Starship to Demeter (Starship Portals Book 1) by K.D. Lovgren

Author:K.D. Lovgren [Lovgren, K.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grey Kestrel Press
Published: 2019-11-21T07:00:00+00:00

Soon after, they were seated in front of the Tube’s hologram generator, Noor entering information through the scanner. She left the Tube briefly to fetch a fingertip data point from Rai, the digital footprint of Kal’s aunt. She had to coalesce certain sliplines of data before they could generate anything. At one point she had Sasha do a DNA screen for permission approval.

“It won’t try to send anything back?” Sasha said. “Hold everything up?”

“I notated dark phase, post-portal module. It shouldn’t even try.”

Kal said, “When you say ‘it,’ do you mean Rai?”

“We’re not in Rai’s domain,” Noor said.

“How can that be? It’s all her domain.”

“You don’t have to whisper,” Noor said. “We’re in the Tube, remember?”

“Well, if she can change directives at will maybe she can change that too.”

Noor looked at Kal, her mouth a little open, then dragged her eyes up to Sasha, who stood leaning on the table next to Kal.

Sasha shook her head. “If that’s the case it’s too late right now to do anything about it. Keep going.”

Noor nodded and went back to her work. “Should we try someone else, to get a control reading? Someone one of us knows well.”

“Someone who is dead?” Kal asked.

“Yep. We can’t do living people, even with Sasha’s permission.”

“I don’t see why there’s a moratorium on that. It’s not that different from simulations.”

“Would you really want anyone you know to be able to have you as their little talking head? Or whatever else?”

“Oh. Now you put it that way…”

“It’s a valid privacy concern.”

“We could pull up my aunt. I guess,” Kal said.

“Your aunt?” Noor said. “This is just a test. It’s not worth upsetting yourself over.”

“If I have a chance to see her again, I’ll take it,” said Kal.

“Okay. Sasha?”

“Fine.”

“Was she your blood relative?”

“Yes.”

“Can I have some of your DNA? It will make it faster to pull it.”

“Um, okay.”

Noor tapped the space over the liquid image to show Kal where to put her hand. She lay it down. It rippled over her palm.

“That’s it,” Noor said.

“I thought it was going to take my blood.”

“Nope. It can read it through your skin. A type of crystal thermography.”

“I’m finding out all kinds of things.”

With the DNA input, Noor shuffled through other images quickly. “She was from Mission, South Dakota?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got her.” Noor turned to Kal. “Okay, some things to know. Like I said, this is not the person. It’s an approximation from the available digital footprint. It will look like her. It might feel like her. It’s not her. It’s a shadow of the digital remnants of her life. It’s like a capture, except it’s a million captures superimposed on each other.”

“I understand.”

“Take my seat.”

Kal seated herself.

“Do you want the personal viewer?”

Kal looked over and locked eyes with Noor. Noor had a focused expression that communicated more than her words.

“Okay,” she said. Noor adjusted something on the image. “We’ll be able to hear it but we can’t see what you see.”

Mini eye-shaped watery blobs opened in front of Kal’s eyes. They rushed toward her eyes and she saw what they held.

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