Марта Уэллс - Network Effect

Leonide’s hesitation was more pronounced this time, and her expression said she was conflicted. She said finally, “I’m not allowed to speak further about this on a comm channel not confidential to Barish-Estranza. I’d appreciate the return of our crew member. One of our engine components was destroyed in the attack—if you could sell us replacement components, our pay rate would be fair and generous.”

“We don’t—” Arada was going to say “need your payment” and the humans and I all yelled No! on the feed. But ART had her on a one-second delay and stopped her before it got any worse.

It was a natural mistake on Arada’s part. In Preservation culture, asking payment for anything considered necessary for living (food, power sources, education, the feed, etc.) was considered outrageous, but asking payment for life-saving help was right up there with cannibalism.

Arada coughed and continued, “Of course, we’ll prepare an invoice. But…” She leaned forward. “I think we both know how bad this situation is, and how much danger our crews are in right now. If we could be honest with each other and share information, I think we can better our chances of survival.”

Yeah, she had gone there way too quickly. The other humans had stopped breathing. Amena looked at me with an oh shit expression. Yes, I know, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Arada’s risk assessment module was as bad as mine.

Leonide’s expression was complex. She said, after 8.7 fraught seconds where she might have been consulting with someone on her own feed (hopefully not a gray Target person), “Your crew is still in danger?”

Arada said, “Because I think we met your explorer. It was the ship that attacked us, and temporarily boarded us, and our wormhole capability is now damaged.”

Ratthi made a mmph noise. Thiago was pressing his folded hands against his mouth again.

Leonide’s lips set in a hard line. “I see. I still can’t speak on a nonconfidential channel.”

Arada hesitated and Ratthi whispered to me, “What—can we make the channel confidential? What does that entail?”

I told him, “Not without a Corporation Rim solicitor certified by Barish-Estranza.”

Ratthi groaned under his breath.

On the feed, ART was explaining the same thing to Arada. She said to Leonide, “Would you be willing to come aboard and speak about it in person?”

(I had a camera view of the lower part of the control deck where the drone was now sterilizing the area where Targets One and Three had died. It started working faster.)

Leonide snorted. “Your University’s confidentiality agreement would hardly cover me.”

Arada gave her a good “it was worth a shot” smile, like she had any clue what Leonide meant. Then Leonide said, “But I’d allow you to come aboard my transport for a conference.”

Thiago took a sharp breath. Ratthi’s expression went extremely skeptical. Amena made a derisive noise. Overse said, “Fuck no.”

On our private connection, ART said, Should I cut the contact?

No, I told it, she won’t do it . We already had a way to get intel off the transport. We could send drones along with the supplies—

Then Arada said, “I can do that. If you’ll send me the list of supplies you need, I’ll get my team working on that, and we can arrange the transfer of supplies and your crew person and the meeting at the same time.”

What? The other humans all looked at me, appalled. I was also appalled.

Leonide kept her expression neutral. “Agreed, though I’d like to speak to my crew member first.”

Arada said, “Agreed. Give me a moment to arrange that.”

ART put the contact on hold and said, Clear . And then it did one of my what-the-hell-have-the-humans-done-now sighs.

Obviously, there was a big human argument.

In order to head off the inevitable “I told you so,” I said to ART, I should have told you to cut the contact .

ART said to me, Yes, you should have .

To the others, it said, They’ve sent the list of components. Since we’re now committed to this… course of action, I’ve ordered a drone to pull the material out of storage. And I’m producing standard crew clothing for Arada .

By that point the argument had ended and Arada was still going to the supply transport, though all the humans had elevated heart rates indicating varying degrees of anger and exasperation.

Thiago’s expression was grim. “If we’re going to do this, we need to get Eletra ready to speak to Leonide. Maybe before that, she can tell us something about her. Amena, will you help?”

Amena tried not to look startled. “Huh? Oh sure, Uncle.”

They headed down the corridor. Arada turned to Overse and said, “I know you’re upset but this will save us a lot of time.”

Overse said through gritted teeth, “Rescuing you—or trying to recover your body—will not save us time.”

Ratthi pressed his hands over his eyes and dragged them down his face in a way that did not look comfortable. He said, “We need a plan. What are you going to say?”

In the corridor, Amena was saying, “I didn’t think you’d want my help. I mean, you all think I’m impulsive.”

“No one thinks that, my daughter.” Thiago signaled through the feed to Eletra, telling her they wanted to come in. “Your parents wouldn’t have let you come on this survey if they didn’t trust your judgment.”

From Amena’s expression that was news to her, but the door to the bunkroom was already sliding open.

Overse was still mad, though when Ratthi asked for her help, she followed him down to the storage module to make sure the drones could shift the supply container into the bulk airlock. I could have helped, but I think Ratthi wanted to give Overse a chance to vent and calm down, and I did not want to be there for that.

Amena had just shown Eletra a feed image of Leonide and asked if she was really who she said she was.

At first, Eletra looked relieved. “Yes, that’s Supervisor Leonide. She’s in charge of the supply transport.” Then her expression turned slowly confused. “The supply transport.” She pressed her hands to her head. “Why am I not on the supply transport?”

“Can you speak to Supervisor Leonide on the comm?” Thiago asked her. “Just to tell her what happened to you?”

Eletra nodded, but said, “It’s hard enough telling you, and you all were there.” Her forehead creased again. “Weren’t you?”

“Just tell her what you can,” Thiago said gently, and ART used the display surface in the bunkroom to open the comm contact again.

I was worried enough to monitor the conversation, and I could feel ART’s attention in the channel. But Eletra confirmed her capture by the Targets and said that she had been rescued by the ship’s crew and their SecUnit. She gestured toward Amena. “And a young person, an intern from another survey company.” She knew Ras had been killed but she wasn’t sure how. When Leonide pushed her for details, she said, “The gray raiders, they put some kind of augment or something in us. It did something to us.” She gestured at her head. “It’s messed up my whole perception of time. I can’t remember leaving the supply transport. Or the explorer—”

Leonide told her that was enough, and sent the connection to her cargo factor to arrange the transfer.

Arada’s face was set in a wince, possibly in anticipation of further objections to her plan that everyone clearly hated. We were still standing in the lounge (I was going to change the name on ART’s schematic to “Argument Lounge”) and she looked tired. “Are you mad at me, too, SecUnit?”