Edge of Dark (31 page)

“No. But I could be. Follow me to see Chrystal.”

What a strange thing for it to say about itself. But then Jhailing Jim was a strange name for a robot or an AI anyway. More of a performer's name.

Charlie had stiffened. “We came this far. We would prefer that you bring Chrystal here.”

“Are you afraid?” the robot asked.

“Of course we are,” Nona replied.

The robot hesitated a moment before saying, “I guarantee your safe return.” With that, it turned around and headed toward the door. So much for assertive bargaining.

Charlie gave her a look that suggested she resist, but she took his hand and squeezed it. “Good luck,” she told him. “Stay safe.”

“I hate to leave you,” he whispered.

She remembered what it felt like to be in his arms. She took his hand, squeezing it hard. “Don't get caught.” She felt the separation as he turned away from her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHARLIE

Charlie walked briskly away from the Next and through the people still standing in the room. Amia was in hiding, Shoshone had been taken off. Gunnar was gone. Charlie's room might still be guarded. He went back to the bar.

It had grown more crowded. Multiple conversations flowed through knots of people standing or sitting in groups around the room. Perhaps he could learn who was in charge now that Shoshone had decided to turn herself into a robot princess.

He ordered a beer. When the bill came, he frowned. They must not make the beer on board. “Is there cheaper alcohol?” he asked the robot.

It turned out that whiskey was cheaper, which didn't make a lot of sense. But he'd keep that in mind in case he needed a real drink before this was over.

At least the beer was good. Even though the room wasn't full, he was willing to bet well over half of the humans left on the Satwa were here. He didn't recognize any of them and with luck they wouldn't know his face either. Two men and a woman were talking loudly enough for him to overhear, so he sat on a barstool near them.

“—can't help the pirates—”

“Next.”

“Whatever. We can't help them anymore.”

“I didn't think it would do any harm. Trade them a few raw materials for a few serving-bots.”

“What are you going to do with credit after you're a robot?”

“It's not going to happen.”

“We have to leave.”

“They'll shoot us.”

“Pour me another drink.”

There weren't any solutions there. Just stupidity. He walked casually over to a large group of people dressed in mechanic's jumpsuits. They were working their way through shots of whiskey with beer chasers, which was probably a day's salary for common workers. He hovered near the edge, quiet since this group was almost whispering.

“—let us go.”

“They won't shoot us all. Bad PR.”

“Remember the High Sweet Home.”

“Can we trade them some? Give up a boss or two?” A tall red-haired man looked around the room, his gaze lighting for a moment on the people at the bar where Charlie had just been, and then on Charlie himself. “Who are you?”

“Nothing the robots want. Charlie. Charlie Windar. I'm the ambassador from Lym.”

“What makes you think the robots don't want you? Don't they want to steal Lym from us?”

His throat constricted. He coughed. “Yeah. But I was just in there and they let me go. They don't appear interested in bargaining with Lym at the moment.” His own words struck him from inside, and he had to force himself to stay present.

A blonde woman who wore her shocking pink hair in two braids asked him, “What do you think, Mr. Ambassador. What should we do?”

He took another sip of beer, tried to figure out what to risk. “I can't choose for Lym. Not from way out here. So I have to get home.”

“But if you could?” she asked.

“I'd fight.”

A few solemn nods and a grin signaled that he'd chosen right.

“Do you have a ship?” the woman asked. “We're going. We figure they might let us go, since we don't matter any. That's what we're hoping.”

He thought about the little seventy-five pod and the keys to her. “Only a small one. Are there more in the bay? Anything useful to get from here to Lym?”

“Can you fly?”

Nona could. Every ship had a flight AI anyway. “Depends on the ship.”

The biggest man of the group stepped up to him. “If you rat us out, I will offer you to the robots myself, and if they don't want you I'll tear you in half. Do you understand?”

Charlie wasn't sure if he could take him or not, but the right thing to do was act respectful, so he did. “I won't tell on you. I don't wish you any harm.”

“Why tell him anything?” one of the women who hadn't spoken yet asked. The expressions on other faces agreed with her.

The big man said, “Because I was on Lym once. For six months. It's the most beautiful place in the solar system.”

Charlie smiled. “It is. By far.”

The woman wasn't satisfied yet. “Keep him with us. That way he
can't
rat us out.”

“No time to babysit,” the big man said. He thrust his hand out. “I'm Larkos. Meet us in the ship's bay in two hours.”

Only two hours? “I'm bringing a friend who came with me. She needs to get off, too.”

“Don't tell her anything until you meet us,” the woman insisted. She still hadn't offered her name.

“Not until just before,” he promised. “But she'll need to gather her things.”

“Go,” Larkos said. “If you're late, we're leaving without you.”

Charlie's beer was almost gone. He hadn't figured out who was in charge without Shoshone. Maybe no one.

He had made friends. Perhaps. He wanted another beer, but decided to nurse the dregs instead. There was still nowhere to go, so he went to a window seat and sat, staring out at the
Bleeding Edge
. Nona was surely still there, still inside. If she came out of there in two hours, he had a plan. If she didn't, he supposed he still had a plan—to take her and the little seventy-five ship.

But what if she didn't want to go? Then what?

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

NONA

Nona followed the robot. Beyond the doorway, the Next ship felt open and big. Rooms and corridors were sized too big for humans, and she shivered in the cold air. The
Bleeding Edge
hummed and creaked more than the sleeker
Savior
, or even the Deep. Color and odd-shaped designs coded areas and access levels and utilities, leaving the impression that she walked into a child's playground rather than a starship bristling with serious weapons. It wasn't beautiful or artistic, but rather confusing and almost riotous.

After just enough turns to leave her feeling lost, the bot led Nona into a room with white walls and four seats around a table. Four seats? Shouldn't there be five?

A pitcher of water and a single glass sat on the table. The robot poured for her, holding the glass out until she took it. “I'll come back for you. Don't go anywhere else.” It left, although Nona had the sense it didn't go far.

The Chrystal robot came in, still wearing the blue dress. She was followed by two men who Nona recognized from pictures. Soulbots. They moved like people, looked like people, the differences so slight she couldn't name them even though she felt them.

Nona tried to hide a shiver.

All four of them regarded each other in silence.

The Chrystal soulbot looked like her friend. The dragon tattoo glittered in all its shimmery blue and green glory. The same dark hair spilled down her shoulders, maybe a little longer. Her eyes were the right shades of brown mixed with green, and her smile warm and natural.

Maybe too smooth, too natural?

The men were the same; they looked right and not-right. Nona had never met them, but she'd seen hundreds of pictures of them. Jason, who had been with them a long time. Jason had long dark hair highlighted with purple, and broad-shoulders that must have been born and nurtured in a weight room.

Yi was newer to the family. He had fascinated Chrystal so much that while they were all dating, Chrystal had written long notes about him to Nona, describing how brilliant and driven he was, what a good head he had for business. In truth, the family had started truly prospering after they added Yi, who was reportedly a prodigy at engineering and DNA, at physics and math. Yi looked like an anti-Jason: anorexic and thin-limbed, with unruly dark hair that flopped over wide, round eyes and sharp, high cheekbones. He had no decorations or tattoos, or anything else unique except his gawkiness.

Katherine was missing. Katherine and Chrystal had been together for decades; almost always together. Chrystal's family structure had been solid for years, and it had started with Katherine. Nona wanted to ask, but she was afraid to.

The look on Chrystal's face was human and full of apprehension and fear. Not of Nona—never that. Perhaps fear of what Nona thought of her now, of whether or not Nona would accept her.

The look didn't belong to a robot. It belonged to her friend. She had seen it before, and it was such a signature expression it couldn't have been copied.

The look drove Nona up out of the chair. She folded Chrystal in her arms. At first, Chrystal felt resistant, and then just stiff, and then she slid her arms around Nona and the two of them stood there for a long time. Holding Chrystal and being held by her felt good. No, it felt great. She had been so afraid for so long, so certain Chrystal was dead. But she wasn't. Not exactly.

The first overwhelming tide of relief ebbed, and Nona gradually became aware of a subtle sense of wrongness. She trembled in Chrystal's arms, but Chrystal was a rock. In spite of making the right movements, Chrystal's reactions were subdued at best. Her movements felt too fluid, as if she were an animated dancer instead of a real girl.

Chrystal didn't smell human. Maybe that was it. Emotions smelled, and Chrystal didn't. A subconscious thing.

Chrystal didn't tremble or cry or make a single awkward move.

Nona still sensed a connection between them, but it wasn't as exuberant or sweet as she remembered.

She put a hand on Chrystal's cheek. “I'm so sorry this happened to you.”

Chrystal shook her head ever so slightly “Don't be. It doesn't do any good.”

Nona wiped at her eyes and Jason handed her a tissue from a box on the table.

“Thank you,” Nona said and then she whispered, “I hate them for this.”

“Remember we are in the Next's ship, and I am now at least partly the Next's creature,” Chrystal whispered back. “They are with me always now. We share a network, a world, a place. We talk to each other. I am myself and I'm not. Please believe both of those.” Then she repeated one part of it. “I am myself and I'm not.”

Nona nodded. “Okay.”

Chrystal sat down and smiled. “Tell me a story. How did you get here?”

Tell me a story
. Whenever they were away from each other for long, they said that. Nona wanted to cry all over again, and hated it for a weakness. She picked up the water glass and drank, covering her face briefly with one hand. When she regained control, she said, “We were on Lym, me and Charlie, when we heard about the High Sweet Home. We were sitting in a skimmer with a wide sky above us and a waterfall in front of us. As soon as I heard about the attack, I started trying to find out how you were. We left soon after and came out here, and we watched for you and listened for news every day. We didn't hear anything for so long, I was sure you were dead.”

Chrystal looked slightly alarmed, and then she smiled, her expression almost natural. “You shouldn't have come,” she said. “Now you're in as much danger as I am.”

“Aren't we all in danger?” Nona asked. “No matter where we are? Who we are? The Next are going to change everything.”

“Yes,” Yi watched Chrystal with concern. “It's not your fault that Nona came, and she's right. No one is safe.”

“Do you understand the Next?” Nona asked Chrystal. “Can you speak for them? Already?”

“I don't have any authority. But they've been training me in what to say to you to help you understand them.”

“And what did they tell you to tell us?” Nona asked.

“In a minute. First, I want to know about you. You mentioned a Charlie. Who are you two to each other?”

In the old days, Nona would have told Chrystal about her conflicted feelings, and that she had just wanted him to kiss her. “We're both ambassadors—me for the Diamond Deep, kind of by accident. Or at least, not very officially. Charlie is an ambassador for Lym. I have a ship; we came out here in it. A big cruiser mom had built for me. Do you believe that?”

“Really? You have a ship?” Chrystal brightened, her new eyes alive with excitement. “Is it here? Can I see it?”

Bitterness rose in Nona's throat, but she managed to find neutral words. “It's somewhere safe. No one knows how frightened to be of the Next, but after what happened to you, the bets are that we should be very frightened.”

Jason's voice was warm and rolling, a little sexy. “You
should
be frightened. You should leave us and run away.”

“That's not what you're supposed to tell us,” Nona observed.

“No.”

Yi said, “The Next were all human once. Now their aims and dreams are different. That is already true for us three, a little.” He stopped and waited for Nona to nod, as if he needed to be sure she understood his point. “We'll never be human again. Don't be fooled. We think faster, learn faster. We run faster, jump higher. We don't need to drink or eat. We don't need air or a narrow band of temperature. We are designed for space and spaceships, which you are not. If you weren't with us, it would be colder in this room. We are alive, but we are not human.”