Hard Crash - Christie Golden [19]
She took a long, shuddering breath and leaned into the recorder. "I can't kill Friend, I just can't. That would be the most selfish act I think I could possibly perform. I know I'm supposed to, but I won't do it. I won't. I've deactivated the autodestruct mechanism. Friend won't be able to reengage it on his own. He's going to live, even if...even if I don't."
She smiled a little, a taut, pained smile. "That's what friends do, isn't it? They help each other. If anybody finds this, please take care of Friend. Send him home. The coordinates are in the computer. Help him find a new pilot. He's going to be so lost without...me to take care...."
Jaldark whimpered. More than a scream, that tiny sound rent Duffy's heart. Watching this was torturous. Jaldark's chest hitched. Her free hand went up to press tightly at a flashing implant. When she was able to speak again, it was through tightly gritted teeth.
"Tell him I'm sorry. Tell him I love him. Tell him it will be all right. He's just got to be brave."
She began to gasp, as if her body could no longer absorb oxygen. Her brilliant eyes rolled back in her head and the recording device slipped from a suddenly limp hand to bounce on the floor. There it lay, recording only the base of the chair until it ran out of bytes, while out of sight Jaldark quietly gasped until she made no more sounds and the plaintive voice of Friend kept demanding, "Jaldark, please respond!"
La Forge reached over and wordlessly turned off the screen. For a long moment, despite the urgency of the situation, no one spo ke.
"Rest in peace," said Gold solemnly.
"Do you see?" said 110, softly. "The ship--Friend--has lost its only companion. Jaldark told us that the ships are supposed to autodestruct if anything happens to the pilot, but Friend does not have that option. It was not designed to be alone. It does not know what to do. Like its pilot it is a young vessel, with little experience, and it is terrified. We must not destroy it. We must help it. And I volunteer to be linked with it as Jaldark was."
Gold looked at him sharply. "110, forgive me if I step on your toes here, but--you've been deliberately avoiding such an intimate link with anyone. That's why you're putting off going back to Bynar. Assuming I will even let you, which is not an assumption you ought to be making, why do you want to do this? You barely survived your last encounter with that ship's computer. We've got trained specialists on the way right now. They'll figure something out."
110 looked solemn. "Because, Captain Gold, I am already partially linked. When I attempted to access the computer when we first boarded, I engaged some sort of circuit with it. It has downloaded a link to my brain, but a very inefficient one. Bynar brains are already constructed to link smoothly with computers and contain a great deal of information. I am the only one capable of establishing communication that could convince it that we are no threat. It is up to me to stop the ship."
"We've already stopped the ship."
Slowly, 110 shook his large head. "No, sir, we have not."
At that moment, Gold's comm badge chirped. "McAllan to Captain Gold. The alien ship is powering up. It's left the planet surface and is heading right for us."
Repairs are complete. All systems fully operational. Jaldark is not on board. Accessing search parameters. Searching planet surface...Jaldark is not present on the planet surface. Alien vessel in orbit about planet. Unable to penetrate shields for search.
Conclusion Jaldark has been taken by the alien vessel. Action required Jaldark must be recovered immediately.
Jaldark, I am coming. I am coming, my Friend. I will not let them harm you.
Gold was still in a solemn mood from the tragic recording he had just seen as the turbolift doors hissed open. But once he stepped on the bridge and saw the expressions on the bridge crew, he put his pity aside.
It was tragic that Jaldark had died alone, in pain. And he sympathized with the ship's loss, if it was, as 110 kept insisting, sentient