Network Effect

I signaled Overse and Thiago that they could leave their EVAC suits and told them, “We’ll start a physical evidence search here and work our way toward the control area and the drop box.” The drones were telling me the likelihood of Targets lying in wait was low to nil, and without a targetControlSystem installed, it seemed unlikely that there would be targetDrones. We still had to check for any evidence that ART’s crew might have been here. A note saying “help, etc.” was preferable to signs like body parts stuffed into maintenance cubbies or blood and/or viscera smears on walls and deck.

On the comm, Ratthi said, “That still looks like a lot of area to search. Maybe Arada and I should come over, too.”

For fuck’s sake, Ratthi. Amena immediately jumped in with, “Arada should stay with the ship. I could go.”

I started to answer (I don’t know what I was going to say but it was probably something I was going to feel bad about later). Overse and Thiago both took breaths to object. But ART got in before any of us (it helps to not actually need any air to talk) and said, No.

Ratthi tried to clarify, “No to Amena, or no to—”

No to all of you, ART said.

“Perihelion’s right,” Arada said, in a Mensah-like I’m-being-reasonable-but-you-should-all-shut-up voice, “Now let’s let them focus.”

Overse and Thiago had gotten out of their EVACs and did quick checks of their environment suits. Thiago said briskly, “Should we split up?”

I was facing the right-hand corridor and didn’t turn around. I don’t know what my back told him (possibly it was my shoulders, having a reaction to how my jaw hinge was grinding) but he added, “And that was a joke.”

Overse’s smile was dry. She told him, “It was sort of a joke.”

“This way.” I started down the corridor, telling one of my drones to drop back into a sentry position behind the humans to make sure nothing snuck up on us. Yes, I know the scout drones weren’t finding anything, but still. On the shows I liked best, monsters were always a possibility in these situations, but in reality it only happened around 27 percent of the time.

Also a joke. Mostly.

We cleared the short corridors that branched off the main corridor to each lock, and checked the few storage/maintenance cubbies. We weren’t finding anything, not even trash. As we moved to the forward section, I gave up on accessing DockSecSystem through the feed; I needed to find its direct access station to see if it had had any moments of lucidity after the failed load. Not that this situation needed to be any more frustrating or anything.

The lights flickered on for us as we passed and flickered off afterward. We didn’t technically need lights; my eyes and my drones had dark vision filters and the humans had hand and helmet lights they were using to check the walls and floor. I thought the best chance for actual evidence was in the DockSecSystem’s archive, if I could just get the stupid system to load right. If we had to bring ART’s big fancy drones over and do a search for DNA traces, it would be a huge pain in the ass, and if they found nothing, it still wouldn’t be positive evidence that the crew hadn’t been here.

I was hoping a lack of evidence would be the problem, that we wouldn’t find a bunch of DNA smears near an airlock. If that happened, I wasn’t sure how ART would react. Or what I would do about how it reacted. I was terrible at being comforting. It was hard enough trying to do it to humans; I had no idea what would help ART. Everything I could think of seemed drastically inadequate.

Keeping her voice low, Overse said, “This place feels older, like it’s been here a very long time. But we know it was built only around forty years ago.”

We know it was in existence at least thirty-seven years ago. ART was being pedantic in our comm. Space docks were not commonly in use in Pre–Corporation Rim colonies so it is unlikely there was a structure here when Adamantine arrived.

Thiago’s light moved along the edge of the corridor. “It feels that way because it was built for a purpose and then hardly used. According to Perihelion’s information, Adamantine didn’t last for very long after the colony was established. There may have only been one or two supply runs.”

We passed two more corridor openings but from my drones I knew they led to module locks and to the cargo access. My drones had whipped through the central control area but couldn’t get through the hatch into the drop box, which was the one place something/someone might be lurking/hiding/crawled into and died.