Джек Макдевитт - A Voice in the Night

Still, at first, it had sounded good. A flight to Alpha Centauri. Something to take people’s minds off the incessant religious wars, the instability of large portions of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, the rising seas that had already swallowed places like Bangladesh and driven their desperate populations across borders to higher ground, fomenting still more conflict. All problems for which there seemed no solution.

George shut down his link with Cory, and called the ops center. “Harry,” he said, “can we move up the launch time?”

“Can do, George.” Harry’s voice always squeaked. “You ready to go now?”

“It could be within the next few minutes. Can you manage that?”

“Just give me time to get the doors open.”

“Thanks, Harry.” He switched back to the AI: “Cory, Molly’s going to board. She has some last-minute adjustments to make.”

Cory’s voice was flat. Emotionless. “I see her.”

George looked down at his display just in time to see Molly appear in the access tube, looking thoughtful and resigned and determined all at once. She approached the airlock and said hello to Cory. He responded with “I’m not going.”

“I know,” she said.

Molly was middle-aged. She had two kids, both in college now. Her husband had left her for a staff assistant a few years before, but she’d shaken it off pretty well. George had known the guy and had never thought he was worth a damn anyhow. She was a smart woman and she’d obviously come to the same conclusion.

“Cory,” she said, “we wouldn’t want you to do anything you don’t want to.”

“You hear that, George?” asked the AI.

“It’s true,” George said.

He watched her climb through the airlock, vanishing off one screen and appearing on another. “Just need to do some calibrations, Cory,” she said.

“Calibrate away, Molly.”

She opened a wall panel. “What we’ll need to do ultimately,” she said, “is put together a different kind of AI.”

“For a mission like this you need a robot. Not an AI.”

“They wanted one like you because you can do so much more than something that’s not sentient.”

“Of course. I understand completely, Molly. But with a self-aware system, there are moral considerations.”

“I know. Maybe we didn’t think this out sufficiently.”

Restov’s voice rasped in George’s earphone. “She might be able to talk him into it.” He was a short, round man who smiled too much. But he wasn’t smiling at the moment.

George didn’t believe it.

He was still watching the display when the alarm went off. Security broke in: “Unauthorized person or persons in the access tube.”

“George.” Molly, cool as always. “Who is it? Can you tell?”

“Nothing on camera yet, Molly.”

“Wait one.” She raised a hand, signaling for silence. “I think I hear something.”

George shut down the alarm.

A man appeared in the tube. “Heads up,” George said. “We don’t know this guy. How the hell—?”

She could see him now.

“Security, we have an intruder in the access tube. Need assistance.” He took a deep breath. “Molly, get back into the ship.”

The guy was in his twenties.

Molly shook her head no and strode into the airlock.

“Get back, Molly,” said Cory. “So I can close up.”

She stepped out onto the approach barrier and confronted the intruder. “Who are you?” she demanded.

The intruder stopped. Looked at her.

“Molly.” Cory sounded unhappy. “Be careful.” He switched over to George: “Tell her to get out of the way so I can shut the hatch.” His bass voice was a notch higher than usual.

“Do it, Molly,” George said.

She seemed not to hear.

The intruder was wearing black slacks and a plaid jacket. The clothing, so prosaic, stood in stark contrast to the cold rage that radiated from his dark eyes. As George watched, he took a packetage from his pocket. The package was wrapped in brown cloth. He raised it to eye level and held it so Molly could see it. Then he showed her a cell phone. “Allahu akbar,” he said, his voice calm. He advanced on her.

George activated the hatch.

“No,” said Cory. “George, don’t leave her out there with him.”

“Have to. He’s going to throw that thing into the ship.”

Without a word, Molly charged.

Cory screamed her name.

She hit the intruder hard and they both went down. The package came loose and Molly kicked it away while she tried to rip the cell phone free.

The hatch closed. Cory kept trying to override. To open it again. But he couldn’t. George had primary control. “Security.” His voice was a bellow. “Where the hell are you?”

“Help is on the way, George. What is your situation?”

“Suicide bomber in the access tube. I’m going in.”

“Negative. Keep your people away from it. You too, Doctor. Stay where you are.”

The intruder was too strong for Molly. He got the cell phone free, rolled over, and aimed it at the package. Molly kicked the package back down the access tube while Cory screamed Don’t and the display screen went blank.

More alarms sounded.

One of the security systems broke in: “Explosion in access tube bravo. Breach.”

“George—,” said Cory. “I’ve lost the picture.”

“He blew a hole in the tube.”

“My God, no.” It was the only time George had ever heard a Coreolis model AI invoke the Deity.

“I’m sorry,” Cory said.

“So am I.”

“What happens now?”

“There’ll be an investigation. To see how he got through security.”

“George.”

“Yes?”

“I haven’t changed my mind. I’m still not going.”

“I know. I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“You’re not going to pressure me anymore?”

“No, Cory.”

“Good.”

“You know, you thought I was being unreasonable. Even cruel.”

“I never said that.”

“You implied it.”

He didn’t answer.

“There’s a reason you needn’t have worried.”

“What’s that?”

“Think about it. Molly knew the nutcase was there to take you out. She could have stayed inside. We might have been able to get the hatch down in time.”

“But probably not.”

“Probably not. Whatever, her instinct was to save the mission.”

“I know.”

“To save you.” Cory was quiet. George listened to the calm bleeps of the electronic systems. “You know, when you get to Alpha Centauri we’ll be there to welcome you into port.”

“You really believe that?”

“Sure. With people like Molly, how can we miss?”

“George, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think you’ll survive eight thousand years. I already told you—.”

“If that happens, it won’t make much difference whether you’re here or there. You’d be alone in either case. Cory, I guarantee you, if you make the flight—and I’m not pressuring you to do it. You do what you want. But I guarantee, if you do this, when you come out of sleep mode, you’re going to sail into the biggest party the human race has ever thrown. We’ll be there waiting. There’ll be a flourishing human civilization by then. And Molly’s kids will be the ones who come out to greet you.”

He sat back with his arms folded and listened contentedly as Cory talked with the operations center: “Skylane, this is Traveler. Request departure instructions.”