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The map on her visor showed her position at about twenty-seven kilometers from
the center of the blast zone. There was little sign of the explosion at this
range other than the occasional strewn debris that could have been blown
around by the Martian winds anyway. Oh, and there was the small matter of the
radioactive fallout, but the injection she had taken beforehand was taking
care of that.
The region was little more than a rural outpost of the city that had been
littered with lightweight trash and debris from the lingering winds of the
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nuclear blast. The streets were Martian soil mostly and were more like paths
that had been pounded out by jumpboots, buggies, and hovercraft. There were
domes
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and rock dwellings and shops scattered about the mountain's side but there was
no sign of people.
Nancy bounced up on top of one of the geodesic domes that was probably a
single family dwelling for a better vantage point. She scanned full-circle
around her for motion and to get a better understanding of her path. The city
behind her was still aflame and dying with occasional explosive bursts and
pressurized environments explosively decompressing into the Martian
atmosphere.
There is wireless activity ahead. Must be that we have found the evacuees.
Alison alerted Nancy.
There is a lot of multi-path and I am having a bit of trouble locating the
transmitters but it looks like multiple transceivers. I'm training a neural
net on it.
Just keep me posted. Maybe some of the other sensors will work better.
Nancy looked up at the sky briefly and for the first time could see stars
through the dust cloud. There was Jupiter shining brightly overhead and Saturn
not far above it. The sky to the west was still covered with clouds of dust
and smoke and every now and then a star would twinkle through the cracks
between them.
Motion, Nancy! Coupling the motion sensors and the wireless multi- path I've
trained the sensors to locate the motion Looks like multiple bogies The
nearest is about four hundred meters away, Allison warned her biological
counterpart.
The three-dimensional view in Nancy's mind zoomed slightly northeast and down
the street about four hundred meters. The starlight, IR, and QM sensor systems
gave a data fusion image that was crystal clear in the pitch black Martian
night.
A child?
Nancy thought as she studied the image. She zoomed in on what appeared to be a
child-sized e-
suit rummaging through a storage bin on the outside wall of a small dwelling
dome. Then a second set of views highlighted and zoomed in her visor, and a
third, and then the tracking algorithms learned how to spot the motion and
hundreds of targets began to pop up on her map. They all appeared to be
evacuating in generally the same direction, some moving more slowly than
others.
The plan was working.
Nancy focused back on the child and the motion nearest it. The algorithm
generated tracking trajectories that suggested the two nearby regions of
motion appeared to be tracking the child. One a few blocks south of the child
and the other a few blocks east. Further zoom revealed that the two tracks
were adult-
sized e-suits.
They're looking for the child.
Nancy thought.
Most likely, Allison agreed.
They had better get out of here within the next ten minutes because all hell
is about to rain down on this city. Same goes for us by the way.
Right. I've got an idea. Are these three suits broadcasting?
Nancy highlighted the child and the two near it.
Yes, standard wireless with no encryption around twelve gigahertz, Allison
replied.
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Open the channel.
Open.
". . . Kira . . . Kira . . . where are you?" a female child voice repeated.
" . . . Lelandra! WHERE ARE YOU? Come here to your mother right now!"
". . . Listen to your mother, sweetie! Come on, we have got to go!"
". . . But we can't leave Kira, Daddy!" the little girl said.
Any idea what Kira might be, Allison?
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I'm scanning . . .
Allison ran the e-suit's sensors across the spectrum for any type of signature
in the local area around the girl. There were several low-level controller
systems in household appliances and a few entertainment systems that the
electromagnetic pulse from the nuke had not disrupted.
There! An AIK broadcasting spread spectrum center pulse at two three three six
megahertz!
Allison highlighted a region behind several large storage canisters stacked at
the edge of a garage dome about ten meters from the little girl.
Has to be what she is looking for.
Great work, Allison. Got it. Can you soothe the thing?
Already on it.
Allison communicated code to the low-level artificial intelligence that would
put it in a calm state.
Nancy leapt from the top of the dome she had taken perch on in a high sweeping
arch toward the "AI
Kitty" or AIK. In four quick bounds she landed atop the storage canisters
beside the little mechanical kitten and grabbed it before it had a chance to
run off. Then she stroked it gently with her gloved hand and then bounced
quietly about thirty meters to the west of the child.
"Hello? Hellooo!" Nancy broadcast on the open channel in her trained Martian
accent. From the abrupt motion changes of the three tracks she was calling to
she was certain she had startled them. "Is anybody there?" Nancy stepped onto
the street behind the little girl where there was just enough light for the
child to see her and her artificial-intelligence kitten. Nancy could feel the
little AIK purring in her grip.
"Kira!" The little girl ran to Nancy, taking the AIK and hugging it to her.
This is gonna work. List the common Separatist last names for me.
Allison began scrolling a list of names in Nancy's mind until Nancy stopped
her.
That one will do nicely, Allison. Open the backstory files.
She ordered the AIC. A complex and detailed life story had been developed for
the mission that had been kept classified even from her until it was time to
implement the cover. It was an ideal way to maintain an undercover
identity the fewer who knew the cover, the fewer who could blow it.
There, that is a good one. I'll use it. Set the emotional tags in the story to
stimulate my hypothalamus accordingly.
"Is this your kitty?" Nancy knelt beside the little girl and looked into her
face. "Where are your parents?"
"Kira! I thought you were gone. Don't run off like that again! You could have
missed the train!" the little girl scolded her kitty. The little red
mechanical kitten purred and nuzzled the little girl with her neck.
From just looking and holding the cat there was no way to tell that it wasn't
real.
"Hello, whoever you are, grab my daughter please and tell me what street you
are on," the mother's voice exclaimed.
"Hi, we are on . . ." Nancy ran through the map in her mind quickly. "Uh,
looks like the corner of Tholus and Valley."
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"Great! I'm almost there," the girl's father replied over the wireless.
"Me too!" her mother said.
Nancy reached over and patted the little girl on the top of her helmet and
smiled at her.
"What's your name?" the child asked.
"Oh, I'm Kira Shavi. And you are?" Nancy began sinking herself into her cover
persona. She emphasized the pronunciation of Shavi as "Shaaa-VEE" with
similarities to the pronunciation of Elle
Ahmi apparent.
"My name is Lelandra but you can call me Lela and this is Kira. Wow, you have
the same name as my
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