Things Fall Apart: Chapter 29

Aboard Zephyr

About two minutes too late, Singer realized that perhaps Saito had not yet been given the whole picture. The aghast look he gave her when she broke the news, however, clarified matters for her instantly.

Of course he didn't know what was going on. When would anyone else have told him?

Recovering himself, Saito said, "Let me get this straight: is New Norfolk so overrun with refugees that there's nowhere left for us?"

Oh, thought Singer. Oh fuck.

Singer opened her mouth to reply, closed it again. This happened about three times while Singer sorted out in her brain how to even begin.

Saito, of course, saw this. "Maybe we both ought to sit down before you drop whatever anvil you're holding onto on my head. Tea?"

Singer managed to croak out, "Tea would be lovely. Thank you."

They were in the quarters assigned to him, one of the senior officer cabins which would, after all, be his by right at the end of this conversation, although he didn't know that yet. Singer hadn't really looked at them when they were doing the tour. It wasn't the lap of luxury, especially with nothing really personal in it, but there was plenty of room for a person or four to sit and relax with the occupant. Singer could have taken the armchair, but chose to leave that for her host, if he wanted it, and chose the near end of the sofa instead.

Thirty seconds and the whirr of a replicator later, there was a tray, a teapot, and two cups. Saito took a moment after setting the tray down to serve them both. It was not a ceremonial serving, by any means, but he was clearly using the commonplace of simple hospitality to soothe both their nerves. Obligingly, she took up her mug, and together they sipped. Ti Kuan Yin. An appropriate choice, Singer thought. If there was a goddess she wanted to appeal to right now, a goddess of mercy was high on the list.

Another sip each, and Saito said, calmly. "All right. Tell me."

She told him. "What happened to our ships appears to have happened everywhere AIs of a specific template version were responsible for operations. Not just starships."

She sipped her tea again, striving for calm, letting him digest this.

He nodded, almost absently, accepting the fact of it. He sipped again, paused to think, moved to sip yet again, and put his drink down, as if afraid he might drop it as he said, "New Norfolk no longer exists." It was not a question.

Singer nodded. She retained her grip on her cup as a physical manifestation of her composure.

"None of the artificial stations still exist." Again, not a question.

Singer managed to reply, "The docks mostly survived."

Saito picked his mug up again, but didn't drink yet, looking around as if seeing his cabin, all-but-pristine, for the first time. "Including Zephyr, a mothballed project with no AIs loaded yet."

"Exactly," Singer said.

"What about other systems?" he asked.

Singer suspected he knew the answer, but she gave it to him anyway. "We honestly have no idea, except by inference. The relay network was also taken out—"

"—and nobody has come here to see how the third largest shipyard in the TCTF is faring in the crisis," Saito interrupted, piecing it together. "So this happened everywhere."

"At least," Singer said, "everywhere in the TCTO. Our own first stop is David's Star."

Saito sipped, considering that. Singer let her shields down just a little. The medic was appalled, she could tell, but was striving to make his brain work, as much as a return to good air, nearly two shifts of sleep, and breakfast that actually resembled food could help it work.

"Their tech base is different, but they don't send out ships of their own much. They could be unaffected and we still wouldn't have had a visit from them."

Singer nodded. "Exactly. If this ship lives up to the hype, we can be there faster than any other ship could, even if we had one. The plan is to get there, exchange news, and hope they'll let us drop at least some of the investigation into the lap of the AI institute there. Then we'll finally go to Tau Ceti and see what happened at the Core. We'll seed new relays as we go."

"Hmm. I'm not sure that I wouldn't do it the other way around. I think some feathers back at the Core will be ruffled that they took second place."

"True," said Singer, "but there's a diplomatic angle to consider as well. If we're going to solicit aid from other polities, we first need to soothe their feathers, about all the ships under our flag that might have blown up in their docks."

Saito's eyes widened. That had not yet occurred to him.

He put his tea cup down again, fixing Singer with a look she could not decipher without dropping her shields further. She had already decided not to do that, not just to preserve his privacy, but because she was not sure she could shoulder the burden, just now.

When he spoke, it was just a whispered fragment, "...billions of people..."

It needed no elaboration. Singer met his gaze and nodded. Despite temptation and a genuinely dry throat, she did not have recourse to her cup again, yet. She did not want to give this man any impression she was trying to hide from him.

Finally, he broke the eye contact, picked up his cup again, sipped, shook his head, and said, "There's not nearly enough whisky in this tea cup."

There didn't seem to be much to say to that. Singer took a moment to pour herself a warm-up before sipping again, letting him work through things.

His next glance at her had an edge to it. "You were going to try to recruit me, regardless. Kasel is good, but he's always been reluctant to pursue his training. Always told me he'd rather be an excellent nurse than an adequate doctor. It's never occurred to him, at least not so's as he'd believe it, that he could be an excellent doctor. Point is: you need a doctor."

"In fact, we do."

"What will my people do with themselves? You already have a crew."

"A short-handed crew, even for this smaller ship. With your folks, we'll be a little over-establishment, but not much. There's a lot of work to be done that the yard wasn't able to complete."

Saito nodded, wheels turning. "What about the people who really, really want or need to be done, or at least have a break, before facing the rest of this crisis?"

"We've got an idea for that. My science officer pointed out that Bellerophon, for all that she's not in great shape to go venturing forth, is actually in perfectly stable shape to pretend it's a small station. We could move any of your crew, or for that matter, any of mine, there."

"Will Haraldsdottir go for it?"

Singer made a wry face. "I'm not sure, honestly. We only slung the proposal her way a little before I came to see you—"

There was a chime—different from the one either of them was used to, but clearly related to the intercom. Alexander's voice said, "Captain, we have a problem."

"Go ahead!"

"Some of the folks from Aquila have gotten into the newsfeeds. It didn't occur to me to keep them from them or to brief them on the...extent of things."

"You're not alone there, Exec. I'm afraid Doctor Saito almost had apoplexy here."

"If the Doctor is sufficiently recovered from his own shock, it might be good if he, and you, got down to Crew Quarters more or less immediately."

Over the speaker, they could hear some very angry voices.

As one, they set their tea cups down, shared a glance, and said in unison, "On the way!"