Jeff Carlson - The Frozen Sky

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.”