Up Against It - M. J. Locke [96]
On their way to the last station, Jane spotted another kayak in the distance, pacing them. She couldn’t understand why it drew her attention; it was certainly possible that Tania had ordered someone to check on something nearby, but something about the other kayaker stood out. Something …
It came to her. The kayak had no identifiers on the side. No name or anything. That shouldn’t be possible. It had to be an intruder.
Tania was ahead of her and couldn’t see the other.
“Tania…” She pointed. “Who is that?”
“What?”
The instant she gestured, the other kayaker bolted past them. It was fast—no more than a blur. It was long gone by the time Jane burst into pursuit, but she could still track the clusters of bits it had disturbed on its way in. Tania’s startled question trailed behind her, a fading string of phrases. She chased the other kayaker into the very deepest, chiming innards of the clockworks, down, down, and the humming and grinding became a song, a chorale, a hymn to the machine.
She cornered the other kayaker deep in, as deep as they could go without being code themselves. And she gaped: the kayaker had moved into the info stream … had become part of it.
A human couldn’t do that. This was the sapient.
Tania came up behind her. “Fuck me,” she said in an awed tone.
“We’ve got to get to the fifth system,” Jane said.
“It’s led us right to it. See behind it?” Jane craned to see—the panel icon with its pattern of symbols was partly obscured by the datastream kayak. “It figured out where we were headed. It’s trying to stop us.” Then Tania whooped. “Jane, I’m getting a report.… The data link with the surface is down! We stopped it from completing its copy.”
Sean’s doing. Thank God! The feral was contained. But Zekeston itself was still in terrible danger. The info-drenched kayaker burst into staccato Tonal_Z arpeggios. Fierce lavender energies surrounded her, and Jane’s interface wavered. Briefly, meatspace—the controlled pandemonium of Tania’s webwork—overlay the clockworks cathedral. Tania deflected the digital attack and their views stabilized again. The kayaker tried again; again, Tania deflected. “Distract it!” she shouted. “I’ve got to get around behind it and finish the shutdown checks.”
Jane moved toward the kayaker. Tania’s avatar had grown long, rubbery arms and eyestalks, but couldn’t get past to the panel; the feral disintegrated whatever projection she put forth.
Distract it, Jane thought; distract it! But how?
She called up a Tonal_Z modal translator. She wasn’t sure of the grammar: she would have to fake it as best she could.
Info, she sang: I = — Tonal_Z did not have proper names; she had to make something up. What the hell. I = SheHearsVoices.
The feral kayaker’s surprise was palpable; its assaults faltered, ever so briefly. Tania’s tentacles slipped in toward the panel.
Query, Jane went on: Who = you? That’s all.
Info: I = BitManSinger. Command: Cancel … Something; what? Life support something. Cancel life-support shutdown sequence! it ordered her. That’s all.
Sorry. No can do.
The feral had spotted Tania’s tentacles and was blasting them with digital shredders. But Tania had already secured herself to the panel and partially shielded her connection from attack.
Command, Jane countered; again she struggled to find the right Tonal_Z phrases: Cancel attack! That’s all.
“How’s it coming?” she asked Tania.
“Almost there … keep at it…”
Info, the sapient was saying: Permission denied. That’s all.
Permission denied, eh? While they were singing to each other, it launched all kinds of digital attacks, which Tania’s shields barely deflected.
What the hell, she thought; it couldn’t hurt. Urgent command: cancel attack at-time this, or, Info: I will cancel you! That’s all.
Another brief pause. Then came a blitz. Jane’s view of the clockworks sputtered and blinked out. A second later she was swept back into her wavespace. “Enter your