Brightly Burning(83)

“I don’t, no. We’ve been in limbo up here. We can only guess. And hope.”

“You were his First Officer! How could you not know?” I regretted my outburst as soon as I saw Xiao’s reaction. Hurt, mixed with pity.

“Stella, I’m sorry. We’re all upset and worried. There was no stopping him once he’d made up his mind.”

I nodded, like I had accepted what she was telling me, though my blood thrummed through my veins, my mind grasping at straws for something they wouldn’t have thought of; a way to contact Hugo. A way to save him.

Xiao started talking, but not to me. She seemed to be telling Jessa it was okay to come back into the living room. Talking over comms.

“You still have comms,” I said. “Aren’t those run through Rori?”

“No, but it’s similar,” Xiao said after ending the call. “The system on board the Lady Liberty is called Lori, but our comms are on a closed system—?we can communicate only with each other.”

LORI. Of course. “The two systems have to be related, given the name,” I said. “Can they talk to each other?”

“We’d have to ask Orion,” Xiao conceded. “He’s on the bridge.”

I was out of my seat before she finished speaking. “Jon! Get out here.” He appeared within seconds, like he’d been waiting for my call. “Will you take us to him?” I asked Xiao.

She hesitated. “The captain is going to think we’re way out of line, but yes, I will.”

I was already at the door, challenging Xiao and Jon to keep up with me. Jon waited until we’d left Ward K behind before asking any questions.

“Why are we going to the bridge?”

Xiao pointedly sped up, moving ahead of us, ostensibly to call the elevator. I chose my words carefully.

“Hugo’s not on the Lady Liberty. He went down to Earth. By himself.”

Jon hissed air through his teeth. He got it. Going down to Earth alone was beyond dangerous.

“I’m hoping the AI on board the Lady Liberty can be networked to communicate with the one from the Rochester, since both were built by the same company. I need to figure out where he landed.”

“You want to go after him.” It wasn’t a question.

“I have to,” was all I said. We reached the elevator bank, joining Xiao. Jon didn’t ask any other questions.

The ride was short, the Gates Level being just one down from the top. Xiao sweet-talked our way onto the bridge, using to her advantage the fact that Jessa now owned the Lady Liberty. I got a clearer picture of Xiao’s role on board—?she was acting as Jessa’s guardian and proxy in managing Fairfax interests until Jessa came of age. I quickly located Orion and charged over to his station. I allowed brief greetings, a hug, before I launched into my directive.

“Do you think you could reprogram Lori to search for pings from Rori down on Earth?” I asked, keeping my voice low so the whole bridge wouldn’t know our aims. Xiao and Jon stepped aside, creating a one-sided visual shield so Orion and I could talk and be less likely to draw notice.

Orion’s eyes darted around, and then he leaned in closer to me. “You want me to hack into the AI?”

I nodded. “Like you did before. Hugo said you hacked into my drawing tablet.”

“Not exactly,” he said. “That was more like . . . I convinced Rori to do it for me. She’s a sophisticated AI. You don’t hack her.”

“Okay, then convince Lori to search for Rori’s pings.”

He shook his head. “Lori is a different story. They have the same base programming, but at some point, the Lady Liberty reined her in. She has far less latitude, and to reprogram her would require serious skill.”

“Can you do it?”

Orion squirmed, clearly uncomfortable. “Yes,” he finally acquiesced, and quickly followed up: “But if I get caught, I’ll be arrested. Likely charged with insurrection or mutiny.”

“We won’t let that happen,” I reassured him, even though doing so was far beyond my means. I improvised. “Jessa owns the Lady Liberty. She can protect you. This is our only hope for finding Hugo alive.” A ping sounded in my ear. It was my comm device reminding me that Jon and I had to return to the Stalwart in no more than eighteen hours. “The thing is, I need you to do it in the next eighteen hours.”

“No way.” Orion was emphatic. “A reprogramming hack like you’re asking will take days, maybe even weeks. And that’s if I forgo my normal job, and don’t get caught.”

“Can you . . . unleash her, then? Undo whatever limitation they put on her, then convince Lori to reprogram herself?”

He seemed to chew on that. “That might work, though if I’m caught, it’ll be even worse than a simple reprogramming hack. If Lori evolves in the . . . wrong direction, she could kill everyone on board. A self-aware AI is not something to play around with.”

“If she’s anything like Rori, it’ll be fine.”

He didn’t look convinced, but nonetheless he nodded. “I’ll do my best. One question, though. Why eighteen hours?”

“Because she’s wanted for treason and is here on a false visa,” Jon said before I could, breaking the illusion that Orion and I were talking privately.