Katya's World (18 page)

She turned and almost walked into Tasya.
“
What did you say to him?
”
she demanded.

“
Nothing,
”
Katya replied, confused.
“
Well, nothing much. I just asked… if he’s a Grubber… a Terran, I mean, why didn’t he go home?
”

“
What makes you think this isn’t his home now?
”

“
He doesn’t have family here, does he? They’ll be…
”

Tasya interrupted her.

“
Tell me you didn’t ask him that.
”

Katya found that if she didn’t tell Tasya that, she had nothing to say at all. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times.

“
Stupid little girl,
”
said Tasya and ran after Kane.

Katya watched her go. She felt wretched. She couldn’t even manage to be resentful. Tasya was right; she was just a stupid little girl. She had no idea what she was doing. She walked over to where they were already patching the
Baby
. Uncle Lukyan looked over at her and frowned.

“
Are you all right, Katya?
”

“
Yeah,
”
she replied, not feeling anywhere near right at all.
“
I’m fine.
”

The work progressed rapidly. The laser-cut holes in the
Baby
’s hull were neat and hadn’t gone through any vital systems. Her electronics were sealed against water anyway, so the flooding of the compartment was of little consequence. After an hour and a half, Lukyan was sitting in the pilot’s seat and running a diagnostic test. Katya watched the Judas box light green apart from a few ambers further down the board.

One of the pirates had pointed out that, as their vessel had recovered the
Baby
it was technically theirs by salvage right. Lukyan had told the pirate he was wrong on two counts. Firstly, Lukyan had never abandoned the vessel but had still been aboard when it was picked up. It was therefore never legally salvage. Secondly, and more telling to most of those listening, Lukyan had offered to tear the ribcage out of anybody laying claim to his boat. The pirates collectively agreed that these were good arguments and renounced their claim.

“
Will she swim, Mr Pushkin?
”
asked Petrov from the aft hatch.

“
She will, lieutenant,
”
replied Lukyan.
“
She’s quite well considering what she’s been through. Is that IFF device wired in properly? Then let’s try it.
”
He reached over and flicked a switch that started feeding power to the cannibalised drone component. Nothing obvious happened.
“
Hmm,
”
grunted Lukyan,
“
if this thing only works when the
Leviathan
sends an interrogation signal, how do we know it’s working properly beforehand?
”

“
We don’t,
”
answered Petrov.
“
If it isn’t working, we’ll find out soon enough.
”

Lukyan looked up at the patch over one of the laser holes.
“
That’s comforting.
”

“
Glad to be able to put your mind at rest.
”

“
So, who’s going on this fool’s errand with me?
”

Petrov didn’t argue with Lukyan volunteering himself.
“
As few as possible. You’ll pilot, we’ll need Kane for his special knowledge and one or two FMA personnel along to keep him honest.
”

“
With respect, Lieutenant Petrov,
”
said Tokarov,
“
you shouldn’t go.
”

“
Oh?
”
said Petrov, who clearly had been planning on doing just that.

“
You’re acting captain here. You can’t just hand off command because you’re curious to see inside that thing.
”

Petrov pursed his lips; he knew very well Tokarov was right but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

“
Besides,
”
added Tokarov,
“
my specialisation is engineering. I’d probably be more use.
”

“
All right, all right,
”
said Petrov wearily,
“
you’ve made your point. You’re going.
”

“
I’m going too,
”
said Katya. Both lieutenants looked at her with surprise and Lukyan started to open his mouth.
“
I’m still the
Baby
’s navigator. She needs a co-pilot and, short of Sergei just wandering in, I’m the only other person here with hours logged on her.
”

She neglected to mention that the vast majority of those hours were simulator time, and she was grateful that Lukyan didn’t point that out. Instead he said,
“
She’s right. She’s crew.
”

“
It’s dangerous,
”
Petrov said directly to her.
“
The chances are that this plan won’t work. I’d give it a 40% chance of success at most. Nobody would think any less of you if you don’t go.
”

“
I’m going. I’m crew.
”

Petrov heaved a sigh of exasperation.
“
Breed them awkward in your family, don’t you?
”

“
Oh, yes,
”
smiled Lukyan.

The waiting was by far the worst part. Between the excellent training of the Novgorods and the ingenious jury-rigging of the Vodyanois, the last of the repairs proceeded far more quickly than would have seemed reasonable, but time still crawled by for Katya. She passed back and forth itching either to be seaborne or to back out of her insistence that she go. She knew Petrov was right; nobody, not even her uncle, would blame her if she dropped out. It wasn’t as if the short trip around the mountainside even needed a navigator.
“
The pride of the Kuriakovs
”
her grandmother had called it, speaking of it half as if it were something glorious and half as if it were a curse. Right then, it felt very much like a curse; Katya had the uneasy feeling her pride was about to get her killed.

And then, with the abruptness of a shot, the work was done and the
Baby
was being rolled into one of the smaller locks.

Kane had come back with Tasya. He looked drawn and upset still, and wouldn’t look at Katya. That was fine by her; she felt she should be apologising for something but she wasn’t sure what it was. Whatever the problem, she couldn’t quite bring herself to look him in the eye.

She took her position, Lukyan his, Tokarov sat behind him and Kane behind her, just as he had – it was hard to believe – only just over twelve hours before. The main lock door closed behind them and the chamber started to flood.
“
Here’s where we find out if the welds will hold,
”
said Tokarov with an attempt at gallows humour. He found no response and settled into the same silence as the others.

The water boiled and frothed on the other side of the main port as the level rose, the crew and passengers watching it without comment, past the level of their eyes and over the top of the plasteel port. Kane looked up and watched the small dorsal port grow dark as the water rolled over it.

“
Sonar to passive,
”
said Lukyan. After a moment he repeated it.

“
Eh? Oh!
”
Katya reached for her control board.
“
Check.
”

“
Wayfinder… offline, I think.
”

“
Check.
”

They went through the same sequence they had a few hours before, when life was a great deal simpler. They worked down the list until Lukyan came to,
“
IFF transponder.
”

“
Ah,
”
said Katya uncertainly.
“
It’s powered up and that’s about all I can say for it. I don’t know if it’s actually working.
”

“
Good enough, I suppose,
”
said Lukyan.

“
Yes? In that case, check.
”

“
Check list complete.
”
He toggled open the radio link to the FMA ensign who was at the dock controls.
“
We’re set, I think. Open the lock doors, please, son.
”

“
Opening external lock doors,
”
replied the ensign in the crisp tones they taught at the academy for making voice transmissions clear. It always sounded a bit theatrical to Katya, as if the speaker was on stage declaiming Chekov or something.
“
You’re clear to depart,
Pushkin’s Baby
.
”
A moment later he broke protocol by adding,
“
Good luck.
”

Lukyan smiled wanly.
“
Thanks, control. Going to radio silence. RRS 15743 Kilo over and out.
”
He closed the link as the
Baby
lifted from its landing skis and nosed her way out into the open sea. They were on their own now.

The
Baby
travelled around the mass of the mountain keeping the vertiginous slopes to the right. It was very quiet aboard; after a couple of attempts at humour, even Tokarov had shut up. Now there was just the hum of the boat’s impellers running through the hull and the quiet whirr of the ventilators.

“
Uncle?
”
said Katya, suddenly spotting a flaw in the plan.

“
Hmm?
”

“
How are we supposed to find the
Leviathan
? It’s virtually invisible when it wants to be. We could swim backwards and forwards all day two hundred metres from it in this murk and never see it.
”

“
Ah, well,
”
said Lukyan in a voice that indicated that he hadn’t considered this either, but wasn’t about to admit it.

Kane saved him by saying,
“
It will find us. It will interrogate the IFF unit with a coded signal, detect the correct reply – if we’ve made a mess putting in the IFF then that will be about the point where this pleasure cruise finishes – and try to bring us in on remote control or command the drone’s artificial intelligence to bring itself in. Neither will work, it will assume there’s been damage, and recover us for repairs.
”

“
How violent is this recovery likely to be?
”
asked Tokarov.

“
Not violent at all. You’ll see.
”

“
You said the drone had artificial intelligence?
”
said Katya.

“
Yes. They have to have some autonomy. Those tunnels block communications so the drone was given its orders and left to complete them.
”

“
But the
Leviathan
itself has a synthetic intelligence?
”

“
Yes.
”

“
So what’s the difference?
”

“
Is this relevant?
”
Tokarov interrupted.

“
No,
”
said Kane,
“
but it’s better than listening to your weak puns. An artificial intelligence, Ms Kuriakova,
”
Katya notic
ed the formal use of her name,
“
only looks like intelligence. A machine is taught a lot of responses to assorted situations and uses them if such a situation arises. The more contingencies are covered, the more intelligent the AI seems. The best have heuristic routines programmed in; that means they observe how well what they’ve been taught works and how other approaches work. If something else is better, then they’ll start using that in future instead. They’re ‘learning,’ for want of a better word. Artificial intelligences can get very good, even passing the Turing test.
”

“
What’s...?
”

“
It’s a rule of thumb test for intelligence. If you can talk to an AI for a few hours and never realise that you were talking to a machine all along, then it’s passed the Turing test. That’s artificial intelligences; they’re artificial because they’re not real minds, just good impersonations. A synthetic intelligence is something else again. The
Leviathan
carries a massive silicon analogue of a brain. At the moment nothing much more sophisticated than a good artificial intelligence programme is in it. The idea was for it to interface with a human…
”

“
You,
”
said Tokarov, fascinated.

“
…me, and the human intelligence would act as a catalyst to spark the same sort of cascading sapient effect in the synthetic brain. The result would be a single intellect, the will and experiences of the human combined with the massive knowledge resources and capabilities of the
Leviathan
.

“
It’s not just a theory either. They’ve done it on Earth. Nothing quite like the
Leviathan
, though.
”

“
What’s different?
”

“
The interface had to be more… I’m not sure how to describe it. Thorough, perhaps. Intimate.
”

Tokarov laughed.
“
You make it sound like a marriage.
”

Kane didn’t laugh along with the joke. He only said,
“
’Til death do us part.
”

Katya’s right-hand multi-function display started showing a flashing box and bleeped urgently.
“
The IFF unit has been hailed,
”
she said quietly. A faint sense of fear was growing in her. She’d secretly hoped the
Leviathan
had moved on, but the indicator on the MFD showed that to be a vain hope. How many times did she think she could encounter that monstrosity and live? She was starting to hate the stupid pride that had made her volunteer for the mission.

“
I’d cut the engines, if I were you,
”
suggested Kane to Lukyan.
“
There’s less chance of an accident if we’re not moving when it takes us.
”

Katya didn’t like the sound of being taken at all. It made them sound like prey. But Lukyan cut the engines and now they had only the sound of the life-support fans and their breathing as they waited and listened for the
Leviathan
to make its move.

The seconds turned into a minute and then minutes. Katya was wondering whether to suggest sending an active sonar pulse to try and provoke the
Leviathan
into doing something (she wasn’t wondering it very hard, though, since it didn’t seem to respond well to having sound waves blasted at it) when something touched the hull. A whispering light scraping as something travelled cautiously across the
Baby
’s skin.

“
Here we go,
”
whispered Kane.

Suddenly the boat lurched and then started to move swiftly and smoothly upwards.

“
What’s happening?
”
growled Lukyan.
“
Have we been grappled?
”
He
looked to Kane for a reply, and the pirate
nodded.

Grappled. Somehow the
Leviathan
had managed to attach lines to the
Baby
with barely any warning at all. Katya had read and seen stories of historical grappling actions and having harpoons banged through your hull was usually a very obvious process. This was something else again. The hiss of water travelling quickly over the hull modulated into a gruff roar for a moment and
then,
suddenly
,
they were
bathed in harsh, white
light.

Out of the ports, they could see the
Baby
was being dragged through a
great hatch
in the floor of a white circular chamber, perhaps twenty metres in diameter. Through the top porthole, they could see cables as thick as a man’s wrist running from a cluster in the roof and down to where they en
circled
the minisub. They flexed and moved like the arms of a russquid, Katya thought, even though they were obviously made from metal. She’d never seen anything like them before. Beneath the
Baby
, a great iris valve slid shut, sealing them off from the sea. They were trapped in the belly of the beast now.

The tentacle-cables – or cable-tentacles, Katya didn’t know which – gently lowered the
Baby
to the floor of the chamber and then slid back into the ceiling above. As they watched the metallic hemisphere in the ceiling into which the cables had retracted, they saw its image distort with ripples and realised the chamber was being pumped out. The water level dropped rapidly, much faster than the dock had flooded back in the mining site. Within a very few minutes, the minisub was sitting on its landing skids in the middle of the white chamber, dripping dry as the last dregs of water were efficiently sucked away from the floor.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, everybody waiting for somebody else to make the first move.

Tokarov was the first to find his voice.
“
Now what?
”

Kane unbuckled his seat restraints.
“
The aft hatch, please.
”
Uncle Lukyan flicked a switch, and the aft hatch unsealed and swung open. Kane walked back and stopped just before stepping out.
“
You might as well follow,
”
he said.
“
There’s no getting the sub back out of this chamber without the
Leviathan
permitting it, so there’s not much point in staying behind.
”
The other
s
released their restraint buckles and climbed out after him.

Katya stood by the
Baby
and looked around in wonderment at the chamber. It w
as so harshly white in here,
with
no obvious source of light as though
the walls themselves were glowing. Everything was white except for the unpainted and untarnished dome in the ceiling, pocked with the large regular holes in its surface that were home to the tentacles, and the iris valve they were standing on. She couldn’t see any way of getting into the rest of the
Leviathan
from here.

Lukyan obviously thought the same thing.

“
Kane, i
s this place connected to the rest of the
boat?
”

“
Anything’s possible,
”
replied Kane
vaguely
. He crossed his arms and said
“
Open internal access.
”
Nothing happened. He cleared his throat and tried again. Still nothing happened.

“
Great. Now what do we do?
”
asked Katya.

Kane looked uncomfortable.
“
It’s been years since it’s heard my voice.
Maybe it’s changed more than I
thought.
”
He tried again.
“
Open internal access.
”
Nothing. As an afterthought, he tried adding
“
Please.
”

One side of the circular chamber started to draw back, the flat white plates sliding to expose a broad armoured door five metres across by three high.
“
Manners maketh the man,
”
Katya heard Kane say to himself. Tokarov made a step towards the door but Kane stopped him.
“
Me first, lieutenant. It might be nervous around strangers.
”

“
It’s
nervous?
”
said Tokarov.

“
It’s alive in a way,
”
said Kane.
“
It has its foibles, a little like a small child.
”

“
Oh? It might throw a tantrum?
”

“
Yes, it might. And its tantrums come with a body count. Follow me.
”

The layout of the
Leviathan
was nothing like any vessel Katya had ever seen
or been taught about at school
. There was no sense of space being at a premium, of every cubic centimetre of ship being functional. Instead, it felt like being inside an iceberg. Everything was white and there was no feeling that, beyond the bland walls and ceilings, there was anything she could have looked at and recognised as part of a boat. Even the word
“
boat
”
– traditionally applied to even the largest submarines – failed to express the alien nature of the
Leviathan
.

“
How big is this thing?
”
she asked.

Kane looked back at her and she was relieved that he no longer seemed as angry and distant as he had been back at the mining site.
“
Big enough. Just short of seven million cubic metres, I believe.
”

Lukyan stopped so abruptly that Tokarov walked into him.
“
Seven
million
?
”
he echoed in disbelief.

“
Not quite. I was rounding up.
”
Kane said, not even slowing his walk.

“
Strangest boat I’ve ever been on,
”
said Tokarov.
“
Strangest one I’ve even heard of. Where are the stations? The berths?
”

Kane stopped by a hatch set into the wall.
“
This is the only berth aboard. It used to be mine. You have to get it into your head, lieutenant, it isn’t a ship or a boat or any kind of vessel of any type that you’re familiar with. It’s a weapon. A really big, intelligent weapon that happens to have a small living space aboard for a pet human.
”