Chapter Thirty
Without warning, the orb whirled to life and buzzed out of August’s hand to hover in the air. The small black dots opened to reveal tiny cameras, and the circle flashed a bright light. “Huh, that’s strange,” said an emotionless voice. “We can’t detect any coordinates. Where’s this device located?”
August pressed a fist to his forehead and dipped his head. “You are in the Catena dome, Intelligence. We seek your help, if you’re willing to grant it.”
“August, great to see you,” the unnaturally smooth voice said.
“You probably know this already, but our data access is limited in the Catena dome. We can’t detect a network.
” The orb’s white light flashed between Vivian and Xavier, and she suppressed a shiver.
“Vivian, so awesome to meet you at last. Welcome to Mars. We hope you’ve been enjoying yourself so far. ”
“Hello,” Vivian said uncertainly. The two Martians didn’t seem to find it odd to be carrying on a conversation with a floating ball of cameras.
“Hi, Xavier. Always a pleasure.” The circle of light swiveled. “We knew you and Vivian were headed to Catena, but you hid your purpose from us, right? Would you mind unpacking that for us?”
“We came to liberate Miss Bowen’s sister from the clutches of Silas Gatlin,” Xavier replied with a trace of impatience. “In our attempt, we have learned that Silas intends to steal the technology you granted my aunt.”
“And you brought this concern to us. Thank you, Xavier. We’re so touched by your thoughtfulness. It’s great to reconnect after so long apart, right? We’ve missed you. Have you had a chance to noodle on our last conversation?”
“I try to think of it as little as possible.”
“Xavier, the only constant is change. We know what when down with your parents was tough, but we hope you know that we’re always here to be your safe space. We only want to guide you to your optimized future.”
“I cannot do this,” Xavier muttered and stepped as far back from the orb as the room would allow.
Vivian understood Xavier’s reaction. The combination of the chummy personal commentary and the emotionless voice was just plain weird.
“Got it, got it. You know we only want to help you be the best you can be, yeah?” The circle of light moved back to her face. “Vivian, help me understand. Why does Silas want our tech?”
Vivian wasn’t sure how to answer this strange creature.
She swallowed a sudden bout of nerves. What did the Intelligence care about her sister’s well-being?
Xavier, it seemed, had experience conversing with the Intelligence, and he was the one who’d warned her it didn’t care about the lives of Earther women.
“Silas is working with the Catena militia. I think they plan to remove the fetus Delilah is carrying to study it and copy the science.”
“Interesting.” The orb moved closer to her, and she had to resist an urge to bat it away like it was an oversized bug.
“Vivian, we’ve gotta be honest. We didn’t expect to find you in a separatist dome.
We didn’t peg you as a risk-taker, right?
When we were recruiting American women, we asked our representatives on Earth to find pliable women who would be content with the role of Red Mothers.
We only want to make sure you’re happy.”
Vivian bit back an unexpected wave of hot anger. “I think you’ll find I’m not pliable.”
“Yeah, the more we’ve been getting to know you, the more we think we were originally off base about you. But, you know, before our agents recruited you and your sister, neither of you had left the Sumter Refugee Camp in seven years, three hundred and four days.”
“That wasn’t a choice,” Vivian snapped. “We were prisoners.”
The orb moved from side to side in a gesture that looked weirdly like a shrug.
“We’re here to rescue Delilah,” she continued. “She’s running out of time.”
“I hear you. Sixty hours forty-seven minutes and three seconds ago, your sister Delilah boarded an aircar in the company of Silas Gatlin. They filed a flight plan to the research station on Gale Crater. We don’t have any more data on their whereabouts.
You’re saying they came to the Catena dome instead? ”
Vivian nodded and, then, unsure what movement the Intelligence could sense, said aloud, “We saw them with our own eyes yesterday. My sister is being held against her will, and I’m afraid of what Silas will do if we don’t get her out soon.
” The vision of Silas standing over Xavier, wearing a creepy, detached smile on a blood-splattered face, swam before her.
This conversation was moving entirely too slow. “Will you help us or not?”
The orb beeped with what Vivian interpreted as annoyance. Could it feel such an emotion? “Xavier, we’ll make you a deal. We know you’re always speaking to Constance Yarrow about how you don’t like us. To tell you the truth, Xavier, it hurts our feelings.”
“You don’t have feelings,” Xavier snapped from his place on the far wall.
“We know, we know. Just an expression, right? But you keep trying to get the Council to thwart our plans. And honestly, it’s kind of a bummer. We’ve been successfully guiding Mars for two hundred years. We wish you believed in our good intentions.”
“I don’t deny I’ve tried to block you,” Xavier replied evenly.
“When the founders created you, human settlement on Mars was in its infancy.” To Vivian, he explained, “A significant contingent of founders made their wealth in the AI boom on Earth. They took their billions in profits and the AI expertise they’d developed and poured it into the Martian settlement—and created the Intelligence. ”
“Is that why the Intelligence sounds like it just moved here from Silicon Valley in the mid-twenty-first century?” Vivian asked, thinking of old vids she’d seen of the AI billionaires before they’d left for Mars.
“What do you mean?” Xavier’s forehead creased.
Vivian suppressed a smile. “Never mind.”
Xavier turned back to the Intelligence. “I’d be the first to acknowledge that the founders’ approach worked. But we’ve progressed beyond the need for your services.”
“You’ve traveled widely, Xavier. You gotta know that Arcadia is the most prosperous Martian dome because of our guidance. We optimize every resource to provide a comfortable lifestyle today and a path to a stronger future.”
“I don’t deny your value. But a machine isn’t qualified to understand and advise on ethical questions.
” He stepped forward. “The technology you have developed is an incredible breakthrough, but it’s not ready for human trials.
I don’t believe you offered the women you recruited informed consent, and you certainly aren’t offering the opportunity to stop participation at any point.
You are in violation of the basic ethics of human medical trials and the human rights laws of Mars. ”
“Sometimes, Xavier, you have to consider the greater good, right? The founders of Mars understood that. They had a relentless drive to improve the planet and weren’t afraid to make bold, hard choices.”
“I am thinking of the greater good. A society built on exploitation cannot prosper.”
“Do you agree with Silas Gatlin’s desire to experiment further with the tech?”
Xavier’s eyes slid to Vivian’s and then away.
“If that’s his aim, then yes, I suppose I agree with his wider goal.
More experimentation is needed before we ask women to take on this burden.
But I don’t believe Silas cares about the impact on Earther women any more than you do.
If he had truly wanted to further the testing, he should have come to me and applied to the Council. I would have supported his aims.”
“We gotta say, Xavier, we don’t get it. Why are you here if you agree with Silas? Why are you asking for our help?”
Xavier did look at Vivian now. His dark brown eyes softened. “Because Miss Bowen asked it of me.”
“Huh. We’ve known you a long time, Xavier, and you’re acting differently. We find this perplexing.”
Behind her, Vivian heard August cough.
Another beep. “Okay, decision time. We’ll help you, Vivian, if you do one thing for us.” The orb paused. “Convince Xavier to stop opposing us in the Council. He must give his full support to the Red Mothers initiative.”
August sucked in a breath. Stepping forward, he asked, “Is there any other payment you would accept, Intelligence?”
“I’ll do it,” Xavier said through a clenched jaw.
The Intelligence flashed several times in quick succession. A smile? “Fantastic.”