Olaf Reeves had been careful in his instructions, insisting that the compies must be vaporized along with the station. No trace. BO repeated the man’s words to Orli, even imitating the clan leader’s gruff voice. “By the Guiding Star, I know how people are, especially greedy ones. A dire warning will only make them more curious. Bleeding hearts will try to save us long after we’re dead. Prospectors and historians will come here to poke around, looking for lost treasure, convinced that a few sterilization routines are good enough. No, I’m not going to doom the whole damned race because somebody will be an idiot—it might take years, might take centuries, but they’ll come. We have to wipe out this city, every speck of it, at all costs. Leave no chance whatsoever that this disease can spread. If it ever got loose in a populated area…”
Orli’s gut twisted, and her head was pounding. She closed her eyes, even though she knew BO and DD were staring at her, waiting for a response. “He’s absolutely right,” she said.
At all costs.
Since Orli and DD’s unexpected arrival, the Retroamer compies had reassessed their timing and instituted a delay—for her, even though Orli hadn’t asked them to do so. BO said, “If you are still alive, Orli Covitz, we cannot trigger the detonation, because then we would knowingly be causing your death. Our programming precludes that.”
Orli thought she could probably alter their basic routines, adding logical loopholes and justifications. They had to know that by obliterating the plague, they would save millions, if not billions, of human lives at the cost of one. It was simple mathematics.
Or, she realized, instead of making such a complex argument, Orli could just rig the reactors to explode by herself.
“I’ll live for a week, ten days at the outside, right?” She had made the grim calculations herself. “And if you refuse to destroy the station until I’m dead—that might give someone else enough time to get here. I am the first, but there’ll be more soon. The green priest sent out his warning through telink, and other people may already be on their way.”
DD said in his usual naïve fashion, “If others were warned to stay away, we will be safe. Why are you concerned, Orli?”
“Because the louder you tell someone to stay away, the more eager they’ll be to come here. Olaf Reeves knew that, too.”
“That is illogical.”
“Yes, people often are.”
But Orli realized there was another consideration if this ancient city was destroyed without a trace. BO took the time to show her the Onthos library chamber, the images and records of the small group of aliens, remnants of their waning race who had fled out here in the hope of remaining safe. According to translations by the green priest Shelud, most of the Onthos had been wiped out by some great disaster even before the Klikiss swarm wars, but BO didn’t know the details. Every bit of information was entirely new.
That would all be lost.
As she looked at the images of the strange, small-statured aliens, Orli felt sad to know she was destroying the last remnant of an intelligent civilization. No one had previously encountered any Onthos relics, as far as she knew. Neither the Ildirans nor the humans had any inkling that the race had existed. The worldforest held only a faint memory of the Onthos and had asked Shelud to transmit every bit of information he could. But according to BO, the green priest had barely begun the task before he succumbed to the plague. And once this station was vaporized, all that knowledge would be gone…
DD sounded dejected. “I spent many years with Margaret and Louis Colicos when we investigated Klikiss ruins. We were proud xeno-archaeologists and discovered many important things. That was before we knew how evil the Klikiss robots were.” The little compy paused as if dealing with his own fears. “There is much knowledge in this ancient city, Orli. I am sad to see it all lost.”
“But we can’t risk infection—the danger is too great,” she said. “We don’t dare let other archaeologists have access to this place. One small slip, a careless exposure…” Then she realized the solution had been in front of her all along. “BO, can you help me compile a digital summary of this station, the Onthos history, everything that happened?”
“Already completed,” the Teacher compy said. “I also have full documentation of clan Reeves and their time here, as well as records of the spread of the plague. The green priest used his treeling to communicate the basics to the worldforest network, but the complete library of Onthos records remains intact. It would be good to preserve it.”
Orli said, “Let me take those records aboard the Proud Mary. DD will accompany me, and we’ll fly close to some human outpost where we can transmit the data. At least that way it can be preserved and shared—the information is too important. But we’ll remain isolated aboard the ship. Proud Mary will be my quarantine.” She drew a deep breath. “And when the plague gets me—” Her voice cracked, and she felt dread and despair rising within her. “When I die, DD will have the same instructions you do. My ship has to be destroyed in space, and no one else need ever contract the disease.”
“A very good solution,” BO said in a voice that sounded much too cheerful for the subject matter. “And we will not need to delay the destruction here.”
Orli thought of all the work she had done on Relleker, trying so hard to save compies. “In fact, BO, I want you and the other compies to join me aboard the Proud Mary. We can detonate the station remotely.”
“That will not be possible, Orli Covitz. Our explicit orders are to remain here and complete our tasks, then to perish with the station.”
“But it’s not necessary. I’m giving you new orders. Come with me.” Her mind raced to find a way to ensure complete sterilization of the compies. Simple exposure to vacuum for an extended time should be sufficient. And there were numerous backup decontamination routines, which she explained to BO.
“I see no flaw whatsoever in your reasoning,” the Teacher compy said. “But we have prepared the detonation so that all compies must act in unison. To reconfigure now would take an extra day. An extra day could again change the parameters. If yet another unexpected visitor arrived, it would change our timing once again. Any delay increases the danger.”
“Then DD and I can help. We’ll work together to make it possible.”
BO turned to face her. “I appreciate your earnest desire to save us, but our orders are explicit and inflexible. I will not allow you to rationalize a way for us to escape—any such deviation increases the risk. You know this, Orli Covitz.”
Orli remained silent, her stomach knotted, as she tried to think how she might convince the willful Teacher compy. But BO’s argument was sound, even if Orli didn’t like it.
“I will be your companion, Orli,” DD said. “And I will follow whatever instructions you give.”
“I know you will, DD.” She felt tears filling her eyes.
The Teacher compy marched off. “I will retrieve the records I assembled. The compies here have nearly finished venting the modules to space. We will be ready to detonate the Onthos city within two hours.”
“Two hours…” Orli said. “You’re being very brave, BO—you and all of the compies.”
BO swiveled her head. “We do what is asked of us.”