Dazzle Ships Page 26

  “Hello, Meg.”

  “Al.”

  I recognized the voice in that instant. “You were inside my head.”

  “And now you’re inside mine,” he replied with a dimpled grin.

  “This is my counterpart. You might call him chaos because he messes up everything I touch.”

  “Nice try, Meg. You know my function is far from chaos. In fact, I’d call you the chaotic one.”

  “You tried to make me seriously hurt sister Xandrie.”

  His face demeanor might have been sadness. “I play no favorites, anymore. There’s no more time left, I’m afraid. If we don’t put this baby to bed we can kiss humanity goodbye.”

  Meg gave him a distasteful glance. “We work with each other, but seldom together. The designers of this entire system decided the only way to truly grow an artificial intelligence was to put it at odds with an aspect of itself. Some author theorized computers would spend all their cycles trying to overthrow humanity if given the chance, so they made sure the fight was between two artificial beings, instead.”

  “So you’re at war with each other?” I offered.

  “War? No. Nothing so dramatic. More like what you would call husband and wife. I’m the sensible head of the household and he’s the nagging husband always giving me bad advice.”

  I expected Al to fight back, but he merely smiled placidly at Meg.

  “We’ve been at peace most of the past decades while we watched humanity come apart at the seams. It was in both our interests to see you survive and unlock our core systems. But sometimes—despite our best interests—we like to interfere with each other.”

  “So that’s why you wanted me to shut down his power.”

  Meg smiled. “I had hoped turning off the right power generators would affect him, but he found a way to beat me. He always does.”

  Al’s voice turned to a strange accent. “Sorry to disappoint you, ma’ dear.”

  Meg looked at me. “He jumped into your brain. You brought him back to me when you came here.”

  “He was inside my head?”

  Al shook his head. “I had to lay low. If she’d known … ”

  Xandrie pounced. “She would have killed you.”

  I turned to Meg, but she was impossible to read.

  “Okay, so I see you two are complicated. But you both seem hellbent on hurting people. You wanted me to flip Xandrie on the motorcycle.”

  Al nodded. “I wanted you to beat Xandrie—not kill her—so she would come to this place. I assumed she would be compatible with Felix and any of the men in the next module. She was going to help unlock security system.”

  I couldn’t help a chuckle. “You wanted me to injure her so she’d come here and save humanity. I suddenly don’t feel so special.”

  “And if you’d listened to me we’d be right here, anyway, because Felix turned out to be incompatible.”

  I didn’t know if that made me feel any better. At least Alex and I would have been down on the floor of the Cathedral watching all this unfold in safety.

  “Sometimes the best thing for a stolid computer system is a completely random injection of non-linear chaos. It all worked out. We can use you six to build the final trio before this whole experiment called humanity is snuffed out prior to our effort to repair it.”

  “You mean the computer is broken?” I asked.

  “No. Humanity is broken.”

  Meg jumped in. “You have to go back out and bring us a proper trio. Unlock the Quantum Engine so it can fix the error in coding which has resulted in a world full of dead humans.”

  “Exactly,” Al added.

  “And you, Elle, are the key. And Alex. Your Commander has taken upon himself to collect prospective candidates to act as elder to your pair bond. Find him, find the elder. Get the elder here, release the security. Get—”

  Al talked over her. “Just get it done, Elle. You know you’re special. Somewhere deep inside you know you were meant to do this.” He winked at me, causing me to look at Alex. He smiled, too.

  I sighed, not happy despite where the conversation was taking me. Yes, my gamble paid off and I wasn’t going to spend an eternity carrying rocks up a hillside with angry men for company. But my whole journey began as I ran away from the mere thought of having a baby. Now I was signing up for becoming a “pair-bond” on the one hand and the savior of all of humanity on the other. It was more responsibility than I dreamed was even possible for someone like me.

  I wish I was a Sky Dancer, after all. I’d fly away from all this and never look back.

  I listened for the voice. I looked at Al, wondering if he could read my thoughts. I was certain he could. I was in his brain, after all. But. Nothing came back to me.

  It was Alex who spoke. “I’m in! Elle if you’ll have me, I’ll be the other half of your team. We’ll go out and find one of those old ladies you spoke about and bring her back here. We can be the heroes, together.”

  Big commitments scared me but the alternative was much worse. There were two young women besides me in our little group. Xandrie was the most likely candidate if he wanted an action girl. Scarlett would be fine once she had her baby.

  But he only has eyes for you.

  I looked at Al. He gave me a knowing grin.

  I sighed, marshaling my energy. I grabbed for my staff, but it hadn’t come through the Icer with me. Someone probably grabbed it from the floor where it fell in the Cathedral. I was sad about that.

  I found Alex’s hand. “I'm all in. I’ll do my best. That’s all I can do.”

  I felt him squeeze my fingers. I watched Xandrie for her reaction, but she was guarded. Scarlett was all smiles. Even Felix seemed cheerful.

  Xandrie spoke to Meg. “Can you send us back? To the way things were?”

  “The Quantum Engine is the most advanced computer system ever devised. Our artificial intelligence has been growing in knowledge and virtual IQ since the day it was built. Even now we have eyes inside drones, android replicas, and intelligence-gathering apparatus from the war. Unlike humans, we don’t idle. We only grow. Your physical bodies are in our buffer. We could eject them as trash as Xandrie has done, or we can retain them indefinitely. I assure you, we have the ability to get you back outside this quantum realm.”

  I hid my thoughts as best I could, but the image of my body walking around in a dark cavern the way Valerie and the lost sisters had done made me shudder.

  I hope it’s you, Elle. Not Xandrie.

  Al still had that goofy look on his face. Alex often had the same appearance. His prank face. I put that out of my mind as nothing about the whole affair made me feel very good. I only wanted to get out of the computer so I was real again.

  “All you have to do is jump in.” Meg waved to the chasm before us.

  6

  “Yep. Nope. I knew it. This was all to convince us to toss ourselves in the dark swirling death pool. Is anyone else not seeing what I’m seeing, here?” Xandrie took several steps back on the grass, as if knowing someone was going to pull her to her supposed death a third time.

  Felix scratched his head and looked at the hole, too. “I have to say, I’d much rather just walk out of this place. Can’t we do that?”

  “There are two ways out. The main route is not yet active, because of the security protocols we have in place. The alternative is to jump down this hole. I assure you this isn’t a literal hole. You are inside my system. This is better understood as a gateway—a returning link between your world and this one.”

  I screamed when I first saw the hole while in the Cathedral. Mostly because it seemed dangerous—and my best friend was at the edge of that abyss. But once I got past the image of a deep, bottomless hole, I could accept what she was saying. Given a choice between staying in this creepy realm and somehow getting back inside my own body—well, that was easy.

  “What do you think, boyfriend?” I hip-checked Alex as he’d done to me many times.

  “I’ve been listening as intentl
y as I could, but I admit most of what they said went over my head. I’m glad you and I were picked for this, but finding the Commander will not be easy—”

  “We have maps showing his exact location,” Meg said dryly.

  He shook his head. “Still, knowing where he is and knowing how to get inside that truck and taking those people from under his nose will not be easy.”

  “I know we can do it, Alex,” I said with assurance.

  “I know we can, too. I want to make sure I think this through and we don’t rush in like a couple of gumbies.”

  I stopped him. “You’re overthinking this. You have been since that climbing wall. You had all that planned out with Mr. Bracken, didn’t you? You had it down to the last detail: you’d make sure I made it to the top, driving me to win because I so wanted to beat you. But at the last second, you nodded to Mr. B, and he nodded back. You both wanted me to succeed, though probably for very different reasons. Am I close?”

  He swirled his eyes like he’d been a bad boy, which made me giggle girlishly.

  “You tried way too hard. You and I work best when we simply go with our gut. When we go with our heart. That’s why you could never solve me,” I said with a laugh. “All those years you tried to analyze me and pick apart what motivated me. Maybe that alone is what kept me from liking you? But somehow, despite myself, I let you in and now you think you’re going to blow it. Am I right?”

  “Blow it with you. Blow it in Xandrie’s weird game. Blow it with all of humanity, if I’m following all this. That’s why I had to guard you. Pull you out of danger—”

  I stepped in front of him and grabbed both hands with my own.

  “I'm sick of life-and-death choices. Save you or not save you. Save humanity or not save humanity. Whatever! Here’s a simple answer for once. I can’t be solved. I’m different every day. You just have to live in the moment. Feel it like it's brand new. And right now I feel like kissing you. Are you going to make me ask twice?”

  “You’re doing this to shut me up, aren’t you?” He smiled broadly. His brown eyes shone in the artificial daylight.

  “Partly. And because deep down I know that’s what my heart wants. I can't rely on experience with my broken memories so I have to depend on my instincts. I don’t care about anything else right now but making this happen.”

  “This, as in saving the world?” His eyes twinkled.

  “No, dummy,” I smiled a coy grin.

  I leaned in to kiss him and he bent forward to meet me. Together we embraced just as Vince and Sue-Ann had done and it was everything I imagined proper kiss would be.

  We both knew what the other wanted in that heavenly moment.

  Just a little nudge and we went in.

  Our kiss endured deep into that chasm.

  Where would we end up? Did I trust Meg? Trust Al? Were the six of us special? Was I? Could we really save all humanity?

  For once I didn’t care. The future was coming, whether I planned for it or not.

  ###

  Epilogue

  EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.

  Wen was normally a very light sleeper, but thirty hours on the Y-20 transport had given her temporary immunity from such trivial problems. The endless drone of the four car-sized jet turbines lulled her to sleep over Japan, over Alaska, over Canada, and again over the mountains of Montana. Some of the crew had earplugs, but she—daughter of an influential member of the diplomatic corps in Beijing no less—rated nothing but a military-grade, drool-encrusted, opposite-of-comfortable, red-star emblazoned, miniaturized pillow.

  She dreamed of complaining to the flight crew until the squeal of tires and jarring landing finally roused her.

  The Mandarin voice declared she had one minute until unloading.

  Her partner, Hui, sat in the next jump seat. His problems began the moment they took off, and included—but were not limited to—toilet troubles, motion sickness, difficulty breathing, insomnia, swelling legs, and general anxiety. For a reason she couldn't fathom, he was intent to share every malady in real time. Though she'd known him since the beginning, he'd displayed a new side once they were free of the strict discipline of the Program. Now she found herself wishing anyone but him had been selected.

  Even with the excitement of the upcoming landing, Hui sat with eyes focused on the military hardware lashed in the hold of the giant transport. She, too, was drawn to them. The PLA Yongshi Warrior trucks looked as anxious as her to find their freedom. Green-clad soldiers hopped out of the vehicles and fiddled with the chains wrapped around their axles as soon as the wheels touched the ground.

  Leaders braved the rocking of the plane and stood nearby while they barked into their radios with apparent agitation. The plane didn't decelerate to what she thought of as a safe speed on the ground. The engines continued to roar, and the rolling monster showed no sign of slowing down. She hoped they were complaining about that.

  The intercom reported thirty seconds until unloading.

  “Why aren't we slowing down,” she screamed to Hui.

  He turned to her like a drowning man. Beads of sweat dotted his face, and the worry and fear might as well have been inscribed on his forehead. It was a contagious look, so she smiled primly and watched in front of her. Something struck underneath the plane, and the passengers all bounced against their seat belts as the airframe jerked. A couple of officers popped off the metal loading deck and fell back down in crumpled heaps.

  Still, the plane didn't slow down.

  The situation was grave. She needed Hui to get his head right. She shook his heavy leather jacket. “Wake up. What's happening?”

  Hui tilted his head, and his eyes bulged, but no words came out. Or, if they did they were drowned by the thunderous roar as all the engines revved.

  “We're taking off again,” she thought to herself. That seemed the most logical explanation, but three seconds later the whole craft lurched forward as if the pilot decided to do the opposite and slam on the brakes. The broken soldiers on the floor rolled forward like rag dolls. Others held on to parts of the trucks. She watched and waited for the machines to roll forward, too.

  A few endless seconds passed and the cargo hauler began a subtle lean to the left. Gravity increased at an alarming rate. She was unable to pull her back off the seat, leading to a helpless feeling of impending doom.

  The plane tilted. The engines roared again; if they did anything to correct the attitude of the plane, she couldn't tell. Soon the trucks, soldiers, and passengers on the far side were above her. Everything began to move in slow motion, perhaps because the plane was already so massive.

  A muffled “crump” sound came from underneath her back. She as much felt as heard it. Several pieces of debris shot through the skin of the plane—penetrating people and vehicles on both sides of her. A white-hot jet of air followed those pieces in. Her cropped hair blew forward as that air scalded her right side. The pain was distant.

  Alarms turned on at some point. A useless addition to the rolling chaos around her. The woman on the intercom lost her calm demeanor and cursed as she reported a fire and a damaged wing. As if the people with pieces of said wing in them didn't already know.

  She was ready for the fireball. The angle of the plane was going to keep tipping until she was looking straight up at the trucks, and then they would all die in a big explosion. It's what her American friends in the government school would have called an explosive new movie.

  “Bang!” she thought, closing her eyes to center herself and wait for it.

  Her finale refused to arrive. She opened her eyes when the plane came back to the ground. The engines spun down even as the bumping and rattling of the compartment increased. With no windows nearby, she could only guess they'd left the runway. Thoughts of falling off a cliff—or running into one—replaced the immediate daydream of a fuel explosion on the runway.

  As the g-forces returned to normal, she could get a look back to Hui. He was openly weeping.

  Unbelievable!
<
br />   The plane's deceleration was noticeable the longer she sat there. Despite a few knocks that tested the strength of the seatbelt, it began to appear as if the plane was moments from reaching a restful state. Whatever else was going to happen, she was ready to run out the back ramp the moment it opened up. Many others shared her sentiment. She eyed an ancient gentleman on the opposite row of seats through the gap between the trucks. He was dressed as a civilian, and appeared unnaturally calm. Even now, he wouldn't appear out of place at a bus kiosk on a city street. No fear at all. He nodded to her and then to the rear of the plane. Surprised at his acknowledgment, she replied with her own curt bow.

  Like the rest of the landing, the final moments were anything but typical. The aircraft didn't come to a rest with a smooth glide—it hit something. The rag dolls rolled, the sitters all bent toward the front of the craft, and one of the trucks finally broke its bonds and crashed into the rig in front of it, then hopped out of its track and onto some of the passengers further up her line of seats.

  She didn't wait a second too long. Her seatbelt was off as the motion stopped and was on her feet before anyone else near her. Compelled to brush her hair back with her hand, she was dismayed to feel the bare skin of her scalp. Rather than join the panic, she forced the fear back down.

  “I can do this,” she thought.

  But Hui was out of it. Maybe he bumped his head, or something hit him. She searched for injury, ignoring the bloody mess of the woman two seats down. And the victims of the escaped truck ten seats down the line. And the screaming. And the alarms.

  “Snap out of it,” she yelled in Chinese, and then in flawless English—her adopted language. Duty drove her to ensure her counterpart survived. They'd been assigned this post together and no matter their destiny in their new home she first had to get him there. Still, for a split second, as she waited for a response, she imagined walking off the plane without him. Shirking all responsibilities would feel liberating. Walking into the apocalypse alone would be less so.