Mary
walked into the Information Engineering center, feeling clean, tight, and
prepared. The walls were a slick grey
polymer, just on the lighter side of gunmetal, with attractive light-blue
piping matching the Engineering piping on the suits of the Collective corps
personnel there. She looked around, and
caught the eye of another engineer, skinny and lanky with long, precise fingers
that waved like antenna and surprisingly large eyes, ears and flaring nostrils. Between his features, his hairless head, and
the metallic brown hue of his skin she took him to be a Copper caste Zig.
She
stood in place and waved as he came over, his eyes scanning back and forth
almost rhythmically, his fingers gently clenching and unclenching as though
frustrated by a lack of activity. His
chevrons indicated that he was a Journeyman Second Class, high enough in rank
to hold some authority and have some knowledge of the facility. “Can I help you, apprentice?” He asked, politely enough.
She
saluted and then nodded. “Yes, thank
you. I’ve recently been reassigned to IE
and have been ordered to report to Master Lukash Bash Shimbul. Could you direct me to him?”
The Zig
looked her up and down and reached for the pad at his belt, tapping and swiping
the screen with deft movements. He
looked from the screen to her a couple of times. “Yes, Apprentice First Class Mary Kilgore,
correct?” She nodded. “Good.
Master Bash Shimbul has been expecting you. Follow me.”
He spun
on his heels and began marching off down one of the corridors off of the main
room. Mary followed, trying to take
everything in. It was a busy office;
sapient beings from several Collective races could be seen bustling along the
hallways, talking animatedly with each other or interacting furiously with
their computers, or in the case of humans, brins. He lead her to a doorway that glowed with a
fierce blue-white light, whereupon he turned around and passed her a pair of polarized
lenses. “You’ll want to strap these
on. The Master Engineer prefers lighting
appropriate to its spectrum for its work.”
Mary
took the lenses with their elastic band and pulled them over her head. The soft poly at the edge of the lenses
conformed quite comfortably to her features.
She stepped through the bright archway, her eyes slitted, and the lenses
adapted rapidly to the effusive brilliance in a matter of seconds.
The
room was not too large, and squarish.
From the ceiling, the walls, and in a few places, the floor, there were
cable leads and what looked to be mechanical arms stretched outwards towards
the center of the room, where what looked for all the world like a high-tech
throne sat, high-backed with a raised seat on a block that resembled a dias.
Appropriate
then, that the Mauraug engineer squatting on the throne should have a series of
vertical metal protrusions emerging from its skull in a ring, as thick as its
fingers and spaced a few centimeters apart, with glowing tips reminiscent of
jewels. Its body was thin and elongated
for its kind, its fur a creamy tan with red and black splotches, its eyes dark
and deep-set. Currently at least two of
the peaks of its “crown” were connected to leads in the ceiling.
It did
not seem to be paying attention to them at first, but when the Zig engineer
bowed and announced himself and Mary, Lakash’s gaze raised to them and seemed
to take them in. “Thank you, Journeyman,
that will be all.” It said, giving a
dismissive wave to him. The Zig departed
quickly, leaving Mary alone with her new superior officer.
It sat
back, leaning on one elbow, and stretched out its other arm, gently fondling
one of the connectors that emerged from the wall. She watched as the flesh on its arm parted
and a slim metal rod emerged, its toothed end locking to the lead and
tightening. Mary decided to clear her
throat. “Mary Kilgore, Apprentice First
Class, reporting for my first assignment.”
The
Mauraug cocked its head slowly, and a lead dangling from the ceiling slowly
lowered and attached itself to one of the connectors on the raised side of its
crown. It then nodded. “Yes.
Yes, welcome to the Information Engineering head office for Lotus
Station, Apprentice.” Its voice was as
slow and gentle as its movements had been and had an almost dancing, lilting
quality to its tone. “Have you received
any indication as to what your assignment is to be?”
Mary
shook her head. “No, I was just told
that I was being re-assigned, and to come to speak to you about it.”
Lukash
nodded slowly and licked its lips. “Good. A clean slate, no expectations, as I prefer
it. So. I find myself in need of someone new to handle
data correlation. It is a rather hefty
responsibility, Apprentice. Have you
done any work of this sort before?”
“I’m
not sure.” Mary said truthfully. She was having trouble picking up any
emotional signature at all from her superior and felt a little ill at
ease. “If I may say so, ‘data
correlation’ could represent a lot of different activities, Master
Engineer. Maybe if you could provide me
with some specifics?”
The
Mauraug engineer heaved a sigh and leaned back.
Another pair of leads dropped from the ceiling and attached themselves
to its head while one of the thorns on the front of its crown went dark, the
cable attached to it springing free and pulling up halfway to the ceiling. Its eyes became more sharp and it sat
forwards. A warm intensity began to
emanate from it.
“My
apologies. There were matters taking up
a good portion of my available cerebral resources. It seems that you are going to require a
detailed briefing on your position. Very
well, let’s begin.” The metal rod
attached to its arm disconnected from the wall lead that it had been attached
to; it brought both its hands together and steepled its fingers.
“What
do you know of interstellar data exchange, Apprentice? Tell me in your own words how systems
communicate with one another.”
Mary
took a deep breath and contemplated. “That’s
a broad topic, Master Engineer Bash Shimbul.
Please give me a moment to consider the best way to present it.” It nodded and waved a hand at her. She considered, and then began:
“There
are three ways, as I see it, that data makes its way from system to
system. First off, it is well known that
the Ningyo, due to their ability to bend space, have instantaneous
communication with each other, at least on a ship-to-ship, station-to-station,
and colony-to-colony basis, across any distance imaginable. The prices that they charge for the use of
their data transfer technology is considerable, although they have an
arrangement with the Collective to transmit any high priority information to
all Collective systems as soon as they receive it.
“Since
we haven’t found a reliable way to transfer data directly through hyperspace
outside of physical media, most ships traveling between systems carry messages
to be shared with other systems and stations.
This courier service can likewise come at a high price, but it’s one
that is often paid for in fuel and provisions and materials for the ships in question. In addition, most systems and stations have
their own computerized information networks, and ships will often store things
that are deemed important information from these networks to carry to other
systems, again for a price. They carry
news stories and the contents of popular network sites as well as private
messages between individual sapient beings, which get downloaded onto
system-based information networks at the discretions of local governments or
Collective officials for shared colonies or stations.
“Finally,
there’s word of mouth – and mind. Career
space travelers are considered goldmines of information and often share rumors
when they’re at port or on leave. This
applies across the board, from merchants to Collective agents to activists and
artists. People talk.
“So,
that’s my best summary, in order of highest to lowest fidelity of information
transfer between systems.” Mary
finished. She felt a wave of mingled
satisfaction and curiosity from her superior.
“Word
of mind – an interesting turn of phrase.”
Her skin grew cold and her heart began to thump. Why on
earth would I have said that? What, am I
trying to blow my cover, and make
this Mauraug paranoid to boot? “Are
you a telepath, Engineer Kilgore?”
“No,
Master Engineer.” She said, looking him
squarely in the eye and trying to calm her agitation by thinking of card hands
from her last game with Casey. “If I
were, I’d be a member of S.C.A.P.E., wouldn’t I?”
Lakash
blinked slowly at her. “Yes, you would,
wouldn’t you.” It paused for a few
moments, then carried on, though there was an almost visible undercurrent of
suspicion flowing out of it now. “A
decent summary.” It nodded slowly. “You are mostly correct.
“Being
that we are on the edge of Awakener space, far from the heart of the
Collective, close to regions uncharted by any but the Ningyo, we receive
precious little outside information. You
might think that we hardly need it, as anything high-priority will come through
Ningyo channels. You’d be wrong, of
course. Just because we are on the
physical outskirts of our official territories does not mean that we are not affected
by occurances and trends, and we receive a suprising amount of traffic here, as
well.
“In
short, Apprentice, this particular station is watched by many interests, and I
have reason to believe that they come from both within the Collective… and outside
of it.” It paused, watching her with its
hard, dark eyes. She could feel that it
was looking for a reaction, and so did her best to provide none but raised
eyebrows.
“So. We receive updates from visiting ships, official
Collective missives, and reports of local system-based happenings and they get
entered into our stationwide information network. The problem lies in the fact that much of
this information is from disparate and far-flung sources. The task that I’m assigning to you relates to
ensuring the fidelity of this information through correlation of data
points. In short I want you to find
stories and news items, and check against other records to get as clear and certain
a picture of the rest of the galaxy as we can.”
It folded its arms.
Mary’s
mind reeled. “That’s… that’s a huge
task.”
Lukash
smiled, showing just the barest hint of its fangs. “Yes, it is.
Or it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that you will be provided
with a hierarchy of topics to focus on.
Any miscellany outside of the list that I will provide will be
considered work done above and beyond the call of duty, and duly noted as
such. The most important topic, though,
will be this station and its surrounding spaces. We need to know what is being said about us
and our operations here.
“In
addition,” it continued. “I don’t want your AI doing any of this work. I know you have one, I’m not stupid, and that
is part of the reason that I wanted to assign a human to the task – the search
speed of your pet programs is unmatched by biological brains. I’m fine with you using it to conduct
searches, but any reports that you write, and any conclusions that you draw, I
expect to be your own. You see, I do have an understanding with Rima, the
shipboard AI…”
Master
Engineer Lukash extended both of its arms, and again, flesh on its wrists
parted and whirring, spinning metal rods extended outwards and connected to
cable armature emerging from the walls. Several
leads dropped from the ceiling and connected to the remaining free protrusions
on its head and it closed its eyes. Its
emotions faded a bit, but not before releasing a wave of satisfaction and
extasy that Mary typically identified with sex.
The
engineer’s voice continued, though no longer through its mouth; it emerged from
the speakers in the walls surrounding them.
“… I have an understanding with Rima; what she knows, I know, and I will find out, Apprentice. And I will be most displeased. Take the
rest of the day off, Apprentice, and report back in the morning. You are dismissed.”
Its mouth began to sag, jaw
opening, and the wave of emotion that extended from it was baffling to Mary –
she’d never experienced anything like it before. Satisfaction, pleasure, desire, and a whole
spectrum of other feelings rolled off of it at once. She snapped a quick salute and backed away,
practically tripping over herself to get out of the room quickly. She could swear she heard Lukash’s soft
laughter following her.
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