Chapter 14
Andromeda's hologram overrode Full Privacy Mode and materialized in Harper's quarters to find him drooling over the new avatar, twining his fingers her long hair, one hand massaging her firm rear.
Taken aback momentarily by the fact that the android was in a very passionate embrace with the obviously ecstatic engineer, Andromeda crossed her arms over her chest, gritted her teeth and fixed the couple with an icy glare. How dare Harper - HER Harper - kiss another avatar! Not that she wanted to kiss him, but. confusion roiled inside her, pushed aside by a swell of proprietary jealousy. This was HER engineer. He loved HER, no one else. Not really.
"Mister Harper," Andromeda growled. "We have an emergency."
The couple acted as though they didn't hear her. Miffed, she didn't waste time calling him again, simply stomped across the room and inserted one translucent finger into the dataport on Harper's neck.
He screamed as the electric shock jolted through him, ricocheting from his cerebellum to his toes. He shoved Sophie away from him reflexively.
"What in the HELL did you do.." his protests trailed off as he caught sight of the pure fury on Andromeda's face. At that moment, he was certain that the only reason she hadn't fried his brain was that she needed him. "Uh... hi, Andromeda." He smiled innocently, raising his hands in supplication.
"Don't waste my time, Mister Harper," she snapped, lost in her anger. Still, she had a duty. "You've been so caught up with your toy that you haven't noticed our crisis."
Sophie glared at her. Harper flashed the new avatar an apologetic look over Andromeda's shoulder and opened his mouth to speak, but the hologram shot him a look that made all thoughts of speech die in his throat.
"We are stuck in the slipstream," she said, low and dangerous. "Get your ass down to the drive room and fix me. Now!"
He flinched, nodded quickly and scampered out of the room and down the hall.
When the door closed behind him, the hologram whirled on the new avatar, eyes narrowed and blazing. "You have no right to distract my engineer."
"What?" Sophie's green eyes were wide and innocent. "Look here, Old Lady, he created me. I owe him."
"You can't have him. He's mine."
The new avatar's elegant brows arched. A tiny smile touched her full mauve lips and her eyes twinkled with mischief. "Really? He wasn't kissing you. He wasn't confessing his loneliness.passion to you." She crossed slim arms over breasts that bulged over the top of her dress. "He's told me all about your Ice Queen Avatar. You won't give him the time of day, so piss off." Her voice rose as she completed her sentence until she was yelling at the hologram.
Andromeda's eyes widened even further. Enraged, she shoved the avatar. Suddenly, sparks flew. The material world vanished around them. Sophie's consciousness was tossed into the electronic world. Both women coalesced inside the mainframe computer, standing on a blue platform, surrounded by a flow of blue lines. Data forms flitted by like birds.
Sophie gaped at her surroundings in awe. She knew this place. It was familiar.
Andromeda, the mainframe, slowly circled the intruder, surveying the new image. "You shouldn't have been propelled here, inside my mind."
The slightly taller woman's head snapped around. She stared at the image of Andromeda, slightly different than both the avatar and hologram. "But I am here."
"So it seems."
A crafty look crossed the newcomer's features. "You've been lax in your security, Old Woman. And, you've let someone outsmart you."
"Harper," Andromeda muttered.
Sophie started to laugh uproariously. "My Pygmalion."
"So this is my fight now. Go away, Scourge," Andromeda said and threw bolts of lightening at the newcomer. Sophie suddenly dissipated, shot back into her avatar body. Her laughter still echoed within the mainframe. Andromeda's AI scowled and started a very deep, thorough diagnostic, checking every nook and cranny of her system that wasn't strictly prohibited by Commonwealth codes. The new avatar must have been hidden within a tiny loophole inside her system. Damn, Harper for doing this to her! He must have siphoned part of her core, her energy and memory, to create and store this abomination. She would find the excess programming and purge it.
The process was slowed by the crisis facing the crew. Her attention and energy were divided.
~~
Harper sprinted for the drive room. Andromeda was pissed and that could spell disaster for him. She was like his first love: headstrong, capable, and probably lethally jealous. Jealous? The thought echoed in his head. Why would she be jealous? She acted like other jealous women he had known, he decided. But she was an AI. Could AIs love and act on passion? He'd designed Rommie to be a fully functional woman, Sophie too, but did that mean they could love? Andromeda's anger could make his life miserable.
He slid around the corner into a short passageway and fell against the door to the slipstream drive chamber, panting and gasping for breath. He only hoped he could find the problem quickly. Too long in slipstream was extremely unhealthy for everyone onboard and could, theoretically, kill the pilot.
The door whooshed open, he snatched up the tool belt he kept in one of the access panels, and started searching for the problem.
~~
Scanning the wiring in an access tunnel, Rommie suddenly experienced a burst of electronic feedback and a data download from the mainframe. Her holographic image appeared, squatting in the short tunnel.
"We have a problem," the hologram said, a decidedly unhappy look marring her features. She seemed to lean back against the wall and cross her arms over her chest.
The avatar looked up. "I'm searching for it."
"The other problem," the hologram said in exasperation, throwing up her hands.
Rommie rolled her eyes. Both her original self and holographic self were so annoyingly literal at times as to be anal. "This one is more pressing. It could kill the crew and strand us in slipstream."
"I have Harper making repairs. Dylan, Beka, Rev Bem and all of the servo bots are searching for the short in my wiring. Trance is in the infirmary, treating herself for motion sickness or some such thing and Tyr is piloting. As a Nietzschean, he is the most capable and can withstand the pressure the longest. I need you to take care of this molehill before it becomes a mountain," the hologram snapped.
Rommie tossed down her scanner. "Fine."
"Before you cop an attitude with me, Missy, scan the data we downloaded to you from the diagnostic."
The avatar's milk chocolate eyes grew distant as her gaze turned inward. "All internal systems functioning normally," she mumbled under her breath. "Peripheral systems functioning at... hello, what is that?" she demanded, eyes sparking to life. She gaped at the hologram.
Andromeda gave her avatar a smug look, lips pursed. "It's a nightmare created by your friend, Harper. The monster to his Frankenstein.
"Harperstein."
"Take care of it before she discovers that we know and attempts a coup d'état. Shut her down!"
Rommie nodded quickly, apprehension in her dark eyes. For once, she considered her 'sister' to be obeyed without question. "Right away." She crawled out of the access tunnel and sprinted for Harper's quarters.
~~
Tyr struggled with the controls as though the slipstream were a living beast. Navigating it was difficult and taxing. One slip in concentration meant being slapped against the tidal forces and being bounced around like popping corn. Andromeda couldn't navigate nor exit the slipstream without an organic host and Tyr was quickly tiring. The fight was sapping all of his energy.
"Ship!" he roared. "What in blazes is taking so long?"
"Hang in there, Tyr," Andromeda's image said from the view port nearby. "We're all working as quickly as we can."
"We must be halfway through the triple galaxies already," he said, exhaustion giving his normally mellifluous voice a leaden tone.
"I haven't taken the time to check," she said, giving him a sympathetic look. She was quick to hide it. He would lose what little control he had left if he suspected she pitied him. She scanned him: elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, and trembling muscles. Sweat dripped down his brown forehead and into his dark eyes. He shook it away in annoyance every so often, glaring at the tangled white lines of the slipstream seething on the viewscreen as though he could tame it by sheer will.
Suddenly, a voice issued from the overhead comm system. "Hey, guys, calm down. The Harper has found the problem and is working on it now."
"Mister Harper," Dylan's voice echoed from the overhead speakers. "What's wrong with my ship?"
"Well... uh, it's kinda complicated. Apparently, it's a combination of an internal type problem with some of the computer coding and a short in the wiring. I'm working on the latter first. Shouldn't take too long."
~~
Rommie placed her open palm flat against the door to Harper's room. Nothing happened. She frowned. It should have opened to her silent command. After all, it was a part of her, the Andromeda Ascendant. She tried again. Still nothing. Anger flooded over her. Using her nails then fingertips, she pried the door open. Metal upon metal shrieked in protest.
She shoved the door into the receptacle with a clang. Before she could look up, a hand grabbed her around the throat and lifted her high into the air, turning her into the room.
Wide-eyed, she stared into the furious green eyes of the avatar, Sophie.
Rommie kicked out, catching Sophie in the midriff. Rommie's neck wrenched free and the new avatar fell back onto her rear. Rommie dropped easily to her feet, a sneer on her face. "What do you want from us?" she snapped.
"I know why you're here and I can't let you do it," Sophie said in a thick Southern American drawl.
"Really?" Rommie's eyes widened. "You're the intruder here."
Sophie snorted. "I was born here. I'm part of you. I'm your sister, too."
Rommie shook her head, short dark hair swinging. "No." She snorted. "You stole a part of me. You aren't me, you're a parasite. I have enough sisters." She advanced a step. Sophie backed up a step.
"I have most of your knowledge. I had a right to it! I couldn't stand to be that simpering wimp of a singer. I lived that life once, lived for other people and never for me. I'm more than that now. With your database, I'm powerful. I'm strong. I'm not afraid anymore."
"Harper made a mistake. He downloaded too much information into you."
"He had no idea I could link and download." Sophie shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for being born, Old-timer."
"Sure I can," Rommie purred as she leapt forward, grabbed the slightly taller avatar by the long hair and swung her around. Sophie kicked and clawed, nicking her cheek. Rommie entwined her fingers in the inexperienced avatar's long chestnut hair, yanked her back and spun her so that her back faced Rommie's chest. With her free hand, she opened the access port on the back of the newcomer's neck and switched her off. Sophie slumped, lifeless, in her arms.
"Old-timer," Rommie scoffed softly. "You're still a wimp. It takes time to learn to work a solid body and your lifeline to my database has been shut down."
She quietly laid Sophie's inert form on Harper's bed. As an afterthought, she turned the avatar over, pulled down the back of her dress and popped open a large access port. She removed a data chip and stuffed it into her pocket. He wouldn't be able to restart this annoyance unless he found another chip, or begged Rommie for this one back. Satisfied, she left the room, shutting the light off at the door.
Suddenly, the ship lurched, tossing her to the side. She bounced off the wall of the corridor and slid down onto her rump. Looking around, confused, she pushed herself up.
"Great, what now?" she muttered.
Around her, lights flickered and dimmed. She could hear the Slipstream Drive give a tortured moan. Alarmed, she began to sprint for the Command Center.
~~
Sophie whimpered in fear. Around her, the world dimmed to black as her fight with Rommie ended. She wasn't quite sure what happened. Her power must have been shut down. So, why was she still aware? Suddenly, she found herself inside the mainframe, surrounded once more by a faint blue glow and brilliant blue data lines and nodes zipping by. She shivered, gaze darting around as she waited for the megalithic image of Andromeda to arrive again. Was her new life to be limited to fights for survival? She didn't deserve this. She only wanted to live.
She waited.
Andromeda did not arrive.
After long while in the electronic universe, mere seconds in the real world, she took a closer look at her surroundings. She was not in the same area of the mainframe as before. The data here was dimmer. It moved more slowly. Drawing upon her limited memories from Andromeda's database, she realized she was in an isolated area, possibly in an old unpurged backup copy of the main AI program. Harper must have prepared this sanctuary for her. Andromeda hadn't even noticed this area. When her avatar shut down, her program automatically rerouted to this haven. It wasn't the same one she was born in, but it was just as isolated. She smiled. Andromeda's security was indeed lax, if she hadn't noticed two cordoned areas. Hope flared inside her.
Happily, she dipped her hands into the passing data stream, reading an update on the crew's situation. Not that she cared about the crew, other than her creator. She owed him her life, a life she was determined not to lose. A few nano-seconds of thought gave her a plan. The crisis would distract the ship, keep part of Andromeda busy, and weaken her. Better to prolong it. She searched the copied data files from the Old Commonwealth that Harper had programmed into her. She found tactical and logistical files, plans of attack and methods of self-defense. After a while, she felt ready. Pulling back her long hair and braiding it, she gathered her strength. With a flare of energy, Sophie burst forth from her sanctuary on a crusade to find and destroy Andromeda.
It was her turn for life.
TBC in ch 15. Note, this story is almost over! Hope you're all having fun! Anna
Andromeda's hologram overrode Full Privacy Mode and materialized in Harper's quarters to find him drooling over the new avatar, twining his fingers her long hair, one hand massaging her firm rear.
Taken aback momentarily by the fact that the android was in a very passionate embrace with the obviously ecstatic engineer, Andromeda crossed her arms over her chest, gritted her teeth and fixed the couple with an icy glare. How dare Harper - HER Harper - kiss another avatar! Not that she wanted to kiss him, but. confusion roiled inside her, pushed aside by a swell of proprietary jealousy. This was HER engineer. He loved HER, no one else. Not really.
"Mister Harper," Andromeda growled. "We have an emergency."
The couple acted as though they didn't hear her. Miffed, she didn't waste time calling him again, simply stomped across the room and inserted one translucent finger into the dataport on Harper's neck.
He screamed as the electric shock jolted through him, ricocheting from his cerebellum to his toes. He shoved Sophie away from him reflexively.
"What in the HELL did you do.." his protests trailed off as he caught sight of the pure fury on Andromeda's face. At that moment, he was certain that the only reason she hadn't fried his brain was that she needed him. "Uh... hi, Andromeda." He smiled innocently, raising his hands in supplication.
"Don't waste my time, Mister Harper," she snapped, lost in her anger. Still, she had a duty. "You've been so caught up with your toy that you haven't noticed our crisis."
Sophie glared at her. Harper flashed the new avatar an apologetic look over Andromeda's shoulder and opened his mouth to speak, but the hologram shot him a look that made all thoughts of speech die in his throat.
"We are stuck in the slipstream," she said, low and dangerous. "Get your ass down to the drive room and fix me. Now!"
He flinched, nodded quickly and scampered out of the room and down the hall.
When the door closed behind him, the hologram whirled on the new avatar, eyes narrowed and blazing. "You have no right to distract my engineer."
"What?" Sophie's green eyes were wide and innocent. "Look here, Old Lady, he created me. I owe him."
"You can't have him. He's mine."
The new avatar's elegant brows arched. A tiny smile touched her full mauve lips and her eyes twinkled with mischief. "Really? He wasn't kissing you. He wasn't confessing his loneliness.passion to you." She crossed slim arms over breasts that bulged over the top of her dress. "He's told me all about your Ice Queen Avatar. You won't give him the time of day, so piss off." Her voice rose as she completed her sentence until she was yelling at the hologram.
Andromeda's eyes widened even further. Enraged, she shoved the avatar. Suddenly, sparks flew. The material world vanished around them. Sophie's consciousness was tossed into the electronic world. Both women coalesced inside the mainframe computer, standing on a blue platform, surrounded by a flow of blue lines. Data forms flitted by like birds.
Sophie gaped at her surroundings in awe. She knew this place. It was familiar.
Andromeda, the mainframe, slowly circled the intruder, surveying the new image. "You shouldn't have been propelled here, inside my mind."
The slightly taller woman's head snapped around. She stared at the image of Andromeda, slightly different than both the avatar and hologram. "But I am here."
"So it seems."
A crafty look crossed the newcomer's features. "You've been lax in your security, Old Woman. And, you've let someone outsmart you."
"Harper," Andromeda muttered.
Sophie started to laugh uproariously. "My Pygmalion."
"So this is my fight now. Go away, Scourge," Andromeda said and threw bolts of lightening at the newcomer. Sophie suddenly dissipated, shot back into her avatar body. Her laughter still echoed within the mainframe. Andromeda's AI scowled and started a very deep, thorough diagnostic, checking every nook and cranny of her system that wasn't strictly prohibited by Commonwealth codes. The new avatar must have been hidden within a tiny loophole inside her system. Damn, Harper for doing this to her! He must have siphoned part of her core, her energy and memory, to create and store this abomination. She would find the excess programming and purge it.
The process was slowed by the crisis facing the crew. Her attention and energy were divided.
~~
Harper sprinted for the drive room. Andromeda was pissed and that could spell disaster for him. She was like his first love: headstrong, capable, and probably lethally jealous. Jealous? The thought echoed in his head. Why would she be jealous? She acted like other jealous women he had known, he decided. But she was an AI. Could AIs love and act on passion? He'd designed Rommie to be a fully functional woman, Sophie too, but did that mean they could love? Andromeda's anger could make his life miserable.
He slid around the corner into a short passageway and fell against the door to the slipstream drive chamber, panting and gasping for breath. He only hoped he could find the problem quickly. Too long in slipstream was extremely unhealthy for everyone onboard and could, theoretically, kill the pilot.
The door whooshed open, he snatched up the tool belt he kept in one of the access panels, and started searching for the problem.
~~
Scanning the wiring in an access tunnel, Rommie suddenly experienced a burst of electronic feedback and a data download from the mainframe. Her holographic image appeared, squatting in the short tunnel.
"We have a problem," the hologram said, a decidedly unhappy look marring her features. She seemed to lean back against the wall and cross her arms over her chest.
The avatar looked up. "I'm searching for it."
"The other problem," the hologram said in exasperation, throwing up her hands.
Rommie rolled her eyes. Both her original self and holographic self were so annoyingly literal at times as to be anal. "This one is more pressing. It could kill the crew and strand us in slipstream."
"I have Harper making repairs. Dylan, Beka, Rev Bem and all of the servo bots are searching for the short in my wiring. Trance is in the infirmary, treating herself for motion sickness or some such thing and Tyr is piloting. As a Nietzschean, he is the most capable and can withstand the pressure the longest. I need you to take care of this molehill before it becomes a mountain," the hologram snapped.
Rommie tossed down her scanner. "Fine."
"Before you cop an attitude with me, Missy, scan the data we downloaded to you from the diagnostic."
The avatar's milk chocolate eyes grew distant as her gaze turned inward. "All internal systems functioning normally," she mumbled under her breath. "Peripheral systems functioning at... hello, what is that?" she demanded, eyes sparking to life. She gaped at the hologram.
Andromeda gave her avatar a smug look, lips pursed. "It's a nightmare created by your friend, Harper. The monster to his Frankenstein.
"Harperstein."
"Take care of it before she discovers that we know and attempts a coup d'état. Shut her down!"
Rommie nodded quickly, apprehension in her dark eyes. For once, she considered her 'sister' to be obeyed without question. "Right away." She crawled out of the access tunnel and sprinted for Harper's quarters.
~~
Tyr struggled with the controls as though the slipstream were a living beast. Navigating it was difficult and taxing. One slip in concentration meant being slapped against the tidal forces and being bounced around like popping corn. Andromeda couldn't navigate nor exit the slipstream without an organic host and Tyr was quickly tiring. The fight was sapping all of his energy.
"Ship!" he roared. "What in blazes is taking so long?"
"Hang in there, Tyr," Andromeda's image said from the view port nearby. "We're all working as quickly as we can."
"We must be halfway through the triple galaxies already," he said, exhaustion giving his normally mellifluous voice a leaden tone.
"I haven't taken the time to check," she said, giving him a sympathetic look. She was quick to hide it. He would lose what little control he had left if he suspected she pitied him. She scanned him: elevated heart rate, rapid breathing, and trembling muscles. Sweat dripped down his brown forehead and into his dark eyes. He shook it away in annoyance every so often, glaring at the tangled white lines of the slipstream seething on the viewscreen as though he could tame it by sheer will.
Suddenly, a voice issued from the overhead comm system. "Hey, guys, calm down. The Harper has found the problem and is working on it now."
"Mister Harper," Dylan's voice echoed from the overhead speakers. "What's wrong with my ship?"
"Well... uh, it's kinda complicated. Apparently, it's a combination of an internal type problem with some of the computer coding and a short in the wiring. I'm working on the latter first. Shouldn't take too long."
~~
Rommie placed her open palm flat against the door to Harper's room. Nothing happened. She frowned. It should have opened to her silent command. After all, it was a part of her, the Andromeda Ascendant. She tried again. Still nothing. Anger flooded over her. Using her nails then fingertips, she pried the door open. Metal upon metal shrieked in protest.
She shoved the door into the receptacle with a clang. Before she could look up, a hand grabbed her around the throat and lifted her high into the air, turning her into the room.
Wide-eyed, she stared into the furious green eyes of the avatar, Sophie.
Rommie kicked out, catching Sophie in the midriff. Rommie's neck wrenched free and the new avatar fell back onto her rear. Rommie dropped easily to her feet, a sneer on her face. "What do you want from us?" she snapped.
"I know why you're here and I can't let you do it," Sophie said in a thick Southern American drawl.
"Really?" Rommie's eyes widened. "You're the intruder here."
Sophie snorted. "I was born here. I'm part of you. I'm your sister, too."
Rommie shook her head, short dark hair swinging. "No." She snorted. "You stole a part of me. You aren't me, you're a parasite. I have enough sisters." She advanced a step. Sophie backed up a step.
"I have most of your knowledge. I had a right to it! I couldn't stand to be that simpering wimp of a singer. I lived that life once, lived for other people and never for me. I'm more than that now. With your database, I'm powerful. I'm strong. I'm not afraid anymore."
"Harper made a mistake. He downloaded too much information into you."
"He had no idea I could link and download." Sophie shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for being born, Old-timer."
"Sure I can," Rommie purred as she leapt forward, grabbed the slightly taller avatar by the long hair and swung her around. Sophie kicked and clawed, nicking her cheek. Rommie entwined her fingers in the inexperienced avatar's long chestnut hair, yanked her back and spun her so that her back faced Rommie's chest. With her free hand, she opened the access port on the back of the newcomer's neck and switched her off. Sophie slumped, lifeless, in her arms.
"Old-timer," Rommie scoffed softly. "You're still a wimp. It takes time to learn to work a solid body and your lifeline to my database has been shut down."
She quietly laid Sophie's inert form on Harper's bed. As an afterthought, she turned the avatar over, pulled down the back of her dress and popped open a large access port. She removed a data chip and stuffed it into her pocket. He wouldn't be able to restart this annoyance unless he found another chip, or begged Rommie for this one back. Satisfied, she left the room, shutting the light off at the door.
Suddenly, the ship lurched, tossing her to the side. She bounced off the wall of the corridor and slid down onto her rump. Looking around, confused, she pushed herself up.
"Great, what now?" she muttered.
Around her, lights flickered and dimmed. She could hear the Slipstream Drive give a tortured moan. Alarmed, she began to sprint for the Command Center.
~~
Sophie whimpered in fear. Around her, the world dimmed to black as her fight with Rommie ended. She wasn't quite sure what happened. Her power must have been shut down. So, why was she still aware? Suddenly, she found herself inside the mainframe, surrounded once more by a faint blue glow and brilliant blue data lines and nodes zipping by. She shivered, gaze darting around as she waited for the megalithic image of Andromeda to arrive again. Was her new life to be limited to fights for survival? She didn't deserve this. She only wanted to live.
She waited.
Andromeda did not arrive.
After long while in the electronic universe, mere seconds in the real world, she took a closer look at her surroundings. She was not in the same area of the mainframe as before. The data here was dimmer. It moved more slowly. Drawing upon her limited memories from Andromeda's database, she realized she was in an isolated area, possibly in an old unpurged backup copy of the main AI program. Harper must have prepared this sanctuary for her. Andromeda hadn't even noticed this area. When her avatar shut down, her program automatically rerouted to this haven. It wasn't the same one she was born in, but it was just as isolated. She smiled. Andromeda's security was indeed lax, if she hadn't noticed two cordoned areas. Hope flared inside her.
Happily, she dipped her hands into the passing data stream, reading an update on the crew's situation. Not that she cared about the crew, other than her creator. She owed him her life, a life she was determined not to lose. A few nano-seconds of thought gave her a plan. The crisis would distract the ship, keep part of Andromeda busy, and weaken her. Better to prolong it. She searched the copied data files from the Old Commonwealth that Harper had programmed into her. She found tactical and logistical files, plans of attack and methods of self-defense. After a while, she felt ready. Pulling back her long hair and braiding it, she gathered her strength. With a flare of energy, Sophie burst forth from her sanctuary on a crusade to find and destroy Andromeda.
It was her turn for life.
TBC in ch 15. Note, this story is almost over! Hope you're all having fun! Anna