Tarik was not optimistic. That “if” is carrying a lot of responsibility there.
Ratthi made a palm-up gesture. This planet is never going to be completely safe, not until someone discovers why the alien materials cause these reactions.
The humans all sounded as tired as they looked. Oh, shit. I’d forgotten all about that. On our private channel, I asked ART-drone, How long since they took a break to sleep?
ART-drone said, They were supposed to take short naps in rotation at some point during the flight into the blackout zone, but the overexcitement made that impossible to implement.
I should have paid more attention. I’d fucked that up, too.
We both fucked that up, ART-drone said. No, it doesn’t read my mind, it just knows me really well. I should have banned refreshment items containing stimulants earlier in the day.
When we were only two turns away from our destination, AdaCol2 signaled me that a human would be meeting us. I pulled my drones in and made sure my move-like-a-human code was active. Is this a gesture of trust, do you think? Ratthi asked on the team feed.
Tarik said, They met the corporates in person, so maybe they just don’t have much of a sense of survival.
Ratthi said, I meant on the central system’s part, not the colonists’.
Iris said, That’s an interesting thought. Peri, is that possible?
Seriously, who the fuck knows?
ART-drone said, We’ve talked about these assumptions before, Iris.
Assumptions? Ratthi asked.
Attributing human characteristics to machine intelligences, ART-drone said. That this is meant as a gesture of trust may be possible but not likely, and shouldn’t be a factor in decision-making.
Ah, but what do you consider human characteristics? Ratthi said.
Tarik said, Oh please, don’t start with it.
Why not? Ratthi’s voice in the feed was amused.
Tarik is confused by philosophical debate, ART-drone said.
Because it likes to win and it won’t shut up until it does, Tarik said.
Tarik has an issue with projecting his emotions onto others, ART-drone said.
People, stop. I’m sorry I asked, Iris said, and added a laughing sigil.
I am so not in the mood to listen to banter. We turned the corner and the colonist was there. There was no feed ID, but AdaCol2 supplied the name Lucia and when I asked it for more info, the gender signifier bb (which didn’t translate) and he/him pronouns. (I asked because the humans would bug me for the information; I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious.) Iris said, “Hello. Thank you for inviting us in.”
Lucia was small as humans go, about Iris’s size, and pale compared to her and Ratthi and Tarik. His dark hair had been shaved into a geometric pattern. His clothes were loose pants and a long flowy shirt, different from what the main site colonists wore. But then this group didn’t necessarily need to go out in environmental gear all the time so their clothing didn’t need to be practical. “Ah, you’re welcome,” he said, and looked nervous.
Was it me? Was I looming? It was too late to shove Ratthi in front of me without looking even more weird.
Lucia led the way to the rooms we had been assigned. The walls were dark blue and textured in a way that looked like it would be rough but felt smooth to the touch. The artificial stone floor was a mottled gray with wispy streaks. Lucia showed the humans the attached restroom and how to make the beds fold down out of the walls while Iris tried to initiate three conversations (1. “How strange it must be to meet new people after so long”; 2. “It must have been fascinating to explore this place when it was first found”; 3. “Are you interested in research into Pre–Corporation Rim cultures?”) and then gave up. I could tell that even with Ratthi and Tarik trying to help she was starting to look desperate.
Lucia did a little head-tilt goodbye thing and left. Iris stood in the middle of the main room and on the team feed said, Shit.
Ratthi plopped down on a bed. I couldn’t tell if he was awkward, afraid, or thought we’d contaminate him if he stayed any longer.
Tarik leaned in the doorway of the other room. You think Barish-Estranza has already poisoned the well.
Iris rubbed her temples, then pulled off her scarf thing and let her hair pouf out. Yeah. I just hope Trinh wasn’t being overly optimistic about the other leaders wanting to meet. We’re just going to have to wait for them to make a move.
The humans had some food from one of the bags they had brought in, and everybody asked me if I was all right so I had to say yes, and Iris went to lie down on one of the beds in the other room. Ratthi and Tarik sat down together on the bed/couch thing in this room. There was a junction area between the two rooms where I had an adequate view of both doorways, so I sat there, ART-drone settled next to me. I had put ScoutDrone1 and 2 on sentry duty, but if B-E tried to sneak a drone or countermeasure in here, visually was the best way to detect it. ART-drone was cycling through shows for us to watch in background, but I was actually really in the mood for a good long stare at a wall.
Ratthi and Tarik were talking about the Thing Going on Between Them, which, ugh. His voice low and worried, Tarik said, “I wasn’t leading you on.”
“Ah, weren’t you?” Ratthi said. He sounded like he wanted to sound unconcerned, but I thought he was actually pissed off. I did a quick voice tone comparison to archived recordings of Ratthi in various agitated discussions and arguments and oh yeah, he was pissed off. He continued, “I don’t break up relationships.”
(Four planetary days before the mission to fix the routers (I should say ill-fated mission. I always want to say ill-fated mission. Anyway.) I was on ART pacing the corridor between Medical and the engineering pod while most of the humans were on a rest period. I was watching a show with ART, but I couldn’t stand still. (Probably because of—it’s not redacted anymore, right, so you know, the thing that happened.) Then my drone that was stationed in the galley area picked up raised human voices. Short duration, but long enough to pick up actual agitation, not excited agitation.
I paused the episode and asked ART, What’s that?
You don’t want to know, it said.
Yes, I do fucking want to know. I pinged Three, who reported that its situation was normal, i.e., boring. (It was in the lab module watching student educational vids.) (I know.) (It didn’t get fiction yet, it was a whole big thing.) Though after you hack your governor module, boring was probably a great option. It just hadn’t worked for me.
If the humans were having a fight … The percentage was low, let’s put it that way. There had been some argucussions, but that was all. For a long time I had been stuck with humans who hated each other, hated me, hated where we were, and all for absolutely rational reasons. Now I had gotten used to humans who liked things, and were mostly nice, even to humans they didn’t know well, and who could have a disagreement about what to do next without knifing each other and/or poisoning half the mess hall. So it bothered me.