I make my way down the last few rungs to ordinary gravity, then to room 03 and its narrow bed. Someone made this bed for me. I wonder who it was. I lie down and close my eyes. I stick my hands in my pants. I pull them out. I sit up. “Tell me everything else you know about this Kodiak Celius.”
“Most information about him is privileged,” OS responds.
“Connect me with mission control.”
“Communications with Earth are temporarily unavailable due to solar activity.”
“Notify me as soon as communicationsareavailable, and once they are, immediately download an update on relations between Dimokratía and Fédération,” I say. A moment passes before I continue. “Kodiak. Is he... like me?”
“If you are referring to his age, like you he was selected from among the seventeen-year-olds in his class. Given what astrobiologists know about the quantity of radiation your bodies will receive in outer space, seventeen was determined to be the optimal age for the crew. Any younger and you would have been likelier to make fatal mistakes in navigation or negotiation. Any older and you would have had unacceptable likelihood of dying of a malignant tumor, with Rover as your only option for crude medical treatment. Current analysis gives an eight percent chance that radiation-caused cancer is what incapacitated Minerva, making that one of the most likely outcomes, second only to gas poisoning.”
Even with the best social engineering, AI personalities contain currents of callousness. Lucky for me, life in my family trained me well to cope with that. “Got it.”
A pitying tone enters OS’s words. “Spacefarer Celius turned eighteen while on board, but you’re nearer eighteen than seventeen, too. You have your own separate routines scheduled in by your respective countries. There is noreason you cannot train effectively in isolation for the eventual rescue of Minerva.”
“Bullshit. This isn’t about meeting up for tea and gossip. This is about our survival. Remind Kodiak that I’m the only game in town if he’s hoping for any human contact whatsoever. Remind him that loneliness will wreck anyone eventually. That even the most tundra-hardened soldier trained insurvivialismandhand-to-hand combatcan die of it.”
“I relayed your message, using your exact language. I will note, though, that I am engineered to provide social sustenance—”
“Let me guess, no response from Kodiak?”
“You are correct.”
I stretch out on the bunk, even within my anger enjoying the sensation of muscles that no longer cramp and clutch. I press my hands over my eyes.You’re in outer space, where you’ve always dreamed to be, I remind myself.You are rescuing your sister. You are the pride of your family and the hope of Fédération. Millions want to be you.
I place my feet on the ground to get the blood circulating. I must have caught Rover by surprise; it squeaks. “I guess I’ll be dining on my own today, while I review the harvesting training reels. What’s the plat du jour, madame?”
“Open the cabinet, and you will see. Keep in mind the inventory quantities, however. I will not allow you to useup your rations irresponsibly.”
“I won’ttryto use them irresponsibly. So. How’s the pizza around here?”
“There is no pizza. The closest I can offer is manicotti. Monsieur.”
I tilt my chin toward the ceiling. “Manicotti, really? And your humor settings...”
“My sense of humor is programmed deep in my bios. Like yours.”
“I just—my mother doesn’t make jokes, so it’s weird to hear anything lighthearted in her voice. Could we switch you to someone else?”
“Of course. I have a few hundred possibilities.”
“Oh, are you using the commons voice set, same one that ships on the Zen 10.0?”
“Yes.”
I grin. “So you can be Devon Mujaba of the Heartspeak Boys? Voice 141?”
OS changes to a purring countertenor. “The one and only.”
“That’s amazing,” I say. “Don’t ever change. Devon’s my favorite.”
“My ship is yours,” OS says as Devon Mujaba. “All my rooms and corridors are yours.”
“Okay, stop,” I say. “Take a ten-minute hiatus on humorous responses. That was a little creepy.You’rea littlecreepy, OS, to tell you the truth.”
“‘Creepy’ is not an adjective I’ve ever applied to myself,” OS says in its new super-sexy voice. “You have given me something new to think about. If you help me identify ‘creepy’ whenever it occurs, I can learn to predict and avoid it so you do not experience an unpleasant reaction.”
“It’s best we set some expectations for our relationship. I’ll start by informing you when you’re being creepy.”
