proceeding ahead of schedule?”
“No, no, I am merely demonstrating the station at full operation.” He tilted his face upwards, speaking to an indeterminate space on the ceiling, as people often did when conversing with AIs. “The advantage of having an AI here,” he said to Holland, “is that it can remotely operate the android shell and maintain a sensing presence within the observation suite. We send the carriage down with all the expeditions. She has proved quite indispensible. I am sorry, Cybele, you may go if you wish.”
It has a name? thought Holland. First Stulynow, now Jensen, talking to the damn thing as if it were a real person.
“Dr Holland? Cybele is asking you a question.”
“What?”
“I am sorry,” said the machine’s voice, too smooth, too perfect. “I wished to know if you are of Dutch extraction.”
“No. Why on Earth would you think so?” This was too much.
“Your nationality is stated as dual EU/ USNA, but your name is Holland.”
“Up here, our Grid is limited,” said Jensen. “It takes an AI sixteen minutes to retrieve, from Earth, the kind of information that is instantaneously available back home. There’s a curiosity in all AI you only really see in remote outposts like this, because they have to ask questions of us rather than looking it up on the Grid. It makes them charmingly naïve. You will grow used to it.”
Holland doubted that very much.
“You also realise how little they actually know, ” said Maguire, sotto voce, to Holland. “Lots of people are called Holland,” explained Maguire to the AI. “Maybe one of his ancestors came from there.”
“I see. I apologise,” said Cybele.
“We have a Dutch couple on staff,” said Maguire. “I’ll bet that’s where that came from.”
“The Van Houdts,” said Holland, who’d read the personnel files along with everything else about the base.
“Are you sure I am not required?” asked the AI.
“No, no, Cybele, you can go,” said Jensen. The machine did not speak again, Although of course it hasn’t really gone anywhere, thought Holland. It is still there, recording everything, ready to appear like a bloody genie at the mention of its name. Even thinking about it would probably be enough to have it pop up. He regretted the implant.
“Each expedition contains two commanders, a leader on the team, and an overall commander here. I am responsible for overseeing the function of your equipment. Dr Vance or, if she is on the mission, Maguire or Mrs Van Houdt, will monitor your biosigns. Any one of us has the authority to call you back.”
“We have a lot of safeguards,” said Maguire.
“And we need them. Just brushing against a snottite down there can lead to a suit breach if unnoticed.”
“Snottite,” repeated Jensen with distaste. “I always thought science should have more dignity to it.”
“It did, before the geeks stopped being eccentrics and allowed their own juvenile subculture to take over the world,” said Maguire. “Linnaeus would have had a fit.”
“Well, that’s all we have time for.” Jensen gestured to Vance, and the shutter came down, blocking off Holland’s first glimpse of the Martian remnant ecosystem. “If you’ll come with me, we should be able to take a quick look at the hard shells we use in the cavern system before Panther Team arrive to make their descent. There’s direct access from the suiting to the lava chamber, via the rolling door you saw outside.”
“‘Panther Team’?” mouthed Holland as they followed Jensen back through the station to the entrance store.
“Jaguar, Tiger, Panther, the three expedition designations. And why not?” said Maguire. “It’s less boring than Team One and Team Two, isn’t it now?”
CHAPTER FIVE
The Silver Locusts
2194 AD
T HE OLD ROADS up out from Canyon City were rough, and Jonah Van Houdt was flooded with adrenaline as he wrestled his quad up them. The highway that ran along the bottom of the
“No, no, I am merely demonstrating the station at full operation.” He tilted his face upwards, speaking to an indeterminate space on the ceiling, as people often did when conversing with AIs. “The advantage of having an AI here,” he said to Holland, “is that it can remotely operate the android shell and maintain a sensing presence within the observation suite. We send the carriage down with all the expeditions. She has proved quite indispensible. I am sorry, Cybele, you may go if you wish.”
It has a name? thought Holland. First Stulynow, now Jensen, talking to the damn thing as if it were a real person.
“Dr Holland? Cybele is asking you a question.”
“What?”
“I am sorry,” said the machine’s voice, too smooth, too perfect. “I wished to know if you are of Dutch extraction.”
“No. Why on Earth would you think so?” This was too much.
“Your nationality is stated as dual EU/ USNA, but your name is Holland.”
“Up here, our Grid is limited,” said Jensen. “It takes an AI sixteen minutes to retrieve, from Earth, the kind of information that is instantaneously available back home. There’s a curiosity in all AI you only really see in remote outposts like this, because they have to ask questions of us rather than looking it up on the Grid. It makes them charmingly naïve. You will grow used to it.”
Holland doubted that very much.
“You also realise how little they actually know, ” said Maguire, sotto voce, to Holland. “Lots of people are called Holland,” explained Maguire to the AI. “Maybe one of his ancestors came from there.”
“I see. I apologise,” said Cybele.
“We have a Dutch couple on staff,” said Maguire. “I’ll bet that’s where that came from.”
“The Van Houdts,” said Holland, who’d read the personnel files along with everything else about the base.
“Are you sure I am not required?” asked the AI.
“No, no, Cybele, you can go,” said Jensen. The machine did not speak again, Although of course it hasn’t really gone anywhere, thought Holland. It is still there, recording everything, ready to appear like a bloody genie at the mention of its name. Even thinking about it would probably be enough to have it pop up. He regretted the implant.
“Each expedition contains two commanders, a leader on the team, and an overall commander here. I am responsible for overseeing the function of your equipment. Dr Vance or, if she is on the mission, Maguire or Mrs Van Houdt, will monitor your biosigns. Any one of us has the authority to call you back.”
“We have a lot of safeguards,” said Maguire.
“And we need them. Just brushing against a snottite down there can lead to a suit breach if unnoticed.”
“Snottite,” repeated Jensen with distaste. “I always thought science should have more dignity to it.”
“It did, before the geeks stopped being eccentrics and allowed their own juvenile subculture to take over the world,” said Maguire. “Linnaeus would have had a fit.”
“Well, that’s all we have time for.” Jensen gestured to Vance, and the shutter came down, blocking off Holland’s first glimpse of the Martian remnant ecosystem. “If you’ll come with me, we should be able to take a quick look at the hard shells we use in the cavern system before Panther Team arrive to make their descent. There’s direct access from the suiting to the lava chamber, via the rolling door you saw outside.”
“‘Panther Team’?” mouthed Holland as they followed Jensen back through the station to the entrance store.
“Jaguar, Tiger, Panther, the three expedition designations. And why not?” said Maguire. “It’s less boring than Team One and Team Two, isn’t it now?”
CHAPTER FIVE
The Silver Locusts
2194 AD
T HE OLD ROADS up out from Canyon City were rough, and Jonah Van Houdt was flooded with adrenaline as he wrestled his quad up them. The highway that ran along the bottom of the
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