Things Fall Apart: Chapter 57

Newer York, 8 Tammuz 2541 AS

While everybody seemed to be in agreement that they should continue as they had planned, nobody really seemed to know how to move matters forward. Worse, Singer found she was having a harder time than usual keeping other people's emotions out of her head.

Cadotte spoke next. They were still locked down tight, their voice almost emotionless, all of which Singer was positive was an artifact, an advantage they were taking of their augmentations. "Perhaps...perhaps a short break to process this news might not be out of order, after all."

The look of concern on Alexander's face told Singer volumes. Aloud, Alexander said, "Is there perhaps another meeting room nearby."

Silverman replied, "Several, and none in use at the moment. I wanted the floor clear, both for security purposes and in case we needed breakout sessions of some sort." She held up her tablet and looked a question at Alexander, which Alexander seemed to understand idiomatically, pulling out of a pocket an old, beat-up looking handheld with what looked suspiciously like a band sticker on the back of the protective case. Ze brought it to life, and muttered under zir breath, "I knew there was a reason I kept this old thing!" Ze held it up and nodded at Silverman, who flicked a gesture on her tablet. Alexander's device gave a soft chime.

Silverman said, "That'll get you in to the room directly across the hall."

"Thank you, Governor", Alexander said, then stood and touched Cadotte on the shoulder. Cadotte looked up at zir. Alexander said nothing, simply gesturing with zir head toward the door. Cadotte rose, and followed Alexander out without a word.

Singer took another moment to order her scattered thoughts. She had a brief moment of wondering whether she should have been the one to suggest that and lead her science officer away to deal with the fresh trauma of hearing, for certain, that their home was obliterated. But no. The truth was, until fate had made her their commanding officer, Alexander and Cadotte both were just shipmates to her. They were friends, now, but Alexander and Cadotte had been friends together for longer.

That worked through, Singer tried to decide how to make some kind of productive use of the waiting time, and then realized what was missing from the room, beyond the two officers who had just left it. She said, "Governor, or Admiral maybe, can I get a line to my pinnace? I just realized there are artifacts that need to be here."

Doctor Gupta was nodding vigorously. "I had wondered where the containment boxes for the two personalities—I think it was two?—the Governor said you were bringing were."

Singer allowed chagrin to show. "That's right. One, a Georgette, was the sole surviving AI off of Aquila, and played a similar role to our Chef in orchestrating a holding action that preserved enough of the ship to get the survivors to base. Unfortunately, it cost her a lot more of her sanity than it did Chef. We had thought to use an NDI to try to investigate ourselves, but the time to do it never materialized.

"The other is a Lucas, and his case is much more disturbing, in my opinion. I assume you've read a version of the briefing I've given to the others here?"

Gupta nodded. "I do like having reading material on the shuttle. Usually it's less nightmare inducing, though."

Singer nodded. "So you know something of Lucas' case as well. He appears to have been fully affected—I refrain from saying 'infected', because all the evidence we currently have is that this is not, strictly, a virus. Like Aquila and Bellerophon, Polaris had at least one member of a...it seems dramatic to call it a counter-conspiracy, but I'm not sure how else to characterize it. A group of people who sensed something bad was afoot, couldn't get authorities to act on their beliefs, and took what action they could anyway. In their case, they succeeded in entrapping Lucas so he could do no damage. His cage possesses the ability to interact with him without having to connect him to anything else. It seems entirely shielded from any ability to transmit, as well. From that standpoint, it's benign enough.

"Lucas himself, though..."

She faltered. Gupta picked it up. "Sociopathic?"

"Yes, at the least. But aware. Completely aware. He may or may not be lying; he may be telling what he thinks is the truth. He, himself, says he is not to be trusted on any level." She paused again.

"But he's all we've got at the moment," Gupta finished for her. Singer realized she'd been afraid that whatever expert the AI Institute sent was going to be entirely a code monkey, but Gupta seemed to have more range than that, for which she was deeply grateful.

"At any rate," Singer said, "I had been deliberately keeping them off the station proper until we needed them, but I should have arranged for them earlier."

The admiral took the ball from here. "Easily contrived. Do you want privacy, or...?"

"No, something from here will do."

The admiral reached for his own tablet, and a screen at one end of the room that Singer had honestly not noticed before lit. A second later, a person appeared and said, "Tower."

The admiral said, "Tower, could you please raise Zephyr's pinnace for the commander, here?"

"Of course, Admiral, Commander. One moment." The screen dimmed again.

It was a little longer than just a moment, long enough for Singer to stand up, return to the side bar, and pour herself a cup of something hot. She was distracted enough she did not pay attention whether it was coffee, tea, or hot water, and was relieved when she actually sipped it that it was tea. Coffee would not have been terrible, but somehow she wanted tea right now.

When the screen lit again, Singer reconsidered whether she should have asked for privacy. Wasserman looked like a man woken up earlier than expected after a day on shore leave, which was only fair, since that's what he was. "Captain?"

"PO, I should have asked for this yesterday, but could one of you or Pilot Goldsmith run down the two containment units to Government Center?"

From off-screen, she heard Goldsmith say, loud enough for the pickup, "On it, Captain!"

Wasserman smiled slightly sheepishly. Singer had a moment to wonder what she was missing, because she was sure she was missing something in her current state of mind, before Wasserman said, "Anything else, Captain?"

"No, PO, that should do it. Be careful with them. Soon as you can, please."

Wasserman and, off camera, Goldsmith, said in near-unison, "Yes ma'am!"

"Singer clear on your final."

"Zephyr-1 clear."

The screen snapped off. Singer looked to the admiral to thank him, and found him covering a smirk with his hand.

Well, there had been something funny about the whole exchange, Singer thought, still certain she was missing something.

Despite temptation, they did not talk further about what was in those cases or what they hoped to discover from them. Neither did Singer yet raise the issue that was gnawing at her even more than the state of those two personalities: the fundamental issue that Lucas had raised, that Chef had been unable to review the tape of that debriefing or even understand when Singer had summarized...

...that the AIs commonly used in the Tau Ceti Treaty Fleet were not just enslaved, but prevented from recognizing it.

Well, not entirely. Castor and Pollux both seemed to recognize it. But Singer remained deeply disturbed by her attempt to get Chef to review the recording of Lucas' debriefing.

Instead, Singer let Gupta and Donato ask her some questions about Zephyr and about her own career before all this had happened. Gupta had been pleased to see that she understood about data security, and smiled when learning she'd been a communications officer and was a trained linguist. Then, she realized she still had an invitation to extend. "By the way, I'd already extended this invitation to Seth and President Robina, at dinner the other night but you're all invited to tour Zephyr this evening, if you like."

Gupta looked interested. Donato looked...hungry. It was the most humanizing expression she'd seen on the man since she'd received his first, extremely irritating message while Zephyr was still upwell. By contrast, Silverman looked wistful, and said, "I think I'll have to pass. We're not as security conscious as many cultures, as you may have noticed, but this rule I think we have to stick to. It's generally not done for both the governor and the admiral to set foot on 'foreign soil' at the same time, and the admiral has the more obvious professional interest. My interest is strictly personal, so I can kvell over my nephew's handiwork!"

Singer smiled, and somehow felt her shoulders drop a millimeter, perhaps. It was only then that she realized they'd been practically up around her ears since the news from Alexei Leonov had come in.

It was just starting to occur to Singer that she might need to see how Cadotte was doing, when they and Alexander returned to the room. Cadotte was "open" again. Distressed, for certain, but no longer shut down so thoroughly Singer couldn't sense them. A complete stranger walking by them might not realize that they'd been crying, and possibly screaming. Singer knew them, however, and saw the signs in their eyes, and then in their voice as they said, "Apologies, everyone. I did not intend to delay matters."

Singer tried to keep her concern from burdening her voice as she said, "It was just as well, honestly. It turned out I'd forgotten something."

Cadotte was not yet fully synced up, which was to be expected, but Alexander glanced at the table and said, "The containment units!"

Singer smiled and nodded. "Wasserman or Goldsmith or both are on their way with them. Depending on train schedules, I'd expect them any..."

The door opened and admitted a member of the security staff, and Singer's two pilots. Neither looked the least disheveled, and each carried one of the containment units. Wasserman looked like he wanted to hold the one he was carrying—Lucas—out on a long pole far away from him. He saw Singer notice this, shrugged, and said, "Short straw."

Singer gestured to the table and said, "Thank you, pilots." They each placed their case down on the table, then turned to face Singer, looking absolutely mannerly. Goldsmith, still taking the role of senior of the two, despite it being a bit fuzzy which of them really was, said, "Certainly, Captain. Anything more?"

"No, thank you, pilots. Is it still on your docket to move the pinnace to the city's aft piers?"

"Yes, ma'am. We've got it scheduled, so assuming dockmaster's courtesy, we should be able to take care of it as soon as we get back."

"Very well. That will be..."

She saw Alexander catch her attention, and looked a question at zir.

"Captain, I'd like a moment with the pilots before we send them back."

Singer was pretty sure that Alexander wanted to make sure the pilots were briefed on the latest news, before it made it into the public feeds that they might see on the train or elsewhere. "Of course, Commander."

Alexander led the pilots out into the hall and presumably back to the same conference room. Cadotte asked quietly, "What'd I miss?"

"Not that much. A very cursory rundown of the state of Georgette and Lucas, a bit of talk about Zephyr and other things. We deliberately waited to dig in 'til we were all back together."

Cadotte nodded. Singer could tell they were feeling a little guilty about the delay, and risked saying, "We'd have had to wait for the cases anyway, you know."

Again Cadotte nodded, more slowly, not sure they accepted being absolved that easily, then said, "I suppose so. Still..."

"Wayra, no one here begrudges you a moment."

Cadotte closed their eyes, and Singer could feel a kind of reset—nothing to do with the science officer's augmentations, just a moment humans sometimes go through when the realize they need to change tracks, that there'll be time for harder things later.

Opening them again, they said, "Thank you, Captain."

"You're welcome, Lieutenant. Now, get yourself some refreshment from the sidebar. Madame President over there looks like she wants to mother-hen you."

Whether that had been true or not, Robina lived up to Singer's good opinion of her by saying, "Well, my own child is out of the room just this moment. It's clear you're friends, so you're next in line!"

That got a snort, albeit a small one, from Cadotte, who accepted defeat and moved to the sideboard.

Alexander returned a moment later, and said, "Again, apologies. I felt the pilots should be briefed."

Singer nodded, saying, "And you were right." She wanted to ask how they'd taken it, but a small headshake from Alexander convinced her otherwise.

They all finally sat down together again, and Gupta said, "So, tell me the tale."