Ghost of Mind Episode One (19 page)

Then it made a high-pitched purring sound and
bobbed up and down with a chirp.

Alice actually laughed.

She didn’t have time to grab it and try to
give the electronic bauble a hug though. ‘Shut down the beam
scanning this ship,’ she snapped quickly.

The bauble replied with a happy chirp, zoomed
around the air for a bit, then shot towards a panel on the other
side of the room. It hovered over it and a sent a light slicing
towards it.

Alice watched carefully, her eyes darting
from the orb to the panel.

She hoped this would work, but if it didn’t,
she would go to plan b. And plan b was breaking the beautiful
windows just behind her and taking her chances with the security
that would no doubt show up seconds later.

‘
Ship’s scanner beam disengaged,’ the orb
replied.

‘
Fantastic,’ Alice said, her eyes rolling
back into her head as she shook her head fast. She wanted to cry,
she really did. In fact, a tear did trickle past her blinked
eyes.

The orb zoomed back to her. ‘It will be
several hours before the crew of this vessel will be able to get
their scanners back online.’

Alice smiled heartily. She didn’t
particularly care if the scanners never worked again. She just
wanted to get out of here.

She reached out a hand to the orb, and
instantly it settled in her palm.

It made her smile even brighter.

Alice hardly got the chance to smile; her
life was not a pretty one.

But it was a welcome sensation, and as her
cheeks pushed up against her eyes, that single tear trickling down
to her chin, she reveled in it.

‘
What’s your name?’ she asked
quietly.

‘
Helper A-5-G—’ it began.

‘
I’ll just call you Helper,’ she remarked
softly.

They were all called Helpers. Because this
was not the first such device she had come across. Alice had once
had a Helper all of her own. Though it was a sad statement to admit
to, it had been her only true friend. In a universe where she had
to distrust everyone, Alice’s only solace had been a Helper that
had shepherded her since childhood.

She’d loved that thing. It had kept her sane.
Then one day it had been destroyed. As Alice had run from a pirate
vessel, her Helper had gotten stuck in an errant transport beam.
She’d never seen it again.

Swallowing hard, more tears trickling down
her cheeks, Alice opened up her energy. She gave it freely to the
zipping little orb. It would not take much; it would hardly dent
her own reserves. But it would be worth it.

‘
Thank you, oh great one,’ it replied with
a cheerful tone and absolutely no hint of irony or
humor.

It made Alice let out a sobbing laugh.
‘You don’t have to call me that.’

‘
It is customary to refer to a member of
the founding races—’ the orb began.

‘
It’s fine. Call me Alice,’ she
managed.

‘
Alice,’ it tried out her name.

She liked the sound of it.

‘
Alice,’ it said again, ‘Alice, what do you
wish to do?’

‘
Run away from this universe and never come
back,’ she answered with a bitter laugh.

‘
Computing
possibilities . . . ’ Helper trailed off. ‘They
are unlikely; though a multiverse is believed to exist, matter
transference between realities—’ it began.

‘
It’s okay. I know I can’t do that. What I
need to do,’ she indulged in a deep breath, her gaze darting back
out of those huge windows behind her, ‘is get off this ship
undetected.’

‘
Computing possibilities. Select
timeframe,’ Helper chirped.

‘
About now,’ she replied sniffing and
finally pushing back the tears.

‘
I will help, for I am Helper,’ it
replied.

Listening to it, Alice could almost cry.

For someone who had been as alone as Alice
always had been, finding a friend in Helper was indescribable.

It was also very timely. Because Alice knew
that if she didn’t get off the ship in the next minute or so, her
worst fears would no doubt be realized, and she would be
discovered.

‘
Computation of possibilities complete. I
have selected the safest plan. Activating it now,’ Helper said, his
little chirpy, electronic voice possibly the most welcome sound in
the entire universe.

As Alice listened to it, she couldn’t help
but grin, but she also shook on the spot at the same time, having
to pump her hands back and forth just to keep herself steady.

She knew what Helper was doing, as he floated
there in the center of the room, several quick, sharp beams of
light shooting from his round body, she could guess what he was up
to. He would be integrating with the ICN, no doubt bypassing
security protocols and trying to wend his way into the network.

And no doubt, considering exactly what he was
and who had built him, it would work.

After several gut-wrenching seconds, where
Alice waited for Helper to accidentally flick some kind of safety
switch and get them both court, it was over. With a happy little
chirp, he shifted to the side, zoomed around a bit, then plopped
straight back in Alice’s hand. ‘Complete. I have shut down the ICN,
I have programmed shadows into the network, we are now free to
leave this ship, they will have no scans of us, they will not be
able to track us, and as long as we are discreet and use the back
entrance, nobody will know.’

Alice’s small grin suddenly turned into a
wide, genuine smile. She liked what she was hearing. Gone was the
stress and horrendous desperation, because now she had a
Helper.

With one last glance at the room around her,
her eyes locking onto that incredible view, Alice walked back to
the elevator shaft. This time she didn’t plunge down it, using her
incredible grip to latch onto the metal walls. No, she actually
used the lift like a civilized person. With the knowledge that
Helper would prevent the ship’s on-board computer from detecting
them, as long as she didn’t walk in front of any crew members,
Alice would be fine.

Letting Helper direct her, the two of them
made their way out of the ship. Whenever she needed one, Helper
provided a distraction, whether that be loosening a pressure valve
in engineering, or momentarily blocking out all of the lights along
a corridor, it worked. And within minutes she was out.

Alice could have crumpled to her knees,
brought her hands over her face, and cried into them. She was just
that relieved. Her fortunes had changed in an instant. If she
hadn’t gone up to that room, if she hadn’t spied that orb, no doubt
things would have turned out a great deal differently though.

‘
I am Helper,’ Helper pointed out
needlessly, ‘you are Alice, what will we do now?’

It was a very good question; in the space of
a day, a very hectic and horrible day, Alice’s life had changed
completely. She was on a different planet, she now had a friend,
and for all intents and purposes, the galaxy now thought she was
dead.

Picking and pulling at her lip, letting her
hand brush up against the rim of her hood as she did, Alice walked
along the metal gangway that surrounded the ships docked all around
her. She tried to think. And then the reality, as horrible as it
sounded, dawned on her. She may now have a friend and a new life,
so to speak, but she was still the same old Alice in the same old
hell. She could not allow herself to be discovered. And that would
be the sum total of the rest of her life.

‘
We must pause here for approximately 30
seconds; a ship will travel to our left, and if we walk out along
the gangway now, it will gain a view of us,’ Helper suddenly
chimed.

Alice did exactly what he said. But as she
let her feet grind to a halt, her worn and practically destroyed
shoes grating against the metal, she took the opportunity to
think.

‘
If Alice does not have a ready plan, let
Helper suggest one,’ he beeped softly by her ear. ‘We must return
to the Empire. To the founding fathers and mothers. To the great
races that seeded this universe.’

As Helper spoke, Alice could not help but
smile. Which was ironic, because there was nothing in his words
that should make her do anything but sob and cry. There were no
founding fathers and mothers, there were no great races or empires.
They were all dead, save for her. And it was a reality and fact she
hated to revel in, but one she faced every single day of her
life.

Maybe Helper read something into her
silence, because he suddenly began to chirp softly, then there was
an electronic whiz of air, almost like a human gasp. ‘This Helper
has integrated with the global ICN network. It understands,’ it
said, its voice dropping low.

Alice knew what that meant. Helper would have
just downloaded the information stored on the ICN of this planet in
an instant. And in doing so he would have refreshed his memory
banks, filling them with the history of the past 100,000 years. A
history that was alarmingly free of the Old Ones.

Maybe Helper turned to her, maybe if it
had possessed the equivalent of electronic eyes, it would have
narrowed them in commiseration. ‘We are sorry for our loss,’ Helper
finally added.

Our loss. Those two little words rang in
Alice’s head. Not just her loss, because Helper had lost too. That
was the funny thing about Old Tech, no matter how hard you tried to
get around it, it seemed alive. Not just technology, not just
machinery, but somewhere deep within was the ghost in the
machine.

Pressing her fingers into her brow, letting
her face twist up into a hearty frown, Alice finally moved
forward.

‘
It is the suggestion of this Helper unit
that we seek out some kind of safety for the time being. Then we
will come up with a plan for the future.’

A half smirk twisting through Alice’s
powerful frown, she let her gaze flick towards Helper. A plan for
the future, now didn’t that sound grand. But no matter what the
details, Alice already knew what it would consist of. Running and
hiding. If she was lucky, Helper would stay with her forever, but
Alice was not lucky. Maybe not in the next week, or month, or year,
but she knew the two of them would get into deep trouble, and
somewhere along the way she would lose him, like she had lost her
previous Helper unit.

Trying not to be pulled too far down into her
swirling sorrow, Alice raised her head, glaring out at the sky
around her. She was on some kind of docking ring unit. It was
massive, and she knew from experience it would contain multiple
levels dedicated to various activities. While the top layer housed
ships that came and went, the actual guts of this floating
monstrosity would be full of shops, apartment blocks, promenades,
and everything else you could fit into a massive city in the
sky.

Staring up at the clouds above her, noticing
the slight sheen and flicker of the weather field that would
surround this entire unit, keeping the atmosphere locked in place
and ensuring whatever horrendous winds outside didn’t tear through
the equipment, Alice began to grind her teeth.

She didn’t like this. Being stuck up in the
air. At least on Orion Minor, though she had technically been
cooped up in Block Alpha, she had always been able, if the
situation had dictated, to return to the planet below. Up here she
didn’t have that opportunity.

‘
Integrating with the docking ring’s ICN
again,’ Helper chimed from beside her, ‘I will compute the safest
route and ascertain the safest place to hide.’

Letting him get on with what he did best,
Alice found herself walking forward, listening to the heavy sound
of her footfall as it resounded through the metal grating below
her. Every step was solid, and the bang of the metal underneath
seemed to shift right through her.

For some reason, for some strange reason, it
brought one thought and one face swimming before her mind. John
Doe. No doubt he was still back on Orion Minor.

As she thought of him, half of her mouth
twisted up into a smile, while the other side plunged down into a
frown. That man had been tenacious; she had seen the look of
determination in his eye, and the thought of it served to reinforce
to Alice the fact he was a very dangerous enemy. And yet she could
not forget the kindness. The fact that though everybody else in the
Security Centre had seemingly forgotten her, he had always acted to
try to keep her safe.

Put it out of your mind, she thought to
herself sternly.

‘
Helper,’ she suddenly found herself
asking, figuring that if she engaged in conversation, it would stop
her mind from wondering, ‘exactly what planet are we
on?’

It was a question she should have asked
before, but her mind was addled. There was too much to think of and
too much to process.

‘
Orion Major,’ Helper answered
immediately.

Orion Major. The sister planet of Orion
Minor, the one where all the well-to-do, rich, successful, and
intelligent people ended up. There were no slums on this planet,
just the cities of integrated, interconnected docking rings,
floating above the beautiful, crystal-like water planet below. She
had seen pictures of it, she’d even played with the occasional
interactive hologram, but this was the first time she had ever set
foot on the planet, even though the actual surface was kilometers
and kilometers below.

Grinding her teeth together, narrowing her
eyes, Alice let one hand distractedly pull over a metal railing by
her side. She didn’t like planets like Orion Major; the security
was too good, and there was nowhere to hide.