Redemption Ark

She climbed up through the ship until she reached the flight deck. Xavier carried on working after she had entered. He was too engrossed in what he was doing, and he must have become used to her never visiting Storm Bird.

She sat in the seat next to him, waiting for him to notice her and look up from his work. When he did he just nodded, giving her the space and time to say what she needed to. She appreciated that.

‘Beast?’ Antoinette said quietly.

The pause before Lyle Merrick replied was probably no longer than usual, but it felt like an eternity. ‘Yes, Antoinette?’

‘I’m back.’

‘Yes… I gathered.’ There was another long intermission. ‘I’m pleased that you’ve returned.’

The voice had the same tonal quality as ever, but something had changed. She supposed that Lyle was no longer obliged to mimic the old subpersona, the one that he had replaced sixteen years before.

‘Why?’ she asked sharply. ‘Did you miss me?’

‘Yes,’ Merrick said. ‘Yes, I did.’

I don’t think I can ever forgive you, Lyle.‘

‘I wouldn’t ever want or expect your forgiveness, Antoinette. I certainly wouldn’t deserve it.’

‘No, you wouldn’t.’

‘But you understand that I made a promise to your father?’

‘That’s what Xavier said.’

‘Your father was a good man, Antoinette. He only wanted the best for you.’

‘The best for you as well, Lyle.’

‘I’m in his debt. I wouldn’t argue with that.’

‘How do you live with what you did?’

There was something that might have been a laugh, or even a self-deprecating snigger. ‘The part of me that mattered the most isn’t greatly troubled by that question, you know. The flesh-and-blood me was executed. I’m just a shadow, the only shadow that the eraserheads missed.’

‘A shadow with a highly evolved sense of self-preservation.’

‘Again, that’s nothing I’d deny.’

I want to hate you, Lyle.‘

‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘Millions already do.’

She sighed. ‘But I can’t afford to. This is still my ship. You are still running it whether I like it or not. True, Lyle?’

I was already a pilot, Little… I mean Antoinette. I already had an intimate knowledge of spacecraft operations before my small mishap. It hasn’t been difficult for me to integrate myself with Storm Bird. I doubt that a real subpersona would ever prove an adequate replacement.‘

She sneered. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I’m not going to replace you.’

‘You’re not?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘But my reasons are pragmatic. I can’t afford to, not without seriously fucking up my ship’s performance. I don’t want to go through the learning curve of integrating a new gamma-level, especially not now.’

‘That’s reason enough for me.’

‘I’m not finished. My father made a deal with you. That means you made a deal with the Bax family. I can’t renege on that, even if I wanted to. It wouldn’t be good for business.’

‘We’re a little far from any business opportunities now, Antoinette.’

‘Well, maybe. But there’s one other thing. Are you listening?’

‘Of course.’

‘We’re going into battle. You’re going to help me. And by that I mean you’re going to fly this ship and make it do whatever the fuck I ask of it. Understood? I mean everything. No matter how much danger it puts me in.’

‘Vowing to protect you was also part of the arrangement I made with your father, Antoinette.’

She shrugged. ‘That was between you and him, not me. From now on I take my own risks, even if they’re the kind that might get me killed. Got that?’

‘Yes… Antoinette.’

She stood up from her seat. ‘Oh, and one other thing.’

‘Yes?’

‘No more «Little Miss».’

Khouri was down in the reception bay, showing her face and generally doing her best to reassure the evacuees that they had not been forgotten, when she felt the entire ship lurch to one side. The movement was sudden and violent, enough to knock her off her feet and send her crashing bruisingly into the nearest wall. Khouri swore, a thousand possibilities flashing through her mind, but her thoughts were immediately drowned under the vast roar of panic that emanated from the two thousand passengers. She heard screams and shouts, and it was many seconds before the sound began to die down to a general rumble of disquiet. The motion had not repeated itself, but any illusions they had that the ship was a solid and unchanging thing had just been annihilated.

Khouri snapped into damage-limitation mode. She made her way through the maze of partitions that divided the chamber, offering nothing more than a reassuring wave to the families and individuals who tried to stop her to ask what was going on. At that point she was still trying to work it out for herself.

It had already been agreed that her immediate deputies would assemble together in the event of anything unexpected happening. She found a dozen of them waiting for her, all looking only slightly less panicked than the people in their care.

‘Vuilleumier…’ they said, in near unison, on her arrival.

‘What the hell just happened?’ one asked. ‘We’ve got broken bones, fractures, people scared shitless. Shouldn’t someone have warned us?’