More proof – if any were required – that Aidan had been right about them all along.
‘This is all kinds of wrong,’ Nathan insisted. ‘You have no proof that Vee had anything to do with what just happened – or any of the accidents on board this ship.’
‘Accidents, my arse,’ Darren scoffed. ‘Someone is deliberately and systematically trying to wipe us out.’
‘Someone. Not Vee,’ Nathan insisted.
I tried to school my features as I watched the performance going on before me. Nathan really was a fine actor. I mean, he was right up there with some of my favourites.
Was I supposed to be taken in by this show of him suddenly being on my side? Was I supposed to be so moved that I’d give up the last of the Aidan’s secrets – like the command code to take over the ship?
‘Nathan, you’re skating on very thin ice,’ Darren warned. ‘It’s time for you to pick a side. Either you’re with us or you’re against us. Which is it?’
‘Why don’t you just kill me and have done with it?’ I hissed at Darren.
‘Not until we have full control of this ship. And mark me, we will get it – no matter what it takes,’ Darren shot back, confirming my suspicions. He returned to Nathan. ‘Which is it? Do you choose to live with us – or die with that whore?’
‘Screw you!’ I replied.
Nathan gave me a long look before turning back to Darren. He shrugged and said, ‘I choose to live.’
I gasped. I couldn’t help it. Nathan had finally stopped pretending. I wrapped my arms tightly around my waist. So stupid to hurt like this.
I turned away before the sting in my eyes became apparent to all present, especially him. I wouldn’t give any of them the satisfaction. It took a couple of deep breaths and immense force of will to control myself before I could turn around to face them. But as I turned, Nathan launched himself at Darren. Harrison rushed to help his leader whilst Maria grabbed a pulser rifle off the wall and pointed it at Nathan. Nathan had Darren on the floor and was about to punch him for a third time when Maria fired a warning shot which only just missed Nathan’s head. He froze. Darren kicked him away and leaped to his feet. Nathan stood up, glaring at Darren with loathing.
‘This is your choice? To betray your own kind?’ Darren spat blood out of his mouth.
‘I choose to be with my wife. So if she’s in the brig, then that’s where I need to be too,’ said Nathan quietly.
‘You’re a fool, Nathan.’
‘You’re not the first to tell me that.’
‘You want to die with her?’
‘I’d rather live, but whatever I do it’ll be at Vee’s side,’ Nathan replied.
Tears streamed down my face and I didn’t even attempt to hide them. Nathan sounded so sincere and I so desperately wanted to believe him, but how could I? With narrow-eyed contempt, Darren nodded to his cronies. Harrison pointed a newly acquired pulser at me, Maria pointed hers at Nathan. Darren used the control panel to drop the nano-field. Maria dug her gun into Nathan’s stomach, urging him to turn and step into the same cell as me. Giving his colleagues a look of dripping contempt, Nathan walked into my cell. The nano-field sprung up again behind him. Now we were both being held captive. Nathan spun to glare at his so-called friends.
‘When you finally decide where your loyalties lie, we’ll let you out,’ Darren told him.
‘Darren, you, the rest of your mob and my mother can all go to hell,’ Nathan said.
Darren and Nathan scowled at each other, no love lost between them.
‘You are making a huge mistake,’ I told Darren. ‘You need to let me out of here before Aidan wakes up.’
‘The moment your brother emerges from his quarters, he’ll be joining both of you,’ Darren replied.
I shook my head. ‘Darren, you don’t know what you’re doing. If Aidan wakes up and discovers you’ve locked me in here—’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Darren dismissed. ‘The day I can’t handle a teenage boy is the day I retire.’
I looked Darren in the eye. I had to make him believe what I was about to say next. ‘Today is not the day you retire, Darren, it’s the day you die. If you don’t let me out of here by the time Aidan wakes up, you will be responsible for the deaths of everyone on this ship.’
66
Maria was left outside our cell to guard us. I knew from my time on Callisto that there’d be no reasoning with her. Darren had told her to guard us and that was exactly what she’d do until hell froze over or until she was officially relieved of duty – whichever came first. I raised a tentative finger to the nano-field.
‘Ow!’
Well, that bloody hurt! I wouldn’t be doing that twice. I drew back my finger and cradled it in my other hand. Vee gave me a pitying look as I sat down beside her on the bed in the cell.
‘You’re brave, but you’re not very bright, are you?’ she said.
‘Excuse me?’
‘If you really wanted to help, you could’ve pretended to go along with Darren, then waited for the first appropriate opportunity to get me out of here,’ she said.
Oh, hell no! ‘Well, to use your phrase, pardon me all over the place for displaying some loyalty,’ I seethed.
Vee was actually giving me grief for defending her? Seriously?
‘Loyalty?’ Vee said with scorn.
Having lived on Callisto, I knew about cold, but the temperature on that godforsaken moon had nothing on the look Vee was currently giving me. I was sick and tired of her looking at me like that.
‘Nathan, you can drop the act now. If all this is a set-up to get the executive command code to this ship, then you’re wasting your time.’
I frowned. ‘I didn’t ask for it.’
Shaking her head, Vee moved to sit at the other end of the bed, as far away from me as she could get.
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ I said, holding onto my temper with difficulty. ‘Why are you freezing me out? The least you could do is tell me what I’ve done to upset you.’
‘U-upset me?’ Vee sputtered. She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. ‘I know about you and Anjuli.’
‘What about me and Anjuli?’ I frowned.
‘I know that you two are together, having sex, making love, an item, lovers, screwing each other, having a great laugh behind my back. Any and all of the above,’ said Vee. ‘You must really think I’m stupid. No, I take that back. I am stupid for falling for you and your lies.’
My blood ran icy-cold at her words. If she’d taken a knife and stabbed me through the heart, I couldn’t have been more shocked. Or hurt.
‘What the hell are you talking about? Anjuli and I are friends. That’s it. End of story.’
‘Oh, please,’ Vee dismissed. ‘Nate, give it up. I know what’s going on.’
‘Then explain it to me because I haven’t got a clue.’
Vee scowled at me. ‘You won’t be happy until you get your pound of flesh, will you?’
‘I genuinely don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.’ And I seriously didn’t. Anjuli and me? The idea would be laughable if it wasn’t so ludicrous. Anjuli had eyes for one person and one person only – Mike. Mike, however, wasn’t interested in anything that didn’t grow out of the soil and need regular pruning.
Vee stilled as she regarded me. I’ve been looked at before with contempt, with dislike, with disapproval. But I have never had anyone look at me the way Vee did at that moment, with such complete and utter hatred that my blood froze within me.
67
Ignoring Nathan, I walked as close to the nano-field as I dared to address my jailer.
‘Maria, you need to let me out of here if you want to live,’ I told her.
Maria gave me a filthy look and turned to face the cargo hold entrance, effectively turning her back on me.
‘I’m not joking,’ I said urgently. ‘When Aidan wakes up, he’ll do whatever it takes to get me out of here, and he won’t let anyone or anything stand in his way. People are
going to die if you don’t let me out.’
‘Shut the hell up and sit down,’ Maria hissed at me. ‘I won’t tell you again.’
‘Listen, crap-for-brains, you have to let me out of here!’ I insisted.
Maria turned and pointed her gun at my chest. ‘Sit. Down.’
Reluctantly, I did as she said.
Well, I’d tried.
Nathan was still glaring at me, annoyed that I’d rumbled his scam. Well, tough. He and his friends and colleagues had brought what was about to happen on themselves.
All I could do now was wait for my brother to get from his room on the upper deck to down here on the lower deck and I didn’t doubt that by the time Aidan got to me, he’d have blood on his hands.
Literally.
68
There was something else going on here, more than just Vee worrying about her brother being angry when he found out what had happened to her. Aidan would be one against many when he emerged from his quarters, and yet Vee seemed to be more scared of her brother than for him.
‘Vee, what is it about Aidan that you’re not telling us?’
Vee considered for a few moments. ‘I’ll tell you because then maybe you can persuade the bitch out there to let me out,’ she said at last. ‘My brother’s first and most important mission is to keep me safe and make sure no harm comes to me. In the past, every time I’ve had to enter dangerous but necessary situations, I’ve had to order Aidan to allow me to do so.’
‘Order him?’
‘Otherwise he’d never let me do them – and that includes rescuing all of you from Barros 5,’ said Vee. ‘Aidan has constant on-going access to all non-private computer data. My imprisonment in here will be on the computer. The moment my brother wakes up, he’ll know that I’ve been thrown into this detention cell. He’ll make it his mission to rescue me. The fact that I’m alive means you and your friends stand some chance. If you had killed me, you would’ve stood no chance at all.’
‘There’s only the two of you and several of us . . .’ You and us . . . God, I hated saying that to Vee. When had it become ‘you’ and ‘us’? It should’ve been all of us in this together. Why couldn’t Vee see that I was on her side, that I’d always be on her side?
‘It won’t make any difference,’ Vee sighed. ‘Aidan will come to rescue me and God help anyone who gets in his way. Nathan, I’m not exaggerating. You’ve got to get me out of here before Aidan wakes up.’
‘There’s nothing I can do. I went to the bridge to find Mum when I saw what was going on in the mess hall but she wasn’t there. I suspect this is all Darren’s idea, but if Mum really is behind this then she’s probably instructed Darren and some others to get into Aidan’s quarters and detain him as we speak.’
‘They won’t get in there until Aidan is ready to come out. His quarters are the most secure on the ship,’ Vee replied.
‘Why do his quarters need to be any more secure than yours?’ I frowned.
‘In case we were ever boarded by an enemy,’ Vee replied. ‘It was crucial that Aidan survive.’
‘What about your survival?’
‘Mine depends on my brother’s,’ said Vee.
I scrutinized Vee. Her gaze fell away from mine. I knew what that meant.
‘What aren’t you telling me?’
Vee sighed, then gave me a long, hard look. ‘Aidan is very special.’
That was one word for him. Not the word I’d use, but still. ‘What d’you mean – special?’
‘I mean, this ship and my brother are one and the same thing.’
69
Nathan frowned. ‘Yeah, I know they both have the same name—’
‘No, you don’t understand. It’s more than that.’ Was I really going to tell him this? He should be aware of just what he and the rest of his friends were up against – not that it would do them any good – but I reckoned I owed him that much. ‘Aidan is an extension of the ship’s computer. He’s an extension of the ship. He is the ship.’
Nathan’s frown deepened and I could understand why. I wasn’t explaining this very well at all. He remained silent, sensing that more was coming. His senses didn’t deceive him. I’d never said the words I was about to say out loud before. It was a secret only my family knew and Mum and Dad had taken it to the grave.
‘D’you remember I told you that the original crew were infected with a virus that wiped them all out?’
Nathan nodded. I took a deep breath. God, this was so hard. Hearing the words spoken would make it impossible for me to push reality to one side the way I had been doing. That’s how I’d kept calm and carried on until now. I had accepted what my brother had become without question. Now all that was about to change.
I swallowed hard, my gaze on my hands in my lap. ‘When the virus invaded this ship, my brother was the first to die. You see, Aidan had set up the computer to transfer him in and out of a Mazon ship that was in range. My brother was a computer genius, so he knew how to bypass all of the regular computer security protocols.’
A glance at Nathan told me I had his full stunned attention.
‘He only transferred over for a few seconds, then he was back on our ship. But it was long enough to pick up a Mazon airborne virus. He brought it back to this ship and the rest of the crew got infected, but Aidan died first.’
Tell him the whole truth, Vee, not just the edited highlights . . .
But I couldn’t.
If Nathan and I didn’t have so much hurt and misunderstanding between us then maybe it’d be different, but he wasn’t ready to hear the whole truth and I wasn’t ready to tell it.
I risked a glance at him only to see Nathan frowning at me. ‘If Aidan died, then who’s the guy on board this ship calling himself your brother?’
‘Before Aidan died, he was given a number of brain and body scans and his brain patterns were all mapped and stored. When it became obvious that he wasn’t going to make it, Mum and Dad were frantic to find a way to make sure that even if Aidan died, what he was, who he was, wouldn’t be lost. So all of Aidan’s brain patterns and engrams were implanted and amalgamated with the ship’s computer, along with his memories, his speech patterns and all the data we had on him including photographs, audio and visual recordings, DNA, the lot. Mum and Dad wanted to preserve as much of my brother as they could, but then something unexpected happened . . .’
‘What?’ Nathan prompted after a significant pause.
‘What makes us who we are?’ I asked. ‘We’re our memories, our experiences, our thoughts and dreams – and something else, something indefinable. Some call it a divine spark, some say being sentient and self-aware is the mark of true adaptive intelligence.’
‘I don’t get where you’re going with this,’ said Nathan. ‘And how can your brother be dead? For God’s sake, the Aidan I met wasn’t a hologram.’
‘No. Aidan is my brother.’
‘You just said your brother died.’
‘He did.’
‘OK. I’m officially confused.’ Nathan shook his head.
‘Dad adapted the ship’s automated robot to make it a physical manifestation and extension of the ship’s computer. When he died, I turned the ship’s robot into Aidan.’
‘You said the ship’s robot was destroyed during an exploration mission,’ Nathan accused.
‘I lied,’ I admitted. ‘I carried on Dad’s work to make sure my brother didn’t die. I’ve modified Aidan extensively over the years, so now he’s so much more than a mere robot. You asked me once what I did when my parents and the rest of the crew died. Well, most of my time was spent working on Aidan, making him as human as possible. I turned him into the brother I’d lost. He really is my brother, down to the way he looks and smells and talks and laughs – except when you all came on board, I realized his voice wasn’t quite deep enough for his age so I modified that.’
‘Anjuli told me Aidan’s voice had changed,’ said Nathan, shaking his head. ‘I told her she was imagining things.’
> She’d spotted that? I’d altered Aidan’s voice to change gradually over the course of several days. I hadn’t expected anyone to notice. ‘Your lover is really smart,’ I conceded.
‘How many times must I tell you, there is nothing between Anjuli and me except recycled air?’ Nathan asked, exasperated.
‘Yeah, right. You expect me to believe that someone who can’t keep his hands off others?’ I said with scorn.
His green eyes spitting fury. Nathan opened his mouth, only to snap it shut without saying a word.
We glared at each other. It took Nathan several audible deep breaths before he managed to gain control of himself. Pfft! He was just pissed that I could finally see through him
‘I’ve seen plenty of robots before. None of them ever looked or behaved as realistically as your brother,’ said Nathan at last. ‘They’re deliberately built not to look too much like us humans.’
A change of subject? Fine with me. ‘Well, I wanted to make Aidan as real as possible. I wanted my brother back.’
‘And you did all that by yourself?’
‘Aidan and I are twins. He wasn’t the only one born with functioning brain cells,’ I bristled. ‘And like I said, I had three years to dedicate to getting my brother back.’
‘That’s the reason why you gave the ship’s computer the same name as your android brother and gave it his voice, isn’t it? Because they’re one and the same.’
My silence was his answer.
‘Tell me more about this android who has been running the ship.’ Nathan sounded dubious, not to mention belligerent.
‘Listen, Nathan, please. Aidan is real, as real as you or I. His body is mostly cybernetics but he thinks and has emotions the same as us.’
‘Hang on,’ Nathan interrupted. ‘When Darren hit him, Aidan’s lip was bleeding. I saw it.’
‘He has a rudimentary circulatory system containing some of my blood which is packed full of anti-coagulants and plasma and a small pump at the base of his spine to keep it all moving round his body.’