The journey to Corridor Fifteen was less nerve wracking than Skylar or Gavin imagined. It was visible from one of the outer paths in the garden, which they were welcome to walk along. "Farrah is probably their victim or under their influence," Gavin said. "We have to be careful, they could be using her to trap us."
"Why? They're trying to recruit us. If they kill Terry and Farrah, then they have to know trust with us will be unachievable," Skylar countered. She didn't completely believe Gavin was wrong, but she wanted him to expand his thinking, to keep putting the puzzle they were in together.
The narrow door to Corridor Fifteen slid open, just large enough for both of them to fit through. Unlike the garden they were leaving, it was bare, only deck plates and a well-lit metal hallway that matched some of the other parts of the ship they’d seen. "I keep getting this feeling, like someone is watching, or listening to us. I've even thought I've seen something in the corner of my eye a few times and when I look there's no trace of anyone there. I keep remembering that we're two of the highest scoring scientists that the Prince had, that we score very high on the adaptability charts. I find myself daydreaming about training, about sitting with tutors and reviewing test results."
"What does that have to do with Terry and Farrah?" Skylar looked down the corridor and moved inside after she was sure there was no one there. As they passed through the door she looked over her shoulder, noticing right away that a panel just on the inside had been tampered with. Pulling her sleeve up over her fingers, she pushed the panel up and saw that some kind of bypass was in place. "Besides, you always had trouble getting over bad test scores."
"That's one of the things that doesn't make sense. Those tests, tutor sessions, that training has been over for a long time. At least, it feels like a long time. The test results I keep on thinking about are some of my highest, too. Moments of triumph in the most complex subjects, conversations about advanced genetics, complex tactics, and high-end technology. You're right, I used to dwell on anything where I thought I came up short, but this is completely different."
Paranoia can be healthy, that was something that was drilled into her during training, and in her own strategy training. The thought that struck her next felt like it crossed the line from healthy paranoia into foolishness: Something was reading Gavin's mind. The notion wasn't helpful. If it was true, and she doubted it was, then there was little she could do about it. If it wasn't, then the thought was nothing but a distraction. She decided to push his focus elsewhere. "Farrah seemed nervous, you're right. But why kill Terry?"
"Maybe he crossed a line. He was aggressive by nature, I could see him getting impatient," Gavin replied, looking over her shoulder inside the small open panel. "What did they tamper with?"
"This is a blind hall," Skylar replied. "All the sensors in this corridor and a couple further down are dead. I don't know why they wouldn't have detected it. There's also some kind of charge flowing through the ceiling, someone connected live wires to the frame that hold the ceiling tiles up."
"That's strange." Gavin turned away from the open panel and watched the doors close behind them. "It's a big ship, there's always going to be a lot going on, but maybe Farrah and Terry knew something they weren't supposed to. What if they left us a path that leads right to it? We shouldn't go on."
Skylar thought for a moment as she carefully closed the panel. No one would be able to tell it had been tampered with. Gavin's thinking was ruled by the need to keep them both safe. She understood it, appreciated it, but they had gained nothing real since they surrendered, only lost. Farrah was out of reach, Terry may be dead, and the moment they met their captors, all the soldiers with them were murdered.
"What are you thinking?" Gavin asked her.
"We are the more intelligent pair out of the people they captured. What if they needed what we know, our skills in genetics and maybe something else enough to keep us alive, motivate us to help them finish their work on a code that can genetically unlock every doll in the universe?"
Gavin thought for a moment, his forehead wrinkled deeply, then he shook his head. "I need more information. What I've seen can lead to what you're saying, but it could lead to other things too. Maybe they need soldiers, and they're starting soft with a brainwashing process? Maybe they need scientists, or breeding stock the moment the genetic key is developed? Maybe we can serve as templates? All those theories are served by us being kept in a safe place, given something for us to work on. We should go back, learn more."
"I want to go on. Farrah and Terry might have been on to something, left us bread crumbs for us to follow." The deck shifted underfoot a little, as though the ship tilted and moved to the side suddenly. "Something is going on."
Gavin looked down, then around at the bland service corridor before focusing on her and nodding. "Lead the way."
They moved down Corridor Fifteen and found an emergency station at the end with two hand scanners and a shallow closet containing suits along with medical and survival supplies. One of the hand scanners was active. "Skylar, Gavin," whispered Farrah's voice.
"It's been programmed to react to our approach," Gavin said, taking the hand scanner out of the form fitted shelf.
"Terry was caught getting out of the Grand Gallery a few hallways up. He discovered that we're in orbit around Termire, one of the worlds where an artificial intelligence called Nadir transmitted himself to before moving on. They're trying to get to an Echo Facility where they found traces of data that he left behind, including a universal genetic key for dolls. Before they caught him, he was able to get me into one of the few successful downloads from that facility. There's a list of dolls there, it's not a complete one, but there are hundreds of thousands of us. It's not like we thought; that only ten thousand or so were made. This list alone has nearly half a million, and most of them don't know they're synthetic beings. I put the list over a map of the galaxy, and they're everywhere, from the Core Cluster to the Iron Head Nebula and beyond. There's more to it, I'm sure, but we discovered that our hosts are just learning about this technology, they want to harness it to take control of dolls everywhere, and to apply it to themselves because they are inferior constructs, made using something called the Framework Platform. I recorded a high-powered scan result on this device. I also included directions to an escape shuttle. There are humans down there, a faction that wanted to help us, but Terry got caught before we could get away. Go, don't stay here. They killed him. They used one of the genetic keys that worked in simulation on him and his system rejected it. I'm next. I have to go. Follow the directions."
"Termire, that's only nine light years from Geist," Gavin said. "If we're going to escape, then now's the time."
Skylar was unsurprised that Gavin wasn't distracted by Terry's death. She imagined that they used one of their earliest successful genetic keys on him, one of the ones that worked in a few simulations, but was still flawed. Farrah would be next, and she wanted to save her, even though they weren't close, but any attempt to go after her would probably get them caught. With a few quick gestures, Gavin was able to see the whole plan Farrah and Terry devised to get them off the ship. She grabbed a backpack from the emergency station and checked it. There was food, medical supplies, water filtration built in, and some basic electronics. "We have to go," she said.
"We don't know what's going on out there," Gavin said, bringing up the scan record Farrah left behind. He shook his head and recoiled a little as he saw it. "What is this? They're humans with some kind of skeleton that generates them from the inside out." He held the scanner so she could see it.
"What's that beside the readings on each one?" She asked, pointing at a long number.
"Serial number? Maybe they're a new wave of android?"
Skylar scrolled through the scan until she found several Aspens and Larkens. "They're not real dolls. They're trying to put us at ease by pretending."
"You're right, we have to go," Gavin said, handing her the scanner and taking one of the other backpacks from the emergency closet. He took the other hand scanner and looked around for a moment. "There are no weapons here," he concluded.
"Farrah's plan has us running back to the service corridor we passed, then here," she pointed to a spot marked on the plans for the ship.
"Termire was marked as a lost world, completely overrun by infected technology," Gavin said.
"But she said Nadir cured the robots," Skylar said, tightening the arms of her backpack and closing the belt clasp.
"With free will? That's ridiculous."
"So you really want to stay here?" she asked, but her tone was an objection.
"You think we should go down?" He looked around for a moment as the deck shifted again.
"Yes, I want to change our odds. We're at a massive disadvantage here, and they're probably already looking for us."
Gavin took another backpack from the shallow closet and looked it over quickly before putting it on. He thought for a moment then kissed her briefly before nodding. "Let's change our odds."