Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

After an agonized second, the desk came to life and a text message printed itself on the active top.

DOBBS, WE’VE BLOCKED YOUR PEN’S CODE FROM THE GUILD SPIES. GO TO THE OTHELLO COFFEE HOUSE. I’LL MEET YOU THERE.

CURRAN

That was all there was. The desk shut itself down. Dobbs stared for a moment at the blank surface, then, she got to her feet and went back into the corridor.

Things were becoming increasingly unreal. She felt as if she’d just had a dose of juice and her body was no longer her own. Some other force was making the legs move and turning the gaze so that she could avoid the crowds of Human Beings and make her way to the elevators. She watched as if from outside as her body travelled up ten levels and over three modules to the Desdemona hotel and the coffee shop.

She found an empty table and sat. There was something written on the surface. Probably an inquiry for her order. She couldn’t be sure. Her eyes wouldn’t focus. There were noises and moving shapes around her, but she couldn’t separate them out into distinct objects. She was only really aware of one thing. This was where she had juggled scarves for Al Shei and formulated her resolve to find out what was really going on aboard the Pasadena .

And now I know, she thought and it felt as if something inside her would tear in two.

As Dobbs fled the privacy booth, Yerusha started to her feet, but she didn’t follow the Fool. Dobbs was badly shaken. Of course she was. Yerusha was shaken. The whole of Settled Space would be shaken before this was done.

She sat back down and looked at the half-completed command on the memory board. Dobbs’ horrified shout seemed to echo around the booth.

You know, she’s probably right. You probably don’t understand. Crash and burn, she barely understood living humans, how was she supposed to understand the ones who had returned? She remembered Dobbs’ vigorous denunciation of the idea that sentient AIs were reincarnated humans. She shook her head. Metaphysics could wait for later. There were solid problems to be worked out.

Starting with what I should do now. She tapped her pen against the edge of the board. The idea of going public had just frightened Dobbs into running for the lower decks. Should she go find Dobbs and try to talk her out of her panic? Or should she just go ahead and place the call, trusting to Dobbs basic stability to get her through once the gears were grinding?

She remembered how well trusting Al Shei’s basic nature had gone and felt her lips press together into a thin, straight line.

She wiped the request for an open line and instead filtered through the credit for a single-shot fast-time message to Peter Kagan at The Gate.

“Kagan,” she wrote. “Imperative that we communicate in security as soon as possible. Will authorize payment for your fast-time connection to me.” She signed her name, and picked the SEND command off the menu. Then, she put in a request to the station AI that she be notified as soon as the fast-time came through, wherever she was.

Fast-time or not, it’s going to take the kid awhile to get clear. Yerusha sent a copy of the receipt to her personal files and shut the desk down. Hopefully, by then, she would have Dobbs calmed down.

She wrote a locate request on the board, and waited for the station to process it.

The text on the memory board shifted. EVELYN DOBBS BOARDED THE SHUTTLE ‘FIFTH DAY’ WITHOUT REGISTERING A FINAL DESTINATION. THAT SHUTTLE HAS NOW DEPARTED PORT OBERON.

Yerusha’s eyes bulged in their sockets. She’d left the station? Already? Crash and burn! Why hadn’t she said something? Why hadn’t she trusted, waited…

Why didn’t I go after her right away? Why’d I sit here so sure I was doing the right thing for her? What did I think I was going to prove?

Same thing she thought she’d prove with Holden, and with Foster. That Jemina Yerusha was right. That she knew what she was doing. That everything would be all right if everyone would just stop what they were doing and listen.

Ashes, ashes, ashes. She wiped her face with her palm. Now what am I going to do?

She stared at the desktop for another moment before shutting it down. Whatever it is, I can’t do it here.

She slid the door open, stepped out without really watching where she was going and found a human chest smack in front of her. She pulled up short and saw it was Schyler, who was also backing up.

“Sorry,” he pulled both hands out of his pockets. “I was…waiting for you to come out.”

“Did you see where Dobbs went?” she asked, trying to regain some dignity before getting down to the more important question of what Schyler was doing here. It was possible Al Shei had sent him to bring her back. It was possible he had come of his own volition. It was also possible she was about to be officially fired.

“No, I didn’t see Dobbs at all.” Schyler dug his hands back into his pockets. “Was she here too?”

“Yeah, for a little while.” Before I almost scared the life out of her. Yerusha drew a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. “Did you want me for something, Watch?”

“Yes.” Schyler extracted one hand and ran it through his hair. “I wanted to find out if you knew what was going on around here.”

Yerusha was so at a loss for words she couldn’t even open her mouth.

“She won’t talk to me!” Schyler jammed his fist back into his pocket so hard, she though the cloth was going to tear. It didn’t take much guessing to work out that ‘she’ was Al Shei. “I’ve been with her ten years, and now when its as bad as its ever been, she stops talking to me! How can I help her, how can I run that god-blasted-and-twisted ship for her, if she won’t tell me what’s going on!” He had his gaze fixed on the far wall, but Yerusha was certain he was seeing the Pasadena , and Al Shei. “Oh, she told me about The Farther Kingdom and Dobbs’ part in all that, but something else happened after we left the Fool’s Guild. Something major. And now, we’ve been impounded, we’ve got an all-hands crew meeting in less than half an hour and she tells me you might not be there and Dobbs definitely won’t be there but she won’t say why!

“I’m supposed to tell our crew what’s going on. I’m supposed to know.” He shook his head and looked directly at her again. His face betrayed the loss and betrayal inside him even more clearly than his voice did. Yerusha found herself wondering how she could have missed it. If the Pasadena was home to Schyler, Al Shei was his bedrock. She had showed him how the world worked, given him a place to stay and a purpose to live for. A few random thoughts dropped into place. He was probably the reason Al Shei’s partnership with Tully had lasted. Where she couldn’t trust Tully to take care of the ship and himself, she could trust Schyler.

And now she had turned away from him. Yerusha felt a surge of anger toward Al Shei. Fractured Ninja Woman, what did she think she was doing?

Keeping him safe. Not spreading panic. Trying to figure out to do , answered a part of herself she didn’t know existed. Yerusha wondered when she’d started liking Al Shei.

Probably about the same time you started really liking Schyler . Now the question was, which one of them was she going to let down?

She looked at Schyler and saw the bewilderment mixed with anger plain on his face and remembered when she’d had the same look; as the Senior Guard hauled her away from Holden’s body and told her she was under arrest. They hadn’t liked it, they hadn’t believed her guilty of much, but they’d done it anyway and she couldn’t believe they were doing it.

“Yes, I do know what’s going on,” she said quietly. “But you’re going to want to sit down before I tell you.”