Truth is, I was scared to death to climb those rocks at Martinez Base. But I did it for Ghost.
He needed it even more than I did.
—From Life Lessons From Earth, by Hera Jezabel Quinn
As Hera and the others approached, the heavy doors in the side of the thick gray plascrete walls of base rumbled open, revealing a huge dark space beyond. Hera followed Sam inside, her eyes slowly adjusting to the dim light.
Ghost brought up the rear. As he cleared the entrance, the doors immediately began to slide closed behind them.
“You sure it doesn’t know we’re coming?” Hera tried not to sound as worried as she felt.
-Yes. The AI does not appear to be responding to my pings.-
“Well, something shot down the Zhenyi.” Hera was determined to solve that mystery, at least. She’d been her pride, and now she was a pilot without a ship.
“If it’s sleeping, leave it alone.” Ghost’s worried voice made Hera smile.
She looked around the wide room. It looked like an old hangar, tall enough to accommodate a variety of craft and mechs. There were no windows, although some panels near the ceiling were translucent and let in filtered sunlight. Above, metal scaffolds held a variety of types of equipment: hoists, robotic arms, and other unidentifiable metal constructs.
The hangar had been subdivided into separate bays—some were empty, while several held what appeared to be drones in various states of repair.
In one of the bays, zongi-fruit-sized mechs shaped like spiders crawled up and down one of the larger drones, stopping here and there to fire a blue light onto the surface of the device.
“What are they doing?” Although she was used to mechs of various shapes and sizes back home, these were somehow creepier. Maybe because of their form—for all that she’d been thrilled to see her first spider outside, she’d always found them a bit disturbing. Or maybe because they were agents of a hostile power.
Ghost came up alongside her. “I think they’re scavenging.”
Sam agreed. -The manufacturing capabilities of Martinez Base were mostly destroyed during the Crash, so the AI has had to make do with what it could find.-
Ghost snorted. “Kinda puts a damper on the whole restart plan.”
-Yes, it does.- Sam bobbed up and down in the air.
“Is that what ripped out the wiring from all those houses?” Hera eyed the spider things with distaste.
“Maybe.” Ghost looked doubtful. “Doesn’t explain the footprints.”
-You saw more footprints?-
Hera missed seeing Sam’s face. “Yeah, Ghost found them inside some of the buildings out there. Most had been stripped down to nothing.”
-Interesting.-
The hangar, though large, was not infinite. Soon they reached the back end, where another set of double metal doors faced them, defended by a single spider mech.
“Sam?” Hera glanced at the little mech worriedly. Those blue sparks looked like they would hurt.
-Don’t worry. It’s here for me.- The drone descended to the plascrete floor, making its strange thunking sound. -The elevator and hallways here are too small for this drone to navigate, as much as I’ve enjoyed it. Ghost, if you would do the honors?-
“Ah. Of course. Can it… hold you?”
-I believe so. I’ve calculated its compatibility with my core to within about 97 percent. That should be sufficient.-
“On it, Boss.” Ghost knelt and popped open the drone’s access panel.
Hera grinned. It was weird seeing Sam in a different form, and a spider mech would be stranger still.
She had known him in his humanoid form since she was a little girl, when he had visited the creche scouting for talent for the Return.
Hera struggled to stand. Her legs refused to cooperate, however hard she tried to make them.
The doctors had done an amazing job restoring the misshapen, torn, and bruised limbs to something resembling normal legs. The skin was still tender, but to look at them, you wouldn’t know anything bad had ever happened.
But the nerve damage had been severe, unrepairable even with Redemption’s relatively advanced techniques.
“Back on Old Earth, they could have fixed this, even regrown you some new ones” Doctor Jin had told her one day, her eyes sad. “I’m sorry, little one, but I’m afraid you’ll never walk again.”
She was determined to prove them wrong.
Now she levered herself up on her crutches, using her strengthening arm muscles in place of her legs. She would meet the representative from the Return offices on her feet, or not at all.
Ghost was instantly at her side. Her poor friend was filled with guilt. He had decided that her accident was his fault, and no amount of arguing would change his mind. “Here, let me help you up.”
She shooed him away. “I can do it myself, Ghost.”
His lips quirked at her new nickname for him, but he backed off, throwing his hands up in the air. “Sorry.” He was adorable when he was confused.
“It’s okay.” Hera did it like the nurse had shown her, reaching down to lock the wheelchair in place. She coughed a little—her lungs were still a bit raw from the moon dust she’d inhaled when the rock pile had collapsed.
She closed her eyes, taking a moment to calm herself. You can do this. It was hard, this new life, but she had promised herself she would find a way to make it work.
She opened her eyes and looked up at Ghost.
His pained expression was practically pleading with her to let him do something.
She sighed. “Can you help me? I’m more tired than I thought.” She probably could have managed by herself—even the doctors were amazed at how well she was adapting. But she also understood Ghost’s need to make up for what had happened.
“Sure.” His green eyes shone as he stepped forward and put his arms gently under hers and lifted her off the bed and onto the chair.
“I will walk again.”
-I know.- His voice , even in em, was small and full of self-recrimination. He knelt to lift her feet up onto the footrests.
Hera put a hand in his shoulder. “Ghost, it’s okay. I don’t blame you.”
“It’s not okay. I don’t deserve it.” He got up and would not meet her gaze.
Hera sighed. She didn’t know how to get it through his thick skull. She’d made her own decision that fateful day, and the consequences were hers and hers alone.
“I’ll take you into the Nest.” The Nest was the creche’s common space, where the children and Jolly shared meals, studied, and spent a lot of their free time. The heavy gumdust table had been pushed off to one side, and the big pillows were stacked neatly against one wall.
“Is he here yet?”
“I think so. I haven’t seen him yet.” He wheeled her into the Nest, where the other children were already lined up for inspection, from little Tolver to Becca, who would be leaving the creche the next year when she turned eighteen.
They took their places at the end of the line.
Becca leaned over, her hand warm on Hera’s back. “How you feeling?”
“Good. Better.”
“That’s nice.” She patted Hera on the shoulder.
Becca had rarely spoken to her before the accident, so the attention now was a little unnerving. But having fulfilled what she apparently thought of as her civic duty, she turned back to her flirting with Rogers. Intra-creche romance was frowned upon—it was family!—but Becca didn’t seem to care.
Jess grinned at her, wagging her fingers. -You look good.-
-Thanks.- Hera was still getting used to em to em and hearing someone else inside her head, but Jess was like a sister.
The door opened, and Jolly came in from the kitchen leading the most beautiful man Hera had ever seen.
He wore no clothes. His skin was smooth and silver, and he was sexless.
She wasn’t sure why she assumed it was a he. Jolly had taught her never to assume when it came to gender. But something about him felt male.
Jess was staring at him too, her mouth wide open.
He started at the far end of the line, working his way down and speaking to each of the creche kids. Hera watched him, fascinated by his silver skin and the fluidity with which he moved. Most of the mechs she had seen had been clearly inhuman—rolling on treads with metal jointed arms, or walking on creepy legs like a spider. But their visitor was so close to human it almost scared her.
He spent time with each one, asking them questions, really getting to know them, talking to each of the creche kids in turn.
She fiddled with her belt loop until he reached the end of the line and knelt to look her in the eye. “Hello. My name is Sam. What’s yours?”
“Um… Hera.” She reached out to touch his metal skin. It was warm and softer than she expected.
Sam nodded. “Nice to meet you, Hera.” He held out a hand.
Hesitantly, she extended her own to shake it. She was only ten, but he looked at her as if she were already an adult.
“I hear you’re quite an amazing person, Hera.”
“She is!” Ghost piped up and held his hand out to shake Sam’s too.
Sam smiled, and she swore his silver eyes twinkled. “And who do I have the pleasure of meeting here?”
“Ghost… um, Gordon Gillam. But everyone here calls me Ghost now.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Gillam.” Sam turned his gaze back to Hera. “You have great things ahead of you. I’m sure of it. I’ve been watching you.”
“Really?”
Sam nodded. “We’re building a team to go back to Earth one day, and I think you’d be an excellent fit.”
Hera stared at him. “But I can’t even walk anymore.”
He frowned. “Yes, I see how that could be a problem. But this won’t last forever. You’ll be back up on your feet again. I’m sure of it.”
“Really?” She’d told herself over and over that she would walk again, but no one else believed her. Not even Ghost.
Hearing it from someone else made her heart sing.
“Yes, really.” He cupped her cheek gently in his warm hand. “I’ll come see you again in a few months, if that’s okay?”
Hera nodded. “But only if Ghost can be there too.”
Sam regarded Ghost again. “You seem to have made quite an impression on our friend here.”
Ghost blushed. “It’s not like that. She just—”
“Needs him with me.” She took Ghost’s hand and looked up at him. “Right?”
He squeezed her hand. “Right.”
“Then I’ll see you both next time.” He stood and turned to talk with Jolly, and they headed outside.
Hera watched him go, and hope once again filled her heart.
“Hera, you ready?”
She blinked. “Sorry, got a little lost in thought. What did you say?”
“I said that Sam’s all ready to go.” He frowned. “Are you?”
It could have sounded annoying. But from Ghost, it just came out as deep concern. She took his hand and squeezed it. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
“So what now, Sam? Into the belly of the beast?”
At their feet, Sam danced on his new spidery legs. He lifted up on his hind ones, his front legs poking the air, and the elevator doors opened, letting out a surprisingly fresh blast of air.
Hera laughed. “Guess that’s a yes. No em in spider mode?”
“Nope. At least our quiet friend has an excuse for his taciturn nature now.”
“I suppose so.” Hera peered inside. Despite being quite old, it was clean and looked well-maintained. “Are we sure this is safe?”
“Nope.” Ghost stepped inside, followed by Sam in his new form. “One way to find out.”
“Fan-hissing-tastic.” She rolled her eyes and followed them inside.
The elevator plunged into the earth, shaking and rattling as it made the descent.
Ghost held onto the rails, trying to look casual about it but certain he was failing miserably.
Hera was crouched in one corner, her face a little green.
Even Sam hunkered down on the floor, crouched in a tight ball, his blue core glowing in the dim light.
At last, it jerked to a halt.
The doors opened—albeit a bit slowly—and spilled them out onto a new floor.
Ghost looked around the room as the doors closed behind them. It was a little brighter than the elevator, but one of the light panels flickered erratically, giving the whole place a creepy vibe, like in a horror tridee. Ghost swallowed hard.
Sam indicated the way with one of his legs and started off into the hallway that led off the elevator vestibule. The hallway was short—after about twenty meters, it ended in a locked metal doorway.
Ghost placed his hand on the panel next to the door. Nothing happened. “Well, that was anticlimactic. Should we turn around and go home?”
Hera looked at him like he was crazy.
He grinned. “Kidding. So, little guy, you have any ideas? I left my crowbar at home.” Honestly, he’d never even seen a crowbar. But people were always using them in old two dees—the ones that had been dimensionalized, at least—to break into houses and offices and cars. Pretty much anything with a door.
For his answer, Sam scampered up the wall, his arms prying open the panel next to the door. He busied himself with the wiring inside.
“So what’s the plan?” Hera stared at Sam, her brow knitted.
“Pretty simple. We march in there and ask whatever or whoever’s inside where our friends are.”
“And if they refuse to answer?”
“Where’s that crowbar?”
Hera managed a half smile. “Who’d have thought, all those years ago when we first met Sam, that it would lead us here?” She looked around the hall, frowning at cracks in the wall. “You always looked out for me, Ghost. Even when I thought it was all over.” She took his hand. -I trust you. Always. Implicitly.-
Her other hand reached up to cup his cheek, and his heart raced. This is it. He knelt, his lips approaching hers, and this time she didn’t pull away.
A loud buzz filled the air. Ghost turned to stare at the doors, which were now opening to reveal what lay behind.
“Holy cracking hell.” Hera still held his hand, but she, too, was staring at the room.
It was a wide space, clearly cut out of the natural rock. Part of it had shifted sometime after construction, with a narrow crack running up a wall, across the ceiling and back down the other side, but it still formed a rough underground dome.
Most of it was filled with the largest bio-mind she had ever seen. It sat there like a fat pig, its pinkish-gray skin contorted into waves and squiggles, with dark brown limbs that anchored it into the rock.
A slow breeze blew past them, and a glowing blue fungus, not unlike the junlei trees, provided light from the cavern roof.
The mind didn’t move or react in any discernible way. Ghost wondered if it knew they were there.
A deck, clearly recognizable in its curved white outline, sat on a pedestal in front of the mind.
Ghost and Hera exchanged a look. “Should we?”
He looked down at Sam.
The spider mech extended a leg as if to say, Be my guest.
They stepped inside and an ear-splitting screech filled the air, tearing into Ghost’s mind like a power drill. He fell to the ground, grinding his hands against his ears, trying desperately to block the sound, feeling blood trickle out of his right ear.
Hera fell next to him, her legs shaking as if she was having a seizure.
The last thing he saw was her going limp. Then his own mind short-circuited from the pain, and the world went away.
Sam raced into the room, veering right to avoid Ghost’s fall, and then left to stay out of Hera’s way.
They’d triggered an alarm of some sort when entering the room.
He’d thought the alarm system was disabled. Another error which had brought his human friends to harm.
He raced to the deck, his spider mech legs climbing it easily.
On top, he demagnetized the access hatch and flipped it open easily with one leg.
Plunging his leg inside, he found the direct line to the bio mind that loomed like a whale above him. As he prepared to burrow inside, he found and turned off the alarm, hoping it hadn’t damaged Ghost and Hera’s hearing beyond repair.
Humans were surprisingly fragile creatures, a lesson he’d learned over and over again in his sometimes painfully long life.
Assured that he had done what he could, he connected to the bio-mind and dipped inside.