Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  Laura bit her tongue until her husband engaged what appeared to be autopilot. Then she asked, “Did you seduce me because you needed another Index?”

  Kaguya snorted. “Seduce? He did everything but beat you off with a stick.” She paused for a moment. “No, wait, he tried that, too.”

  Holding up a finger, Laura said, “You, quiet.”

  “I have to agree with Kaguya. I didn’t know what you were until you kicked my ass blind-fighting,” Stu replied. “At which point, you were the one shoving your mons at me.”

  She bit her lip to keep from smiling. “You should have told me.”

  “I told you how rare and important you were every day. Both your mothers asked me not to tell you the truth until we reached the ship.”

  “You’re not married to them.”

  Stu whispered, “You’re right. Could you hold my hand?”

  Laura placed her hands on her hips. “You don’t get off that easy. Don’t think I’ll get all doe-eyed at your charm like all those students at the school.”

  Kaguya interrupted, broadcasting to everyone over the PA. “Three interceptors closing fast.” She rolled into an evasive spiral.

  “I need you to extend my senses beyond their laser range so we don’t all die,” Stu explained.

  She removed her glove and slipped her hand into his left. “Glad to.”

  The moment the couple made contact, Stu relaxed. “I can see their mass, Icarus fields, and burn rates. Adjusting course.”

  Kaguya said, “They’re herding us toward the enforcers the way wolves would.”

  “Too many of them to confront,” Laura said. “They’ll cut us to ribbons.”

  “Maybe not,” Stu said. “Quiet, and free up some of that marvelous brainpower of yours.” In the Collective Unconscious, he enfolded her in an embrace more intimate than the physical.

  Laura yielded to his lead.

  Eyes closed, he corkscrewed though the enemy formation and back to the desired approach vector.

  “You’re a fantastic pilot,” Laura said.

  “Still on our tail and closing,” Kaguya reported.

  “Take over,” Stu snapped. He turned the chair to face their pursuer and held his right hand in the air as if palming a basketball. “Slower or we’re toad in the hole when we hit the landing bay. I need them closer.”

  For an instant, Laura could see space as a hundred shades of blue instead of black. She saw a flash of him gripping the outline of an enemy Icarus field the way a man would pretend to squeeze the full moon between two fingers. Trusting Stu, she said, “Do it, Mom.”

  Kaguya faked a clogged injector and slowed the shuttle by a third. “Laser range in ten, nine, eight …”

  Stu grunted with effort and twisted the invisible basketball ten degrees, as if turning the spherical engine on the interceptor.

  Laura felt dizzy the way she did after an hour of Quantum Computing trance. She glanced at the radar screen and the impossible happened. The leftmost pursuer swerved to collide with the closest craft. The debris from the crash forced the third pursuer to veer off. No one else on board knew how close the shuttle had come to annihilation. “You just single-handedly stopped the attack.”

  “Couldn’t have done it without you, partner,” Stu said. “Get some rest. We’ll return the rental some time when there’s less traffic.”

  Assisting had drained her, but she gazed at him in awe for several moments. “What are you?”

  “I told you, Gravity Boy. I played with ship’s fields as a kid. I’d jump off towers and change the gravity level on the way down so I could pretend to fly. Gave everyone heart attacks. Before you came along, I could only affect fields two kilometers away.”

  Kaguya smiled. “Those pictures of you in that cape were hilarious.”

  Seeing Laura’s confusion, Stu prompted, “On the locket. On the way to Tierra del Fuego? Maybe you were asleep by then.”

  “You could hold off the whole fleet single-handedly,” Laura deduced.

  “Unmanned interceptors are nothing. Besides, somebody would be smart enough to throw rocks or use a high-powered laser eventually. That’s why I have to practice hide and seek.”

  “You people risked that ability falling into Grandfather’s hands?” Laura said.

  “It was worth it to rescue you and the others we recruited,” Stu replied.

  How can I stay angry at this man?

  Sanctuary opened its lens soon after. Stu landed with more flair and less vibration than before.

  Over the radio, Zeiss said, “Gravity Boy, you’ve upped your game.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Something you want to tell us?”

  Stu stammered. “I … I …”

  Laura had nothing to be embarrassed about. “He’d like to introduce you to the partner he pair-bonded with today. You have a problem with that, commander?”

  “No, ma’am. That would be my honor,” Zeiss replied.

  She wanted to cry again, for happy reasons.

  Kaguya volunteered to shut down and secure the shuttle.

  Chapter 42 – Meeting the Parents

  When Laura tried to ask Stu a question, he bounced off into the landing bay. Joan boarded the shuttle and handed out four sticky, Velcro-like straps while Oleander lectured. “Place them on your feet and hands. Beginners should keep at least one foot on the floor at all times. Secure your next hold before peeling off the last. If you get in trouble, don’t panic. Just call out to Snowflake for help, and he’ll dispatch someone to assist you.”

  Laura and her mother had watched the original Sanctuary videos where the crew demonstrated this equipment. About the time they were both wrapped with straps, practicing attachment and detachment on the ceramic deck of the landing bay, Stu came back with a floating, gray wheelchair.

  Laura asked, “Is that made of those antigravity panels that snap together like Legos?”

  “Superconductors, but yeah.”

  “Concentrate on moving forward, like you’re swimming,” Eowyn advised the women in her group.

  Stu gave a charming smile. “Ms. Quinn, as you already have extensive experience walking in microgravity, could you help me with the other side of this chair? Safety regulations require two escorts near any drop off.”

  “I don’t need a chair,” Laura complained.

  Eowyn nodded. “I can see why you need the help. Hop in, Mrs. Llewellyn. If you don’t cooperate, I have to unload the shuttle. I’m an officer, and that would set a bad precedent.”

  “This gives me a chance to speak to her without the other Nyxians,” Stu whispered. “Play along.”

  As a favor, Laura agreed.

  Stu pushed her chair toward a gold, rectangular wall. “Place your hand on the center.”

  At Laura’s touch, the gold material folded out of the way like origami. The alien nature of the technology awed her. When she reached the other side, the airlock flattened itself once more.

  Separated from the others, Stu took a red, plastic alert bracelet and attached it to Eowyn’s wrist. “My wife was born with all her Page talents, and you, Ms. Quinn, read Mind-Machine near the age of sixteen and Ethics seven years later. Did you suffer any ill effects from your pages other than paranoia?”

  “No,” replied the UN investigator.

  “If you experience disorientation or feelings of persecution, please tell our nurse as soon as possible. The last man who thought he could handle the side effects of subspace blinded my dad and tried to kill several people before Mira kicked the stuffing out of him. We tend to err on the side of caution now.”

  Eowyn shook her bottle of meds. “My problems stem from the fact that someone really is out to get me, but I understand and agree with your terms.”

  As they descended the ramp to the decontamination chamber, a moving circle of luminescence followed them down the hall. “You have a halo,” Laura commented.

  “I don’t need my eyes to navigate this route. Mom’s trying to make a good impression for
your sake.”

  Eowyn frowned. “You told Mo your parents were dead.”

  “I said they passed on, and I visit them at the chapel.” Down the passage, he pulled up short as he almost walked into a car-sized cylinder with magnetic coils and antennae. Thick power cables connected to the device that blocked the main doorway. “Oops. Don’t want to go that way.” Instead, he opened a hidden door to a five-meter, round elevator. “We’ll take the cargo lift to the control saucer. Our original crew used the decontamination pods to access the ship, but we don’t have many of those left. Oleander had to come this way when she was pregnant. This will be standard entry procedure for the new crew. We’ll just need thorough medical exams before we can leave the saucer and enter the biosphere.”

  After they dropped for a time, Laura’s stomach felt queasy, and Eowyn’s hair floated upward. “Zero g?”

  Stu halted the elevator. “Yeah. Sanctuary is a big balloon under the surface of subspace. Because the surface of the balloon is maintained by gravity generators, the direction of ‘down’ changes once we’re inside the sphere.” He pressed a button, and the entire cage rotated 180 degrees before proceeding.

  After several moments, the door opened into the ceramic-hulled storage room of the ship. Wooden benches and crates of green jumpsuits lined the floor in an improvised visitor-orientation chamber.

  “All the bedrooms and mess hall ring the central control room,” Stu explained. “I’m taking you to the medical bay so the doc can check you both out.”

  As he pushed her chair into the storage room, Laura asked, “Where will the others be?”

  “We’re early. I was hoping to—” A blonde in an archaic UN uniform peeked around the corner. Stu stepped back, as if bracing for an attack.

  Laura instinctively stood to a crouch and raised her hands in a defensive stance. Then her arms went limp. The woman reminded her of the computerized locket photo, showing what Laura would look like with a few years of age progression and a new hairdo. This is weird—a good weird. I belong somewhere.

  The woman circled her for a moment. They had differences, certainly. Laura was much taller, with a stronger chin and cheekbones. Mira’s hair and nails were shorter and more utilitarian. She wore no makeup, but she didn’t need it. Her eyes were amazing, and her smile lit the room.

  “Mom?” Laura asked.

  Mira wrapped her in a hug. “I thought you were all lost, that I’d never have children. You’re perfect.”

  When she pulled away to examine her daughter, Mira elbowed Stu in the solar plexus by surprise. “You almost lost her for me.”

  Stu doubled over.

  “He needed me to take out the interceptors,” Laura explained. She didn’t fuss over him because she was still a little peeved about the whole lying thing. “We’re a team now.”

  Mira glared at him. “You couldn’t wait to jump into bed? You Llewellyns are all the same. You promised!”

  “Please,” Laura said, stepping between them. Stu wasn’t even blocking. She could feel his self-loathing. “He did everything he could to resist.”

  “You’ve only known him a couple weeks. He could be an ax murderer. Worse, he could snore!”

  “My dad vouched for him, and my grandfather tried to kill him. Those character references are enough for me,” Laura replied. “I know we’re literally from different worlds, but we had to bond to save Monty. I wouldn’t have found my brother in the blizzard otherwise.”

  Mira tried to object several times. “Oh. Well, I suppose that’s okay, as long as you’re not pregnant. I’m not ready to be a grandmother yet.”

  “I believe he was trying to sneak her to sick bay for a complete checkup before the others arrive.” Conrad Zeiss, the tall commanding officer, offered Stu a hand up.

  “Sir. Yes, sir.”

  Conrad took Laura’s hand next and twirled her around. “I wish your real grandparents and Aunt Claire had lived to see you.”

  “She’s wicked smart and killer at hide and seek,” Stu bragged.

  “High praise, indeed,” the commander joked.

  “Could we let her sit back down, sir? Her right foot was injured, and Doc Auckland should make sure it’s not infected.”

  “Sound reasoning,” Conrad said, helping her back into the chair. “Could you two let her mother and I take over medical-transport duty? It would give us a moment alone with our newest family member.”

  “Sure,” Stu agreed. “I’ll supervise feeding the minerals off the shuttle to Snowflake.”

  “That explains it,” Eowyn blurted.

  “What?” Stu asked.

  Eowyn pointed toward the landing area. “The interceptors are never that aggressive. Koku must be trying to prevent you from fixing the other AI.”

  Stu nodded. “The Moris could’ve overheard our plans before Kaguya swapped out her comm.”

  “Which of the Kokus is behind this?” demanded Laura.

  “There is only one,” Eowyn said.

  “No. Tetsuo sold copies to the Saudis and many of the other powers in the big five space agencies. There may also be one growing on the moon.”

  Eowyn spoke slowly, trying not to violate her contract. “In a published paper, I wrote that holographic copies all become extensions of the same image.”

  “Like merged corporations?” Stu asked.

  “Exactly. AIs of this class are very territorial. She won’t allow any others.”

  Stu paled. “So the attack near Saturn wasn’t meant to kill our crew? It was aimed at Snowflake?”

  Eowyn nodded, unable to confirm verbally.

  “She won’t allow?” Laura repeated. “You’re not talking about the program anymore, are you?”

  Eowyn swooned, and Conrad caught her. The commander said, “Easy. We know from Sensei that AI personalities require a seed person to crystallize around. Who was Koku’s?”

  “Nana,” Laura replied.

  “That psychopath?” asked Mira.

  Laura said, “They needed her simplification talent.”

  “The more talents a mind has imposed on it, the less stable it becomes,” Conrad noted. Every woman in the room glared at him for the implied insult.

  Stu raised a hand to prevent mutiny. “In all fairness, the larger Magi constructs use three personalities to provide checks and balances. Of course, they do everything in threes.”

  “What the hell do they have this super program doing?” Mira asked.

  “Ruling the world’s food and economic systems,” Stu answered. “It’s still learning, though. Sometimes it wants to kill a few cities or ethnic groups to make the puzzle pieces fit.”

  Eowyn pleaded with them wordlessly.

  “She wants us to stop the monster,” Laura deduced.

  ****

  In the medical bay, Laura had to explain the story behind every scratch and bruise she had accumulated in the last week. Her parents grilled her about every detail. The doctor applied another butterfly stitch and told her to stay in bed for a couple days.

  “That’s what I told her,” Stu said from the doorway.

  Mira glared. “That’s your answer to everything, isn’t it, Llewellyn? Mercy had the hiccoughs once, and Lou cured them by—”

  Conrad cleared his throat loudly. “TMI.”

  Stu stared at his feet. “The new substrate is in place. Snowflake should be able to regrow some of his missing circuits.”

  “You winced when you landed on this side of the control room,” Conrad noted. “Is there something wrong? Where are your leg braces?”

  “The US Air Force confiscated them,” Laura explained.

  Eowyn, who had been chatting with the nurse in the next room, picked up the thread. “He limped a little after he carried Laura away from that burning building through machine-gun fire. Mo says he jumped four stories.”

  The Maori doctor smacked Stu in the back of the head. “Four stories?”

  “I used a fire hose.”

  “We’ve told you your bones aren’t normal!�
�� the doctor bellowed. “Laura, be a dear and clear off the exam table. We have to scan Gravity Boy for microfractures in both legs.”

  “No,” Stu pleaded, sitting atop the exam table. “I can’t do six weeks in a double cast. I have to be able to stand at the UN meeting in a couple days.”

  “Should we try a pod?” asked Conrad.

  “We’re down to twenty-one of them.” The doctor slid an overhead scanner above Stu. “Which is why we healed all his other breaks and sprains the old-fashioned way. I thought the pods were limited to the original astronauts, the ones the ship has patterns for.”

  “Both his parents were planners—already in the database. Snowflake could fudge it for him,” Mira insisted.

  Stu squirmed uncomfortably. “I’m supposed to be arranging for Herk to get stabilized so he can go into a pod. I wouldn’t feel right taking resources from him.”

  “Nonsense,” said Mira. “You recruited a stellar surgical team. You’ve earned the right to have a pod fix you up and take your baseline snapshot. Besides, while you’re asleep, we could use your mental engrams to regenerate Snowflake’s damaged areas.”

  “You can do that?” asked Eowyn.

  “Yeah. The pod will also get rid of those Earth microbes.” The doctor began a bone-density scan. “Joan doesn’t catch that sort of thing easily, but Stu will probably be sick as a dog.”

  Laura whispered, “Sorry. My fault. Girl germs.”

  Stu grinned stupidly.

  “I meant reformatting an AI,” Eowyn clarified.

  Stu shrugged. “Personalities are very complicated to create. The easiest method begins with an existing brain pattern, called an engram. Sojiro says transplanting is a little like giving a kidney. A donor should be a close relative of the original imprint, in this case my mom. I’ve also known Snowflake since he was two and spent more time with him than any untranscended human. Patching his personality would be like the splicing they did for those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Snowflake can pick any missing parts of his DNA string from me.”

  Eowyn wandered off with an odd expression on her face.

  “No new cracks,” the doctor noted after examining the scan. “Where does it hurt?”