He stepped up to the door, flowers in one hand, the other raised ready to knock. He stopped himself, his knuckles resting on the wood. Michael considered what he was doing. What was he going to say? Hello there, whilst I was controlled by evil robots, I killed your husband, one of my first friends in the galaxy. Terribly sorry. He cursed at himself. He was probably the last thing in the universe she wanted to see. Michael placed the bouquet on the doorstep, turned, and began to walk away.
Aileena watched the log slide into the hole, the first of many that would eventually form a new monastery. It was satisfying in a way she couldn’t describe to finally make good on her promise. Monks milled around her, debating loudly amongst themselves. The exact design of the building wasn’t finalised, a dozen things still being argued over. Aileena smiled, it was exactly like she remembered. It might be on another world entirely, one built by some long-dead race, but it felt like home.
The town was bustling, filled with more people than ever before. Along with the monks, hundreds of new settlers had arrived. Dozens of mercenaries had offered to come on as guards, whilst the countryside for miles around was filled with farms in various states of construction. It was an appealing offer. Eden was free from Council control and well defended. Even Orson and his men had chosen to stick around. The monks had offered to help train new resistance fighters, and after some convincing by Aileena, he had accepted. His ranks had swelled considerably after the offer to protect those on the station. It had been a smart move well-timed.
The arrival of two competing Knowers to Eden hadn’t been as contentious as Aileena had assumed. Michael seemed to be drained after the experience, no longer having the will to argue against his followers. Orson had his own, their numbers increased by the stories of what Michael had done on the station. Aileena knew it wasn’t Michael, not really, but the human seemed to blame himself for what happened. The events had caused a split in the population, an almost even divide between the two men. It would be a problem, were they ever at odds, but for the time being their goals seemed aligned, so people just begrudgingly accepted the other faction.
Aileena would be lying if she said she hadn’t been angry at Michael at first. Brekt had been at her side for years, through some of the craziest jobs she had ever taken. He had been this stoic presence, a pillar around which Aileena had built her life and career, and now he was gone. Snatched away by something that took moments. A lifetime of struggle ended with barely a whimper. It didn’t feel right to her.
At the very least Aileena had tried to make things right, collecting Brekt’s family as he had planned. There was a small cottage at the edge of town he had built ready for them, and Aileena had taken on the job of moving them in. She didn’t need to say anything when she had landed at his home on Euria in the Seeker. Brekt’s wife, Iylissa, knew instantly why she was there. The two women had simply fallen into each other’s arms crying.
The anger at Michael had passed, eventually. Instead, Aileena’s rage settled on the Unmind. The Custodian had been able to reactivate several of the ships, placing them under his control. The plan was to break them down, reassembling them to remove the bioorganic components. Aileena had been more than happy to volunteer the Seeker, blasting apart the ships deemed only worthy of scrap. It was a slow process, but it made her feel a little better. The Custodian thought that from the ships he was able to take control of, they might be able to build two or three new vessels. To the machine’s credit, it had never put forward the obvious, to keep the ships running as they were. Even he knew the Unmind’s machines were abhorrent.
“Something troubling you, child?” one of the monk’s asked. He had a cup in his hand which he offered to Aileena. The liquid inside was warm and brown, steam rising from it.
“Thank you,” Aileena said as she took the cup. “No, brother. No, for once, I’m content. I’ve worked for years for this.”
“Yes, well, you have worked hard, child. You promised to help us rebuild, what few of us there are left. Instead, you brought us to a new home, a new world where we can be free to worship the Rhythm as we see fit.” The monk smiled, turning to face the single log slotted into the ground. A second one was being hoisted into place. “And yet, I don’t believe you. Contentment is just another word for stagnation. There is always something else, another beat in the sequence.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“So?” said the monk. “What’s next?”
“Next? The monastery still isn’t built yet, brother. That eager to be rid of me?”
“You were never the kind to sit still, Aileena. You’ve always been bouncing from one thing to the next. The universe worked through you to bring us this home, it’ll use you again to help someone else. Someone who really needs it.”
“And who might that be?” Aileena had grown up around the monks. They had a habit of making things they wanted her to do as vague as possible.
“You have a friend who is lost Aileena. I would suggest starting there.”
Kestok watched the bots on the hologram. They were welding two sections from the Unmind ships together, trying to bypass the biological components as they did. It wasn’t pretty, but when they were done Eden would have a handful of powerful ships to act as a more permanent defence.
“You don’t need to be here,” Clive said. His image seemed more solid than usual, its glow less than before. He was sitting in the command chair of the bridge, his legs crossed. Something about the AI was different, he was surer of himself, more confident.
“Not like I have much else to do. Meggok is on Eden, putting the final touches on his restaurant, Skorra is going through the formulas I gave her, and there are enough people in town with relevant experience that I’m not needed.”
“Doesn’t mean you need to come watch over me though.”
“I’m not watching over you, I’m just… watching. Besides, you’re about to attach things across the Sword’s hull. You might need my help.”
Clive shrugged. “Maybe, though I think I have it well in hand.”
“And if you run up against one of those AI lockouts?”
“Fine.” Clive leant forward in the chair, concentrating as the bots under his control completed a particularly finicky connection. “You’re probably right. The Merydians seem to have locked anything weapons-related.”
“Not surprising, after seeing the Unmind. We got lucky with the Custodian. He could very easily have been just like his twin. Not that I think all AI are like that mind!” Kestok waved his hands at Clive, as if trying to bat away the words.
“No, I agree with you.” Clive sat back in the chair. He had learnt a lot from his trip into the Unmind. His nanobot form was much improved, he had a physical presence now. Clive had thought long and hard about exactly how he should appear. He had been using a copy of his original android body, but he felt like he had long since moved past that. He had finally settled on a form that was similar, losing the tie from his suit. Smart casual Clive. A tiny change, but an important one. This was his choice of appearance, not one foisted upon him.
“Not what I expected you to say.”
“I was inside that thing’s mind, remember? It wasn’t like the Custodian and I. We’re different. We have feelings, emotions, empathy.”
“You’re alive you mean? You’re people.”
“I suppose,” Clive said. “The concerning thing is that if the Custodian is like it, then either he’s not the norm, or the Unmind chose to deliberately be like it was. What really worries me, is that the Merydians were concerned enough about AI to restrict them. It means something else is out there, somewhere in the universe. I wonder sometimes why the Merydians never came back for the rest of their people. Maybe they couldn’t?”