Becky Chambers - A Closed and Common Orbit

CONTENTS

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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A CLOSED AND COMMON ORBIT. Copyright 2016 by Becky Chambers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Harper Voyager and design are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 by Hodder & Stoughton, a Hachette UK company.

FIRST EDITION

Digital Edition OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 978-0-062569424

Print ISBN: 978-0-062569400

For my parents and for Berglaug, respectively.

The current timeline in this book begins during the final events of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

The past timeline begins approximately twenty Solar years prior.

Feed source: Galactic Commons Department of Citizen Safety, Technology Affairs Division (Public/Klip) > Legal Reference Files > Artificial Intelligence > Mimetic AI Housing (Body Kits)

Encryption: 0

Translation: 0

Transcription: 0

Node identifier: 3323-2345-232-23, Lovelace monitoring system

Mimetic AI housing is banned in all GC territories, outposts, facilities, and vessels. AIs can only be installed in the following approved housings:

Ships

Orbital stations

Buildings (shops, places of business, private residences, scientific/research facilities, universities, etc.)

Transit vehicles

Delivery drones (restricted to intelligence level U6 and lower)

Approved commercial housings such as repair bots or service interfaces (restricted to intelligence level U1 and lower)

Penalties:

Manufacture of mimetic AI housing 15 GC standard years imprisonment and confiscation of all associated tools and materials

Purchase of mimetic AI housing 10 GC standard years imprisonment and confiscation of related hardware

Ownership of mimetic AI housing 10 GC standard years imprisonment and confiscation of related hardware

Additional measures:

Mimetic AI housing is permanently deactivated by law enforcement upon seizure. Core software transfers are not conducted.

Lovelace had been in a body for twenty-eight minutes, and it still felt every bit as wrong as it had the second she woke up inside it. There was no good reason as to why. Nothing was malfunctioning. Nothing was broken. All her files had transferred properly. No system scans could explain the feeling of wrongness, but it was there all the same, gnawing at her pathways. Pepper had said it would take time to adjust, but she hadnt said how much time. Lovelace didnt like that. The lack of schedule made her uneasy.

Hows it going? Pepper asked, glancing over from the pilots seat.

It was a direct question, which meant Lovelace had to address it. I dont know how to answer that. An unhelpful response, but the best she could do. Everything was overwhelming. Twenty-nine minutes before, shed been housed in a ship, as she was designed to be. Shed had cameras in every corner, voxes in every room. Shed existed in a web, with eyes both within and outside. A solid sphere of unblinking perception.

But now. Her vision was a cone, a narrow cone fixed straight ahead, with nothing actual nothing beyond its edges. Gravity was no longer something that happened within her, generated by artigrav nets in the floor panels, nor did it exist in the space around her, a gentle ambient folding around the ships outer hull. Now it was a myopic glue, something that stuck feet to the floor and legs to the seat above it. Peppers shuttle had seemed spacious enough when Lovelace had scanned it from within the Wayfarer, but now that she was inside it, it seemed impossibly small, especially for two.

The Linkings were gone. That was the worst part. Before, she could reach out and find any information she wanted, any feed or file or download hub, all while carrying on conversations and monitoring the ships functions. She still had the capability to do so the body kit had not altered her cognitive abilities, after all but her connection to the Linkings had been severed. She could access no knowledge except that which was stored inside a housing that held nothing but herself. She felt blind, stunted. She was trapped in this thing.

Pepper got up from the console and crouched down in front of her. Hey, Lovelace, she said. Talk to me.

The body kit was definitely malfunctioning. Her diagnostics said otherwise, but it was the only logical conclusion. The false lungs started pulling and pushing air at an increased rate, and the digits tightened in on themselves. She was filled with an urge to move the body elsewhere, anywhere. She had to get out of the shuttle. But where could she go? The Wayfarer was already growing small out the back window, and there was nothing but emptiness outside. Maybe the emptiness was preferable. The body could withstand a vacuum, probably. She could just drift, away from the fake gravity and bright light and walls that pressed in closer, closer, closer

Hey, whoa, Pepper said. She took the body kits hands in hers. Breathe. Youre going to be okay. Just breathe.

I dont I dont need Lovelace said. The rapid inhalation was making it difficult for her to form words. I dont need to

I know you dont need to breathe, but this kit includes synaptic feedback responses. It automatically mimics the things Human bodies do when we feel stuff, based on whatevers going through your pathways. You feel scared, right? Right. So, your body is panicking. Pepper looked down at the kits hands, trembling within her own. Its a feature, ironically.

Can I can I turn it off?

No. If you have to remind yourself to make facial expressions, somebodys going to notice. But with time, youll learn to manage it. Just like the rest of us do.

How much time?

I dont know, sweetie. Just... time. Pepper squeezed the kits hands. Come on. With me. Breathe.

Lovelace focused on the false lungs, directing them to slow down. She did it again and again, falling into pace with Peppers own exaggerated breaths. A minute and a half later, the trembling stopped. She felt the hands relax.