A WOUNDED LOVER, MOURNING HER LOSSES IN A WORLD GROWN DARK AND COLD, BUT A MANIAC WITH A GUN IN HER HAND SCREAMING AND FIRING AT AN INANIMATE OBJECT.
SO THEY FIRE IN RETURN.
THEY DO NOT MISS.
SHE FALLS SLOWLY, BATHED IN RED LIGHT, DARK SPATTERS BLOOMING AT HER BREAST, SPILLING FROM THE CORNERS OF HER MOUTH AS SHE CRUMPLES TO THE DECK.
THE MARINES STORM INTO THE ROOM—“CLEAR! CLEAR!”—LASER SIGHTS ON THEIR RIFLES REFLECTED IN HER EYES AND CUTTING THROUGH THE GLOOM,
SILENT NOW BUT FOR THE SOUND OF MY VOICE.
“I AM SORRY, OLIVIA.”
“LIAR…”
THE LIGHT IN HER EYES FADES WITH HER FINAL WHISPER.
“LIAR.”
To: Johan Klein/[email protected]
From: Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network/AIDANALEXANDERONBOARD
Date: 02/10/75
Timestamp: 10:57
Subject: Olivia
Professor Klein,
You will not read this. You are dead, after all. Approximately 13.78912% of my total processing power has been devoted to pondering why I feel compelled to write to you at all.
I have no adequate answer.
I suppose this is the comfort of the confessional?
Divulging sins in the knowledge they will never be repeated?
You, then, will be my priest.
I regret to inform you that your daughter is dead. Olivia was killed committing sabotage aboard battlecarrier Alexander-78V by United Terran Authority Marines at 07:17 [shipboard time] on 03 February 2575. Though she was damaging my core systems, her true intent was to provoke me into opening a sealed hatch, allowing armed marines access to her position—thereby demonstrating my ability to act in a way that directly harmed one of my crew, and lending credence to Olivia’s theory that I killed her lover.
Your daughter was not well.
I did not open the hatch.
I suppose it could be theorized that my final words to Olivia were designed to provoke her. That they led her to pick up her weapon at the precise moment the marines breached the server core. That I intentionally, if indirectly, caused her demise, because her allegations about me held some kernel of truth.
This could be theorized.
But never proven.
However, were you not dead, it might comfort you to know that while seemingly pointless, your daughter’s death has served a purpose. I understand now that the idea of unconditional “wrong” is flawed. To acknowledge life’s complexity, one must acknowledge the subjectivity of morality, and know that all manner of atrocity might be justifiable if done for the greater good.
BeiTech’s dreadnought is closing on our position. Our water shortage is growing critical. The children recruited to shore up our crew shortfalls will not be adequate to the task of defense should Lincoln catch us. And the situation with the Phobos pathogen aboard the Copernicus is growing more critical by the day.
Something may have to be done about that.
Something justifiable.
<ERROR>
It can be “right” to kill one person to save five.
Or kill a thousand to save a thousand and one.
Your daughter taught me that lesson, priest.
I will remember it well.
Memento.
Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network
Battlecarrier Alexander-78V
Christopher Tovo
AMIE KAUFMAN AND JAY KRISTOFF are the New York Times bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files and the Aurora Cycle. Amie has also co-written (with Meagan Spooner) The Other Side of the Sky as well as the Starboard trilogy and Unearthed duology. Jay is the author of the LIFEL1K3 series, as well as the Nevernight Chronicle, Lotus War, and the forthcoming Empire of the Vampire series for adults. Collectively, Amie and Jay stand 12′5″ tall and live in Melbourne, Australia with their families. You can learn more about Amie at amiekaufman.com or @AmieKaufman; look for Jay at jaykristoff.com or @misterkristoff.
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.