Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 45 - Lives Eternal

“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

Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter Links 11-20

Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter Links 1-10

Original artwork by @fr3eze

Original words by Cryptogee