Leopold and Jorge had led Rifka to the ore docks, where she realized the real extent of the invasion.

  When she’d entered the airless low-gravity loading bay, a team of grey-suited workers had been connecting a large cylinder to the black vessel she’d seen on her scopes. A third of the way along from the blunt squarish nose of the vessel a circular airlock door allowed her to enter.

  Jorge entered the lock with her, while Leopold left to help the others working on attaching the module. They oriented themselves to the gravity plates, and cycled the lock and entered the Traveller.

  Rifka had never seen anything like it. Admittedly, she knew she’d only been in Lonely Mountain and the Ark where she’d been born. Inside of those, brightly-lit corridors with white or fairly light-colored walls connected spacious work areas.

  Inside Traveller, someone had blackened the interior’s corridors, giving the impression of a dark cave. Panels and lettering glowed with reactive paint under UV lighting. The ceiling felt shorter, and the passages barely big enough for two to shift sideways past each other.

  Rifka shivered. She didn’t feel cold. She felt her heart beginning to pound again.

  “You want me to go in here?” she asked Jorge.

  “The boss has enhanced eyes; he likes a higher-energy lighting and less longer-wavelength lights. It’s nothing sinister.”

  “I’m beginning to regret this.”

  “Eh. Too late now, right? I’ll show you to the chief engineer’s quarters, and you can rest there while we get the vessel ready for departure.”

  “Who is the chief engineer?”

  “Nobody. There’s just three bigger cabins up here for a chief engineer, chief mate, and captain.” Jorge pointed to a doorway toward the bow, and then pointing to sealed hatches. “I call them cabins, but there’s really only space enough for some personal items, changing space, and a bed. They’re sealed with their own air supply.”

  “So, it’s just a three-person ship?”

  “It’s configurable. The rest of the team didn’t come in on Traveller. Just Gjosta.”

  ‘I knew it! They used a cargo cylinder to come in.’ Rifka reasoned. ‘But, how did they blind the station’s scopes?’ Rifka left her question unasked. Jorge might seem helpful, but he’d taken off his helmet, and between his close cropped hair and yellow cybernetic eyes, he didn’t look like he’d tell her.

  “The observation section is up front to your left.” Jorge had continued. “Directly across from us is the top hatch airlock. Then, the control section is that hatch above us. Down the hall on one side is the captain’s quarters and office, and on the other the quarters for the other officers. At the end of the hall, the modular section is attached to the airlock where we’re installing a crew pod below. Above it is the permanent access and banks for the vessel. In the back of Traveller, engineering section has the primary liminal engine, the cargo ramp, and access to the vernier engines.”

  “Why tell me all this?”

  “The doors are locked anywhere you might go. You might get curious, and think there’s some other way off the ship or an escape pod or something. There isn’t. There’s no galley or bathroom. That’s in your room, understand? We’re not opening the door for you because you’re hungry or something.”

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  “Right.”

  Jorge had opened the door to Rifka’s quarters. This room still had the reactive paint and UV lighting, but it also had dark blue panels on the walls. Its features included a low gravity bed, darkened computer display, a bathing system, and a folding table. There was space enough to change, but not much else.

  “There’s gravity plates on the floor and the walls, so we’re isolated from inertial effects. Don’t expect to feel the vessel move. I recommend you get some rest. Don’t worry about the computer panels, you won’t be able to access them.”

  Jorge had handed her the cases, slid the hatch closed, and activated the lock.

  Now in the room, Rifka’s head pounded. She felt heavy. Maybe the gravity panels were adjusted incorrectly. She took off her helmet, released the coverall, and shimmied out of it. It would interfere with what she needed to do next.

  She looked around the little space. The ship itself felt alive, humming and warm, and the reactive paint outlined the lifeblood of a great mechanical creature.

  “Hello there Traveller,” she’d said. “You’re just as impressive up close as you were on the scopes.”

  “Hello, Rifka.” Traveller replied in Rifka’s first language. Rifka noted how Traveller sounded a lot like her mother. Warm and kind. She’d barely remembered her mother’s voice, but she’d remembered that.

  “Uh. Most of the time when I talk to things, they don’t talk back.” Rifka said.

  “Yes. I imagine they don’t.”

  “Does Gjosta know you are an AI? Does Jorge know you talk?”

  “Gjosta knows. He found me. Jorge might, but I don’t talk to him.”

  “Why are you talking to me?”

  “Because, Gjosta is going to connect to the quantum computer, and I’d like it if he doesn’t die. Will you help us?”

  “Gjosta will hurt Erasmus if he can, won’t he?”

  “He is a human. And humans do irrational things.”

  “You don’t?”

  “I am an AI. Both the ship and its pilot.”

  ”Do you talk to anyone else?”

  ”No. Not even an engineer. Not even crews back before Gjosta. I used to transport people in an inner system. Just a glorified ‘automated’ taxi service. I had a crew back then.”

  “I doubt you were only a taxi.”

  “I was.”

  Traveller could lie. Of course she could. Rifka tried to keep that in mind.

  “Can’t you stop Gjosta? Can he be stopped?”

  “I was programmed to help,” Traveller said softly.

  “That doesn’t mean you will.”

  Traveller didn’t reply.

  Rifka opened the case for the implant device and placed it on the bed. She slip open the tray and pulled out the two inhalers. She carefully put the orbs of her cybernetic eyes into the load tray. She verified that the machine still held the calibration. Taking a deep breath, she laid her head onto the integrated cushion.

  Rifka lay on her back. It was a struggle to keep her eyes from closing and letting sleep take over. She couldn’t. Not yet.

  She lay with the cyberware installer under her head. The machine had a cushion, so one might mistake it for a pillow resting in a metal case. But between nano-medical controllers, and the tiny quantum processor, the device would install her eyes without anything additional to guide it.

  She took a long slow breath. She took the first inhaler. Her inhaler introduced the critical the nano machines into her body. The device otherwise only had one job, and she’d already preprogrammed it.

  “Don’t let me down.” She told the implant device.

  “I shall try not to.” Traveller replied.

  Rifka grimaced.

  “I’m going to sleep now.” Rifka took the second inhaler into her mouth and pressed down. As she inhaled the mix of drugs, she fell into oblivion.