Duality quantum gate boo.., p.6
Duality (Quantum Gate Book 2), page 6
“It’s just—”
“We don’t know her and we don’t trust her,” Max said, still staring at Sy.
“Sy, I’m sorry. I don’t know why they’re acting like this.” Sy had pulled her lips back to barely reveal her teeth. She opened her mouth to say something but refrained.
“What’s the big deal? You brought me into your home when you didn’t know me from anyone else,” Arista countered.
“I was desperate and more than a little overeager. Just like you’re being right now.”
Arista stepped back as if she’d been slapped.
“I don’t want to be an inconvenience. I know how to disappear, after all,” Sy said. “I can find a hotel in the city, work my way in for the night. Then we can meet later, if you wish.”
Arista walked over to her. “Can your comm accept downloads?”
“Yes,” Sy said.
Arista took her arm—it was so warm! —and pressed her comm against Sy’s, initiating the download.
“What’s this?” Sy asked.
“All of the Peacekeeper routes for the next three days. We have inside help at Cadre HQ.”
“So I see,” Sy said, her eyes widening.
Arista couldn’t help but smile at herself. She’d actually impressed her! At least with this Sy would have an easier time moving through the city, less likely to get caught if they couldn’t question or scan her.
“That’s very generous,” Sy said. “Thank you. Tomorrow, then?” She glanced down at something, then back up so quickly Arista figured she must have had a bug on her. That was another thing they could share! Bug bites! The more she thought about it the harder it was to contain her excitement.
“We’ll contact you with the details,” Frees said.
“Very well.” Sy moved to activate her refractor.
“And do us one last favor. Remain where we can see you until we reach the end of the street down there.”
“Jesus, Frees. What do you think? She’s going to follow us back?”
“That’s exactly what I think.” He slid his eyes to the side and walked past her.
“Arista, it’s okay,” Sy said. “I understand. I’m the first human outside of yourself they’ve ever met. They have every right to be suspicious.”
“Thank you. They’re good people, I promise,” Arista said. “Once you get to know them.”
“I’m sure they are.”
“I can’t believe you just did that,” Arista said as they made their way back to the hyperloop station. People coming home from dinner or the bar passed them on the street, no one taking notice. Both Arista and Frees had pulled their hoods up, but Max remained unsheathed, almost as if she wished for the Peacekeepers to come after her.
“Did what? Protect our interests? She could be lying her ass off for all we know,” Frees said. “She obviously wants to impress you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’ve been compromised,” said Max from behind them. “You can’t be trusted. Not that you were ever very trustworthy to begin with.”
Arista spun on her. “Okay Max, enough. I’m sorry I broke your neck. I’m sorry you have full autonomy now and see the world for what it really is. If you want to hit me or otherwise injure me, just go ahead and do it. Otherwise shut up!”
Max narrowed her eyes. “If you were thinking straight, you’d be thanking Frees for looking out for your best interests. I don’t know why but he seems to want to keep you out of trouble. And that’s what he was doing back there. The fact you can’t see it proves my point. You are emotionally compromised.”
She wasn’t about to hear it. She wouldn’t stand here and have her integrity questioned just because she didn’t automatically suspect the first human they’d come across.
“Let’s just get back to the house,” Frees suggested. “We can discuss it there. I don’t like being so exposed out here.”
She turned back around and walked off again. He was right, but Arista almost didn’t care. In a way, she hoped Sy did follow them back. Maybe she’d see how willing Arista was to help. For some strange reason Arista just wanted to show her where she lived. How she’d become innovative about collecting food and storing it. Where she…slept.
Where had that come from? What a strange thing to want to show someone. She pondered it all the way back to Jill’s.
EIGHT
“So,” Jill said as they entered through the back, moonlight streaming in behind them. “How’d it go?” She gave a telling smile. She’d just finished working on the new charging cube. It would be good for at least fifteen charges with zero location uploads to central. It was a mighty fine piece of work, if she did say so herself.
“Tense,” said Frees, leading them in. “Very tense.”
“I see you all made it back in one piece.” She caught a glimpse of Arista. “’cept maybe you. Looks like you left a piece of yourself back there.”
Arista caught her eyes for a second then averted them. Yep, the girl was lost. They’d have a hard time getting her to do anything against the human now, if it came to that. Jill had been afraid of this, but what was she supposed to do? Tell the girl not to do somethin’ and odds were she’d do it just for spite. She’d just have to manage this situation as best she could ‘til it played out.
“Here,” Jill said, “let’s take some time outside.” She grabbed Arista by the lapel and pulled her back outside into the overgrown backyard. “What are you thinkin’?” she asked as soon as they were clear from the back of the house.
“What do you mean?”
“What’s goin’ through your head. Right now?”
“Well,” she hesitated. “I’m tired and overwhelmed. I don’t have to tell you, you heard it all, right?”
“I heard it.” Jill tapped her arm, cutting the comm with Frees. He didn’t need to listen in on this. He was too close as it was.
“Then you know. What she wants me to do.”
“So what are’ya gonna do?”
Arista shook her head and sat on an old stack of plastic crates piled against the fence. “I don’t know. I don’t want to let her down. If I’m the only one…”
“And what about your parents?”
“She said they died in a fire.” She craned her neck, staring up into the inky blackness.
“I mean your real parents. The ones who raised you. You gonna go galivantin’ off and leave them to rot while you singlehandedly take out a Cadre AI?”
Arista pulled back. “What? No, I wasn’t—I mean of course I wasn’t going to forget about them. I didn’t risk my life—our lives to just let it all fall apart. No, I need to find them. To start the transfer.”
Jill nodded. She wasn’t convinced. There was more going on beneath the surface.
“But,” Arista said, and Jill prepared herself for it. “But what if Sy said was true, and we only have a limited window to get to Hogo-sha? What happens if I wait and he gets too strong?”
“Then the humans have to stay underground. But at least they’ll be safe down there. Unlike your parents, if you abandon them.”
“I’m not abandoning anyone,” she replied with a bit more force. Jill wasn’t sure if it was anger or something else. But the girl had developed a chip on her shoulder. This mess with the human bodies at Cadre HQ had screwed her up good. She had to consider the possibility there could be more. Jill would bet her bottom dollar that’s what had the girl so stressed. “Isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want the Cadre destroyed? Freedom for all?”
“That’s Frees’ cause. Not mine,” Jill said.
Arista turned on her. “You’re just content to sit around and let things go along as they are, is that it?” She shifted on the crates, pushing forward.
Jill waved the question away. She didn’t bring Arista out here to be interrogated herself. She just wanted to help the girl. “All I want is to make sure you’re goin’ into this thing with your eyes wide and your mouth shut. This woman may be the nicest human you’re ever gonna meet, but she’s still a human. That kind of isolation, especially generational isolation isn’t prone to breed a lot of acceptance.”
“They just want a place they can call their own, where they don’t have to hide anymore. I would think of all people you’d understand that.”
“I understand it. But I’m also content not to have it. If it doesn’t happen I won’t burn the world just because I didn’t get my way.”
“And you think that’s what they’ll do.” An edge had developed in her voice.
“They tried once before.”
Arista stood. “Is that what you think I would do?”
Jill considered her a moment. “If you believed in something so deeply, if you thought you were doing the right thing for the right reasons and no one was going to stop you, then yes. I do.”
Arista screwed up her face and stood, brushing past her, attempting to make her way back inside. Jill grabbed her arm as she did, stopping her. “Ow.”
“Don’t think you owe these people anything just because you share a common heritage. You don’t know them and they don’t know you. You’re not indebted to them. You’re not…” She wanted to say responsible, but that would mean revealing she knew about what Arista had done back at Cadre HQ. And that would be a violation of her trust. “…under any pressure to give them what they want.”
Arista pulled her arm from Jill’s grip. “Yes, I am.” She returned back to the house.
Jill glanced up at the moon. There wasn’t a cloud out there and it was nearly full. It was a hard lesson but the girl needed to learn it now. When Arista had been the only human Jill hadn’t been as worried. But when humans multiplied so did the problems. At least historically. They couldn’t take any chances. A colony was all they would need. It wouldn’t take but a few generations for them to have complete control over the planet again. Burning through it, destroying it as they saw fit. Maybe they had been better off leaving the Cadre in place. But it was too late for that now. The least she could do was help out. If Arista eventually agreed to the human’s plan—and Jill had no illusion that she wouldn’t—then they’d need someone here. Someone to keep an eye on things. Jill was good at that. There was a good chance the human would underestimate her, maybe make a mistake. Which was exactly what Jill needed her to do.
Was everyone against her now? Arista stormed through the house, up the stairs, and into her room, her arms shaking. They didn’t get it. None of them got it at all. The Device displayed elevated levels of adrenaline and non-epinephrine. It was like she was being roadblocked at every turn. Each time she wanted to try and help Sy or even consider the possibility someone had come along with some new tidbit of advice for her.
“Don’t do this, Arista, make sure you do that, Arista. You can’t trust the humans, Arista,” she said to herself in a mocking tone.
There was no way they could ever understand. For everything about them, for all their perfect likenesses, their systems that replicated humans were still nothing more than copies. They would never know the connection humans felt with each other. Arista hadn’t even known about it until a few hours ago. Meeting Sy in person was like getting a shot of the best drug in the world into her system. She’d been elated, nervous, excited, terrified, and ready to throw up at any second. It had been like the culmination of all her hopes and dreams.
And everyone ruined it! Why couldn’t they just be happy for her? Let her help Sy out, then maybe she could see this colony. Talk to them. Ask them what it was like to grow up surrounded by your own kind. Oh sure, you could ask the machines the same question and they’d give you a pre-programmed answer, but the humans would make it real. They would make it different. And it was that difference, that novelty she craved. She could even help them integrate…
Wait a second. If they had those image refractors, then why didn’t they just leave the colony? They could walk around as much as they wanted and no one would know.
But the more she thought about it the more it made sense they didn’t. Would she want to go out into a world she couldn’t interact with? They’d have to stay behind the refractors to keep the illusion in place. And if they dropped it in a crowded area more than likely the surveillance drones would pick up human life signs. See? All they wanted was to go out into the world without persecution. Was that so much to ask?
Her eyes drifted back over to the two bodies sitting upright on the floor.
Damn.
Jill was right. Her first duty was to Emily and Carver—the parents who’d raised her. They didn’t have much time left and if Arista gave up now, she might never see them again. Frees’ scanning equipment would be ready soon, then they could start looking again in earnest. And not accepting Sy’s offer would mean she wouldn’t have to worry about killing any other humans.
Arista knew she should probably think on it a while, take some time with her decision. But there was no need. After all, it was what they all wanted to hear anyway, why make them wait? She needed to get down there and tell them before she lost her nerve and escaped through the window in the middle of the night.
Arista made her way downstairs to find Jill sitting at the small table in the kitchen, staring off into space. Frees had made himself comfortable on the couch and Max had retreated to the far end of the room, a pair of large headphones on her head.
“I have an announcement,” Arista said, stopping three steps from the bottom. Everyone turned to face her except Max. It was as if she were at a concert and she was the person who went up to give out all the boring information before the main event. She grabbed the banister for support. “I have decided not to help Sy, but instead continue the search for my parents. Once that is done if Sy still needs my help, I’ll offer it gladly.”
“Thank God,” Jill said from the kitchen.
Frees stood and walked over the stairs. “I think you made a good decision.”
“I hope so,” she replied. “I really hope so.”
NINE
Arista managed to get some sleep. There was no point in calling Sy just yet. Better to wait until morning. She secretly hoped to have a dream that might give her an excuse to go help anyway. But when she woke up everything remained the same.
Sometimes she didn’t like being the only one who slept; the others stayed awake all night. They could sit on the charging cube and maintain a perfectly normal conversation with no lapse in power. But Arista needed the rest, she always had. Back when she’d lived alone it hadn’t been as bad, or even with her parents as they still pretended to sleep to give her some semblance of a schedule.
But not in this house. Jill and Frees were always working on some project and Max would often get involved with her music. They were respectful, trying not to be loud or disturbing, but she didn’t like the fact everyone was being productive while she was stuck in bed allowing her cells to rejuvenate.
It also meant she never had the house to herself. That, she missed more than anything.
When she arrived downstairs, Jill and Frees were engaged in a discussion about superconductors and Max was nowhere to be found. Arista made her way over to the counter and grabbed two apricots and a peach for breakfast.
“How do you feel?” asked Jill.
“Fine.” Arista grabbed a knife and balancing the apricot with her wrist, sliced it into strips, popping each one in her mouth as she did.
“Any more thoughts about what you’re gonna do?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t have any late-night revelations if that’s what you mean. I’m still going to tell her no.”
Even though they no longer simulated breathing, Arista thought she saw Jill heave a sigh of relief. She rolled her eyes and cut into the second apricot.
“Frees thinks it’s a good idea to keep the lines of communication open,” Jill added. “There’s no sense in cutting her off completely.”
“I had already planned to do that.” Did they think just because Arista wasn’t agreeing to help Sy that she would just go away? That would be foolish and a waste of a possible resource. Unless Jill really was afraid of what she might do.
“Good,” said Frees. “She may still be able to help us one day.”
“Why would she help us if we can’t do anything for her?” Arista asked.
“You tell me. You’re the one saying these humans are different.”
Arista pulled a small Tupperware from under the counter and stuffed her apricot slices and the peach into it. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll call and let her know afterward.”
Jill nodded while Frees remained silent.
Arista made her way back upstairs with her fruit in-hand and closed her door behind her. Since no one else required a shower, she’d taken the one bedroom that had an en-suite. She set her fruit on the bed and went in, turning the shower lever, then returned to the bedroom and tapped the comm above her ear, bringing up the last calls received in her vision. She tapped it again, holding her arm out in front of her
“Hello? Oh, Arista. Good morning.” Sy’s image stared back at her from the holo-projection. Arista only hoped the sound of the water masked her voice.
“Good morning. I hope you made it to your hotel without incident.”
“The Peacekeeper schedules you provided me were very helpful, thank you. Have you made a decision?”
“I have. I want to help you. But I have something else I have to do first. How long do you think it will take Hogo-sha to revamp his defenses?”
“There’s no telling. But the longer we wait the harder it will become. What do you have to do?”
“I have to find my parents. They are nearing the end of their spans. They only have a few weeks left.”
“Your parents? But I thought you were already in contact. The call you made, the one we traced, wasn’t that your mother?”
Arista grimaced at the word ‘mother’. “Yes, but that’s the only time I spoke to her. I haven’t been able to raise them again and have no idea where they are. I don’t even know if they’re still alive. But Frees is building a machine to help us scan for them. Then we can transfer their consciousnesses into new bodies.”
