Alliance: An Intersolar Alien Romance, Book 6

23

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101001 01101110 011001—

The echo jolted Roav from sentinel mode and his optics began recording once more. The air was still and heavy, the lights reduced to a minimal glow from their recess in the brig’s stone ceiling. Roka Lokurian slept in the center of his cell on the floor, a pillow draped over his eyes while his remaining mandible vibrated in slumber.

Roav tested the joints of his fingers, curling one slowly, then the next.

The transmission had said, I”m comin—

He searched for that binary ping again to no avail, hoping for an answer to whatever it was. Unease tightened his joints as he cast a wide net, focused on evading the colony”s security system as he sent out his own feeler transmissions.

”Roav,” Jharim called, sitting up from his recline against the rough wall.

He returned to himself with a blink of light in his lenses and got to his feet.

”Another?” the older bog asked. Roav nodded, glancing uneasily at the Roz-01 doll.

”The signature was familiar but—”

”Not.”

Roav vented stale air from his thoracic cavity as he stood. ”Correct.” Jharim didn”t finish his sentence this time, though Roav knew his partner would never utter this particular deduction. ”It feels... human.”

Predictably, Jharim scoffed, leaning back once more. ”Impossible.”

Roav bristled regardless. ”It”s true.”

They stared off, Jharim”s hands dangling off his bent knees. ”I will humor your analysis. Tell me why.”

”Every doll has used the same phrase to orient themselves.” He put his fingers up in a curve, a very human gesture he knew would appeal to Jharim. ”Seeking entry coordinates.”

”But this one didn”t?”

Roav dropped his hands. ”It said, ”I”m coming.”” Jharim”s stony expression opened in surprise, and Roav latched onto it. ”And the rate was increased, as if—”

”The doll was rushed.”

”Or excited,” Roav concurred.“It had personality.”

Jharim got to his feet. His core processor whirred as he stretched his joints, lubricating them with motor oil. He switched to quantum speech, one lens focused on Roav as he spoke while the others twisted and slid about his head, examining the bars that held them captive.

We need to escape our cell.

Roav joined him with a sense of purpose. Jharim was right. They could no longer abide by the authority of the arms master and maintain the ruse that they were abiding by the laws of Unity.

I agree. A life on the line is more important—

We need to decommission that doll. Not save it.

Jharim”s clarification whipped Roav, and they stalled, staring at each other hard.

”It is not a doll.” Roav calibrated that statement. ”Not entirely. There is intelligence there.”

”And you can tell from one transmissi—”

”Yes.”

Jharim hesitated this time, drawing up to his full height. His intensity scorched Roav along their connection. The sort of conviction and sense of purpose that could destroy a man.

”Whatever you heard is not human, brother.”

”If it has been altered with living code—”

”It is impossible!” Jharim growled, his facial facets opening in a display of aggression.

Roav stilled, staring at the exposed components along his cheeks. At the hollow divot the display left on either side of his jaw. ”Is it?” he asked carefully.

Jharim snapped his face closed and turned away, continuing his search along the walls and floor. ”If this one has been upgraded with living code, we will not be able to distinguish its motives. It will fool the colony into thinking it is in need of safety. It could destroy everything.” He flashed angry red lenses at Roav. ”You speak of guilt, and this, I swear, will ruin you.”

Roav clenched his hands, letting the sting of Jharim”s anger permeate his casing. ”You wouldn”t be able to own my serial number if you were a biognostic.”

Jharim froze, lenses riveted on the younger bog. They glowed a little brighter in challenge. ”Without the constraints of Unity, we have free will. Of course I can.”

”The fragment of code we are born from before evolving into the institution of Unity says otherwise. Biognostics cannot express dominion over others of our kind. It is why we have no family units or leaders. No religion or government. Unity is our only form of community because it is without individual authority.”

Jharim broke visual contact first, and Roav charged on.

”If you were a bog, brother, you would know this as your deepest truth.”

To his surprise, Jharim breathed a self-deprecating laugh.

”I knew the moment I saw you,” he said slowly, painfully. ”That you would be the end of me.” Air vibrated out of his chest through the vents between his ribs, and the facets of his face pulled together in a look of deep concern.

Roav”s dermal mesh roiled with a wave of shock, electrical pulses popping all across his body like firecrackers. Everything they”d been through, and Roav”s suspicions were right? He hadn”t expected for his analysis to be correct. A corruption, perhaps. A procedure that altered Jharim”s basic principles of function. An accident or attack that left his core processor damaged.

Not this.

”Tell me, please,” Roav begged, stepping towards his partner. Jharim stood his ground as he reached out his fingertips, opening their seams to ask for connection. ”Let me know your plans.”

We”ve been through so much together.

Jharim read the quantum speech in his lens and gently stopped his fingers from making contact. The rejection stung, but Roav waited, his partner”s facets whirring uneasily.

”It is like fancy engineering,” Jharim murmured. ”The more moving parts, the more susceptible a machine is to failure.” He gestured to himself. ”The more people know, the more susceptible I am to failure.”

”How many people know?”

Jharim sighed. ”Traveler. The Mummer. They know.”

”But I can”t know.” Roav couldn”t keep the mechanical grate of frustration out of his tone.

”You”ll think I”m an interminable zealot.”

”That”s acceptable,” Roav said succinctly. ”You already conclude I am a naive protoling.”

Jharim chuckled again. ”Faex. Such determination,” he drawled, his lenses brightening in a single pulse of interest. ”Consider the weight already bearing down upon your shoulders, brother. Do you really need to carry more? I have carried this fine on my own.”

Roav wasn”t listening. His priorities had shifted entirely, a sort of fixation that only a full override could induce. He pushed and Jharim let his hand make contact with the side of his neck, where his fingers curled around the cervical curve of his spine. Warm electricity buzzed at the sight of their contact and Jharim purred in defeat, his lenses going dim.

The older bog”s truth seeped into Roav”s mind and knocked his gyroscope off balance. His mind blazed with a single word.

Venandi.

”I will queue your questions,” Jharim interrupted before Roav could upload hundreds of queries over their hard connection. ”If... you will accept that the doll must be decommissioned.”

Although the decision was weighty and his analysis still rang correct in his processor, Roav”s answer was inevitable. ”Acceptable.”

”Good.” Jharim”s systems softened with relief, and Roav wondered how he”d ever mistaken the rogue for a bog in the first place. ”Then I might be able to release us from our cell.”

He carefully pulled Roav”s hand from his spine, their components mingled together and splitting apart more like a faceted fluid than plugs and jacks. His fingers became fingers again as Jharim backed away by a step.

”It will not be pretty,” he cautioned.

”You are not pretty to begin with,” Roav teased.

Jharim”s facial facets vibrated more openly this time. Was that amusement?

“It is time we get to work, then.”