Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [107]
Her small insulated hut was cool and dark. EA moved about straightening Tasia's things, cleaning every exposed surface for the fourth time. When the young woman was not there to keep the compy company, EA fell back on her limited programming of finding simple chores to occupy herself.
"Turn up the heat, EA. Shizz!" Tasia never bothered to hide her moods from the oblivious little compy.
"I am sorry, Tasia. I set the temperature at your standard preferred level."
"Never mind that, I'm cold." She pulled off her gloves and removed her jacket, sitting at the edge of her chair. She would have to pack quickly, make her plans, slip away. Tasia leaned forward conspiratorially. "EA, you and I have a job to do. I'll need your help."
"Simply give me instructions, and I will be happy to assist you in any way."
Tasia was glad compies wasted minimal circuitry space on morality programming that might confuse ethical issues. "You've been my companion for a long time, EA, but now I need to ask you for something difficult." The slender metal figure stopped her chores and came over to stand motionless and attentive in front of the young girl. "You and I have to escape from here."
EA hesitated just a moment, a short enough pause that it might have been Tasia's imagination. "Whatever you wish. We will have fun together."
"We're doing this to avenge my brother Ross."
"Ross was my first master. A fine young man."
"He's dead," Tasia said. "Aliens killed him."
"How sad. Is there anything I can do to help?"
The robotic compy had been purchased as a gift for Ross when he'd been a child, when their mother was still alive. Standing just over a meter tall, EA was a cooperative Listener model, a good friend for any child. Then, after Ross outgrew the faithful companion, EA had been given to Jess as a boyhood friend, and finally to Tasia.
She felt a renewed flood of sadness and loss as she remembered that EA had been promised to whichever member of the Tamblyn clan had the first child. Until now, it had always been expected that Ross, with his betrothal to Cesca, would be the first Tamblyn to have children. Now that had changed forever.
"You can help me escape, and you'll come with me when we join the Earth Defense Forces."
"All right, Tasia," EA said. "Just tell me what you would like me to do."
The artificial suns embedded in the frozen roof were set on timers, dimming into pseudo-night at regular intervals. The settlement beneath the ice sheet lived under the illusion of a standard day/night cycle. When Tasia emerged in the darkest hours, she saw ripples of phosphorescent algae glowing within the layers of glacial sky, not quite like stars, but enough to light their way to the lift tubes that would carry them to the surface.
Inside her father's hut, Jess and Cesca still sat with the old man, but Tasia avoided them, simmering in her determination. Jess had checked on her earlier, satisfied to find his sister resting in her own hut. Tasia had wanted to confide in him, but she knew her brother Jess. He always did what he thought was best for other people. If he suspected what she meant to do, he would probably restrain her for her own good, even tie her to a chair if necessary. Tasia couldn't afford that. She loved him, though, and knew he would understand. Eventually.
As she and her compy entered the lift tube, she whispered good-bye to the low, rounded huts and their sleeping inhabitants. Then she closed the door and they shot up through the bore-shaft to the surface. Passages and enormous pipes rose through the crust to where the ice had cracked. Her mother was frozen down there, somewhere, lost within the thick frozen crust.
The Tamblyns had made a great deal of profit by pumping geysers of water to offloading wellheads on the surface, where passing cargo ships could fill their holds with water and travel to other distribution centers. The spaceport was a landing area and maintenance yard connected to the water geysers and pumping