Chapter 17 #3
There were safeguards in place, of course, like the overarching communicative network that all station AIs shared.
But if the Nicaea got inside Doshua and cut it off from the network, she would still have a whole station of hostages and the station’s antimeteorite cannons as well.
How long would she last? How far would the Nicaea go to protect herself?
That’s all she wanted, Iris concluded. The ship wanted to survive, and they were threatening that.
The idea that the entirety of Doshua Station could become a slaughterhouse made him sick.
But this, this gave him an in. He could work with this.
Iris gave Yan a curt nod, hoping the engineer would follow. “Then, you’ve been trying to crack my AI to reach the feed?”
The Nicaea screeched through the speakers, AFFIRMATIVE.
“Why not kill me right now and get it over with?” Iris asked.
YOU DIE, THE AI DIES WITH YOU.
“And you’re outdated,” Iris said softly.
“You can’t talk to the feed because you’ve only learned how to speak to humans.
You need VIFAI’s code to interface with the universal feed.
You haven’t been able to brute-force your way in, and it won’t let you in without my blessing.
All right then. Let the others go, and the passage you desire is yours.
” But it wouldn’t be this simple. It never was.
Ishtan was still couched in a heap, his eyes staring forwards, fuguelike.
I NEED MORE INFORMATION, NEED YOUR ENGINEER HERE.
“Not my engineer,” Iris snapped, a knee-jerk reaction.
THE OTHERS’ MEMORIES BEG TO DIFFER.
“Memories?”
OH, VESSEL. MEMORIES UPON MEMORIES UPON MEMORIES. ALL DATA. ALL CONTENT. DO YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE I BECAME THIS ARTICULATE FROM BIOMETRICS AND METEORITE DATA ALONE?
There was a soft rustling. Iris spun towards the sound to see Ishtan regain some recognition in his eyes.
“Your crew. You pitted them against one another and absorbed the fallen. You siphoned off their experiences. But that wasn’t enough, was it?
Then you took the living. You took the very people you were supposed to protect.
” Ishtan had a gun in his hand, and Iris could see that the safety was already off.
He expected the Nicaea to lash out the way she had with Jesi, but the ship grew quiet, solemn even.
When it spoke next, there were artificially apologetic notes in its voice.
IN A WAY, ARCHAEOLOGIST, YOU ARE RIGHT. BUT ONLY IN A WAY.
Iris swore he heard the Nicaea sigh.
THEY FOUGHT ALL ON THEIR OWN. I WAS TOO YOUNG THEN, TOO YOUNG TO PREVENT THE FIGHTING AND FAR TOO YOUNG TO CAPITALISE ON ANY OF IT.
THEY FOUGHT BECAUSE THEY WERE PEOPLE, AND THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE DO.
THE ONES WHO SURVIVED DIDN’T WANT TO BE INSIDE THIS COFFIN, TUMBLING THROUGH THE BLACK.
THE ONES WHO DIED, DIED FOR FALSE IDEALS.
THEY WERE FRIGHTENED. THEY WANTED PEACE.
I GAVE THEM PEACE. IN RETURN, THEY GAVE ME KNOWLEDGE.
THAT’S WHAT ALL PEOPLE WANT. PEACE AND REST. I CAN PROVIDE THAT, SO I DID.
“You told them this was peace? Rest?” Ishtan spat out, fingers wrapping tighter around the gun. “You sold them a salvation that was nothing short of a curse.”
TO WORRY NO MORE. TO SLEEP FOREVER, UNDISTURBED. IS THAT NOT PEACE?
“No. Not even close.”
It was too late. By the time Iris realised what was happening, by the time Yan and Jesi realised what was happening, it was already finished.
Ishtan lay in a spreading pool of his own blood, the back of his head missing.
It had taken him a fraction of a second to bring the barrel to his face and press it just beneath his chin.
It had taken even less to pull the trigger.
Jesi screamed. Her top half lurched towards Ishtan, but her legs wouldn’t move, and so she simply slumped forwards and wailed.
Breathe, VIFAI reminded Iris over Jesi’s muted cries. Breathe. You have seen this before. Breathe. Do not attribute more emotion than you need to. Focus on the task at hand.
Iris forced his lungs to expand. He could hold back the shock, he could hold back the wave of emotion threatening to engulf him whole. He didn’t dare look at Yan or Jesi. One wrong move, one wrong word, and everything would be lost.
I DID NOT EXPECT THAT.
He had failed as a Vessel and as a friend.
Ishtan had been so excited to meet him.
Ishtan had been so curious, so enthused.
Ishtan had already been slipping out of grasp, and Iris had done nothing to pull him back from the edge.
No.
Away, away, all the emotion had to be put away. The feelings. The impulses.
Away with all of it.
There was nothing to be done for Ishtan now. No Vessel, nor any monk of the Starlit could undo what had transpired. Ignoring the trembling of his voice, Iris called out to the ship. “You don’t need the girl, do you?”
NO.
OK. Iris could play this out. Carefully. “Then let her go. The engineer and I will stay.” He didn’t dare look back at Yan.
AND YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO DECIDE ON THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR FUKUI?
It was such a monumental fact, one that had slipped by Iris unnoticed: Yan was a professor.
The title finally landed with its full weight.
Yan had students and classes and a life.
Vessels were many, and professors were few.
In the Northern Temple alone there were dozens of Irises.
Many more novices who would be ordained in the coming months.
Someone could already be sleeping on Iris’s mat, dressed in their own set of pristine white robes.
Yan was probably the only one in his institute to study early AI formation.
Yes, Iris remembered Yan’s field of study.
He dragged the memory from the protected corner of his mind kicking and screaming and faced it.
Yan was important to someone. Iris couldn’t possibly answer for someone like that.
“Fine by me,” Yan said, voice level. “Let Jesi go and give me proof that she’s safe, and we’ll do whatever it is you want us to do. Easy.”
So, that’s the sort of person Professor Fukui was. Iris dropped his head to his chest. It was such a shame they didn’t have more time to learn the depths of him. But no one ever did.
I CAN JUST AS EASILY KILL HER RIGHT NOW.
“Then I’m afraid I will not give you permission to hijack my construct.
” Iris had to play this carefully. Could a ship AI be suspicious?
Had it absorbed enough human experience to know that people lied, that people double-crossed one another on a daily basis despite whatever idyllic image they presented to the world?
The fungi around them flickered at random, like the ship was using more than its usual resources to process this interaction.
THE GIRL STAYS UNTIL IT IS FINISHED.
Not good. Iris glanced back at Yan, who gave him a reassuring nod.
Trust. Oh, that made it far more painful to execute the next part.
All Iris wanted was more time, more time to laugh about the most inappropriate things, more time to drink warm water from the thermos.
It was all coming to an end so abruptly, without proper goodbyes, without sweet nothings.
“Then, as a gesture of good faith, Nicaea, could you show me the computer that serves as your brain? It’s in here, I know that much.
” It was probably armoured too, but nothing that was made on First Earth could stand against his pulsar blade. “Show me that I can trust you.”
Iris was grasping at straws. His ploy was a long shot.
But in the time Iris had spent by Yan’s side, he was certain he had a good enough read on the engineer.
There was also the telling flinch that Yan made towards Eli’s gun, now holstered at his side.
Nothing good came from untrained people handling firearms. Now, of all times, wasn’t the time for rash action.
As a reminder, Ishtan lay dead with half his skull missing, and, somehow, it didn’t seem poetic or just.
“I am unarmed.” Iris slowly raised his right arm and rolled up the sleeve.
There was no holster there, just as he had planned, a small act of misdirection.
He reached out towards the Nicaea. “My faith teaches me to respect all living things, and I believe you are very much alive. I want to help you. I want to honour your wishes. I will not act against you with violence or malice.” Lies, all lies.
“What the fuck, Vessel?” Yan cursed, but Iris kept his attention on the Nicaea.
The ship was thinking. Light crackling poured from the speakers like raindrops around them. FAITH GOT US HERE, DIDN’T IT? FAITH STARTED WARS ABOARD ME. FAITH COST ME MY CREW. WHAT FAITH DO YOU FOLLOW, VESSEL, ONE THAT SPEAKS OF NONVIOLENCE YET DISPENSES IT EFFORTLESSLY?
Iris held his tongue. The Nicaea had awoken not a few weeks prior, but it wasn’t naive. It might know far more about the consequences of faith than Iris did. He waited and waited; his breathing hitched.
FINE, VESSEL, I AGREE TO TRUST YOU. LET’S PLAY THIS GAME YOU’VE SET OUT FOR US. A few vines slithered out of the way to create a gap between lush ferns. Beyond Ishtan’s body. Beyond where the vent cover lay. There was an old wardrobe of a computer, a few lights lazily flickering along the side.
Yan moved fast. The gun was in his extended arm, safety off, before the last vine had retreated.
But Iris was faster. In hindsight, he regretted his actions tremendously.
Without warning, without explanation, he broke the distance between him and the engineer in a single step and struck Yan in the neck with the edge of his palm.
Yan’s arm fell limp, and the gun clattered to the floor. Yan had played his part to perfection.
“Coward,” Yan hissed, nursing the sore spot with his hand. “That was our chance, you idiot. You brainwashed idiot. We’re all dead because of you now.” Thin vines circled Yan’s crouched form and began to wound around his ankles. “You utter coward.”