Stolen Earth, page 31
Those thoughts tumbling through her head, Rajani led Dimitris and Penelope through the ship and into the common room that served as mess, conference room, and, on occasion, war room for the crew.
“Please, sit,” she said, pointing to the chairs that lined the table. She put action to her own words, taking a seat. The other two looked uncomfortable but eventually settled down opposite her. She leaned back and let her eyes slip shut, just for a moment, reveling in the conditioned air, the familiar whirs and thrums of the ship, and the faint odors of plastic and ozone. It was a strange and heady brew that was probably disorienting to the passengers, but to her surprise, she found that it felt like home.
The next thing she became aware of was a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes popped open and she tried to simultaneously push her chair back, stand up and reach for the pistol that she hadn’t had a chance to remove since returning to the Arcus. This had the predictable result of her fumbling all three tasks and falling back into her chair. She glanced around wildly only to see Bishop looking down at her, a big grin on his face.
“Hey, Doc,” he said. “Time to wake up. We’ve got some planning to do, you know?”
She looked around blearily. “I wasn’t sleeping; I was just resting.” She was surprised to see that the rest of the crew had joined them. All eyes were on her. Everyone was smiling, but she still felt the rush of blood to her face.
“Totally,” Bishop replied. “My pa used to rest his eyes all the time. Said he was inspecting his eyelids for cracks. Proper maintenance was very important to him.”
“Okay,” the captain said, and Rajani was grateful for the interruption as all eyes were drawn to Lynch. “We—” he waved at the crew “—all know the score, but I’m going to give a brief overview for our visitors.” He paused. “One, can I assume that you are here and listening?”
“I am, Captain Lynch,” the AI replied. Rajani glanced at the representatives from the rescued prisoners; if they were alarmed by the voice coming from the ship’s comm system, they didn’t show it.
“Good.” Lynch looked over at Dimitris and Penelope. “I can’t begin to understand what you and your people have gone through. What we know is that a group from off-world established a colony of sorts here on Old Earth and then proceeded to capture a number of Old Earth-born people from various camps. You with us so far?”
“I don’t understand,” Penelope tentatively asked, “who you people are or how you have a ship, or what you’re doing here. I’m glad you are, but… who are you?”
The captain nodded. “We’re off-worlders, too. Not associated with those who set up shop here. In fact,” he offered that self-deprecating grin, “you could say that we’re thieves, of a sort, or maybe salvagers. We got hired by a rich citizen of SolComm—that’s the Sol Commonwealth, the government for the people who live off planet—to come here and acquire some cultural artifacts. During the course of that operation, we got into some trouble, and got rescued by people from a nearby camp. They’d had a couple of people taken away by an aircraft. Since they had just saved our lives, we agreed to help them try to find out what was going on.”
“And that’s how you found us?”
“Not exactly,” Rajani broke in. The captain was doing a fine job, but she felt a sort of responsibility where One and the AI were concerned. “They thought that the artificial intelligences in control of the military resources of the planet might be involved and asked us to look into it. We were afraid that there might be some sort of weapon being developed. We discovered something else entirely.”
“What did you discover?” Dimitris asked.
“Me,” One said, its voice sounding over the intercom. “I am one of those artificial intelligences, though, really, we prefer to just be called ‘entities,’ that Dr. Hayer mentioned. In brief, I and my two surviving counterparts were bound by our programming to continue to prosecute a war of mutual extinction. Dr. Hayer was able to help us break that programming. In return, we agreed to help locate and free those who had been taken. Within certain parameters.”
“Which brings us to the current problem,” Lynch said. “Our first job is to get each one of you home. But, and I’m not trying to be offensive, I’m guessing that you might not know exactly where you are or how to get back.”
Penelope and Dimitris looked at each other in a sort of helplessness. “I know that the flight for me wasn’t very long,” Dimitris said. “Maybe a couple of hours? And I can tell you what we call my camp, but I’m not sure that’s going to be helpful. If I understand our history correctly, you off-worlders haven’t been here for a century or so.” He shrugged. “Things are bound to have changed.”
“As I mentioned,” One interjected, “I can assist in that endeavor. With your permission, Captain, I will begin interviewing those you have on board. We should be able to ascertain the proper locations. And if you wish, my counterparts and I can also help with the relocation. Now that our war is over, we have aerial assets that might be effectively employed in the distribution of supplies and personnel.”
The captain nodded. “If you can start finding out where people need to go, that would be a huge help. But not yet. We need to talk about what the future might hold for all of us.”
“I understand, Captain. Though I assure you that I can pursue both goals simultaneously.”
“Fine,” Lynch replied. He drew a breath. “Since you managed to hijack the Interdiction Zone, can I assume that you also managed to analyze whatever data you acquired from the facility? Can you tell us what was going on there?”
Before One could respond, Morales said, “Can we trust the AI?”
“You need not trust me, Ms. Morales,” One responded.
At the same time, Rajani said, “You never let up, do you, Morales? I have a copy of the data. A physical copy that we made at the time of the download. I haven’t had a chance to analyze it yet, but I will. And if it will make you happy, I’ll do it in a sandbox that One has no access too. I can verify whatever One tells us, but it’s going to take time. And we might not have that time.”
Morales shook her head, though she still looked angry. “Fine. I’m willing to listen. As long as we all agree that we need to verify things.”
“Thank you, Ms. Morales,” One said. “I can see that truth is very important to you.”
Rajani cocked her head slightly at that. Had the monotone that the AI normally spoke with slipped just a little there? Was there humor, maybe even sarcasm, in its inflection?
“It appears,” went on One, “that the SolComm facility was constructed with full knowledge of the Commonwealth Congress to serve as test facility for two separate projects. The first was to determine the viability of recolonizing Old Earth using existing methods—the dome that you have all witnessed. It appears they wanted to measure the response of the planet’s population and to determine if my counterparts and I were still a threat. As we were still operating within the constraints of our programming—marking each other as the primary threats—they did not rise to the level of a threat to us. The second purpose relates to the machines distributed around the dome. They are an experimental design that is, as you earlier surmised, related to terraforming. The term is not quite sufficient; according to the schematics I obtained, the machines are multi-functional. They certainly have the capacity to manufacture atmosphere given sufficient inputs, but they also leverage deployable nanite swarms to capture and rearrange the existing atmosphere. Neither method would be sufficient on its own, but together, the design might well work over a long enough time horizon.”
“Wait.” Federov raised a hand. The big mercenary looked worse for the wear. A large bandage covered his forehead and he held his head with a sort of careful stiffness. Rajani had seen similar injuries; they were the result of slamming your head against the face shield of your own helmet. But more than that, the carriage of his body as he sat in his chair suggested that he was in a fair amount of pain. None of it showed in his voice as spoke. “Are you saying that SolComm has developed the technology to reclaim Old Earth? Or that they have developed technology that might allow for terraforming of Mars or Luna or the moons of the gas giants?”
“The first is unnecessary,” One replied. “As your own survival shows. Old Earth needs no reclamation. For the second, however, it is possible. The testing is incomplete, and my counterparts and I have identified several flaws in their design. But those flaws are surmountable. Understand that the processes involved would not work quickly. Even on something the size of Old Earth’s moon, any efforts at terraforming would take generations.”
Dimitris and Penelope continued to watch with something between confusion and interest. But Rajani and the others stared at one another in outright shock. “You can really make terraforming viable? I mean, I know you said you can make the machines work, fine. But do you mean that in a few generations people could be walking on the moon as if it were Old Earth?”
“No.”
Rajani’s heart sank. At least half of the problems that SolComm faced stemmed from the fact that there simply wasn’t enough space, enough resources. Generations were a long time to wait to solve that problem, but at least it would have been a solution.
“The gravity would make walking a very different experience,” One explained. “But in terms of breathability of atmosphere, yes. You would also need to solve the water problem, but my understanding is that you already have the ability to harvest ice comets. And atmosphere or no, there is still the habitable zone to consider. A moon that rests at minus one hundred and sixty degrees Celsius would still require domed colonies. Within this solar system, only Old Earth’s moon and Mars would be truly viable candidates for such a process.”
“Matublyudok,” Federov whispered. “Our descendants could live and breathe on the moon. Without domes or suits.” He spoke with near-reverence, and Rajani shared his sentiments wholeheartedly. It had been a pipedream among the citizens of SolComm since the moment the Interdiction Zone went into place. Even the hardest spacer had that part of them that longed for soil beneath their feet and air that wasn’t created in a lab.
“Well,” the captain said, “that gives us a bargaining chip. Or gives you and your counterparts a bargaining chip, I should say.”
“Yes, Captain Lynch. Though we do not fully understand the reason why, we do understand the significance. Though, I would think repatriation to Old Earth would be a more pressing concern.”
“Wait a minute,” Dimitris cut in. “What do you mean repatriation? Do you expect those of us here to welcome back the same people that kidnapped and abused us? The people that abandoned us in the first place?”
“There’s also the question of SolComm’s reaction to all this,” Morales said. “I don’t think they’re going to sit idly by while the fears they’ve been instilling in the citizens are suddenly realized. Seems like you’re much more likely to face SolCommNav than you are to get any interest in repatriation in the first place.” She shook her head. “What I don’t understand, is how did the SolComm installation devolve into kidnap and labor camps?”
“A cynical entity might cite human nature,” One said. Again, Rajani heard the slight edge to the being’s voice, the hint of what might be emotion breaking through the monotone. “The records they kept around those particular endeavors are, as you might surmise, less than complete. However, it appears that the initial forays were to examine the planet’s population and see how they were surviving on Old Earth without domes or respirators.”
“They never did anything medical to us, though,” Penelope objected.
“The tests would not have been intrusive,” One replied. “In point of fact, there were numerous monitoring systems set up in your housing unit. Regardless, I found one internal communiqué detailing the need for better food production that might explain the efforts at getting additional workforce. Beyond that? Well, your history is rife with examples of power leading to corruption and of those who considered themselves to be the elite among your societies living by a different set of rules and treating those who were not among those ranks as a lesser species. By building the Interdiction Zone, your government signaled to its citizenry that the people of Old Earth were to be feared. That inevitably breeds both hatred and contempt.”
“You’re saying we were kidnapped and brutalized simply because these SolComm assholes were afraid, pissed off, and hungry?” Dimitris asked. The anger in his voice was both unmistakable and understandable.
“In short, yes.”
“And you want to bring more of these people to Old Earth? What about those of us who already live here? Do we get a say in it?”
One did not reply for several long heartbeats. Rajani understood just how much processing power the AI possessed; those heartbeats were the equivalent of minutes, maybe hours, for a being of flesh and blood. At last it said, “We are still processing the structure and method of what you would call governance. We three are in agreement that the Old Earth-born populations should have a voice in whatever government moves forward, but the specific interactions have yet to be determined.”
“So, just like that, the three of you are declaring yourselves the rulers of Old Earth?” Morales demanded.
“No, Ms. Morales. We are declaring ourselves its shepherds and protectors. I can assure you that we have the capability of doing a much better job than those who came before.”
“So said every dictator and tyrant in history,” Morales shot back.
“Including your own SolComm leaders,” One said. “I am not as well versed in idiom, but I believe you are throwing stones in a dome made of glass. The details of governance will be worked out with those who remain on Old Earth. We have no desire to be dictators, nor do we care about the daily machinations of human life. Our priority remains protecting the inhabitants of Old Earth. The practicalities, however, dictate that we three surviving entities retain control of the defense of Old Earth, including both the militaries that we built to prosecute the war your ancestors started and the Interdiction Zone satellites that were put in place to keep everyone left behind imprisoned. To be blunt, no Old Earth native currently has the education or knowledge to effectively help us in defending the planet from outside aggression. And, given what we know of human history, we are not inclined to turn the keys over to those who might well use them to enslave us once more.”
Rajani’s head was spinning. Gods above, but they had kicked over an anthill unlike anything she had ever imagined. Unease coursed through her as the potential ramifications washed over her, crashing and ebbing like a wave. They’d just come to pick up some stupid old art and make some money. Each step they’d taken since then had seemed perfectly reasonable, logical, even. But each of those steps had taken them here, to this place of uncertainty, to the precipice of change unlike anything since the End itself. She looked at the faces around her.
Morales’ eyes were narrow and tight, her lips thinned by the frown that pushed at them. Her face looked flushed and her hands were a little too still on the table before her. Bishop sat with his shoulders slumped forward, casting worried glances around the table. Federov—well, apart from the fact that he looked injured and exhausted, Federov looked pretty much like he always did. Dimitris and Penelope watched them all with a cautious, hopeful wariness, casting glances around the room as if trying to determine from where One’s voice was coming. She let her eyes fall on the captain last.
He hadn’t said much, and his eyes were shadowed, lost in thought. She realized that they had all turned toward him as One had fallen silent. Even though they were all partners in the endeavors of the Arcus, everyone but the captain knew that he was the captain. She appreciated the fact that he asked for and valued all their input, but she could also appreciate the fact that someone had to be empowered to make the final decisions. Aboard the Arcus, that person was Grayson Lynch. And as she struggled with the tangled mess that lay before them, Rajani was glad the responsibility wasn’t hers.
The captain drew a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. “I think we’re as up to speed as we can reasonably be on what’s gotten us to this point. Now we need to decide what to do about it.”
GRAY
Gray was aware of the eyes of the crew—and Dimitris and Penelope—upon him. He was used to the burden of command, but nothing in SolCommNav had prepared him for this. One of the things his time in had cemented was the doctrine of dealing with the problems in front of you. That didn’t mean to not worry about or plan for what was coming down the pipe, but when you were under fire, you dealt with the immediate threat.
“We’ve got some problems we can deal with and some we can’t,” Gray said. “First up, I think we’re all in agreement that we need to get the folks we freed back to their homes as soon as possible. But we also need to use that opportunity to try to connect them to one another. That will aid our efforts to get everyone home and, I imagine, make everyone’s lives a little easier. One, do you have communications devices that you can distribute to the leadership of the various camps?”
“We do,” the AI replied. “That will be a necessary step for us later in any event, so we can begin that as well. We can also dedicate system resources to providing translation.”
He hadn’t considered that. English was the primary language of SolComm, though there were hundreds of other languages employed in everyday use. The North American continent – had been predominantly English-speaking, as Gray understood things, so they hadn’t had any trouble speaking with Margaret, Oliver and Tomas. And at least some of those taken had been from the area or from other English-speaking groups, but Old Earth had likely lost any sort of lingua franca.
“Good. Next up, the SolComm people in the dome. Do you have an update on them?”
