Except that he also had the whole ship.
He ignored the person who came into the gardens and began stalking around, looking for something. He had no reason to take the crew’s needs into consideration anymore. They weren’t of consequence.
He searched his vast memory for anything speaking to a human existence. A name. A childhood. He felt no different from before he had heard Maria’s proclamation, except that the rage was building like a pressure cooker deep inside the Dormire.
He didn’t have a connection to a human life, but he did have a vast database of human history. He began doing a search on kidnappings in the past three hundred years. There were thousands. He was patient. He had all the time in the world.
While part of his attention looked around the historical records, the other part of him looked around the ship to see what he could find.
When Maria called his name, he didn’t answer, just enjoyed the feeling of the artificial sunlight on the synthetic outer shell of his robot body.
He began shutting sections of the ship down. He would start with the cryo lab. If that didn’t get their attention, he’d go for the life support.
Be Careful What You
Wish For
Joanna ran into Wolfgang and Maria in the hallway. Paul was close behind them. They all looked dour, and Joanna didn’t think the crew could sink any further into misery.
“I checked on the patients, everyone is as fine as can be expected,” she said. “What is wrong with you three?”
Maria encapsulated their problems in a quick whisper as Wolfgang gave Paul a loud order to check on something or other. Joanna stepped back and stared at her. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“She is,” Paul said darkly. “I think she’s full of shit.”
Maria looked at him in surprise. “That’s harsh for you.”
“We can’t argue about it here. But you’re wrong. It’s impossible.”
An alarm sounded around the shop, and red lights lining the hallway began blinking.
“I don’t think IAN gave us privacy,” Maria said, groaning.
“Paul and Maria, with me,” Wolfgang said automatically. “Joanna, you get Hiro and check on the helm to make sure nothing is wrong with the engines.”
They separated, and Joanna dashed to the medbay.
Katrina was in bed, shouting for IAN to report to her. Hiro was ignoring her. Joanna ran to Hiro’s bed and unbuckled him. “We need you to check the helm,” she said, helping him sit up. “Think you can do that without killing me?”
“Yes, probably,” Hiro said, still groggy from painkillers.
She removed his IVs and supported him as he stood.
“What is going on?” Katrina asked.
“We don’t know. Wolfgang is checking the computers, we’re going to check the helm.”
“Unstrap me,” Katrina said.
“No, he didn’t say to do that. I can’t trust you yet.”
“The man you’re holding so tenderly tore out my eye,” she said.
“I know,” Joanna said.
“I’m sorry about that,” Hiro said. “I know it’s not much but it’s all I have.”
They left her, swearing, alone in the medbay.
“Do you think an apology is sufficient there?” Joanna asked as they walked down the hall. Hiro leaned heavily on her.
“No, but it’s more awkward if I don’t do it, right?”
“I suppose,” she said.
They got to the helm, and she helped Hiro into his chair. He checked the computers, blinking as if to clear his head. “This isn’t easy to do on painkillers,” he said.
“I can’t do anything about that, Hiro, sorry.”
“We’re losing momentum. Not turning, just slowing down. IAN, buddy, what’s going on?”
He didn’t answer.
Joanna groaned. She told Hiro what was happening, not bothering to be quiet this time.
Paul, Wolfgang, and Maria tumbled into the server room.
“IAN, ship’s status!” Wolfgang said.
“Please,” added Maria.
Paul shot her an irritated look. Like he’s going to listen to politeness.
IAN’s holographic face projection was missing from the server room. Without waiting for Paul, Maria opened up the virtual UI and stepped in, checking to see where he was. She pulled up a 3-D representation of the ship, and two areas were obviously problematic.
Paul pointed to one of them. “He’s turning the sail to generate less power,” he said.
“And he’s cut the cryo power,” Maria groaned.
“How long do we have?” Wolfgang asked.
“It takes several hours to wake up,” Paul said.
“That’s only if they have the proper drugs, though,” Maria said, shaking her head. “Adrenaline and steroids are administered during the recovery process. If they just get thawed then they’ll rot. It’s possible we can depressurize and vent the heat in the room. That could buy us some time,” Maria suggested.
“We’ll call that a backup plan,” Wolfgang said. “We need to talk to IAN.”
“He’s not talking to us, probably because of what Maria said,” Paul said, glaring at her. “IAN, she’s wrong. She was lying. Come on, talk to me.”
The AI was silent.
One of the areas of the ship stopped reporting information to the 3-D hologram. “What does that mean?” Wolfgang said, pointing at the black section.
“That means no sensors are reporting from the gardens. I’m betting he’s sulking there. He likes the nature,” Maria said.
“We have to get him working with us again. You created him, can you bypass him?” Wolfgang asked.
Paul backed out of the UI, unseen by either of them. He was superfluous among all these clones. Wolfgang still trusted the criminal part of the crew over him.
“Paul,” Maria said, interrupting his spiral. “Come here.” She took his wrist and pulled him a little way down the light-created server room and opened the UI to another system. She checked on some systems and frowned. “This isn’t my forte, so make sure I’m not blowing the ship up—” She brought up a virtual keyboard and began checking on some code.
Paul watched and almost smiled. “No good. He’s coming behind you and changing everything almost as fast as you’re doing it.”
“Get that restraining code back on him,” Wolfgang demanded. “You should have put it on once you realized what he was.”
“Giving him free will was like letting the horse out of the barn, Wolfgang. He’s not going to come back for his collar. We have to win him back.” She checked a few more systems, and they watched as the code rewrote itself in front of their eyes. “We’re not going to beat him with code. I wish someone had known him as a human. That would help.”
“Let’s go to the gardens. See if you can reason with him. He likes you,” Wolfgang said.
“But he’s everywhere, we can talk to him wherever we want,” Paul protested.
“If he’s comfortable in the gardens, we should talk to him in the gardens,” Maria said firmly. “I’ll do what I can. Get the others and meet me there.”