“I’m…” He didn’t finish the line, but there was sadness there.
Syn dared, “What? You don’t know? What’s at the end of that sentence?”
Blip stayed quiet.
Syn glared, “You’re what?”
Blip’s words were soft and quiet, “I’m here.”
Syn hung her head. “Just open it.”
“Olorun told me that all of the colonists died. If something is alive over there, it’s not—”
“Open it.”
Blip flew away from her, plunging downwards away from the bridge hatch—although in the gate room, there was no up or down. “Blip!” She kicked out and tried to follow him, but she was slow. There was nothing to propel herself against. Syn was forced to swim in the air. She could gain speed, but it took a while. Then he was gone from her sight, having flown into one of the dark shadowed places in the corners of the room. “Blip!” she shouted.
“Over here,” he said. She couldn’t see him, though, and instead, followed the sound of his voice.
After a couple minutes of slow swimming, she made her way to him. He floated in the very bottom corner of the room, against the far edge, a place entirely draped in shadow, far away from any of the tube lights, the hatch indicators, or emergency lights.
“Blip, are you running away from me?”
“No.”
“Why won’t you open the gate?”
“If we’re going to do this, can we be smart about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not opening the gate. It’s too big. Too obvious. Remember what we heard from the other side.”
Help me. Syn remembered the soft voice so clear. The first words from another human’s throat to her ears.
“The Madness struck that side worse than here. It’s not safe. If there is someone alive, if Olorun is wrong, then they’re probably dangerous.”
Blip nodded.
“You suspected this the entire time.” Again, the urge to punt him across the room washed over her, and she did everything she could to push it back down. “So what’s your plan, oh great wise liar?”
“Stop that.” Blip paused a second before continuing, “There’s an alternate access hatch here.”
Syn stared ahead of her. It was solid metal. There was nothing distinct. Just the wall that surrounded the circular irised gate. “Where?”
Blip flashed something and a small, thin razor-line of white light appeared in a circle about two-feet wide. “It is only for bots. Only for companion bots. Only for us. There are fail-safes built into the entire ship—places only companion bots can access to keep those in our care safe.”
Syn shook her head. “You knew there were other companion bots? You said you had never seen another one when that thing crashed.”
He nodded but did not answer. Instead, he aimed himself at the wall. The white light dissolved to reveal a small opening just wide enough for her to crawl through. If Syn had been a boy, if she had been anything other than her petite form, she wouldn’t have made it. It was designed for Blip-sized bots and thin girls. “I’ll go first. Have your spear?”
Syn nodded. It was still clutched in her hand. She didn’t want to talk. She seethed. Lie after lie after lie. She kicked at the wall and pushed ahead of him, darting for the opening. “Liar,” she grunted.
Blip grunted. “Wait! Do you have everything? Your spear?”
She nodded again, feeling the reassuring weight in her hand, and motioned back to him, giving him the middle finger as she moved into the tube. For a moment, she reached to halt herself, thinking of Eku. No, she’ll be okay. Leave her in the happy place. She can be queen there in my absence.
“Fine,” he said and followed after.
14
JOURNAL ENTRY: THE ZOO
The Unauthorized Journal of Syn
Section 16
Composed 2757
I’m alone here on Olorun. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had to fight. I have often had to intercede for something smaller—animals attacking other animals. Most of the time, the bots assigned to feed them keep to their schedule, bringing up manufactured meat from the lower food levels. However, if the big predators don’t get their food allotment, some of them have gone a bit haywire. And some of them, like the lion, found a new joy in the hunt.
But I’ve also discovered when not to kill. Along with the lion, a tiger had escaped from the zoo. These were the largest of creatures that were of any concern. There were zebras and giraffes and monkeys. Those I let out myself. They needed to be able to romp around free.
I know I’m safe. They can’t hurt me. It’s hardwired into their DNA. But they can still hunt the rest of the animals. Survival of the fittest and all.
My first steps into the Zoo told me something was wrong. It was quiet, and the Zoo was never quiet. Set near my tree, the Zoo was arrayed in five wings, spreading out from the center. I had always been a bit on edge when I went into the Zoo. Unlike the rest of Olorun, it was the one place that didn’t light up when I entered. I suspect it’s because random lights coming on and off would upset the animals, but for whatever reason, the Zoo didn’t respond to my presence. Never had. And so, it was different than anywhere else we explored.
The animals in the cages knew me, as I was the only one visiting them, but they didn’t trust me. At first, Blip and I had considered letting all the animals out. But then, we realized that it would cause more trouble than it would solve. Besides, the bots were fairly good about keeping up on the food and checking in on the animals. The Zoo ran itself.
All that changed the day the Zoo went quiet. And it went quiet because most of the animals had escaped. All of the gates had opened at once. One of the main locking switches at the front gate had faulted out and opened everything else. I had watched Jurassic Park and always thought that sort of thing couldn’t happen… until it did. I have a theory it was one of the monkeys. Those things were crazy smart, and I’m sure one of them got loose and then tried to break its buddies out, accidentally opening up the gates for the others.
Blip and I ran down the list of the ones that had escaped after securing the ones that hung around. We had worked for several weeks to capture and bring several back. Some were just impossible to catch. The foxes in particular were quite challenging. We were getting to a bit of status quo as the predators started hunting the other escaped animals. I didn’t like the thought of them dying, but it was the natural order. Just needed to work to keep it in balance.
Then the lion had started killing for fun. I hated to do it, but I had to take that one down. It was pretty lazy, and it didn’t take much stalking to kill it. I hunted the beautiful beast, and when I found it, I stabbed it straight through with my spear. It was for that hunt I had made my spear originally. It did its job, and I never went out without it again. Designed to go first, to point the way, to keep me safe, and to draw blood. It did all four well.
Now there were wild things in Olorun, and so I had to keep myself safe. Blood spilled in Eden.
A few of the bots had tried to stop the lion. Lion vs. Bot—it was a great fight, but the bots didn’t stand a chance. The protector bots had been designed for deterring humans. They tried to stun the lion. I think it gave the lion a bit of a tickle. Useless.
A small pack of hyenas had been let out. Three of them. We tracked them but decided to leave them alone. They were pursuing only rodents—we had enough of those that we could use the help—and stray birds. They were small enough that I was certain we could curb them before they caused any problems.
Then, there was the tiger. It had killed an emu on the bank, but unlike the lion, it didn’t leave the carcass out. It had dragged it away.