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Nanowrimo Day 3
I passed 10% today!
"Wait a second," Kid said. "What happens if you mess her up?"
"I'm not going to mess her up, Kid," Tatiana said, annoyed.
"But what if you do. It won't... kill her or anything, will it?"
"No problem, we can just return her to her factory settings." She ducked Kid's reproachful look. "Hey, ships like this hardly ever develop sentience. She wouldn't be here if she did; she could pilot herself and go wherever she wanted. I can run some AI checks first if you want, though."
Kid sighed. "Yeah, I'm just worried. Even if she isn't sentient, your uncle was on this ship for a long time, right? Maybe he'll want to say goodbye to her. Y'know, just in case."
Tatiana smiled. "You're probably right. Good thinking, Kid!" She slapped his shoulder; he grunted in reply. "Even if I don't mess her up--which I won't--he might not ever see her again after we lift off." She looked pensive for a moment. "We might never see anyone else here after we lift off."
Kid didn't say anything, but his presence there made her feel better. She dashed away a few tears.
"Anyway," she said, in a resolutely cheerful voice, "it's not like we know we can even get this thing off the ground. We might still live out our lives in the dirt here."
"Maybe you will," Kid said. Tatiana shot him a glare, but when she saw his expression she burst out laughing.
The AI tests showed Hold Steady as nowhere near any of the sentience thresholds ("I told you!" Tatiana said.). When they asked Jerome if he wanted to talk to her again, he just waved them off.
"I said goodbye forever to the old lady when I gave her to you. I've made my peace. You can do whatever you want with her."
Jerome's words about retirement didn't seem to apply to any planetside jobs. He was currently working as a clerk in one of the downtown shops, though he'd told the family that he hoped to get better work when the Races came back around, thanks to his extensive interstellar experience.
Tatiana nodded to him. "Okay, Kid, let's do it, then. Let's fix the system."
Like most pilots, Kid was something of a backseat driver. "If you can reformat her, then why don't we just do that?"
"If we do that, we'll lose all her knowledge," Tatiana replied. "Her star charts, docking information and contacts everywhere my uncle has been, whatever compensating mechanisms have stressed the system so much. We want to save all of that, if we can."
"Huh." Kid watched in silence for a while longer, as Tatiana's fingers danced across the keyboard.
"What?" she said, turning around to glare at him.
"I didn't say anything," he protested.
"I could hear you thinking it," she said.
"Well... if it's that delicate, to stabilize her without losing the information, then why can't we take her to someone who knows how? There have got to be a few shops here that could do this, to serve people who come for the Races."
"Do you know how much that would cost? A ton, that's how much. There's no way we could afford anything like that. Even if our parents pooled all their money, I don't know if we could afford something like that."
"Is it really that much?"
"You know how much it would cost to fix the engine and the vents and hydroponics and stuff, right?" He nodded. "Well, triple that, at least. This is really tricky work."
Another long silence.
"But then how can you--"
"I know what I'm doing!"
But even as she said it, red lights started to pulsate across the bridge.
"Warning. Core component error. Malformed input. Warning."
"Noooo..." Tatiana muttered a few choice curses, and started typing faster. But the red lights continued to strobe.
"Is it okay to be in here?" Kid asked. Tatiana ignored him.
"Warning. Warning. Warning."
Tatiana kept a steady typing. She was beginning to sweat. Kid noticed an acrid smell; it was coming from beneath the floorboards.
"Maybe you should just turn it off," he said. He put a hand on Tatiana's shoulder, but she shook it off.
"I can do this. I can do this. I can fix this--No!"
It was too late. Kid didn't know much about the software in this ship, but anyone with any familiarity with silicon could understand that the lines scrolling across the screen were a really, really bad deal. The heat, which he had barely noticed before, was becoming stifling.
"We have to shut it off," he said.
Tatiana kept typing, typing, typing... and then she stopped.
"You're right," she whispered. "There's nothing else I can do."
There were several buttons under glass at the top of the control panel. Tatiana lifted the glass, and pushed them in sequence.
Immediately all the lights in the bridge shut off. The door to the outside fell open. It was still hot, but it wasn't getting any hotter.
"What did you do?" Kid asked.
Tatiana shuddered, then slumped back in the chair. "I reset her." Her shoulders hunched. "Probably frakked whatever was left of the engine, too. It was just... there was this huge, jury-rigged cascade, and I don't even know what I did to mess it up, but it was like the whole system was hanging on by a feather."
"Hey, let's go outside."
Outside, it was a lovely day. The sky was grey, as it usually was on Garvey, but the cloud cover was not as heavy as usual, so there was more light. A breeze blew, swift but not cold. It ruffled the grass around them on the meadow around the Edwards house, swept past the trees and the house and down their narrow valley to the sea.
"Maybe we should've sent her to a professional after all," Tatiana said, after they had been sitting outside for some time. "Though we didn't have the money--but then again, we still don't have the money. I don't know what else we could have done." She looked down, patted the grass with her hand. "I guess we're dirtbound for good, now."
They sat in more silence for several minutes. Far down the valley, there was a sudden blast of sunlight as the sun shone through one of the rare cloudbreaks.
"I have an idea," Kid said. "Well, two ideas."
"What, seriously?" Tatiana turned to Kid with a look of disbelief on her face. "Where on earth could we get that kind of money?"
Kid looked down at his knees. "You're not going to like it."
"C'mon, Kid. Spit it out."
Kid practically mumbled. "I was thinking we could ask Tina."
Tatiana didn't say anything. After a few moments, Kid dared a glance at her.
That seemed to be the trigger for her outburst. "The Bastard? Seriously? You want to ask her for money?"
"She's the only person we know who would have enough."
"Yeah, but--look, Kid, we don't want to get involved with the Syndicate. And seriously, would she even front us a loan? She's your ex! Doesn't that mean she doesn't like you anymore?"
"We didn't break up because we didn't like each other."
"Yeah, but you still did break up. And anyway, she didn't like you enough to give it as a gift, and we sure as hell can't pay that kind of money back."
"Yeah, that was my second idea. We could pay it back if I won the Races."
Tatiana's lips moved soundlessly, counting up the cost. "Even if you won the prize, I don't think..."
"If I won the price, and I got the rookie bonus, it would be enough. And if the Syndicate is involved, they can place bets on the side, that would pay down the debt even faster."
"Yeah, but..." Tatiana flopped back down onto the grass. She looked up at the cloud layer, with its eternally changing shapes. "Kid," she said softly. "Would you really be able to win?"
His face was mostly turned away from her, but Tatiana could see him smile. "Yeah, I think that I can."
Tatiana breathed in, a deep breath, and then breathed out again. "Okay, then. Okay. We'll go with this plan. But Kid? You let me do the talking."
It was a story that everyone on Garvey knew but nobody ever talked about. The Syndicate, one of the great underground organizations that stretched its tentacles throughout the galaxy, was run on this planet by the Bautista family, and had been for quite some time. William Bautista, the current head, had inherited the position from his mother fifty years before, and everyone expected a smooth transition to his son in the near future.
But then, something had happened. There were a million conflicting rumors about it. It had been a consequence of the Syndicate's war with other parts of the underground. Or there had been someone else in the Syndicate who had tried to take power. Or William's son had tried to wrest power from his father earlier. Or he'd gotten on the wrong side of someone from the Races. The one thing everyone could agree on was that when the dust cleared. William Bautista's son and future heir had been murdered, along with his entire family and most of his personal staff.
But even that was not quite correct. The killers, whoever they were, had left alive one blood relative. The Bautista heir, like many young men, had not been precisely faithful to his wife. He had an illegitimate daughter, who lived out in one of Garvey's far-flung towns and therefore had not been involved in the carnage. She knew who her father was, and the family knew about her, but she had never been involved in Syndicate activities.
All of that changed after the massacre. There was no one else who could inherit the Bautista legacy. And so William Bautista himself went to find the girl, the granddaughter he had never met. No one knew what he said to her, or what she said back, but she became the new heir of the Bautista family. And that was when the girl who had been known as Tina de la Cruz started to change. Had been forced to change. Into someone else, the proud daughter of the Bautista family and inheritor of their empire on Garvey. The Bastard.
"Wait a second," Kid said. "What happens if you mess her up?"
"I'm not going to mess her up, Kid," Tatiana said, annoyed.
"But what if you do. It won't... kill her or anything, will it?"
"No problem, we can just return her to her factory settings." She ducked Kid's reproachful look. "Hey, ships like this hardly ever develop sentience. She wouldn't be here if she did; she could pilot herself and go wherever she wanted. I can run some AI checks first if you want, though."
Kid sighed. "Yeah, I'm just worried. Even if she isn't sentient, your uncle was on this ship for a long time, right? Maybe he'll want to say goodbye to her. Y'know, just in case."
Tatiana smiled. "You're probably right. Good thinking, Kid!" She slapped his shoulder; he grunted in reply. "Even if I don't mess her up--which I won't--he might not ever see her again after we lift off." She looked pensive for a moment. "We might never see anyone else here after we lift off."
Kid didn't say anything, but his presence there made her feel better. She dashed away a few tears.
"Anyway," she said, in a resolutely cheerful voice, "it's not like we know we can even get this thing off the ground. We might still live out our lives in the dirt here."
"Maybe you will," Kid said. Tatiana shot him a glare, but when she saw his expression she burst out laughing.
The AI tests showed Hold Steady as nowhere near any of the sentience thresholds ("I told you!" Tatiana said.). When they asked Jerome if he wanted to talk to her again, he just waved them off.
"I said goodbye forever to the old lady when I gave her to you. I've made my peace. You can do whatever you want with her."
Jerome's words about retirement didn't seem to apply to any planetside jobs. He was currently working as a clerk in one of the downtown shops, though he'd told the family that he hoped to get better work when the Races came back around, thanks to his extensive interstellar experience.
Tatiana nodded to him. "Okay, Kid, let's do it, then. Let's fix the system."
Like most pilots, Kid was something of a backseat driver. "If you can reformat her, then why don't we just do that?"
"If we do that, we'll lose all her knowledge," Tatiana replied. "Her star charts, docking information and contacts everywhere my uncle has been, whatever compensating mechanisms have stressed the system so much. We want to save all of that, if we can."
"Huh." Kid watched in silence for a while longer, as Tatiana's fingers danced across the keyboard.
"What?" she said, turning around to glare at him.
"I didn't say anything," he protested.
"I could hear you thinking it," she said.
"Well... if it's that delicate, to stabilize her without losing the information, then why can't we take her to someone who knows how? There have got to be a few shops here that could do this, to serve people who come for the Races."
"Do you know how much that would cost? A ton, that's how much. There's no way we could afford anything like that. Even if our parents pooled all their money, I don't know if we could afford something like that."
"Is it really that much?"
"You know how much it would cost to fix the engine and the vents and hydroponics and stuff, right?" He nodded. "Well, triple that, at least. This is really tricky work."
Another long silence.
"But then how can you--"
"I know what I'm doing!"
But even as she said it, red lights started to pulsate across the bridge.
"Warning. Core component error. Malformed input. Warning."
"Noooo..." Tatiana muttered a few choice curses, and started typing faster. But the red lights continued to strobe.
"Is it okay to be in here?" Kid asked. Tatiana ignored him.
"Warning. Warning. Warning."
Tatiana kept a steady typing. She was beginning to sweat. Kid noticed an acrid smell; it was coming from beneath the floorboards.
"Maybe you should just turn it off," he said. He put a hand on Tatiana's shoulder, but she shook it off.
"I can do this. I can do this. I can fix this--No!"
It was too late. Kid didn't know much about the software in this ship, but anyone with any familiarity with silicon could understand that the lines scrolling across the screen were a really, really bad deal. The heat, which he had barely noticed before, was becoming stifling.
"We have to shut it off," he said.
Tatiana kept typing, typing, typing... and then she stopped.
"You're right," she whispered. "There's nothing else I can do."
There were several buttons under glass at the top of the control panel. Tatiana lifted the glass, and pushed them in sequence.
Immediately all the lights in the bridge shut off. The door to the outside fell open. It was still hot, but it wasn't getting any hotter.
"What did you do?" Kid asked.
Tatiana shuddered, then slumped back in the chair. "I reset her." Her shoulders hunched. "Probably frakked whatever was left of the engine, too. It was just... there was this huge, jury-rigged cascade, and I don't even know what I did to mess it up, but it was like the whole system was hanging on by a feather."
"Hey, let's go outside."
Outside, it was a lovely day. The sky was grey, as it usually was on Garvey, but the cloud cover was not as heavy as usual, so there was more light. A breeze blew, swift but not cold. It ruffled the grass around them on the meadow around the Edwards house, swept past the trees and the house and down their narrow valley to the sea.
"Maybe we should've sent her to a professional after all," Tatiana said, after they had been sitting outside for some time. "Though we didn't have the money--but then again, we still don't have the money. I don't know what else we could have done." She looked down, patted the grass with her hand. "I guess we're dirtbound for good, now."
They sat in more silence for several minutes. Far down the valley, there was a sudden blast of sunlight as the sun shone through one of the rare cloudbreaks.
"I have an idea," Kid said. "Well, two ideas."
"What, seriously?" Tatiana turned to Kid with a look of disbelief on her face. "Where on earth could we get that kind of money?"
Kid looked down at his knees. "You're not going to like it."
"C'mon, Kid. Spit it out."
Kid practically mumbled. "I was thinking we could ask Tina."
Tatiana didn't say anything. After a few moments, Kid dared a glance at her.
That seemed to be the trigger for her outburst. "The Bastard? Seriously? You want to ask her for money?"
"She's the only person we know who would have enough."
"Yeah, but--look, Kid, we don't want to get involved with the Syndicate. And seriously, would she even front us a loan? She's your ex! Doesn't that mean she doesn't like you anymore?"
"We didn't break up because we didn't like each other."
"Yeah, but you still did break up. And anyway, she didn't like you enough to give it as a gift, and we sure as hell can't pay that kind of money back."
"Yeah, that was my second idea. We could pay it back if I won the Races."
Tatiana's lips moved soundlessly, counting up the cost. "Even if you won the prize, I don't think..."
"If I won the price, and I got the rookie bonus, it would be enough. And if the Syndicate is involved, they can place bets on the side, that would pay down the debt even faster."
"Yeah, but..." Tatiana flopped back down onto the grass. She looked up at the cloud layer, with its eternally changing shapes. "Kid," she said softly. "Would you really be able to win?"
His face was mostly turned away from her, but Tatiana could see him smile. "Yeah, I think that I can."
Tatiana breathed in, a deep breath, and then breathed out again. "Okay, then. Okay. We'll go with this plan. But Kid? You let me do the talking."
It was a story that everyone on Garvey knew but nobody ever talked about. The Syndicate, one of the great underground organizations that stretched its tentacles throughout the galaxy, was run on this planet by the Bautista family, and had been for quite some time. William Bautista, the current head, had inherited the position from his mother fifty years before, and everyone expected a smooth transition to his son in the near future.
But then, something had happened. There were a million conflicting rumors about it. It had been a consequence of the Syndicate's war with other parts of the underground. Or there had been someone else in the Syndicate who had tried to take power. Or William's son had tried to wrest power from his father earlier. Or he'd gotten on the wrong side of someone from the Races. The one thing everyone could agree on was that when the dust cleared. William Bautista's son and future heir had been murdered, along with his entire family and most of his personal staff.
But even that was not quite correct. The killers, whoever they were, had left alive one blood relative. The Bautista heir, like many young men, had not been precisely faithful to his wife. He had an illegitimate daughter, who lived out in one of Garvey's far-flung towns and therefore had not been involved in the carnage. She knew who her father was, and the family knew about her, but she had never been involved in Syndicate activities.
All of that changed after the massacre. There was no one else who could inherit the Bautista legacy. And so William Bautista himself went to find the girl, the granddaughter he had never met. No one knew what he said to her, or what she said back, but she became the new heir of the Bautista family. And that was when the girl who had been known as Tina de la Cruz started to change. Had been forced to change. Into someone else, the proud daughter of the Bautista family and inheritor of their empire on Garvey. The Bastard.