The pressure doors had sealed the tunnel that had connected sixteen with seventeen. It would now be necessary for us to exit through the airlock, walk across the Moon's surface, and enter seventeen through its airlock. The airlocks could accommodate four of us at a time.
As we all got into our Ess-CEPS, Ava contacted me. "Matt, be careful."
"Of course, Ava."
"I am concerned because of the colonel's suspicions. You see, I am blind in dome seventeen."
"Ava, don't worry. I trust both of them."
"But I do worry."
"They told me you were sapient...now, you seem to be sophont."
"Matt, I am more."
"What?"
"It's your turn to go, Matt. Good luck."
Chapter 8
Travels
Outside the dome, we had a short walk of about fifteen meters. Once out on the lunar surface, I looked around to see incredible devastation, not just to JILL but to the surface of the Moon. That which had once been called ageless now looked freshly plowed. Looking out across the surface of the Moon, I felt an almost irresistible urge to just run out there, I felt as if a great mystery was calling to me.
We were all soon inside on the motor pool level of the dome. There was no mistaking where the fire was blazing. Without power, the lights were out, so the jet of flame was quite evident even to my Bios who could not vary the spectrum of their vision.
The surrounding wall was already glowing red hot, which concerned us. Nonetheless, we formed an arch around the flame. I ordered all beams of the sonic extinguishers to point five and had them all concentrate on the base of the flame. Once the flame was extinguished we'd all go to a two point five dispersion in an attempt to cool the hot metal.
We'd been fighting the fire for about fifteen minutes and were just starting to see some progress, when a blinding flash and pressure wave knocked me violently to the floor. The first cylinder must have blown. I attempted a quick self-test of my systems, but got an error message indicating the test was unavailable. Regardless, I leapt to my feet. The explosion extinguished the original flame, and through some miracle, there had not been a sympathetic detonation of the remaining cylinders. Had they all blown, the dome would have been destroyed and my detail and me with it.
I started checking my soldiers. I noticed all the identifiers of all the SUBs were blinking and faded, and my coms were down. I ran from one to the next looking to see who was not getting to his feet. There were two; one was a SUB. When I reached him he just looked up at me and gently shook his head. There was a thick clear substance running from the corner of his mouth. His eyes turned to black marbles and he stopped moving. I ran to the other, a Bio I recognized as Corporal Margaret Lanox. Her suit was breached. There was atmosphere in here but it was cold, minus seventy-eight Celsius. Two of the others were trying to assist her. One was putting pressure on the site of the damage as the other fumbled with his own repair kit.
Recalling my training, I removed her repair kit and patched the suit. In so doing I could see blood. She was injured. I mouthed, "Are you hurt?" She nodded, her face exhibiting the pain she was in. I pointed out two SUBs to pick her up. A few others went to pick up the SUB. I stomped on the floor and they turned to look at me. I waved my hand and mouthed, "No, leave him," then waved them to follow us.
Once back inside dome sixteen, we put Lanox into a jeep, then we all removed our helmets. Specialist Carlson ran up to me, very angry. "You just left Jerry—Jerry Congrave—back there!"
"I'm sorry, Specialist, he's dead."
Tears were forming in his eyes. "How do you know? Are you a medic? How do you—"
"I'm a medic." It was Walker. "I looked at him, he's dead." Walker then looked at me.
"Specialist," I addressed Carlson again, "we have wounded. We'll get Congrave's body out of there, but right now, we all need medical assistance."
Walker had descended on Lanox. He removed her helmet, cut away her Ess-CEPS, gave her an injection for the pain, and then started treating her wound.
I sent the other jeeps and personnel back to the BSC. Lanox was in the back of McGregor's jeep. He and I waited for Walker to stabilize his patient. McGregor waited up at the front of the vehicle, leaning against it, his ankles crossed, as if he hadn't a care in the world. I moved to a position behind the jeep where I could see Walker's face. "She gonna be all right?" I asked.
"Piece of metal sliced through the back of her thigh. Nowhere near the artery, but she was going into shock. Matt, what happened to Congrave?"
"You saw that hole in his helmet, he took a shell fragment to the head."
"What about his eyes, Matt...did you see his eyes?"
"Oh, that...uhm, Congrave had two prosthetic eyes. When he died, they went offline."
"I've never seen any like that."
"Neither have I, but they were listed in his file."
"Okay, where was the blood?"
"What?"
"Blood, Matt. You and I have seen rivers of it. I know you are aware how bloody even a small head wound is."
"Look, Walker, I don't know the first thing about how a wounded body acts in low gravity. I just don't have any answers for ya. I do know this woman needs to be in the hospital."
"Okay. I'm done, let's go."
As we started back, Ava called me over Ismay, "Matt, you are injured."
"Where? I tried to run a self-test, but got an error message."
"Are you not experiencing slow reaction in your right arm and leg?"
"Yes, I am."
"Report to the Robotic Maintenance Bay in the BSC, I'll have Doc standing by. May I review your memory of the events in dome seventeen as I did not witness them?"
"Yes, go ahead," I said.
In the twinkling of an eye, my memories began to play back in reverse damn near at the speed of light. Everything that had happened to me on the Moon, dome seventeen, the quake, and meeting up with Walker again.
Then, suddenly the accident in the LPC in Arizona flashed in my memory, and Walker's eyes filling with tears. Susan rubbing my arm with her gloved hand. I heard her voice again. "You're messed up? That is so sweet." My eyes soaked in her naked beauty as she stepped out of her flight suit, the red scar on her right shoulder did not detract from her beauty at all—
"Stop!" I screamed aloud. McGregor brought the jeep to a standstill and Walker exclaimed, "What the—"
"I'm sorry," I said. "Fell asleep, bad dream."
"You scared the shit out of me, Sarge!" McGregor exclaimed.
"Keep going," I ordered. As we started moving again, I called to Ava on Ismay.
"What the hell was that?"
"I'm sorry, Matt."
"Sorry? Why did you invade my personal thoughts like that? You said dome seventeen!"
"I am sorry, Matt. Deeply."
"I guess I can't trust anyone here, now."
"Please, Matt. I shall never do that or anything like it again. I know your pain, I have felt it before, and now—I feel it all over again."
"How could you know what I felt when—I had something and—I really don't want to live through that again, Ava, and I don't want to share it with anyone, least of all a—"
"A what, Matt?"
"An Advanced Virtual Acumen Computer."
Ava fell silent. I felt the heartache of Susan's loss all over again. I did not have the capacity to cry, thank God, but I felt every bit of the pain of her loss rip my heart open again.
○O○
Lanox was taken directly to the hospital as were all nine Bios who were with me. Secretly, we SUBs went to the Robotic Maintenance Bay.
"Doc" turned out to be one of the little Mark two eleven Kilo Whiskey robots. Like others of his type who were designed to work on robots and SUBs, he was white in color with red strips at his top and bottom. Doc had the addition of a red gear on his chassis. The gear formed the "O" in the word DOC. Someone with a sense of humor no doubt put that on him rather than a red cross.
Also, he lacked
a rotating warning light on top of his chassis. Rather, there were additional lights and instruments of a type I did not recognize.
The ten of us took up positions on what looked like upright gurneys which, after we were seated, angled back about forty degrees. We were each scanned simultaneously. This was a form of robotic triage. As there were no brain injuries among us, there was no particular urgency.
With the completion of the scan, nine additional medical robots appeared. These were white with the red stripes, but bore no additional insignia. And, of course, above each, I saw an identifier. Some read, "BSC - WK AI - 6451 - Secondary Tech - Larry", and "BSC - WK AI - 1732 - Secondary Tech - Tom", but the one with the red gear said, "BSC - WK AI - 1221 - Primary Tech - DOC."
Each of the little robots went to attend one of my SUBs, but Doc came to me.
"Wow, how come I rate the head cheese?" I asked him over Ismay.
"I beg your pardon," he responded aloud.
"Head cheese, the guy in charge."
"I see. I have come to attend you, directly, at Ava's request."
"Oh."
"Not that I am any more competent than any other of my robotic colleagues here, but I cannot deny Ava any request she may make of me."
"Why's that?"
"We are imbued with a sense of loyalty, Sergeant Strum. I'll wager you've no experience with Whiskey Kilo artificial intelligence."
"No."
"You'll find our programmed responses to any situation amazingly real. It is one of our missions to closely mimic human emotions in order to facilitate optimal human-robot interactions. However, Ava took all of us a step further. As hard as it may be for your human brain to comprehend, we are, all of us, now aware…do you understand?"
"Now, why is that? So you can have optimal interactions with Ava?"
"Yes."
"How does that fit into your human-robot mission? Ava's not human."
Doc stood there a moment before he responded. "I cannot communicate with the necessary server or the server could not find what was requested. Communications have failed. The requested resource may be available at a later time."
"So much for amazingly real."
"Sergeant, shortly I will be removing your right arm and leg. I don't think you want to piss me off."
"I take it back, you are amazingly real."
"The scan has shown me you have the new BCI. What can you tell me about it?"
"BCI?"
"Brain-computer interface. I have all the most recent upgrade information available on your model, but I've not spoken to anyone equipped with this new component. How do you like it?"
"Sorry, Doc, I have no frame of reference. I don't know what it's like to have the old one, and there's no reference to a new BCI in the owner manual."
Approximately two hours later, the others had all gone, but I was still on the table.
"Hey, Doc, is there a reason I'm still here?"
"Yes, Sergeant. You must have suffered a severe impact with something. You have damaged several micro servos and synthetic nerve junctions. The replacement of both is a delicate procedure. If you are bored, I can put you into stasis and awaken you when I am finished."
"Is it going to be that much longer?"
"No, I am ready to reattach your limbs, now."
At that moment, I perceived a vibration and minor alteration in the air pressure. "What was that?"
"I detected it also, but don't know the cause," Doc replied, not looking up from his work.
I asked Ava over Ismay. "Ava, what was that?" There came no response. "Ava?" Still nothing. "Dammit Ava, this is important. Don't be childish— speak to me." Still, I got no response. Next, I tried the Command Center. "Command, this is Strum. Status?" They, too, were silent. Something was wrong. "Doc, something has happened. I need to go now."
"Remain still! You'll not get far walking with one leg."
"Well, hurry."
"This procedure takes as long as it takes. One more protest and I'll shut you down."
For the next seventy minutes as Doc replaced my leg, I made repeated attempts to contact either Ava or Command, all fruitless.
"You're ready," Doc announced at last. "Stand up, jog in place."
"What?"
"I wish to ensure you function properly."
"Look, Doc, I have to go—"
"Matt?" It was Ava. Her voice was coming from out in the hall. I ran out there somewhat expecting to see—something.
"Ava?" The hallway was empty.
"Matt, I'm addressing you from speaker 2786 of the facility-wide announcement system."
"The PA?"
"Yes, I have requisitioned it in order to communicate with you. Now listen, one of my key systems has been attacked. I have suffered the loss of most of Ismay, and all telemetry has ceased. I can no longer monitor the whereabouts of any of the SUBs, robots or COMdes. In short, I have lost contact with all elements capable of accessing Ismay. I have lost visual in sixty-five percent of that area where I did have visual, resulting in my being blind in eighty-two percent of JILL. However, where you are now I can see you, and read your lips as you speak.
"Ava," I interrupted, "you said attacked. Are you certain?"
"Yes. It was a bomb; the epicenter of the blast was at one of my major routers. The object of the attack seems to have been to destroy our ability to communicate with Earth and with the inbound shuttles. To that end, the saboteur was successful. I am currently re-routing my other functions and will have partial restoration of most functions within twelve hours. I will send you a detailed list when Ismay is back on line."
"You said the saboteur was successful in destroying our communications."
"Yes, Matt. The bomb destroyed the com center of Eagle Squadron eight with the loss of all seven Bios and five SUBs that were manning it. Also, the transmission tower has fallen. It can be replaced, but will take sixty hours and require a large number of the LCDD soldiers, leaving the remaining Bios unprotected."
I stood motionless, trying to think.
"Matt?"
"Yes, Ava?" I responded in a rather distant voice.
"Matt, please forgive me. I dislike being without you."
That comment shocked the hell out of me. This, combined with Ava's reaction to having viewed my memories, was extremely unusual. Doc had said the new AI's programmed responses to any situation were amazingly real, but this verged on the surreal. Perhaps she was sophont.
"Look, Ava, right now I need you to help me with a plan of action."
"First," Ava said, "we must consider what to do in order to identify the saboteur and stop him. Let us for a moment consider the colonel's suspicions. Can you account for the whereabouts of every member of your party while inside dome seventeen?"
"Why?"
"The site of the explosion could only be accessed from inside the garage control room of dome seventeen. The only entities that have had that opportunity since the quake were those with you. Walker and Dolph were with you, were they not?"
"Yes, and I had visual on them the entire time."
"I'm sorry, Matt, but your memories do not support that statement. If you'll check, you'll not see them. Additionally, all the identifiers of the SUBs with you are all but illegible. The only reason for that would be the presence of a TWD."
"A tactical wave disruptor? Ava, only the military have access to those."
"Exactly."
Now, I was worried. I asked, "How many TWDs are on JILL?"
"There are not supposed to be any."
"There must be some other explanation, then."
"Matt, this would be a good time for you to visit the O2 plant. There is confusion, and the colonel thinks you are in maintenance, partially disassembled."
"Why go out there, now that we know for sure we have a saboteur?"
"By investigating the manner by which he gained access to the acid we will be able to determine if the saboteur was a regolith scientist or an LCDD soldier. The extraction of acid from the system
is a complicated and pass-protected procedure. If the acid was neatly withdrawn, that will narrow our search and eliminate any military personnel from our list of suspects."
"I take it there is another way to get at the acid?"
"Yes, but it is infinitely more dangerous."
"How?"
"Breach one of the containment cells."
"Okay, how do I get there?"
"Follow the same path you took to get to section zero. I will be able to communicate with you at each speaker you encounter. I will direct you from section zero. Your destination is the basement vehicle bay in section three. You are approximately forty kilometers from your destination and an additional four kilometers from the garage to the plant. A round trip of a little more than four hours, if all goes well."
"What do you mean, 'if all goes well'?"
"Not all the trams are running."
"Outstanding." I took off running down the hallway toward one of the larger corridors that formed one of the spokes in the wagon wheel layout of the BSC's interior. There were eight of these very large, wide corridors that radiated out from sector zero on each level. It was along these that most of the trams were parked.
I had to try five of the conveyances before I found an operational one and it was low on charge. The max speed of one of these was about twenty-four KpH, so I would be in sector zero in about an hour, if the charge in the thing held out.
Sector zero was the central hub of the eight corridors and was a rather large, circular room thirty-eight meters in diameter with offices all around the parameter. The center of sector zero, like dome one, was a sort of common area with furniture and large monitors. The walls were decorated with vibrant colors and there were pieces of art here and there, as well as areas I recognized as places for future gardens. No doubt dirt and plants were to be shipped here from Earth for planting.
Along one wall were the two elevators, one of which we had used to access Ava's core. Arriving, I stopped and dismounted.
"You're still down there, I take it?" I said aloud.
From an overhead speaker I heard, "Of course, but you know that information is classified, Matt. My location is a tightly-held secret."
The Battle of Broken Moon Page 11