Love after the End. Группа авторов
I thought I’d check up on—Chi-ningozis! Nagaawebishkan! Gaawiin!”
Oh fuck.
Dayan and Abacus bounced apart like two magnets, the opposite charge of one pole suddenly reversed. Negative and positive. Positive and positive. Propelled apart instead of drawn together. Dayan knew his grandmother was rather traditional, not that she would object because he was dating a boy—that particular stigma had gone out of fashion ages ago—human-AI sexual relationships on the other hand, were an entirely different story.
“We weren’t doing anything!” Dayan let his eyes flicker and dropped instantaneously out of ve-ar. He was back in ar-el. Real life. His breathing fast as if he’d just run a marathon, the tightness in his shorts receded, like he’d been doused in a bucket of cold water. He was sweating. This was not good.
DAYAN GROANED and turned as the emergency bells chimed, dislodging him from sleep. A glowing, holo-projection displayed the hour, five a.m. Terran Time. Abacus. He was really doing it! He was really making good his escape.
Dayan dressed quickly, pulling on whatever jeans happened to be closest, whatever shirt happened to be nearest at hand. Slipped his shoes on, grabbed a backpack, and began shoving in a few cherished possessions; a paper book, a flashlight, a change of clothes, a water bottle. Hoped he wasn’t forgetting anything important. He slid out of his room and tiptoed down the hall, ignoring the pulse of lights flaring red, on and off, in unison. Somehow the computer systems had detected Abacus’s escape. They knew an AI was on the loose.
Dayan slid into a secondary access tunnel that saw little use. He didn’t want to run into anyone on his early morning walk, they’d wonder where he was going at this time of night when any sensible teenager ought to be deep asleep in bed. It wouldn’t be the most direct route, but he had an advantage over anyone looking for the escaped rat. He knew where Abacus would be heading. The shuttle bay. Level 5.
“Iinge! Kii-iw-naadis na?” His grandmother would say if she could see his derring-do. Geesh! Are you crazy?
He took the most direct circuitous route he knew, without taking any of the main hallways or passages, sticking to the unlit tunnels and service conduits. At the shuttle bay, Dayan pressed his hand to the scan-sensor. Oddly, the shuttle spoke: EMERGENCY SYSTEMS ENGAGED, and the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. And there was Abacus in his biological skin, rat wedded to cybernetics, sitting on the dashboard, peering out at the dark view-port. Pink fingers splayed across the glass. There was a flicker and his avatar boy-self appeared as a holo-projection. The rat clicked a button with one of his little paws, the door whooshed shut behind Dayan, the lights on the control panel glowed to life, and there was a slight whirr and hum of systems coming online.
“You came!” Abacus’s facial muscles relaxed and worry lines instantly smoothed from his face. His hair was disarranged, and his eyes were wider than normal.
“I want to get off this station as much as you do.” Dayan scooped up the rat and deposited the AI on his shoulder. His whiskers nuzzled into his collarbone, and Dayan tried to stifle his giggles. “Abacus, that tickles!”
He didn’t bother trying to reach for the boy-avatar’s hand, though his fingers twitched. Holo-projections were made of spiralling particles of light, they could only touch in ve-ar.
“Sorry. I was just happy to see you.”
Dayan looked from rat to the holo-boy speaker. “I didn’t know you could holo-project.” Dayan had only seen Abacus’s avatar in overlay. “Doesn’t it get confusing being in two places at once?”
“I’m not supposed to be able to.” His avatar-eyes roved to the controls on the dash, to the wall, to the port window. “I’m not very good at following all these primate rules.”
“Primate?!”
“Ah, right. Geez. No offence.”
Abacus rat reached out precariously, his hind legs still clinging to the shoulder of Dayan’s plaid shirt, and pressed another button on the low ceiling above the cockpit. LAUNCH SEQUENCE ENGAGED. The voice of the shuttle spoke again in a clear, softly androgynous voice.
“What if we get in trouble?”
“What if we don’t?”
The bay doors slid open revealing an open expanse of stars.
Abacus reached out and Dayan could feel fingers slide through his own, the palm of Abacus’s holo-hand pressing against his. Solidified light against flesh and bone.
“How did you …” Dayan’s mouth hung open. Abacus smirked, eyes twinkling as he watched Dayan’s reaction. Dayan had never heard of solid holograms before.
“What’s rat-super-intelligence good for if you don’t use it?” Abacus shrugged. “I’ve been tinkering with the holo-projectors on board this shuttle for months. I couldn’t very well escape if I couldn’t reach the gas pedal.”
“Howah!” Cool. Rad.
Holding hands, they turned back to the view-port, a thousand-thousand twinkling stars waiting to welcome them out into the galaxy.
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