Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [24]
She sat sideways in her chair, half folded up, an ergonomic nightmare. From time to time she picked up a piece of crumbled ration cube from a plate beside her on the bench.
‘All right, WATCH OUT!’ she told the screen. ‘Let’s try again. Give me a full report on the system’s status.’
‘Yes boss! Right away!’ WATCH OUT!’s voice was a high-pitched buzz. The AI’s icon, a pocket-watch on a spring, bounced all over the screen. ‘Just a minute!’
Cinnabar sat back, stretching her shoulders. The half-dozen AIs that formed her staff were commercial jobs, assembly-line artificial intelligences. She’d modified them to give them more personality. She wouldn’t get any human assistants unless the colony developed on schedule.
A small icon, a rectangle with a triangle in it, appeared in the corner of her screen. ‘CONNECTICUT,’ she said, ‘I thought I told you to hold my e-mail.’
‘Ummmmm . Hey! Some jerk bypassed me!’ The communications daemon’s voice was deeper and gruffer than WATCH OUT!’s. ‘ Do you want to take the message, or will I tell ’em to get lost?’
‘Oh, put it through. This system sweep is going to take a few minutes.’ Cinnabar watched as a small box appeared in the corner of the screen. After a moment, it turned into the Doctor.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you,’ he said, tipping his hat at the camera. But I wanted to check your mainframe to see whether there were any traces of those alien memories.’
‘If you could bypass CONNECTICUT,’ she said, ‘why didn’t you just poke around in there until you found what you wanted?’
‘Sorry about that,’ said the Doctor. ‘I talked him into it.’
‘Hmmph. Well, I forgive you. Look, stay where you are —
I’ll get WATCH OUT! to give you a hand when we’re finished here.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Do you really think there’ll be anything there?’
‘No. But it’s worth pursuing any possibility. You missed the kgotla.’
‘Yep. I hate politics. Did they decide anything?’
‘They’re still talking.’
‘Mmm-hmm. They’re too scared to jump either way.
Something will happen that’ll force a decision. But not yet.’
‘Perhaps,’ said the Doctor. ‘In the meantime...’
‘Got it boss! Here you go!’ WATCH OUT! was back, throwing windows full of text all over the screen. ‘That last modification worked — everything’s peachy!’
‘Thanks. Listen, I have a job for you...’
Exploration and Recovery was a tiny office near the centre of the habitat dome, without so much as a skylight. Benny perched awkwardly on the edge of a low desk, while Professor Dorothy SmithSmith looked through her transcription.
She looked around the small room. It was amazing how much junk could accumulate, even in a computer-based society. There were even filing-cabinets. Benny wondered what Dot was keeping in there. If the bridesmaids were right, the temple was the only archaeological find on the planet so far.
Dot’s translation drone hovered next to her shoulder.
How did a small cylinder of plastic with a blue light at one end manage to look nervous? Benny supposed that, if she were on the receiving end of Dot’s temper all day, she’d probably be nervous too. She stifled a smile as the woman put down the papers.
Dot raised a hand to her right temple, waved her fingers about. The drone said, «It’s a puzzle.» It turned slightly to get a better view of her hands. «Where’s the rest of the ruins?»
Benny was holding a notepad in her lap. She picked up a fat black marker and wrote, ‘Hidden under the jungle?’
The drone hummed uncertainly as Dot drummed her fingers, waiting for Benny to finish her sentence and hold up the notepad. She scowled at the message. «I am not impressed with the surveyors.»
The drone’s voice rushed, trying to cram the meaning down into spoken words. «That temple’s right out in the open.
They should at least have found that.»
Dot leaned forwards. Her pale blonde hair was pulled back from her head in a severe hairstyle, making her look like a cartoon librarian. «I don’t understand how I’m supposed to do my job without proper information.» SKREEE! whirred the drone as she signed