Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [139]
EA had first been owned by her brother Ross, who had given the compy to Jess, who had finally passed her to Tasia. Now EA’s memories of Ross Tamblyn were gone forever, along with Ross himself. And Tasia hadn’t even seen Jess in years; she hoped he was still alive. With a pang for all that had changed in her life, all that she’d left behind, she began.
“First off, let me tell you about the time I dared you to walk out on a thin ice shelf at the edge of the frozen sea, back on the water moon where our clan lives. I was just a little girl then, eight years old I think, and I would have done it myself—maybe I should have, because I probably weighed less than you do. I didn’t realize that as a compy you had no inhibitions and simply followed my instructions, no matter how stupid they were.”
Tasia recalled the little compy strutting out onto the thin ice of Plumas like a trooper. Overhead, in the frozen-solid roof of sky, implanted artificial suns shone down, their reflections glittering off the faceted walls and icebergs. EA had marched out to the edge of the thin shelf and kept going even after the ice cracked and popped. At first Tasia had giggled, then called for the compy to stop, then watched in horror as the little robot plunged into the cold depths.
Hearing Tasia’s wails of despair, her mother had come running out of a pumping shed. Karla Tamblyn saw what had happened and struggled to find a solution. She dropped cables, hooks, and metal detectors in search of EA, but the compy kept sinking, systems freezing, even though her components were protected against harsh environments.
“It took my mother two hours, but she finally snagged you,” Tasia said, smiling at the recollection. “When she hauled you back up from under the ice, the water froze around you like a solid shell. I insisted on taking you into my room and built up the thermal generators so that you could thaw by the fire. I made us pepperflower tea, but of course you couldn’t drink any. You were the frozen one, but I was shivering the whole while. You really scared me that day, EA.” She turned to look at the motionless and attentive little compy. “Don’t you remember any of that?”
“I will from now on, Tasia Tamblyn.”
She sighed. “It’s a start.” It was going to take a long time for EA to be the friend Tasia needed.
Chapter 70 — ZHETT KELLUM
Inside the central administrative complex, Del Kellum studied summary screens for his shipyard operations. He seemed inordinately pleased with himself. Zhett watched angelfish swimming around in their tanks, knowing that her father was about to launch into one of his lectures or rants. He was always amusing when he worked himself into a furor over some subject or other, and this time she was not disappointed.
“We salvaged one hundred and twenty-three Soldier compies from the Eddie battleships. One hundred twenty-three! They’ve all had their memories erased along with most of their old programming. Then we installed new basic programming, so now they’re perfectly happy to work for us. Model helpers.” He shook his large, squarish head. “If only we could get those thirty-two deadbeat soldiers to work a tenth as much.”
Zhett urged her father into a chair, so that she could knead the tense muscles in his broad shoulders. “Compies are designed to be hard workers, Dad, and Roamers are brought up to pull together and get the job done. But those Eddies had pampered childhoods that left them pretty much helpless. They barely know how to pour their own coffee or dress themselves in the morning.”
“So I expect too much from them?” Kellum grumbled. “By damn, if only they weren’t so ornery! They complain constantly that they’re bored and resentful…yet they refuse to participate. If our gravity wasn’t so low, they’d probably all have hemorrhoids from sitting on their butts doing nothing.”
Zhett snickered. “Then they’d really be cranky.”
The big schematic on the wall near his fish tank was a tangled map of orbital lines designating the permanent facilities. Bright