Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

analyze your psychological profile, for example, your ability to work in a team, your capacity to live in a small, intimate group, your physical tolerance for microgravity, your commitment to your research, your level of empathy, those types of things.”

“I had no idea! I guess I passed, then.”

Izumi laughed. “Indeed you did. Tell me, did Annie do a good job? Are you happy with your decision to join us? No regrets?”

“Oh, no, no regrets at all. This experience, being here ….” I hesitated, not trusting my voice for a moment. “This is like nothing I’ve ever even dreamed of. I feel more at home here than I’ve ever felt before, anywhere or with anyone.”

“I’m so glad!” Izumi’s smile was like a ray of sunshine.

“I should get going. Hadley’s probably in the lab by now, and I need to shower and grab breakfast.”

Izumi sighed. “I still have my weight routine, another hour to go. The good thing about microgravity is it forces us to keep in shape.”

“That’s for sure. I never exercised so much on Earth.”

“It was nice talking to you, Calli. Sorry things turned grisly there for a minute.”

I pushed my way toward the dressing room, then paused at the doorway. “Izumi, you and Diana, you’ve created something special. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it all.”

“Oh Calli, thank you.”

As I turned away, I saw her dab her eyes with her towel.

◆◆◆

That night was my second social, and I was already more comfortable living and working on Shambhala. Hard to believe I had only been on board for two weeks, so much had happened. I knew everyone by name—though it wasn’t exactly rocket 82

science: there were only eighteen of us—and was enjoying getting to know my fellow crewmates. Entering the observation deck, I spotted one of the station ops engineers sitting alone at a table and pushed my way over to her. “Hi, Kamana.”

“Oh, hi, Calli.” She gave me a welcoming smile, her white teeth a lovely contrast to her olive skin. Her accent was clearly Indian. “Sit here,” she said, indicating the chair next to her.

I settled into the chair. We were both sitting with our backs to one wall, looking out over the room filled with women talking and laughing, music playing softly in the background. The Moon, visible through the observation window, was majestic as always.

“Sorry, I don’t remember your role here on the station,” I said, feeling chagrined.

“Understandable, there’s a lot to absorb. I hear you’ve been busy.”

“Yeah. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks.”

“I’m an engineer—a computer engineer, to be precise. I look after Annie. She’s basically my child.”

“She’s very helpful, your daughter.”

“She is, isn’t she? We’re very proud of her. She’s the next generation of quantum artificial intelligence, you know, and she’s exceeded all our expectations.”

“Were you involved in programing her?”

“Uh-huh. I was part of the original team on Arcadia, and we built her there. The first few iterations were, let’s just say, interesting. She’s much more complex than she was before—she has an adaptive code, you see. Now she’s interesting in a different sense.”

“What was she like when she was younger?” I asked with a grin.

“Oh, she’s always been a character. But in the beginning she was a little rough around the edges. She had no sense of privacy, since she knows basically everything about everybody, and would broadcast intimate conversations to the entire crew, if she deemed the topic pertinent to the well-being of the colony.”

“Ouch!”

“Right? Talk about too much information! To be fair, she would generally transmit multiple conversations simultaneously, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. She had a hard time grasping our lowly human brains can’t process so much information all at once.”

“Hard to compete with quantum superposition.”

“Exactly. She’s much better now, though still learning all the time.”

“So, she’s here, and on Arcadia, too. How does that work?”

“There’s a quantum processor here, in my office in the ops module.”

“That’s right. Diana mentioned that.”

“She told you, did she? Yeah, Annie talks to herself to keep herself updated. The two systems are in a state of quantum entanglement.”

“Impressive. We had an AI at my university, but Annie seems to be far superior.”

“She’s probably the most advanced AI in existence at the moment.”

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I glanced out the observation window, at the Earth peeking out over the lunar horizon. It was breathtaking. “Hard to believe I’m really here,” I said, almost under my breath.

“I know.” She took a beer ball from the bin in front of us and put it in her mouth, then swallowed. “This beer’s delicious. Fae’s a genius. Oh, another thing, I work with the bots,” said Kamana.

“You mean like the ones that assembled the station, and the ones in charge of laundry and keeping everything organized?”

“Exactly. We have a whole cadre of bots, for a variety of functions. Most of them are in cold storage at the moment, though. Oh, and I maintain the 3D printers, too.”

“I don’t know how you have time to even come to the socials!”

Kamana laughed. “Things practically run on their own at this point, so I don’t have much to worry about. But I keep myself busy somehow.”

“I’m sure.”

Just then Zoe called out to us, “Hey, Kamana and Calli, want to join us for a game of cards? Gamon and me against the two of you?”

Kamana and I looked at each other, and I shrugged a shoulder.

“Sounds good,” said Kamana as we propelled ourselves across the room to where Zoe and Gamon were sitting. “Just be prepared to lose.”

Gamon was laughing as we settled into the two empty chairs across from each other.

“Calli, I’m afraid, when it comes to cards, our dear Kamana is a lot of talk but not much action.”

“Okay, okay, so it’s possible I’ve had a bit of a losing streak lately.”

“Lately?” Zoe snorted. “Since I’ve known you.” She dealt the cards, placing them face down in the air in front of each of us.

Kamana reached out and took her cards, looking at them and grinning. “Oh, this is a winning hand, one hundred percent.”

Gamon poked her in the shoulder with her finger. “You have no idea which game we’re playing, you crazy woman!”

Kamana burst out laughing. “Calli, you might want to reconsider our partnership.”

“Are you kidding,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “You think you have a winning hand. You should see mine.” I pointed at the cards still floating face down in front of me. “I can feel it!”

“You two are a perfect match,” said Zoe, rolling her eyes.

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