All Fall Down (25 page)

           
“That's right.”

           
He sat for a moment. His hand reached out automatically to stroke the cat while he thought through the risk. “Well, I can't sit here for days and days, and that's a fact. What's it like, taking this compound?”

           
“The humans tell me it's like going raving mad.”

           
Win sighed, smiled, shook his head, “I thought they would. Very well,” he nodded, slipped from the branch. “Has Djembe taken it?”

           
“Oh good grief, no. I like him and his orderliness, but I fear suggesting he take Compound X would be chaos too far.”

           
Win chuckled, nodded, “Yes, perhaps at the moment. While we wait,” he looked up to Verigua, “can you please order the cube into sections. The floor I want as a layout of Fall's surface, Colony entrance in the centre, fifty kilometres to a side scale. Overlay environmental data, ion trails through the atmosphere, Lagrange One probe two metres above, forced perspective scale of the system, keep the suns and the well properly oriented.”

           
“Interesting. 'Well' isn't a term offworlders use. You say 'wormhole' usually.”

           
“One of your pilots used it earlier, Kiran ha'Doek. He's a good kid. Ready with the data overlay?”

           
Win and Verigua went about organising the data into the ship's hold. When they had finished, the ship reported the arrival of the capsule carrying Compound X.

           
“How do I take it?”

           
“There's a nasal inhaler and two other items in there. Place the inhaler's prongs in your nostrils, press the red button and sniff. The effects will take around ten seconds. You will also need to put on the two body links. One goes on your inner wrist, the other across your forehead like a diadem. Then you communicate with your thoughts alone. You think, therefore you are.”

           
Win placed the inhaler back in the capsule when he had used it, and put on the link devices. “I don't feel any different.” He looked around, waited, “What should happen?”

           
Verigua's cat padded over to him, jumped and changed into a dolphin, which swam around Win, giving off deep green ripples of light and making clicking sounds as it went.

           
“But it doesn't feel different.” Win followed Verigua, which created gold sparkles in the air, sunlight reflecting off a churned sea. In the middle of the cargo area images of Win's family appeared. “You've brought up my personal files. Why? You're not supposed to access information about my family. Can you please close these images?”

           
Verigua danced on its dolphin tail.

           
Win followed the movement. “From me? Just because I was thinking of them?” The dolphin performed a backflip; virtual water splashed around Win, who stared through it at the viewing cubes around him, the holographic layout of his data. He put out a hand, pointed at a picture of his son. A look of concentration appeared on his face, he curled his hand as he pulled his arm in. The image poured through space, flowed into his chest; ripples spread out on his clothes as it disappeared.

           
The dolphin swam around his back. When Verigua came into his eyesight again, it had changed its form to an ethereal face and finally addressed him vocally, “Very good, you catch on quickly. We were communicating mind to mind.”

           
“I like these new toys,” Win looked at the holo in the cargo hold, at Fall's surface at his feet, the stars above his head. “Do I still need the holos? Can all this be done mentally?”

           
“Eventually, yes. It takes some practice. Even you will need some practice, Commander. For now, we'll keep the holo. In fact, many scientists keep them, they like to maintain a separation. But from now, you don't need to describe anything to me. Think like a god, and it shall be.”

           
Verigua tutored Win in how to control his mental environment. The thoughts running close to the surface of his mind had to be controlled so that they didn't leak out. He visualised wrapping them in white feathers and placed them in a small box on the edge of his vision: his son, his wife; his family. He moved on, moved back to the task at hand.

           
Win walked back into the holo. Verigua had changed form again, this time representing itself as a sandman.

           
The surface features of the Colony could be seen immediately below. East and south were smaller features, the surface buildings of the mining centres. Blue lines appeared, darkened into a network showing the mining tunnels.

           
“This is the land immediately around the Colony, the outlying settlements.” Win walked around the holo, “And these lines, these are the extent of the Colony and the mines, aren't they?”

           
“Oh yes, Commander, indeed.”

           
“Let's add a marker for the original Colony; just there. Can you add in any tunnel networks that came out of the original Colony please.” Green lines darkened around the Colony marker. Win nodded at the scene, “This is your map of Fall, right?”

           
The sandman surveyed it. “Yes, this is the extent of our Colony's habitations and mining.”

           
“Your map is wrong, Verigua.”

           
While he waited for a response, Win walked out of the holo cube, involuntarily taking a small jumping step as he crossed from the holo sky onto the ship's floor.

           
Verigua looked around, looked back at Fall's surface. It walked around, creating diagnostic maps in the air around it, overlaying them on the view below. Eventually the sandman turned around, “May I call you Win? I feel we're acquainted enough. I think you've made a mistake. What you see is the entirety of old and new colonies, mines, tunnels and emergency quarters. It quite clearly matches all records.”

           
Win picked up one of his sensors. He looked past it to Verigua, “Catch.” As the sensor arced through the few metres between them, it emitted a short tone which echoed around the hold. When Verigua caught it, new holo lines appeared on Fall's simulated surface, growing from the old, abandoned Colony, converging into a single line which led to the main Colony.

           
The lines were tunnels, uncharted, unknown, hidden from the planetary schema, from Verigua.

           
“What, may I ask, are these?”

           
“Tunnels coming from the old Colony structure.”

           
“Impossible!”

           
“I surveyed in the last few hours.”

           
The sandman stamped around the holo peering into the new, old tunnels. “And this, here. This area? Flashing?”

           
“Something moving. I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me.”

           
“My dear Commander, I have no knowledge of these tunnels. And I know everything there is to know about Fall.”

           
“Apparently not.” Win gave an apologetic smile.

           
“I do not like this.”

           
“No. As AI you have a right to know everything for planetary control and defence. If something's been hidden from you...”

           
The sandman's eyes burned red, “I am not happy.”

           
Win looked at Verigua's avatar. It shouldn't be using references to emotions. He wondered if the anxiety loops Djembe had stumbled across were growing.

           
“I want to try something, if you don't mind Verigua?”

           
“What is it?” The sandman was still making a show of inspecting the tunnels and the movement at one edge.

           
“I've pulled together as much data as I can from Doctor Maki. Fragments of recordings, an extrapolation based on her diaries, concerns, self-critical comments. I want a semantic analysis of it.”

           
“As I said, Win, think and it shall be.”

           
Win concentrated on the outcome he wanted from the data. Suddenly, he heard Doctor Maki's voice echo in the space, “So strong. The sand. It called. Stupid. I knew. Should never have come. The pull. My womb.”

           
A figure appeared in the air, a ghostly “72%” flickering over the holographic sand.

           
“Commander?”

           
“Yes?”

           
Verigua sat once again as a black cat, staring at the number, “I have no memory of analysing this data stream. This is clearly from Doctor Huriko Maki who died recently. Can you explain this number please?”

           
Win folded his arms, his eyes locked on the number, “It's a probability weighting. It follows the semantic analysis of Doctor Maki's personal logs, her work on the surface. Then there's her toxicology, blood analysis. And something else.” Win concentrated on the files he'd brought up which floated in the hologrid as icons: folders, books, syringes. “Look, there's a locked record in your cloud, Verigua. Invoking Article Seven of the Colony Defence Code has made it active. Do you know what it is?”

           
“No. I hadn't noticed that either. Which is worrying enough in itself.” The cat walked up to it. When it was centimetres away, the cat's hair stood on end and its haunches rose.

           
“Verigua?”

           
“I do not like this file, Commander. It's... It's covered in a defensive program.” The cat's eyes glowed green. It stood on its hind legs, held out a front paw and extended a claw. The claw lengthened and touched the file. “As I expected, an anxiety program. This explains a lot. What's in it?”

           
Win turned to Verigua, eyes slightly unfocused, “I don't know. But something in it has influenced the voice we heard, and this number.”

           
“And the number?”

           
“The probability that Huriko was being influenced by someone. Acting against her will.” Win looked at a still image of Doctor Maki. She was Medé, but clearly influenced by a Nipponese heritage.
 
“There's something in her blood. Look, she was pregnant. And something else.”

           
“The signal is Compound X. Unusually high levels. I would expect to see traces, all the scientists use the compound for their work. It should be lower than this.” Verigua prowled around the holo area, obviously disturbed by its interaction with the locked file. “Levels are high Commander, but not dangerous.”

           
“Could its presence help whoever was influencing her? You said Compound X allows mind to mind contact.”

           
Verigua changed form again, becoming a wispy, ethereal form with two burning eyes at its core. “Possible. My goodness, I've just worked out what you're saying. It's murder! How simply delicious. You humans are full of surprises. This could be fun. Who do you think did it?”

           
“I don't know. We need to get in that locked file and find out what's going on.”

           
“Yes, and to this place in the tunnels. I want to know what's on my planet.”

           
Win looked at the new map lines as well. “Planet Fall has a story to tell.”