"You also complained about delays?"
"Several times," Holiye said expansively. "We thought it was a problem with our exit port so we tried to get it changed, but the request was tangled up and has still not been acted upon." He pursed his lips. "This is one of the things I understood your office dealt with…"
"Of course. Again, I apologize. I'll look into it immediately. What port are you using?"
"Petrabor."
Ariel looked up. "Was any reason given for the delays?"
"A number of times they claimed a routing glitch in their logistics programs. Once they simply said that the shipment had been overlooked by the dock crew. I found that intolerable."
"How long has this been going on?"
"We've always had a few problems," Holiye said, "but we expect some loss and delay. Space is vast and people are people. But I'd say in the last two years it's become chronic."
"I see…" She handed back the manifest. "How long have you been working with Imbitek?"
"Years. "
"Any problems?"
"No. In fact, since the previous chairman was replaced, things have gotten even better. The new CEO seems very dedicated to providing service."
"Mmm. How is it you drew Petrabor Spaceport?"
"The main factory is in Kiv Sector, just south. Petrabor is the closest port capable of handling the quantities in a timely fashion."
"Of course if they keep losing or misplacing shipments…"
"Exactly-the benefit of faster service from larger capacity is offset by the nuisance factor."
"Well, if I recall," Ariel mused, "the Arkanleg port or even Kyro should be able to handle the traffic. I'll look into getting you rerouted." She stood. "Um…the stolen shipments…is there any pattern? Anything about them that strikes you as consistent?"
"Well, no. We usually always use the same shipping line, as we always have. The destinations are always different, too."
"I see. Well, thank you. I'll look into that, too, but I can't promise anything. "
Holiye stood. "I appreciate you taking an interest, Ambassador."
Finally, Ariel heard in his voice. She nodded, shook his hand, and let him see her out. Several hours later, Ariel let herself reluctantly into Derec's apartment. Her head buzzed with too much information. She had visited four more firms, following up the complaints. Between the sense of guilt over neglecting her duties and the amount of abuse these companies had suffered from lost shipments, unexplained delays, and shabby treatment by warehouse managers and shippers, Ariel felt humiliated and angry.
All of them shipped out of Petrabor.
Terran authorities had paid no attention because they were Spacers.
And the pattern included her.
Negligence is a disease, she thought bitterly, and I caught it.
Holiye's assessment that the problem had become chronic in the last year appeared accurate. Someone was taking advantage of her truncated authority. The abuse was clear and unmistakable, but since her office was the clearinghouse for the complaints, no one had bothered to put it all together. Why should they? It was her job and she had stopped doing it.
Time to straighten it all out…
She would have preferred transferring Thales to her own rooms or even into a standard lab facility, but either option would have taken too long. She considered running a realtime link from here to her apartment, but the more remote access existed, the greater the chance of eavesdropping. The Terrans, especially-as backward as their tech seemed in some areas, they were disconcertingly advanced in others.
She stood in the living room for a few minutes, quietly letting herself grow used to the idea of being here. It surprised her sometimes how difficult it was to continue knowing Derec. They got along well enough, but there were limits, and she did not know them all.
She looked around. Too little furniture, she judged. Austere. One sofa, one chair, a low table, and a subetheric. No carpet, just a plain tile. The table was still cluttered with glasses and dishes. A flatscreen reader stood like a piece of sculpture amid the mess. She placed a hand on the back of the sofa: the pillows showed the wrinkles and depressions of long use. She imagined him here, studying, till sleep pulled him out lengthwise, still clothed.
She snatched her hand away.
The bedroom was neat and orderly. A modest collection of clothes in the small closet, stark gray sheets, a clock and lamp on the lone nightstand.
More clutter in the kitchen sink, but virtually no food in the pantry. She scrolled through the menu on his autochef: coffee, various potato and pasta recipes, eggs, three meat dishes, juice. It was as abbreviated as his wardrobe.
The workroom, dominated by Thales' console, exhibited the most debris of occupation: papers, disks, three chairs, four or five readers…No dishes, though.
"Hello, Ambassador Burgess, " Thales said.
Ariel felt a wave of guilt. She swallowed. "Hello, Thales. Status?"
"I am linked to a positronic analysis station on Kopernik," the RI said. "We have ninety-nine percent capable dataflow, time delay negligible through subetheric router. Subject has been connected to diagnostics and I am running an excavation now. We have uncorrupted memory nodes isolated by collapsed positronic synaptic framework. Estimated retrieval time for first verifiable memories: two hours, twenty-nine minutes."
Fast work, Derec, she thought, impressed despite herself. Having Hofton no doubt had sped things along. Hofton's absence disturbed her, which came as a surprise. She felt vulnerable. "How much available memory do you and I have at our disposal, Thales?"
"I am using the buffers on Kopernik for the excavation, the commline buffer to maintain the link. For all practical purposes, you have all my available on-site memory."
"I see. Don't tell me anything precise, like a number."
"Would you prefer a specific? I have available 3 x 1023 kjC in three primary and six secondary nodes-"
"That's fine, Thales."
It amused Ariel at times, the way positronic entities tried to accommodate human wants, matching expectations with limitations. Flexible as they were, they sometimes provided either too little information or too much, their ability to accurately judge what constituted the necessary and the sufficient inadequate to the challenge of serving people. All in all, they were remarkable creations, among the best things humans had ever devised. But they were not flawless. Not flawless at all.
Ariel sighed. "All right, then. I want you to begin a records search, new file. Priority protect protocols in effect. Alert me to any attempt at eavesdropping. I want all available data on the history of Nova Levis. I also want to be kept updated on the excavation you're doing on Kopernik."
"Yes, Ariel. May I ask, what level of records search?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you wish me to confine myself to those records without confidentiality protects or shall I acquire any and all documents pertinent to your request?"
Ariel considered. Thales wanted permission to violate protected files. She had no doubt it could do so. Privacy issues represented a gray area for robots-they required specific instructions in such cases, lacking any sense of how harm might attach to simple data.
"Do a survey of available documents of both kinds, " she said finally. "Give me a list, detailing their security status and source. We'll decide then."
"Yes, Ariel." A moment later: "Will you be staying here?"
She hesitated. "I'm not sure, Thales. What would you prefer?"
"It would simplify the security standards you have requested if I did not have to contact you via external comm for updates."
"Hm. True. Do you think Derec would mind?"
"I see no reason why he should. "
No, I don't suppose you would…
"In that case, yes. I'll leave for a short while to get some personal items." She thought a few moments. "In fact, from time to time I may have to leave anyway, depending on what you find out for me. "