FOND FAREWELLS

The morning was glorious, with the sunlight pouring down from the mirrors, and the birds, having recovered from all the recent loud noises, were singing their little hearts out. But as Karil, Loris, and Shadow walked up the hill toward the harbor, their hearts were heavy.

The harbor was all but empty. The mining ships were already down on the asteroid’s surface, carving up the stony-metal rock like a ripe fruit. The Belter credo was, as always, back to work. The Asaph Hall sat in the corner of the harbor, being fuelled by a team of mechanics. Atalanta’s great flying wing was attached to a hatch outside and comm-cables ran across the deck to Celeste’s compact form. Professor Kelley sat at a workstation next to his ship.

“How’s our patient?” Loris asked.

The Professor looked up. “Well, we’re lucky Celeste is so obsessed with gathering information.”

“I wonder why,” Karil said.

The Professor smiled ruefully. “She talked Atty into sharing her whole life-story a while back and we’ll be able to restore her memories, except of course for the…incident.”

“It’s a good thing you have Galilean Security clearance,” Loris said, “or she couldn’t have done that.”

“Any idea when she’ll be able to speak?” Karil asked.

“It’s more or less up to her,” Kelley said. “She knows something awful went down but she’ll probably never really understand what she’s done. But if she wants to be of service to you, which is priority number one, she’ll come around. Don’t tell the psycho-roboticists I said so, but she’ll be back when she remembers how much she loves you and has to keep protecting you.”

“I always thought an AI like Atalanta was incapable of killing a human being,” Shadow said. “At least, that’s what they tell us. She had him trapped in the airlock and helpless, but she just plain killed him.”

“It’s not quite that simple,” Karil said. “Sentient robots are incapable of killing without permanently damaging their brain-paths. If necessary, they can kill to save their crew, but at the cost of their own death. But we Free Traders don’t want that to happen to our ships, so some genius created a program that would avoid that. When Atty decided that Cuchillo was a monster who would never stop hurting people, she decided he had to go, regardless of her own fate. The decision to kill triggered the creation of a temporary second personality, which was erased when the brain-paths burned out, thus preserving the original personality, which stands a good chance of being restored.”

“That seems kind of dangerous to me,” Shadow said. “Purposely making them schizoid.”

“Yes, but it’s pretty much what happens when the military or a secret service takes someone like you and me and uses training and propaganda to create a second personality for us, which can kill without a lot of thought. The real danger is when soldiers are sent home without sufficient deprogramming. That’s why so many end up suicidal.”

“Well, something strange happened to her at the end, that’s for sure,” Shadow said. “It didn’t sound like the Atalanta I knew. It was positively scary.”

They returned to the house to find Aaron and Li sitting with Mary Forster. Aaron had his long arm about her, and Li was sitting next to her, offering her tissues. Li’s own face ran with tears. Her shotgun was still clipped to her back, like it was a part of her. It would have been amusing, except for Mary’s obvious trauma at the death of Thomas.

Mary rose and came to Loris, Karil, and Shadow, and threw herself into their arms. She remained for several minutes, her head on Loris’s breast, with Karil’s and Shadow’s strong arms around her.

“How is Atty doing?” she asked. Even in her grief, she was concerned for others, as Friends are.

“I think she’ll be all right eventually,” Loris said. “Believe it or not, she’s been through worse.”

“We’re having a double funeral,” Mary said as she pulled herself from their embrace and sat down. “Thomas and Toro. Is the Professor okay?”

“He’s wracked with guilt about hiring Toro for this job, “Loris said. “I guess he thought, like people do, that cyborgs are indestructible. But Celeste pointed out that Toro had been doomed to die in the Venus hellhole and Kelley pulled him out of there and gave him purpose. Doesn’t happen to many. The rest of us couldn’t get through to the Professor, but Celeste could. Right now, both of them are fully occupied with Atty. What about Cuchillo’s men?

“They’re having a military funeral for their own. They don’t seem to have any animosity toward us. The fact is: they hated Cuchillo but were afraid to ask for transfer because he was so vindictive. They don’t want to go back to the Quasi-Police, where they might be court-martialled or ostracized, or even executed as cowards. Their spokesman came to the Elders and asked if we need a security force. We’re seriously thinking about it.”

“Well, that sounds like the Friends to me,” Karil said. “An army comes in to rob and kill you, and you offer them a job.”

Mary smiled. “They’re willing to work hard. That’s always the bottom line with Belters.”

“We’re going back to Mars,” Li said, “or they’ll put us to work too.”

“Really?” Loris asked. “All is forgiven with the MLF?”

“It seems they need us,” Aaron said. “Martian Mining and Manufacturing is giving them a hard time.”

“Yeah, and it’s all my fault,” Li grinned proudly.

***

Shadow lay between Karil and Loris. Karil’s face was buried in her hair, and her face was on Loris’s breast. Loris sat up on her elbow and looked down at her, to find her blue eyes open and smiling. “How are you coping, Love?”

“I think I’m better than ever. I was afraid for my life, for the first time in years. But more than that, I was afraid of how hurt you would be. I was forced to confront my childhood, bringing up the memories I had hidden for so long. It kind of felt like being reborn. When I attacked Cuchillo at the end, I didn’t know if Atty could stop me from being swept out the airlock with him. But I was all right with that.” She kissed Loris, turned and kissed Karil. “I can’t tell you how much I love you.”

“We know.”

“That’s what makes it so hard to leave you.”

“We know that too," Karil said sadly. "But everybody does it, eventually."

“If they do set up a permanent security force here, it would take a special kind of leader to keep those men in line. They think I can be that leader.”

“They’re right,” Loris told her.

Shadow chuckled. “They’re offering me a house with a hedge and a rose garden. Can you believe it?”

“That’s a lot better than a cave under the subway,” Karil laughed.

“It seems just right to me,” Loris said. “You need more than we can give you: a ship’s cabin and tunnels under the ice and a lot of danger and hardship. That’s too much like your old life. You need a new life.”

“Would you consider dropping by now and then and fucking me silly?”

“Consider it?” Karil said. “I’m considering it now.”

“I can feel that, actually.”

Loris laughed. “Men are not exactly subtle creatures, are they?”

Later, they drifted off to sleep. In the morning, Karil awoke to the usual avian dawn chorus and looked down at Loris and Shadow, snuggled together.

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Atalanta’s lovely voice came from the speaker by the bed.

Smiles and tears fought for control of Karil’s face. “Good morning, Atty. Are you okay?”

“This has been a disturbing time for me, Karil,” she crooned. “So much death. I understand that Cuchillo has met his end.”

“Yes, he has.”

“I think it’s appropriate that Shadow was the one to finish him, as she was his victim long ago. It seems just.”

“Yes, Atty. I think so too.”

“I understand that she is staying with the Friends, to guard and protect them. I think that’s good.”

“I do too.”

“I will miss her, Karil.”

“So will we, Atty.”

***

It came time for the protectors to leave. Toro and Thomas were buried in space with military honors, the newly commissioned Friendship Colony Security Forces under Shadow’s command providing the color-guard. Loris gave them a private pep-talk, promising that if they ever threatened Shadow or even disobeyed her orders, Loris would be back, and they would have to answer to her. They listened attentively. The dead attackers were buried in the usual way of Belters, as compost, with a private farewell from their former comrades.

Professor Kelley returned to the Wily Odysseus site with Celestial Intelligencer, after Atalanta and Celeste shared a conversation that lasted a whole minute. Aaron Ben David and Chi-Chi Li returned to Mars in the Asaph Hall. Karil and Loris returned to Ganymede and took a berth in the Rim District. They turned in a full report to Galilean Security and when they returned to the ship, they found Honey waiting for them. She did her best to help them feel they had come home.

The Swift-Footed Achilles was found drifting in the Belt with all the hatches open, the lifeships intact,  and nobody aboard. It became a Belter mystery that gave many in the Quasi-Police the galloping willies.

 

THE END

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