she said,
“You know what I mean.”
said Belle.
“How could you know that? He’s not one of our AIs. We don’t really know how he’s programmed.”
“I’d never heard that before. It sounds like the Mutes.”
“Okay. So,” I said, “his intentions are beyond question?”
Gabe and I exchanged glances. “Well,” I said finally, “I guess we just learned something.”
said Ark, Belle-Marie. .
Gabe looked at me. The message was easy to read. Was I sure I wanted to do this?
“Let’s get going,” I said.
I told Belle to take us to Sayla. We left orbit and turned toward the sun. Gabe opened his notebook and began reading. I got the impression that Belle and Ark were carrying on a conversation, probably about the tactic they’d used to set everything up. We were barely on our way when Ark apologized. he said.
I wasn’t comfortable using the star drive to approach the sun, but we were too far out to simply operate on the thrust engines. It would have taken a couple of weeks to get close to the area where Sayla was located. So we decided on two jumps. The first would get us to a position from which we could angle the second jump to ensure we didn’t get too close.
Ark seemed increasingly impressed by the he said,
“How is it,” I asked, “that got involved with this? Do you have a leadership position of some sort?”
He paused.
“What did you do,” asked Gabe, “before the culture collapsed?”
I sat thinking about Jacob. For the first time I got a sense of what his life must be like. “Gabe,” I said, “we’re going to have to make some adjustments when we get home.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Another issue came up a few minutes later: “Ark,” Gabe said, “you understand that this rescue may be pointless. You and your friends can’t survive indefinitely without some help.”
“Does everyone agree with your approach that other life-forms be kept at a distance?”
“The time is coming,” I said, “when you’ll probably have to adjust that strategy.”
. Ever.
“I don’t think,” I said, “I’ve ever really looked at the world from an AI’s viewpoint. Ark, have you asked Belle whether she would prefer a different kind of life than the one she has?” I knew she could hear me.
“And what did she say?” asked Gabe.
you her
I started to, but she cut me off.
Gabe and I and Zykum were all belted down. “Whenever you’re ready, Belle,” I said.
she said.
“Belle,” I said, “just darken the windows. Have you forgotten how?” It had been a long time since we’d had to do that.
It’s not usually a good idea to question Belle’s judgment. We used fabrics, shirts, sheets, towels, whatever we could come up with to provide protection on the bridge and in the passenger cabin. We taped it all down.
When we’d finished, Belle announced that we were about to go under. The drive unit kicked in. We listened as it became audible. Its energy level rose and we slipped under. The queasiness that occasionally accompanies a jump is rarely more than something I barely notice. On this occasion, I nearly threw up. Then, fortunately, it faded. Alex has lived with the problem for a long time. I glanced over at Gabe and saw he was going through the same thing. I can’t prove this, but at the time I wondered whether Belle might be jiggling the experience in a way that would produce the symptoms. It seemed too much to be a coincidence. Maybe she was signaling that it would not be a good idea to ask the question that Ark had put forward, whether she was happy with her life.
A couple of minutes later, we came out into blazing light. It ripped into the interior through tiny areas where the stopgap blinds didn’t quite match up to the windows. Belle said.
Gabe managed a laugh. “That was a jolt I didn’t expect.”
I used washcloths and the last of our tape to cover the areas where light was getting through.
Belle said.