Марта Уэллс - Network Effect

On the feed, Ratthi says, Oh, I hope this works .

Hush, Arada says, don’t distract them .

Overse taps her feed in acknowledgment.

The first Target (designated Target One) says, “You can’t detonate the device while you’re here, why threaten us with it?”

Perihelion is feeding the translation to the feed. The language had been identified as the same one used on the space dock’s signage. That’s the Adamantine colony’s language, Iris confirms on the feed. I think this is the same faction as the colonist who helped us on the explorer .

Thiago tells the Targets, “It’s a threat to us, too. The transport is forcing us to meet with you on its behalf.”

(During the initial planning stage aboard Perihelion, Ratthi had voiced an objection: “Are we sure they’re going to buy this? That we’re prisoners of an evil transport who is forcing us to do this?”

Perihelion : I can be very convincing .)

Target One says, doubtfully, “The transport?”

Thiago: “You attacked it, tried to upload a foreign system to it, and took away some of the humans aboard.”

Target Two: “That was the infected group. We aren’t responsible for their actions.”

Thiago: “That may be, but the transport holds all of you responsible. If we knew more about your situation, perhaps it would relent.”

Target Three, sarcastically: “If the ship speaks, why didn’t it come in person?”

Perihelion ’s drone: You don’t want to meet me in person .

The Targets react with astonishment and some dismay.

Target Two: “What happened to those who boarded the transport?”

Thiago looks at Overse, who says, “They’re all dead.”

(Thiago and Overse had decided earlier that Overse will be the “bad one” who agrees with the evil transport’s desire to destroy the colony.)

My drones reach the open plaza of the installation, and slip down past the rib structures. I send to our secured feed, Intel incoming . The drones detect seven armed Targets, concealed just inside the two entrances into the structure on the eastern side. The other two entrances appear to be clear. Perihelion taps the feed in acknowledgment.

Target Two: “What do you want from us?”

Thiago: “We want you to return the person who you captured in the drop box embarkation chamber. Return that person and we will leave you in peace.” On the secure feed, he says, I have to try, maybe it will be just this easy .

Overse replies, Oh, Thiago .

Iris adds, It’s never easy .

They are correct. Hostages are never taken simply to be released on demand.

Target One: “We can’t return that person, we didn’t take them. That was the infected group.”

Overse: “Then tell them to return that person, or there will be more detonations.”

Target Two: “They won’t listen to us.”

Overse jerks her head toward the pathfinder. “Make them listen. None of us has a choice.”

Thiago: “If you can tell us where they are keeping our friend, that may convince the transport to wait.”

The drones manage to make stealth entries into the two clear doorways on the western side of the plaza. I report this to Perihelion, who taps my feed again. It sends to the humans: Continue to stall .

The Targets continue to exhibit agitated behavior.

Iris: “Tell us what happened here, maybe that will help. We know you found alien remnants. You put one on the transport’s drive, and on the explorer.”

Target Two: “We didn’t know they did that.”

Target Four, speaking for the first time: “You could be lying. You want our findings.”

Overse: “Was the explosion in your agricultural zone a lie?”

Target One nudges Target Four to step back. “It affects some more than others. We are not all to blame for the actions of a few.”

Iris: “But the few killed most of the crew of the explorer, and they were going to forcibly contaminate us. We were coming to help you. Why should we believe you?”

Overse: “You need to do something besides just repeating that it’s not your fault. Tell us where they’re keeping our friend.”

The drones scout darkened corridors now and I am mainly receiving low resolution visuals. A feed is active but no SecUnit activity has been detected yet. One drone has located an open antigrav shaft and is proceeding down it. I direct a squad to follow it. There are many levels to search. The installation is much larger underground than we had anticipated.

Target Five, suddenly: “Why do you want to know that? You can’t free them.”

Careful, Ratthi warned on the feed. We don’t want them to wonder why you’re asking that question.

Perihelion ’s drone: Do I need to demonstrate proof of intent again? How vital is the body of water to your agricultural system?

Targets are agitated again.

Thiago: “You see? If you could tell us where our friend is, perhaps we can make the transport understand this isn’t your fault.”

I receive drone scouting data. I tell Perihelion : Familiar signal activity detected, but drones cannot make contact or establish location . I add, I need to be closer to help the drones determine location . I have to get down there.

Perihelion acknowledges, Initiate phase 2 .

Arada has been listening on her feed, and now nods to me. “Good luck,” she says.

I reply, “Thank you.” I climb out of the shuttle, and make certain Arada locks the hatch behind me. Then I start up the rocks to begin a stealth approach of the installation and its central plaza.

Murderbot 1.0

So, we had found targetControlSystem. Sweat was sticking my shirt to what was left of my back and my performance reliability had dropped another three percent.

The Adamantine colonists must have found the Pre-CR system down here, and maybe repaired it, as a backup to their own systems. Then one day something had happened in the shaft they were using for storage and a piece of heavy equipment had hit the seal in the bottom hard enough to break it. A human had gone down there to check it out, and been contaminated by the alien remnant. The human had come up here, or been driven up here by the kind of compulsion Thiago had talked about, and had brought the contamination into this room where it had taken control of the Pre-CR central system.

We’d assumed the Targets were affected colonists who had built or taken over the targetControlSystem to help them. But it was the other way around.

Then Central said, query: identify?

I hadn’t thought there was enough of it left in there to communicate. I replied, acknowledge: security unit(s).

Central said, query: assistance?

I said, acknowledge: in progress . I had a bad feeling “assistance” would involve shutting it down permanently but until that point, there was no reason to be mean to it.

2.0 said, So it transferred the contamination, or infection, whatever to the humans through their feed interfaces.

Probably . It would have gotten to the augmented humans who had their interfaces built into their brains, then used them to infect the humans with external removable interfaces. It hadn’t always been 100 percent effective, which was why a Target aboard the explorer had helped Iris and the others escape, had told them that not all the Targets believed in the alien hive mind or whatever other crap targetControlSystem had told them.

2.0 added, We were right about the implants, they were just receivers, old Pre-CR tech. And the remnant tech, the thing it put on ART’s drive and tried to install on the explorer. TargetControlSystem told the colonists what to do with them, and it wrote the code for the targetDrones and the protective gear and the sensor deflection .