I Fell From The Dark

22

'Do you know why I did that?' Albert asked, as the two of them headed across the warehouse. Albert strode purposefully, and Mia was only able to keep up with him because of her longer legs.

'No sir,' she replied.

'That AI was corrupt. For some reason it enjoyed playing dollies with its workers. And yet, despite this strange maternal love, it sent two of you to certain deaths, although you seem to have survived. And hidden in its core was records of an anomaly, which it seemed to have erased not just from ship data, but from its own memory. The fact that it didn't recognise you shows that you were an integral part of that experience. Your whole time on the ship was obliterated. I hoped that you might be a reminder, but it seems that AI is too broken to be of use.'

They went through a low door, Mia ducking under the lintel, and entered a little side room. It was as austere as everywhere else on this world: bare concrete walls, a plastic table, a water cooler. Albert took a cup, poured a drink, and sipped it; then he pulled a chair to the table, and sat.

'Sit,' he said.

The chairs and tables were designed for people Albert's size, and it felt a little like being in a primary school. Mia arranged herself as best as she could.

'What did you see?' Albert asked.

Mia drew a breath, and composed herself. I don't want to be hurt like Pilgrim was, she thought.

'There was an anomaly. Both previous probes reported it. It looked like a small ship. Based on the data I saw, it had a fusion drive. It was in the accretion disk, and it shot the two previous probes, probably with a laser. Pilgrim... that is, the AI... sent me out in a probe on a collision course with it, with those torpedoes. My job was to run dark so that it wouldn't see me. I... The AI gave me the ability to eject from the probe, so I did, when I believed that it saw me. And that was the last thing I remembered, until I woke up... downloaded... this morning.'

Albert nodded, and tapped the table.

'Thank you. What do you think it was?'

'Honestly, sir: I don't know. It must have been a ship, but Pilgrim said that it couldn't be human. But it was there, in the accretion disk, waiting for us. It moved to intercept us, far faster than any natural object. It used lasers to measure distance, and probably to kill, and could understand what our lasers meant. So I guess it must have been... alien?'

Albert made a humourless grunt.

'I don't think so.' He looked up, as Jean ducked into the room. 'Ah, Jean. Take Mia, and see if you can retrieve any more memories from her about our new friends. She seems competent, so don't damage her in the process. When you've done, brief her. We'll need every help we can get.' He stood. 'Report by four, please. Good day.'

Then he walked out, AR glasses flashing against his eyes.

Jean waited until Albert had left the warehouse, and then breathed out.

'Are you all right?' Mia asked. 'That sounded hard.'

Jean closed his eyes. 'I've done worse,' he said.

'That doesn't make it okay.'

'No.' Jean looked up, and met her gaze. 'How about you? What did Albert do to you?'

'Nothing, really. He just asked me questions, but he sounded like he knew all the answers anyway.'

Jean shook his head. 'He does and he doesn't. I'm glad he decided to keep you.'

'Yeah, me too. I...' she was going to say that she didn't think that Pilgrim deserved to die, but she didn't want to cause Jean any more pain, and she wasn't entirely sure that she believed that either. 'Yeah. Let's get out of here, shall we?'

'Agreed. I'll see if I can get that data out of you. I promise this won't be traumatic,' he said, with a faint smile. 'We're going to the Institute, but first I need to pop into my place and pick up your controller. Sounds like you'll get some of those answers, too.'