Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

“Did you see her?” exclaimed Ravana. “She just disappeared!”

Kedesh glanced at her with a strange expression both secretive and annoyed.

“See who?” asked Artorius grumpily, disturbed from his slumber.

“I saw a woman,” Ravana said weakly, when she realised Kedesh was deliberately staying silent. “Who seemed to turn into a cat.”

Artorius slipped from his bunk to look through the windscreen and frowned at the empty hangar. Behind him, the greys emerged from their own slumber, looking none too pleased that the boy had awoken them in turn.

“Fwack?” asked Stripy, sounding grouchy.

“Ghosts!” exclaimed Artorius.

Ravana gave Kedesh a pleading look.

“It’s as good a description as any,” Kedesh admitted and sighed. “That is, if your definition of a ghost is a trans-dimensional pain in the arse.”

Upon leaving the transport, Ravana kept a watchful eye open for any movement in the shadows. Kedesh refused to be drawn further on the subject of the mysterious stranger, but the dome was not large and it did not take them long to ascertain it was deserted.

The doorway at the rear of the hangar led to a wide corridor into the heart of the dome. After passing a series of other doors leading to various storerooms, this passageway opened into another corridor that ran in a ring around a central circular common room. Further doors off this second passage led to a couple of dormitories, a small medical centre, a well-appointed laboratory and a computer suite equipped with military communications equipment, including a holovid booth. Everything looked at least a couple of decades old yet in good working order, though there was little evidence the depot had regular visitors.

In one respect they were far from alone. The depot’s computer network was live and unexpectedly home to an artificial-intelligence personality that had greeted them by way of a hologram in the computer suite. The monochrome projection was of an elderly man with crazy white hair and an equally dishevelled laboratory coat, a visage Ravana recognised from history books as that of an esteemed twentieth-century physicist.

“Welcome to Falsafah Alpha!” the hologram greeted. Its voice bore a slight German accent and was authoritative yet gentle, in the manner of a genial headmaster. “I am the Monitoring and Information Scrutiny System Intelligence, responsible for the continuing operation of this station.”

Ravana paused while she sorted out the acronym in her mind. “Missi?”

“That’s a girl’s name,” sneered Artorius.

“Pleased to meet you,” said Kedesh. “I wasn’t aware this place was a going concern.”

“The human contingent has been absent for a while,” the AI informed her. “My duty is to preserve the viability of this facility and to continue monitoring ongoing experiments until such time that full operations can recommence.”

“Do you always appear like that?” asked Ravana. She remained puzzled that they had found no trace of the phantom cat woman, but now wondered if it had been an alternative holographic manifestation of Missi. “An Einstein look-alike, I mean.”

“The hologram is merely an aid to human interfacing,” the AI replied, not registering the real question behind Ravana’s remark. “I am available to assist whenever required.”

“Thank you,” said Kedesh, looking thoughtful. “I will bear that in mind.”

The hologram nodded, waited a few moments, then when no one else said anything it faded away to leave them alone in the computer suite. Kedesh looked perturbed, but when Ravana gave her a questioning look, she put a finger to her lips and shook her head.

After beckoning to Ravana, Artorius and the greys to follow, Kedesh led them to the medical centre. They were all tired and looking forward to taking advantage of the beds in the dormitories, but before they retired Kedesh suggested they use the centre’s full-body scanner and run blood tests to make sure no one had gained hidden injuries as a result of their recent trials. The woman’s frown deepened when they found the medical systems already held their names and other information, presumably harvested from their implants by Missi.

“Are there records for anyone else?” asked Ravana. “That woman, for instance?”

“Forget her,” Kedesh said harshly. “You saw nothing.”

Ravana scowled, but let Kedesh proceed with the checks. Her curiosity was aroused when she saw the woman pocket a vial of Artorius’ blood when she thought no one was looking, but said nothing. Kedesh acted coy about her own body scans, but when she came to check Ravana’s results she had a few questions of her own.

“Those scars of yours,” Kedesh said slowly. “On your face and arm. Do they hurt?”

Ravana hesitated. “Why do you ask?”

Kedesh lightly ran a finger down Ravana’s arm, along one of the deeper scars. There was a thin silver line at the base of the crease that contrasted markedly with the surrounding brown skin. Similar faint markings were evident elsewhere on the girl’s arm.

“Those lines,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

“I get pins and needles sometimes,” Ravana told her, looking wary. “Does the scan show anything? It’s just that…”

Her words faltered amidst a tremor of fear. Behind them, Artorius and Stripy were playing their slapping game and their excited shrieks had driven Nana to hide beneath the examination table. Kedesh took Ravana’s hand, gave her fingers a gentle squeeze of reassurance and waited for the girl to continue.

“I have this cat,” Ravana said at last. “An electric pet. A few months ago it fell off a window ledge and the panel in its belly came loose. I knew my friend Zotz had been secretly messing with its programming and guessed he had not closed it properly. When I went to push the panel closed, I was curious and looked inside. The cat was full of these tiny plant-like tendrils, all sprouting from its organic AI chip. It looked horrible.”

Kedesh looked puzzled. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

“Father says it’s something called Woomerberg Syndrome. The AI on the Platypus , my father’s ship, is affected the same way. At a Que Qiao research plantation on Yuanshi, we discovered that their AI units use brain cells taken from greys. Then when Taranis set up his secret cloning laboratory on the Dandridge Cole , alien growth hormones got into the life-support systems and contaminated the ship and my cat. And me.”

“Alien brain cells?” Kedesh smiled. “You’re no AI!”

“My implant,” Ravana said weakly. “I’m scared those silver lines are the same, that my implant is sending out tendrils under my skin. What else could it be?”

“That’s ridiculous! Where do you get these silly ideas?”

“There’s other things too,” Ravana protested, a little taken aback by the woman’s reaction. “My weak arm seems stronger now than it used to be. And, also…” She hesitated, then sighed. “Actually, I can’t think of anything else. Am I being silly?”

Kedesh gave her a reassuring hug.

“You’re fine!” she announced. “If a bit silly. You’ll be pleased to know the scanner has not found anything some food, a cup of tea and a good night’s sleep won’t cure. You too, Artorius. This may be our last chance for a decent meal and a proper bed for a while, so we may as well make the most of it.”

Ravana managed a wry grin. “Unless we get awoken by the strange cat woman.”

“I said forget her,” Kedesh said sternly. “I’ll see you in the common room.”

Ravana smiled, took Artorius by the hand and led him out of the medical centre, the greys trotting behind. Kedesh waited a few moments and then sighed.