Kris Schnee - Everyone's Island

“I see. And what’s your interest?”

A shrug. “A finder’s fee from their side. What I’d like from you is a chance to visit.”

Martin considered. “We certainly have the space, if not the amenities. I imagine you’ve camped in worse places. Why?”

“I have. But I’ve never been to a structure like yours, and I’ve never lost the tourist bug. Besides, I can put the trip on an expense account if I make myself useful scouting the place. For where to put a lab.”

Martin said, “Interesting proposal, sir. I’ll have to discuss this with my business partner, but in the meantime I’d be happy to look at information from you.” Martin tried to look noncommittal, but this was great news! Any outside source of profit above the stature of a brothel was worth considering. Here, Eaton was saying, would you like a pot of money for hosting a respectable high-tech business? The main question was how to keep an eye on what these researchers actually did. It was possible that even Eaton didn’t know.

Eaton said, “I’ll send you the details. Will you be in town for long?”

“A few days.”

“Too short to go back with you. We’ll be in touch.” When Martin nodded, Eaton stood, dismissing himself.

Martin watched him go, and smiled. This was a nice surprise!

Garrett scowled at the inside of the cargo door, in what they were calling North Tower. “This is a nice surprise.” Alexis was knocking on the metal from outside.

The radio crackled. With the main network down again they were relying on walkie-talkies. Alexis said, “What’s the problem?”

“They gave us a locked door without a key.”

“Come on, they wouldn’t do something that stupid. Could you have dropped it?”

Garrett patted his pockets again. “So I’m that stupid?” Sweat trickled down his armpits.

“Calm down. Maybe it’s in that mystery box.”

Garrett grunted. He’d been trying to keep things organized, but entropy was taking its toll. He stood and glared at the warehouse room: lots of cardboard and styrofoam under dim bulbs. “Is Constellation moored, at least?”

“It’s secure. How about we leave this stuff on your doorstep for now?”

“Fine.” He trudged upstairs to deck level in time to meet Alexis and Tess coming up the outside stairs. Everyone squinted in the sunlight, but Garrett didn’t have to keep hold of his hat. “Not much wind today.” The sea looked lifeless.

“Oh, yeah!” said Tess. “I got a windvane working! That’s something.” She’d been sweating figuratively as well as literally, trying to prove she could get the computer network fully functional.

Garrett followed her to look. Sure enough, she’d gotten the white pinwheel turning on the roof, looking lazy but more active than he expected. “Wind’s stronger up there,” Tess noted. “And I got it to charge the main battery!”

“It’s not enough. There’s the sensor net, and Zephyr and the radio and the battery rechargers and whatever else we’ve got draining our power.”

Alexis said, “What’s with you today?”

“It’s not me, it’s everything. Nothing works !” Garrett slapped the wall of the deckhouse.

Besides the tenuous electricity supply, which had already cost them their frozen food, and the flickering sonar and water-quality network, the farm itself wasn’t working right. The point of being out here was to demonstrate profitable aquaculture, right? But there were parasites in the fish and so on. “Are we that unlucky?”

“Quit it,” Alexis said. “Didn’t you experience enough of Murphy’s Law back home to expect minor problems like these?”

“Minor problems! We’ve got nothing to show for our efforts after spending a fortune and all this work! What am I going to tell Martin?”

Tess scuffed the deck with one shoe. “I got the windvane working.”

Garrett sighed. Since she was responsible for a lot of the electrical work, it sounded like he was blaming her. “Sorry, Tess. You did a good job. It’s my fault I didn’t plan better.”

“No,” Alexis said. “It’s no one’s fault. We’ll get everything fixed if we keep working at it, somehow. We deserve a break.”

“There’s too much to do for us to slack off.”

“Do you even know what day it is?”

Garrett blinked. “I’ve lost track.”

“Exactly. I’d like to stop and relax, and you definitely need it. You’re not going to get anything useful done till then. And you’ve been working Tess hard.”

“I’m fine,” Tess said, but she was looking as wilted as Alexis’ flowers. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Garrett stared out at the dull ocean. It felt meaningless and obstinate. But Alexis was right as usual; he was worthless in this mood. “I’ve had enough swimming and sun for one day,” he said. “Let’s do something nerdy.”

So three engineers and a robot spent hours sitting around playing games, in the middle of the ocean.

“The phoenix shoots a fireball!” Tess said, rolling dice. “What’s your armor?”

“Leather,” Alexis said.

“Figures. Roll two-d-ten.”

Zephyr said, “I have dice-rolling functions. You could ask me to generate random rolls.”

Garrett answered, “It’s not the same getting computerized results.”

“You think that I’ll cheat?” Zephyr was playing the paladin in their adventuring party.

Garrett had been surprised to learn that Zephyr played games like this until he remembered the bot’s designer was his geeky friend. It’d be nice to get a game going in person with Val sometime, when they weren’t both overwhelmed. Garrett took one of the dice and showed it to Zephyr. “What is this to you?”

“A primitive random number generator.” A blink. “Also a geometric primitive.”

“It means something. Touching the object puts you in contact with the meaning of it. I don’t think I can explain, but it’s more fun that way.”

Zephyr’s ears drifted in circles. “Using the object has emotional value. Part of this value comes from the tactile feedback?”

“The touch? Maybe, but also I’ve held dice like this on many fun, wasted nights.”

“The object invokes memory. The memory is: past events in which you felt the same thing?”

“Something like that,” said Garrett.

“My assessment is: each of you has an internal model of the game we’re playing. This model contains: estimates of where each character is, and estimates of what they can do. Is that right?” Zephyr got a round of slightly puzzled nods, and added his own. “That’s good. You’re like me, then.”

Garrett wasn’t sure whether the bot really felt it, what with that near-featureless face and rigid body, but his tone seemed pleased. For his own part Garrett was happy to stop thinking about work for a while.

The ocean had Tess surrounded. She was only around ten meters underwater, the length of a room, yet it was another world. Dim, blue and cold, wavering like a dream past her goggles and the scuba regulator in her mouth. Nearby, Alexis drifted, looking around and serving as her dive buddy.

Learning to dive had been like a video game. You got different levels of licenses for each skill, you could spend no end of money upgrading your gear, and there was an experience curve that affected even how quickly the air ran out. More confidence meant a lower heart rate, and hers was a hummingbird’s. Tess vented air, watching bubbles drift by her face and feeling her vest slacken. Sinking through the ocean’s “layer”, a depth level with strangely segregated water, chilled her suddenly. Nearby, the inverted-cup structures of Castor’s stabilizing units loomed with weird shadows on the seabed like a giant’s teeth.