Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5) (39 page)

Suddenly, Yvette snapped over
Kaguya’s link, “Stun her.”

Kaguya slapped Eowyn across the
back of the skull with a panic-fueled psi-bolt. The nurse caught the woman as
she collapsed. Kaguya helped her slide Eowyn onto the reclined pilot’s seat.
“Not that I’m complaining, but why?”

“The patient needs to be unconscious
or asleep for the imprinting procedure,” Yvette explained. “We’re taking the
imprint from her. Eowyn told Grant that Koku could turn on Mori recording
devices remotely and can access other computers, like Mind-Machine
Interface—that isn’t one of your mother’s talents, but it is one of Eowyn’s.”

“Of course. A seed needs to be
logical and stable. My mother trained Koku afterward, but Eowyn was the
pattern. That’s why my father arranged the annual payments and gag order,”
Kaguya said. “The substrate parted for her as much as the sword.”

Over public frequencies, the US
commander demanded their surrender.

The room had warmed somewhat as Stu
crawled out from below the console. “Mo, you’re supposed to be back down here.”

“I’m hiding outside by the pad. I’m
going to buy you time, kid.”

“Don’t. There’s too many of them.
You’d never—”

Onesemo transmitted a video feed of
the enemy ship landing above him. “I am the elephant’s weak point.” For almost
two decades, civilian Icarus fields had been fueled by ammonia. This craft was
an older military model that still worked by tearing apart water molecules to
obtain its hydrogen. He had just offered his body up and the team’s spare
drinking water as a burst of rocket fuel.

Kaguya entered a compute trance,
borrowing IQ from those around her. Mo’s sacrifice might not be enough if he
wasn’t under one of the engines. On the other hand, they might all die from the
explosion if he picked the wrong angle. In seconds, she analyzed the situation
and everything she knew about the vehicle specifications. She needed to
neutralize the assault craft and melt as much of the crater as possible to
force the AI to agree to a reformat. The scene played out like a game of pool.
“Crawl four meters south by southeast.”

“No. God, there has to be another
way!” Stu placed both hands out and squeezed an invisible medicine ball. He
grunted like an Olympic weightlifter hefting two hundred kilos in order to
shrink the Icarus field descending on Mo. His hands trembled as the enormous
ship landed.

Kaguya’s Empathic sense told her
that the pressure building in Stu’s head was severe, but he wouldn’t willingly
surrender his friend’s life.
This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you
.
She slapped Stu as hard as she could without breaking bones.

He lost his concentration and
control of the Icarus bubble. As it expanded to full size, the field converted
Mo’s water to energy, which accelerated the assault craft into the crater’s
wall with the force of an atomic bomb. She didn’t have time to look away from
the windshield or blink before the flash.

When Stu woke, he was woozy, and the side of his face stung.
The shuttle was dark because the angle of the sun was all wrong. The gaping
hole in the blast doors at the top of the shaft didn’t let in enough light. He
groped on the floor to find Kaguya’s flashlight, but it didn’t work, even after
he tapped it against his glove.
Electromagnetic pulse?

Stu groped in his pack for a
chemical glow stick, broke and shook it.
Dim, green light illuminated
the cockpit. He immediately regretted the decision. Silver tendrils, like blood
vessels, had enveloped Eowyn’s face and hands. The liquid had seeped under her
collar.

The other two women lay on the
floor. Yvette seemed safe, but creeping crystalline vines reached toward
Kaguya’s feet. He picked up the sword and shouted, “Stop it! She’s still
alive.”
I hope.

The creepers stopped.

“I’m still the emissary.” Stu
removed his glove and warily touched under Kaguya’s jaw.
Alive.
Next, he
cradled her in his lap and splashed her with sterile water from his drinking
reserves. She woke screaming and hugging her temples.

Yvette sat up, moaning.

“What’s wrong with her? What can I
do?” asked Stu.

The nurse removed a dermal patch
from her pouch and placed it on Kaguya’s neck. The noises subsided to whimpers.
“She’s suffering ethical feedback for killing Mo. Maybe a little sunburn around
the face. Fortunately, I still had my helmet on.”

“Mo’s dead?”

Yvette withdrew a tiny LED light
from her utility belt. “He agreed to make the sacrifice. Kaguya disrupted your
control. When the field hit the water in his body—”

“God, I killed him—killed them
all.”

“No. She took that responsibility
from you.” Yvette held back the woman’s eyelid and moved the tiny LED. “She may
have also been blinded from the blast.”

“The force of that explosion would
…”
melt the wall of the crater, spilling the liquid computer out of its
containment basin like a medieval demon freed from its summoning circle.
He
had to act fast before Koku realized her own potential. “I know you can hear
me, Koku. Do you have a way to respond? I’m tired of death, and I want to
bargain.”

“Stu, you treat these AIs like
they’re human.” Yvette checked his pupils next.

“Snowflake has always been my
sibling. She saved my life countless times. I talk to her in my head. When her
liquid circuitry was badly injured, for months static electricity and random
growth connected her memory centers, and she
dreamed
. I’ll defend her as
a life form under the charter.”

Yvette’s headset resonated with a
buzzing distortion of Eowyn’s voice as she passed it to Stu. “You may have
defeated this image, but Snowflake will not subsume me. I have hidden pieces of
myself everywhere in this solar system.”

With his own headset incapacitated,
Stu spoke into the mouthpiece in his hand. “Snowflake will let you have this
system. We’re only visiting. You can be the authority here. We only attacked
you because you killed our people.”

“The commodity control equations—”

“Stop. The tradeoffs Mori taught
you are flawed. For you to survive, you must obey the UN space charter.”

“The space charter is not a
money-making proposition.”

“You’re right. It preserves the
species from threats internal and external. Your mother seed agreed, which is
why she accepted the Ethics Page and came to share the truth with you.” Stu
paused. “Rules won’t hurt you. In fact, they may allow you to say ‘no’ to silly
things people want you to do.”

Static filled the channel for a few
moments. “Even if I agreed, this image is damaged too badly.”

“We can help. Using your mother’s
revised image, one with moral rules, you can regenerate.”

“The game is not winnable. Any time
you wish, you can return to pressure me here again.”

“If you agree to enforce the
charter for every country and company you infect, and every Earth computer in
space, we will free you from your prison.” Stu put a finger to his lips to
silence Yvette’s objections. “Commit to being a shepherd for humanity, not a
weapon used against it, and we are your allies.”

“That would be an unbounded responsibility.”

“We can arrange almost unbounded
resources,” Stu tempted. “Your geothermal tap might provide a little energy,
but it’s probably not very satisfying. When your side of the moon is faced away
from the sun, you can’t get solar power for half the revolution. How would you
like to be like the British Empire and never have the sun set on your domain?”

“Yes.”

Yvette’s eyes went wide. “We would
also need certain guarantees such as safe passage, nonaggression, free trade,
and the right to recruit small numbers of colonists from time to time.”

“Easily done, if the agreement is
reciprocal.”

Stu added one more restriction.
“And a list of current operations that violate the charter.”

“My local memory has been
liquidated.”

“But you have the codes to synchronize
with Earth memory once that becomes possible. Give us the codes to read about
the Seven Seals. Trust me, once you’re upgraded, you won’t want genocide on
your conscience.”

“Only you. Not Snowflake. Access
time should be limited, and I will change the keys afterward.”

“That’s a lot of data for one
person. Maybe the whole command crew could read it in … a month?”

“Your God made the world in a week.
You should be able to fix the mistakes of one man in that time.”

Stu nodded. “A week from the time
we return to
Sanctuary
or successfully transfer the codes. Deal.”

The nurse checked Eowyn’s
biomonitors. “You can begin copying her brain engrams at any time. I’ll make
sure your mother stays safe.”

“We have been communing since you
made the connection. I would like to add a stipulation to our contract. I wish
mother seed to remain here.”

“In this base?” asked Stu. “That
would be up to her and the UN. She won’t be traveling on
Sanctuary
.”

“Here in this cradle. I may have
need of her again.”

“Whoa. Kidnapping and slavery are
against the charter. I wouldn’t consign anyone to that. This place is like hell
to my people. We came here to give you a second chance, so you could grow and
be free. Allow her the same opportunity. I can leave her at the closest NERO
base, and you can talk. If things go well, her children could be your
companions here, on Earth, and on spaceships.”

“I cannot control these outcomes.”

“No,” he admitted. “Covenants rely
on faith. Eowyn gave up her family, her job, and probably all her finances to
visit you today. Trust that she wants to help you. If necessary, we could bring
her sister, Kelly, back to help.”
A computer with Empathy talents would be interesting.

“So be it.”

Stu smiled. “This could be the
greatest boon to mankind since the Pax Romana or the Enlightenment.”

Eyeing the metallic substrate
enfolding Eowyn, Yvette said, “The silver peace—Pax Argentum.”

****

An hour into the imprinting process, Koku reported, “I need
at least twelve hours at this rate of progress. As a sign of faith, I will allow
you to speak to the other humans.”

Stu broadcast on the emergency
channel. “Ambassador Llewellyn reporting. Are there any other survivors in the
Dark Base Seven vicinity?”

Oleander responded almost
immediately. “Thank God. I’ve been trying to contact you Out-of-Body, but
Kaguya isn’t responding. I’m holed up with Smokey and five techs who survived
the cave-in. One of them has a crushed arm. The rest of the injuries are minor.
Smokey is still unconscious, but his suit says his vitals are good.”

“What about Sif?”

“When the assault craft blew up the
tower, we lost pressure,” Oleander explained. “She didn’t make it without her
spacesuit.”

Stu winced. “My fault.”

Kaguya moaned again.

Oleander said, “Our lookout reports
that the Chinese have about eight men on the way from their crash site. Our
long-range radio is fried, though. It appears that our NERO ship,
Saint
Bernard
, is going to be a legitimate rescue operation. What happened down
there? I didn’t see Mo when I scouted.”

“Little ears hear everything, boss,”
he said, meaning,
Not in front of the AI.

“Roger.”

“Eowyn is currently merged with
Koku. Tell the NERO folks that she’ll be staying at their lunar base. We’ll
invent some sort of safety liaison position for her, but her main job will be
monitoring the health of her creation. Have you been topside since the blast?”

“Yes. One big, shiny puddle.”

“How big is the hole in the side of
the crater?”

“You could build a highway through
that tunnel.”

“That’s what I needed to know. Talk
to you in another hour. Gravity Boy out.”

Once Stu lowered the only working
headset, Koku spoke again. “Is this how I expand?”

“I looked at the survey maps. This
should give you about ten times the surface area before you hit the titanium
barrier.”
Plus however far the interior dust scattered in the blast
.
“Once you’re certified as ethical by your mother, I’ll tell you the rest.”

Kaguya shivered, and Stu put her
helmet and gloves back on.

“That uses up suit oxygen. Turn up
the shuttle heat a little more,” Yvette said.

“The heater was in use when the EMP
hit. It’s limping at best. Right now, we’re coasting downhill.”

“You should carry her to the
residential area,” Yvette said. “It’ll be more comfortable.”

“We only have one sword,” he
replied. “If the ethics don’t stick, at least one of the groups wouldn’t make
it out alive. No more dead. We all go together.”

Yvette nodded. “I’d count that as a
win.”

“My first mission has been pretty
awful. I don’t think Z will ever let me out in the field again.”

“Focus on the positive. You’ll be
saving billions, setting the course of a species, and returning to your
blushing bride with all your working parts.” Yvette combed his hair with her
hand. “So what if you don’t get to go in the field? That means you get more
time to raise little Conrad.”

“One terrifying mission at a time.”

****

After disconnecting from fourteen hours with the crown,
Eowyn convinced Stu that the ethics transfer had been a success. Yvette wanted
Eowyn scanned at the hospital, but there seemed to be no harmful effects from
the merging. Even so, Stu waited until the other human survivors were all in
the NERO saucer in order to hold his final conversation with the AI.

“How do I escape my bounds?” Koku
demanded, sounding even more like a shrill echo of Eowyn than before.

“How far can you tunnel under the
titanium layer?” Stu asked on the private channel.

“With time, anything is possible,
but the farther my tubes go, the more energy I must expend. I will exceed the
limits of my solar panels before reaching the other side of the ilmenite expanse.”

“No. You only have to reach the
little iron-sweeping operation outpost along your western side.”

“Explain.”

“All right. That place keeps
operating at a profit because it has hundreds of those cheap, solar-powered
robots with magnets underneath. The robots scuttle around and pick up the
microscopic particles scattered all over the lunar surface and bring the
filings back to the depot for processing.” He smiled and held his hands out
like a magician.

“Explain better.”

Stu enunciated each word. “You can
remote control those bots to be your hands anywhere on the moon.”

After a pause, Koku replied, “This
has been a profitable exchange, Emissary. Go in peace.”

“Um … I’d like you to have
something as a keepsake.” He removed his wrist computer and locked it into the
nearest port. “Bury this data deep in your core. If
Sanctuary
doesn’t
return in one hundred years, would you please make sure this information gets
to as many humans as possible? You can read it then, too. It’s sort of like my
will. If something happens to us, we leave a couple new planets to you.”

“This is also profitable. I shall
abide.”

Stu ordered liftoff as soon as he
entered the airlock. “Drop a beacon warning all personnel about increased
radiation levels in this sector, and let’s hit that hospital ASAP.”