A/N: Dedicated to syrius1980 for spotting our chapter posting blooper when no one else did!
Shortlisted – Day 0004
The sound of an alarm going off intruded upon Gareth's sleep. It was loud and incessant, repeating its pattern over and over again. It didn't take long before memories from yesterday pounced upon him like a predator, and in an instant, he awoke. He sat erect, his body stiff from falling asleep in the armchair.
Grimacing, he stretched his spine. "Ancilla, turn off that noise."
"Notification attached. Would you like me to read it?"
"No. Display please." He turned his gaze to the wall monitor as the message appeared.
'Good morning, Gareth. Clothes have been delivered to your door. See you in an hour.'
The message was unsigned, but Gareth didn't need it to be. He went to the door and retrieved the box sitting just outside the apartment. Back in the living room, he set it on the coffee table and opened it.
New military boots and gear suitable for field duty.
He took the box to the bedroom and tossed it onto the bed without pausing. In the bathroom, he stripped and turned on the water, cold. The first step into the shower sent him into shivers with rapid, heaving breaths. But he rode out his body's complaint and contained his physical reaction to the temperature.
It brought him mental clarity and an endless loop of questions. Nothing else mattered.
What was she doing? Why was she doing this? Why hadn't she turned to him? Didn't she know he loved her no matter what? Didn't their vows mean anything to her anymore? Was this part of her illness? What could he do if it was? If it wasn't, what could he do?
The questions continued in circles as he efficiently showered and dried himself, then shaved his two-day-old stubble. Donning the clothes Harlin sent, he tried to focus on only the task before him to distract his mind from its painful, repetitious quest for answers.
There's only one course of action to get answers, and I'm doing it.
Memories of his early days of service flashed by as he put on the close-fitting fighter pilot jacket before the full-length mirror on the wall.
A thin man looked back at him, ready for the field, responsibility, and duty. Gareth noted the bulging pockets and checked a couple. He was amused to find all the accessories that came with field duty, including a multi-tool pocket knife, parachute cord, and firestarter.
"Ancilla, time remaining on message."
"Forty-three minutes," his A.I. answered from the mirror.
Just enough time to brew some tea. "Send reply: Roger that."
"Message sent."
He went to the kitchen. But waiting for the water to boil was a mistake—his mind jumped back to churn the painful questions.
Steaming cup in hand, Gareth returned to the living room and sat down. As he blew on the tea, his thoughts took off on a tangent, and an idea popped to the fore.
"Ancilla, allow A.I. entity Maat access. Confirm, please."
"Confirmed."
He sat up in the armchair, his gaze fixed on the wall monitor. "Maat?"
A half-second pause, perfectly timed, then Maat's voice answered, "Yes, Captain Levant."
"Advise me when Harlin is five minutes out, please. I want to meet him on the roof."
"He is currently en route, Captain Levant."
"Thank you. Next, I would like to ask a favor of you, if I may."
"I will assist you if it is permissible, Captain."
"That's all I can ask for. Yesterday, I asked you to ask the LS, 'Why me?' The answer was three videos. I want you to send a new message. Tell her I don't understand. That I want to understand, but right now my wife's crisis is my priority. Try to explain to her that I'm not rejecting her—just that right now, my duty is to my wife."
"An interesting message, Captain, and quite thoughtful of you. I have her answer, as near as I can translate. It is the equivalent of a symbol used in mathematical formulas for astrophysics."
Gareth's curiosity piqued. "What symbol is that, Maat?"
The monitor on the wall lit up to display a symbol that he recognized.
"It is the symbol used to designate time."
Time? He leaned back in the chair and took a long sip of his tea. It was still too hot, almost burning his mouth, but he decided he needed another sip, even deeper. What does that mean—time?
Lost in thought, he'd finished his tea when Maat spoke again. "Captain Levant, I have a message from Harlin, high priority. Shall I play it?"
"Yes, please."
Harlin's voice screamed into the room, "Whatever you're doing, just stop! Stop right now! I'll be there in five minutes!"
What the hell? Gareth stared at the blank monitor. What have I done?
Frowning, he stood up and headed for the kitchen to rinse his cup and set it in the sink. Then he patted his pockets to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and walked to the front door.
"Ancilla, lock the place down."
"Confirmed."
He took the elevator to the roof. When he strode onto the roof proper, he looked up at the dark sky to see military lights flashing in the distance. It was hours before sunrise, so there was no mistaking that they were military. The transport was coming in at a high rate of speed straight at him, violating all the airway lanes as it descended. Calmly, he stepped back into the elevator alcove, since the transport didn't appear to be slowing down. But at the last minute, it activated its braking thrust, and the shockwave of air pushing out from it slammed into Gareth.
A genuine military transport service vehicle, capable of dropping a ten-man team into hazardous zones, settled on the landing pad, and the big single door on the side slid open. Harlin stepped out, dressed in an outfit similar to his own. But Harlin's body language spoke of upset and anger as he marched up.
"What the hell were you thinking, Gareth?"
"It seemed like the right thing to do." Gareth looked him steadily in the eye.
Harlin pushed his fingers through his hair in an effort to control his emotions, eyes narrowing in thought. "Right. The right thing to do." He looked back up at Gareth. "Come on, let's go. We can't talk here."
He turned without waiting for Gareth's response and walked briskly back to the transport. Gareth followed inside, and Harlin slammed the sliding door shut behind them before heading for the cockpit. He was already buckling himself in and donning a one-sided headset when Gareth reached the co-pilot seat. Harlin revved the engines up as he waited for Gareth to buckle in. The moment Gareth clicked the last buckle, Harlin shoved the throttle forward, sending the transport into a full-thrust climb.
"What about traffic?" Gareth shouted over the engines.
"Maat's already cleared my airspace. I don't get to do this very often, so I'm going to damn well enjoy it no matter how hard you screw up my morning!" Harlin yelled back. Then he ignored Gareth, concentrating on piloting.
The G-forces mounted as they climbed almost straight up until they were far above normal traffic airways. Only then did Harlin ease back on the throttle and begin leveling out. The engine noise dropped to a reasonable level as the transport achieved cruising speed.
"Okay, Maat, you can take it from here."
"Aye, Captain Quinton," answered Maat, his voice emanating from the overhead speakers.
Harlin gave a short chuckle. "Don't you start with me, Maat."
He turned to Gareth, his good-natured smile switching to cold and serious anger. "I'll ask again, what were you thinking?"
"I guess I wasn't. But it didn't seem right to keep the LS guessing. I wanted to let it know where I stand, where my duty lies. And I still don't know why me, why this interest in me."
"Her," said Harlin. "She's a her, and her name is Canaisis. Lock that in your head right now." For a moment, Harlin drilled his gaze into Gareth's eyes for added emphasis before continuing, "Why didn't you wait to talk to me before sending that message, Gareth?"
"You're right," Gareth became defensive, "I wasn't thinking. But it wasn't right to keep her in the dark. Besides, her answer about why me doesn't tell me anything. You said A.I.'s have to learn how to relate to Humans from a Human perspective. What better way to do that than to tell her I don't understand her, but I want to? Above all else, she needed to know that my wife is my priority right now."
"Maat replayed the message for me, right after Mayfine called to ask what the hell was going on." Harlin shook his head. "You really kicked the ant pile this time, Gareth. Right now, a few thousand programmers are sifting data, trying to understand what's going on. Another thousand engineers are pissing their pants because you just threw their whole schedule out the window."
"I did what?"
"Look. The teams up there monitoring the LS's development had no idea Canaisis had a way to keep an eye on you, or to communicate through Maat. When I told Mayfine last night, he about had a heart attack.
"I'm betting no one up there got any sleep last night after I got off the phone. The ramifications of uncontrolled, unknown data going into an LS A.I. has everyone scared. To them, they have an A.I. that's out of control. What's got everyone in a crisis mode is they don't know if they should pull the plug on this A.I. or not. They don't know if it's even possible without scrapping the whole LS ship itself. They don't know how the other LS's would take that, either. You've put Mayfine in a six-sided box, that's for sure.
"Every conceivable precaution and safeguard has been used to help ensure a positive outcome. No one saw this coming though, so in that respect, you're off the hook. The only reason I'm not in the brig for sending my message is because of my experience with A.I. ascension and the unforeseen, unusual circumstances.
"No sooner do I have Mayfine calmed down, willing to wait and see, and you go right up and bang on the door with your fist the very next day. I'm in hot trouble for not making it clear you're not to reach out to her.
"The LS monitoring you was one thing—it could be justified as simple curiosity. The only issue last night was to decide whether she should be cut off from you or not. Mayfine was leaning towards leaving things be and seeing how it goes, since it was clear she's made her choice. You were the only unknown variable. But now... you've just burned that bridge."
Gareth didn't know what to say to all this—it was too much. "How so?" he asked in disbelief.
"Because last night, you—I mean, we—made a data inquiry... That's all. But this morning, you reached out and interacted with her—that's why. Only Captains do that in the beginning, to help with the bonding of the Hierarchy command structure. You just made yourself an LS captain by default, and some people are pretty pissed off about it.
"Look, all this all would have been taught to you after the ENS program, but you just jumped the line."
Harlin's unwavering stare had an intensity Gareth had never seen.
"Now," Harlin continued, "Mayfine is in a real dilemma. What if you decide to stay with your wife? What if you die from the ENS? An LS has already established you as her Captain—what the hell is Mayfine going to do about that?"
He turned back to the controls, leaving Gareth to think things through.
Gareth looked out over the nighttime city lights as his thoughts raced. He'd had no idea his message would cause so much trouble. It didn't matter that he meant no harm. The harm was done. If he wasn't careful, he'd be court-martialed and sentenced to prison. It wouldn't matter how or why it happened—a sacrificial scapegoat would be required. He'd be famous as the man who single-handedly took down an entire LS.
Yet he still couldn't find it within himself to be alarmed. Caitlin was all that mattered, and he had to make sure none of this affected her. They could throw the book at him afterward, but not before. He had to figure this situation out, figure out what was going through her head.
The speckled carpet of city lights rolled past under him, and up ahead, he could see them thin out. They were leaving the city.
Hints of contours grew out of the darkness below as a pre-dawn blush tinted the sky to his right, and a certain kind of peace settled upon him. He didn't have to worry about his career anymore. He'd see Caitlin soon, and they'd work things out. The agony of not understanding what had gone wrong would be over.
The city lights became sparse with just a few twinkles here and there, and a lit highway wound through the dark landscape, branched and forked. Gareth could discern the northern mountain range ahead by the absence of stars in the graying horizon.
The transport started descending at speed, and Harlin sat straighter in his seat. Up ahead, the mountainous skyline to the right lit up in glory as the sun's rays spilled over the tops, the mountains themselves still in darkness. Gareth became alert, wary of the sense of expectation emanating from Harlin.
Harlin looked over at Gareth with a knowing smile. "Relax. I told you I was going to enjoy my morning."
"Just what exactly does that mean?"
"It means I'm glad you don't suffer from motion sickness." Harlin's smile grew into a grin as he reached out to activate the heads-up display on the windscreen. "You ready, Maat?"
"Yes, Captain. I'm fully integrated, have accessed the military topographic database, and have tasked a satellite to our use for the day."
"Excellent. You're my best friend today."
"I am pretty sure I am your only friend."
Harlin laughed. "That's true. But you wouldn't let me splatter against a cliff to get rid of me, would you, old buddy?"
"No, Harlin. I would have to answer too many inquiries."
Gareth had been watching Harlin during this curious exchange and looked up to see how close they were to the foothills. The early morning graying bled into the landscape. The HUD activated with a rippling grid of red lines that revealed the contours of the land in real-time.
Harlin gripped the controls. "This is going to be fun!" He winked at Gareth. "Let's do this, Maat!"
"Must we really?"
"Yes, Maat, we do. Categorize it as a Human thing. Now give me control."
"You have the Con, Harlin. But this goes into the Childish Behavior category."
Harlin laughed. "Whatever you say, my friend. Can I have your data now?"
The HUD changed to a detailed topographic map. Gareth could see land features in crisp detail, including the river they were flying over, and which direction it was flowing. Up ahead, the river flowed out from between two foothills, and a dotted line painted its way upriver. Where the river vanished from sight, the line zigged to the left.
Harlin pushed the controls forward, and the transport dove down low to just above the river. He had a wicked grin as the transport shot between the foothills. When they reached the point the river disappeared, he gleefully banked hard left to follow it.
"Woo-hooooo!"
Gareth grabbed hold of the armrests and braced himself with both feet.
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