Panterra: The Machinist

5: The Twisted River

Dallas sits on the deck of the ferry boat playing with Serena and the sack full of toys he brought with him. She's finally stopped crying. Two members of Lenny's team stand in the prow watching for snags, sunken logs that could severely damage the boat. Arlington and Austin trade off on shoveling coal. The Twisted River enters the bay from the north and leads us deep into a tangled forest of mixed wood. The shaded air is cool until the sun gets overhead. Then it warms quickly.

Denton and Waco sit in the back, repacking everyone's gear and sharpening the spears. Arlington converted his other three metal rods into spears with his laser. That gives us four lightweight rigid weapons. They have no flex. Even Dallas can't get one to bend.

Lenny's made this run monthly since the ferry boat came into service. He and his two assistants know the river well and steam against the slow current at a good pace. The lower end of the river meanders in a twisted manner, but it straightens out into longer curves the farther north we go. The channel is narrow but deep.

We've been traveling in silence since we left the West Point dock. Fortunately Serena slept until we were well into the northern end of the bay. When she realized we were leaving, her wailing seemed to echo everyone's mood. Normally these people are laughing, smiling, and joking with each other. Not today.

One of the spotters raises his hand, and Lenny backs off on the throttle. The spotter pushes on the submerged log with a long pole. The log doesn't move, but his pushing helps to steer the boat away from it. He follows it all of the way back to the stern along the outer walkway of the deck.

I watch Serena playing with Dallas through Arlington's eyes and listen to Christi question Barcy about the emperor through her ears. At the same time I continue to poke around in her SI trying in vain to rebuild the thought-speak connection and search for more information about her experience in the Imperial City.

For six months after landing, the captain tried to use his command override to get her to do things like "Wash my uniform," "Cook me breakfast," or "Get up and throw another log on the fire." Once he ordered her to "Take your suit off and get over here." Each attempt was concluded with an expletive. Then he stopped, and he made no further contact with her. I can find no evidence of her compliance. I cross-reference the time-stamps on these with the accessible files downloaded by Indy and can find no corresponding record from Indy of any kind. I can only assume these are in her affidavit file.

Indy's conversations with Barcy's SI were just as brief but always limited to a query on the implant's status on self-correction. Her own files at these moments show extensive conversations with Barcy in private regarding how to fix her SI. Their strategy was misdirected, though they came to the same conclusion as me: it needs to be replaced.

Each SI has a collection of nano-bots which can be directed by the maintenance system to repair any malfunctions. The process can be lengthy, but the fact that hers is so badly damaged leads me to believe the little guys were all destroyed by the lightning. I use those in Arlington's SI extensively for processes outside their design, like building neuro-pathways to parts of his brain he seldom uses. Where he ends and I begin is difficult to determine.

I'm tempted to open Indy's sealed affidavit, but my intrusion would render the data inadmissible. I can't even copy it without a record being made of my action. Indy's entire activity log for the first ten months, and most of the remaining three years is included in that file, so I'm left putting the pieces together through later references and in any research notes she's appended.

Her movement in the city seems to have been limited to the emperor's compound, which sits on a hill overlooking a swift river to the southeast. The compound is centered on his large meeting hall, which also serves as an administrative building. Two smaller buildings extend to either side forming a large U-shape. The humans are housed in one side building, and the other is for the emperor's large litter of females.