Crossover Page 7

  "Yeah," said Vanessa. "I was." Wondering if she had, in fact, done the right thing in saving this woman. Or whatever she was. Wondering if she'd come to regret it. The GI turned her head slightly, softly grasped a thin plastic tube between her lips, and sipped liquid. Rested back on the pillow, and stared at the ceiling.

  "... I thanked you, then ..." came the small voice. Hushed in the quiet room, "... now I'm not so sure ..."

  "I can imagine," Vanessa told her, eyeing the faint bulge beneath the tucked bedcovers that indicated the restraints. There were a lot of tubes running from beneath the sheets.

  The GI looked at her obliquely. "... you took a risk..."

  Vanessa shrugged. "We needed you. The CSA. We needed to know what the FIA were up to. Why won't you help us?" A pause. From somewhere came the faint whirr of ventilation, and behind it the distant hum of night-time traffic beyond mostly soundproofed windows.

  "... I don't know ..." the GI said after a moment. "... I guess I'm not feeling very helpful ..." Her eyes appeared damp, staring at the ceiling. Vanessa frowned, looking more closely. Did GIs cry? She'd never heard so.

  "You're talking like it's all over," Vanessa said, frowning. "Like your life's gone and you'll never get a new one."

  "... well I won't, will I ...?" Still the small, quiet whisper. "... not in the Federation ..."

  "You always give up so easily?" The GI did not reply for a moment, then glanced across at her, a curious shift of gaze. Less impressed, with that comment. It was at least a response. "What do you think this city is? You think there's no free debate here? No due process? If you defend yourself, not everyone is going to want you locked up ..."

  "... I've seen the news shows ..." A cool, firming of the whisper, the damp eyes hard. "... I know what people think of GIs. What did the doctor tell you when you came in? Nice Dr Djohan? Watch out for the GI, she'll kill you when you're not looking...?"

  Vanessa frowned at her. Pondering that. Snorted in humourless laughter.

  "... exactly. What's my legal status? There's no precedent for GIs in Federation society. Even the League wasn't real keen to let me mix with civvies. Lobby groups here will flip their lid. Rainbow Coalition..."

  "So you're just going to let them win? You're not even going to fight?" Challenging. Feeling herself increasingly irritated by this irrational defeatism. She couldn't understand it, had never understood defeatism in any form. It baffled her. "Dammit ... Cassandra." It was, she recalled, the GI's name. "Cassandra ... Tanusha is a weird place. Politically it's like a madhouse sometimes ... not everyone will automatically hate you. Some may even like you, if you give them a chance. But you've got to help us, you've got to tell us what's going on, and what you know. Right now you just look like you're protecting someone."

  The damp blue gaze was now slightly incredulous. Vanessa exhaled a hard breath, wondering how she could explain this city to a GI, a non-civilian by birth, who had never known civilian life and had no concept of what ordinary people thought.

  "... what makes you think I'm likeable ...?" Vanessa blinked, surprised by that. The GI was wondering why she, Lieutenant Vanessa Rice, was defending her. No doubt thinking it was a ploy to win her cooperation.

  "Aren't you likeable?" Which got a cool, effortless stare from the GI. It was unnerving. There was something in those eyes that was not ... not entirely human, she supposed. But it did not feel malicious. Not even particularly dangerous. Just intent. But it was strange, and gave her goosebumps. "Prove it to me. Prove to me you're a likeable person. Prove to me you're decent. You might not be, I've no idea. But I'll listen. That's the point, Cassandra. Opinions are formed through experience. If you can show people that there is at least one GI in the known universe who is a decent person, then who knows?"

  "... there's more than one ..." the GI whispered in reply. Took a slow breath, and sighed. "... there's so much more ... or was ... but people have no idea. People never do ..."

  "Hey, don't write me off. Convince me." She grabbed a chair from the end of the bed, and placed it alongside. Not at all certain of what the hell she was doing, or if it was the slightest bit sane ... except that she remembered that dive, in the operating theatre, and remembered the presence that she had felt. Overstretched as she'd been, vulnerable in cyberspace, in the midst of a neural structure that was so much more powerful than her own, even in that weakened state ... and she was still alive. That in itself had to count for something. "Why did you come to Tanusha? You were on Reta Prime before that, right? We traced you back that far."

  The GI stared at her for a long, unblinking moment. Vanessa sat, arms folded, awaiting a reply with stubborn determination. Then, "... you've seen my software skills. Tanusha's the largest software and infotech centre in the Federation, outside of Earth ..."

  "You were looking for a job, is that it?"

  "... a life ..." came the soft, gentle correction.

  "What was wrong with the life you had? You must have been pretty important in the League."

  "... far too important. They were so careful of me ..." A distant look, remembering things past. "... officers needed a security clearance just to talk to me. Psych analysis. They were never that careful with the others ..."

  "Why? What made you special?"

  "... GIs aren't bright, Vanessa ..." The eyes refocused on her own with tired resignation. "... not real smart, as a rule. You've read the combat reports. Feds always said their greatest advantage against us was brains. GIs can be smart in straight lines. Rarely laterally ..." Vanessa nodded, she had indeed read as much. Combat reports were a great source of useful material for any SWAT commander.

  "And you are?" she guessed.

  The GI sighed, softly.

  "... yeah. For all the good it did me ..."

  Vanessa blinked, realising something. A possibility. It unfolded before her like a map. She caught her breath.

  "Is that why you left the League? You decided you didn't like their war?" Silence from the GI, not protesting the assertion. "Hang on, let me get this ... the League created a GI capable of lateral thought process as ... as what, an experiment?" Still no argument. "But the result is that you think too laterally for them, and decide you don't want to fight any more. Why would they risk creating a GI who wouldn't agree with their philosophies?"

  A faint, almost imperceptible shrug beneath the covers. "... that's freedom of thought for you. That's the risk you take when you allow people to think entirely for themselves ..."

  "So why take that risk?"

  "... as an experiment. To make me more dangerous. GIs were always getting outsmarted by Feds. GIs were never as effective as people on either side seem to think. Lost thousands in stupid ambushes, kids' stuff. They figured they wanted a GI with all the perks but smart. Ought to be unstoppable..."

  "Did it work?"

  "... oh yes ..." With great sadness. "... an unqualified, extraordinary success ..."

  Vanessa suffered another chill, more severe than the last. Her mind switched back to what she was supposed to be asking. The information wanted by Intel, and Naidu in particular.

  "So you came here with no ulterior motive whatsoever," she said. And let the implied question hang there for a lingering moment, slowly revolving. "The League's expansionist biotech policies had nothing to do with it?"

  The GI breathed deeply through her nose, a gentle rise-and-fall of her chest beneath the covers. Flicked a glance up past her toward the ceiling behind, and the walls.

  "... they're watching me. I feel like I'm in a zoo ..."

  "Cassandra, why won't you ..."

  "... I don't like these restraints, Vanessa. They're driving me crazy ..." There was pain in her eyes, emotional pain, lips pressed thin. "... the drugs alone are enough, you don't need the restraints. I need to move..."

  "You grabbed Naidu."

  "Christ, it was a reflex ..." With hoarse exasperation, her thin voice trying to rise above its forced whisper. "... I didn't hurt him. I was drugged stupid, I could hardly
think. Look, you can put a guard in here with a tranq, if I move he can drop me..."

  "You're avoiding the question," Vanessa told her.

  Light flared in the deep blue eyes.

  "... damn right I am. You think I'm going to help people who treat me like this? With this damn machine feeding me sedative every time my pulse goes up, until you come in for an interview of course? Fuck you..."

  It was desperation, Vanessa thought. And fear. She thought about taking the restraints off. Thought about trusting her, despite what Djohan had said. It not only meant disobeying instructions. It meant getting close, bending down to undo the straps. Trust or no trust ... synth-alloy myomer, Djohan had said. Unbelievably powerful stuff. Undrugged, GIs could crack a human skull like a nut, barehanded. Human physiology was nothing to them, fragile like gossamer, to break up and fly away on an errant breeze.

  "... look at you ..." the GI whispered. "... you can't do it, can you? I've made love with straight humans, Vanessa, they never knew the difference. They enjoyed it. But just one piece of knowledge, and everything changes. I'm still the same. It's you who's different. You're doing it to yourself..."

  "I don't know what I can do about that," Vanessa replied. Shaken, in spite of herself, by the GI's calm, quiet appraisal. The worst bit was that it sounded like truth. "How do you measure trust, Cassandra? I mean ... how much risk is worth it? Look at it from my perspective. If I'm wrong, I die. Is that worth any risk? For someone I don't even know?"

  "... you already risked it once ..." Again, it hit her, unexpectedly hard. Not having expected this calm, thoughtful logic from a GI. She was rattled and uncertain how to proceed.

  "That was different," she said after a moment.

  "... impulsive ..." whispered the GI. "... illogical. Now that you've got time to sit and think about it, you realise it was a stupid risk to take ..." Vanessa blinked, not knowing anything to say to that. "... and you wonder why I don't like my chances here ..."

  A long silence. The GI gazed at the ceiling, sad and still. Vanessa watched, trying desperately to think of something that would fix it, and make it all better. But there was nothing.

  "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I really am. If you are who you say you are ... I'm really sorry. But I don't know."

  "... you remember the dive ...?" Glancing across at her. Almost hopefully. Vanessa caught her breath, remembering the VR immersion, the GI's huge, damaged field, the glowing lines and strands. The danger she'd been in, within the GI's structure. The presence, weak, but enough to finish her if it had wanted, in her tenuous position. It had not. And she remembered emotions, pain, desperation, determination, longing ... The memory assailed her once more, as powerful as a first grade tactile interface, triggers in the brain that recalled the experience as real, which it sometimes did on really deep dives.

  She remembered a lot. And she wondered, then, how much the GI remembered of that necessary mutual embrace.

  "... I know enough about you, Vanessa ..." the GI whispered. The blue gaze was back, holding her attention, mesmerising. "... I know you're a good person. I forgive you ..."

  "How much do you know?" Vanessa whispered, half in shock, her eyes wide. For the briefest of moments, a faint smile touched the GI's lips.

  "... not enough to scare you. Just enough to know you from a vegetable. But that's enough ..."

  Vanessa stared at the GI.

  "... and Vanessa? I know all about the League's biotech infiltration policies, I even helped on a few of the implementations. They do have ties with Callayan biotech firms, I know that much. Encryption here is lax, freedom of network information and all that—it lets the underground shuttle things around out of sight, but you already know that. I never learned the names. But penetration into major Tanushan BT firms is at least eighty percent—that's from League Intel reports I read three years ago.

  "... no, my being here has nothing to do with it. I knew it was the best place for software, and I wanted a good job. I made such a good civilian. I was better at that than I was even at soldiering ..." With faint humour. "... and none of it explains the FIA. Although I do know of a few FIA secrets about their own secret research into very illegal biotech that most Feds won't know. Would you like me to tell you?"

  Vanessa stared. Turned and looked once over her shoulder, at the cameras there, recording everything. Imagined Naidu, Djohan and half a dozen other Intel operatives gathered about the monitor screens next door, leaning forward in tense, nervous anticipation, biting fingernails. And she turned back to the GI, patiently waiting.

  "Yes," she said. "Yes please."

  * * * *

  It was an hour before she emerged, blinking wearily, and wondering if Sav would still be awake. Her husband had become increasingly tired of these late nights. The hopeful part of her mind pictured him asleep and unworried. The realistic part showed him awake, watching TV and grinding his teeth between repeated glances at the time. Naidu and others were clambering out of the monitor room as the secure door shut behind her, Naidu looking very pleased, his eyes alive and smiling.

  "Vanessa." He grasped her small hand in his broad one and shook it repeatedly. "I think you have the wrong line of work, Lieutenant, you should be in investigations. You were superb ..." Pause to take a deep, disbelieving breath. "I don't know how much you know about League biotech policy or the FIA, but some of that was just... explosive. This is really going to keep us busy. Of course, I don't need to remind you that nothing you heard in there is to leave this building ..."

  Vanessa waved him away wearily, detaching her hand from his and strolling tiredly across the floor. "You should know better, Rajeev. I'm a grunt. I have the attention span of small winged insect." Massaging her face, feeling somewhat unsteady, for reasons that went well beyond the mere lateness of the hour. "Call me again if you need me."

  "She's growing on you, I see," Naidu said, with the glint of a mischievous smile. "She is very pretty. For a European." Which was facetious too, that a GI should even be credited with an ethnic identity beyond the cosmetic. She frowned at him, as more Intel filed past from the monitor room, deep in hand-waving discussion, examining their copious notes and oblivious to anything else.

  "I am still married, Rajeev," she retorted in dry humour, "I'm still in the middle of my five-year heterosexual cycle. It's not due to end for another thirty months. Then talk to me about how pretty she is." Naidu looked dubious.

  "Lieutenant," white-coated Dr Djohan interrupted with a perky, pleased smile. He shook her hand rapidly. "An excellent job. You appear to have established a level of interconnection with her that I hadn't expected possible for a human. Well done. You do realise, of course, that had you tried to remove her restraints I would have triggered a sedative dose from the monitor booth. I had a finger on the button the whole time, so have no fear, you were never in any danger ..."

  "Don't you think that's missing the point?" Vanessa said sharply. Djohan frowned, cocked his small brown head.

  "And yes, how so?"

  "Does trust actually occur to you as a concept?"

  Djohan's frown remained. He blinked rapidly.

  "She is a GI, Lieutenant. My own personal opinion is that the arbitrary application of human psychological concepts to a non-human is fundamentally flawed and potentially dangerous, and so ..."

  "Then what the hell was going on in there?" Vanessa demanded, pointing back toward the closed door. Another pause of rapid blinking by Djohan.

  "I would say that you did manage to establish a degree of mutual understanding, Lieutenant. Considering the fundamental similarities in your professions, I don't consider that to be particularly improbable ... but I would be very hesitant to ascribe the description of 'trust' to the interaction, merely because she did choose this time to share some of her information, much to her own benefit, I might add ..."

  "Jesus," said Vanessa, and turned away to stretch, running her hands through her short hair in fuming irritation, "if we left the world to doctors and technic
ians, it'd be in a real bloody mess, wouldn't it?" She turned back to the puzzled Dr Djohan. "Here's my advice: if you want cooperation out of her, take off those restraints. And take that damn monitor plug out of the back of her head—that's gotta be shitting her."

  "Lieutenant ... I fear you fail to understand just how dangerous this particular GI is ..." Pointing a sharp finger back at the door. "You heard what she said, and it appears to be true from her degree of intellectual and linguistic response to abstract concepts. She is an experimental GI with an advanced capability to process lateral thought, and that makes her dangerous to the most extraordinary degree..."

  "I disagree!" Angrily. "I think it makes her ten times less dangerous!"

  "That in itself is a very dangerous assumption, Lieutenant. This is not a human being to be judged according to human values ..."

  "You think I'm not dangerous?" Incredulously. She had no idea why she was so mad. At that moment it failed to matter. "I'm not an entirely natural human either, doctor. I have interface and physical enhancements, not to mention my training. Dammit, I could kill both you and Mr Naidu there right now if I chose to, with my bare hands, and there's not a damn thing you could do to stop me. So why aren't you scared of me, huh?"

  "You're CSA. You are sworn to serve and protect the citizens of Callay, like me."

  "She's not League," Vanessa retorted, pointing at the door. "She left them. She's now giving up their secrets or what she knows of them. There's no evidence she's done anything bad while she's been here. We've got her records, we know where she's been, what she's done ... she's been trying to find a job, she's gone sightseeing. She's very unlikely to be a spy since she could easily have gone for a higher security level job if she'd chosen, with those qualifications..."

  "Well, we don't actually know that," Naidu cautioned.

  "Give her the benefit of the doubt, why don't you?" Incredulously. "Face it, there's no reason to suspect her other than that she's a GI ... it's bias, it's discrimination..."