The Frozen Sky Page 17

  “Ash!” she said.

  The young woman appeared in the hatch. She was drinking a soup bulb, which she closed as she followed Vonnie into the ready room. “What’s up?”

  “We’re in trouble. It’s Lam. I’ll fill you in as soon as we’re moving.”

  They opened the lockers to their pressure suits.

  As they dressed, Vonnie called back to Frerotte. “What is Koebsch doing with Probes 110 and 11? Are they returning to camp or intercepting Lam’s routes toward the sunfish?”

  “Right now those are almost the same compass headings,” Frerotte said. “10 and 11 need to come toward the surface before they can access the catacombs where Lam will be. That’s what they’re doing now.”

  “Can you patch my helmet into your display?”

  “Roger that,” Frerotte said.

  Vonnie felt sure Koebsch would send 10 and 11 to stop Lam from reaching the sunfish before dealing with the possibility that Lam might approach the ESA camp. They were fortified by dozens of mecha, many of which were equipped for electronic warfare. Lam wouldn’t dare to face them head-on. He would be obliterated.

  Where else could he go?

  In all probability, Lam had co-opted 114’s mem files when he took control. That meant he knew of the inhabited zones they’d explored during his absence. Did he have any motive for approaching the sunfish? Maybe not. They couldn’t predict how he’d act, but Vonnie didn’t want him to contact the sunfish on his own. He might upset everything if he was irrational.

  “I’m set,” Vonnie said. She and Ash were dressed. They buddy-checked each other’s collar locks, then cycled the air lock and hurried outside.

  After they climbed into the jeep, Vonnie cut her radio in case Koebsch was listening. She tipped her helmet against Ash’s. Conductivity allowed their voices to reverberate from one helmet to another. “This is your chance to get into our mainframe,” she said. “Koebsch and I need to talk.”

  “Okay. I still don’t know what’s happening.”

  On the ride over, Vonnie explained everything she’d learned about Lam. “The Brazilians have been shooting at him, not sunfish,” she said.

  “He’s been on the run all this time? Jesus. I shouldn’t have loaded him into their net.”

  It was the right thing to say. Vonnie put her glove on Ash’s leg and squeezed. “Don’t apologize. I’m glad you didn’t let Koebsch erase him.”

  They reached the command module. Ash parked the jeep, and they entered the air lock. It completed its cycle and the inner door opened.

  Koebsch stood waiting, his expression flat with displeasure.

  “Sir,” Ash said, “I came to help with data/comm until we get a handle on things.”

  “Good,” Koebsch said. Then he dismissed Vonnie with a tone obviously meant to chastise her. “Von, you’ll have to wait here. Some of our information is classified.”

  “I can help.”

  “No. You’ll wait.” Koebsch watched as they removed their pressure suits. Maybe he wasn’t conscious of how hungrily his gaze traveled up and down the women’s figures. He’d been celibate as long as Vonnie, and he hadn’t found an outlet in dating any of the crew.

  She didn’t mind his eyes. His interest in her would make it easier for her to distract him. Doing so was cruel, but she couldn’t miss this opportunity to steal Dawson’s contact lists and mem files.

  37.

  Koebsch led Ash through the short corridor to data/comm as Vonnie stood at the air lock with her suit in her hands, keeping her head bent to watch her helmet’s visor.

  Frerotte continued to feed imagery to her heads-up display as 110 and 111 scrambled through the ice. On their perimeter with the Brazilians and near the sunfish colony, their surviving spies had turned to listen for Lam.

  How could he have disappeared?

  Maybe he’d hunkered down within a short distance of the perimeter, ceasing all external activity. He could be dealing with any number of hurdles integrating himself with 114’s data banks. More likely, he was analyzing 114’s maps and short-term records, which were new to him.

  Koebsch startled her when he returned. “What are you looking at?” he said.

  Trying not to look guilty, Vonnie set her helmet against a mag lock on the wall. “Let’s go to the armory,” she said. “I’d like to talk about our probes’ capabilities.”

  “Finding your AI comes first,” he said.

  “That’s what I mean. I can help. We need to figure out how well he’ll operate inside a probe.”

  Koebsch studied her wordlessly. Then he glanced at her helmet and said, “You’re popular with a lot of the crew, Von. Sometimes that’s a good thing. But I can’t keep dealing with your insubordination.”

  “Sir, I didn’t mean—”

  “Have I been too lenient with you?”

  “No, sir.”

  “I considered revoking your status with our mission. You could be in charge of our meals or stay in suit maintenance full-time, something with zero systems access. Your choice. You like to cook. Is that what you want?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Then stop working against me. I need the truth. Who uploaded your AI to the Brazilian digger?”

  “I did,” she said, selling the lie by holding his gaze. It would be what Koebsch wanted to believe. Anything else verged on a wider mutiny, which would cast him in a bad light as their leader.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  He strode down the short corridor and turned right toward the armory. As she passed data/comm, Vonnie looked in. Ash was speaking to a group feed with Metzler, Frerotte, Pärnits, and O’Neal. “If we move those listening posts, we might be able to triangulate any new activity,” Pärnits said.

  “Not if he’s beneath the rock,” Ash said.

  Koebsch shut the door to the armory behind Vonnie. The room was a small, crowded box like all of the compartments in their hab modules and landers. Welding gear and nanoforges hung from two walls and the ceiling. Folded into the other walls were work benches, hand tools, sensors, and holo displays.

  “We’ll tell Berlin it was my decision,” Koebsch said. “We used Lam’s basic files as a temporary countermeasure against the Brazilians, but somewhere we made a mistake. We included too much of his personality. He persisted instead of fragmenting.”

  “That’s what happened.”

  “Show me.” Koebsch extracted one of the holo displays from the wall. “I want a transcript of every move you made.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Then you’re off the team.”

  “Sir, I logged in through Ash’s G2 account and deleted the record afterward,” Vonnie said. With each word, she was digging herself in deeper, but the lie was about more than saving Lam. She was also protecting Ash. “Why does it matter how I did it?” she asked.

  “You’re going to help me write a series of kill codes,” he said. “Then we’ll broadcast the codes into the ice. We might be able to reach him. But if Lam only hears part of a code, it needs to be specifically tailored if we want it to penetrate his systems.”

  “This is wrong.”

  “You can either help me or you’re done. I’ll see what I can do about getting you a ride home, but we won’t be sending a ship back to Earth for another year. That’s a long time to cook and fix suits.”

  “Goddamn it, we don’t know what kind of data Lam collected over there or if he’s a danger to us! Your kill codes could wipe everything he’s seen and heard.”

  “We’ll scrub his mem files after we find him. That’s not the issue. If you ask me, I’m starting to think Dawson is right. Our entire operation has become a fiasco. The sunfish are unresponsive. They’ve done nothing but attack, and now we’re chasing our own tails. A change is warranted. We might use your new probes for reconnaissance and gathering tissue samples.”

  “You can’t start hunting sunfish!”

  “Our cost sheet is through the roof, and you haven’t helped.” Koebsch frowned. “I warned you
, Von. There are a lot of people on Earth who don’t see the magic in this place. They want returns on their investments.”

  “You don’t have to listen to them.”

  “I can’t keep making exceptions for you.” Koebsch lifted his hand as if to touch her shoulder, stopped, and set his palm on the holo display instead. “Help me. That’s the best way I can cover for you. They understand our little skirmish with the Brazilians. It’s part of the price of doing business.”

  “What about Tom and Sue and the other sunfish we know? You’d let Dawson put them in captivity or vivisect them?”

  “There are more tribes down there. If we have some success, maybe we can start over with a new group. First we need that success.”

  “You mean we need to make money.” Vonnie said it with disgust, but he nodded earnestly.

  “There are three billion euros tied up in this mission,” he said. “It’s nice that activist groups are campaigning for humane treatment and rescue operations for the sunfish, but the reality is we’ve taken too long to show results. We can’t pay for ourselves with new deuterium production or bulk water claims. The pay-off is in gene smithing.”

  I should hate you, she thought. But I need you on my side.

  She was deciding how to respond when Ash appeared on the small intercom panel. “Sir, I have Colonel Ribeiro online,” Ash said.

  “I’ll be there in a minute.” Koebsch looked at Vonnie and said, “This might get sticky. You come, too, but let me do the talking. If Ribeiro knows Lam was ours, he could send his mecha through our perimeter, and we can’t stop him — not if he uses gun platforms.”

  “He wouldn’t dare.”

  “Wouldn’t he?” Koebsch opened the door from the armory and paced toward data/comm.

  Vonnie followed with her stomach in a knot.

  They joined Ash at the showphone. “Thank you, Colonel,” Ash said. “Here is Administrator Koebsch.”

  Keeping his hand below the camera, Koebsch motioned for Vonnie to step into the background. “Hello, Colonel,” he said. “You must be returning my call about the FNEE digger that crashed through our beacons.”

  Ribeiro’s face was severe. Remembering how fiercely he’d cursed them, Vonnie expected him to berate Koebsch, but he tipped his head with a single nod. “Yes,” he said.

  “We lost a tremendous amount of equipment and our geologic surveys were ruined,” Koebsch said, piling on the blame. The formality in both men’s postures and voices was well-practiced. Everything they did would be analyzed by their superiors on Earth.

  “Where is our digger now?” Ribeiro said.

  “It self-destructed, either by FNEE command or because its systems were untenable,” Koebsch said. “Please explain.”

  “There has been a rise in ESA transmissions.”

  “Is that relevant?”

  “I am apprehensive for your safety and ours,” Ribeiro said. “Are any of your mecha missing?”

  “One.”

  Ribeiro’s face tightened. Here it comes, Vonnie thought, bracing herself for his wrath.

  “We have lost three mecha to a rogue AI,” he said. “It captured two diggers, then spread to a third. That is why you’ve heard combat in our zone. We eradicated two of the three while losing a fourth mecha to an avalanche.”

  Lam caused more problems than we guessed, Vonnie thought, watching Ribeiro’s dark, tired eyes.

  The firm set of his mouth gave way to a scowl. Vonnie realized he wasn’t fighting to master his temper. He was humiliated.

  “I apologize that the AI reached your zone,” he said. “The responsibility is mine, but I believe my men and I are best suited to this task. We are soldiers. You are not. I would like to make our services available. I suggest a partnership between your people and mine. We can eliminate the AI before it spreads further.”

  A partnership? Vonnie thought, scoffing at the idea. She was offended and incredulous.

  But Koebsch smiled. “Thank you, Colonel, I agree,” he said.

  38.

  “We would welcome working alongside the fine astronauts of Brazil,” Koebsch said. “Thank you for your vigilance and for your willingness to protect your neighbors.”

  “What are you doing?” Vonnie whispered at Koebsch’s back. “We can’t let them march into our grid!”

  Koebsch shushed her. “I would like to coordinate our mutual efforts immediately,” he told Ribeiro. “First, a written agreement is in order.”

  “My government will need to approve any legal documents, but I have been instructed to ask for your terms and conditions,” Ribeiro said. His gaze shifted to Vonnie, then back to Koebsch. What was he thinking? The same as her?

  Something’s wrong, she thought. We’ve been at odds with Brazil since the war. On Earth, we keep backing A.N. demands for them to pull their troops out of Columbia and Paraguay. In space, too many of our ships run patrols with American destroyers as a show of strength against the FNEE.

  Even here, we’ve allocated hundreds of hours to monitoring them — attacking them — and there are only eighteen people combined between our camp and theirs.

  Making a deal with the FNEE was unprecedented.

  “I think we can use standard distress contracts including limited liability and salvage rights,” Koebsch said. “Within reason, we’ll waive any claims for damage if the AI can be contained.”

  “You are generous,” Ribeiro said. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll send a write-up to you in a few minutes. Meanwhile I’d like a proposal detailing the number of mecha you’ll send into our grid, their capabilities, and a compatibility study. Will they be able to function with our mecha?”

  “My sergeant can provide this data.”

  “Excellent.” Koebsch waved Vonnie toward the showphone, then gestured at Ash. “This is Alexis Vonderach, one of our engineers. You’ve met Ash Sierzenga. Vonderach can troubleshoot any challenges with signal integration while Sierzenga handles file-sharing on our side.”

  “The famous Vonderach,” Ribeiro said. “You are as beautiful as you are daring, senhora.”

  “Danke schö, Colonel,” Vonnie said. Inside, she was seething at Koebsch. He’d backed her neatly into a corner, saddling her with a workload that would keep her in his sight for the rest of the day — maybe longer.

  She’d imagined she could outmaneuver Koebsch and reach Lam before anyone else. Now he’d put her in position to assist the FNEE hunter-killers.

  What kind of directives had he received from Earth?

  The next moments were hectic. Moving in a daze, Vonnie took the station beside Ash as Koebsch opened another display, speaking with a legal program. Ash refused to meet Vonnie’s eyes, burying herself in her datastreams.

  Tavares appeared on Vonnie’s showphone and introduced herself as if they’d never spoken. “My name is Sergeant Claudia Tavares,” she said.

  Vonnie didn’t want to put the other woman in a bad spot. “I’m Vonderach. You’re coordinating the FNEE response?”

  “Affirmative.” Tavares was visibly relieved.

  “Your mecha still use ROM-4 protocols, correct? Our probes can send and receive those signals, but there will be a delay in translation, maybe as much as two femtoseconds per petabyte. Can you lag your response times to match? Otherwise we’ll see progression errors.”

  “Affirmative.”

  Most of an hour passed in a rapid exchange of adjustments. The AI of the FNEE mecha were dull compared to those of the ESA probes, but in some aspects, the older, larger machines were also more robust. They were built for abuse.

  Far below, Probes 110 and 111 stopped advancing through the ice. Koebsch intended to use their sensors like a fence, preventing Lam from moving any deeper into the ESA zone. At the same time, on the perimeter, 115 decrypted most of its datastreams as it was joined by seven FNEE diggers and gun platforms, allowing the FNEE mecha to share its telemetry.

  If the Brazilians realized 115 maintained a private channel inside the ESA grid, they said not
hing.

  Lam’s identity also remained a secret.

  Vonnie overheard Ribeiro discussing the AI’s appearance in his mecha with Koebsch. “Our analysts found traces of Chinese programming among its defenses,” Ribeiro said. “They allow human-based AI in their country, you know, and they told us to stay off Europa. They deny unleashing the AI upon our systems, but we believe they tried to hamstring us.”

  “That’s not unexpected,” Koebsch said. “Your country buys most of its deuterium from China. They want to protect that income.”

  “They are lovers of dogs,” Ribeiro said off-handedly, drawing another smirk from Ash, who covered her mouth by chewing on her thumbnail.

  You little sneak, Vonnie thought, not without admiration.

  How the heck had Ash made Lam appear like a Chinese AI? Because of his nationality? His original mem files had been based in PSSC ROM-20 protocols, which Vonnie had modified into ESA standard ROM-12 when she assembled him.

  Ash could have resurrected his source codes. More likely, Ash had grafted new packets of Chinese code into Lam’s menus. The ESA maintained a library of stolen PSSC encryptions, and Ash had proven masterful at subverting AIs. It helped that her equipment was a cut above everything in the FNEE camp. If she’d laced his menus with PSSC recognition codes, Lam must have sounded like he was trying to hide his origin during his first exchanges with the FNEE when in fact he was only writing that code out of himself. Ash had double-crossed the Brazilians and Chinese, leading one to accuse the other…

  What game was Koebsch playing at?

  From his indignation with Vonnie, he’d expected the Brazilians to blame the ESA. Yet as soon as the Brazilians asked for help, Koebsch offered them an alliance. That meant the ESA leadership on Earth had prepared Koebsch for either contingency. They’d known about Lam through backchannels with Ash or Frerotte.

  I thought I was a step ahead of Koebsch, but he’s left me behind, Vonnie thought. Why? Why is it so important to make the Brazilians our friends instead of leaving them in a loose association with the Chinese?