The Cold Steel Mind (29 page)

‘Right. Actually, I’m starting to just feel thick. If everyone else has been thinking about this for ages, why didn’t I come up with the idea?’

Ella gave her a grin. ‘Too close to the problem, and you’re neither an AI nor a psychologist. Cassandra can distance herself professionally, so can I. Al was made for sitting back and analysing behaviour.’ The grin got broader. ‘Actually, I think it could be a very interesting experiment. I mean, Al wasn’t designed to feel pleasure the way you were. Will he get out of it what Cassandra presumably hopes he will? Will she?’

Aneka’s shoulders slumped. ‘Now I feel like a lab rat.’

‘Maybe,’ Ella replied, ‘but a really sexy one.’

~~~

‘I don’t
think
I broke them,’ Cassandra said, her tone a little uncertain. She was standing beside Ella, both of them looking down at Aneka who was lying on the bottom bunk with her arm draped over her eyes.

‘You were at it for a couple of hours,’ Ella replied. ‘That’s bound to take some recovery. Did you enjoy it?’

‘Yes, though not in the way you would. I have neither the organs nor the software to appreciate sex as you or Aneka would. My brain reacts positively to my giving pleasure to my partner. A basic feedback system, but effective for the kind of role my model was built for. I can mimic Jenlay behaviour, but it is just that, faking. There was no need for it.’

Ella nodded. ‘So… It was two hours of you working Aneka into a lather? No wonder she’s tired.’

‘I’m not tired,’ Aneka mumbled. ‘I’m shell-shocked. I think Al’s the same.’

‘I assume you enjoyed it?’ Ella asked, grinning.

‘I think I died. Several times. Her tongue…’

Ella looked around at Cassandra, frowning, and then light dawned. ‘You’re model has an extensible tongue. That has to be amazing!’

Cassandra’s eyes dipped away. ‘I’ve never had any complaints about my performance.’

Ella giggled. ‘I want to go over how it felt for all three of you. I know it’s kind of crass to reduce this to a psychology experiment, but I don’t think this kind of thing has ever been attempted before and we owe it to Science!’

Cassandra’s laugh was musical, joyful in a way Aneka did not think she had heard from the android before. That, more than anything, made it worthwhile. ‘All right, we’ll do that. And, if we decide to do this again, I think we should all be involved.’

Ella beamed. ‘I was really hoping you’d say that.’

Aneka considered what would happen if Cassandra taught Ella a few of the tricks she had just performed and groaned. ‘I’m doomed.’

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Drake sat in the mess surrounded by three attractive women, but his attention was entirely focussed on the light snack he was consuming along with a lot of water dosed with electrolytes. Cold sleep would do that to you.

Strictly, according to the regulations, he had not been required to do a flight check because the trip was shorter than fifty days, but with a new engine
and
a new computer he had decided that safe was better than sorry. He need not have worried; halfway through the journey they were right on course and there were no problems to report. Aggy had looked pleased when he had congratulated her on running things so well.

‘So what have you three been up to?’ he asked, mostly for something to say.

‘Ella’s been learning self-defence,’ Aneka replied. ‘I’ve learned Rimmic. Cassandra has been analysing some experimental data.’

‘Experimental data?’

Cassandra had, in fact, been studying data Al had collected during their ‘experiment’ and was finding it fascinating. She claimed she was close to discovering how Aneka’s brain perceived an orgasm, as well as forming some very interesting theories regarding Al’s reaction to it. ‘It’d take a while to explain,’ Aneka said, because she did not want to. ‘It’s a… problem to do with machine psychology.’

‘A fascinating one,’ Cassandra agreed.

Drake looked between them and then shook his head. Whatever it was, he clearly did not need to know. ‘If I might make a suggestion? Take some time to go over what we plan to say to the Administration Reps when we get to New Earth. We’ll be there in about two weeks. It might be worth reviewing our plans.’

‘I believe that would be wise,’ Cassandra agreed. ‘Between myself, Ella, and Al we can analyse the psychology, and Aneka can provide a military and “real-world” viewpoint.’

Drake finished his bottle of isotonic water and stretched. ‘Sounds good to me. I need to get back in the freezer; I’m starting to feel Jenlay again.’

‘Can’t have that,’ Aneka replied, grinning. ‘We’re getting everyone up three days before arrival, right?’

Drake got to his feet, followed by the three women. ‘We’ve nothing to prepare aside from ourselves. That should be enough. Hopefully that’s being over-cautious.’

‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘We’ll be dealing with politicians. I don’t think we can be too cautious.’

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‘We should plan something,’ Ella said. ‘I mean, I know we’re probably going to be busy, but that’s all the more reason to plan something so we can take a break.’

Aneka looked at her from the washroom, a towel busy rubbing over her back. ‘You’re making less sense than usual, love.’

‘It’s going to be Christmas soon. The twenty-fifth, right? That’s mid-week break, and then the next weekend is First Day. We should plan something.’

Cassandra had the distant look about her eyes which suggested she was busy working on documents inside her own brain, but she was not entirely oblivious to her surroundings. ‘What is “Christmas,” please?’

‘It was this festival they had on Old Earth,’ Ella said enthusiastically. ‘A family time with presents, and eating a lot, and drinking too much… And we could sit around and watch bad vids and, uh… Well it’s mostly about being together. Last year we were in space. We’ll be home for this one.’

Aneka looked a little sceptical. ‘Well, my “family” now is this crew. I’d have to invite everyone and there’s no way we can have everyone in our flat. Plus the kitchen isn’t up to it.’

‘I bet we could get Gillian to host it,’ Ella countered. ‘She’s got a huge house, and a big kitchen.’

‘And she’s asleep and can’t agree.’

Ella grinned brightly. ‘Oh, she will, and she’ll have five days to say so before we take over her home.’ The redhead was starting to bounce, always a sign of impending danger. ‘We’ll need presents, and food, and costumes…’

‘Costumes?’

‘I’m sure we need costumes.’

‘Uh…’ Aneka looked at the slightly unsure expression Ella had developed. ‘Well, I’m sure we can dress you up as an elf.’

‘Fridgy!’ Ella replied, beaming again. ‘What’s an elf?’

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‘Are you going to show me?’ Ella asked as they walked down to the cold-sleep room.

‘No,’ Aneka replied. She was trying not to smirk, and failing.

‘But…’

‘No. It’s a surprise. It’s one of your presents. You don’t get to see it until Christmas morning.’

‘That does seem to be the general idea, Ella,’ Cassandra pointed out.

‘Yes, but… I want to know,’ Ella whined. ‘I’m going to have to wear it.’

‘You’ll love it, now shush, the others should be coming to…’

‘In approximately fourteen seconds,’ Aggy supplied. ‘I believe Delta will be the first to wake again.’

‘And Gillian will complain about her age,’ Aneka added.

‘Uh-huh,’ Ella agreed. ‘We should probably wait until she’s eaten before asking her about the party.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Aneka turned towards Delta’s pod a fraction of a second before it opened.

‘Uh! Oh Vashma’s tits I am never going to get used to that,’ Delta groaned taking the bottle of water Aneka handed her. ‘Next time I’m staying awake with you guys.’ She sucked down water, looking to her left as Monkey let out a groan. ‘I don’t care if I have to pay with my body,’ she added.

Aneka giggled. ‘Believe me, on long flights you’re better off in there.’

‘I don’t know,’ Monkey put in after a drink. ‘Military vessels’ crews stay awake all the time. We sleep to cut down on resource usage. No one actually
likes
it.’ He took another pull on his bottle. ‘If she’s paying with her body, I want a cut.’

‘Ten per cent?’ Aneka suggested.

‘I think Drake will want some of that action,’ Ella said, keeping her face straight which had to be an effort for her.

‘And Shannon,’ Monkey agreed, ‘though she can probably pay them both off at the same time…’

‘I withdraw my suggestion,’ Delta said. Her cheeks were a delicate shade of red.

‘Shame,’ Aneka said, grinning mischievously.

Bashford sat up to get his bottle of water, ‘Quit teasing our newest crewmember,’ he said before pulling down a long suck of water. Delta relaxed visibly. ‘Oh,’ Bashford added, ‘if she changes her mind again my cut’s five per cent.’

Delta let out a whimper.

~~~

‘All right,’ Gillian said, ‘let’s get started now that everyone’s blood sugar is back up to normal and we’ve stopped teasing Delta.’

Delta blushed, again. ‘I’m sure I was up to about a hundred and fifty per cent,’ she grumbled.

‘We need to be sure we’re all singing from the same staves when we get in front of the Administration,’ Gillian continued, ‘so we’re going to spend the next couple of days going over everything. Frankly I doubt they’ll be calling on most of us to consult on the diplomatic proceedings, but there are bound to be questions.’

‘Yeah,’ Delta said, ‘as if the scouts weren’t bad enough.’

Gillian gave her best lecturer-reassuring-a-student smile. ‘You’ll be fine. You tell them what you saw, what you thought. You’ve nothing to hide. None of us has.’

‘Well…’ Delta frowned. ‘No, I guess we don’t,’ she conceded.

‘Exactly. I believe that their main concern for most of us will be to ensure that we were not influenced in some way.’

‘I expect they’ll want to use some additional verification methods,’ Shannon said. ‘Federal Security has a number of psychics on their payroll. Good ones.’

‘Does it hurt?’ Delta asked. ‘I’ve never had my mind read.’

‘As long as you don’t try to resist them, you’ll be fine. Put up a fight and it can get uncomfortable. If you want, I can show you later. I promise not to dig too deep.’

Delta straightened her back. ‘They will. I’d prefer if you dug as deep as you can.’

Shannon did not look keen, but she nodded. Delta needed to be at ease about the process, if it happened. Aneka wondered what it did to Shannon. ‘Anyone else?’ the blonde asked.

No one seemed to feel the need, which seemed to please their resident psychic. Aneka, however, did have a problem. ‘What about me and Cassandra? Psionics are going to be useless against us.’

‘We have the sensory memories from both of you,’ Gillian said. ‘I’d imagine they’ll go over those in minute detail. That’s probably more precise than psionics, once they’ve had technicians verify that nothing’s been faked.’ Aneka nodded and Gillian continued. ‘Abraham and I will be handling most of the science questions. Abraham will be fielding theory and application. I’ll be handling history and social implications. Ella and Cassandra will be fielding psychology and machine psychology. Drake, Bash, and Aneka have the military aspects covered, and Aneka can report on anything they need to know about the various projects Evolution presided over.’ She looked down at Aneka. ‘You’re okay with that?’

‘I can report what I was told and my thoughts on it, sure.’

‘Good enough. Now, Aggy. You’re going to be acting as their ambassador, essentially. Communication using their systems is going to be faster than it would normally be, but it will still take over a day to get a response from Negral.’

‘Yes, Doctor,’ Aggy said, her image appearing on the wall screen. ‘I have been briefed extensively. I have every contingency which could be thought of covered in my databases, and additional plans for handling things which were not considered. The AIs believe that I will be able to handle most requests immediately with confirmation coming from them the following day.’

Gillian nodded. ‘All right. Bash and I will be attempting to catch you out tomorrow. I want to go over historical records the day after. Abraham, I suggest you and Cassandra go over the technical stuff, and Cassandra and Ella should make sure they are telling the same story. Drake, Aneka, work on the military issues. Aneka knows their weapons and Drake knows ours. Everyone else, we have the recordings of your interviews on Sapphira, review them carefully. If you think something is wrong, be ready to admit it and explain why.’

The team nodded at her; everyone was ready and knew what they had to do. ‘However, most of us have just come out of cold sleep. We need to be up to mental speed for this. I suggest we take what remains of today to relax and get ready. We have a lot of work to do. Let’s be ready to do it well.’

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Aneka lay spooned against Ella. The redhead had been asleep for a couple of hours, happily cradled in her lover’s arms, but Aneka had stayed awake along with the other non-organic members of the crew. They communicated in silence, networked together in what amounted to a private Internet chat room.

‘Eight hours until we exit warp,’ Aneka said. ‘Do you think we’re ready?’

‘I do not believe we can be more ready,’ Aggy replied.

‘If we do much more preparation we will be in danger of sounding rehearsed,’ Cassandra said. ‘This is not a play. We need to sound natural. Obviously we need to be confident and know our parts, but an overly perfect performance will raise suspicions.’

‘I am most worried about Monkey and Delta,’ Al stated. ‘They’re young. They will be nervous.’

‘Monkey’s a decade older than I… was,’ Aneka replied. ‘Delta’s about my age.’

‘Comparatively they lack your experience. Monkey has issues with authority stemming from his father. Delta is still insecure in the core environment.’

‘Agreed,’ Cassandra said, ‘but their nervousness may be an advantage. They will balance the confidence of everyone else.’

‘Let’s just hope the Federal Administration is willing to be reasonable about all this then,’ Aneka said. She was not entirely confident about that. Jenlay had robot issues stemming from the Xinti War. The Herosians were just going to be unreasonable, full stop, but it was possible the technical advances on offer might sway them. The Torem were an entirely unknown quantity, but she hoped they were open to at least talking to the AIs.