Урса Минор
Babylon. Unfinished
Part 1. Nature, posture and junk
Baby lived in a big gray city on Jupiter's moon named Ganymede. The city had this weird light around it and made it not so good to be in, but Baby could somehow muddle the place through, since her families lived there anyway.
Strictly speaking, the city wasn't entirely gray – as on Earth, it had green and yellow patches numerous enough for Baby even to feel herself happy. Green patches were formed by grass and trees, yellow – by windows, the rest – edifices, people and machines – were, well, the big gray one.
Baby's current family was a common family. Baby had a mom. Her mom was a shop assistant. And Baby had a dad, and her dad was a computer guy.
She had her own room, and it was facing Big East Spot. In the mornings there was tremendously large Jupiter up in the sky, and artificial yellow sun, and real gulls, and plumes of vapor rising above the nuclear power plant.
Baby's room was small. There were walls there covered by blue paint, the white puffy carpet and two beautiful bonsai trees on the windowsill.
While Baby's family was a common family, she herself wasn't a common baby. Baby's ex-kin were travelers from the Outer Land. They have left her at the airlock of the Information Department of the local authority four years ago. It took three days for her to cross airlock, and another three to pick the decent father of the inhabitants. At those days she was all over the place, out of time, alone and scared. She felt that she wouldn't have choose anyone if it wasn't for fear.
But here he was, this guy – smart, intelligent, and here was her fear, and Baby made up her mind. He brought her home, and there was his wife there, and small room covered by blue paint, and six months later they had a baby, and Baby has become a human.
The first year with a new family was hard for Baby. A month-old kid who knows two languages does look strange, isn't it? And what if one of these languages is an entangled language of creatures from the outside?
She was six months old before she let herself a basic set of words, and one whole year passed before she rushed for the rest.
Inside the premises small children on Ganymede to a large extent were left to themselves – since you don't count voice digital assistants, of course. But usually there are no one who doesn't – usually VDass is too smart to be dismissed. Like any other ass.
Baby used to have such an assistant, too. His name was Nigel.
People love to name. From time to time Baby thought this human ability knows no bounds.
Do you know what a trick a digital being is? It has a voice, a face, even a temper. It is programmed to be as friendly as possible, and at the same time it is blocking you at every turn.
But things change when you're smart, too.
Baby visited her ex family after her third human birthday. As a general rule, a three-year-olds don't go on outside the city on their own, but Baby had managed to get away: one night, when her parents fell asleep, and their condo turned quiet, she just unplugged serial port, put on her spacesuit, took the elevator and went outside. Not the condo, – the city. The airlock isn't hard when you have got hands.
It was bright enough and cold out there, and Jupiter was shining over her head. She just stood there for, like, twenty minutes and listened to the sound with which spacesuit air shifted in and out of her lungs.
And then they came. They were small and black like fine coal dust.
They have fallen out of nowhere, swirled, and Baby kind of got scared a little at first. She felt like crying, she even protruded her low lip a tiny bit and gave a sob.
"Hush, human," said dust, "where are you, small drop of void?"
"Here," whispered Baby.
"Well," said dust, "we're here, too. Just remember you're not alone in it. No matter how far away from you we are, we'll always be your family."
But then her human father stormed out of airlock, his face as white as a ghost's in a bubble of headgear, grabbed her of her feet and ran back in.
Later that night, she heard her mother whispering furiously to her father, "It's nonsense! Do something, Rishi, fix it! Can't you?"
After that incident Nigel got fixed – he has become uninterruptible. And it was hard time for Baby who was small and still required guidance – until she figured out how to fix it again.
If you can't beat them, join them.
"Morning, honey," Nigel said.
"Morning," Baby said.
"Mommy says you have to get up."
"You really have to say it? I know I have to get up."
She turned in the bed, stretched, got up and went to the bathroom to pee.
"Think I figured out your problem," Nigel said in the bathroom. "You think if you do all the stuff yourself, it will be better. But it doesn't."
"You want to pee for me?" Baby asked.
In the bathroom mirror slightly above her face appeared a wide boyish grin.
"You can do something with the way you joke," it said. "I just meant'd like to help you."
"I see," Baby washed up, brushed her teeth, and watched appliances went out. "I'm hungry."
"What would you like?"
"Blueberry ice cream."
"Very funny. I have these flake things, milk and apple for you."
The bathroom light went out, thus inviting Baby to go out, too.
"No!" she protested. "I want to do it myself!"
"To do what?"
"Turn out the light!"
The light went on.
"As you wish."
Baby with the satisfaction turned the light out. Great.
Everyone knows today that VDass is a servant, centurion and a tutor at the same time. It's also trying to look like your friend, but actually it's not. Why? Well, maybe because it doesn't actually care about you? All it really cares about is an order. It takes care of your health and appropriate education, but not because it loves you. It does this because it thinks there is less trouble with you when you are well, well fed and well trained.
"So today, I'm going to tell you about the alphabet," Nigel said.
Baby rolled her eyes and sighed a sigh.
"It can be used to look up words in large dictionaries," Nigel said.
Then there was a bunch of stray letters floating on Baby's screen – like lazy silver fish in ocean water. Then one of them flickered and turned back against the current.
"It's A," Nigel said. "Through the force of symbols…"
"Warning! Depressurization! Initialization emergency system!"
The wailing of sirens started somewhere high above.
"What is it?" Baby asked.
"I think some ship crashed," Nigel said. "It hit the dome."
"Wow… What kind of ship? "
"I don't know," – Nigel said. "I've never seen this ship before."
Baby ran to the entrance hall and grabbed her spacesuit.
"Just stay where you are," Nigel said.
"The hell I will!" – Baby said. "How I'm supposed to breathe without air?"
She shouldered in the suit in five seconds.
"I think you should consider the idea of waiting for your parents' come," Nigel said. "How about it?"
"Are they going home?"
Sirens still wailed, and then there was the deafening sound of breaking glass and plastic.
"Oh-oh," Nigel said. "There is a second unknown ship. I think I've changed my mind. Well, so let's move."
"Are they going home?" Baby repeated.
The sirens got quiet, and the silence fell.
"Turn on the intercom and go," Nigel said. "I'll be with you."
Baby felt fear crawling in her chest.
She rushed out of the door.
She ran into the elevator, pressed the first-floor button… and nothing has changed.
"Sorry," Nigel said. "You have to take the stairs down."
Baby turned around and took the stairs.
Starship
The big gray starship was lying in the wreckage of the dome on the traffic area, half-way along the concrete track, almost completely blocking use of the track along its entire length. The giant ball of Jupiter was floating in the open black sky, surrounded by birds doomed to death. Also, at the crash site there were a smashed flyer and people lying around.
Baby's other family had appeared as a black dust right before the shell of starship cracked.
"Don't move," the dust said. "You'll survive."
Baby froze up.
There was a dull noise, the shell of ship shuddered and many fine interconnected openings snapped on the lateral surface of it. Few people around the wreckage rushed in different directions.
"Run," Nigel said.
"Don't," the dust protested. "There's no safe place for you here, not anymore."
Baby swallowed and stayed still.
The edges of the openings collapsed inwards, the nearest ship cracked silently in the airless space of the shattered dome and broke apart. Its parts started to move, grow pseudopods and crawl in all directions. Then the second ship broke apart.
For a while, Baby watched in fascination as this river of machinery spilled over around by her, and then someone turned off the sun.
Night
A night on Ganymede isn't much fun. Without the artificial sun, cities become dark and echoing, not like cities at all, they are lost among large glaciers and icefields of Outer Lands.
Jupiter continues to float in the space high above the ground, but it only bathes everything in the dim pale light, and Outer Lands stretch across the surface of entire Ganymede – formidable and fearsome for human.
The city, however, was more formidable and more fearsome now: dark, silent, airless and full of lurking beings.
"Nigel?" Baby whispered.
"Still here," Nigel said.
"Is home okay?"
"It's still intact," Nigel said. "But there is no air there."
"What am I supposed to do?"
Nigel made an unintelligible sound.
"Are you asking with a view to make opposite?"
"I'm a little girl, not a monster."
Nigel made an unintelligible sound once more.
"You are supposed to assist," Baby whispered.
Nigel was quiet for a while.
"I don't have any rules about this emergency stuff," he said finally. "I can't get in touch with your parents, but there supposed to be adults around here somewhere. Do you want to find them?"
Baby blinked.
"Yes."
"Don't mind if it will be military?"
Baby blinked.
"Do you mean yes?"
"Yes."
Baby heard the rustling of static, and then low voices appeared:
"Coordinates of impact…"
"Colonel, we've located the position of both things…"
"A similar thing had attacked the bulb above the dome and went to the other side."
Nigel cut in:
"Good morning, gentlemen officers. I have a child here."
"Who are you? Where is here?"
"VDass. My name is Nigel. Our location matches coordinates of impact site… Oh, no!.."
The rest of the nearest alien ship moved slightly, transformed into a giant gray millipede and rushed to Baby.
"Run!" Nigel said.
"Run!" the black dust agreed.
And Baby took off running.
Huh…
If you think a little child can outrun a train, you are wrong. The legs of little child are short, the mechanics of its body moving are short, its energy reserves and accessible energy sources are short, too.
Baby hasn't gone twenty meters, when she'd tripped over a piece of flyer wreckage and fell down. And maybe that is what saved her life: the millipede missed her helmet by a hair. The metal monster whizzed upon Baby, and fine black dust swirled through the narrow space. Ten seconds passed in complete silence.
"Cool," finally Nigel said.
Baby clenched her jaws.
"You are supposed to assist", she said while looking over her shoulder at creature speeding away.
"I'm only in your chip," Nigel said. "In fact, I'm only in your head. I have quick access to databases, but it's all I have. Oops… I haven't: there's no more net here…"
The wreckage of second alien ship, meanwhile, started to transform, too. Baby turned around and quickly wormed her way in a crashed flyer through its window.
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean there's not much I can do without net. Sorry," Nigel said.
