The Engineer ReConditioned Part 6

Chapra felt that s.h.i.+ver again. It wasn't fear. It was awe. And her awe increased when in the eating area the girl learned how to use the eating utensils in moments. All the time Chapra and Abaron kept up a running dialogue, some of which the girl repeated and some of which she ignored.

"I believe the educative process can be speeded," said Box, out of the blue.

The girl tilted her head. "h.e.l.lo," she said.

The AI turned on the single screen in the eating area and ran the upper and lower case English alphabet, reciting them as they scrolled past. On the second run through the girl recited. Box did the same with the Chinese alphabet, but at twice the speed. The girl recited. The AI ran the Russian alphabet even faster. The girl recited. After that neither Chapra nor Abaron could tell what was being run as the screen was a liminal blur and Box's and the girl's voices a babble. Abruptly the screen flickered and divided and Box began to teach a word at a time: sea, seaweed, water, human, hand, eye. Chapra noted the AI presented huge amounts of information with each word. Beside seaweed, Box opened a frame to display many different kinds of seaweed, nanoscopic pictures of genetic helices, cladograms and other graphical information. She and Abaron sat back and watched in fascination. After an hour Judd came in with a touch console and ran its fibre-optic cable to a wall socket. He laid it in the girl's lap. Shortly after that the screen became a liminal blur once again and the girl's fingers were moving across the console faster than even Chapra's. At that point the two humans left. For some it is a comfort to believe there are ent.i.ties far superior to themselves. For some it is a comfort to know this. For others both views are merely depressing.

"What do you think it will want?" asked Abaron, as he poured vodka into Chapra's gla.s.s.

"You mean after it has downloaded everything the girl has learnt?"

"Yeah."

They were sprawled in form-fitting loungers in Abaron's quarters. This was the first time Chapra had been in there. She noted that the only ornaments were old paper books arrayed on a shelf. A glance at one had shown it to be very old, dating from the twenty-first century before the Reliteration. The language in them was fragmented, almost impossible to understand.

"I don't know. What would we want? What would you want if you were woken five million years hence by aliens?"

Abaron thought about that for a moment then said, "I would want to find out what happened to my own kind. I'd want to get in contact with them. But then that is me. We don't know how the Jain a.s.sociate. They may be rabid individualists."

"Doubtful. You don't achieve that level of technology by yourself."

"Yeah? It might be old knowledge to them."

More vodka poured into the two gla.s.ses. Chapra and Abaron were using an old human remedy for what ailed them.

By the time Chapra was was.h.i.+ng down hangover pills with a pint of orange juice the girl was literate in eight Earth languages. She was now rifling Box's libraries of information. Human limitations slowed her and she had gone through less than one percent of the information stored.

"Any specific interests?" asked Chapra as she stepped into the shower.

"She was taking an overview of all the information; dealing in generalities. She now probably has a general idea of human history, present attainments, and socio-political structures. She was avoiding the specific until a couple of hours ago," said Box.

"What happened a couple of hours ago then?"

"She came across the first reference to the Jain and has since been concentrating on all the pertinent information. Seeing her interest I gave her access to the files recently transmitted."

"Alex's?"

"Eight per cent of them had as their source Alexion Smith."

Chapra nodded to herself then hit the shower control across to cold. She swore as the blast of icy water hit her so soon after the hot and stood it for as long as she could. She never entirely placed her reliance in hangover cures. When she finally turned off the shower and dried herself with a rough towel from the dispenser, she felt thoroughly awake. She went through into the bedroom and gazed down at Abaron lying in a tangle of sheets, still apparently asleep. Her underwear she took up in one hand and her bodysuit she slung over one shoulder, then she padded naked from his quarters to her own. If that was the way he wanted it ...

In her own quarters Chapra slung her old clothing into the cleaner, drew another bodysuit of the next primary colour on the spectrum and dressed. Once clad she touched her caste mark with its colour stick and went through its range of colours until it matched her clothing. She then decided against eating in her quarters and headed for the communal eating area. There she halted at the door to take in the scene.

The girl sat before the screen with the touch console across her lap. To one side of her stood a hologram projector. Judd, Rhys and a third s.e.xless and featureless Golem stood around her, slaves to her beck and call. On a table beside her was a plate of what Chapra recognised as high energy food and a beaker of vitamin drink. Here everything was secondary to the ingestion of information. Nothing could have driven that point home more thoroughly than the portable toilet beside the chair. She wondered if the girl had slept, or required sleep, then turned away and went back to eat in her quarters.

Later, in the control room, Abaron smiled at her in a surprisingly mature manner. She had expected him to be embarra.s.sed or resentful.

"Perhaps we should have taken a tranquilliser," he quipped.

"We did," said Chapra, and he laughed. Chapra wondered if she might prefer him lacking in confidence and all screwed-up.

"Has anything interesting happened while I've been asleep?"

Chapra detailed the girl's researches and the scene that had met her when she had gone to the eating area.

"It was the toilet that did it really," she said. "She's just another probe beast, just another mechanism for obtaining information."

"I didn't go there," said Abaron, his face curiously lacking expression.

"It bothers you too?"

Abaron shrugged. "Genetically speaking she's the closest relation I've got." He looked up from his console as Box activated the projection from the isolation chamber. "Ah, we have some action." The girl had just come through the lock and was walking out on the jetty. At the end of the jetty she stripped off her clothing then dived in. It could have been a scene from anywhere on Earth had the water not been nearly at boiling point and had not the Jain immediately zeroed in on her like a hungry crocodile.

"I wonder if the Jain will smash this probe beast," said Chapra.

Abaron looked askance at her. She ignored him and cut the refractivity of the water. They watched as the Jain caught the girl with its single hand and snaked out one tentacle to plug in to her back. The actions looked almost obscene. The girl froze, arms outstretched and fingers rigid; a newt with its neutral buoyancy.

"I have received disturbing news," said Box abruptly, hardly impinging on their fascination.

"Yes, what?" said Chapra.

"There is an unidentified s.h.i.+p heading towards us, due to arrive in two days. On its way here it released smart missiles at the Jubilan communications satellite and the planet-based runcible. The satellite was destroyed but the missiles fired at the runcible were intercepted. Had the runcible been destroyed we would have received no warning."

"What?" said Abaron. "What was that?"

Chapra suddenly felt very cold. This had been a possibility right from the start.

"Unidentified?"

"The probability is high that it is a mercenary craft employed by the Separatist movement."

"How long until the Cable Hogue gets here?"

"It is translight with a new design of engine. Projected time of arrival is four days."

"Cable Hogue?" asked Abaron angrily.

Chapra said, "The dreadnought sent out here to protect us - "

"Oh yeah," Abaron sneered.

"My thoughts exactly, but we are not in a position to dispute the matter. I for one would prefer Earth Monitors here and an AI-directed wars.h.i.+p than Separatists and out-Polity mercenaries."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it would have interfered with your work."

"I don't believe that."

"You don't have to. You're at the bottom of the ladder and only here because I agreed for you to come."

Abaron was still angry, but kept his mouth shut.

Chapra turned from him. "We have forty-eight Solstan hours?"

"Yes," said Box.

Abaron looked thoughtful for a moment then said, "What about the runcible?"

"It is not possible, at this time, to use it," replied Box.

"Why?"

"Since entering the Quarrison Drift we have gone beyond the range of any other runcible to which you could transmit."

Abaron swore and peered down at his touch console. He refused to look at Chapra. She repressed the sudden contempt she felt. Really, he had been right to ask ...

"What capabilities do you have?" she asked Box.

"I do not have armament."

"Can we outrun this s.h.i.+p?"

"With a translight slingshot around the sun this is possible."

"What about the Jain?"

"Hang on," interrupted Abaron. "What do they want?"

"They want the Jain. Isn't that obvious?"

"No, not necessarily. What are the projections, Box?"

"Separatists are normally xenophobic in outlook. It is more likely that they are coming here to kill the Jain and destroy all its technology than to kidnap and use it," said Box.

Chapra folded her arms, nodded, and met Abaron's look of victory for a moment. He was grasping things more firmly now but Chapra had no time for such games. Things had turned deadly serious. She turned to the projection and saw that the girl was climbing out onto the jetty. The Jain's tentacle was still plugged into her back. Once she was up on the jetty the Jain began to follow her.

"Box," said the girl, looking straight from the projection at Chapra and Abaron. "It is necessary that I speak with decision makers." There was nothing of a little girl in her voice. Over the com Chapra understood the precise selection of every word. She had asked, "What about the Jain?" She realised then that it might be the Jain itself that answered the question. She stared at the projection, noticed something else. "The machine, it's shrinking again isn't it?"

"Yes," replied Box. "There is water flow and an increase in contaminants."

"I'm going down there."

"Me too," said Abaron.

Here's the test, thought Chapra. He had not been in the isolation chamber since that worm-thing had taken a chunk out of his arm. She watched him stomp out ahead of her and waited for the door to close.

"Was that true ... about the runcible?" she asked.

"Would I lie?" asked Box.

Chapra said nothing as she followed Abaron. She was well aware that AIs sacrificed human lives for the greater good of humanity. She did not find this knowledge comforting.

As she stepped through the airlock, Chapra caught the tail end of a conversation between the girl, or rather the Jain, and Box. She understood none of it because it ran at high speed. It finished shortly after she and Abaron walked out onto the jetty. She felt suddenly superfluous. Information had already been exchanged, decisions made. The girl turned to her and Chapra saw a girl with her own character and a mind possibly superior to Chapra's own. Yet the Jain, lying there on the end of the jetty with its weird head turned towards them, was looking through the girl, who to it was just a tool, a lens to bring them into focus for it.

"I have told the Jain of the Separatist s.h.i.+p," said Box.

"And?" asked Chapra.

"The Jain wishes to be transported to the surface of the planet, which was its wish before I told it about the s.h.i.+p."

"Why does it want to go there?" asked Abaron.

Chapra glanced at him and saw that he was staring intently at the Jain. His fear was gone. There was hungry fascination in his regard.

"Why I wish to go to the surface is not relevant. Under Polity law you do not have the right to detain me, and I can also demand transport to the nearest habitable planet, which for me is Haden."

Both Chapra and Abaron stared at the girl for a long moment. It was pointless asking how she ... it, knew so much about Polity law.

"You are aware of the threat posed to you by the Separatist s.h.i.+p?" she asked.

"I am aware that on this s.h.i.+p I am in greater danger than I would be in the sea below. None of your kind have scanners sensitive enough to detect me in that sea, and should a search be initiated I would much more easily be able to evade it or defend myself."

"Solves a couple of problems," said Abaron. "The Jain can hide from them down there and they've no reason to attack us without the Jain aboard."

Chapra glanced at him. He was naive and in this situation that could be dangerous. "They are not coming here to kill the Jain just because they're xenocides, but to prevent Jain technology getting into Polity hands, which they'll view as just a bigger stick for ECS to beat them with. They won't risk letting us get away. Even with the Jain gone we might already have learned something vital or have acquired some super-science device. There is no doubt that they will try to destroy this s.h.i.+p."

"Then we have to run," said Abaron, taking the lecture well.

"After dropping our friend off," said Chapra, then, "Box, do you have a shuttle ready?"

"Yes," said Box. "Judd will pilot it. The Jain will depart when its machine is small enough to transport."

"I do not require a pilot," said the girl/Jain.

"The shuttle is Polity property and requires a Polity pilot."

Chapra wondered about that. Why did Box want Judd as a pilot? The Golem certainly would not be coming back before the Separatist s.h.i.+p arrived. To try and keep track of the Jain? Or was Judd's purpose more sinister? Maybe the people on that other s.h.i.+p had come here to kidnap and steal rather than kill and destroy. Chapra was sickened by the thought of Separatists getting hold of Jain technology. How much would Polity AIs dislike that prospect? Would they be prepared to kill the Jain to prevent it? And who was to say the Jain would not go willingly? What did it care about human politics?

The Jain, through the girl, said no more. Its tentacle detached and it slid into the water. The girl staggered then regained her balance. Her face took on a more juvenile appearance. She smiled at Chapra and Abaron, then sat down on the edge of the jetty and dangled her feet in the boiling water. The Jain wrapped itself around its machine almost as if sulking.

The Vorstra runcible sat under a clear dome in a lunarscape etched with sharp-edged shadows. Lakes of silver dust patched the surface, their source the slow crumbling of crowded rock spires. Normally this was a place of interminably slow change and stillness, but now the lakes were moving under the influence of another moon.

Alexion Smith stood before the bull's horns of the runcible, a carry sack slung over one shoulder, and his hand in the pocket of his baggy trousers. His a.s.sociates often said he was as much an anachronism as the things he studied. Such criticism was far from his mind at that moment. He gazed up through the dome at a distant silver sphere, and replayed in his mind a comment made by a harried-looking runcible technician: "d.a.m.ned thing's perturbed our orbit, but they said they'd reposition us before moving off."

The Cable Hogue was huge. Alexion had never seen any s.h.i.+p this size, had thought them only the product of holofiction producers and conspiracy theory junkies. With a shake of his head he stepped up onto the black gla.s.s dais and through the s.h.i.+mmer of the Skaidon warp. Shortly afterwards the Vorstra moon shuddered in its...o...b..t and the Hogue moved away. An hour later the burn of Laumer engines lit up the sky. In later years, Alexion was delighted to learn that Jain artefacts had been washed up on the sh.o.r.es of the dust lakes. Providential, somehow.