Chapter Five

 

 

Nyvett was able to keep up with the rest of the bots, but it took a lot of effort on her part. Yes, Iff could fly, but it didn’t mean that it was comfortable.

Iff was moving more easily after his flight, and he was downright chatty. “So, Nyvett, I know you are in administration, but what does that mean you do with your day?”

“Why the sudden curiosity?”

“All of the bots are learning about the personal lives of their pilots right now.”

“I thought you could read my mind.”

“I can read your nervous system. Reading your mind is a little more difficult, and I can’t do it while you are jostling around.”

Nyvett rolled her eyes. “Right. What did you want to know again?”

“Do you live alone? What is your normal day like?”

“I live in the dorms in my own small unit. I get up, brush my teeth, comb my hair and pin it up, get dressed and stop at the galley for a meal and a cup of tea.”

“All very normal.”

“I go for my combat training and spend the afternoon going over inventories, usage, and power-level reports. I am in training to take over the Norm clan.”

“Interesting. Do you want to?”

“It is what I have been raised and trained to do.”

“You take combat training?”

“Yes, all of my clan have to maintain their physical fitness via scheduled means as our occupations don’t lead to a lot of muscle development.”

“Well, that is good planning on the part of your clan.”

“It is, though it is annoying.”

“Why?”

“Showering in the middle of the day means that you are never clean when you go to sleep or when you rise in the morning. It puts the best time of the day to be next to me as right after lunch.”

Iff paused. “That is not something I would have considered.”

“Most don’t. So, after my work is done, I eat, study, and go to bed.”

“You don’t socialize?”

“Only when it is required. I have never been one for idle gossip, and as some of the knowledge I am privy to is classified, I can’t drink.”

“Is alcohol important to you?”

“In the valley, it is important to socialization.”

“You do not have romance in your life?”

Nyvett blinked. “No. I am not inclined in that direction.”

“Will you have offspring?”

She paused and didn’t respond.

“Did I overstep my bounds?”

“No, but the lack of genetic material is an issue. I would not want to take the joy of motherhood from someone who wanted it. That is my public opinion. However, if there is a need for me to carry the next generation, I will.”

“You are short on genetic material?”

“Well, yes and no. There is a limited amount of genetic material, but we have already been recycling it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We harvest the genes from exemplary members of our society and seed them into an ovum to create the next generation.”

Iff paused for a moment. “You clone.”

“We do. It was the simplest thing to do when the city ceased to send genetic material. My clan keeps strict lineages so that we know where the repeaters are in our society. We don’t want the clans weighted too heavily with repeater DNA.”

“Where do the others come from?”

“Oh, we cryo froze all of the sperm and extracted them carefully, wasting nothing. We still have some of the original samples, and we use them as needed.”

“The original? Over two hundred years ago and it is still viable?”

“Yeah, those little suckers are sturdy. Once you remove the heads, it is easy to put the material where it needs to be.”

Iff paused again. “So, there is genetic manipulation all around.”

“Not really. The genes aren’t altered, just put into an egg so that the moment of activation can take place.” She smiled. “Similar to your AI being inserted into this bot. Together, you make a complete unit, apart, neither of you are very mobile.”

“That is rather accurate. Thank you for the comparison.”

“You are welcome. Anyway, keeping tracks of births and genetic lines is part of my job.”

“And what about the harvesting of the genomes of the dead?”

“All citizens have a medical exam every two years. A genetic sample is taken at that time. They don’ know that it is for their immortality.”

“Is that what this process offers?”

“No. But it offers continuity, and we needed to keep the same mindsets that enabled our ancestors to repair and reclaim as many of you as we did. Those minds deserved to be born again and again.”

Iff asked the question she was hoping he wouldn’t. “How many of the temporary pilots are reborn from the original engineers?”

She tightened her lips and look into the distance. “Hey, is that the city?”

“It is, but you didn’t answer me.”

“All of us. Each one of us is the genetic copy of the original engineers, but we are a bit taller.”

Iff’s voice was amused. “You are. I was wondering about that.”

“It is our diet. We get a lot of nutrition when we need it the most.”

“It is quite the change from the first humans I met.”

She kept her brisk hike going. “We have increased in height by over forty centimetres on average.”

“How do none of your people comment on that?”

Nyvett kept walking. “Most species have offspring slightly taller than they were. The first generations blamed the change on the pilots, and since no other generations actually met the pilots, it was a fiction that was propagated.”

“You seem worried.”

“I am. If you fit our bodies so easily, and we have had the bonuses of diet and exercise. I am worried that the pilots that were supposed to be trained might not be in suitable shape to pilot you.”

“Funny. I was worried about the exact same thing.”

 

* * * *

 

Xaia kept her mind on the systems and the changes that had occurred after the jump.

“What are you focusing on, Xaia?”

“The increase in nanite flow and reaction time of your systems. It was as if the jump had woken you up.”

“You are very intent on your examination. May I ask you a question?”

She kept the light jog up, and she checked the position of the city in the long-range scanners. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

“What is the normal pattern of your life?”

“What?”

“What would you be doing if you were not here?”

“Ah, I would be asleep. That isn’t what you want to know though.”

“No, while I have seen flashes of your life, I wish to know what you do so that I can learn how you perceive the world.”

“Ah. Well, I get up before dawn, eat, shower, go to my workstation, and repair all the small items that have made their way there since the previous day. Once the necessary repairs are done, I go and work on some of my own inventions.”

“What do you normally work on?”

“I like designing air scrubbers. Breathing is one of my favourite things to do.”

“Do you ever work on medical equipment?”

“I do, but for that I have to go to the med centre. It is a bit of a hike, but I manage it about three times a week.”

“So, you can repair anything?”

“I can. I am a repair specialist. That is my destiny.” She chuckled. “This particular occupation is a surprise.”

Ai persisted. “Have you repaired any items that you wouldn’t think the valley was using?”

Xaia frowned. “A few times in the last six years there have been air conditioners and plasma conduits at my station. I fixed them, and they disappear by the next morning.”

She paused. “Do you know what they were?”

“You have been repairing items for the city. Standing and staring out at the monorail, I was able to see it sliding in the dark of the night. It returned to the city the following night.”

“That explains quite a bit. Do you know why?”

“No, but if the city doesn’t have a set of engineers any longer, they may need to farm out their repairs.”

Xaia made a face. “I think I have some questions when we get to the city.”

“You should. So, were you planning on having a daughter?”

“Interesting change of subject. Um, yes. Maybe. Eventually. I am getting close to my decision age.”

“What happens if you don’t?”

“Well, if I am suitable and they say yes, I will have a daughter. If I am not suitable, I will continue on with my work for the valley.”

“Is that going to be enough for you?”

“It was before. It will be now.”

“You seem to be enjoying piloting me.”

She quirked her lips. “I might be enjoying myself, but this is temporary. I know it, you know it, and there we have it.”

“You are correct. This is a temporary situation. When I get my proper pilot, I will be able to defend this world against the alien invasion force that is gathering above our heads.”

Xaia directed one of the viewers to the sky. “Right. Those guys. I almost forgot why I was doing this.”

They continued their sprint on through the hours before dawn until they were only minutes from the city. That was when the sky fell.

 

* * * *

 

Hima was feeling remarkably better. Her body was moving on its own and contributing to the motion that Len was engaged in.

Len asked, “Did you know that the food would assist in your recovery to such a degree?”

Hima smiled. “I hoped that it would. I haven’t had the stew for years, but it was like meeting an old friend.”

“So, you eat insects?”

“Of course. We are on a world we didn’t evolve on. We had to determine a qualified source. There are several insects on Hera that we can consume. The larger animals that we know about can’t live in the area around the valley. Too much radiation.”

“How is it that your people thrive there?”

Hima smiled and took another of the long jogging steps. “We were selected and then designed for it. Our early geneticists designed resilience into our skin. After a few generations, it didn’t need to be worked into the DNA. We used controlled exposure as adults to activate the resistance.”

“You agree to this?”

“If we want to leave the base... yes.”

“Why is that a caveat?”

“No one wants to bury someone who has been exposed to the valley and the radiation.”

“You are on the other end of the social spectrum. You bring the babies into the world.”

“From start to finish. I am with them at the consult and the implantation. I am on call for my assigned charges from that moment until two months after they give birth. I feel guilty doing this, actually. I should be helping the newest citizens get used to the world.”

“Do you know their names yet?”

She chuckled. “No. They are named at their first month, when all scans and tests come back. If they are strong, they are given strong names; if they need more assistance, they are given a more gentle name.”

“Like Hima.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Yes. I was a weak child. I came early, and my mother’s midwife caught me on the way to the med centre. They had to use every tank and incubator that they had, but I pulled through. As a result, when it came to naming me, I was still in the med centre, so I was named Hima Dbor. Caretaker to Len.”

“It is a good name.”

Hima chuckled. “I like it. My clients find it comforting that even someone with a soft name can be strong and competent. It takes away some of the fear they have for their daughters.”

“How so?”

“If I wasn’t strong but I can still bring life into the world, then a daughter who is just a few days behind standard development will have a chance at a normal and distinguished career.”

“So, you are an example.”

“I am. And I am a damned good one.”

He chuckled. “I—”

Hima didn’t know what he was going to say next, but whatever it was was forgotten as an impact rocked the earth and spewed dirt up and into the sky. The fountain of soil was only a few kilometres away, but the impact was enough to have her staggering the bot for balance.

They hadn’t seen it coming.