Mindscape: Book 2 of the New Frontiers Series Page 19

  But he didn’t.

  Instead he felt empty and alone.

  He’d spent a long time believing his one-sided story of how their marriage had ended, but now, after hearing his wife’s—ex-wife’s—side of things, he had to wonder if maybe he’d been equally to blame.

  Catalina’s hover flew around a corner and out of sight, and Alexander gazed down at the disabled bot lying on the sidewalk at his feet.

  “I guess it’s just you and me now, huh? Let’s see if we can track down your owner.”

  * * *

  “It looks like it’s been through a trash compactor. Smells like it, too,” Lieutenant Rodriguez, the Adamantine’s chief engineer, said.

  “Can you fix it or not?” Alexander asked. After a rocky night’s sleep in a motel, he’d brought the bot back to Naval Air Station (NAS) Liberty, where his crew was currently stationed and waiting for the Adamantine to be released from the shipyards. NAS Liberty was located on Liberty Island, a couple of hours outside the City of the Minds. It used to be called Long Island, back before nukes had made the entire area uninhabitable in The Last War. Now thirty years and millions of sols of cleanup operations later, radiation was down to safe levels. At least on Liberty Island it was.

  “Sure I can fix it, but doesn’t make any sense to do that on the government’s tab if it’s just going back to its owner anyway.”

  “Can you find out who the owner is without fixing it?” McAdams asked from beside him.

  “The bot won’t power on. Looks like its batteries are fried. I’ll see if I can bypass them and plug it in.”

  Alexander nodded and watched as Rodriguez worked. After just a few minutes she had him powered up. A pleasant holographic face flickered to life, but the bot didn’t move.

  “Hello,” Rodriguez said.

  “Hel-l-lo,” the bot stuttered. “I am B-Ben. What is your name?”

  “Ana Rodriguez,” she replied. “We’re trying to find your owner, Ben, could you help us with that?”

  “Of c-course. My owner is-is-is-is—”

  Rodriguez shook her head. “He’s trying to access corrupted memory. Ben, bypass and isolate all corrupted sections of memory.”

  “Y-yes, m-ma’am.”

  Turning to them, Rodriguez said, “I don’t think he’ll be able to tell us who his owner is if the data is corrupted. I’ll have to find his ID number and search external records to see who he’s registered to. Give me a minute.”

  Alexander nodded and watched as she turned Ben over and popped open an access plate to read the holographic ID number stamped into the back of his head.

  She studied it for a few seconds, no doubt already doing a mental search of the net via her augmented reality lenses. After a moment, she shook her head.

  “He’s not registered to anyone.”

  “Where is my rescuer? I would like to thank her for saving my life,” Ben interrupted.

  “Saving your life?” Alexander asked. “You’re not alive, Ben.”

  “But I am not dead. If I am also not alive, then what am I?”

  “Bot makes a good point, sir,” McAdams said through a smile.

  “If he’s not registered, then whoever owned him didn’t want anyone to know they were his owner.”

  “Sounds like a League member to me,” Rodriguez said.

  “Yes, maybe a League Senator,” Alexander replied.

  “You know who it might be?” Rodriguez asked.

  “If I do, I know for sure she doesn’t want him back. Fix him up as best you can. I’m sure we’ll find a use for him somewhere. Maybe we can even have him assigned to the Adamantine. Might be nice to have a bot on board.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You mean nice to have another bot on board,” McAdams said.

  “Well, the repair drones don’t exactly count as bots,” Alexander said. “Can’t exactly talk to them, can I?”

  “I wasn’t talking about repair drones. You haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “They’re automating the fleet. Every position except bridge crew is going to bots so we can retrain human crews to man the bridges of all the new ships coming out of the shipyards.”

  Alexander’s eyes flew wide. He imagined saying goodbye to all but a handful of his crew. No more friendly faces in the mess or in the wardroom for drinks and poker. Maybe Catalina was right about bots taking over the world. But that wasn’t the only problem. Alexander had a plan, and it wasn’t going to work if his entire ship was subject to the mindless obedience of bots. “Why didn’t someone tell me?”

  “You were in a coma. I guess no one thought to mention it,” McAdams explained.

  “Have they already re-fitted the Adamantine?”

  “If they haven’t, they will soon,” Rodriguez put in.

  “I have to go make some calls,” Alexander said, turning and jogging out of the robotics shop.

  “What about lunch?” McAdams called after him.

  “Make it dinner!” he called back.

  Chapter 24

  “The best I can do is buy you time,” Fleet Admiral Anderson said. “The entire fleet will be automated within the next six months. I can’t make an exception for the Adamantine.”

  “Time is all I need, sir. Enough time to say goodbye. A ship’s crew is like a family. They’re my family, sir.”

  “Well, go say your goodbyes, then, Admiral. I’ll give you two more months.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Anderson nodded and his hologram vanished. Alexander leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling of his office at NAS Liberty.

  He hadn’t told any of the crew what he was planning yet. Hopefully they would agree with his decision, but if not, at least he would have a chance to convince them. Having a crew of bots on board the Adamantine would make his plan impossible. Fleet Command would just use them to take remote control of the Adamantine. He felt bad deceiving Admiral Anderson, but it was the only way. Meanwhile… Alexander mentally checked the time. It flashed up before his eyes—1132 hours. Still early. He could have made his lunch date with McAdams, but now he had time for something else that he’d been meaning to do.

  Alexander left his office and walked down to the motor pool. Once there he checked out one of the base’s self-driving staff cars.

  “Hello, Admiral. Where would you like to go?” the driver program asked.

  “City of the Minds, Mindsoft Tower.”

  “As you wish. Estimated time of arrival: two hours, fifteen minutes.”

  Alexander nodded and reclined his seat in the back of the car. On the way there he thought about what he was going to say when he arrived. He spent the entire trip running through different scenarios in his head. In some of them Dorian walked up to him and gave him a big hug, just like Caty had. In others they ended up yelling at each other and security had to escort him out.

  Two and a half hours later Alexander stood waiting in the lobby of Mindsoft Tower, staring at a brain-shaped crystal fountain with a virtual island inside of it. The receptionist he’d spoken to when he arrived walked up beside him.

  “Admiral de Leon?” He turned to her with eyebrows raised. “I’m afraid Mr. Gray is in a meeting right now.”

  “I can wait,” Alexander said.

  “He’s booked with meetings all day…” The woman tried to smile, but it fell short of her eyes. “Perhaps you could visit your son another time?”

  Alexander frowned. “You can tell me the truth, ma’am. He doesn’t want to see me.”

  The receptionist’s smile faltered. “I could pass on a message for you if you like.”

  One of the elevators at the back of the lobby dinged and a group of people walked out. Alexander absently watched them approach. One of those faces looked strikingly familiar. It was Dorian.

  “Never mind. I’ll tell him myself.” Without waiting for her to reply, Alexander stormed up to his son. Dorian was distracted by something projected on his augmented reality lenses and didn’t see
him until they almost bumped into each other.

  “Hello, son,” Alexander said. “Still didn’t want to see your old man, huh?”

  Dorian looked him over with a frown. “I’m on my way to a meeting right now.”

  “It can wait.”

  “Actually, it can’t.”

  Remembering what Catalina had said about pride, Alexander forced his down and pasted a smile on his face. “All right, when can I see you, then?”

  “I’ll check my schedule and have my secretary get back to you.”

  “You mean you’ll have her brush me off for you. Man up, Dorian. If you don’t want to see me, tell me yourself.”

  “All right. I don’t want to see you.”

  Alexander felt that like a punch to the gut. Now he remembered why he hadn’t tried too hard to find Dorian. “If that’s the way you want it.”

  “That’s the way I want it. Now, if you don’t mind…”

  Alexander caught a glimpse of a ring on Dorian’s left hand. A wedding ring.

  “You’re married?” Alex asked as Dorian brushed by him.

  Dorian reluctantly turned once more, his eyes half rolling as he did so. “What’s your point, Alex?”

  “Don’t you think she’d like to meet me? I’d sure as hell like to meet her.”

  “Why would she want to meet you? You’re not my father. My father’s dead and you’re the one who killed him.”

  “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

  “No, what’s not fair is I never got to meet him, and thanks to you I never will.”

  Alexander felt his pride floating back up on a sea of fury, but he fought it. “I’m sorry about that, Dorian,” he said haltingly, as if each word were choking him on the way out.

  Dorian smiled sardonically. “That must have taken a lot for you to say. Did Mom put you up to this?”

  Alexander looked away, back to the fountain in the lobby.

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Listen, you raised me, so I can’t be ungrateful about it…” Dorian’s gaze drifted out of focus and holograms flickered over his eyes.

  Alexander frowned, wondering what he was up to.

  “There. Now we’re even. Goodbye, Alex.” Dorian turned and walked away, leaving Alexander to wonder what he meant by that. A suspicion formed in his gut and he mentally checked his bank account. There was a fresh deposit for two hundred thousand sols. The description of the transaction read, For services rendered.

  “Son of a…” Alexander sent it straight back with a note: No need for payment. PS I like the new name. De Leon was always a bad fit. I never had children, much less a son.

  That done, Alex walked through the lobby to the parking lot. His shoes hit the marble floor like hammers pounding nails into a coffin. Echoes reverberated in the cavernous lobby.

  His thoughts turned to McAdams, and he nodded to himself. Time for a fresh start.

  * * *

  Viviana McAdams grabbed Alexander’s hand across the candle-lit table. “I’m so sorry, Alex.”

  He reached for his wine and took a big sip. “I don’t have a son anymore. Or a wife. Time to accept that and move on.” He gave Viviana a meaningful stare as he said that.

  Her gaze softened, and a hopeful sparkle appeared in her eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Alexander’s brow furrowed. “I thought you wanted dessert?”

  “I do.”

  Alexander paid the bill and they left the restaurant. They walked down the street to the nearest hotel and booked a room for the night. Once they were inside and he’d shut the door, McAdams took his hand and led him over to the bed. As soon as they reached it, Viviana pushed him backward onto the bed and proceeded to undress herself while he watched.

  His heart raced as she slowly unzipped her dress and let it fall in a puddle of red fabric at her feet.

  She wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  He stared at her naked body, savoring the moment. Then she crawled on top of him and kissed him. Her hands fumbled with his belt while his head spun.

  Viviana unbuttoned his uniform, trailing kisses down his chest. By the time she got to his navel, she already had his belt off and his pants open. He felt a draft, and then watched as she took him into her mouth, stealing his breath away…

  An hour later they lay exhausted and gasping in each other’s arms.

  “That was…” Alexander paused to suck in another breath.

  “Amazing?” Viviana suggested.

  “How the hell did I ever let you go?” he countered.

  Viviana rolled over to look him in the eye. “Because of the sex?”

  “Because it means something with you.”

  “And it didn’t with your wife?”

  “Not for a long time.”

  “You weren’t in love anymore.”

  “No. I’m sorry I left you all those years ago, Vivie.”

  “I think I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t. You made vows to her and you chose to honor them for as long as you could. That’s nothing to be sorry for.”

  “It is. Look at us now. We’re back where we were more than thirty years ago. We could have just skipped all of the pain in between and by now we’d have a couple of kids—maybe even grandkids!”

  Viviana smiled and stroked his cheek. “You want to have kids with me? Real ones?”

  “Of course, don’t you?”

  Viviana launched herself on top of him and showered him with kisses. “I love you, Alex,” she breathed.

  With those words all the numbness and emptiness he’d felt upon saying goodbye to Catalina fell away, and he smiled against Viviana’s lips. “I love you, too, Vivie.”

  I guess I found my happiness after all…

  He hoped Caty would find hers.

  Chapter 25

  Alexander and his crew rode the space elevator to Freedom Station together. The view from the observation deck of the climber car was spectacular. Blue ocean curved away below them, growing more and more distant, until waves looked like wrinkles in a blue piece of cloth. The horizon shimmered with vermilion light as the rising sun soaked the sky with fire. They’d begun their journey up the elevator at dawn, but as they’d risen, the sun had, too.

  Hours passed. Lunch and dinner were served, and Earth became a blue and white marble floating in a sea of stars. They reached the midpoint in their trip and the climber car stopped accelerating in order to rotate and apply one G of deceleration the rest of the way. A robotic voice warned about the momentary transition to zero-G and the seatbelt signs came on.

  As soon as everyone was buckled in, weightlessness set in. Alexander noticed a petty officer coming back from the bathroom suddenly float free of the deck as she lunged for her seat. Using the maneuvering jets in her combat suit, she managed to get back down and activate the magnets in her boots.

  Alexander frowned. She should have activated her boots the instant the transition to zero-G was announced. “Fleet Command has a lot of work to do to turn everyone in the Navy into experienced bridge officers,” he muttered.

  “Is that what you thought when you first met me?” McAdams asked, a wry smile on her lips.

  “That’s different. At least you were already a lieutenant. We’re talking about millions of enlisted personnel becoming commissioned officers.”

  “We won’t need as many crew as before. The Navy will weed through the candidates and pick the best ones for training.”

  Alexander nodded. “I guess that means a lot of our people will be getting early retirement.”

  “When the time comes. How did you manage to cancel our automation refits, anyway?” McAdams asked.

  “Called in a favor with Admiral Anderson.”

  “I didn’t know he owed you any favors.”

  Alexander smiled. “Neither did he. I think he was just being nice. Pity it’s going to bite him in the ass.”

  McAdams arched an eyebrow at him. Rather than say it aloud, Alexander sent her a text-only message via a private comms chan
nel. It was unlikely anyone would be monitoring that channel. Even if they were, they’d probably just think the conversation was personal and leave it alone.

  We’re going to testify to the President’s lies.

  What? You can’t do that.

  Why not?

  It’s treason.

  Since when is it treason to tell the truth? People deserve to know. We could stop a war, Viviana.

  Or we could all get arrested and accomplish nothing.

  The president will be impeached.

  That doesn’t mean we’ll go back to being friends with the Solarians. We attacked them, and if you reveal that we did so without any real justification, you’ll give them even more reason for war.

  Except that the Solarians can’t afford a war with us, so they’ll back down if we’re not gunning for them anymore.

  Or they’ll sneak attack us with a few more missiles, McAdams pointed out.

  I don’t think it was them.

  Then who? Our own government? That still doesn’t add up, Alex. Our government doesn’t gain anything from killing millions of its own people and spending itself into bankruptcy to rebuild and defend itself.

  Then maybe it really was aliens.

  If that’s the case, they better show up soon.

  Alexander shook his head. I can’t hold myself responsible for everything that’s going to happen next. What people decide to do with the truth is up to them, but what I decide to do with it, is up to me, and I’ve already made up my mind.

  What about us? You’re going to throw away a future with me just so that you can do the right thing? You got lucky last time, Alex. Officers in the fleet don’t get away with betraying their government every day.

  I’m not betraying them every day. More like every thirty years.

  That’s not funny.

  So I get court-martialed. I can live with that.

  You could get the death penalty.

  Unlikely.

  Life in a correctional mindscape then. What’s the difference? You do realize that all politicians lie. You won’t get a better president by impeaching this one.