“Agreed. They must’ve done this when their people began falling ill. Since Remedy no longer had members available for patrols, they went for mines.”
“Well, let’s find a corridor they didn’t mine.”
But such a corridor isn’t easy to find. Now that Abel knows how to look for the devices, he’s able to adjust his vision to search areas human sight could never reach. Remedy’s mines are planted deep in the ship’s framework, making it impossible to cross from one part of the ship to another. “There must remain at least one route to the docking bay,” he says, as much to himself as to her, when they find the fifth blocked passage. “It’s the most tactically significant section of the Osiris. They wouldn’t cut themselves off from it.”
“But we’d have to go through whatever remains of Remedy to reach it, which means they’d target you.” Noemi leans against one wall. “You see what this is, don’t you?”
“A trap.” He should have expected as much.
“No. At least, not for us. Even if every member of Remedy dropped dead, the passengers wouldn’t be able to leave the surface of this planet. Not now, not ever. Fouda knows he’s lost. So he’s making sure the passengers die with them, even if it means they starve.”
History contains many examples of humanity’s capacity for spite, so this shouldn’t shock Abel. But he still can’t comprehend how a person comes to such a calculation.
He can, however, perform some calculations of his own. “Fouda may have wired the docking bay, too.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Noemi agrees.
“Perhaps we should try to approach the bridge after all. Remedy’s forces are weakened. We stand a chance of reaching a communications console.”
“No.” Noemi squares her shoulders. “We have to set the passengers free.”
“I don’t intend to abandon them. We should send for help once we’ve reached the Earth system.” Some of the patrol ships circling Neptune and its moons no doubt know of the Osiris and would be able to mount a rescue mission. “As for Simon, I’ll reach out to him once we have comms.”
Noemi folds her arms across her chest. “What makes you think he’s going to listen?”
“I’ve been considering what would motivate him. He is, at his core, a little boy. So I thought I would offer him a ride in a new spaceship. One where he can sit in the captain’s chair. That would work, wouldn’t it?”
Her tone gentles. “Maybe. But if he goes haywire up there—”
“I can install safeguards.” Abel’s already considered this. “There’s no way I’d ever let him endanger you. Or Virginia.” He hopes Virginia never hears how he had to add on that last.
“Okay. I trust you.” She says it more like she’s convincing herself than him.
“We must of course do something for the passengers and Remedy members before we go. Their lives are endangered.”
Noemi hesitates. At first, their escape seemed like no more than leaving a dangerous situation; however, Abel’s programming is at work within him, urging him to protect human life if he can… absent instructions to the contrary from Burton Mansfield, who is no longer a factor. He suspects Noemi’s religious belief operates much the same way within her, reminding her of others who need protection.
She begins, “You know how badly I want to get off this planet and help Genesis, but—no, you’re right. We can’t leave them to die. They don’t have tons of food down there—just champagne and petits fours, and they were almost out of those when I left. Those force fields have to be tapping the last of the energy; soon the ship’s climate control will fail. The passengers will freeze to death before we can send help.”
The fervor in Noemi’s voice stirs something within Abel—a sense of purpose that goes beyond his programming. That purpose is as much a part of her as blood or bone.
Quietly he says, “You will always be a soldier of Genesis. A holy warrior.”
Noemi nods. Even in the gloom of this dark corridor, he can discern the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “Do you think there’s any hope of getting the codes from Fouda? Or will he let my planet die?”
“I don’t know.”
There is one thing Abel could do, a final drastic measure that would get them the codes. He could trade himself to Fouda for the codes to help Genesis—allowing Fouda to then trade him to Gillian for medicine.
Gillian Shearer would get her hands on Abel at last. His soul would be forfeit, and his body would finally, completely, belong to Mansfield. He would fulfill Directive One.
The very fact that Noemi hasn’t argued for this herself is testament to how much their friendship must mean to her. He offered to die for Genesis once before, but she rejects that idea as strongly now as she did then. Still, if it comes down to one life for billions—
Abel curtails the thought. He believes they’ll get out of this on their own, because he believes in Noemi. She is the only faith he needs.
27
NORMALLY NOEMI WOULD LEAVE THE MECHANICAL work to Abel. It’s not that she doesn’t know how to do most of it, more that she figures the guy who is actually part machine has an advantage.
But now she kneels in front of the nearest comm panel, prying it open and using her small emergency light to peer inside. She’ll do the labor so Abel can conserve his strength. Their escape from the other side of the ship nearly killed him; she understands that even if he doesn’t. As they traveled through the corridors closer to the bridge, Abel walked slowly, and with an almost imperceptible limp. That sort of behavior, coming from him, is proof of real damage.
Even more proof: He lets her do the work without complaint or comment.
Noemi doesn’t know how to fix Abel, but she
