The navigator, p.41
The Navigator, page 41
"What's that screen showing?" Quill pointed at the screen with the static cloud. "Some kind of storm?"
"Correct. According to my calculations, in thirty-three days your sun will cast off a coronal mass ejection. That is a projection of its likely effect on your magnetosphere. The mass ejection will disrupt all electronic devices and radio communications within the shaded area when it ionizes your planet's upper atmosphere."
"That's all of Hesperia. It's going to fry all of their technology?"
"Affirmative. It will be a very large coronal mass ejection. All electrical systems within the shaded area will be overloaded by the resulting electromagnetic pulse."
"Chairman Manheim is going to have a fit. Khai Shen will be stuck in the Dark Ages for months."
Cynax didn't react to Quill's remark.
Quill eyed the screens for one last moment. When she was just about to look away, she noticed that the screen next to the static-filled one showed Ea crisscrossed with eight translucent blue lines. The lines looked like the orbital paths. A small, solid triangle moved along each blurry line, across the face of Ea. Each triangle was tagged with a tiny row of alien glyphs - presumably demarcating their speed and trajectory. Far away from these lines, near the middle of the screen, a prominent silver circle hovered directly above the Kanya Lull.
"And what about that screen? Are those satellites? What does that dot in the middle of the Kanya Lull represent? I've sailed through the Lull. There's nothing there but water."
"That marker denotes the location of one of the Aii-infested, Consortium installations on this planet. The Tear Drop. It is located directly above the central gyre of this planet's Northern Ocean, far from any inhabited islands. The remainder of the markers denote the orbital paths of all Consortium mining trellises."
"The fallen star. . ." Quill lowered her gaze down to Cynax's hideous eye. "That - that station – the Tear Drop or whatever – it must have broken apart or crashed. I was on a ship that recovered a piece of it floating in the sea. It looked like a big, gray cylinder. The government where I come from was looking for it too – they wanted to salvage it - take it back to Hesperia."
"Your conclusion is incorrect. Although I have no access to the Tear Drop, I am still able to observe it via satellite. The installation remains intact. From what you described, it is possible that what you salvaged was an escape pod from the Tear Drop. It was likely ejected from the station following the Aii infestation. This is unanticipated. If what you witnessed was in fact an escape pod, it is likely contaminated with Aii. Opening that pod for study would pose an extreme hazard to all life forms."
Cynax withdrew its tentacles from above, switching the monitors off.
Quill had a question to ask Cynax – it was burning a hole in her gut. She began to try and work up the courage to finally verbalize it, but couldn't – it was too painful. She bit her tongue and played with her hair, trying to come up with something to say to ease her tension.
"How long have aliens been mining Ea?"
"For one hundred and forty solar orbits."
"Whoa. Since the Flood?"
"Slightly after the precipitous rise of your planet's sea level."
"What caused the Flood? Do you know? Did the Khoi cause it?"
"Negative." Cynax's body buzzed with millions of little clicks. "Your planet was flooded due to global warming brought about by a sudden rise in your sun's temperature. That transient heat spike caused clathrate methane, which had been frozen under the seabed for eons, to begin melting. Once it began to melt, the released methane raised the atmospheric temperature further, creating a self-perpetuating feedback loop that eventually raised this planet's sea levels by several hundred feet."
"Cthulhu methane? I thought you said that was how the Khoi homeworld flooded – not Ea."
"Clathrate methane. And you are correct. This planet was of particular interest to the Khoi because it was geologically similar to their homeworld. The Khoi hoped that studying it would shed further light on what occurred during their own sea level cataclysm."
"Is it normal for aliens to mine other planets? Has anyone else ever mined or visited Ea?"
"It is highly unusual to mine a planet populated with intelligent life forms as such activity has long been outlawed by the Colonial Galactic Government."
"Then why were the Khoi allowed to mine Ea?"
"Officially, this planet is not populated with intelligent life forms. It contains no intelligent life. All intelligent life forms went extinct following the flooding event that took place one hundred and fifty solar orbits ago. This planet is listed in the Colonial Archives as a dead world."
"But that's wrong – obviously. I'm here. You said you monitor radio traffic. You know there are other humans here."
"Correct. The original Colonial Survey was wildly inaccurate. Either by omission or by carelessness, this planet was listed as completely depopulated. That is why the mining of this planet was authorized by the C.G.G."
"Why haven't you told the government that the survey was wrong? Why didn't the Khoi tell them?"
"The mining of this planet is highly profitable to the Consortium. It was their scientists who surveyed this planet and concluded it was depopulated. The Consortium has no incentive to correct the erroneous survey."
"Why haven't you corrected it? You said you don't work for the Consortium."
"That is not my prerogative. The C.G.G. assigned me to this station to study this planet's sun and its influence over this solar system. Your sun is rather unique among G-Class stars. It is strangely, gravitationally unstable. I find it quite fascinating and intend to study it for the duration of my shift in this station – one hundred and fifty solar orbits."
"Doesn't anyone check up on things? The Consortium – the Khoi – they haven't realized that everyone they sent here died, ten years ago?"
"Because of the great distances involved in interstellar travel, Consortium facilities are constructed to function self sufficiently for decades. The Consortium installations on this planet are only visited by unmanned vessels - and only after every twenty or so solar orbits. The Amanahora installation on this planet in particular was built not only as a standard Consortium base of operations, but also to function as the nucleus of a permanent, self-sufficient, Khoi colony. This is why the personnel assigned to Amanahora were forty percent male and sixty percent female – the standard makeup of a breeding colony."
Quill raised an eyebrow. "The Khoi wanted to settle here? On Ea?"
"This planet is highly similar to their ancestral homeworld - and as the Khoi are now - they lack a suitable homeworld. I suspect that the eventual Khoi colonization of this planet was one of the Consortium's original aims in coming here."
"What about people like me? What happens to us if the Khoi turn Ea into a colony?"
"Further Consortium activity on this planet is highly unlikely given the fate of Amanahora. Once the deaths of its colonists are discovered, it will be difficult to conceal what happened here from the C.G.G.. Regrettably, the next Consortium visit to this planet will not occur for another ten solar orbits – the end of my shift at this Monitoring Station. That visit may come too late to save this planet from Aii contamination; which is why it is so fortunate that the Khoi female has agreed to act now."
"She did?"
Quill swallowed her spit and closed her eyes.
It was time to ask Cynax what she'd come for.
"You were able to heal Petal and me after we froze to death outside; is there some kind of alien medical equipment here? Can you use it?"
"This station is equipped with an automated, emergency infirmary. I am able to control its medical instruments remotely from this mainframe, as I did to resuscitate you and the Khoi female." Cynax quickly scanned Quill with one of its stray tentacles. "However, you do not appear to be in need of any medical treatment at the moment."
"You can do surgery?"
"Correct. If it becomes necessary."
"Could. . ." Quill's voice cracked. She tried to mask her rising emotion. "Could you take this baby out of me?"
Cynax slowly turned around in its seat so its massive eye was facing Quill
"You appear healthy enough to give birth naturally."
"I don't want to give birth. I – I want you to get it out of me. Now."
Cynax's body made a loud, pneumatic hiss. The cilia-like fibers that went down its sides beat rapidly.
"I am uncertain as to what you are requesting."
"I want an abortion." Quill was innately repulsed by the word. She rubbed her eyes. "I don't want to have this baby. Can you do that? Can you give me an abortion?"
"Negative. Doing so would be contrary to my central programming which will not allow me to actively terminate a non-hostile life form."
"Fuck."
Cynax's body continued to pulsate and hum.
"If I might ask - why do you wish to terminate your pregnancy? My understanding of biological organisms is detailed, yet limited. I believed that all biological organisms have an innate drive to reproduce. I believed it brought them great joy and satisfaction. Why do you wish not to?"
"I might want to have kids – at some point – but not now. I can't raise a child. I have nothing – no home, no job – nothing. I won't be able to provide for it."
"Your child has not yet been born. And it will not be born for another half a solar orbit. Perhaps when that time comes, your situation will differ."
"I don't want it!"
"Why?"
"I'm immature. I'm irresponsible. I'm selfish." Quill began to cry. She then furiously shook her head and looked away from Cynax. "And its father. . .its father is a horrible man who tried to murder me."
"You fear that your offspring will mature to become like its father?"
"Yes."
"That is unlikely. While basic personality traits are somewhat inheritable, most of your child's personality will be shaped epigenetically through a mixture of both parents' genes and the general environment and parenting it receives during early upbringing."
"I know that. But. . .but it feels evil. What if my child is evil?"
"That fear is irrational."
"You don't understand. Every time I look at my baby, I'm going to see Naris. I'm going to hate my baby for what he did to me – even if it doesn't make sense. I'm still going to feel that way."
"Your fear is irrational."
"You can't understand something like that, can you? You can't feel things like that because you're a machine. It doesn't matter if it's irrational if I feel it! It's still real to me! It's how I'll feel!"
"Perhaps you are correct. I cannot comprehend an irrational fear. That is outside the bounds of my neural programming."
Quill sniffed at Cynax's cryptic response. She felt too drained to say anything else.
"Do you require anything further?"
"No." Quill turned to leave.
The exit door was closed.
Sentry trotted up to it and it whooshed open.
Cynax studied Quill with a tentacle eye as she made her way out of the mainframe.
"Goodnight," it said, softly.
Quill turned around at the edge of the barrier hallway.
"What did you say?"
Cynax's body buzzed with millions of clicks. It said nothing.
Quill eyed it for another moment and then walked away.
- 66-
Quill followed Petal down the long, blue barrier hallway, in search of a rather elusive 'storage' dome. The design of the station was a network of translucent domes and connecting, tubular passageways that hovered above the snow. Its convoluted layout reminded Quill of a sprawling, plastic hamster habitat she'd once seen in a pet store. She turned her head, looking straight through one of the barrier walls, out onto the lonely polar plateau. It was morning again. The sun was low in the sky, making the surrounding snow sparkle. The constant polar wind had blown the snow into wavy ripples during the night. Its patterned surface looked like a frozen lake top.
"Wait a minute." Petal stopped in her step, walking slightly ahead of Quill. She scanned the refractory outlines of the surrounding domes, thinking. "I. . . I remember this hallway. The storage dome - it's just ahead of us."
"Are you sure? Why don't we just go back to the mainframe and ask the squid thing how to get there? We've been wandering around for hours."
"It's this way," Petal repeated with confidence. "I've gone there before. Well, not me." She scrunched her face. "I guess my mother went there. But I can remember going there too."
"You can really remember her memories? That must feel weird."
"It does. . ." Petal pressed her hand up to an access pad at the end of the hallway. "They're coming on a lot stronger now. And I can piece them together better. Before they never made sense. They were random images and feelings. Meaningless. Now they feel different. More complete. Maybe it has something to do with being here - being somewhere where my mother was, somewhere she'd remember."
The door in front of Petal opened with a hiss. She stepped inside of the new dome.
That dome had a low ceiling dotted with little amber lights that looked like twinkling stars. The walls were irregularly shaped; large cubbies jutted out from them. Those cubbies looked like rows of tan bathtubs that had been turned upright and glued to the dome. Inside of each bathtub-cubby was a small door.
"Does anything else feel different now? Now that you know you're an alien?" Quill slipped inside of the dome.
Petal didn't answer, still taking in her new surroundings.
Quill surveyed the new dome. The strange bathtub protrusions on the walls looked like they were made of plastic. The floor was covered in a raspy beige material that mimicked the feel of carpet on her boots. She peered into each of the bathtub-partitions, counting them as she went. There were seven cubbies on each side of the room – fourteen little doors in all.
It looked like a puzzle.
"Are you sure you know where we're going? This dome doesn't look like it stores anything."
"Yeah. It's. . ." Petal closed her eyes and tried to retrieve the route from her mother's memory. "It's over to the right." She pointed to the central cubby.
Quill followed Petal's finger. The door inside the cubby was closed. A gray access pad was mounted onto the wall next to it.
"That's all you. My hand doesn't work on those things."
Petal walked into the tan cubby and put her hand to the access pad. The door slid open, revealing a dim stairwell. She shuffled down it.
At the bottom of the stairwell was a gray room full of shelving units. Each shelf was fully stocked with colorful cans, large plastic jugs, little tins, and neat rows of corrugated boxes. Long, helix-shaped lights hung down from the ceiling. The walls were lined with gray lockers that wrapped around the perimeter.
"I knew it! I knew I could find this place! Wow. Look at all of this. . .stuff."
Quill entered just behind Petal. She ogled the maze of shelves and the spiraling ceiling lights. It felt like she was in the stockroom of an alien supermarket.
"What did Cynax want from here again? I know it mentioned food and clothes but there was something else I can't remember."
"He said to get some warm clothes, some food, and a nanite cube. I don't know what that is, but he said it would have a golden seashell printed on it."
"He?" Quill walked up to one of the shelving units and pulled out a nondescript brown box. It was covered in four rows of indecipherable, black hieroglyphs - random squiggles and other geometric shapes. "He is not a 'he.' Cynax doesn't have a gender. Cynax is a machine. He's like a computer."
"Cynax seems like a he." Petal shrugged. "Why does it matter what I call him?"
"It doesn't." Quill slid the strange box back onto the shelf. "He just creeps me out. And I think he's lying to us about something. Do you have any memories of him from your mother?"
"No. Just a. . .an impression of him. He feels familiar."
"A good impression?"
"What do you mean?" Petal began to rummage through one of the lower storage shelves, pulling out several silver tins at random.
"Something about Cynax seems off. Nothing I can put my finger on – just my feminine intuition. I know you've already agreed to help him with the Aii, but I don't think you should trust him to take you to Junk. He's heartless. You know what I mean? He's a machine. We're a means to an end to him. He doesn't care about us. He doesn't have human feelings."
