Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

“It has the same flexible carapace and freaky internal skeleton of a Yuanshi ashtapada,” Kedesh was saying. “The enlarged book lungs and pronounced frontal lobes set it apart. But there’s nothing to eat out there and very little oxygen beyond the valley. How can these things be anything else other than a bizarre and possibly pointless experiment?”

“I am unable to confirm nor deny your observations,” replied the hologram.

“I saw her again!” cried Ravana. “I even spoke to her!”

Kedesh looked up and regarded Ravana crossly. “Saw who?”

“The phantom cat woman. She was in the hangar!”

“Ravana,” Kedesh said gently. “There was no one there. Forget her.”

“You’ve seen her before, haven’t you?” Ravana accused her, but the woman just shrugged. “Missi, you must have cameras everywhere. Did you see her?”

“My records contain no image of such person,” the AI told Ravana.

“Fat lot of use you are,” Ravana grumbled. “I did see her! She said something about being a pawn or a queen in a game, then disappeared exactly as before! She was tall, with dark hair, a fur coat and strange yellow eyes and… What?”

Kedesh gave a sympathetic smile and shook her head sadly. Ravana opened her mouth to argue, but the woman’s expression was that of someone listening to a child’s tale of fairies at the bottom of the garden. Ravana scowled and slunk into a corner to sulk.

“Can we return to the spiders?” suggested Kedesh, addressing the hologram. “This experiment of yours. Classified information, I take it?”

“To answer that question would presuppose your earlier deductions were correct,” Missi said smoothly. “You are free to use the station’s facilities as you please, but I cannot allow you to compromise the ongoing research conducted under my supervision.”

“By that you mean stop asking questions,” Kedesh retorted irritably.

“You don’t answer any of mine,” complained Ravana. “Why don’t you believe me? I did see her. She knew my name!”

Finding herself ignored, Ravana shuffled closer to Kedesh and the hologram. She was trying not to look at the corpse, for the thought of what the woman was doing to the mangled arachnid made her feel sick. Kedesh paused to dictate murmured notes to a nearby touch-screen slate, seemingly fascinated by the innards of the spider’s carapace.

“Do you know if this place has a working ED transmitter?” Ravana asked cautiously, trying a change of tack. “I was hoping I could call home.”

Just for an instant, the hologram froze and then flickered, as if the guiding intelligence had been temporarily called away. Ravana turned her questioning stare towards Kedesh, but the woman pointedly remained engrossed in her dissection.

“I regret that the transceiver is currently inoperative,” Missi announced calmly.

Ravana found the AI’s manner oddly suspicious. “What sort of problem?”

“There is a fault in the alpha-echo-three-five control unit,” the AI replied hesitantly. “This is situated on the main antenna mast and human intervention is required.”

“I’ve seen that movie,” Ravana retorted crossly. “If you don’t want me to use the holovid, just say so.” She glanced at the half-dissected spider, then to Kedesh and shuddered. “I don’t know how you can even touch that thing. Where did it come from?”

“It was wrapped around a drive shaft underneath the transport,” she said. “I wanted to test my hunch that the spiders are part of an experiment Missi refuses to tell me about. I’m pretty sure the bunker we saw in the valley is extracting oxygen from ground water to give them something to breathe, but it makes me wonder what else is needed to sustain them. I’m somewhat stumped as to why they are out there at all.”

“The pursuit of knowledge is reason enough,” the hologram interjected.

Kedesh looked far from convinced. “I know this place was built by the American military. I dread to think of what your creators had in mind when they set up an experiment involving these things.”

“The scope and aims of the research are restricted,” the AI stated.

“This is a military research centre?” asked Ravana, alarmed. “Won’t we get into trouble just by being here?”

“You heard Missi,” said Kedesh. “We are welcome as long as we don’t meddle. Besides, I think the Americans have forgotten this place exists. They built both here and Falsafah Beta more than twenty years ago, but the latter has long been used as a hideaway by the Dhusarians and no one has ever objected.”

“I am aware of their presence,” Missi confirmed. “They are of no consequence.”

“Easy for you to say,” muttered Ravana.

“Ravana, Artorius and our grey friends had a rather unpleasant innings with those at Falsafah Beta,” Kedesh explained. Ravana wondered why she was telling this to an AI. “It has been a trying time all round, but we are grateful for the chance to rest.”

“You are most welcome,” the AI replied. “The station is at your disposal.”

“We’ll be gone before you know it,” said Ravana, still thinking of the mysterious stranger in the hangar. “No one likes guests who overstay their welcome, do they?”

“On the contrary,” said Missi. “There is no danger of that happening here.”

Artorius pushed aside the empty bowl, slumped back into his chair and burped. His fifth serving of ice-cream was nice, but somehow not as satisfying as the previous four, to add to which he now felt queasy. Sitting with him in the common room were Nana and Stripy. They had both been keen to try the cold dessert, albeit with mixed results; Stripy was a bowl ahead of Artorius and behaving as if it were some sort of competition, while Nana had left a first helping unfinished. Artorius watched with a glazed expression as a clawed scullery robot scuttled along the table on tiny legs, scooped the empty dishes into the basket upon its back, then disappeared once more through a hatch in the wall. Missi’s hologram, hovering by the food molecularisor, approached the seated diners with an icy smile.

“Was that to your satisfaction?” asked the AI.

Artorius nodded, burped again and gave a weak grin. “I feel sick,” he said.

“Fwack,” agreed Stripy. The grey’s face had taken on a distinct green tint.

“Thraak thraak!” chided Nana. “Thraak thraak thraak!”

“I don’t care,” Artorius said stubbornly. “I like ice-cream.”

He enjoyed being able to order Missi around; and not just because he had no idea how to work the molecularisor, or indeed anything else in the kitchenette. He felt the AI treated him like a proper adult in letting him do what he wanted, which was more than Ravana or Kedesh ever did.

“I like you,” Artorius decided. “You can be my slave.”

“Your arrival was unforeseen but welcome,” Missi replied. “I have no recent data on your development and my research will be greatly enhanced by your presence. I fear however that allowing your companions to remain poses a risk to this establishment.”

“Nana and Stripy?”

“I refer to the young female and the other individual,” the AI clarified. “The creatures with you in this room appear to be of non-Earth origin and similar to the subject of another research project known to me. They are particularly worthy of further study.”

“They’re aliens,” Artorius told the hologram. “They’re really clever but talk funny.”

“Fwack!” protested Stripy.

“Your human companions destroyed many years of work when they trespassed in the valley. They will make amends by sacrificing themselves to science. Once committed, I would be free to serve you and you alone.”