Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [100]
'I'll use the board,' said the Doctor, running down the platform.
'No,' shouted Kadiatu. 'You'll kill yourself
The Doctor scooped up the board in one fluid motion and ran faster. 'A coward dies many times before his death,' said the Doctor.
'This is no time for Shakespeare,' said Kadiatu, starting after him. 'It takes two to freesurf.'
'No, it doesn't,' said the Doctor and threw the board on to the friction field. 'You just think it does.' He jumped on to the board.
Kadiatu ran parallel to him as the board coasted towards the tunnel gateway. 'We can get a train.'
'Too late,' said the Doctor. 'We're in the end game now, the queen has defected, the knights are in trouble and the king's out of position.'
'What are you going to do?'
'Do?' said the Doctor. 'I'm going to improvise.'
8: Improvisations
STS Central - Olympus Mons
The pain was his friend, keeping him alert in the face of the drugs. Dogface had overridden the medical expert system that stood by the all-body brace, to reduce the doses, but he was frightened of going too far. He could feel his central nervous system wavering back and forth between agony and euphoria. As he tried to concentrate on monitoring the network, his thoughts would veer away in unexpected directions. Accelerating into bands of bright primary colour or crashing through walls of glass into diamond studded darkness once the network had shrunk down to a spider's web of glittering lines that he felt he could hold in the palm of his hand. It was a tremendous high but he doubted that it would catch on.
The equipment was too expensive, for one thing. When the systems crash blacked out the control room he managed to get some data by bypassing the main signalling subsystem and routing through one of the TV channels. He chose Welsh 12 because he figured no one watched it, not even the Welsh. He'd tried shunting the feed up to the control room but he kept running into blocks. Someone had deliberately isolated STS Central's command network.
Jacked in through the plug in his index finger Dogface could feel the whole network running down. Trains were halting by platforms as onboard emergency systems shut down in response to the loss of power. Back-up power generators at isolated stations came online like little novas. The daily commuter scramble that usually ran ahead of the dateline on Terra toppled over like a breaking wave and became a wash of stranded individuals.
He wondered if he was watching the end of civilization.
There were things moving about in the system. Dogface could track them by the spikes in the power lines. Some he thought must be the virus program, others various subsets of the network intelligence. Most were converging on Acturus Terminal and the Stunnel gateway.
There was activity at the other end of the system too, at Lowell Depot. His own drones were involved in it somehow. He felt he might have authorized their use to Yak Harris but he couldn't remember.
A voice called his name in perfect Mandarin.
A Chinese princess stood by his brace, beautiful in a silk shamfoo embroidered with twisting dragons in silver thread.
Yang Chou, she called him, using his given name, one he hadn't heard since the war. When he looked closely there was a nimbus of light around her perfect face.
'Have you come to take me to heaven?' asked Dogface.
'Fuck no,' said Ming. 'But I wouldn't mind some of whatever it is you're on.'
Ming traced her hand along the top of the expert system; there was a panic button there, a switch to override his override If she pressed that the expert system would shut him down until he felt better. About a week. Dogface estimated, at least.
'I've got this problem, Yang Chou,' said Ming. 'All the other floozies are over at Acturus Station with half an arsenal, waiting for God knows what to turn up. Now I'm not saying they won't make it, but if they don't I won't have no one to do what I tell them and fix the network. The Sol transit system will collapse, billions will starve and the bottom will fall out of the stock market. Taking