Fairweather

by Jones, Raya

  ‘A site can be tampered with from anywhere.’

  ‘Please help me,’ pleaded the little brown frog.

  ‘Did you create this frog?’

  ‘Not all of it. It’s from a school competition. It won a prize,’ said the frog—and my creepy sensation intensified. The frog pleaded like an echo of Fairweather, ‘Please help me. It’s my own gallery and I’m locked out of it.’ An address was transmitted.

  I didn’t need to look it up. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Dark Sun. I’m Dark Sun.’

  It’s the kind of cliché username that corporate hackers give themselves. But I knew that the last posting on Fairweather’s gallery blog began: There is a sun so dark that its black light smothers life. I said, ‘This site is registered to a deceased person. The seal is authentic.’

  ‘I’m not dead.’

  I terminated the exchange.

  The signal was untraceable, diffused with expertise you’d expect from Cyboratics.

  By the time we reached Sol Gate, the crew grew used to my solitary ways and I grew fond of them, but I looked forward to leaving. Fred was processing out of the cryonic facility. I sent him a message to meet me in the crew canteen. He came. I sat at the captain’s table and invited him to join me. He glanced at the two spacers in attendance. ‘It’s alright,’ I assured him.

  ‘The captain said so?’

  ‘I’m allowing you to sit here.’

  People smiled at him warmly. A couple of women with babies waved to him from the other end of the canteen. He waved back, frowning at the babies, placed his travel bag on the floor, and sat down. He watched spacers bring me food and drink. There was soon more than enough for the two of us. I told them to get him a plate and a glass. Afterwards they retreated to a respectful distance, and kept others from straying too near.

  I wanted to hug him, but the table was between us. ‘Hi Fred, you look well. Help yourself.’ I indicated the food and started eating.

  He smiled. ‘Good to see you too, but you don’t look too good.’

  ‘I’m still recovering from the last jump.’

  ‘I’ve heard about that. What possessed you to do it?’

  ‘I’m waiting for you to explain it to me. This food is better hot, believe me. You don’t taste it when it burns your mouth.’

  He examined the food with suspicion. The Aurora cooks invented their own recipes. ‘It’s bizarre, Al. You are three years older than when we met last month for me. Let’s never go on a longer journey together. I’ll lose the age advantage.’

  ‘Freedom Cordova, if we ever go interstellar again please knock me unconscious and throw me into cryonics before the first jump.’

  ‘Consider it done! Have you taken over the ship? The ones who served you are pretty high in the pecking order. I can tell by their tattoos.’

  ‘They are good people. I’m just a guest.’

  ‘You sure don’t behave like “just a guest”. You sit at the power table, you allow me to sit here. I don’t see any tattoos on you, eh?’ I shook my head. He sighed in relief. ‘Thank goodness for small mercies. But you’ve been assimilated into their hierarchy at a command level. If you haven’t usurped Romanova, you must have done something extraordinary. Has she cashed in her voucher?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Have you invented another training program for their children? No? Saved the ship system from malware? No? I know! You singlehandedly rescued them from space pirates.’

  ‘Grow up, Fred.’

  ‘You did the Mystic Other.’

  ‘Give over. I did my usual paid jobs and got sick, worked and got sick again in that order nine times. At some point they started treating me like some sort of honorary captain. I went along with that, being thankful that the real captain was easy-going about it. I won’t stand a chance in a power struggle with her.’

  ‘She feels the same about you, tough old dog that she is.’ He glanced around. Nobody was within earshot, but he lowered his voice to a bare whisper. ‘You’ve started the power play when you refused cryonics despite knowing how badly the jump affects you. Has she told you that she came to see me in the gym after the fourth or fifth jump?’

  She didn’t tell me and I didn’t know.

  Romanova interrogated him long and hard about me. He did his best to reassure her that I had no intention of taking over her ship.

  I protested, ‘You’re making it up. After the first jump it was obvious to anyone that I’m not cut out for a spacer life.’

  ‘After the fourth it was obvious to her that you are, seeing how well you cope with your handicap. It frightens her to see how tough you are.’

  ‘She told you that?’

  ‘Not in so many words, but I can read people. Especially when it comes to power politics.’

  To put her mind at ease, he swore her to secrecy and told her that we were bound to Earth on an undercover assignment. So he told me. I’ve never found out whether it was true. But he was right about the power play, I realised. To my own surprise, I found myself telling him about my journey to Ronda. I accompanied Dee Valiant, who was assigned to audit the Moonrat. The crew made our life hell.

  ‘I knew it!’ Fred laughed at my puzzled look. ‘You are CSG. Auditing a ship is a two-agent job.’

  There was another agent. Dee and I wanted to stay together. I could freelance from anywhere, I told him.

  He stopped smirking. ‘I didn’t realise you two were an item. I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you.’

  ‘She couldn’t put up with me the way you do,’ I shrugged.

  I ended up helping her with the audit after they raped the other man and threw him naked out of an airlock.

  Fred frowned, gazing at me thoughtfully, ‘How did you survive?’

  I wasn’t proud of what I had to do. I went along with their story that the other agent had committed suicide. It was true in a way. He didn’t understand gangs and threw his weight about as if they were citizens. There are worse things you can do to spacers than to strike their ship off the Register. ‘I killed their ship.’

  ‘You did what!’

  ‘Keep your voice down.’

  The canteen had emptied but there were still a few people about, and they glanced at us.

  I told him in whisper that it was a jinx program. It was meant to annoy, but those things are unpredictable. One misfortune led to another. The Moonrat had to be disbanded. Romanova knew. ‘If she was worried about me, it’s because of that,’ I told him. ‘I suspect that’s why she gave us the ride, not the promise of a free consultation.’

  ‘The carrot and the stick. I like your technique.’ Then he sighed, ‘I am sorry about you and Dee Valiant. We don’t have much luck with long-term relationships, do we?’

  ‘We have each other.’

  ‘God help us.’

  Someone came to clear the table. When she was gone I disclosed that I still had no way of getting near Wye Stan Pan. ‘You can ask him to give me audience, you know him well.’

  He shook his head vigorously. ‘No. I visited Cy City only twice, one time for Suzie’s wedding and the other time for her funeral.’

  ‘He was in your Schoolyard.’

  ‘You’ve dug that far? Silly question, that’s how you know my nickname. Yes, he was. He was relocated to Sol when he was a teenager. But he wasn’t in my crowd. He’s five years older than I am. It’s a big difference when you’re ten and someone is fifteen. As far as he knows I’ve killed his wife. What do you think he feels about me?’

  It was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway, ‘I think he loves you dearly. You’ve helped his nation reach top of the arms race. Thanks to that terrorist attack Cyboratics had permission to increase their defence forces by 10%. How did Wye Stan Pan find out that my mother didn’t die in the explosion? Does he know she didn’t?’

  ‘Oh yes, he most definitely knows. Al, you have to understand, Suzie and I had different agendas. I wanted her all to myself, but it wasn’t as if I was rescuing her from a
bad marriage. He was kind to her. She sabotaged an evil project of his. Please don’t ask me anymore.’

  I insisted. ‘My mother loved you very much. She told me that you were the man she’d spend her life with if circumstances had been different.’

  He stared at me nonplussed. ‘She talked about me? You knew all along?’

  ‘No, I didn’t realise it was you. She told me so many contradictory things about her background, and most of them were lies I had to memorise to tell people, and then I had to forget them and memorise new lies when we moved again.’

  ‘Good grief, what an education. Do you ever get confused about your identity?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘No, I guess not. You change aliases like I change my clothes. But there’s something very stable about you. Whatever it is, hold on to it, okay?’ He grabbed my hand. I felt the warmth of his hand and the strength of his grip.

  I felt that sense of place, of freedom and fate, of home.

  He read my expression correctly. ‘Hold on to this feeling, Al. You’ll need it when we meet the self-replicating son of a bitch, bloody Version 7.’ He let go of my hand. ‘Did she mention me by name?’

  ‘Yes. I’ve checked.’

  ‘You’ve checked? You used to record your talks with your mom?’

  I used to keep a log of things she wanted me to memorise. I couldn’t make much sense of what she told me that day after they met in Terminal 37. She was crying so much. She flung the Harvey rabbit to the pile, told me to log out of school and listen to something important. ‘She told me about a man she loved and couldn’t be with,’ I told him. ‘She said, if this man ever found me, he’d shoot me dead on the spot. He might use different names but his real name is Fred.’

  Fred was silent.

  A loudspeaker announced the arrival of a shuttle to the Earth-bound ferry.

  ‘Beats me why she took that bloody rabbit home,’ he muttered at last.

  ‘We traded things. Everything finds its use eventually.’

  ‘Always the practical one, that’s my Suzie. Except for seeing the bigger picture,’ he spoke sadly. ‘Did she say why I’d want to shoot you?’

  ‘No. She was wrong anyway. I’m not dead.’

  ‘You’re not out of the woods yet, sunshine. But let’s have some quality time together first.’

  There was an apartment in Phoenix-3 we could use for a few months, he said. ‘Cousin Isabella has an appalling taste in interior decoration, but otherwise it will be just like home. You’re welcome to stay if you can tolerate sleeping on a bed and eating edible food.’ His words were drowned by the announcement that the shuttle was open for boarding. He got up, grabbing his bag. ‘Shall we make a dash for the ferry?’

  I stayed seated. ‘It’s the Earth Direct. I’m going to Luna first. You’d better go. I’ll join you on Earth.’

  ‘Will you come with me now if I tell you what that cryptogram was about?’

  ‘I know it was about the arms race. It’s who sent it I’m after.’

  He dropped his bag and sat down again. ‘One day you’ll tell me what’s your real role in the CSG.’

  There was no direct public transport to Luna. The obvious route would have been to board the Earth Direct and transfer in Terra. Fred surmised that I didn’t want him along. He sat back smugly, awaiting my next move. I thanked him for staying. He asked, suspicious, ‘Are you being sarcastic?’

  ‘No. When we enter Sol Gate I need you to hold my hand.’

  ‘I hope you don’t mean it literally.’

  ‘It’s going to be scary for me. I’ve got used to not having popup reps and adverts, pushy androids and people teleporting right left and centre.’

  He sighed in exasperation. ‘I’ll tell you what. I’ll make it easier for us, me especially. I’ll get you a company taxi to Luna if it doesn’t compromise your position in the CSG to accept gifts from OK. Yeah, yeah, you don’t have a position to compromise. We have to wait in Sol Gate but we’ll do it my way. You’ll be my guest on my expenses account. I’ll log you as my escort so they won’t ask for your name. How about that?’

  At the arrivals lobby Fred waved the palm of his hand in front of a discreet white panel that bore nothing but an elegant suggestion of a gold leaf. The Gold Leaf Club was too exclusive to advertise itself. An August android promptly arrived to assist us. Its makers had made it the likeness of a slim handsome Indian male with a thin moustache and a streak of silver in ‘his’ black hair. It handed Fred a pert set for a facility that offered refreshments, a gym, baths, communication booths, and private recuperation rooms. The gadget was sleeker than the models we had seen three years earlier. ‘Just the one pert?’ queried Fred. August explained that if we kept physical contact, I’d be teleported along.

  Fred grabbed my elbow and we materialised in a plush lounge with subdued lights and music. It reminded me of the lounge in Terminal 37 all those years ago. Watching me keenly, Fred observed, ‘You look worried. It’s not too scary here. They even keep the ads on mute like you like it. Or are you afraid that you might get used to this luxury lifestyle?’ His eyes twinkled mischievously. He indicated a boutique nearby, ‘May I buy you a designer biosuit?’

  August immediately offered to show us a catalogue.

  ‘He’s teasing me,’ I told the android. ‘Do you know who I am?’

  ‘Jexu Jiu,’ August confirmed flatly.

  ‘Can I check you out?’

  August activated a polite puzzlement facial expression, raising an eyebrow. ‘I’m sorry, sir. I don’t understand which service you are requesting.’

  ‘I want to access you and read all your files.’

  ‘Not again.’ It turned to Freedom, who could barely contain his laughter. ‘Do you require anything, sir?’

  ‘Not for the moment. Go save your soul.’ As soon as August vanished, he inquired, ‘I’m intrigued: “Not again”?’

  I hacked the local andronet as soon as the Aurora was within range. The CSG paid me a retainer to test the vulnerability of the Gen-5 at random. The August was recently installed in Sol Gate, and had some new modifications, so it was within my remit to test it.

  Fred laughed. ‘But he’s still alive, how come? I know, I know. It’s not a “he” and not alive.’

  ‘It blocked me. I didn’t try too hard. It was mainly to let it know I’m around.’

  ‘There’s a word for what you are doing to them. It’s called bullying. I’m so proud of you, son.’

  He insisted on following me to a communication booth. I had arranged to speak with Ivana, who was still with Ricardo’s people. First I had another call to make. I contacted a few restaurants and found one prepared to deliver a large pizza to Romanova on the Aurora. It would be several days before she’d allow herself shore leave.

  Then we spoke with Ivana. She told us that she couldn’t imagine a better life, and held her baby in front of the camera to show us. ‘We call her Al Freedom after you guys.’

  Fred said afterwards, heading to the bar, ‘It was good to see her and the baby. You still look worried. What’s bothering you?’

  ‘I was in a place like this once. Why did SocServ give me an exec treatment?’

  He stopped walking. ‘I had nothing to do with that. I really didn’t know who you were at the time. If I’d known, I’d… I have no idea what I might have done. But I wouldn’t have shot you. Hell’s bells, why did Suzie think that I’d do that?’ He continued walking, cussing furiously under his breath. A moment later he said, ‘My team has found out that your sponsor was your mother’s aunt. Thank me later.’

  Fred was determined to educate me about cocktails. He and the barman went to read a menu that rotated above the counter further down. The barman kept darting glances at me. He was about my age. If August wasn’t android, you could mistake them for cousins.

  Air displacement ruffled my hair. A young woman materialised almost on top of me. She toppled, grabbed my forearm to steady herself, and vanished again.

  It happened very
quickly.

  I felt a slight tingling on my forearm—and instantly stripped off my biosuit, flinging it down to the floor, and in the same swift motion pulled out a tool from the rucksack and shot a dart at the garment. It started to dissolve. It took seconds. I stood naked, hearing the barman protest that I couldn’t do that, my own voice shouting back, ‘I’ve got spiked, it can happen to anyone!’ and Fred saying, ‘No, only you, sunshine.’

  At my feet the biosuit turned grey in ugly patches that quickly spread, becoming holes that gave out foul fumes.

  A small crowd gathered around.

  Stashing the tool back in the rucksack, I took out the headband and switched on the camera pin, turning my back to the crowd. Someone sniggered, ‘That’s not what you need to cover.’ There were giggles, but most onlookers were mesmerised by the biosuit decaying before their very eyes. Nearly everyone was recording the event.

  A woman came up close to take pictures, rasping that she had never seen anything like that, and she was in Nanotronics who manufacture this fabric. A disposal robot rolled by. She had it paused, saying that she wanted to capture the whole process. ‘What did you do to it?’ she asked me. I told her to ask her chiefs. ‘I’m a CEO,’ she said. ‘What do you mean, you’ve got spiked?’

  Fred told her to ask Calvin Cray. She shut up.

  The barman handed me a bathrobe. I put it on gratefully.

  Fred suggested he’d buy me the new suit now. Annoyed, I replied that I could afford it myself. ‘Didn’t you keep all your credit cards in your pockets?’ he pointed out.

  ‘Yes, the badge too.’

  I also carried several handy gizmos in that biosuit, such as the device to detect listening devices. I suddenly felt truly naked.

  The cocktails Fred had ordered were placed in front of us by an August, who retreated hastily. Fred raised his glass. ‘Cheers. My escorts usually wait until we get to a private room before taking off their clothes.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, cheers.’ I took a sip. It was cold and sweet, but I didn’t take much notice of the taste. I started to feel the chill. The lounge’s temperature was set with fully clothed people in mind. You are never cold in a biosuit. The fabric adjusts to the surroundings. Most models double up as spacesuits. A biosuit is like a life form in its own right. It can’t stop gunfire, but it will heal itself even as you lie dying. It took intensive research on my part to discover the anti-nano that could kill it swiftly. I had the tool delivered to the Aurora as soon as we arrived in Sol.