Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Chapter 15: truth

Harper was astounded by how much noise a storm could cause. He felt like he was yelling to be heard, and kept thinking he heard his holo-rib when in fact it hadn't been anything at all. Cameron had gone back to work, and so Harper sat in the small bedroom, tinkering with the chips and circuit boards that Cameron had found. What he needed was another quantum motherboard, though where he was going to get it remained a mystery. He had the screen of dots pulled up, though Victoria, Julius, Charles, and Lincoln's were now highlighted with red. Cameron had pointed out their berths on the map and all that remained to do was wait for night to fall.

Harper felt strangely detached from their plans, as if he didn't care either way if these four died. He wasn't sure that this would solve as much as he felt should be done. He wished that Cameron would fight for a better justice system in congress, the place that they should be making laws about such things. Even Dashiell should be of some use; Earth had to need various laws and rules to keep the peace. They had guns you could purchase without ramifications there, or so the movies had led him to believe.

He checked his holo-rib compulsively again, noting that this time there was a message from O'Keefe. It was later than Harper thought; Cameron would be home soon. O'Keefe wanted to know what time he should come over, but that was a question for Cameron, not for him.

Maybe having a child would help, he thought. Cameron seemed to push him away every now and then, as if forcing herself to keep him at arm's length. While he wasn't fully over Taylor, he could safely say that Cameron was a huge part of his life and he didn't want to lose her. He loved Cameron, he admitted. It was a weird love without the frills and glamour of being in love. It was waking next to a person and deciding forever wasn't so bad after all. He would need forever to understand Cameron.

Having distracted himself, time passed before Harper remembered to message O'Keefe back, sheepishly telling him that anytime was fine with him, but that Cameron wasn't quite home yet and they'd have to wait anyway. Harper yawned, leaving back in his chair to watch the dots. He didn't know exactly which was Cameron, but there were only a couple in the personnel bay once he zoomed in. She was probably the stationary one; Cameron didn't like to keep her holo-rib in her pocket.

Harper decided to test Cameron's theory about the rest of the weaponry and started scripting protocols for finding each person's code. Cameron had them stored in her tekcom in personnel and he knew her codes. He knew all the members of congress and was little disappointed that the first part of the task was so simple, but then when he connected to the printing bay he realized why. The code was the length of all of congress six digit passcodes but it wasn't in any particular order. It was a code with enough permutations that even Harper was a little hesitant to put his tekcom to task. It would probably be caught before it solved even half of the code. So far, the guns seemed safe then.

He guessed that there was some sort of matrix that decided which digit went where, and that should have been his next step, but Cameron's dot started to move back to the base. He didn't need to start anything new. If he could come up with a way to find out Levi's code he'd try that next, but after tonight. He wondered if communications was very concerned with the safety of the base's network. He had not come across nearly as many firewalls and precautions as the Aeneid had. Clearly Earth people had a healthy dose of paranoia when they had built the ship.

"I'm home!" Cameron called. "People stopped by all afternoon with congratulations. I have enough cookies and sweets to feed us for a cycle."

Harper pulled himself out of the chair and met Cameron trying to put the various boxes on the table.

"We'll have to send our thanks tomorrow," Cameron said. "Twenty-three thank you messages, it would seem."

"We're more popular than I would expected," Harper mused. "Or rather, you're more popular. People were probably confused as to how you got pregnant by yourself."

Cameron shot him a look. "They know who you are."

Harper took a bite of one of the lemon bars. "Did O'Keefe message you?"

"He did. I told him to come by once the hallways were a little clearer. Meanwhile, I want to open the panel in our berth to see how many people it's going to take."

"Hopefully not more than three," Harper joked as Cameron peered at the walls of their berth.

When she tapped one, he finished the lemon bar and felt around the edges, remembering how they put these together. He hadn't built many berths, but had done some repair work a couple times. He pushed his hands up and let the sheet slide with him. Once unlatched, he could shift it far enough for Cameron to step through. She did so, peering at the piping. The rumble from the earthstorm was louder, perhaps it echoed off the wall and

"It's labeled," she said. "That will make this simpler."

"It's labeled for builds and repair crew," Harper told her. "Sorry, I knew that before; I should have said something."

"Can we travel the whole way from here?" she questioned.

Harper shrugged and they both went to check the map. Cameron traced the path; Victoria's berth was just around the corner.

"Maybe?" Harper offered. "We can definitely try."

Harper grabbed his holo-rib incase O'Keefe was heading their way. Cameron used hers to light the way and they travelled through the bowels of the base.

"Can people hear us?" she whispered.

"Probably not over the storm," he pointed out. "Turn left."

In the build shop, the original ground plan had the various additions laid over it so Harper had seen what they had intended the base to do. Of course, when they needed to add berths quickly they hadn't so much build out as had filled in the gaps of the web. Otherwise each arm would have been more discreet and this less possible. Cameron shone a light on the number in front of them; Harper realized they were right in front and with that realization, he knew that he didn't want to kill Victoria. He didn't want to open this wall and take a life, even of a person who had caused so much damage.

He glanced at Cameron to say something to this effect and the gleam in her eyes stopped him up short.

"We should go back," he whispered instead.

They hurried back to their berth, stepping back through the gap. Harper's holo-rib chimed and he startled. Cameron laughed at him as he answered the call.

"Hello?"

"And we've had our first repair call," Edison said cheerfully. "You're the first on the list. Bring some gloves and get down to environmental."

Harper had never been so relieved to go to work in his whole life.

"Will do," he replied and disconnected the call.

Cameron rolled a shoulder. "It can't be helped. Get done as soon as you can."

"Will do."

He changed his shoes, grabbed his kit, and kissed Cameron on the cheek before running out of the door and away from their berth.
____
I wonder sometimes if I would able to kill a person, but I think that I wouldn't able to do it. Like Harper is finding out. Thanks for reading!