Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi had never gotten so close to Helen willingly. It freaked him out to be centimeters away from all those implants and the cable running from her shaved scalp to the terminal.

And the rest of her looked like a pale young woman.

Not those silvery eyes. They were anything but human.

But this was too important to let his aversions get the better of him.

"Look," he whispered, "you're always talking about how you're just as human as anyone else, even with those implants in your skull. Well, isn't an AI human too? It was a human once and was downloaded into a computer. I've always thought of MIRI as a living being. Maybe not fully human, more like an alien species really close to human. In any case, it's a sentient being and deserves life."

Helen turned to him and smiled. Negasi pulled his head back a little. For a terrible moment, he thought Helen was about to kiss him. With any other woman, he would have been sure of it. With her, it was hard to know anything.

"You're a very good man, Negasi," she whispered back.

"It doesn't take a very good man to want to save a life."

"You underestimate yourself."

"We need your help. You know computer systems way better than we do. We should give it enough juice to last a while but not take over the station. Who knows what it might do."

"So save its life but leave it in prison?"

Negasi made a helpless gesture. "This station has nearly killed us once already."

"A mindless combat mech nearly killed us. Not the AI."

"True. But we got to be careful. Those two are right about one thing. There's a lot at stake here."

Nova called over. "Would you two stop whispering to each other? Helen has work to do and you should guard the door."

"You're not in charge," Jeridan snapped. "You're under captain's arrest. Remember that."

Negasi raised a calming hand, then turned back to Helen.

"Will you come with us? Please?"

Helen smiled and took his hand. Negasi tried not to yank it away.

"I will. I've nearly downloaded my full capacity. Give me 4 minutes and 37 seconds."

Now Negasi did pull away. That exactitude with the time reminded him of the AI upstairs.

He went over to Jeridan, who had been watching the two of them this entire time, and took him out of the room to stand next to the combat mech.

"Helen says she'll come along."

"You think that's a good idea?" Jeridan asked.

"We need her technical expertise."

"Well, yeah, but do you think it's a good idea?"

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"She hasn't acted up yet. Yeah, I think we can trust her."

Negasi wished he felt as confident as his words sounded. But what choice did they have? No way could he and Jeridan figure out what they were doing up there, and if they screwed up, the results could be catastrophic.

Why can't anything be easy with this crew?

Jeridan rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, I guess we have to bring her along. We can't leave that AI to run out of energy again. It could die. This could be risky, though. Really risky."

"I'm willing to take that risk to save an AI's life."

"You guys are sweet," Poopsie said.

"Damn it, Aurora! Would you stop eavesdropping?"

"You knew I was hooked into Poopsie. Plus the hearing on this thing is amazing. I heard everything you and Helen were whispering to each other. You know what? I think she likes you."

Negasi felt like sinking through the deck. "She does not."

"I think she does!" the girl said in a singsong voice. That felt extra embarrassing coming from a pink combat mech.

Suddenly, Negasi realized that Jeridan wasn't ribbing him, even though this was prime target material.

He glanced at his friend and saw him looking away, obviously uncomfortable.

Cack, he doesn't believe it's true, does he?

Negasi thought back to when he first met Helen on Latimer Station. We'll see each other again, she had said. I'm sure of it.

And then on Yavari Prime, when she had looked so happy to see him again, and she had taken his hand when they passed through the jump gate.

And all the smiles since then.

He had assumed that was meant to disarm him, reassure him that she wasn't a threat.

But what if …

Oh, hell. I do not need this right now.

Helen walked into the corridor, looking at Negasi and smiling as always.

"Let's go," she said. "I think it's wonderful you want to save that AI's life."

Aurora snickered.

"Yeah, um … let's go."

Negasi hurried down the corridor before the kid said something embarrassing.

Helen walked close beside him.

"So you, uh, downloaded everything?" Negasi asked.

"Everything I can. The database is far too big for the chips in my brain. I downloaded all the most essential folders. Nova and Derren are downloading everything else onto those external memory blocks."

"So everything's uncorrupted?"

"It's perfectly preserved. Isn't that wonderful? We finally have a way to stop the Rimscourge!"

Negasi wished he could share her enthusiasm. Sure, they had the data, but they had to get out of here without any more trouble, pass through that Imperium minefield, avoid the Syndicate, get back to a civilized planet, analyze the data, figure out a way to get the jump gates back online, spread the news to all the other high-tech worlds, get them to cooperate, and then and only then could they fight an enemy that fielded vastly superior firepower.

He wasn't about to do a victory dance just yet.

They walked in silence. Negasi felt uncomfortable with how Helen walked so closely beside him. He told himself that she was scared.

Who wouldn't be in this place? He and Jeridan had both had an unreasoning fear that the station was haunted, and that had turned out to be fact and not superstition.

Knowing what they faced didn't make it any less frightening.

"We have to be careful," Negasi said. "I want to save this AI, but I don't want it deciding we're a threat and powering up the station's defenses against us."

"We had the right codes," Helen said.

"Yeah, that convinced a computer. Now we're dealing with a living thing. Something that can reason."

"Yes, we are," Helen said, emphasizing her words.

He bit his lip. He knew what she was thinking.

"Maybe we can figure out a way to isolate it?" Jeridan suggested.

Helen thought for a moment. "Cut it off from the rest of the station? That would take some work but I don't see why we couldn't. But then what? Leave it imprisoned here?"

No one had an answer to that. It didn't seem right to leave it, but what else could they do?

They walked up the stairs, their footsteps clattering in the darkness.

"Do you have any more of those hefty external memory blocks?" Negasi asked.

"I'm not sure they'd have the capacity for an Imperium AI. It might take a lot more memory."

That might be true. There was so much they didn't know.

When they got to the level of the command center, Negasi raised a hand for them to stop. Something told him to proceed with caution.

He crept to the corner and could see the faint glimmer of the blue light from the Imperium AI cast upon the durasteel walls.

He and Jeridan traded a glance. It seemed brighter than before.

Negasi switched off his headlamp. So did Jeridan and Helen.

Yes, it was definitely brighter than before.

Negasi peeked around the corner.

At the end of the corridor was the open door to the command center, softly lit with a blueish glow.

The Imperium AI had turned on something.

It had lied about how much power reserves it had.