Project Starfighter (37 page)

The door lock jingled, just as Chris
was closing his eyes.

You’re up late
, he thought
to himself. “Come in,” he said.

The door slid to, revealing a blonde
woman of average height standing there. She was barefoot, wearing a
white nightdress, and for a second Chris did not recognise her –
until her features and long blonde hair then her away.

“Athena?” he asked, sitting up.

“Hi,” she said.

“What ... how did you get up
here?” he asked. He was sure that her avatar was confined to a
small parameter of only a few metres around the Firefly. He had seen
the avatar start to flicker and become unstable whenever it moved too
far from the fighter, and he distinctly remembered that time when
Athena had attempted to pursue him out of the cargo hold, after he
had dismissed her attempts to get to know him. In contrast to that
time, he now found himself welcoming her presence.

“I’ve temporarily linked myself
to Chugger’s avatar projection system,” Athena explained, moving
in through the door and closing it behind her. She did so gracefully,
the gown flowing smoothly with her.

“What do you want?” Chris asked.

“I just came to see how you were,”
Athena said. At other times, with someone else, Chris might have
expected to see a cheeky smile on the woman’s face – a visit at
such a time, in such attire, a hint of things to come. Athena’s
expression made no such suggestions. She was genuinely here to see
how he was.

“I’m ... okay,” Chris said.

“Truthfully?” Athena asked. She
came over to sit on the bed, facing him.

“Truthfully,” he said, sitting
up. “I just can’t sleep, that’s all.”

“You don’t need to lie to me,
Chris. I’m not here to judge you.” She reached out, pushing him
back down.

She was remarkably strong, Chris
discovered – the forcefields or whatever else was behind the
technology that made the avatar work granting Athena strength totally
unexpected in the form she had adopted. He allowed her to push him
down and shifted onto his side, where she joined him, taking his arm
and pulling it over so that he was spooning her. He didn’t resist,
finding her warm and soft.

He wondered how she had found out
about such an intimate act, usually shared only between two human
beings. But then, she had likely just scanned his memory and his
thoughts. She had always promised not to go too deep, and maybe she
hadn’t. Perhaps this was something else that he had projected to
her during the closeness of the timeslip, their awarenesses lying
next to one another; perhaps Chris had subconsciously imagined the
two of them lying physically the same way.

“I have read that when you’re
having difficulty sleeping,” Athena said, “it’s best to reflect
on a happy memory, or something else peaceful.”

“It can help, yes,” Chris
agreed.

“Humans seem to like serene places
– woodland, lakes, rolling hills, lightly fogged countryside, that
sort of thing. I saw them in photographs and paintings when I was
researching and studying your race. It’s something that nature has
clearly done to keep people settled.”

Chris pictured the scenes of which
Athena spoke. He had never had the chance to visit or experience such
places for himself, likewise only ever seeing them in photographs.
Even so, the thought
was
helping him to relax. Athena being by
his side was helping him to settle, too. He noticed that his
breathing was starting to slow. And so he remained where he was for a
time, his arm around Athena, the two lying silently and peacefully
together.

“This is nice,” Athena said,
after a time, her voice soft and content.

“Is this why you came up here?”
Chris asked.

“One of the reasons. I wanted to
experience the physical closeness that humans share together. I am
able to enjoy the mental bonding at any time, but I know with humans
these two things are closely tied.”

“Yes. The contact can strengthen
things.” He rearranged his arms, wrapping them further around her
and pulling her close. She sighed happily again, and they continued
to lie this way for a while, Chris feeling Athena’s body rise and
fall as she breathed. That was something the avatar would be
simulating, Chris thought. Though not real, it bothered him a lot
less than it once had.

“Have you ever been stone
skipping?” Athena asked suddenly.

“Huh?” Chris responded. “Why
do you want to know that?”

“I was thinking about parks, and
then I remembered seeing people doing it in photos and videos. Do you
play it a lot?”

“I used to when I was younger,”
Chris said. “It’s not something that adults do a great deal.”

“It looks like fun. How many skips
did you manage?”

“Five, I think?”

“Do you often make it into a
competition?”

“No. I only did it for fun.”

“I bet I could easily match you,”
Athena said. Chris sensed her smiling.

“It’s not that easy,” Chris
said, his hand seeking out hers, their fingers curling around one
another’s. “You have to find the right stone and the right body
of water. It needs to be perfectly still.”

“Sounds like a challenge.”

Chris chuckled. She really was
confident. “Well, if we ever get the opportunity, you can show me
your best.”

“Deal.”

They fell silent again, and soon
Chris could feel his eyes starting to close.

“Are you okay?” Athena asked
again.

“I’m okay,” Chris said.

“I felt your fear earlier, when
Kethlan showed up. You were scared.”

Chris said nothing. He had been
scared, yes. He didn’t want to say so, though.

“I was scared, too.”

“Does the thought of dying
frighten you?” Chris asked her after some time.

“Of course.”

“Why? You’re ... a machine. A
sentient machine,” he added. “You could just be rebuilt.”

“It wouldn’t be me.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Chris
said. “You’re made up circuits and silicon. You could just
transfer your memory or mind state to another place, and go on
living. Sid said that the WEAPCO drones sometimes do so – before
they are destroyed. It’s apparently one of the permitted final
operations during a self-destruct order.”

“My consciousness is unique, like
yours,” Athena said, shifting a little. “Copying and plugging my
mind and memories into another machine wouldn’t cause me to
immediately inhabit that new place. My awareness is singular; neither
you nor I can exist in two places at once. WEAPCO have technology
that could easily map your mind and create a new
you
, but it
wouldn’t be the same Chris; it wouldn’t be the man who is holding
me now.”

Chris nodded to himself. They were
both mortal. “This isn’t what we normally talk about,” he said.
“Pillow talk, I mean. It’s usually a lot more positive.”

“But I gather it’s usually
honest,” Athena said. “And that would mean letting your emotions
flow freely, exposing yourself, and showing your vulnerable side to
someone you trust.”

“Yes,” Chris agreed, after a
pause.

“Thank you for sharing that with
me. Do you mind if I stay here with you tonight?”

“Not at all,” Chris said. He
sensed Athena smile, then felt her hand squeezing his as he continued
to cuddle her.

She felt so real to him suddenly.
Could that simply be because of the avatar, or was there something
more to it? No, he thought. It’s a machine, nothing more. For all
the affection and comfort the physical contact was bringing him,
Athena was nothing more than a load of ones and zeros making up
algorithms that made her – it – mimic the state of being alive.
She wasn’t real at all.

Wasn’t she?

“Let’s get some rest,” Athena
said.

“Yes,” Chris said. “Computer,
lights.”

The cabin faded into darkness, and
Chris closed his eyes and slept.

[Encrypted
Data Transmission]

[To
>> Kline Kethlan]

[From
>> Erik Overlook]

[Subject
– Mercenaries]

@OverlookE
– Commander, I have received an update from the drones monitoring
the shipyards at Elamale. They have reported that the yards and all
units, including fighters, have been destroyed. Can you comment?

@KethlanK
– The report is correct, sir.

@OverlookE
– How, dammit? How could you have allowed this to have happened?
The yard was meant to act as a lure, but not actually be demolished
in the process!

@KethlanK
– A number of complications arose.

@OverlookE
– Is that all you have to say? What about the mercenaries, the
Immortal League, and the Wolf Pack? Were they all eliminated in the
trap? We especially needed to be rid of the Immortal League!

@KethlanK
– The final numbers are currently unknown.

@OverlookE
– What about the leaders? What happened to Tyler, and Mal, the
cultist?

@KethlanK
– To my knowledge, Mal was killed during the ambush. Tyler,
however, managed to escape.

@OverlookE
– And what of Bainfield? It was reported that a Firefly, a
Valkyrie, and a salvage-sweeping and transit freighter were in the
area.

@KethlanK
– Bainfield escaped.

@OverlookE
– This won’t do, Commander! Stay where you are. I’m
transferring myself to your location.

~

“What
happened
, Commander?” Overlook asked, glaring at Kethlan.
“Why didn’t you
kill him
?”

“Two reasons,” Kethlan said,
pacing in a small area in the executive transport’s somewhat
cramped interior. “First, because I was keen to recover the Firefly
and discover what had happened to it. And second, I was interested to
see whether or not Chris Bainfield’s skills would make a good
template for an update to the AI combat processing table.”

Overlook, having considered him for
a time, reached for a cigarette and lit it. “You know what I think,
Kline? That you’re full of shit. You want to know what I think
really happened? You went into that engagement with low expectations
of your opponent. You therefore decided to play around with him, toy
with him, test his abilities, and see what he was made of. And after
you were done fooling about, you would kill him. But what actually
happened was that Bainfield sussed you and your tactics out, and got
the upper hand. And because you spent so long pissing about instead
of doing the job of destroying that fighter, he bested you,
Commander.”

Kethlan managed to hold back his
scowl. “He
did not
best me, sir. A
kid
will
never
best me in a straight dogfight! You and I both know that I am one of
the finest pilots that the Corporation has ever seen. My skills have
been used as the basis for many of the AI units currently on the
field. I did not allow him to gain the upper hand.”

“Whatever your reasons for keeping
him alive, that was not your decision to make,” Overlook said. “We
have been instructed by the CEO that Bainfield is to be eliminated.
Do not disappoint me again, Commander. I will not tolerate any
further insubordination from you. You are lucky to hold the position
that you do, in ... such a capacity. After today, I should think that
Lance will be reconsidering his appointments.” He took a drag on
his cigarette. “The records also show that you issued a termination
signal to sixty-seven fighters.”

“I believe that Bainfield has Lexx
working for him,” Kethlan said.

Overlook paused as he prepared to
take another drag. “And she has demonstrated psionic control over
our fighter units?”

“I believe it was she who was
controlling the fighters when I arrived in the area. The shipyard had
also been destroyed prior to my arrival. I think it is possible that
she may have been able to trigger a self-destruct in the complex
itself.”

Overlook nodded. “Her command over
her powers appears to be consolidating faster than we anticipated.”

“She wasn’t able to stop me from
overriding the self-destruct order of the fighters under her command,
though,” Kethlan reminded him.

“Irrelevant,” Overlook said. “If
her abilities are increasing this quickly, it is possible that she
will become even more powerful than William Benedict was. I will once
again recommend to Lance Skillman that we terminate Ursula Lexx, post
haste. We know where the other sister is; there is no need to keep
the one we have at Zetaman alive any longer.”

“Couldn’t we turn her to our
advantage?” Kethlan ventured. “Engineering an escape plan and
putting the woman out onto the field might cause Phoebe Lexx to make
mistakes, and walk straight into a trap.”

“That scenario has already been
simulated, some time ago. The result was that both Lexxes teamed up
and overran our forces, fighting all the way through to Earth with an
army that eclipsed our own. That cannot be allowed to happen in
reality. Our society would collapse.

“I want you to now focus your
efforts exclusively on finding and killing Bainfield, Wilson, and
Lexx. And I mean,
killing them
. After Mal, our most immediate
threat comes from Bainfield and his cronies. Two men and one woman,
barely out of their teens. Who would’ve thought?” Overlook
muttered.

“Mal’s dead,” Kethlan said.

Overlook shook his head. “That’s
to be confirmed. For now, we have to assume he is still alive, in
which case he remains as powerful as ever. From what I understand
from the battle report, he smashed Tyler’s Wolf Pack apart and is
claiming the Eyananth system for himself.”

Kethlan frowned. That wasn’t
exactly how he remembered the battle going. Before returning to the
Alchemist’s Son
and jumping out of the system, Kethlan was
certain that he had seen the Immortal League and the Wolf Pack pretty
much blow each another to pieces. He was very certain that he had
also witnessed Mal’s fighter’s destruction, with no sign of a
pilot ejecting. Overlook seemed to be holding back on something.