by Isaac Hooke
BOOKS BY ISAAC HOOKE
ATLAS Series
ATLAS
ATLAS 2
ATLAS 3 (Coming 2015)
Caterpillar Without a Callsign
(A novella about Snakeoil’s heroism on his first deployment)
Just Another Day
(A novella about Facehopper’s encounter with the infamous privateer Mao Sing Ming)
Forever Gate Serial
Forever Gate 1
Forever Gate 2
Forever Gate 3
Forever Gate 4
Forever Gate 5
Forever Gate Compendium (Parts 1–5)
Other Works
Finding Harmon (Short Story)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © Isaac Hooke 2014
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by 47North, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and 47North are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781477825969
ISBN-10: 1477825967
Illustration by Elliott Beavan
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014910353
CONTENTS
START READING
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
POSTSCRIPT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Is space big?”
“Space is as big as humanity’s imagination.”
—Teacher Unit 52950
PROLOGUE
The morning of Lana’s twenty-fifth birthday, she was out window-shopping with her best friend, Shui, on the pristine streets of Shangde City, Tau Ceti II-c.
She would have preferred to spend her birthday at home, but she worked for Juneyao Spacelines, a local service responsible for chartering passengers between the moons of the gas giant Yihuà (Tau Ceti II), and she went where her job took her. She was a commercial pilot, really just a fancy term for a babysitter since the shuttles flew on autopilot most of the time. Of course, if a shuttle crashed, the port authorities always blamed the human pilot.
In addition to the official and rather boring name of Tau Ceti II-c, the moon was also known as Hong Caodi (Fragrant Meadow), and was one of three terraformed satellites orbiting the gas giant. Yihuà resided in the habitable zone of the star, allowing all three moons to become beautiful places of sprawling forests and vast meadows whose trees were filled with birds and whose grasslands fed buffalo and wild horses. The animals were bioengineered from Earth stock of course.
Shangde City was the only major population center on the moon, and was built on the permanent light side. Though “light” was a bit of a misnomer, since the sky resided in a state of perpetual twilight, somewhere between dawn and morning. Stars twinkled on one half of the sky, and the other half was filled with the swirling, blue storms of the gas giant Yihuà, constant companion and watcher. Although in the city, that “watcher” was often blotted out by the many buildings and skyscrapers.
Despite the tall buildings, there was only one level of road system, unlike the typical Sino-Korean megalopolis found on Earth, with streets sometimes composed of up to five different levels. But since the moon’s population was only one million (with most of that in the city proper), there was no real need for the multilevel roadways found on Earth.
Yes, Lana knew all about Earth. Though she had been born in Tau Ceti system, Lana had made the expected pilgrimage to humanity’s homeworld for schooling, as many Tau Cetians did (on the government’s tab) when they turned eighteen. Lana returned at twenty-four, enlightened, cosmopolitan, but mostly glad to be home. Earth’s gravity had felt oppressive to her—on the moons of Yihuà the gravity only ever got as high as 0.92 G. Add in the stinking press of humanity and the cold throng of robots that filled every street, and sometimes she’d felt like she was literally being crushed on Earth.
No, Lana was glad to leave the heavy air, the massive crowds, and the long waits far behind.
Not to mention the bigotry. If she told someone she was from space, every eye in the room turned toward her with an envious, hateful gleam. It was even worse in the United Countries. She didn’t even have to open her mouth because people realized at a glance she was Sino-Korean. They closed doors in her face, shoved her on the subway, and generally treated her poorly.
Earth.
She didn’t plan on ever returning.
Shangde City was pedestrian-friendly in the downtown core, allowing Lana to walk to every destination. There were whole zones where vehicle traffic was disallowed, both air and ground. The pedestrian nature of the city explained why, despite the vast real estate available, most of the buildings were closely packed. A typical street was only about five meters wide.
Because the layout favored foot traffic, the shops and restaurants repeated with predictable regularity. On one block alone, Lana could find a grocer with 18.9 liter jugs of bottled water stacked outside for purchase, a fashion store with typically wacky outfits decorating the mannequins (popular at the moment were bright orange jackets with lightning-shaped protrusions from the shoulders, and jeans covered in colorful dragon scrollwork), a meat shop extolling the aphrodisiacal virtues of donkey balls, a gym promising new members a month’s supply of free gear (the steroid kind), an electronics store offering aReal deals and hacks, a massage parlor pledging the greatest foot massage in town, a traditional Chinese noodle shop, an Italian restaurant, a Turkish “halal” kebab diner, a dessert shop, a pawn shop, a flesh parlor, and so on. Higher up, the glass-and-steel structures of the condominiums and office towers connected to the shops ate up the twilit sky.
As soon as she reached the next block, all the retail outlets repeated. Different names, same promises.
Lana stopped at Fatt’s Place, “an eating and drinking establishment,” and ordered Wednesday’s Spicy Fingers. The chicken proved a bit mild for “spicy,” and Lana was forced to add a healthy dose of chili to suit her palate.
Shui, a stewardess for the spaceline Lana worked for, purchased a burger and a Shangde specialty ale. Shui was a relatively small woman, and because of her stature, she liked to wear her hair in a vertical bun. In addition to the perceived height boost, she claimed the hair also gave her a more “traditional” look, though to Lana, the hairdo only made her friend seem a bit snobbish. As far as Lana was concerned, if Shui wanted to increase her height she should just throw on some heels. Lana of course always let her locks flow long and free, but she had the advantage of being tall.
The two of them sat on the stools by the window for some people-watching. Human beings shared the walkways with errand robots. The men outnumbered the women. And the robots outnumbered them both. Lana could pick out the visitors from Earth by the kouzhao masks wrapped around their noses and mouths.
Earthers were afraid of the “impure” air of the colonies, and seemed to enjoy the false sense of security the masks provided. Some wore fashionable cotton kouzhao with cute designs, while others wore the more “practical” surgical and higher-end filtration models.
It was a little surprising how many locals were out and about today, because most of the time they preferred to stay home, either enjoying the latest interactive games provided by their aReals or Implants, or just relaxing and enjoying life. The government gave them room and board, and the robots performed the hard work, keeping the economy chugging along.
Work was optional.
But not for Lana. She was never the type to sit back and let the Paramount Leader feed her. She wanted to contribute to society. Make a difference, in her own small way.
Lana had always looked to the stars, and knew since she was a child that she would become a pilot. Sometimes during takeoffs and landings she felt like an eagle, soaring free. She often disengaged the autopilot while landing (something her supervisors frowned upon), specifically because she wanted to evoke that feeling of sheer freedom.
She had a small eagle tattooed to the inside of her wrist to remind her of that feeling. To remind her of who she was, and why she would never consider work optional. To her, work was freedom.
Across the street, a small crowd had gathered around one of the shop windows. Bringing their meals, Lana and Shui approached, passing a man who was walking his pet bird (he gently swayed the birdcage to and fro as he walked). Reaching the shop, Lana and Shui peered through the glass and watched as a robot made Misua noodles in the traditional fashion.
Made of high-grade polycarbonate, the black and yellow robot was humanoid in shape, with blocky arms and legs. The connecting joints—elbows, shoulders, knees, ankles, fingers—were composed of circular servomotors. The head looked like the inverted scoop of a small power shovel, complete with serrated prongs along the bottom. A yellow bar divided the middle of the face, and above it, two small glass discs stacked one atop the other formed the vision sensors. A red dot in the center of its forehead provided depth perception, and a small antenna protruded from the very top of its head.
The robot was hanging the long noodle threads between perpendicular rods separated by about three meters each. The strands drooped precariously low between those rods, and almost touched the floor.
“If they want to show how noodles are made traditionally, they shouldn’t use a robot,” Shui complained.
Lana could only laugh. The irony wasn’t lost on her. “Maybe the shop owner is a robot.”
Shui chuckled. “That would explain a lot.”
Most people believed that robots were inhabited by good spirits. Lana knew the truth of course. An AI that could pass the Turing test might be conscious and self-aware, but it was still an AI as far as she was concerned, not a spirit.
A delivery drone buzzed past overhead, just out of reach. With a baseball bat and a flying leap, anyone could take down the drone and pilfer its contents. But since drones (and nearby robots) were equipped with cameras and RFID nodes, the vandal would be tagged immediately by embedded ID, and eventually sent a “repair and downtime” invoice, as well as a bill for the full cost of the stolen goods. If the vandal didn’t pay, he would find himself transported to a penal colony.
Lana had finished her chicken fingers, and she dropped the empty carton inside a roaming garbage collection robot.
The streets darkened. Between the gaps in the buildings overhead, Lana saw black clouds consume the sky. That was somewhat odd, given that no storms were scheduled for that day. Oh well. When rain came on the moons, it usually only lasted a few minutes anyway.
Hoping to avoid the storm, Lana led Shui into a nearby fashion mall. She hadn’t really intended to buy anything, but soon browsing turned to purchasing. She supposed she could’ve done her shopping in the hotel room, but today was her birthday. Time to be out and about, and to splurge and have fun.
The stores didn’t have any physical inventory, and instead utilized an app that let the customers model clothes via their reflections in a mirror: Lana would strip down to her underwear in the change room, look at herself in the mirror, and the provided aReal visor overlaid fashionable items from the store’s virtual catalog over her body. She was able to quickly cycle through the tops and bottoms, as well as hairstyles and entire looks (the hippie punk look gave her a good laugh). Once she picked out something she liked, the sales robot helped her use the dedicated fabric-on-demand technology to print it up in her size.
An hour later Lana found herself leaving the mall with three large bags stuffed to the brim with clothes and shoes. Ah, the joys of a paycheck.
The rotunda outside the mall entrance was shielded by a metal half dome. Beyond, the sky was as black as ever.
“Chùsheng!”—Damn! (Literally: Beast!)—“I wanted to miss the storm.” Lana paused beneath the metallic edge of the dome.
Shui sighed. “Me too.”
“Maybe if we run, we can make it back before the rain starts,” Lana suggested.
An air-raid siren sounded in the distance. The noise startled Lana. Chills ran up and down her spine. The whining, ever-shifting tone evoked a kind of primal fear inside her. It was like the city itself was screaming in terror.
Shui stared up at the black clouds. “Lana, listen to the news. Now.”
Shui wore prescription aReal glasses, the vision-correcting kind, so though she didn’t have an Implant per se, she was always jacked in. Lana meanwhile had twenty-twenty vision, like almost everyone else. Her augmented reality device was definitely not prescription, and she wore it only sporadically.
Lana set down her shopping bags and removed the aReal from her purse. To anyone watching, it would appear she donned a pair of sunglasses.
She navigated to the Xinhua News Network.
“A massive, unidentified object has entered orbit around Hong Caodi,” the newscaster said. “It appears to be of alien origin.”
Lana frantically reached out, searching for Shui’s hand, and when she found it, she gripped her friend’s palm fiercely. It was her lifeline to the world she knew. The world of sanity and order.
“The object has not responded to our communications,” the newscaster continued. “The government has assumed hostile intent.”
Her eyes burned with tears. No. This could not be happening. Not now, on her birthday. Why did the spaceline have to send her to Hong Caodi today? Why?
In the background, the siren continued to wail, mocking her.
“Residents are advised to stay indoors. If you are at home, do not go outside.”
It started to rain.
Lana was protected from the downpour by the half dome of the rotunda, which was a good thing, because this was no ordinary rain.
The fat droplets were glowing.
The screams began then.
A woman near Lana, hurrying beyond the half dome, was literally incinerated. All that was left of the woman was a smoking, organic mass on the pavement.
Other human beings who were out in the rain suffered similar fates.
Lana would have thrown up, but she was too utterly shocked.
She shut off the news.
Thus far, the half dome continued to protect Lana and Shui from the deadly droplets.
But for how long?
A part of her mind noticed the glowing rain formed puddles on the asphalt.
Puddles that moved.
The robots in the street abruptly froze. Though the droplets didn’t incinerate them, the rain seemed to affect them in other ways. Some of the robots began to glance down at their bodies. They lifted their polycarbonate hands, examining their fingers as if for the first time. They took tentative, shaky steps. Some of the robots actually stumbled and fell to the pavement.
One robot spotted Lana and the growing group of bystanders
sheltered beneath the half dome. The robot jerkily turned toward them and advanced, reminding her of a zombie from a B movie. Other robots followed the example of the first, shuffling toward the confused people.
The pavement echoed with the clang of polycarbonate feet. The robots became less zombielike with every moment. Shuffling, hesitant steps became confident strides. They were a troop of robotic hunters, marching to meet their prey. Some of the robots still tripped and fell, but many more continued unabated.
On the pavement, the glowing puddles of rain moved of their own accord, as if alive, and slowly edged up the ramp toward the rotunda.
“Shui, we have to go!” Lana tugged on her friend’s arm. “Shui!”
Their shopping bags forgotten, Lana and Shui turned around and ran back toward the mall.
Lana glanced over her shoulder and watched in horror as robots from the street attacked the slower bystanders, many of whom still lingered near the edge of the dome.
Hard polycarbonate slammed into flesh-covered bone. Blood sprayed the pavement.
Maybe the people thought they were safe. Maybe they thought the robots just wanted to help. They were right to believe that, in a way. It shouldn’t have been possible for the robots to do what they were doing, not with the Constitution . . . it was as if the good spirits in the robots, the spirits Lana didn’t believe in, had been replaced by something malevolent. Evil.
More screams came.
The ground began to shake as an earthquake of some kind struck the city.
“Lana, what’s going on?” Shui said.
“Just run!” Lana said.
A moment before she reached the mall entrance, something plowed into Lana from the side.
She fell forward and skidded onto the concrete; she felt the skin scrape off her left knee and elbow.
A weight pressed against her hips, pinning her.
She tilted her torso and stared up into the emotionless shovel-like face of a robot. The red laser above its vision sensors flashed into her eyes.