Her mouth opened again for a scream. It came out as a croak.
Medusa had used her jets to arc us back to our generation ship.
But it took a few minutes for her to see that, as Olympia loomed larger and larger ahead. Kalyani’s eyes were wide, and crystal clear—undamaged by the decompression, so I surmised that they were artificial. Medusa would keep her inside the membrane until she felt sure Kalyani wouldn’t suffer from the bends. She seemed to be breathing normally, so I felt cautiously optimistic that she would continue to do so.
said Kitten.
Kalyani got calmer with each passing moment.
I said.
I breathed a sigh of relief as Medusa latched on to the hull with her tentacles. She immediately began to zoom across Olympia’s surface.
I expected that to provoke more questions. But Kalyani fell silent. I couldn’t blame her for that—she had officially died. She had just lost her job and her family. And she had been rescued by someone who was supposed to be dead. Anyone would be overwhelmed with all of that.
But as it turned out—that wasn’t the problem.
32
Why I’m a Big Jerk (in Dazzling Detail)
You would think Kalyani would have been happier to see me—or anyone, for that matter. But her mood did not improve appreciably. She remained tight-lipped and terse, though her mental acuity seemed to be back. She grasped our situation pretty fast.
“So basically, I’m stuck here.” She floated in the observation dome, looking out at the stars as if they were a big disappointment. Even the sight of Kitten wrapped around my waist hadn’t cheered her.
I patted Kitten, who was demonstrating some rare restraint. “You are, unless you want to hook up with a Medusa unit and go undercover.”
Kalyani paled when she glanced at Medusa, who attempted to make herself look smaller by drawing in her tentacles. I thought it was an admirable try, but Kalyani didn’t seem reassured. She glared at me. “How long is it going to take for your revolution to happen? Years? Decades?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“Am I a prisoner, then?”
“Yes.”
Her face fell, and I could see the anguish that had eaten her up when she realized she would be executed.
“I won’t make you work for me,” I said. “But if you want access to information, you’ll have to ask the Medusa units. They won’t let you access databases directly. I’m hoping your curiosity will kick in, and you’ll want to find out what’s really going on here. And I’m hoping you’ll accept the implant, even if you don’t want to pair with a Medusa. I can introduce you to other people who have them. But that’s the best I can offer right now, Kalyani.”
I had to show her my true face to get her to understand what I would and would not tolerate. But the hurt I saw in her eyes cut me to the quick.
“This is what you care about,” she said. “Always this, and this alone.”
“I hope you’ll be glad of that someday. But even if you’re not—yes. My mission is and always will be the driving force in my life.”
She nodded, and I thought I saw acceptance beginning to creep in. I hoped it was the sort of thing that would give her peace instead of deepening her unhappiness.
If I had not been so focused on recruiting Kalyani to my cause, I might have wondered why she had asked such a personal question, and why the answer mattered to her so much. I might have remembered that the night I met Kalyani, the song she had sung was “Achy Breaky Heart.” It didn’t make sense until later. I had just helped Kalyani realize what a bad life partner I would make.
Kalyani nodded, and something steeled in her. She reverted to the professional Security officer she really was. “When they arrested me, I was investigating a couple of ghosts who have been leaving electronic footprints in the vat rooms.”
I frowned. The vat rooms are critical to the survival of worms on Olympia. That’s where the nonvegetable protein is grown. “A couple, you say?”
“Two, that I had evidence of,” said Kalyani.
I wondered if those two ghosts were named Sultana and Tetsuko.
“It sounds to me as though you were just doing your job,” I said.
“Sure,” said Kalyani. “And I was doing it the way most of us do it—by not reporting my two ghosts, because I was afraid they might be Executives. Or at least one of them might have been that fellow you and I saw with the Charmayne VIPs. And maybe he was, because my superiors never questioned me about the breach of protocol. They asked me questions about you. Or about the fake you. They wanted to know why I never reported your breach of protocol.”
“How did they even know about it?”
“Exactly. And I didn’t get their personal attention until I started tracking those two ghosts. I went to investigate the vat rooms, and I got nailed when I was on my way there. That seems like pretty clear cause and effect to me.”
To me, too, but who was protecting Sultana and Tetsuko? Baylor Charmayne had tried to kill them.
“Did Schnebly interrogate you?” I asked.
“That guy from Investigations? No. I never met these guys before. I had seen them around—they were from the general pool.”
The people in the general pool were an odd bunch. None of them could be low- or midlevel Executives—they had no clan ties to compromise their objectivity. They answered to Ship Operations, the people who kept Olympia in good repair and on course to the new homeworld. For the life of me, I couldn’t see why Ship Operations would decide they should execute Kalyani for looking into unauthorized activity in the vat rooms.
“Unless you’re linked with a Medusa unit, you can’t search the vat rooms,” I said. “But we can send a unit to do it for you.”
“You don’t have the implants,” said Medusa, “so our interface will be limited. But I think you’ll find your access to information is still superior to what it was previously.”
“I want to help,” Kitten said before Kalyani could answer. “I want to be your personal assistant. I can read all the messages and data entries aloud to you, and I can run errands to spy and to get things you need.”
For the first time, I thought I saw a flicker of gratitude in Kalyani. “I wouldn’t mind that.” She glanced at Medusa, and then at me. “If that’s okay with you two.”
“It’s the sort of thing Kitten was designed to do,” said Medusa.
“Pick up with your investigation where you left off,” I said. “You’re still a Security expert. But now you can report the VIPs without fear of reprisal. While you’re working on that, Medusa and I have something to
attend to.”
Kalyani didn’t ask us what mission we were on. She watched as we united and opened the inner door of the air lock. “We’ll come back with supper,” I promised. “Unless Kitten brings it first.”
Just before the door closed, I heard Kitten say, “Do you like show tunes? Lately I’ve been obsessed with South Pacific.”
* * *
Medusa and I climbed the rim of the engine that hid Escape. On the way from the leading edge, we had discussed wording for our messages, and had more or less worked something out.
Medusa said.
We looked for Escape in her old spot, and she sat there, seemingly untouched, unmoved—unused.
True. And so we took the plunge and entered Escape’s air lock. But this time we didn’t separate. What weight the artificial gravity gave my footsteps would be increased by Medusa’s bulk. That way, I wouldn’t have the same identifying characteristics I had last time we visited.
The lock cycled, and the inner door opened. Medusa and I walked in on my feet.
This time I was ready for the artificial gravity. We walked directly to the nose section, where the blank screen waited. I could see the keyboard through Medusa’s eyes; I didn’t have to touch it first. I tapped a message into it:
WITHIN FORTY-TWO HOURS, THE HOUSE OF CLANS WILL VOTE ON SHEBA’S MUSIC IN EDUCATION BILL. I THINK THE PIGGIES WILL PASS IT THIS TIME.
We hit SEND and waited for a reply.
But we got an answer quickly. ARE YOU SURE THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT?
I was sure. But would Baylor be? IT’S WHAT MY MOTHER WANTED, I typed. I RESPECT HER JUDGMENT.
So if piggies wasn’t a keyword, my mother would certainly do the trick. I half expected them to ask, Who are you? How did you get in here?
LADY SHEBA WAS A SHREWD WOMAN, they replied. I’M HAVING A LITTLE TROUBLE IMAGINING THAT SHE WOULD CARE ABOUT MUSIC OR EDUCATION.
SHE LOVED MUSIC, I typed. AND EDUCATION TAKES UP THEIR TIME. IT KEEPS THEM OUT OF MISCHIEF.
They didn’t have to think that over for long.
EDUCATION IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO AUTHORITARIANISM I CAN THINK OF.
I know, right? But I was ready for that one. THEY’LL DREAM THEIR DREAMS AND PLAY WITH THE PRETTY PICTURES. THEY’LL BE TOO BUSY LOOKING INWARD TO CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH TEDIOUS MATTERS BEST LEFT TO EXECUTIVES.
WELL, they replied, GOOD JOB, THEN.
I waited a minute to see if they had anything else to say. But that seemed to be the end of it—until a small red light flashed at the top of the monitor.
The screen lit up one more time.
OICHI, it said, YOU ARE A MARVEL.
And then it went dead.
33
The Guest List
I had lied about when the vote was taking place. Sheba’s Music in Education bill had already passed by the time Medusa and I made our foray onto Escape. I would not have risked contacting the folks on the other end of that conversation, only to have them sabotage my life’s work by saying, Hey, Baylor, ix-nay on the ill-bay!
I admit, having them take a snapshot of me when I was all Medusa-fied wasn’t the best outcome—but we did gain something, just as when I had taken a calculated risk by talking to Schnebly. Now the Weapons Clan had given me some useful information, too. Baylor may not be the only guy on Olympia they were talking to, but he was certainly one of them. And they had been doing it long enough to get a sense of Sheba’s character.
More important, they knew my name. They knew I had linked with Medusa. It remained to be seen whether they had ever shared that information with Baylor.
Obviously Sultana and Tetsuko knew about Medusa. Did Gennady know? (That last thought made my foolish heart go pitter-patter.)
When we left Escape, I had a feeling we would never set foot on her again. Medusa cast her one longing look as we departed. But she focused pretty quickly on the future.
That was the most perceptive thing I ever said. But, true to form, at the time I didn’t know how right I was.
* * *
Baylor was still useful. And anyway, his associates in the Weapons Clan might attack if he stopped talking to them.
Yet they might attack because we had talked to them. Going up against a group that called themselves the Weapons Clan was enough to give one pause.
But we weren’t defenseless. We had the Medusa units.
And only a few of them were awake.
Eighteen, to be exact. We had thought to expand once the children and their parents got the implants, a process that would have started out slowly but then accelerated once I took out Baylor Charmayne, the Changs, and probably Lady Gloria and some other key Executives.
I already had candidates in mind to recruit—thirty-seven people. I had erased the record of five dissidents from their histories when Schnebly attempted to track them down. Like me, they were immigrants from Titania.
Nuruddin had been acquainted with the dissidents. I had not yet asked him if he knew any of the other targeted people, but now seemed like a good time.
We shouldn’t go back to Lucifer Tower. For now, that had become Kalyani’s place, and I didn’t want to invade her space when she was still feeling so discombobulated. But I did worry about whether she was hungry.
said Kitten,
Right. That and getting blown out of an air lock when you get too nosy.
So—next issue.
In that case, it might feel almost like going home. We could check up on the crop of coffee cherries the Schickeles and the Rotas were currently growing. And I could begin my review of the thirty-seven people who might link with Medusa units.
But were they the only possibility? I thought Kalyani would make an excellent collaborator, and she knew nothing of dissidents.
If I could have a do-over, I would have recruited Sezen instead of wa
iting for her to die. Miriam and Halka were working out beautifully.
When I looked at my choices in that light, another candidate kept popping up: Edna Charmayne.
Do you think I was crazy to consider trusting Edna with that much power? Even if she demonstrated maturity?
Maybe. But Edna had shifted gears since her ascension. Miriam and Halka had managed to attract her attention (with the help of Lady Sheba’s ghost). It looked as if she might become their ally, though they didn’t move in the same circles. I had a good reason to see Edna as a candidate.
And yet. The images from that horrible recording still played in my mind. If I could see them, surely Edna could. She might kill Lady Gloria, given the opportunity.
I needed perspective. I consulted my Security overlay and looked for my allies. The only one who was alone was Miriam. I messaged her:
She called me back immediately.
I sighed.
I admitted, and I thought she might criticize me for that.
But something else was on her mind.
She meant the soirée that would be held on the party shuttle.
Lady Gloria! That was her price for the abstaining instead of voting No on Lady Sheba’s bill. This would be her first invitation to a party, though in this case, she’d be belted into a seat, not waltzing around Baylor’s rotunda making rude remarks. But still.
Medusa Uploaded_A Novel_The Medusa Cycle Page 30