"Even if I agreed to this, which I don't," whispered Liu after they'd explained, "How would we trick that thing? We have nothing it needs. It doesn't need to breathe, it doesn't need to consume anything, it walked into an inferno without hesitating. We have no leverage. Why would it leave the ship, especially after Emery warned it not to?"
"We can use its self-sufficiency against it. I don't care if it dies, we just have to get it off the ship and lose it in space. If we make it think that it'll be safe outside, and that something it cares about is in peril out there, it'll go," said Martham.
"What's out there that it cares about, Martham? You want me to rip off an antenna and toss it out the door? There's nothing out there."
"Emery is out there," she said tapping the door.
"And?" asked Blick. "You keep coming back to her. She hasn't done anything."
"That's not the point. Whether she did or she didn't, the robot cares about her."
"It's the whole point—" started Blick, but Leroux cut him off.
"Why do you think it cares about her? I thought you said it was using her, that it wanted us all to die," she said.
"It is using her. And it still needs her. It can't act without her if it wants to keep us in the dark. It's not going to get another chance to brainwash us—"
"If it wanted to kill us," said Blick, "why would it care about being secretive? It's sitting on the bridge right now. It's probably had access to our systems since Dorothy died. Why would it have even allowed us to take off? Why wouldn't it have simply disabled the Wolfinger when we were still on the planet? Why risk its own existence?"
Martham was silent. The whole thing was falling apart. Alice knew she should have kept them apart. Someone had to say something before the plan collapsed.
"Because it thought it could convince us to stay away from the planet. Killing us was a backup plan," she said. They all turned toward her. She could feel the damp prickle of sweat starting under her suit. "It was probably hoping that with the more intractable people out of the way, it could persuade the rest of us. It would have known, from Rebecca, that the med lab was only used by Titov, Leroux and myself. Titov was never going to agree to keep quiet. He thought Peter would be cured by the planet, no matter how often Leroux told him otherwise." She glanced at Leroux who turned away from them, ashamed and saddened. Alice could see the others were listening though. She pressed on. "We were acceptable losses, if it meant the rest of you would forget about settlement. It still thinks the rest of us can be convinced. As you said, Liu, it has access to all of our systems. The capability is always there. Just flip a switch or two and our air is gone. Or our temperature controls. Or the Wolfinger's dead in the void."
"Why wait until now?" asked Blick. "It had us on the planet. In a foreign environment where it had all the advantages."
"Who said it waited?" asked Leroux. "It didn't wait to kill Stratton. I certainly had nothing to do with the Captain's death. And we still don't know what happened with Spixworth. He was alone with Emery and Issk'ath— they said it was an accident, but how do we know? And maybe I was wrong about Dorothy. Maybe Oxwell would have been able to save her if it hadn't interfered."
Liu rubbed his shoulder. "I hate to admit it, but there's another good reason for waiting until we were out here. Maybe two. If we didn't come back, the Keseburg might have sent a search party. The Hardcoop probe at least. If Issk'ath really does want to prevent us from settling, then it would have to start the whole persuasion process over again with a new crew."
Blick shook his head, but stayed quiet.
"What's the second reason?" asked Martham.
"If it persuaded us to stay silent, to tell the Admiral that the planet was a hostile mess, that we'd never survive, Issk'ath would have to rely on our secrecy for the duration of our lives. It would have to believe that we'd never utter a word to another person. Not a spouse, not a child, not on our death beds. I don't know how much of our files it has processed or what Dorothy has told it, but they probably don't show us as reliably discreet. Why bother with us, when we're taking it to the source of the threat? It could wipe us all out once it's aboard the Keseburg."
YOU ARE READING
Traveler in the Dark
Science FictionSixteen hundred years ago, they fled Earth. Now their long journey may finally be at an end. None of them have ever walked on soil, felt rain, or breathed unrecycled air. Their resources nearly spent, they sent a last exploratory mission to a new p...