"Bad Asteroid Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martinez Steve)

Bad Asteroid Night
by Steve Martinez
The author works as a clerk at a public library. HeТs single, fifty years old, and lives with his brother in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Martinez has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from George Mason University in Virginia, and an undergraduate degree in math from the University of New Mexico. He tells us, УIТm happy to be living in such interesting times in the worlds of science fiction and scientific discovery.Ф This is his second published story. The first, УOne Hand Clapping,Ф appeared in our May 1995 issue.
* * * *

Sometimes, Trina envied the robots. There was never anything theyТd rather be doing. Give them a new assignment and it became their whole reason for being. For four years, they had been trusted to work asteroid T-Berg 020, mining and replicating with no human presence. But somewhere in that span of time, someone had given them a new purpose, and managed to make off with nearly three billion dollars worth of processed ore and equipment, including a breeding stock of the very latest in self-replicating robots. And not one robot had sounded an alarm. In fact, the remaining robots continued to file a whole history of false reports to cover the theft. By the time a resupply ship with its crew of six arrived, the robots had conveniently forgotten everything that could incriminate them and were hard at work as if nothing had happened, a good two years behind schedule.
At least the hole was still there, properly dug and sealed off. Some of the precious volatiles were back in production. But there was no clue to what had happened. At least nothing Trina could see. Whoever had pulled this off had been thorough. She had almost given up looking for traces of memory, and had been trying to hack the security system to see how it might have been done. She was the official robot jockey of the crew, so everybody was counting on her, especially the captain, so she pushed herself to exhaustion.
It was getting so bad that now TrinaТs dreams were blending into reality. She had fallen asleep at her desk with her cheek on one of her flat panel displays. In her dream, she pushed the color-coded program modules all over the screen like layer upon layer of jigsaw tiles, pushing them right off the screen onto the table as she went after something hiding beneath them, if only it would hold still, she was so tired, but she had to go on even when she began turning up pieces of teeth with long crusty roots and tiles covered with mucous, and bones that she cracked open, using one jagged piece to dig little white worms out of the marrow of the other.
She was awakened by the beeping of the com link, and scowled, confused to find her messy desk so similar to her dream. УYes,Ф she replied, looking sleepily over the array of data screens for the one that had beeped. It was the task scheduler, one of the robot overseers, asking for some kind of confirmation. It took a minute for Trina to look over the data and get a sense of what project she was being asked about. Apparently one of the robots, Willie 1-9, had gotten himself stuck down a fissure, and the vapors heТd kicked up before he broke his torch had frozen him solidly in place. УCurrent status?Ф
УAttempting to extricate Willie 1-9,Ф replied a synthetic voice.
She grimaced and shook her head at the diversion of resources the scheduler was proposing. This was ridiculous. It would be cheaper to make a new Willie. УInterrupt task. Download Willie 1-9, memfile, all.Ф
УTask interrupt. Download in progress.Ф A string of corrupt file messages filled her screen, then, УDownload complete.Ф
УEnd task. Abandon Willie 1-9. Reassign task, task manager, um, Oversee 2-0.Ф
УConfirm end task. Query. Task Сextricate Willie 1-9Т does not exceed current budget parameters. Do you wish to reset current budget parameters for task Сextricate Willie class workerТ? Estimate hours. Estimate resources. Estimate task priority. Please choose reset parameter.Ф
Funny, the budget parameters were set way high. So then, why was it even asking for confirmation? Oh well, check into it later. УNo. Retain current parameters. End task. Abandon Willie 1-9 through exception handler.Ф
УID confirmed. Authority confirmed. Resource protocol exception. Abandon Willie 1-9. Reassign task. Task manager Oversee 2-0.Ф
Now she was wide awake. It could be nothing. Perhaps some strangeness of the dream had carried overЧperhaps that and nothing more. Still, she was about to do a little digging when the light from the doorway was blocked by Captain Anders, suited up for an excursion except for his helmet and gloves. He held another spacesuit beside him, dangling like some poor crewmanТs fresh-peeled hide.
УHere we go off to the salt mines,Ф he said, as if talking to the empty spacesuit, Уwhile little miss princess gets to stay behind so she doesnТt get her face dirty. What do we think of that?Ф Then he changed his voice and spoke out the side of his mouth while dangling his puppet beside him. УWe think it sucks.Ф
УHey, this was your idea,Ф said Trina, turning to face him. She expected him to sit across from her in her mini couch, but instead he came beside her and sat against the desk, his ankles crossed.
Up close, Trina recognized the spacesuit he was holding as her own and said, УOh, did you change your mind?Ф
УNo, I just didnТt want to leave this by the airlock. We donТt want you-know-who to see youТre still here.Ф
Trina didnТt say anything. She just pulled her lips in and made a slight chewing motion, as she did sometimes when lost in thought, unaware of how monkeylike she looked. She came out of it blinking and puzzled by the amusement on the captainТs face.
УOh, and your transponder,Ф he said, carefully removing it from the chest of her suit. УWeТll take this with us so your blip will show up with ours in case he checks the roster.Ф
УSeems like a lot of trouble.Ф
УItТs not so much trouble.Ф He let the spacesuit hang folded over his hands like a dead animal, casual, or suggestive, Trina wasnТt sure. УWeТll only be gone a few hours. IТd take him along just to get him out of your hair, but then heТd be in my hair.Ф
УI still donТt see whatТs the big deal. We work together just fine.Ф
УYes, I know you do. Under normal circumstances, I wouldnТt have any problem. But this isnТt normal.Ф
УWhat you mean is, heТs not normal.Ф
УOh, thatТs what it is. You think this is personal? Trina, I donТt know if IТm going to be able to trust you if you think IТm just going on some personal grudge against him.Ф
УI didnТt say that.Ф
УLook, if he was a regular crewman, I wouldnТt care how many arms he had, as long as he can do the work. But heТs not a regular crewman. HeТs a protocol officer. What the hell is that? Have you seen his job description? Some kind of glorified safety inspector, is all I can make of it. With special authorities he can invoke. Hell, I donТt even know if I outrank him. Let me ask you thisЧhow come we never knew we needed one before? We sure as hell didnТt need a protocol officer when we set up this place, so why now?Ф
УItТs not his fault.Ф
УI know. When you come right down to it, nothing is his fault. He didnТt ask to be born, or made, or uncorkedЧwhatever you call it. He didnТt buy out our contracts. I hate to mess up your dreams, Trina, but I hope you werenТt planning on working up to your own time-share condo on this berg or any other. YouТre working for Gnomonics, now.Ф
УDoesnТt matter. TheyТve still got to honor our contracts.Ф
УYour contract was with Novinco, back when people thought human beings would be settling out here. ThatТs history. Novinco is just a subsidiary now. ItТs cheaper to breed ganglies to live in space. TheyТre designed for it.Ф
УBut weТve still got a contract.Ф
УAnd what IТm saying is, we used to have a contract. Now weТve got a contract plus a pair of beady little eyes to go along with it, watching over us. For our own safety. Right.Ф
УOkay, so we just donТt give them any grounds....Ф
УThatТs going to be a little tricky right now, donТt you think? I mean, we are missing a few billion dollarsТ worth of company property. Do you realize how theyТd love to pin it on us?Ф
УBut weТre innocent!Ф
Captain Anders opened his mouth and slapped his head, then held up the spacesuit in front of him and spoke to it. УSo what are you worried about, old timer?Ф When he released the suit, its beginning-to-fall was so slow it almost seemed to stand. Then he pushed it and it caved in like an octopus, descending into a gentle collapse on the couch. Trina copied the motion and sank back into her chair, feeling stupid.
УItТs a perfect set-up,Ф Anders continued. УThe timing couldnТt be better. That lawsuit with the Consortium has a lot of weight behind it. They could pull the plug on Gnomonics. In effect, EarthТs ban on monkeying with human genes would be extended to the whole solar system. And all they have to prove is whatТs true, that the ganglies have been unlawfully deranged.Ф
УI wouldnТt call Rakshasa deranged.Ф
УWhatever you call it. HeТs a piece of the company mind. There are certain thoughts he canТt think because he has an unnatural loyalty to the company that made him.Ф
УYou can be a company man without being a gangly.Ф
УYeah, but at least a company man is still a man. Or a woman. WeТre all company men on this boat, but at least what we do is out of greed or lust or pity, whatever. IТm telling you, these guys have it inbred into them not to be able to think outside the company box. ThatТs why heТs here, because they want something here thatТs not one of us, someone who will file reports on us without the inconvenience of friendship or affection getting in the way.Ф He frowned.
УThey donТt even have to find us guilty of anything, just drag us into a courtroom and raise a cloud of suspicion. Because weТre human, so, to their minds, that means we could be bribed, we could have been greedy, whatever. So some shareholders get to thinking maybe a special breed of demented workers doesnТt look so bad after all. And Rakshasa is going to see everything the way the company wants him to see it. HeТll stack all the facts against us in the worst light. The only way to really get off the hook is to come up with the big clue ourselves. Now do you see why I donТt want him working on this with you?Ф
She nodded, and the captain continued. УBesides, IТd feel kind of guilty about leaving you alone with him if he knew you were here, you know what I mean?Ф She gave him a blank look. УItТs just that, um, I donТt think an artificial species can leave everything behind all at once, in one step. Because if I was him, I donТt think a ganglyoid female would look all thatЧФ
УOkay, I get it.Ф
УAre you sure? I know you feel sorry for him.Ф