“Igor, get us out,” Aki said.
“Already on it.”
Unlike the missiles, the Phalanx was incapable of flying a highspeed zigzag pattern to avoid being hit. The Phalanx was highly maneuverable but had not been built to evade attacks. Since the ship had been headed toward the Builders, it took a few terrifying moments for the Phalanx to decelerate sufficiently to reverse course. Through a feed from the Phalanx’s telescope, Aki kept a close eye on the attack beam’s base. The base began to move, but Aki realized that the base was not preparing to fire. Instead, the iris opened and the Torus initiated its nuclear drive system. The alien vessel resumed its deceleration as it headed toward Mercury.
“Stop the withdrawal,” Aki commanded. “That looked closer than it was.”
“A bit too close,” Igor responded. “Looks like the UNSDF has one shot left. You think they’ll actually fire the graser at the Builders?”
“We’ll find out tomorrow.”
Taking a long slow breath and bringing her eyes away from the monitors to look at the smooth white walls of her cocoon, Aki was surprised by how casually she had replied and the estrangement she felt from the dire predicament. Until now, the subject of firing the graser had been taboo aboard the Phalanx. Her thoughts were interrupted by a call from Raul.
“There’s something I need but I can’t explain to you. It’s access to one of the communication lasers.”
“There is one we’re not using, but I’d like to know what you’re planning.”
“It would take too long. Just trust me on this puppy, okay? This is our last chance.” The desperation in Raul’s voice was clear, despite his attempt to keep his tone light. As commander, it was her duty to oversee the ship, but she had chosen Raul because she respected his commitment to finding a way to contact the Builders. She also, as much as the memory hurt, remembered how what seemed like a last chance had presented itself to her on the Island so many years ago.
“Fine. I am granting you access now.”
“Hurrah!”
Aki opened the system administration screen to grant Raul access to communication laser number four. After a while, a large portion of the operations system was being monopolized by a program running under Raul’s access code. The name of the program was NATALIA. Aki wondered if it was merely a tribute.
EVERYONE EXCEPT RAUL gathered in the crew room for breakfast. Aki could not help but notice how tired they looked. She removed slices of apple pie from the warming unit and handed them out.
“Igor, could you hand me a salt packet?” she asked.
Aki opened the packet of salt water, squeezed it onto her pie, and let the liquid soak into the crust.
“Commander, I’ll never understand your culinary customs.” Igor chuckled after he said it.
“The salt? Pie is too sweet for me first thing in the morning.”
“How does adding salt make food less sweet?”
“I don’t like sweetness as the only flavor. Everyone should try it,” she said, handing the salt packet to Joseph.
“Why not?” Joseph said, letting some of the liquid soak into his pie. His bravery even extended to cuisine.
“How about you, Aida?”
Aida’s face was pointed down at the table. Aida shook her head to indicate she was not interested.
“Would you like something other than apple? There’s cherry too,” Aki said, trying to raise Aida’s spirits, though she knew it would take more than a different flavor of pie to stop her from moping.
“No, thanks. Apple’s fine,” Aida answered with little inflection.
“This isn’t bad,” Joseph said, his mouth full.
“See? In Japan, we also salt our watermelon, sometimes even cantaloupe.”
“I’ll save the salt for French fries, thanks,” Igor said. He washed his salted pie down with coffee, then slid open the blind that covered the ship’s window and asked, “What’s the weather?”
Most of the view was blocked by the ship’s solar shield. A bright point of light was in the lower corner of the window. “Look how close we’re getting to Mercury. Isn’t that amazing? It’s almost as big as a half moon back home.”
The others huddled close to see. Igor adjusted the light filter on the window. The image went from a glaring blur to a clear view of the half-lit planet. They could even see thin filaments of ring material being ejected into space near the planet’s equator. When he increased the magnification of the filter, shadows on Mercury’s surface and along the equatorial belt became visible.
The view was a limited one. Though she could not see the ships, Aki knew that five million kilometers away from the planet the UNSS Thompson and Becquerel were waiting for the Builders to complete their flyby. She could picture the commanders preparing the graser mounted on the Thompson.
“Can you see the earth from there?” Raul interrupted from his cocoon. Aki thought his voice sounded excited.
“The earth? Of course not, idiot. It’s on the other side of the sun,” Igor answered.
“Oh.” There was a click as Raul shut his commlink to the room. Normally the button did not click; he must have slapped it hard.
No one spoke. Aki knew they had come to the inevitable conclusion that there was nothing left to do. The Contact Team had failed.
Igor placed his pie wrapper in the trash dispenser. In a businesslike tone, he said, “After dinner we should enter a course to take us out of orbit and away from the line of fire of the graser. We don’t want to get caught up in that mess.”
Aida placed her face in her hands and let out a sigh. Aki pulled herself next to Aida and placed her hand on Aida’s shoulder.
“We did all we could. We need to keep our chins up and see this through to the end.”
“We haven’t tried everything!” Raul said, leaping out of his cocoon into the crew room so quickly that he bumped Aida’s chair. “Have a look!” He pressed the wall-mounted screen to display laser communication system number four. Several pulsating graphs appeared.
“Are we supposed to know what we’re looking at?” Igor asked.
“What you’re looking at, amigos, is the only chica I’ve ever loved: Natalia,” Raul said. He was excited, even proud.
Aki swallowed hard. She knew where this was headed.
“I never gave up on her. I never did. I’ve been toiling, a little at a time, over the past few years. I accessed my computer at the ETICC and emulated Natalia on the Phalanx’s computer system.”
“Could you say that in a way that lets me understand what you mean?” asked Aida.
“When I was an undergrad, I made this artificial intelligence system. I called her Natalia. The problem was that she wasn’t able to interact with external intelligence. In other words, she couldn’t talk to anybody and she wouldn’t talk to anybody. There was a lot in her electronic head, but I was never able to figure out what she was thinking. Eventually, I gave up on her and quit, but I saved her internal state. I didn’t really give up. She knows I didn’t. I would bring up a virtual copy on my computer at work and fiddle around. You know, to make improvements. I’ve been thinking about her more and more these past few days with a hunch that she might be the answer we needed. I partitioned off some space on the Phalanx’s computer and emulated a virtual copy of her. She’s been online and communicating since late last night.”