by Corey Ostman
“Autonomous? You mean they were AIs?” said Grace. She swallowed a brief feeling of distaste. Tim might be an artificial intelligence, but at least he was based on a human mind. To think that a machine thought for itself…
“Yes, AIs. That’s not a taboo here, Protector,” said Richard testily.
“How do you know they were AIs?” asked Raj. He was leaning forward. Interested, Grace noted with annoyance. Of course he would be.
“I had some interactions with the Essex crew back then. Hadn’t even thought about it until I saw Shorty walk off. Shorty’s behavior was like those Essex twofers. Free will.”
“Did you tell anybody?” Raj said.
Richard nodded. “I did tell people. The folks at Interdome Council even scanned the last reported area of the Essex, but all they saw were geysers.”
He stopped and raised his eyes.
“I have a proposition for you two,” he said, looking from Grace to Raj. “But, first, I’d like to ask a couple of questions. Just for the record.”
Raj looked at Grace over Richard’s head. Grace shrugged. It wasn’t like they had other options at the moment.
“First question: do you want to get off Mars?”
“Yes, of course we do,” Grace said.
“Well, the only way off is to wait for the Authority to get clearance from Earth,” Richard said. “We’d need to convince them that we have the twofer situation under control. May take some time. Months.”
Grace looked at Raj, raising her eyebrows. He nodded imperceptibly.
“But I’ve been thinking,” Richard continued. “I have no proof, but my hunch is all these twofers are headed south because of the Essex. I want to take Yvette out of Elysium for the duration of this crisis, and what better destination than the south pole?”
“Not exactly safe,” Raj noted.
“Neither is having a potential murderer in the other room,” said Richard. “With the twofers gone, trouble will find us wherever we go. So here’s the second question: would you two join me in finding the Essex? If it is involved in the twofer exodus, we would have a chance to restore the twofers back to the domes.”
Grace heard Raj inhale quickly. She knew Raj was only here to spend some time with her before she and Tim left for Ceres. She also knew that Raj and adventure did not entirely mix. The thought of seeing more of Mars thrilled her, but Raj? The prospect of AIs tempted him, she knew, but they were already far beyond his ideal safety situation. Still, without twofers, there would be no launches. And she would rather do something about it than sit and wait to become part of someone’s clandestine military operation.
Raj’s voice sounded in her dermal dot, his lips unmoving.
“Tim,” Raj said. “Help me out, here.”
There was a moment’s pause and then the PodPooch’s voice came through the dot. “It sounds interesting,” Tim said. “This excursion could help clarify important matters for the people of Mars. And AI technology in general.”
Raj sighed. “I knew you were going to say that, Tim.”
“I find Mr. Archdale’s plan compelling,” Tim said. “He has noted the probable course of the robots. If you go where they’re going, you’ll find out why.”
“Nonsense,” Raj said through the dot. “What are the odds of us finding the Essex? I’ll tell you—nil!”
“Actually, the exact odds are—”
“You know what I’m talking about,” growled Raj.
“Listen Raj,” Grace said aloud, reaching over and placing a hand on Raj’s shoulder. “I saw the look on your face when Richard talked about a ship manned by robots. I’ll take care of your safety—when have I not? And you can take care of the tech. Deal?”
Raj sagged in defeat. Richard looked at them expectantly.
“What’s the time frame?” Grace asked Richard.
“I figure we have a few weeks before the Interdome Council manages to reassure Earth. It’ll start with a quarantine and we’d be stuck here under the dome. But they’ll get organized and the big mining corps will come to some kind of understanding and allow ships to Mars,” Richard said.
“Is that enough time to get to the south pole?” Raj asked.
“Easily,” Richard said. “We can reach the south pole in two weeks.”
“I should bring my PodPooch,” Grace said. “He’s good with robots.”
Did she hear a bark in her dermal dot? Nah.
“So, do we have a deal?” Richard said.
He extended his hand.
Grace shook it. “Deal.”
Raj, still in a state of shock, shook Richard’s hand as well.
“Wonderful!” Richard said. “I’ll grant you both bondless crew status. After all, you’re licensed professionals in good standing. That’ll make you eligible for twofer credits without being residents of Mars.”
“Twofer credits, but no twofers.” She grinned at Raj. “Mango?”
“Oh yeah.” Raj smirked. “Total mango.”
Chapter 5
Grace sat at the table and looked down at her plate. It was beautiful: ancient bone china with an intricate border pattern of red, black, and gold swirls. She lifted her fork and tapped the tines against a spongy brown disc in the center of the plate. It was far less appetizing than the plate itself.
“What’s this?” she said, hoping the applied grin on her face looked sincere.
“Protein, fat, and carb puck,” said Richard, not looking up from the fact agents scrolling on his ptenda. “All the macronutrients.”
Grace brought the forkful close to her mouth, wanting her nose’s opinion to arrive first. It smelled slightly sweet, and was moist and warm—almost like freshly baked bread. There was also a tangy hint of what she hoped was salt.
Grace took a bite, chewed. No salt. But it did have a bready consistency, and there was a smoother, richer hint of something like butter. If she closed her eyes, she could almost manage to convince herself these were her dad’s flapjacks. She swallowed.
“What do you think?” Richard said.
“Mmmm, mmmm,” said Raj, across the table from Grace. He had systematically devoured several pucks. You could scoop up some grass and mold it into a ball and Raj would eat it, she thought.
“Umm, not bad,” Grace said, putting down her fork and taking a drink of water. “Do you buy these or make them?”
“They’re synthesized in the kitchen,” Yvette said, holding aloft a piece of puck on the end of her fork and twisting it around as if to examine it. “Poppy can make different tastes.” She quickly chewed and swallowed the piece. “But they always look the same.”
“You can make anything?” Raj said, amidst chews and swallows.
“More or less.”
Yvette elbowed Raj and pointed down to her plate. “But they always look the saaa-ame,” she repeated, this time singing.
Grace took another bite. Eh. She looked at the warm glow coming through the windows as the breakfast sun lit Elysium.
“Could you do two pucks? One egg and one bacon?” she asked.
Richard looked up from his cup of tea. “I guess so. The machine has a full library, though we seldom eat Earth food.” He turned to Yvette. “Can’t remember. Have you ever had eggs and bacon?”
Yvette shook her head.
Richard looked back at Grace. “Food for thought. Maybe I’ll try it sometime.”
Sometime? Not now? Grace tried to hide her disappointment as she ate another piece of puck. It needed syrup.
“How’s the boy?” she said, trying to find something else to think about.
Raj swallowed a puck and drank a little water. “His vitals and neural activity are normal. He’s sleeping comfortably.”
“Still?” Richard asked.
Grace frowned, sharing his surprise. She’d seen bad phasewave blasts before. If they didn’t kill you, they knocked you out for a few hours, but the kid had been asleep for longer than that.
“Well,” Raj said, “I altered his medbind. He’ll stay asleep t
he rest of the day.”
“Why? I need to talk to him,” said Grace.
Raj shook his head. “Later. I don’t want him awake with Richard and Yvette here, while we’re away.”
“Well, you could wake him up so I can talk to him and then put him back to sleep, right?”
Raj shrugged. “I guess so, but it’s not quite lawful to keep him asleep as it is—”
“The doctor’s plan is better,” Richard said. “If you want to collect your PodPooch, it’s best you get an early start. I’ve been watching the fact agents all morning.”
Grace had been glued to her ptenda, too, though she had a feeling her information wasn’t as accurate as that of a local, well-connected businessman. Information was free, but it took practice to find it.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Richard wiped his mouth with a black cloth napkin and leaned back in his chair.
“Good news first: Elysium Dome Authority, and especially Proconsul Vonter, has managed to get enough locals to cooperate so that staffing of water treatment and dome atmosphere facilities are up to a constant, skeletal level.”
Grace grabbed another puck. “Huh. That’s the good news?”
“Don’t take those things for granted, Protector. It’s good news since there’s no drinkable water, nor breathable air, outside the domes.” Richard filled Yvette’s glass with more juice. “But the bad news is that most other activities are still down: no external nor local transport, commercial endeavors suspended, sparse to nil nutrislab deliveries.”
“What’s nutrislab?”
“Food.”
Grace looked at the half-eaten puck on her plate, and suddenly felt grateful. No wonder Richard hadn’t wasted nutrislab in order to make a new batch at her request.
“So why must we go out sooner rather than later? Sounds semi-stable to me,” said Raj.
Richard shook his head. “Proconsul Vonter is good, but I think her initial victory will be short-lived. We locals are used to getting paid in twofer credits and we’re still in that mindset. What will happen after a few days of hard work?”
“Ah,” Grace said.
“I’d suggest relocating to the Scout by tomorrow,” Richard said. “Just in case.”
• • •
Grace stepped outside and surveyed the street. Debris littered the area. There was no sign of the sniper attack. No guards. In the distance, the dome wall showed some scorching, but small crowds were moving in and out of the rail tunnels, belying the chaos of the night before.
High above her, a small group of red spheres clustered on the underside of the dome around the patched pressure leak. A group of four workers in pressure suits were suspended among the spheres. How’d they get up there?
“What’s with the bag?” Raj asked, walking up beside her.
Grace looked down at the red paisley carpetbag in her hands. “Yvette gave it to me. I figured we could use it to transport Tim. He’d be unnoticed this way.”
“I don’t know if a bag like that would qualify as stealth.”
Grace grabbed a handful of dust from the balcony railing and patted down the bag.
“Better?”
“Mango and Martian.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Raj?” Grace asked.
Raj nodded. “You heard what Richard said. And look around. Not bad. Besides, we already pinged Tim and told him to expect us.”
“No, I meant the trip to the south pole.”
Raj shrugged. “AIs and a chance to see Mars from a mango cruiser? I could choose a worse argument to lose.”
Grace smiled. “You’re brave, you know.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He shifted, uncomfortable at the praise. “So how are we going to get Tim?”
• • •
The central plaza wasn’t crowded like it was after yesterday’s landing. There were a few people carrying supplies, none of them in uniform. Grace saw a pair of soldiers, but they were busy helping clean up debris from the initial dome crack.
“Most everybody are just regular folks,” Grace said. “Those are the first soldiers we’ve seen this morning.”
“And hopefully the last,” Raj added.
The brisk walk felt good, though Grace was still getting used to the local gravity. She caught herself skipping rather than walking more than once. Raj seemed to be handling it better, with his lower center of gravity.
Spoke C was ten meters wide with a metarm track running down the center of the walkway. The tube was mostly transparent, and she marveled at the flat orange expanse outside its protective walls.
She glanced at her ptenda map and then craned her head to the left. “Raj, it’s too bad we aren’t in Spoke Q. We’d have a great view of Elysium Mons.”
“You look like a tourist, Grace,” Raj smirked.
“What, did the carpetbag give me away?”
As they approached the halfway point of the tunnel, she began to see shapes beyond the exit, inside the rim port. Cruisers.
Some of the ships were small, no bigger than the intradome transports. Others were tremendous interplanetary ships. She noticed two rusting hulks sporting the Vesta Mining Company emblem: one still had her landing module, the other did not. Grace thought about Captain LaSalle. Had he been forced to land his cruiser, or was he already heading back to Earth?
Ahead and to the right was a large, gleaming cruiser some thirty meters long. Judging from the portholes along its flank, there were two main decks plus a large cargo hold. The ship rested on six retractable landing gear, like a sleek insect ready to launch into flight.
“The Scout,” Grace said, reading the insignia along the gray hull.
“Our cruiser’s over here, Grace,” Raj said, jabbing a finger at the smaller vessel beside the Scout. It was barely six meters long. “Let’s get aboard. I want to see Tim.”
“Wait a sec, Raj.” Grace walked around the Scout. Raj trailed behind. As they came to the partially open cargo hold, Raj tugged at her sleeve.
“Grace, you can’t just go in. Richard said he’d give us a tour later.”
“I’m just taking a quick look around, Raj. Aren’t you curious?”
“Not now, no. I just want to get Tim and get out of here.”
A movement inside the cruiser caught Grace’s attention. Something red.
“See? Someone’s already here,” said Grace, walking up the gangplank. “We’ll just introduce…” She stopped short.
It wasn’t a someone. It was a robot.
The robot was bipedal. It stood a little taller than she, and sported a crude humanoid shape. To Grace, it looked like what might happen if one combined a steelback exoskeleton with four limbs. The head looked like a birdcage filled with stars.
“It’s coming this way, Raj,” she whispered.
“It’s supposed to. It’s loading the cruiser,” Raj said.
“Why hasn’t it malfunctioned? Isn’t it a twofer?”
“Barely—it’s ancient. Probably more like part of the ship. Definitely incapable of independent thought.”
The robot’s feet were magnetic, showing the slightest resistance as it clanked across the metal gangplank.
“Good morning, Colonists,” the robot said.
Grace stepped back. The smooth computerized voice was more human than the chassis.
“Hello,” Raj said cheerily. “What is your designation?”
“I am Mazz. Do you wish to interact with anyone?”
“Not at the moment,” Raj said. “We are friends of Richard Archdale.”
Grace saw an opportunity and shrugged off her reticence.
“He invited us to have a look. Are you in charge? May we come aboard?” she said.
Raj’s head snapped toward her, his face a mix of interest and anxiety. Or was it panic?
“I am not in charge. Mr. Archdale is not aboard. Just a moment, please.”
The robot raised a jerky hand for them to stop. It held that position for a few seconds while the lights in i
ts birdcage altered their patterns.
“What’s happening?” Grace asked.
Before Raj could answer, the robot continued.
“Confirmed. You are Mr. Archdale’s friends. Protector Grace Donner and Dr. Raj Chanho. Welcome. You may come aboard.”
“I hope we didn’t bother Richard,” Raj muttered to Grace as they stepped into the cruiser.
“No bother,” said Mazz. “Mr. Archdale’s friends are always welcome.” The twofer motioned them up the gangplank. “It will be my pleasure to show you the Scout. Follow me, please.”
Mazz’s head continued to face them as its body swiveled around and walked into the cargo hold. It was grotesque. Grace swallowed. The robot quickly crossed the empty hold and came to a stop at an airlock door. The door opened to reveal a ladder.
“Down and aft is the engine room. Down and forward are crew quarters. Above and aft are the cabins. Above and forward is the bridge. Where would you like to go?” Mazz said.
Grace raised her eyebrows at Raj.
“Fine,” Raj groaned. “Take us to the bridge, Mazz.”
“Follow me, please.”
The robot grabbed the ladder and proceeded up on the strength of its arms only, its feet dangling. Grace went next, followed by Raj, complaining all the while. They ascended four meters to the upper deck. Then down a narrow corridor and through a bulkhead into a spacious room, nearly as large as their pathetic little rental cruiser.
“The bridge,” hummed Mazz.
A huge transparent wall looked out over Elysium’s rim port. Grace approached an arc of padded seats and sat down.
Raj flew past her and toward a console.
“Look at this, Grace! I’ve only seen this in a lab back home, but I never got to touch it.” He sat down in front of the unit. “You can do chemical analysis at a distance with this. A broad frequency, tunable laser can excite molecules in the atmosphere and pull in a reading.” He let his hand hover over the controls. “I wonder what Richard uses this for?”
She smiled at his delight, leaning back in a chair. “Mmm, comfy,” she said. “I could get used to this.”