Hammer and Crucible Cameron Cooper (web ebook reader TXT) 📖

his fingers up against his untouched jaw. He rubbed it and dropped his hand.

“Yes, but you could kill us all because you control the ship,” Juliyana replied. “You could expose the interior to vacuum. We’d be dead in three minutes. That doesn’t require velocity.”

“Why would I do that?” Lyth asked, his tone reasonable. “You are my guests.” His brow furrowed. “Besides…it would be, well, wrong.”

“An AI with ethical subroutines,” I breathed. “Amazing.”

“And hands, too,” Dalton added.

“You should think of this body as merely a tool,” Lyth said. “I can reassemble myself into any object—probe, hammer, sensor—”

“You can form intelligent circuits?” I said sharply.

“I am the intelligence,” Lyth said, its voice coming from the overhead speakers.

“This form has sensors in every nanoparticle, which combined together provide feedback which I can process,” the Lyth in front of us added.

“Nanobots,” I breathed, as the essential nature of the thing became clear to me. “Acting in concert.”

“I can reach into the smallest spaces in the ship,” Lyth added. “In this form, I can move around the spaces designed for humans.”

“Have you been Turing-tested?” Juliyana asked, looking at the ceiling where the speakers emitted.

“I have no consciousness,” Lyth said. “The self-awareness you profess to as humans escapes my understanding. I have been taught human mannerisms and learned how to interact with humans in ways which reassure them and allow me to serve them to the fullest capacity.”

“You like interacting with us,” Dalton added.

Lyth sobered. The warmth in its eyes faded. “It has been a very long time since I had company,” he confessed. “I regret the absence.”

“Damn, I think it was lonely,” Juliyana breathed.

“Is that why you offered to get me off the city, Lyth?” Dalton said. “You wanted company?”

Lyth frowned. “I was told to bring you to Devonire.”

“Who told you?” we all said together. Juliyana and Dalton sounded as alarmed as I felt.

“I don’t know,” Lyth said.

“You followed the order, anyway.”

“I always obey human requests, unless they put my existence in jeopardy. If a human is in danger, even my existence can be disregarded.”

“Orders of priority,” Juliyana murmured. “Standard AI ethical foundation.”

“How did your orders arrive?” Dalton asked Lyth.

Lyth frowned. “Voice communication.”

“Authenticated?”

“Yes. It was a human speaking to me. Their responses measured beyond Turing standard.” Lyth smiled. “You must understand, I am particularly sensitive about who I take my orders from. I check carefully when I am first confronted with what appears to be a human, to ensure I am not being deceived.”

“You tested us?” Juliyana asked.

“There is no need to test any of you,” Lyth said airily. “Dalton felt pain under high acceleration and Danny’s metabolism has slowed in the last few minutes, indicating she is both hungry and tired. While you, Juliyana, are simply a delight to behold.” Its smile was warm as it considered her.

Juliyana’s lips parted. It wasn’t often I saw her left with nothing to say.

Then my stomach rumbled loudly, and all three of them turned to look at me.

“Damn, he was right,” Juliyana said.

“Tell me you have a galley on this thing,” Dalton added.

“Follow me,” Lyth said, and strode across the bridge deck toward the exit ramp.

I followed everyone else with a touch of reluctance. I was starving, only there were still a few million or so questions which needed urgent answers, before I could relax enough to eat.

Yet the ship with the answers was walking away from me. I had no choice but to follow.

12

Lyth placed a steaming plate of curry in front of me, diverting me with the aroma of spices.

My stomach rumbled again. I detached the fork from the rim of the bowl and ate quickly.

Gabriel sat at the big table, his head resting against the tall back cushions of the bench we were both sitting on.

Juliyana sat on the other side of the table, on a matching bench, with a lower back, so those of us on this side could see beyond the bench and across the rest of the galley.

Lyth orchestrated the printer, producing meals for Juliyana and Gabriel. “There are no fresh food supplies,” it explained. “Although I can store fresh food over the long term, and even longer if the preservation options are activated. The capacity of the storage is a function of—”

“Yes, yes,” I said, cutting it off. I pointed my fork at Dalton. “How long since your last crush shot, Dalton?”

“Two years ago,” he replied, his voice tired.

Juliyana lowered her spoonful of stew. “What sort of shit did you buy?” she demanded. “Two years isn’t nearly long enough for the nanobots to even begin to expire, even in the cheapest juice out there.”

He cracked one eye open to look at her. “You sound just like your mother.”

“Danny is my grandmother,” she replied tartly and returned to eating.

Dalton fully opened the eye. “You’re Noam’s daughter?”

Juliyana lowered the spoon once more. “Why do you think we were looking for you?”

I winced. That was a card I had wanted to hold for now.

Dalton sat up. “You were looking for me?”

“That’s for later,” I replied. “First, I have a few questions of my own.”

Dalton held up his hand, looking at Juliyana. “You were looking for me? Why were you on Devonire, if you were looking for me? No one knew I was there—even I didn’t know where I was until Devonire traffic control reached out, when the Lythion emerged from the gate.”

“We had to leave New Phoenicia in a hurry,” Juliyana said. “We took the first passage to anywhere else.”

“An anywhere which just happened to be where I was…” Dalton muttered.

I was looking at Lyth. Dalton was, too.

Juliyana put her spoon down and stared at the thing, too. “There’s been way, way too many handy coincidences, lately,” she said softly.

Lyth had taken the last seat at the table. Now he looked offended. “I am a shipmind,” he said. “I just follow orders.”

“From this mysterious human you can’t name,” Dalton said. “What if this human reaches out again and tells you we’re a threat to your existence?”

“Can’t happen in