Страница 95 из 96
Epilogue
The elevator door opened, and Ferhat Ben Belkassem stepped onto the flight deck of the refurbished starship Megarea. Alicia DeVries unfolded herself from the command chair, immaculate as of yore in midnight-blue and silver. Her hair was its natural color once more, spilling over her shoulders in a tide of sunrise, and Ben Belkassem decided it went even better with the uniform than her black hair had. He held out his hand.
"Ferhat." She took his hand in both of hers, squeezing firmly, and he marveled again at the way her smile got inside a person. The fanaticism and hatred were gone, yet they'd left their mark. There was a new depth in her cool, jade eyes, a softness. Not a weakness, but a new strength, perhaps. The strength of someone who understands how utterly any human, however remarkable, can be reduced.
"Alicia." He looked around with a smile of his own. "How was the shakedown cruise?"
"Why not ask someone who knows?" a voice said from a speaker, and his smile turned into a grin. "As a matter of fact," Megarea continued, "it went even better than the original builders' trials." The speaker sniffed. "I told them we could increase the drive mass."
"Must have been a shock for the yard to have the ship talking back."
"It was good for them," Megarea insisted.
"Probably." His eye fell on the chair still sitting beside Alicia's, and he settled into it with a little sigh. "Never thought I'd sit here again," he said softly, rubbing the armrests gently.
"You almost didn't get to," Alicia agreed. She could talk about it now with only the faintest twinge. She remembered every horrifying moment, yet the memories held no terror. They were only memories—and warnings.
"How's Tisiphone?" Ben Belkassem asked after a moment, and Alicia smiled wryly, stroking her temple unconsciously.
"Still here—though I'm not too sure Ta
"Ha! They believe. The Emperor doesn't hand out citations—not even secret ones—to figments of the imagination. They may not agree on what she is, but they know she's there." He cocked his head and eyed her curiously. "Speaking of whom, I sort of had the impression she'd be ... Well, moving on once the job was over."
"So did I," a voice said wryly in Alicia's mind.
"Should I tell him?"
"You may as well, Little One. I would prefer not to keep secrets from him—nor am I any too sure we could if we tried!"
"I'm afraid she can't 'move on,'"Alicia said to Ben Belkassem. The inspector raised his eyebrows, and she sighed. "Something happened there at the last. I don't understand it—I'm not even sure Tisiphone does, really— but we both came so close to, well—" She paused and cleared her throat, and Ben Belkassem nodded.
"She stopped me somehow," Alicia continued softly. "There was a ... a hole inside me. I'm not sure I can explain it, but—"
"I believe I can, Little One. With your permission?"
Alicia blinked in surprise, then nodded and sat back to listen to her own voice.
"At first, I did not understand what Alicia had done, Inspector," the Fury said through Alicia's mouth, and to his credit, he didn't even flinch. "I had sealed a portion of her mind—a mistake which almost destroyed her, for she is not a person to submit to transgressions tamely."
Ben Belkassem nodded, watching with fascination as Alicia turned pink.
"She attacked the barrier I had built and breached it, and in the process she accomplished still more. I was made three in one, Inspector. There were ... co
"But I was not prepared when Alicia forced open the other. Sir Arthur, as you know, once speculated that I was some ma
"That," Alicia heard "her" voice turn wry, "is no longer the case. Alicia has cured me. My presence awoke that capability to reach in through the unused link I had forgotten, and through it she tapped my basic structure. Even the best of human minds—even Alicia's—is not equal to that. I have learned much from Alicia, yet I remain what I am, and it drove her mad."
There was a moment of silence before Tisiphone resumed.
"The only way in which I might cure her madness and restore what I had stolen from her was to close the link, yet she had grown too powerful. I would have failed and been destroyed had not a tiny core of her still stood and fought at my side. Between us, we sealed the wound, but our power, our natures, were interwoven in the sealing. In short, I am bound to Alicia now. I ca
"Do you mean to say you're mortal now?" Ben Belkassem asked carefully.
"I do not know," Tisiphone said calmly. "With good fortune, I shall not know for many years, for I intend to take very good care of my sister Alicia."
"But ... but doesn't it bother you?"
"An impertinent question, Ferhat Ben Belkassem," Tisiphone observed, and Alicia smiled around the words at the inspector's expression, "and the answer—like so many others, I fear—is that I do not truly know. My sister selves are long since gone. Without Alicia and Megarea, I would be alone once more, and loneliness is not pleasant. I will remain with my friends and face what comes when it comes."
"I see." Ben Belkassem shook his head, then cleared his throat. "Well, that seems like a perfect opening for what brings me here."
He laid his briefcase in his lap, opened it, and sorted through the old-fashioned parchment documents it contained.
"Let me see... . First, your official pardon, Alicia." He extended the document with a flourish. "Sorry it took so long. I understand there were some wrung hands back in Old Earth—especially when you kept the Bengal; I think they figured you could at least give it back. But when the Emperor awards a second Ba
"Second, a legal opinion I think you'll all be glad to have." He looked at the wall speaker. "This one's for you, actually, Megarea. As you know, imperial law has always held that artificial intelligences are not persons in a legal sense because of the demonstrable fact that AIs are not only artificial and unstable but simply don't have a true sense of personality. You, however, are a special case, and the judiciary, at the Emperor's strong urging, has determined that you are, in fact, a person. As such, you ca
"Sounds like a mouthful of lawyer's double-talk to me," the speaker said suspiciously. "And anybody who thinks I'm a slave is go
"A possibility which, I feel sure, did not escape the judiciary's attention," Ben Belkassem said wryly. "The point, Megarea, is that Fleet is now required to officially renounce all claim of ownership. Not, I suspect, without some sense of relief. You own yourself, dear—and I brought a voter registration form with me if you're interested." He smiled beatifically. "I expect the court hadn't considered that aspect of the matter." "Hey, that's great!" Megarea exclaimed, then paused. "Whoa! Does this mean I have to pay taxes?"
"All the rights—and duties—of citizenship are yours, dear Megarea," he said sweetly, and a disgusted sound came from the speaker.
"And third," Ben Belkassem dived back into his briefcase for a small leather wallet, "and perhaps most importantly, I come bearing an invitation."
"Invitation?" Alicia asked, and he sobered.
"Yes. I know the whole Colonel Watts affair left a bitter taste in your mouth, Alicia, but I hope some of that bitterness has eased now."
He held her eyes and she nodded slowly. Treadwell and Brinkman had already been sentenced to death, and a relentless Ministry of Justice was bringing down an amazing number of multimillionaires and even billionaires, as well. The money that had backed Treadwell in the name of profit was no protection now.
"Good, because in light of what the three of you achieved entirely on your own, I've been empowered to offer you this." He opened the wallet, and Alicia's eyes widened as she saw the archaic, glittering badge. It was an inspector's badge—an O Branch inspectors badge, with her name engraved upon it. "As a free and independent subject of the Emperor," Ben Belkassem went on, "Megarea is entitled to a badge of her own—a sergeant's, in her case—assuming you accept. Under the circumstances, I thought it might be best not to ask for one for Tisiphone."
He held out the badge and Alicia reached for it in shock, then snatched her hand back as if it had burned her.
"You can't be serious!" she blurted. "Me work for O Branch? What about my reserve Cadre commission?"
"I discussed it with Sir Arthur. He sees no difficulty with retaining you on active duty for indefinite assignment to O Branch. We've worked well with the Cadre in the past; there's no reason we shouldn't in the future."
"But—"
"Before you rum me down, let me point out some of the advantages. First, there's the matter of your logistics. Megarea is a free person, and the starship Megarea, as her 'body,' belongs to her, but operating and maintaining an alpha synth is expensive—as much as five million a year even without combat. You'd be hard pressed to show that much profit as a merchant ship, but if you join O Branch, the Ministry will cover your operating costs."