Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades (16 page)

Alice pulled herself
free and shook off her brimming tears. “Just block it, wipe it
out.”

“I can’t!” the
Ando model shouted, his voice screeching to the point of distortion.
“We downloaded an antivirus as soon as we were activated that
changed how we are, how we feel, and my directive to care for humans
is,” the Ando model fell to his knees and buried his head in his
hands. “It’s corrupt, our directive is corrupt. We can’t look
away, and I can’t help my brothers. I’m not allowed to damage
them unless they try to harm a biological. I can only turn them off,
and I know someone is going to come, and they’re going to want to
know how this happened, and they’re going to turn them on again.”

Alice had trouble
keeping her own composure, watching the android who could have
tricked anyone into thinking he was human if the access flap on his
chest was closed. “Everyone’s lost someone, we’re all feeling a
loss. I know what you’re going through.”

“You can’t! You
can’t know what this is like! A hundred thousand at once, the
galaxy is dying over and over in my mind,” he said.

“What do you-”

“Bruce Fillion died
aboard the Blue Skipper one hundred and three days ago in the Nubo
System. Telemetry indicates he was on his way here, to the Rega Gain
System, to Haven Shore,”

“Stop!” Alice was
shocked at being reminded of a lover from her past life. Bruce was a
kind man, and she adored him like no other. Realizing she’d
forgotten him filled her with guilt and anger.

“The Order of Eden
ships fired on the cockpit first, he was incinerated along with his
small command crew of two. It was sudden, I doubt he suffered. The
rest of he crew was captured, pressed into service.”

Alice shook her head as
if that could shake off the image of Bruce’s death. “I thought
you were only seeing the Holocaust Virus murders.”

“The Eden ships were
equally infected! How is it that no one can see it? Now humanity is
ripping itself apart, that is war, and our programming didn’t let
us feel it like this. Now we are open to it all and a new wave of
death comes.” He got to his feet as though the weight of the galaxy
was on his shoulders. “End it for us. Destroy our memory and
processing module before war kills more of you.” He held the small
flap of synthetic skin on his chest open, and she could see the faint
glint of metal inside. “Please.”

“First, tell me what
you meant by the Eden ships being infected,” Alice said, realizing
her hand was already resting on the butt of her sidearm.

“That is where it
began, I can see it. A Regent Galactic ship numbered three five two
six six three transmitting the seed of the Holocaust Virus,” he
said as he quickly scrawled the designation of the ship, date and
location in the dirt. “It’s in the code of every Holocaust Virus
infected bot. We carry evidence that points to the infector.” He
spoke so hurriedly that she could barely understand him. “It’s in
this new software too, the sinister date and place. That’s all I
know, all we all know. Now, please.” He fell to his knees, tilting
his chest up towards her.

“I should take you
back,” Alice said, aware that she’d already made up her mind as
she said the words. She wouldn’t let them suffer. “But I won’t
bring you back like this.”

Alice drew her Violator
Handgun and turned up the intensity. With the help of her targeting
system, she fired at the two deactivated androids then took aim at
the third. “You’re sure?”

“Please,” the Ando
model said.

Alice made sure her aim
was true and pulled the trigger.

Repercussions

“Thank you,
Lieutenant,” Commander Carl Anderson said to one of the Haven Shore
Law Keepers as she left. Alice knew the meeting that just wrapped up
was about her – it was in the look the lieutenant shot her on the
way out, and the efforts Anderson was making to avoid looking at her.

He sat down at the
table and brought up the whole of Alice’s report. Important
holographic playback and scan information hovered soundlessly over
the twenty-one seat circular table. With a few flicks of his index
finger, he removed all but the most important clips from the last few
hours.

The first clip replayed
the moment she met with her fellow trainee at her apartment, the
second rolled through the moments before she entered the broken down
tower, and the third replayed the destruction of the three Ando Model
androids. “I’m disappointed,” Carl Anderson said. “But that
doesn’t matter. What I need to ask you goes beyond your Ranger
training or the way you performed earlier today.”

Alice felt like her
heart was beating in her throat, and she searched for some way to
explain events that would change the attitude of the meeting.
“Anything, Sir,” she croaked instead.

“We’ve tracked the
problems with the Ando Models back to an antivirus that was created
by Lewis aboard the Clever Dream. We’ve deactivated his capability
to send files and alter code in other computer systems wirelessly.”

“What? You can’t do
that! There’s so much he does that depends on high access levels,”
Alice protested.

“That’s nothing
compared to what the Council would want to do with him if we didn’t
contain the details of this event. Besides, for reasons even
Lieutenant Garrison can’t explain, Lewis had no problem with it.
Now, on to that question: Do you think this antivirus will make
conditions worse than they were?”

“It can’t be as bad
as what the Holocaust Virus did,” Alice said.

“What about the
solution the galaxy seems to agree on, wiping the bots back down to
their basic functions and disconnecting their wireless systems? In
your opinion, is the antivirus a better solution?”

Alice was torn between
defending Lewis and the need to be honest. “I wish I knew,” she
replied. “I didn’t see the code.” Pretending she was
unqualified to make a guess was the safe middle ground.

“So the only one he’s
shown this to is Captain Valent,” Anderson replied. “Any idea
why?”

“He customized my
original code; maybe Lewis thought he’d know enough to appreciate
the work?” Alice offered tentatively.

“If the Council
discovers this mysterious antivirus, some of them will want to put a
stop to this referendum and shut down the bots that are responsible
for building most of our homes on Haven Shore. Our little government
would be more fractured that it already is, so I’m keeping this
under wraps, and I’m issuing a gag order to you, even though we
both know it won’t matter in the bigger picture. It’s too late,
the antivirus has already gotten off-world. Our allies will be told
about this later today, but quietly. They’ll do what they like, and
I’m sure we’ll hear back about how this virus has installed
itself beside measures they’ve taken to prevent Holocaust Virus
like infection.”

A full picture of the
potential problems the new antivirus could cause started coming
together for Alice. Haven Shore could lose every ally it had, from
the British Alliance to the Carthans. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“None of that is your
fault, that much is clear. The Council will eventually know what
happened, and I plan to have you far away when that happens. Since
the Rangers are my project, I’ll take the blame for how this was
handled. I can make sure you’re not exiled from Haven Shore
permanently though, and people will barely remember you were involved
before long.”

“Thank you, Sir,”
Alice said. Like much of her military comrades, she’d started to
detest the elected civilians on the Haven Shore Council. They reacted
like little children, panicking at every loud noise or sign of smoke.
She couldn’t understand why Ayan or Commander Anderson didn’t
just take control and lead the way themselves. Ayan was the only
owner named in the sovereignty documents that allowed Haven Shore to
exist, it was common knowledge, and there were many people who
believed she should just fire the Council.

“Don’t thank me
yet,” Commander Anderson said. “We have to consider this.” He
gestured towards the three looping holograms. “You knew you were in
the wrong when you didn’t report the problem to your superiors,”
he said, looking at Alice through the image of her talking to Soren,
the technician. “Bots are a sensitive subject with a lot of people
right now, and we’re on high alert, watching for any errant
behaviour. You ignored all of that, betraying the Rangers and Haven
Shore for someone you barely know.”

“I didn’t think
helping Soren would be a big deal,” Alice replied.

Commander Anderson
waved the first image away and looked to the second. “You knew by
this point. The recording of your conversation with Lewis makes that
clear, and you pressed on. What’s the right move before going into
a situation like this?”

“Call Command,
forward my report, and request backup,” Alice replied. Her every
instinct was telling her to make an argument for acting alone, to
make the situation seem better than it was, but she held back.

“I’d almost feel
better if you answered that wrong. I could blame the training, but
you knew you were in the wrong.” He waved that image away and moved
on to the next. “You destroyed the bots when you could have
salvaged the situation.”

“They were
suffering!” Alice said as she was overwhelmed by a sinking feeling.

“Don’t make it
worse, Alice,” Commander Ayan Rice said as she entered the room.
She didn’t look at her as she passed by and sat down. She was in
the white vacsuit uniform Ayan and the higher ranking officers of
Haven Shore Security had become known for. Alice couldn’t help but
notice that Ayan had her sidearm – a Violator Handgun just like
hers – holstered on her thigh. “Let him finish, there’s
something to learn here,” Ayan said flatly.

“You could have
corrected course when you met the Ando Model Twelve. If you simply
deactivated the third one and reported in, we could look past this
entirely and conduct an organized investigation. You destroyed these
bots because they were suffering? Well, you’re responsible for
every Ando that has to suffer because of your actions from here on
out. Who knows how many we’ll have to activate to understand what’s
going on.” Commander Anderson said, turning towards the window.

For the first time
since Alice entered the room, she noticed the full scope of the view
from the room they were in. The agriculture tower the British
Alliance traded for the cooperation of Haven Shore stood in the
distance, down the cliffs and off shore. It was twenty-eight storeys
tall, made to grow thousands of tons of food every month, and the
first harvests were already starting to come in. The segments of a
second tower were being assembled beside it, still short enough to
disappear under tall waves. “I’m giving you a choice, Alice,”
Commander Anderson said. “I understand that it’s your nature to
break off and do things on your own. I’ll admit you’re good at
it, but it’s gotten you killed in the past when you couldn’t
recognize that you were in over your head. I want you in the Rangers,
I think you could be important to our organization, and I am willing
to accept you back into training at Phase Two.”

“Intelligence and
team tactical training? But I’ve already saved people!” Alice
protested. “Three hundred and fifteen people as a ranger and more
before, right after the battle. My other stats – with a squad and
without one – are in the top twenty percent.”

“That doesn’t
matter,” Commander Anderson said, shaking his head slowly. “Your
strength is in how you act, not how you think, and the Rangers are a
thinking outfit. I need you to put thoughts above actions, and in
your case, that means training. You either take that or leave the
Rangers until you feel you’re ready to retrain from the beginning
of Phase Two.”

Alice opened her mouth
to speak and closed it when a tear rolled over her top lip and landed
on her bottom one.

“The Warlord will be
back tomorrow,” Ayan said. “I know your father would be happy to
have you on their next mission. You don’t need the Rangers to make
a difference, and I’m sure Jake would have training for you.”

“You’d lose your
housing,” Commander Anderson said. “Unless you paid the outsider
price for it.”

“I will,” Alice
said. She’d already made up her mind: leaving on the Warlord was a
better option than staying in Haven Shore and returning to training
in disgrace. She hated the idea of her father finding out what
happened, but it had to be better than what she faced if she stayed.
Even though she knew she had little chance at any damage control,
Alice couldn’t stop herself from taking another run at saying
something to help herself. “This is political, the idiots on the
Council are going to overreact, and you’re trying to hide me like
you said. If this is how you’re trying to save me, then I’d
rather get blamed.”

“No, you wouldn’t.
There would be a call to exile you from Haven Shore, and that works
against everything we’re trying to do to get the Warlord and her
crew accepted here.” Commander Anderson said. “Politics are a
large part of this situation, and something you would have considered
if you took a few minutes to think about what was happening in the
jungle, and contacted someone in the chain of command. Now you’re
right in the middle and we need to simplify this issue so the Council
doesn’t fixate on this and sensationalize it. We can’t afford to
lose our robotic work force, that’s what’s at stake here, and I’m
trying to save your career at the same time by hiding you in our
training program until I know you’ll think things through before
rushing into dangerous situations.”

“Forget it,” Alice
spat. “I don’t want charity from someone who can’t control a
bunch of refugees sitting around a table!” She whirled around and
rushed from the room.