Tracy’s heart started to pound as the starship pulled away from the orbital platform. Where were they going? What were they doing?
“Wait, where you are taking us?” She asked Perry Six.
“We have programmed in the jump coordinates given to us by Mr. Typhon.”
“The last set of jump coordinates that three ships never jumped back from?”
“Yes,” Perry answered laconically.
“And you don’t see a problem with that?”
Perry stared at her, or at least that’s what Tracy imagined the machine was doing because that’s all it could do, was stare. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The illuminated purple glass disks pulsed softly, and while she might be imagining it, she felt the cadence and uniformity of the glow changed in subtle ways to communicate modes of thought?
“Is it your concern that we too will suffer the same fate was the other ships?”
“And what fate is that exactly?” Tracy deliberately did not answer the question.
This time Perry Six blinked. He’s eyes actually flashed dark for a second.
“Did you just blink?” Tracy asked.
“I have several modes of external appearance designed to make my integration and interoperation with humans more comfortable.”
“So you did blink.”
“I approximated a blink,” Perry Six replied. “Why, does that make you uncomfortable?”
“I don’t know. What does it mean when you blink? I know what it means when a human blinks, but what does it mean when you blink?”
Again with the weird staring. “I apologize, this line of questioning is must unusual. I was engineered to be anonymous, non-descript. To fade into the back ground. I am not used to being the focal point of such questions.”
“So you’re not going to answer the question?”
“I will gladly answer the question, I simply need more time than usual to download the software weighted mesh and pattern resolution modules necessary to process those questions. My instantiator did not see them as necessary so I do not have them pre-installed.
“Please hold a moment while I install the upgrade. My system will go dark for a few moments.” Perry Six’s eyes switched off completely and the rest of his lighted trim also went dark.
“We’re trusting our lives to this thing?” Jessica said. She had been sitting quietly listening to the exchange.
“I’m glad you’re back,” Tracy said turning to look at her friend.
“I never left, I just had no volition,” Jessica shuddered. “That was the worst feeling of my life. I was trapped in my own body, unable to speak, or exert any control but I could see and hear everything. One of those bastards licked my face. I could cut his tongue out I’m so mad.”
Tracy did not know what to say to that, but at that moment Perry Six came back online.
“When I blink it means that you have triggered a response I was not anticipating in my answer processing network,” he said without prelude or preamble.
Tracy started to realize this was going to be a circular argument if she kept asking the machine what it thought. She needed to know how much control or influence she had over him.
“Perry Six, given that three vessels traveled to the same location and none have returned, what is the likelihood that we also will not return?”
Perry Sixes eyes dimmed slightly as if he was pondering the question.
“Did your eyes just dim and you delayed answering for my benefit?” She asked.
“Yes Ms. Richards.”
“Can you turn that off?”
“Yes.”
“Please do.”
“The answer to your question is that there is an extremely high likelihood that we also will not return. I do not have enough data to calculate the exact percentage, but it is near certainty.”
“We don’t have enough information,” Tracy said. “What do we know about this destination.”
“Nothing,” Perry Six replied. “There is no registered world, space station, or other galactic object of interest registered at that location. All the data available to me indicates it is a dead spot in space. A vacuum. Empty space.”
“That’s why Typhon sent the robot,” Jessica interjected. “We might not make it, but it would.”
“I prefer the term Android,” Perry Six objected.
“Do you have feelings?” Jessica demanded.
“After a fashion.”
“After a fashion sounds like no to me,” She fired back.
“There’s no reason to be rude to him,” Tracy said. “We’re about to go off planet. It’s a good idea to be extremely careful about how we interact with anyone or anything that is non-human.”
This time Jessica blinked, and Tracy knew exactly what that meant. “Yeah Jess. This is going to get really weird.”
Her friend nodded and leaned back in her chair, folding her arms across her chest. “So now what do we do?”
“We try a different route.”
“I’m sorry Ms. Richards but my orders are most clear. We must pursue Mr. Connacher.”
“That’s right,” Tracy said thinking. Both Typhon and his machine would be very literal. But Perry Six was a thinking machine. “Pursue. Not follow exactly in the footsteps. In order to pursue Tim Connacher, we are going to need some more information.”
“That sounds rational,” Perry Six said the millisecond she finished talking. Maybe turning off his human social comfort features wasn’t such a good idea, but for now, she’d work with it. “Perry Six, what was Connacher selling? What did Keres Typhon buy from Tim? What exactly did Tim steal from him?”
“I’m sorry Ms. Richards. Máster Typhon did not share that information with me.”
“He told you nothing about it?”
“More than that, he removed all mention of it from his public and private data systems. Only Mr. Typhon and Mr. Connacher seem to know anything about the property.”
“That’s a little weird isn’t it?” Jessica asked. “Why would Keres hide it from his own people?”
“Well, we keep getting more questions than answers, and it’s time we find some answers.”
“Perry Six, I need to know everything we have on file about Tim Connacher, and everything you can find on Geoffrey Stikine, and for God’s sakes what ever you do, do not jump us to those coordinates the other ships went to, until we know a bit more about what might be waiting for us.
“Ms. Richards, but we must jump. Mr. Typhon was very specific on that point. He wants us to leave the system immediately.”
Tracy could only think of one place to go. “Do you have the location for the Dawn Treader?”
“One moment please…”. Perry Six looked straight ahead. “The Dawn Treader is docked at New Washington. The Human Outpost on Proxima Caelum.”
“Cross Roads,” Jessica whispered.
“Take us there,” Tracy said.
“I will need a reason Ms. Richards,” Perry Six asked.
“Isn’t it enough that I’m working for Mr. Morris? Rodney Morris is the owner of the Dawn Treader.”
“Your affiliation with him as been terminated by the new contract with Master Typhon. That would not be wise to try and reinstate your relationship with him, and it is not sufficient reason for me to redirect the ship.”
Tracy clenched her fists in frustration. There had to be some other reason, some way to go there.
“I know!” Jessica sat up. “Cross Roads is also the Primary outputs for the Galactic Scouts.”
“Yes! Thank you Jessica.”
Perry Six looked at each of them.
“The Galactic Scouting Guild has the most comprehensive and extensive data set on new worlds. Most of that is never transmitted to the master global database. It’s considered too sensitive. If we want to explore that data set, we need to go in person. If there’s something unusual about that jump - the Scouts are most likely to know what it is. “I guarantee youTim Connacher did not jump to empty space. Something is there, very likely something insanely valuable, and also super dangerous. But he jumped there for a reason. If anyone knows what is there, it’s the scouts.”
“I find that reasoning acceptable,” Perry Six replied. “Coordinates are changed. Please prepare yourselves for departure. We are approaching the jump zone.”
Tracy understood that she was part leader and part prisoner on this express. She really needed to find out what the hell Teddy had sold these guys but for some reason Typhon wasn’t talking about it. The jump to Cross Roads would not take long, but she didn’t really have a plan for what to do when they arrived.
She walked over and tapped Jessica on the shoulder, and motioned for her to follow into the living area of the ship. Jessica got up without a word and followed her.
“You know he can hear us everywhere in the ship,” She said when they left the bridge.
“Yes, but it makes me feel better not to see him and think about him listening,” Tracy wrapped her arms around her. “We need to find out what the hell Teddy sold Keres.”
Jessica didn’t break stride. “Who the hell is Teddy?”
“Teddy is a hustler I knew from Rodney’s unit. He was a character, but it never occurred to me he’d go this criminal. He was a scam artist, a conman. Small time.”
“Well, it looks like he made it to the big time.”
“But I don’t understand how,” Tracy walked over to the dining room table, which appeared to be made of marble. Whoever Mr. Rashad was, he had exquisite and expensive, tastes. “We could see his scams coming from a mile away. How did he get in bed with a bunch of crime lords?”
“He didn’t get in bed with them,” Jessica said. “He duped them. That’s different.”
“What difference does that make?”
“All the difference honey,” Jessica grabbed a cup of team from the dispenser. “Ooh, Jasmine. You don’t see that very often any more.”
“Explain?” Tracy did not like missing details.
“When you join, get recruited, become part of a Clan, there’s no room for fooling anyone. In fact, the only ones doing the deception are the top brass. Everyone below them is compliant.”
“They hardly seem compliant,” Tracy sat back in her chair.
“I don’t mean compliant like they are lap dogs, I mean, they obey the clan leader. These guys are narcissist’s. They will not tolerate anyone who doesn’t love them. They rule through fear. Anyone doing anything scammy inside the organization wouldn’t last a day. And if you do anything scammy outside the organization, you had better be doing at the bosses direction. They absolutely do not like free lancers.”
“So you don’t think Teddy was part of the clan?”
Jessica sipped her tea. “I never heard of him until Typhon mentioned his name.”
Tracy frowned. “But, then how did Teddy get connected with Red Spider Clan?”
“Maybe he’s not connected at all. Maybe they are just one of many bidders for this thing that Teddy has,” Jessica leaned forward. “If you ask me, that’s probably our best bet. Teddy was just offering a deal up for sale, and it was a deal that was so good it caught the eye of the Clan.”
Tracy considered that. “Okay, let’s say that’s true. Then what did he offer? What would attract the attention of the clans?”
“Well, there’s the usual things, like money - “
“They have money, why would they buy money?”
“I meant a way to make money. Something valuable they could convert into money.”
“They threw two starships and their crew away chasing this thing and they’re willing to risk a third with us on board. I think it has to be about more than money,” Tracy reflected on. “Besides they already have that. My gut tells me it has to be something they could not ordinarly buy.”
“Military Tech?” Jessica suggested. “You did say your friend was in the military.”
Tracy shook her head. “Weapons might make some sense, but what would a Clan leader want more than money and violence?”
Jessica shook. “Sex? Drugs? Rock-n-roll?”
Tracy felt a flush. “What about immortality?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hear me out. Every since the longevity craze a century ago, and the advent of nanintes, humanity has been chasing longer life and health spans right?”
“Sure,” Jessica said.
“But all of our tech is mostly a stop gap, or a slowing down of the aging process. I seem to recall a couple of centuries ago, a famous scientist even claimed he had discovered the secret to not just halting aging, but reversing it.”
“Is he still around?”
“The point is that his claim set off a fire storm of medical investment that ultimately lead to the nanite revolution, but no meaningful extension of lifespan. Sure we live a little longer, a little healthier, but we still age. What if Teddy found - or claimed to have found a solution to that problem?”
“You mean the fountain of youth?” Jessica laughed. “That’s just ridiculous.”
“Perhaps it is,” Tracy looked out the starship port holes at the stars. “But what else could get a wealthy crime lord to risk, not just his assets, but the chance of discovery? This has not been a quiet cover up. In fact, its quite the contrary. In fact, it’s almost ham fished.”
“As if maybe they are covering something else up?” Jessica asked.
Tracy called out, “Perry Six are you paying attention?”
His voice instantly came back over the ships intercom. “Yes Ms. Richards.”
“Can you locate every file on Tim Connacher within the public record?”
“Yes, Ms. Richards and quite a few from the non-public record.”
“Excellent,” Tracy said, “Please give me access to all the data at my terminal. I have a feeling there’s something in Teddy’s file that might give us a clue.”
“Please hold on for jump,” Perry Six announced. A few moments later, their blue and gold starship orbited a different star. Tracy pulled up a few port so she could see what the ships fron cameras showed. She enhanced the image. They hovered above a planet that support not one, but twelve orbital platforms.
“Well, I hope you’re a fast read,” Jessica said. “Those look like Navy vessels headed our way.”