Divergence

“I don’t understand,” Kevin said plaintively. “It’s stronger than me….”

“I know,” breathed Judy, “I can see that.” There was a sweep to the curves of the Eva Rye now, and it had lost the lazy, chubby feel of before. Now it fit easily into the imagination, becoming a thing of beauty, as mathematically perfect as the golden ratio.

Kevin’s voice was distant, distracted. “It’s taking over my control interfaces. It has my engines, my senses….”

Saskia’s voice was cold with vengeance. “You belong to us now, Kevin,” she said. “You are our possession. You are going with us to Earth.”

“But that’s not fair!” Kevin exclaimed. “I have been sold to you against my will.”

“I don’t think so,” said Judy. “The Free Enterprise sold you. It must have held title over you.”

“No…it did not.”

Saskia gave a laugh. “You’re not thinking like FE software, Judy. The Free Enterprise didn’t hold title over Kevin. It was Kevin. Didn’t he say that he built his empire from himself? The Free Enterprise was as much part of Kevin as this ship. Kevin shafted himself!” She stabbed an accusing finger into the air, pointing at the hull of the Bailero .

“Edward was right! Who’d have thought it, but he was right! You don’t play tricks with FE, Kevin. It’s cleverer than you. It tangles you up in your own motives, and just when you think you have cheated it, it goes and does exactly what it has promised!”

There was a sigh, an exhalation of breath that filled the hoods of their active suits, then Saskia’s moment of triumph was quickly forgotten.

“Miss Rose!” Judy exclaimed.

They dragged the half-living body of Miss Rose onto the newly forming Eva Rye and then through the sleek black-and-white corridors to the autodoc. There was just enough atmosphere on the ship for them to take off the hoods of their active suits. Everywhere smelled of cold and of aniseed.

“Leave her in the body bag,” said Judy. “It’s the only thing holding her together.”

The old woman’s wrinkled, liver-spotted skin could be seen hanging in tatters amongst the red blood that filled the clear plastic bag, her body torn apart by the multiple exit points of the VNMs that had left to make up the newly reborn Eva Rye.

“Why didn’t those machines rip the body bag apart, too?” Saskia wondered as she helped Judy slide the remains of the old woman into the thick plastic coffin of the autodoc. Blood squished between her fingers, inside the clear bag, squashing pink bubbles back and forth.

“I don’t know,” Judy said. “Kevin, speak to me!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Judy spoke in her softest voice. “Don’t play games with me, Kevin. Don’t pretend that you can dismiss what happened by feigning ironic detachment. You killed my sisters once, now you nearly killed Miss Rose. You work for the Eva Rye now. Got it?”

“Yes.” Kevin’s voice was cold.

“You’d better really mean that. Believe what I say, Kevin. I will strip you right down to your very core in order that you do what I decide is right. I have done that in the past and I will do it again. Now tell me, what happened to Miss Rose?”

Kevin’s reply was matter-of-fact.

“I don’t know for sure. Those VNMs that infiltrated her body would not want to kill her, just use her. They resealed the bag as they left her body; I’d guess that they disengaged in such a way as to give her the best chance of survival. That way they could return if they got the chance. Get her in that autodoc now and she will probably live.”

Yes, and I will spend the next few months helping her to deal with the shock of what has happened to her.

There was the sound of footsteps and Edward came into the white-tiled brilliance of the medical room.

“The ship has changed again,” he said wonderingly.