Unbounded

Chapter Two: Cold Trove

"No. But if you need to verify my whereabouts, just look at the corridor camera recordings."

Zhong nodded. "How well do you know Nikau?"

"Not well. I'm familiar with his crew file, of course."

"Would you say you two are friends?"

"No, I barely had occasion to speak with him. Why?"

"Do you know what he was working on?" Zhong asked. Ihaia stood with arms folded, staring at Ryder.

"No idea."

"Do you know who amongst the crew are friends of Nikau? Or perhaps, who harbors any dislike?"

"No, I don't know. What is this about?"

"I'm not at liberty to disclose that information at this time," Zhong said rotely.

"You know, I'm over four hundred years old," Ryder said. "Not including time spent in stasis, of course. Approaching middle age, one tends to get a different perspective on things. You kids, in your second century of life, can't fathom what it was like when I was growing up in the slums of Los Angeles, before the Garden World Laws. Every day I dealt with the double sword of criminal thugs on the one hand and Global Unity goons on the other. It was the worst of both worlds--chaotic criminality mixed with a tyrannical rigidity of restricted speech."

"Global Unity isn't a tyranny any more," Zhong said. "--not since we achieved AI governance. What's your point in all this?"

"Just that you remind me the way the goons would talk," Ryder said.

"Appearances can be deceiving. Don't be so swift to judge." Zhong made a sharp nod at Ihaia. "Let's go." They walked past Ryder and exited his cabin.

Ryder sat alone in silence for a minute, then stood. He left his cabin and made his way along the circumference to Command Sector.

All the senior staff were busy at their stations; Mbali stood behind them. Ryder slowly walked farther along the sector's arc, straining to hear the hushed conversations.

"Location confirmed," Anaru said. "We're 7.826 light-minutes from the primary, 36 Ophiuchi B, which is a type K1V."

"We're at an altitude of two megameters," Tangaroa said. "The planet is 0.668 Earth-mass, 0.88 Earth-radius. Surface gravity is 0.87 g. Surface temperature minus 80.5 centigrade. Surface pressure 0.525 standard atmosphere."

"No, no, no," Mbali was shaking her head. "This is not good. We'll never be able to bring up the temperature that much."

"It's locked in water ice. No liquids on the surface."

"Curse it!" Mbali said. She gritted her teeth. "I need to talk to Fai-tsiri. Everyone, continue to gather as much information as you can." She headed for her office.

"Uh, Mbali!" Ryder called out. Unhearing, she entered her office, and Ryder followed. Mbali opened the circular door in the back. In the small chamber beyond, Ryder could see the cold reflections of a gynoid. "May I have a moment?" he asked.

"Not now, I'm busy." Mbali disappeared behind the black door splashed with New Maori calligraphy.

Ryder walked over to Tangaroa's station. "Why were we revivicated here if the planet is too harsh? Is this the right place?" Ryder asked.

"Fai-tsiri does nothing by accident, and she makes no mistakes," Tangaroa responded without looking at him.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm trying to concentrate. Go interview someone else."

Ryder went to another station, this one unoccupied. He turned on his eye camera and swept his view from one crewman to another. Most of them were waving their hands as they manipulated data which only they could see through their nearly invisible augmented-reality lenses. A few worked more traditionally with fingers in contact with the black surfaces, swimming through glowing symbols. But a few had bionic nictating membranes over their eyes, blind to the outside world as they were visually immersed in their own virtual reality. The long space was dim, lit by the multicolored displays.