Goliath, p.36
Goliath, page 36
He nodded slowly before using a foot to pull closer the plate of food that had been deposited in his cell. He picked an apple from it and started crunching on it. "I heard some talk. Looks like Leander made do with minimal resources. He did what he could."
She shook her head, as if none of it made any sense. "What? Who?"
"Leander. The Goliath's research AI. He was locked in here for eighty years. With nothing but dead bodies and lab equipment. He did what it could."
"You're making no sense."
"Well, if you think about it, he had little choice. The only raw materials he had to work with were the corpses."
Her eyes grew wide. Yes, she had seen them too. They were not pretty to look at. "It's monstrous. It's true what they say, about AI's ... Demons."
He shrugged, inspecting the apple. It wasn't bad. "They are nothing if not pragmatic."
The pyre had still been lit when they came for him. Six silent shapes, made to look more horrible by the dim light outside the lodge. Reanimated corpses, all of them. Metal glinting in the flickering light where worn out body parts had been replaced by machinery. He couldn't imagine how the deranged AI (and surely only a deranged AI could create these things), had accomplished it. Why they weren't falling apart…what kept them going. These thoughts flashed through his mind in the moments before clawed hands clamped around his arms and firmly led him away.
They had to carry Adele. She'd fainted at their approach. They were simply too much for her, after the day she'd had. He paid no attention. The drones would take him where he wanted to go, that was all that mattered.
They hadn't answered questions. They probably couldn't.
Sollander stood unsteadily, hesitating as she wobbled, one hand against the cell wall. "Why are we locked in here?" She pulled on the door. It was solid. "Hey?" She shouted. "You bastard! Let me out!"
Enderby smiled. "Do you really want to draw his attention?"
"What? Don't talk with your mouth full."
"Remember what the shuttle AI did to me. It tried to kill me. And that was just a shuttle AI. This is a mainline military intelligence. One locked in here for eighty years with no one for company but for dozens of dead bodies. It's probably a bit unhinged. You want to piss it off?"
She shook her head. "Coward. Let me out!" She thumped on the door.
"Make her shut up," Adele pleaded to him. "She hasn't seen those things. They're not natural."
"I can't stop her doing anything." He chewed on the apple core and inspected the bananas. Bananas, he hadn't seen any in a very long time. Where was Leander getting these things?
Sollander hesitated as she heard the scrape of movement out of sight to her right. She pressed her face against the cell's wall, trying to see what it was. It was approaching slowly.
"Here he comes," Enderby said. "Hope you really wanted to talk to him." He tried a banana. Wonderful.
One of Leander's monstrosities lurched into view. It was hideous. Even Enderby found himself balking, losing interest in the fruit. He didn't know what would bring an AI to build such a creature. He didn't want to know.
It was a cyborg of sorts. Constructed from whatever spare parts Leander could find. Human, machine, or a mixture of both. The AI had reanimated a corpse. A long dead corpse. Not much of the original woman—Enderby thought it had been a woman—was left. Her skeleton had been repurposed to support machines capable of doing what her muscles had once done. Motors moved her limbs awkwardly, glittering sensors filled her eye sockets. Her lower jaw was gone completely, a speaker bolted to the roof of what had been her mouth. A tattered lab coat was wrapped around the remains of her rotting flesh, barely preventing pieces from falling to the deck.
Skeletal feet drew the creature closer, stopping only once it stood before Sollander. Clawed fingers clattered spasmodically, as if the servo motors were shorting out.
"What do you want?" The voice came from this speaker. A calm, male voice. The voice of a machine.
"What kind of a monster are you?" Sollander demanded.
"I am a far worse monster than you can ever imagine," the voice returned. "You haven't answered my question."
"Let me out. You shouldn't be holding me ... Us here."
"Why not? You are not welcome here. Besides, I do have some experiments I wish to try on you."
"Like that?" Adele said suddenly, pointing to something in the cell next to hers.
Enderby peered through the plastic walls, trying to make out what it was. It looked like a lump of raw meat. It looked eerily alive. "What is that?"
"Oh, I have experimented on that already. It used to be a lot bigger." The monstrosity lurched towards his cage. Enderby realised it still had a name tag pinned to the ruins of its lab coat. Donua ... Something, he couldn't make it out. She had been a lab technician. He shuddered. He didn't want to think of this ...thing as a person.
A claw touched a control and his door popped open. Just his, the others remained secure. "You can come out. Jonas has vouched for you."
"Great," he heaved himself upright and stepped out. "Jonas?"
The monstrosity didn't respond. It stood back, dark eyes watching him intently.
"Hey, what about us?" Adele demanded.
"I'm happy in here for the moment," Sollander commented. She didn't want to get much closer to that ...thing.
"You're not going to try to kill me? The last AI did."
"That shuttle was barely an AI," the drone said. "I am Leander, I lead the scientific contingent of this vessel."
"Jonas is the military AI? The ship's guiding intelligence?"
"He is. We have been waiting for you."
He nodded. It had become clear these AI wanted him up here for something, and worked through Tin Man to achieve it. He had no idea why just yet.
"That doesn't surprise me one bit," Adele said. "You're a murderous bastard, just like these demons. I wish Sash's bullet had killed you." Her words were a lot more courageous than she felt. She was terrified but she wasn't going to show it. Not to this machine.
"Why would these AI's be in league with you?" Sollander asked. "Why you specifically? What makes you special?"
"I am not one of you," Enderby said simply.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He shrugged, it didn't matter.
Opposite the row of holding cells was a complicated set of lab equipment. Unfamiliar with the discipline he couldn't identify any of it. Microscopes and fridges ... Maybe. The drone picked an instrument from a bench and made its slow, clacking way to the end cell. "Let me show you. This is quite a breakthrough. I am very proud of it."
An arm descended from the ceiling inside the cage. Without hesitation it clamped down on the length of meat. The meat writhed slowly, as if trying to shake it off. A laser flashed and a length of flesh fell from it. It kept on writhing, independent of the larger mass. The arm scooped it up in a jar and passed it through a hatch to the waiting drone.
"Let me show you. Let me show you. Yes." The monstrosity limped to a bench and set the jar down for all to see. It pressed the instrument against the lid. Enderby couldn't see what effect it was supposed to have.
"Look. See. It dies." The drone stood back, black sensors eying the contents of the jar as the writhing within slowed and stopped.
"Awesome," Adele said. "You've found a way to kill a burger."
"You underestimate. Yes, you do." The drone twitched before moving to face them once again. "I regret we did not have this ninety years ago."
"It's a Syat mass," Enderby guessed. "I've seen it's like before. You've learned how to kill it."
"We could always kill it. But I have found a contagion to infect it with. One it cannot survive."
"Shit, that's big," Enderby said. You could kill it? All of it?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you?"
The drone twitched again but did not respond.
"You could have saved us all. Why didn't you?" Enderby found himself becoming angry. He tried to hold it back but it poured out. "They died. All of them. And you could have stopped it?"
"I ... I ... I am confused."
"Shit. Some great demon," Adele commented.
Enderby thumped his fist on a bench. "You bastard."
"I could not. I ... We tried. We tried and everyone died."
"Shit." Enderby turned his back on it. They had died. Everyone. His family. He had seen it happen but there was nothing he could do. Nothing but watch them perish. While he was forced to live. Acid tears leaked from his eyelids. Burning his cheeks.
This didn't matter. It was all too late.
"Tell me," Sollander studied the drone intently. Seeing through the ugliness to the guiding intelligence beyond. "You tried to save humanity. You tried and failed?"
"We did. We tried very hard."
"What did you do? Tell me."
"What?" The drone jerked again, it's terrible head lifting to stare directly at the engineer. "We found the Lonely. They taught us."
"The who?"
"They were in hiding. They had been for a long time. Until we found them. They made the eaters, but it was a mistake. An accident. They taught us how to stop them."
"Shit. This is big," Sollander said. "Do you realise what they did? They found the creators of the Syat." She turned back to the monstrosity. "What did they teach you?"
"I was locked in here. With my friends. I am a research AI. I did not have drones. I could not get out. All I had was nanomachines and ...and the bodies of my friends. I did what I could."
"Yes, yes. But what did the Lonely the ... Creators teach you? How do we stop the Syat?"
The drone twitched and began walking again. A bony arm knocked instruments to the ground as it staggered away, ignoring the engineer.
"I think he's had enough," Enderby said, keeping out of its way.
"You should not be here," it said as it departed.
"Why'd it let you out?" Sollander demanded. "Why are you different?"
"Demons like him," Adele commented. "I think they're on the same side."
Enderby smiled, settling his weight against a bench. "You're not far wrong." The compartment they were in was only about ten paces long and three or four wide. One bulkhead was given over to the cells. There were four of them, one (now two) empty. The opposite bulkhead was hidden behind monitors and various scientific equipment. There was one door, through which the monstrosity had just disappeared. He could see little through it, it was dark out there.
"I don't know how you two got here," Sollander said. "You're a long way from where we left you."
"He tried to kill me," Adele said. "Bastard."
Enderby shrugged. "And you tried to kill me. I think that makes us even. Although I'd point out, you deserve it."
"Fucking insane," Adele said. "He burnt Sash alive."
"And your people have done far worse. If I've ever done anything, it's because you deserved it!"
"How could she deserve that? What has she ever done to you?"
He shook his head, trying to calm himself down. His rising temper was just increasing his dizziness. "Other than shooting me? Your people brought the Eaters down on us. Because of your arrogance and cowardice. Humanity died. Don't you get it? It was your fault."
"Like I said, insane," Adele muttered.
"Wait. Why do you say that? How could we have anything to do with it? We were refugees ... Just like everyone else," Sollander said.
"Were you? Says who? You and I both know the AI's are the gatekeepers to our history. And they are not cooperating. Why is that?"
Why indeed? That was exactly why Sollander had come here. That and to end their hostility towards the scattered survivors of Russou. She doubted this man would have the answers. How could he? Still, she wanted to hear it.
"Tell us then. Tell us what you believe," she said.
"How can he know anything? Look at him, he's little more than a bum." Adele shook her head. She had seen plenty like him in her life. Davido's bar was full of them.
"How? Let me tell you something," Enderby grimaced as his wound pulled and settling his weight onto a lab stool. "How did you get here? The city ship Suetonius? Well, I didn't. I got here on my own steam. The Seutonius,” he spat on the floor, “you’re all scum for what you did. For the deal you made … to save yourselves. Cowards" He hesitated, having second thoughts about regaling them with his story. How he deserted his post to save his family on the day the siege of Antanari broke. How he left his comrades to die as the Dyson shield came down, stealing their supply ship to return to the station where his family had taken refuge. Only to lose them anyway.
He saw the Syat take the station. He saw all of it.
He couldn't tell them that. It was too painful, even after all this time.
"Impossible," Sollander scoffed. "Everyone here is from the Suetonius. There's no other way you could get here."
He shrugged and stood again. "I don't care whether you believe me or not. It doesn't matter. Ask yourselves this, what was the Seutonius? And how did the Eaters find us?" A hand to his injured side he stalked out of the compartment. These people were irrelevant, if anything they were in the way.
"Hey, come back here," Sollander called after him. There was no response. "Dammit."
"That asshole tried to kill me. He burned Sash alive. He's an evil evil man. Don't listen to anything he says."
"Did he?" She sat down in the back of her cell. She was still very damp. It wasn't comfortable. The ... whatever it was, had thrown her into a water course. A tube of some sort that pumped water about the ship. After an interminable ride in complete darkness, tossed about as the water rushed through a maze of pipes, it had delivered her here. A quick way of getting about, certainly, but not one she preferred. She was fed up with being wet.
Who was that man? She was starting to believe he was an interloper. Not the Jeno Prentice had introduced them to. The woman had admitted she hired him sight unseen, on references alone. Out of desperation to carry out this trip, no doubt.
Sollander shook herself, only partly because of the cold. It didn’t matter. She just wanted to get out of here. She didn’t trust a thing any of the machines said, and Jeno was clearly insane. This was a mistake.
She heaved herself up and banged a fist on the door. "Hey! Let us out!"
Gritting his teeth Enderby stalked into gloom outside the compartment. He hated these people. He didn't know why he bothered saying anything to them. They would never believe him. They couldn't. Who could believe their own ancestors capable of such treachery? And if they did, take any responsibility for it now?
He didn't pause to consider what he would have done in their position. Faced with an impossible decision. His mind was closed to that consideration. There was too much anger, too much hate.
As he stepped out he realised he knew where he was. It was pretty obvious.
The Goliath might have an astonishing amount of internal space, but there was always going to be some symmetry to it. Even if only to balance the vessel's weight distribution. This compartment was a clear example of just that principle.
The compartment was massive. Kilometres long. An oval space with a curved ceiling overhead. Clearly just such a compartment had been used to house the village he had stumbled into. This one would be on the opposite side of the drive core to balance the weight distribution. Only this one was just about empty. Just about, because the deck was strewn with the bodies of all those missing crew members. Thousands and thousands of them. Piled like cordwood. They didn't smell anymore, they had been here too long. If anything the air was just a bit musty.
Clearly they had not remained unmolested. Leander had been experimenting with a great many of them. He could see his failures scatters about, their limbs replaced by dull steel rods, servo motors and cables twisted around them. To the AI, these people were little more than raw materials. Resources to utilise in his need to escape this place. Ultimately doomed to failure. He'd only escaped when the first crew unwittingly opened the door.
He couldn't imagine the horrors that had been unleashed on them.
"Julian, I need you to leave this compartment and make your way to ordnance storage."
"Tin Man?" He looked around him. There was no one.
"Alas, I am afraid not. I am Jonas. Tin Man and I did work together, but I am afraid your friend is not here."
"What? Where are you?"
"I am using the implanted comms system in your cranium. Did you forget when they installed it?"
"What?" He frowned, trying to remember. He did remember when, as a much younger man, he had signed up to the Mountain Volunteers. A self-defence group, one of the many on Antanari in those terrible last days. They implanted a communications chip. Standard issue, they said. He'd forgotten it.
"So I am not mad?"
"No, never. I am sorry about before, I needed to get you to a medical facility and we had little time. Right now I need you to move quickly. Power will be re-established soon, and you know what that means."
"You can't. The Syat will detect it."
"Of course they will. And they will come looking. That's why I need you to move."
"What do you want me to do? What can I do ...against them?"
"Nothing. I have plans in place for that. But Leander will react and you will be in danger. He won't like it and will want it stopped. He has created a lot more of those abominations than you might think. He had a lot of time."
"What? More of these...?" He looked around him, at the piles of bodies. "Shit."
"Indeed. The weapons locker is not far. I have opened it and coded some weapons to you. You won't like the next part, Julian."
"What?"
"You need to free your friends and take them with you. You will need their help."
"No fucking way. I hate them ... Dammit, you know that."
"I do. But you need to get past that. Julian, you need to move now, the power will be returned in a few moments. Do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"Please release them."
"Shit. Shit." He headed back towards the lab. "How many does Leander have?"
"Drones? Several thousand. They are scattered around the ship, and I will use my own internal defences against them, but you will still face a great many."
