“Who have you got on it this time?”
“J-479, she’s good, she’ll do her best.”
“Will her best be good enough?”
Jemima was tired of playing this role with her superior, she decided on the spot to drop the obsequious act and play along no more.
“Look 479 is her own woman, she’s one of the mavericks, she reports to me if she feels like it, I quite literally have no control over her so this whole superior-subordinate game that you seem to just love playing.”
She wondered briefly if he could see her, if he could he would have seen her roll her eyes as she said the word ‘love’, Jemima wasn’t entirely sure what he was capable of; could he take control of her vehicle via thinCast?
She had taken to communicating with him only when she was in her cruiser, at the moment she orbited high above Mars, she sat in complete darkness save for a few winking lights from the dimly console in front of her. The viewing window was pointed out into the blackness of space, a barely visible blue-white dot broadcasted the Earth’s position.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him . . . No, it was that she didn’t trust him, he was on their side but, what exactly was he?
“It’s not that I love playing games with you Jemima.”
His voice made her jump, he had left a long enough silence after she had finished speaking to make her think he had signed off. She wondered again if he saw her jump as she let him continue.
“It’s just that there is a lot at stake here, there can be no doubt that the Asimov card was a rash gamble, however it is one we took and now we must try and work out how to deliver . . . him”
Jemima realised he was pausing as he decided whether to call Asimov “it” or “him”. She wondered if he ever thought that about himself, she had always thought that being a d-splitter gave her a unique view on individuality, the soul, spirit, self, call it what you will, but could any of them carry on with a sense of self any more?
The cruiser hung silently against the inky backdrop of local Martian space, she leaned forward and cut the thinCast feed manually. Jemima stared out at the distant blob of light, straining her eyes as if trying to observe impossible-to-see detail, she spoke to no one in particular.
“I hope it’s all worth it, and I hope K-Rox is capable of destroying something he loves, for the sake of us all.”
He almost joined her in agreement, but that would have given away the fact that he was in complete control of her cruiser, of course he was what did she think? He found it hard to imagine that he was once like her, not that he wasn’t human any more, he was . .
more than human.
Yes.
He liked that definition.
More than human.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 44 - Insanity Spiral
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 43 - Confusion Eternal
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 42 - The Lost Tales
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 41 - The Shadow Of Death
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 40 - The Ancient Path Of Memory
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 39 - The Reality Adjustment
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 38 - Vengeance Requiem
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 37 - A Life Less Lost
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 36 - The Quantum Paradox
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 35 - Identity Crisis
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 34 - The Devil's Advocate
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 33 - Memory Reparation
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 32 - Reclamation Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 31 - Memory Boot Initialised
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee