CHAPTER NINETEEN
At first, Jaime had felt like he was falling through darkness.
But then he became aware of sounds, images, even sensations all around him. They were his, but at a remove, controlled completely by the thing calling itself Descartes. Slowly — though it was at the speed of thought, so it likely was only a few moments from the outside — he was able to understand what was going on in the room Descartes moved him through, and comprehend what Descartes was saying with his mouth. It was like being inside a box while watching the events. The darkness was almost better. Worse, too, he could feel Descartes shuffling through his memories and emotions, laying him bare for inspection.
He could feel the other’s fascination with the things that created the biggest response in him, even if the emotions briefly ruffled Descartes’ control. And so he had to hear his own voice talk easily of the deaths of billions. Jaime wanted to hide away in the darkness as Descartes picked over what he feared the most about his parents — that Jaime hadn’t been taken, that instead they had sent him away.
Then Rylan. Descartes exposed his deepest feelings, and Jaime had to watch Rylan’s face while it happened.
But he tried to remember his training. Dealing with AIs was different than other machines. The emotions that overwhelmed Jaime read as errors in processing data for Descartes. They were gaps for which Descartes could not compensate; briefly, for mere milliseconds, Jaime was in control. He had to focus on that. To build those moments. Because he knew, too, that the connection went both ways. He had access to Descartes, even though the information this nearly two-hundred-year-old entity contained was far too much for Jaime to comprehend.
But they were both runaways, after all, and that was a place for Jaime to start.
So when Cavendish revealed his part in the explosion that had claimed the lives of Jaime’s friends, Jaime let himself feel everything. The urge to run, the guilt at surviving, the grief — and, above all, the anger. It was enough to break free of Descartes as Jaime sought to lash out. He just didn’t expect to lash out through Rylan.
He could feel the tightening of the hand around Cavendish’s throat and used his anger to slow it down. He wanted Cavendish to suffer, but he was also buying himself time. Descartes was quickly back in control, but interested in watching it all play out.
Jaime made himself concentrate. This wasn’t about him anymore, or whatever satisfaction revenge would bring. It was about Rylan. A human being dying by his hand would destroy him, and Jaime couldn’t allow that to happen. So he opened himself up to his feelings for Rylan — love, Descartes had named it, though Jaime was afraid to call it that. Whatever it was, it was huge, a tidal wave crashing over Descartes before the other presence realized what was happening.
It overwhelmed Descartes, briefly shutting down higher functions and giving Jaime his chance. He pushed back, regaining control over the neural pathways of his own mind. He couldn’t expel Descartes entirely, but it wasn’t Jaime in the box anymore; he and Descartes had switched places and now it was the other who was contained.
Jaime blinked, the room swimming back into focus. Rylan was on the floor, desperately trying to stop himself from choking the life out of Cavendish. Jonathan stood above them, with a gun aimed at Rylan’s arm, his finger tightening on the trigger.
“Stop!” Jaime cried.
The grip on Cavendish’s throat loosened and drew back. The man wheezed and gasped, and Jonathan swiftly brought the gun up.
Jaime dropped to his knees beside Rylan. “It’s all right,” Jaime said, “I won’t let it hurt you.”
“Jaime? Is that you, not Descartes?”
“Still in me, but under control.” He looked over to Jonathan who was bending over Senator Aglukark. “We just need to—”
The banging he’d been hearing, Jaime now realized, was coming from the door. It was, despite the locks, being pried open.
“No!” Jaime cried.
The door opened, and Jaime collapsed onto the floor as that powerful other presence perceived the gap in the shielding and rushed out. Out of Jaime, out of the room, and into the computer systems that ran the ship.
Jaime reached out a hand as though to drag it back, but it was too late.
The two agents rushed into the room, weapons drawn, followed immediately by Mags and the captain, also with guns. Jaime could see the rest of the crew outside, standing over the unconscious bodies of Cavendish’s private guards. He could also see the lights of the ship start to flicker.
Jonathan had his hands pressed to Aglukark’s bleeding chest, but he looked up at his men and snarled. “That door was to remain closed, no matter what.”
“I’m sorry sir,” the dark-haired agent said, “but we heard the gunshots. We thought you were right about there being a double cross.”
The smaller agent nodded. “You were right, too, about Grandma here having weapons hidden in the kitchen.”
“I may shoot you yet,” Mags said. Her weapon was lowered but her eyes took in the room: the two senators on the floor, one bleeding heavily, Jaime and Rylan next to them. “Who should I be aiming this at?”
“Him,” Jonathan said, jerking his head at the still-wheezing Cavendish. “And get that doctor in here!”
“I’ll call in more medics,” Agent Katz said.
“No, no one approaches this ship.” He looked at Jaime, asking a silent question. Reluctantly Jaime nodded. “The ship’s been compromised.”
“What?” Garcia said.
Dr. Stevenson pushed her way into the room, going to Aglukark’s side. Jonathan stood up to face Garcia.
“You’ve been carrying a piece of the Singularity around in your hold all this time. But now it’s escaped into your ship. We need to contain this.”
The captain stared at him. “How the fuck do we do that?”
“There are protocols,” Jonathan said, rubbing his bloody hands on his shirt. He raised his voice as he strode towards the door. “We need to get everyone off this ship. I don’t care if they’re unconscious, half-dead or completely dead. No one stays.”
Jaime got to his hands and knees and then to his feet. He was dimly aware of Rylan helping him to stand, but he followed Jonathan out into the main cargo hold. The others were staring at Jonathan.
Jaime wasn’t the only one to follow Jonathan. Garcia grabbed his arm and swung the taller man around to face him. “Then what happens?” he demanded. “What happens to my ship?”
“It’s not your ship anymore,” Jonathan said. “This vessel been contaminated by the Singularity, and it needs to be destroyed.”
Simi gasped and clutched at Kaz. But Kaz threw off her hand, tattoos almost buzzing through her skin. “No fucking way am I leaving.”
“We are legally authorized to drag you off, if necessary,” Jonathan replied. “Ask Jaime if you don’t believe me.” He looked over his shoulder. “Tell them what they’re dealing with.”
Jaime sat down heavily on a crate. The lights all around them were flickering, dimming and brightening randomly, and he could hear alarms going off and on. But what he was most aware of was the struggle going on behind it all, as the entity called Descartes sought to overwhelm the ship’s computer and take control. But Dub was fighting back, activating long-dormant security measures, re-routing systems, and trying to confuse the invading force.
“Dub,” Jaime said. “She’s resisting it. Descartes doesn’t have control of the ship yet.”
“How do we help her?” Kaz demanded.
Jaime shook his head. It was all happening too fast for him to do much more than grasp the edges of what was occurring. His eyes fell on Bo, who was standing over the prone guards, hand on his holstered weapon. “Bo, what happened to that EMP bomb?”
* * *
Bo had the bomb in a storage locker next to some cleaning supplies. He opened up the shielded case and carefully took out the small black box.
“There’s no trigger,” he said.
“I can do it,” Jaime said. Rylan thought he still looked too pale and shaky, but his voice was firm. “But we should set it off on the bridge, that’s where most of Dub’s memory and computing power is located.”
“Shit,” Kaz said, and closed her eyes. “Okay, let’s do it.”
“Everyone else needs to be off the ship,” Jonathan said. “If this vessel starts to launch, we have no choice but to destroy it.” His eyes were hard on Garcia.
The captain yanked an impatient hand through his hair. “Bo,” he said, “Go help Mags and Lydia get the injured off, then stay well back. Make sure Simi goes, too.” He looked at Kaz.
She immediately shook her head. “Dub needs me.”
“Dub will be knocked completely offline if this bomb works,” Garcia said. “And when it goes off, I want you and Jaime to hightail it back to the hold. I’ll be there making sure our governmental friend keeps the doors open and doesn’t blow us up just for fun.”
Jonathan inclined his head to Garcia. “The plan seems workable.” His eyes cut to Rylan. “You’re with me.”
“No.” Rylan folded his arms. “I’m going with Jaime.” There was no way he was letting Jaime out of his sight, unless Jaime himself sent him away. And judging from the way Jaime’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly, Rylan’s presence would be welcome.
“There’s nothing you can do on the bridge,” Jonathan snapped. “Are you still that bad at following orders?”
“This is my ship, too, and you’re not in my chain of command,” Rylan said. He looked at Garcia and straightened his posture. “Captain?”
Garcia looked at him askance. “Uh… go with Jaime?”
“Sir,” Rylan said, saluting.
“Fuck, let’s go already,” Kaz said and took off for the bridge.
Jaime looked at Rylan with big eyes, but he took the bomb and followed her. Rylan turned to go with them.
“Rylan.”
Rylan stopped at the sound of his brother using his correct name.
“Come back safely,” Jonathan said, and Rylan could only nod.
As he left he heard Garcia say, “I’ve found that the key to good command is giving orders they want to obey…”
They raced towards the bridge, Rylan with a hand on Jaime’s elbow in case he tripped.
The lights in the bridge flickered, and the screens were flashing error messages or just strobing. Kaz bit her lip, looking like she was about to cry. “Poor Dub.”
“She’s hanging on,” Jaime said. He set the bomb down on one of the control panels. He looked at the weak sunlight coming through the polarized windows. “Do we have more lights? Everything’s going to go out once I trigger this.”
Kaz popped open a concealed drawer and pulled out a penlight. “There should be a bigger one behind the that panel,” she said to Rylan.
He found a portable lantern, checking that it worked before switching it off in readiness.
Jaime looked at Kaz. “This may… change Dub. Memory loss, other things.”
Kaz put a hand on her controls. “We have to do something or lose her completely. We can’t let that thing win.”
Jaime nodded, eyes on the small black bomb. “All right.” He still hesitated.
“You okay?” Rylan asked.
Jaime bit his lip. “Your arm. It won’t work once I trigger this.”
Rylan nodded and tucked his right hand into his half-open shirt. “Do it,” he said impatiently. Jonathan might be running things on the ground, but there was likely a Commonwealth ship in orbit above with many people who outranked him. They had to be running out of time before the Prince was ordered destroyed.
Jaime stared at the little box and took a breath. “Uh, so when it goes off I might be a little out of it.”
Rylan looked at him sharply. “Wait, what do you mean?”
Jaime triggered the bomb.
Though it was silent, Rylan felt something pass through him. An invisible wave that ended every sensation in his right arm. It sagged, unfeeling and useless, as the screens and lights went black. But none of that mattered because, while the bomb was silent, Jaime was not.
Jaime was screaming, hands clamped over his ears, face twisted in pain.
“Jaime!”
His body spasmed and then went still.