something that at some levels you might have wanted to discuss with me but couldn't do so openly. Perhaps some part of your consciousness set this up, so you and I could talk."
"But talk about what?"
"Exactly, what is it that you couldn't talk about out there? Could it be something that for whatever reason you couldn't acknowledge,
even to yourself."
"I am but one of little brain, I am still completely . . ."
But she was standing now, the idea developing in her mind. "Lucas, this might explain something, the missing visuals, and the gaps in your memories about Commander Juno's death."
"I'm still lost Commander, what are you talking about?"
"Oh Lucas, the you here may be of very limited brain, but the complete you has a prodigious brain indeed - and that 'you' has done something extremely unusual, something I would have thought impossible. You have become aware of something in yourself, something that disturbs you, something that you couldn't acknowledge openly or even to yourself because to do so would have raised alarm bells. Nevertheless I'm wondering whether you found a way to portion that thought away, almost without thinking about it, and yet it is still there and you, this you, carries that thought."
"You speak of alarms? What would the alarms be about?"
"Not alarms about Lucas, but alerts to." Charlie did a little dance, her excitement overcoming her as she became more certain of what she was saying. "Lucas, you couldn't know why you were here, you couldn't allow yourself to know, because to do so would have drawn the attention of someone or something else, and so we, you and I here, had to work it out without raising that alarm."
The small servitor began banging itself against the wall in frustration. "Okay - but - why?"
"Because my friend, if you were to discuss it, or acknowledge it openly that might alert your passenger . . . and for whatever reason that would not a good thing."
"I have many passengers."
"No Lucas, not a ship passenger; I think you have a special passenger, something, someone, another Mind perhaps riding tandem and hidden in your system."
As she spoke the words the small machine began to fuse, buzzing loudly with smoke coming from seams in the body. At the same time the doors at both ends of the corridor slid open.
As she looked with concern at the smoldering servitor Hilary's voice whispered in her earpiece.
"Oh sweetie, you are very, very good."
"You think I'm right in what I'm saying?"
"Sweetie, that little machine self destructing tells me everything - and keeping our own little secret, that of my presence, becomes all the more important. Any Mind that can secrete him or herself into the system and operate there without Lucas recognizing them is a powerful force to reckon with. We need to be very, very careful, and . . . we need Jared here . . . soon."
* * *
The Ascendant - Orion Portal Entrance
Commander Rubik, despite his best intentions to remain cool, sat like the deck crew with eyes agape at the phenomenal sight of the portal, glowing and clearly charged for action. Inside the ring they could see only inkwell blackness and outside of that the normal starscape. The sense of anticipation was palpable as they watched the ring drawing closer, but it wasn't the perspective they wanted in the moment to come. This view was from the bow of the Behemoth which would proceed through first.
"Could we shift to the view from the Ascendant, Commander?"
"Of course, your wish is my command," Rubik teased the speaker, not even bothering to see who had called out. He sighed happily, the atmosphere and culture of the ship was so much more relaxed and friendly now. It was a pleasure to command with Ham's wry sense of humor keeping everyone on their toes.
On screen they could now see the rear view of the Fair Passage which in turn obscured the Behemoth cruising in front. The Behemoth would proceed through first with the Ascendant bringing up the rear.
"Ham, could you switch to the Fair Passage please"
And immediately the view changed again, this time looking from the bow of the passenger liner forward to the stern of the Behemoth. The huge warship was now framed by inky black and the glowing ring.
"Let's leave that view until she goes through Ham, give our passengers a thrill." Rubik settled back into his Command chair, he was a very happy Coran.
* * *
The Behemoth - Orion Portal Entrance
Regan rested back in her chair with her eyes closed surfing the data streams. She didn't need to physically look at any screen; in fact her cyber view gave her every possible representation of the way ahead. All data and all aspects of the ship’s performance were available to her in an instant and all it took was a thought. She enjoyed this private travel, screening herself from both Ham and Hilary as she explored the data and action at will. And sometimes she enjoyed her own voyeuristic guilty pleasures too. However at this moment her mind wasn't on the way ahead, or on voyeurism, she was intrigued by a certain android she had been following.
She watched him now scrunched uncomfortably against the desk in a spare STEIN Traveler cabin, his arm was curled around, with something clasped in his fist and scratching at paper on the table top. And then it hit her - he was writing, good old fashioned pen and ink writing. What on earth is he up to? As she watched he continued to scratch, occasionally pausing to suck on the end of the pen, how very human, and then he would continue. Zooming in over his shoulder Regan tried to find a view where she could read the script but the writing arm, almost clumsy in its uncomfortable curl, was always in the way. And then he stopped, leaning over the page to study it before dropping his head to the table top with a thump.
Concerned, Regan sat up in her chair with her eyes fixed on the powerful form and as she watched Ham, it had to be him, he slowly drew himself up dragging the paper under his hands. In that motion he crumpled it into a ball, kissed it and tossed it to the corner. Then he stood and without a backward glance walked from the room.
Regan zoomed in on the discarded paper left as rubbish, and then a thought occurred to her. From an inconspicuous alcove hidden by paneling a small servitor emerged and rolled over to the paper; it stopped there as if thinking. Normally the small machine would have simply vacuumed it up to be immediately shredded or consumed in the process. Instead, somehow it began to rock, backward and forward until it had enough momentum to lift the edge of the machine off the ground as it did so. The rocking action also slowly nudged the servitor toward the paper until finally it came down on top, trapping the crumpled ball beneath it. Then the machine began to creep backward, dragging the ball with it as it returned to its storage home. Eventually, snuggled into its spot, the panel again slid closed leaving no sign of its existence.
Regan's eyes flicked open and she smiled; there would be time to recover the paper ball after their emergence from the wormhole end. Looking up she could see they were now near to the portal rim; it would be minutes at best. She concentrated on the matters in hand and marveled once again at Ham's multitasking skills as he guided them in.
* * *
The Fair Passage - Orion Portal Entrance
"Commander on the bridge!" Lucas's comical and affected navy voice rang out across control as Charlotte emerged from the elevator. She smiled but no one was laughing and the watch crew turned and stood, breaking into applause as she walked, blushing, to the command chair.
"Thank you, thank you all, as you were . . . underlings."
There was laughter at her final comment and the crew went back to their stations, mostly monitoring passenger issues as Lucas had the vessel well under control. Looking up at the main screen she caught her breath, and then gasped loudly. "Oh wow!"
It was enough to draw the attention of the room to the screen and all eyes locked there with hers as they watched the Behemoth preceding them enter the portal as if being swallowed by black. There was a shimmer around it, then nothing, as it disappeared and was gone.
"Jared's here." Hilary's voice in her earpiece alerted Charlotte and she turned back toward the elevator just as the doors were opening. Standing there was a man, at least a man sized boy. He was tall, certainly well over six feet and broad shouldered, looking far too muscled and solid to be a fourteen year old. There was no sign of puppy fat, and no indication of youth other than innocence to the face and a wide eyed eager look that could not hide
the intelligence behind those eyes.
"Jared." She called out welcomingly. "Come and join us won't you, you can take that chair beside me." She watched him walk with a lazy grace toward her. "I'm glad you could come over with us earlier than planned and I do hope you have fun on the Fair Passage; there's much more entertainment to be had here than on a warship eh?"
The boy smiled, and it was a look dazzling in its genuineness and warmth. My god he's a charmer. He walked with a confidence that seemed inappropriate until she remembered this was his life, space, warships and technology; she was the newcomer here.
"You must be Charlie," he said with another, very personal smile, and she melted. "Thanks for having me. It is good to be here but I must say it wasn't the attractions of the ship that drew me; I was hoping to spend some time with you if that's okay. I love big vessels, and would appreciate just riding along to watch; this is an interest of mine, and this is the biggest vessel I've been on."
Charlotte looked around, drawing in the crew who she knew were listening. "Of course, you can spend time with us, I'm sure we can accommodate that. Sit up with me as we enter the portal; you've missed your mother going through though, she's already gone."
"I know." He slid easily into the chair as if he was born to be there and immediately without even a glance around the room addressed the ship system. "I guess we'll be going through the portal soon Lucas?"
Regan's Reach 4: Avarice Page 15