“Who exactly are you?” he asked.
“I’m a woman from the year twenty-two sixty-six,” Auger said.
“You know, what really worries me is that you sound as if you believe it.”
But Auger wasn’t listening. She had moved to the side of what was perhaps the strangest thing in the room, other than the ship and the censor. It was a kind of sculpture composed of many dozens of shiny metallic spheres organised into a pyramidal spiral that reached almost to shoulder height. In the lobby of a company building, it wouldn’t have merited a second glance. But here, amidst so much equipment that was obviously designed for a specific technical function, it was bizarrely out of place, like a Christmas tree in an engine room.
Auger touched the topmost sphere. She mouthed a “What…?” and the thing moved, partially uncoiling until Floyd saw that it had the form of a snake made from many linked spheres. Auger took a nervous step backwards as the snake rose up, curving its body into a high, threatening arc.
Floyd pointed his automatic and clicked off the safety catch.
“Easy,” Auger said, raising a hand in his direction. “It’s just a robot. They must have sent it over in the ship.”
Guardedly, Floyd let the automatic drop. “Just a robot?”
“A Slasher robot,” she said, as if this made a difference. “But I don’t think it means us any harm. If it did, we’d be dead by now.”
“You’re talking about robots as if they’re something you see every day.”
“Not every day,” Auger said. “But often enough to know when I should be afraid, and when I don’t need to be.”
The robot spoke in a rapid, piping voice. “I recognise you as Verity Auger. Please confirm this identification.”
“I’m Auger,” she said.
“You appear to be injured. Is this the case?” While it spoke, the snake swayed the blank sphere of its head from side to side, like a charmed cobra.
“I’m injured, yes.”
“I am detecting a foreign metallic object lodged near your shoulder.” The robot’s voice sounded the way Floyd imagined Disney might make a talking kettle sound. “Do you authorise immediate medical intervention? I am programmed with the necessary routines to perform an operation.”
“I thought the bullet went through you,” Floyd said.
“Maybe there was more than one,” Auger answered.
“Do you authorise medical intervention?” the robot repeated.
“Yes,” Auger said, and almost immediately the snake moved, its spheres scraping against the floor. “No,” she said sharply. “Wait. There isn’t time for a full operation. I want you to stabilise me, make sure I can last until we get back to E1. Is that possible?”
The snake paused, appearing to weigh the options. “I can stabilise you,” it said thoughtfully. “But my recommendation is that you allow an immediate operation. Otherwise there is a significant risk of death unless you consent to UR therapy.”
“I’ll consent if it gets me out of here,” Auger said. Then she turned to Floyd. “I’ve just had an idea, now that they’ve sent the robot.”
“I’m listening,” Floyd said.
She snapped her attention back to the snake. “Are you Asimov-compliant?”
“No,” the robot said, with a sting of indignation.
“Thank God, because you may actually have to hurt some people. Recognise this man as Wendell Floyd. Got that?”
The robot’s blank round head swung towards him. He felt a weird interrogatory chill, as if he had been stared at by a sphinx.
“Yes,” the robot confirmed.
“I’m authorising you to protect Wendell Floyd. People may enter this chamber via the censor and attempt to harm or abduct him. You are to defend him, using minimum necessary force. Do you have nonlethal weapons?”
“I have weapons that may be deployed in both nonlethal and lethal modes,” the robot said proudly.
“Good. I want you to use whatever force is necessary to keep Floyd alive, but keep the body count down. No killing, unless you have to.”
“It understood all that?” Floyd said.
“I hope so, for their sakes.” She addressed the robot again. “Eventually—somewhere around sixty or seventy hours from now—someone will return in the ship. They will assist Floyd in returning to the surface. You are not to obstruct them. Understood?”
“Understood,” the robot said.
“Good. Were you given any special orders? Who put you aboard?”
“I was given special instructions by Maurya Skellsgard.”
“Skellsgard made it?” Auger clenched her fist in obvious relief. “Thank God. At least something went right, for once. Can I talk to her? Is the communications link working?”
“The communications link is active, but unreliable.”
“Can you patch me through to Skellsgard, if she’s on shift?”
“One moment.”
Elsewhere in the room, movement caught Floyd’s eye. Across all the desks, the text-filled shades became clear as the luminous letters and diagrams vanished. Symbols jumped across the panels, followed by a jumble of numbers and diagrams that flickered past too fast to make out. Then the picture cleared to reveal multiple images of the same woman, looking at him from different angles around the room.
“Auger?” the face said. “You there, sister?”
The snake robot was already attending to Auger’s injury. It had curled part of itself around her, forming a kind of couch upon which she was gently supported. The larger spheres, Floyd noted, were capable of bulging and softening to form cushions. Other spheres, clustered near the head, had opened little doors in what had appeared to be seamless metal. Many jointed arms had emerged through these doors, tipped with all manner of sharp, glinting devices.
“I’m here,” Auger said. “I’m glad you made it back safely.”
“All thanks to you,” Skellsgard replied. “I owe you one, and I wish I was there to help. But the link’s become too unstable since I made it back to E1. There was no guarantee we’d be able to get a ship back to you, let alone return.”
“I noticed that the ship took a hammering,” Auger said. The robot was nibbling away layers of her clothing, doing so with an astonishing gentleness. It reminded Floyd of a mantis chewing away at a leaf.
“It’ll probably be even rougher on the way back. I wanted to come for you, but Caliskan refused to risk any more lives. That’s why we sent the robot. Hope you weren’t too surprised.”
“I take it the Slasher conflict has become more extensive?”
“You could say that. Look, no point in beating around the bush. The news at this end isn’t good: you’re coming back to a war zone. The aggressive parties have finally made their move. Moderate Slashers are doing their best to contain them, but it’s not clear how long they can last. We’re not sure how long we can hold Mars, let alone Earth.”
Auger glanced awkwardly in Floyd’s direction. “There’s a complication at my end as well. I’ve brought someone into the chamber.”
“I hope whoever you’re bringing back is already in the loop.”
“I think it’s fair to say he’s pretty fucking out of the loop. Remember that detective I mentioned?”
Skellsgard grimaced and closed her eyes, like someone waiting for a balloon to pop. “I’m not hearing this, Auger.”
“I couldn’t shake him. He’s what you’d call tenacious.”
“You can’t do this, Auger. The censor—”
“The censor let him through,” Auger said. “He’s already seen the ship, and the robot. The damage is done.”
“You have to send him back.”
“I’m planning on it. But we’re in a siege situation here. Floyd can’t get back to the surface, and more than likely people are already trying to break through into the outer chamber. I’m not sure whether they’ll try to get through the censor, but I’ve tasked the robot to protect Floyd until we can send back a ship with reinforcements.”