Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades (5 page)

“Well, in that case,
why did you break things off from Jake? Even you said you were happy
when you were together.”

The question stung.
Lacey’s instinct to sidestep that question for months had been
right. If there was one thing Ayan regretted since she got together
with Liam, it was that she had to leave Jake. She was even more
remorseful after she split from Liam, something that wasn’t
supposed to be public, but became the topic of conversation for half
of Tamber just the same. “I took some bad advice,” Ayan replied.
“I was told that I had to free Jake so he could do what he had to
in this war. Little did I know it would be stalled for the better
part of a year.”

“That advice didn’t
come from that thing that could see the future, did it?” Lacey
said.

“I know what you
think of the information I got from the machine,” Ayan said, trying
to sidestep another short lecture on how nothing can tell people the
future. It was Lacey’s steadfast opinion, and it came up whenever
Ayan was caught looking at her extensive notes on the Victory Machine
and her encounter. “You have to understand, when I came away from
that experience it was as real as you and I sitting here, and I
wouldn’t have followed its instructions if I knew it would land us
here. What’s worse, I wouldn’t have ended up with Liam at all if
I just stayed the course and stayed with Jake. But-“

Lacey finished the
explanation of Ayan’s first night with Liam, she’d heard it
enough to have it memorized. “He was the most trustworthy person
left in your life then, and you needed to feel alive and cared for.”
Lacey didn’t state it sardonically, but surprised Ayan when she
added her own opinion. “Bully for him, being at the catcher’s
post at the right time. Old letch should have put you off just the
same. Figure someone of morally high training could have kept his
robes on.”

“I’m just as much
to blame,” Ayan said. “Takes two.”

“You were reeling in
grief, two important people snatched away in just a few days. Even I
know you wouldn’t be yourself. Wish I was there instead of him
then, I’d know well enough to put you to bed and cuddle you off
instead of getting into your pants at the first opening. I just can’t
believe how it ended, him fighting to keep you on his arm after both
of you drifted apart for a couple of months. He had to know it all
started wrong, I know that’s how you felt.”

“You were there when
the real grief struck,” Ayan reassured Lacey. “When I didn’t
expect it, and you wouldn’t leave, not even when I told you to.”

“We’re on equal
ground, little dove. When my brother was found, you were my pillar
even though it would have been fine for you to go on like I were just
a serving bot. You could have just left me in my place to feel the
loss on my own time.”

“Couldn’t do that.
You know you’re more than my aide.” It was true; Lacey quickly
became the older sister she never knew she needed. “I don’t know
what these last months would be like without you.” Ayan took
Lacey’s slender hand and squeezed it. For a moment they shared a
quiet time of acknowledgement and affection. “As for the mess with
Jake, you know the whole story now.”

“Thank you. I was
sorry for asking, I know you want to move on, but-“

“Your curiosity was
begging,” Ayan said. “I understand.”

“Well, I’m glad
your time with Liam is sorted, now he’s just a face at the other
end of the Council table, and you
can
move on.” Lacey said. “Or move back to Jake?” she
asked with a wink. “I know you’re abreast of all the Warlord’s
doings – well, whatever crumbs of data they leave for the public
and what you can get from Triton Fleet.”

“There’s a long
distance to cross if that were to happen. I hurt him, I know I did,
and if I didn’t, Minh made sure I knew it. Aside from all that,
sometimes I’m amazed at what you catch me doing. You’re not
hacked into my comms, are you?” Ayan asked.

“I wouldn’t know
how to, and a good aide shouldn’t have to. I know everything about
you, dear. How else am I supposed to know what you need before you
do?”

“Speaking of which,”
Ayan said, “have you heard anything that could tell you what this
is about?”

“No, and neither has
Victor. No one else replied when I asked what was going on. They know
you have a tight schedule. If this is more bureaucratic haggling, I’m
going to start stunning people.”

It took a while for
Ayan to get used to Lacey’s humour, but once she did, it never
failed to amuse. She could be the picture of professional decorum,
but every once in a while her temper got the best of her, and she’d
let loose with threats and sabre rattling that was only a good way
for her to quickly blow off steam before she had to face people
again. It was often just what Ayan needed to start smiling again.

Haven Shore

Alice’s report to the
Haven Shore Strategic Centre was filed in-flight. Her duties were
fulfilled, and there was still a little light left in the day. The
crewmembers of the Warlord who remained behind while the ship was on
an intelligence gathering mission and many Haven Shore residents were
taking a day off at the beach. After the last few hours of the long
day on Tamber, the terraformed moon would be overshadowed by its
brother moon and the planet it orbited, Kambis.

Alice enjoyed hanging
out with Ashley, the sometimes bubbly, and often underestimated
pilot. Even though she had the intelligence and experience to plan
ahead when it came to her duties, Ashley was a great example of
someone who enjoyed living in the moment, and she made every moment
she could enjoyable.

Alice had gotten to
know nearly all of the other Warlord crewmembers as well, and liked
most of them. Work on the ship was nearing completion, and even
though she’d spent much of her time as a ranger, she couldn’t
help but be proud of how it was turning out. The restoration seemed
to take forever with so few people working on it, but months of
ceaseless labour and good teamwork yielded undeniable results. The
addition of a British Shipwright Crew in the last two months
accelerated the work more than anyone expected, especially her. Every
time the Warlord returned to the system it seemed like a whole
section of the ship’s interior was brand new.

When the ship was
ready, Alice would be have to make a decistion: remain on Tamber and
serve the Rangers, a new organization that she learned so much from,
or go off-world with her father.

It was a difficult
decision - she enjoyed her work as a Ranger, and it was completely
different from what she’d be doing on the Warlord. As a Ranger she
saved people in the wreckage of Port Rush, searched for old research
bunkers on the island of Haven Shore, or kept watch over cultivation
crews as they picked fruit in the jungle, for a start. There were
large carnivorous cats with glinting eyes, and curious monkeys who
would steal from the pickers’ bags if they got too close. There
were many other dangers as well, snakes, nests of widow beetles, and
so on, but monkeys and big cats were the most problematic. The
Warlord seemed so much more confining, but she knew she’d see new
ports, aliens she’d only heard about, and there would be combat –
it was guaranteed.

The notion that she’d
just done her last run as a ranger for weeks, maybe months, maybe
ever
, was just
sinking in as the main Haven Shore settlement came into view. Her
fighter slowed as she neared the new docking facility. The settlement
took advantage of the hard, time-tested cliff face. Many small
landing platforms and the framing of several buildings were anchored
into the side of the stone. Atop the cliff was the port building
proper, a bulbous, irregular dome that was still under construction.
Parts of the main lower levels were finished, but the skin of the
dome would be stretched upwards and expanded as more floors were
added. They still used a much smaller building as the main port hub.
It was a simple transparent dome that would be repurposed as an
outbuilding later.

The Everin building was
well on its way to being completed, and even though it was massive to
Alice, she knew there were plans for several more, and they’d be
interconnected by a larger framing structure. The hollow structure
was already large enough to house everyone who had arrived with them
at Haven Shore; even she had an apartment there. Haven Shore Navnet
took control of her Ramiel fighter and guided it towards the centre
of the Everin building.

The ship descended into
the hollow centre of the structure. The twenty-one storey building
seemed squat from above, but she couldn’t help but marvel at its
size as her ship was led to a soft landing halfway down the hollow
centre on a small retractable landing pad. Freeground technology,
fabrication systems from the Triton, and mountains of supplies that
Ayan and her people bartered for went into the quickly constructed
building. A large amount of basic supplies came from the Warlord as
well, sort of smuggled through the Triton so the Carthans didn’t
object to Haven Shore taking aid from an exiled ship.

The blue and green
tinted floors and walls were once sheets of cloth and viscous liquid.
Using nanotechnology and magnetic fields, the place was shaped wall
by wall, room by room, and the materials hardened into light but
incredibly strong structures. The Everin Building wasn’t so much
built as it was shaped. It was still a shell for the most part, with
only bare rooms and the most basic amenities, but when it was
finished, it would be fully modern. The small vehicle bay in the
bottom level of her apartment would deliver her fighter to a central
area where it would be serviced, then it would be returned using
Haven Shore’s transportation system, which would extend to every
floor of the building through branching passages and lifts.

Alice climbed from her
fighter as the landing platform retracted into her apartment. She was
already planning how she’d get to the beach. There were always
people heading in that direction on skid trucks, especially before
high tide. Two thirds of the long beach would disappear as Kambis and
its other moons’ gravity focused on their side of Tamber.

She dropped her ranger
kit in the middle of her small gathering room – a space she hadn’t
had a chance to fill with more than a couple of portable chairs –
and checked herself in the mirror. After a moment of trying to get
her hair into a manageable pile and adding a little makeup, she gave
up and headed for the door.

Thoughts of leaving
Haven Shore and her situation of increasing comforts were fading as
she started looking through swimsuit shapes for her vacsuit. She was
already smiling at the idea of the beach trip and relaxing with
friends for the first time in two weeks. Ashley would be on the beach
with Zoe, and several of the rangers Alice trained with were already
there expecting her. Her eagerness faded as she opened her door and
saw a young man sitting beside it, nodding off.

He got to his feet with
a start. He was wearing a yellow and white worker’s vacsuit, and
was barely out of his teens. It took a moment for her to recognize
Soren, one of the ranger trainees who left training after a week and
a half. He was savvy with technology, but couldn’t keep up
physically, and hesitated in mock combat. “Alice, I’m sorry for
coming here like this, but you weren’t on Crewcast, everything just
went to your mail.” He looked absolutely distraught.

“Rangers turn social
mode off while we’re on patrol,” Alice said. “What’s wrong?”

“Right, I forgot,
that’s procedure, I forgot, sorry. I would have brought this to the
Council Office’s attention, and I know they’d send a ranger to
take care of it, or maybe even just normal Haven Shore security, but
I wanted you. I mean, I know you from training, and I think you’d,”
he stammered, “maybe you could take care of this?”

“Just take your time,
I’ll help if I can,” Alice said, leading him into her apartment.

“Okay,” he said,
taking in the small main room. The privacy seemed to calm him down a
little. “You could use some furniture.”

“Tell me about it,”
Alice replied. “Your problem?”

“Yeah, well, when I
washed out from the rangers I applied for a position in robotics, and
I didn’t think I’d get it because my scores as a ranger trainee
were bad at best, but mostly incomplete. They didn’t care. I got a
spot on a team working on making network detached helper and builder
bots out of the ones we bought for next to nothing on the mainland.”

“I’ve seen a bunch
working, those little skitters that follow the workers around,”
Alice said.

“Yeah, they’re
working out great, even with some of the weird stuff that’s been
going on. A lot of us anthropomorphise bots when we’re working on
them, talk to them like people or kids who came in with a scraped
knee or something even before we’ve switched them back on. It makes
the day go by, and it’s pretty funny when we catch each other doing
it, but some of the bots started really reacting to it after the
lights go on.”

“That’s normal,
isn’t it? The bots have to acknowledge that you’re communicating
with them.”

“No, no, not like
that. Not a little beep or a flashing light telling me I’ve been
heard. I’m talking about whole conversations that, when you look at
the bigger picture, indicate that these bots are more aware than
anyone expected. The other day we got a call from a lady who was
wondering if a skitter was assigned to follow her eight year old
around when it was between tasks. We checked it out and found Bo-Bot,
a skitter who this kid liked, named, and the sentiment seemed mutual.
When we checked a snapshot of its code, we found out that this
skitter noticed Hamish, the kid, was really accident prone while it
was working in their quarters, and it took responsibility because he
tripped over a temporary data line. We tried to remove Bo-Bot from
the situation and the thing started, well, screaming at us until the
kid started crying, then it summons his mother and makes these
soothing noises that none of us added to its programming.”