I said, “I don’t think anybody on my crew was the saboteur, if that’s why you got rid of Tsosie and Rhym.”
“What do you think of your new pilot?”
“I like her,” I said. “Don’t know her very well yet. But she does her job and fits in.”
“Hmm,” they said. “And the rest of the crew?”
“Solid. But I just told you that.”
“I’ve known you since you were an ensign.” O’Mara got up and walked to the dispenser. They printed a cup and filled it with water. I expected them to knock it back, but they brought it to me along with two white tablets. “If you weren’t beam-straight, Llyn, I’d have noticed by now.”
“Have I told you about my ex-wife?”
They laughed. O’Mara had a good laugh, when you could pry it out of them. “I’m not talking about your romantic proclivities. You believe in this place. We’ve got a pretty decent Goodlaw, but it’s first loyalty is to the Synarche. Yours is to Core General. Why wouldn’t I use you?”
I set the tablets on the desk and sipped the water.
They sat back down, extending one thick finger to point at the pills. “As a doctor, I’m prescribing those.”
“You’re not my doctor.”
“Your hands look like you’ve been at the heavy bag. I assume you haven’t been at the heavy bag. I’d fiddle with your tuning if I thought Linden would let me. Since I can’t, take the meds before your joint capsules explode or something.”
“Supervisory abuse,” I said, but I swallowed the tablets. They were bitter. “All right, I believe in this place. Do you know why I don’t think it was anybody on Sally’s crew?”
“Hit me,” they said.
I looked down at my knuckles, flexed my free hand, and got a second guffaw. “Somebody set a device on a timer, and then somehow hacked Sally so that she didn’t notice the device, didn’t notice the timer, and couldn’t remember the sabotage had been done after it happened. If Loese hadn’t figured it out and routed around the damage old-school, I’d be drifting along in the wake of a slowly accelerating generation ship for a really long time.”
O’Mara sucked their lips for a long moment. “You’re saying an AI was involved, to be able to hack Sally’s programming.”
Hands wide, I shrugged. The water in my cup sloshed but didn’t spill over. “I’m saying we’ve got an awful lot of damaged shipminds all of a sudden. But Sally—that was set up before she got close to the other two.”
We contemplated each other in silence. Rogue AIs were the stuff of scary three-vees, not real life. I was the first one to crack and change the subject.
“While we’re on the topic of shipminds, who sent Afar out there?”
The master chief, if possible, looked even grimmer. “Judiciary is trying to find out. There was no filed flight plan. Or if there was, it’s been deleted, but the military archinformists think they’d be able to spot that.”
Sometimes, you have to break the tension. “Hey, can I get one of those antigravity belts like Rilriltok is wearing? Taking the pressure off won’t hurt my pain levels, either.”
“I’ll put you on the list,” they said. “We’ve mostly gotten through the staff whose lives would be in danger if they caught a full g, so it should happen pretty quickly. Oh, that reminds me. You need to talk to the Administree as soon as possible. They would like a personal visit, please.”
“O’Mara!”
They busied themselves with the displays inside their desk. “I’ve got another appointment in three minutes.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
They shook their head. “Starlight doesn’t confide in me. So, as I mentioned before, I’m going to ask Sally to take the lead on investigating the object in Afar’s hold.”
“Yes, that puzzled me.” I shook my head. “She’s not an engineer.”
“No,” they said. “But she’s been exposed to whatever Afar and”—they got the unfocused look people get when they’re consulting their senso—“Helen were exposed to, and I want her in port where she can be kept under observation for a while. And where her crew”—they poked a finger at me and waggled shaggy eyebrows—“are safe. The repairs to her coms system are going to be a little complicated, you understand.”
“I understand we’re being grounded, and you’re fibbing to my ship about why.”
“Good. You’re paying attention.” They settled back and folded their arms. “Llyn. One old military mammal to another. I’m worried about the sabotage. I’m worried about Sally. I’m worried about this weird ancient AI and its weird ancient peripherals and its ten thousand corpsicles. I’m worried about why there’s a thing that might be a warbot in the cargo hold of a methane fast packet without a filed flight plan. I’m worried about why Afar isn’t talking to anybody, and neither is his crew. I need you here.”
I chafed, and they knew it. I also owed them, and they knew that, too. And the pills were working, which made it hard to stay as grumpy as I wanted.
“All right,” I said. “But you owe me, this time.”
“Saving your life was all in the line of duty,” they said, mildly.
“What about taking a kid from a backwater world and giving them a chance at their dream job?”
“You’ve been a commanding officer,” they said.
“Under very limited circumstances.”
They smiled. “Well, as you will learn if you continue to advance, identifying and nurturing talent is all in the line of duty, too.”
I could have pointed out that nurturing anything was not my strong point. But it seemed like a good exit line, so instead, I left.
I reached out through the senso to my ship as I walked around the wheel, dodging systers of every conceivable size, ox-compatible physiology, and morphology. Hey, Sally I heard they have you investigating the craboid.
As long as I’m stuck here, she said. It keeps me out of trouble. You know what they say about idle hands turning to farming drama.
I don’t think they say that about AIs.
It’s true, she agreed. Because when we don’t have enough work to do we generally wind up creating a more logical and egalitarian system of governance and resource allotment, or something similarly boring. Anyway, I’ve been working on getting some access to the craboid’s systems, and I think we can probably use electromagnetism to manipulate its superstructure.
You’re going to try to move it?
We are, she confirmed. Want to come and help? You might have some insights. We might all learn something.
My other duties weren’t currently pressing. Sally was grounded; the archaic humans were frozen solid; Helen was getting care from the best cyberdoc in the hospital. Tackling the job the master chief had given me was going to require sitting down and focusing my concentration to read a lot of case reports, and I didn’t want to tackle that until I’d had some time to process our conversation.
Am I avoidant? Very well then, I am avoidant. Also, sometimes I contradict myself. I contain multitudes.
Sure, I said. I’ll bring some EM induction patches.
Afar was docked in the methane section, which meant I had to suit up to get there no matter which way I went. I returned to Sally to pick up my own hardsuit rather than choosing from whatever was in the lockers. She seemed eager, and bored, and not too distracted by monitoring her own repairs.
She was empty of our team except for Hhayazh, the current duty officer, who was backup-supervising the crew of repair bots. Sally usually would have done it alone, but since Sally’s memory and perceptions were going to be in question until the repairs were complete, Loese and Hhayazh had decided to take turns sitting with her.