“You’re saying all this with wires stuck in your head attached to a Melded machine. Is that even you? When you first picked us up you were confused. How do I know it hasn’t happened again?”
“Another quiz, honey?”
“No. I’m too tired for all that. But it’s not adding up. I told you the Primary Executive shot Jenna. You barely reacted. If I give the ship back to them, what guarantee do I have they won’t just kill us?”
Sylvia Vincent dropped the cord in her lap and stood up. “You’re being melodramatic. I’m safe. You are too. Jenna will be made better and then we can spend as much time as needed talking.”
She looked down at her mom’s face. It was her eyes, her skin, her voice. If she were a simulation or an animated puppet or a terminator wearing her skin, she wouldn’t be so perfectly confounding. Something about their exchange reminded Carmen of that Saturday night dinner.
I’m going to Mars.
It was as if she were about to make a new announcement, had set the table and placed the pasta and salad before them, had the parmesan cheese ready along with the basket of steaming hot garlic bread.
What wasn’t she telling her?
All Carmen had to do was unplug. Releasing the ship would be as simple as leaving a door open for the Primary Executive.
She opened her eyes. It took a moment to adjust. She still saw what her bot saw—her mom, the Melded operating room, the bug doctor—while simultaneously seeing her bed and the racks of Cordice machinery in the home ship medical bay.
She kept her voice as soft as possible. “She Who Waits, I need you.”
A moment later, the Dragoman appeared next to her bed.
“It’s important. I’m going to go to the Cordice simulation. Help me speak to them. Can you do that?”
She winced as the telltale red light popped into view. There would be no hiding the fact they were communicating. She could only hope the big worm and his flunkies were distracted. Or they were waiting on Sylvia Vincent to convince her wayward daughter to give them what they wanted.
When a third field of vision crossed her eyes it was too much. She let go of the bot and allowed the medical bay to fade even as she heard the Primary Executive bark. The worm was close, and getting closer.
She only had a moment before it would be on her.
Burning rocks rained on the Cordice capital. The sky broiled in rings of steam. The last act of their civilization unfolded and it was as harrowing as the first time she had witnessed it.
“I don’t have time to see this. I need to talk to you.”
The largest of the Cordice habitats, large drums housing millions, were fractured by missiles of carbon and ice hurtling from the blackness like runaway starships. The blazing battering rams obliterated everything they touched. A handful of ships attempted to flee past plumes of smoke rising into the stratosphere.
“Stop! I know what happened to your world. You’ll lose the last of what you have if you don’t let me speak. Is the engineer here? Are you listening?”
A comet with a tail of flame was about to strike the mountains near the city. The survivors of the initial stage of the disaster gathered in a park and huddled together, helplessly watching their end approach.
The scene froze.
Whereas last time Carmen could only see the disaster from a distant vantage point, she now caught a zoomed-in glimpse of the Cordice themselves. A layer of soft green was laid out on top of each of the metal frames. Some were four-legged, while others stood upright on two and a few ran about like centipedes of various sizes. Each colony of fungal growth was an individual with a consciousness unique to itself.
With the selection of any of the simulation’s interfaces, she could learn so much more, live out hundreds, no, billions of lives in ways too wonderful for her body and mind to fully understand. There were sights, smells, tastes, and so many kinds of touch along with new words for senses she didn’t possess. But also there was music, symphonies of whispers and sagas told in the First Caves beneath the lofty spires of granite.
She could learn their music and bring her own. Hear it. Feel it. Play and be heard.
“Join us.”
Not the engineer. A new voice.
“I am the historian. I’m glad we could speak. Your mother introduced you and your sister to us and we are waiting.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We can release your mother to the Melded as that is her wish. But first they require our harvester. It is a small price to pay for our continued existence. Then our new worlds can be a home to you, your sister, and any of your kind who wish to come if they are ready.”
“Where’s the other guy? The engineer?”
“I am facilitating communications now.”
“And it’s the wish of your people for me to give the Melded the harvester?”
There was a garble as if several voices were trying to speak at once. It took the historian a moment to answer. “It is our wish.”
More voices, but these didn’t sound like they were on the same channel as the historian. They were in the room with her, inside the medical bay. She Who Waits was speaking, as was the Primary Executive.
Carmen opened her eyes.
She Who Waits had the translation light hanging between them. “There is a second communication coming through from the Cordice. They are begging you
