Justice for Rogue Incubators
Melisse Aires
No one else could do it. The Hanlon Navigator had the ability, but he was still Waking and was too confused to make the hard decisions. It was enough that he agreed to her course change. She would handle this duty on her own.
The others were all much newer models, specialized to handle one exact system. They either couldn’t log into Ship’s systems or the data made no sense when they did log on. They were newer models but like her they were still obsolete, sold for their biologics, not their old cyber enhancements. And she was older than all of them, by at least a century. But she’d had huge capabilities at one time and still had the networking capability to run something the size of this ship. She’d once managed the Yuan Province Transportation Hub on Chin Chin.
The others were resting in the staterooms, perhaps investigating the different forms of entertainment on board. Tech Ahn and Security were learning to knit, sitting in a lounge with their huge bellies and cyber enhancements, learning to make booties. Dr. Denson was locked in his suite until they had use of him.
None of the others needed the stress of this task.
Sys reached the hold. A security function alerted her, someone was coming down the lift from the level above. She locked on the elevator. The Hanlon Navigator! Would he try to stop her? Was he secretly loyal to the ship’s owners? But he had agreed to change course, to take them to the planet won from a warlord. Vast continents, empty of humans. A perfect place for them. By the time they were found—if they ever were discovered—more than likely their children would be grown; they would be a small community of simple farmers.
There was no way he could know what her purpose was down here. He could read ship’s systems, not minds. Sys took a deep breath to calm herself as the Hanlon Navigator appeared.
Like her, he was older and had probably gone through numerous Rejuvs. He was fit and strong, no ship would neglect the health of their navigator. His hair had started to grow back since they took over and placed the owners into stasis. It was a sandy brown with a bit of silver at the temples. The plates on his back, thighs and rib cage were similar to her own data storage and software plates.
“Jax,” he said. “That was my name before. I took my first appliance at age fourteen on Mars Beijing.”
“What year?” She wondered how close they were in age and tech.
“2334.”
“Then I am near to you in chronological age. I got my first appliance on Terran Paris, in 2330. I was twelve. Deca Corps Transport Management.”
“Caprice Star Systems, navigation.”
She smiled. “I know of them. And now I am a rogue incubator on a stolen ship.”
“And I am the rogue navigator of a stolen ship. And we are conscious.”
“We are no longer slaves.” She turned toward the hold, seeing in the distance the portal to the void. “You should go, Jax, make a journal entry of your name. You might remember more.”
“I think I will do so.” He turned to go. “They have beacons, you know.”
She looked at him, puzzled.
“Beacons to alert passing ships. So it is not murder, Sys. They have a chance for life.”
She was silent for a moment, then nodded. “My human name was Ivy.”
“I will call you Ivy.”
“Thank you, Jax.”
“We deserve the chance to live as freemen.”
She nodded, her throat too tight to speak. They had a chance.
Jax left, and Ivy set about launching the seventeen life pods into the void. The masters might survive; Ivy, her cyborg sisters and the babies in their wombs might die in the days ahead.
The babe fluttered in her belly. Ivy slid her hands over her slight bulging middle.
The seventeen pods were already vanishing in the darkness. She closed the viewer. The former owners were trapped and unconscious, wrapped up in cold, hard technology, helpless, while she and her sisters were awake and full of life and hope. In possession of a fine ship with a course laid out for a warlord’s paradise.
Justice.
The End
