Prisons of Ice and Fire

The End

Up in the control room, The Bulwark started work on connecting in the communications array.

The whole place was a mass of humming electronics, flashing lights and, above all, heat emitting power which made it too warm for one wearing extreme weather gear.

As I stripped off, I attempted to make a conversation,

"I see they let you keep your whole head then, although why they made you hide it from me at the City I can't understand. It was obvious from your voice that you still had it."

The Bulwark slowed slightly as he ratcheted up the rack bolt he was working on, but other than that, he didn't reply let alone look around at me.

"What have you done with all the staff you must have looking after all this, or are they too scared to be around when you're here?"

That did the trick, as the robot dropped the spanner with a clang on the metal flooring and turned around.

The Bulwark's face was rather twisted and upset as he looked me clear in the eye and said,

"I wanted peace and quiet while I worked and a chance to talk to you, as a friend, in private. Is that OK?"

I looked down, sad that I had upset him, but wishing that he could be honest with me.

I sighed and looked back up at him, "You don't need me here. The Cult didn't need me specifically  in the desert. Why have you all made my life more difficult than it already is?"

The Bulwark replied with a question, "Do you hate me for what I did?"

I was almost crying at that point, but I felt I had to answer, "No, of course not. You had an opportunity and you made a choice you say you are happy with, so why should I hate you? You were my friend and as far as I know, you still are. But you've made my life difficult, taken options away from me."

"You can just do what you've always done if you don't want to be involved, can't you?" he replied.

At this point I was beginning to wonder how much he really knew about me, but, as always, my survival instinct stopped me from going too far.

"What do you mean by that?" I said as if I had no idea.

The Bulwark stood up and starting doing something with his radio transmitter and when he finished, he simply said,

"I have a message for you from Letka, the woman you spoke to at the City. Before I play it, I want to let you know that she told me to listen to it just prior to packing myself into the crate; I had no idea about any of this until I heard it."

The Bulwark made one final alteration then a buzzing sound could be heard coming from a speaker somewhere about his robotic person. After a few seconds, Letka's voice kicked in,

"Hello Lupi, I trust you are well and tucked up in the control room away from the awful weather.

I asked The Bulwark here to play this to you once you arrived safely. I'm sorry if having him hear this causes you sadness, but I'm afraid I have no choice. At the end of the day, I thought he deserved to know who saved him and why. If you're looking at his face now, I'm sure you can see the gratitude."

The message paused for enough time for me to see the look on The Bulwark's face. He smiled but was obviously emotional too.

"Ever since he came to us, we have been trying to find you and, as I know you're aware, that's no easy task. In fact until I spoke to you, I wasn't sure we'd got the right one. Obviously all the circumstantial data fitted: no ties, no family, no chance of children. Then when I looked more closely I realised that your 'accident' could only have been deliberate as there was no way someone with your amazing record could have made such a mistake, and no way really such a potentially lethal yet actually harmless thing could ever have happened naturally. From that point on and from The Bulwark's description of you, I could only assume you wanted to be on The Destiny and the only reason I could imagine for that was because you wanted to see him again. I mean, after twenty years, you wanted to be with one of your own kind for a while, and, effectively, what is five years to a being that is over two hundred and fifty years old?"

At this point there was little that I could do but shrug sheepishly.

The message continued, “You are alone with your friend now, so take some time to consider your situation. I know you don’t like being known by anyone, and that you have the capability to change your appearance somewhat and to create yourself a new identity if you need to disappear. Obviously I am giving you this message now in good faith and your friend would not deny you the chance to go back to the ship if you want to, but I would like to give you some other options.

As is my understanding and from my experience of you, I would say that you are extremely intelligent, probably Plus 3SD at least. I would like to say, whatever you decide to do, I am grateful for the chance to have met you. In my opinion, you are the pinnacle of the achievement of the human race and, bearing in mind our current state, very likely to remain so forever. Naturally, I would be delighted if I could convince you to work with us, but I am mindful of the possible meaninglessness that might conjure up for you. However, there is one more option I would like The Bulwark to discuss with you.”

At that point the buzzing resumed and The Bulwark turned off the speaker.

“Why did you come to the ship?” he asked simply.

I smiled and said, “I wasn’t sure whether you were going to remember to move on. I had a lot to do in a very short time when I re-activated you. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t be long before someone got suspicious. When you disappeared, I assumed you had.”

“Thank you” said the robot, extending his metal hand.

I shook it with all my might.

“In all those years did you ever find any more of us?” was his natural follow up question.

“No,” I replied sadly, “most were destroyed without realising what was happening to them.”

After minute of awkward silence, came the final question,

“Do you recognize this equipment and how it relates to the communications array booster?”

“Yes,” I sighed, “The last option. It would allow my quantum synapses to be read and streamed. I would be dead here, but with the extra capacity, my consciousness could be beamed through the wormhole. I assume you have arranged for it to be loaded somehow on the other side?”

The Bulwark nodded as I finished my statement,

“The pinnacle of human endeavour, my artificial intelligence, would realise the oldest human dream: to spread across the universe.”