you?”
“An avatar, Parinherm,” Berdle said, smiling. “Surely you guessed that?”
“Yes,” Parinherm said, nodding. “Good to have it confirmed. Would this be a joint Culture–Gzilt scenario?”
Berdle nodded. “Feel free to treat it as such.”
“And I,” Cossont said, “am a human. With a low boredom threshold. I’m almost starting to regret leaving Pyan back on the ship.” She spread all four arms. “Can we…
Berdle nodded. “We’re going to have to,” it said. “There’s nothing coming back.” He smiled at Cossont. “This will require you to make an official request to locate and retrieve your property from the facility.”
“Yippee. Do I have to fill out a form?”
“You have to submit a formal application five days in advance,” Berdle told her.
She stared at him. “Five
“The formal application was emplaced two seconds ago,” the avatar told her. “Suitably, if illegally, back- dated.” Berdle bowed. “Please follow me,” he said, turning on his heel.
“Ms Cossont,” the Executive Recoupments Officer said, coming to stand before them. He nodded at her companions, bowed to her. The waiting area was extensive, pale, lush with potted plants, filled with the sound of water trilling in fountains and pools and dotted with very comfortable seating. Cossont lounged in what she trusted was a suitably proprietorial fashion, upper arms spread, her lower set concealed by her formal jacket, legs crossed, a small shoulder bag lying on her lap. Berdle and the android had chosen to remain standing, looking slowly about all the time. “May we offer you a beverage?”
“No, thank you.”
“I wasn’t even aware there were any arrivals today,” the Incast officer said, glancing at a projected screen hanging in mid-air down and to one side of his straight-ahead sight-line.
“Ms Cossont arrived by private craft,” Berdle said smoothly.
“Ah, I see,” the officer said. “And you’ve come in from…?” he continued, looking at Cossont, who was listening on her earbud as Berdle said,“Please, let me,” to her at the same time as he said, to the officer, “Ms Cossont’s application to retrieve her property is in order, I take it?”
The officer was dressed in vaguely ecclesiastic-looking pale robes. He looked from Cossont’s stony expression to Berdle’s agreeably open one. He checked his screen, one hand moving and his eyes flicking. “… Yes, yes, it’s all in order.” He smiled emptily at Berdle. “The object has been located and is being retrieved as we speak.”
“Splendid,” Berdle said quietly.
The officer looked back to Cossont. “We usually ask our clients if there is a particular reason for them wishing to recoup an object.”
“Again, allow me,” Berdle said to Cossont as he said, “How commendable,” to the Incast officer. “What is the most common reason given?”
“Ah,” the officer said, distracted again. “Sadly, due to client confidentiality strictures, we are unable to share that information.”
“What a terrible pity,” Berdle said, looking sympathetic. He put one hand gently on the officer’s forearm and said, “I am sure then that you will fully understand that Ms Cossont has equally valid reasons for being unable to share with you her reasons for being unable to share with you the information that you seek and request. I trust I am not mistaken in proceeding on the assumption that this request is of a non-compulsory, voluntary opt-in nature?”
The Executive Recoupments Officer looked like he was processing this. After a moment he said, “Well, indeed.” He glanced at his screen. “Excuse me; the requested object is in transit.” He smiled at the unresponsive Cossont. “I’ll fetch it. One moment.” He turned and walked back to the curved sweep of desks where they’d found him earlier, sitting with his feet up, listening to music.
Berdle watched him go, then turned back to Cossont, who raised her eyebrows.
“All going smoothly,” Berdle told her through the earbud.
Parinherm was staring intently at a water feature ten metres away. The feature’s central fountain closed down suddenly, collapsing with a sort of relaxed decorum; the watery tinkling sounds filling the reception and waiting space quietened very slightly.
~Parinherm… Berdle sent.
The android turned to look at the ship’s avatar. ~Just testing, he replied.
~I trust the test has been completed to your satisfaction.
~It has.
~Then, if you’d be so kind…
~Certainly.
The fountain burst into life again, leaping higher into the air than it had before and causing some water to go splashing over the edge of the pool and onto the carpet.
~Oops.
The fountain settled back to normal.
The Executive Recoupments Officer returned holding a white half-metre cube. “Here we are,” he said, presenting it to Cossont with a bow.
“Thank you,” she told him, glancing at Berdle, who came forward and accepted the box as Cossont rose to her feet.
“Ms Cossont herself will need to open the…” the officer said, as Cossont opened the box, looked inside and lifted out a silver-grey cube.
“Also, the storage container remains our…” the officer said, as Berdle handed the white box back to the officer and Cossont slipped the cube into her shoulder bag.
“Thank you for your help,” Berdle told the officer. “We’ll be on our way.”
“My pleasure,” the Executive Recoupments Officer said, as the three walked towards the elevators.
“We still have two-thirds of an hour before the ship returns,” Berdle said through Cossont’s earbud as they stepped into the lift. “I thought we might leave the facility and find a hostelry of some sort on the lake shore, to wait there.”
Cossont nodded as the doors closed.
The car started its descent, then its soft lighting seemed to flicker delicately. It drew smoothly to a stop, settling, finally, with what Cossont heard as a single click and the two non-humans present both heard as three distinct snicking noises. A background susurrus Cossont had hardly noticed consciously ceased, suddenly.
The android and the avatar exchanged looks.
“Ah-hah!” Parinherm said, with a smile.
“This is,” Berdle said aloud, and then seemed to think about what it was, “un-promising,” he concluded.
~Is that you? he was asking the android at the same time.
~Facility mainframe / material systems / motile systems / general elevator control suite / basement-to-mid- section shaft complex / core-central / faults / fault notification / fault confirmation / fault over-ride / safe fault work-arounds…?
~Yes, all that. Please leave that to me. You’re getting in the way. And stop trying to remove the block on the car’s external AV feed; I did that nearly a quarter of a second ago.
~Very well. What may I do?
~Please remain/be on full alert within the immediate physical environment with particular regard to extraneous anomalous audible and general vibration signals, extending your sensor/effector abilities no further than the elevator car’s and the shaft’s own monitoring and activation circuits. I’ll continue monitoring and trying to affect further afield.
~My on-board expert systems precedents set indicates strongly we might be in a definitional pre-attack phase and so close to the point at which some sort of physical measure may become advisable.
~Agreed. Currently eliminating all chances this could be happenstance before taking any irretrievably physical action.
~We should warn/prepare Ms Cossont.
~Also agreed. I am in the process of interrupting her.
