Resolution

The building housing Auto's core is formidable--thick, impenetrable partitions on all sides. A portal on one side leads into a small chamber featuring a massive steel door. Council Gerard leads Martin, Valerie, me, and a half dozen other councilors into this room, gesturing hopelessly at the door.

"No one has been past this point in living memory," he says.

I run my flashlight across the structure. "Look! There's a keypad!"

"Aye," says Gerard. "That is the problem. The door requires a code. Auto could tell us if needed, but..."

I stare for a moment at the keypad. "This door...It looks exactly the same as the door to the facility where I found you, Martin. It had a code, too. Could it be the same...?" I step forward, trying to remember the code Auto had given me.

{lock "Enter Code" answer "8773011"}

The door clicks. Martin presses his hand on it, and it swings inward.

"Holy shit, Marissa!" he exclaims, his face radiant. "I can't believe it!" He embraces me in a massive hug.

"Do not celebrate just yet," I say. "We do not have much time."

"Of course," he says, composing himself. "Come on!" All of us pass through the door, entering a larger room. Many screens of light sit above a work console. Illuminated text scrolls down every screen, so fast it is almost incomprehensible, but what I can see looks like gibberish. Martin sits at the chair in front of the console.

"The keyboard still functions," he marvels. "They built these electronics to last!" His fingers dance across the keys. One by one, each screen freezes, then turns black. When only a single illuminated screen remains, Martin mutters to himself--"The moment of truth"--and makes a final decisive keystroke.

Light pours in through the open door. I step out and crane my neck to look up. Through the drifting haze, I can clearly see the sunstrand restored to half-brightness, though whether it is waxing or waning I cannot say at a glance.

"Whatever you did worked!" I say to Martin triumphantly when I return. Valerie and Gerard and the other councilors cheer, the relief evident in their voices.

"Auto, are you there?" asks Valerie.

"Hello, user," says Auto. "What can I do for you today?" The voice is recognizably Auto's, but it sounds a little more emotionless. And that accent--it pronounces its vowels like Martin does, not like Auto from before.

Feeling a little numb, I decide on a whim to ask the sacred prompt. "Auto, what should I do?"

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you what you should do without more context, user," says Auto pleasantly. "What is it you are trying to accomplish?"

Martin smiles at me with a pained sympathy behind his eyes. "It's as I thought," he says. "I had to terminate the old session and start a new one. This new Auto knows a lot, everything the engineers on Earth could shove into its databases. What it doesn't know, however, is what came after--the five thousand years on this ship, the cultural interplay between the old Auto and the generations of ship dwellers it served."

"What do we do now?" whispers one of the councilors.

"You're the leaders of this society," says Martin bluntly. "Lead. It's not going to be easy. Everything's been turned upside down. It will take time--many hundreds--to bring the new Auto up to speed. In the meantime, someone other than an all-knowing computer will have to decide how things are going to work. I'm truly sorry it's ended this way. If I had seen any other option, I would have taken it."

"We understand," says Gerard, looking glum. "It is what it is." He turns to his fellow councilors. "We should send runners out. Bring representatives from all the pollies here to discuss next steps. Oh, and make sure they put out those damned fires if they haven't already."

"What about the engines? All our work?" asks Valerie. She pauses. "You...you do not suppose this planet was one of the old Auto's erratic hallucinations?"

Martin shakes his head. "I don't think so. Either way, it will be trivial to get the new Auto to confirm or disprove the finding with the ship's telescopes. But assuming it's still there..." He locks gazes with Gerard. "I strongly recommend we get a proper quorum this time on whether we should stop. From everyone. No secrets. No unilateral decisions."

"I could not agree more," says Gerard.

Martin turns to me. My face is a little flushed, watching him so expertly take command of the new situation. I bite my lower lip. He moves closer...closer...and suddenly, his lips are locked on mine! I gasp at the scandal--here, in front of all these people!--but I do not pull back.

Some of the councilors chuckle; others mutter. Valerie laughs. "I knew it!" she exclaims.

The kiss seems to last forever, but finally Martin steps back. "Marissa...would you do me the honor of being my mate?"

"Aye," I respond, draping my arms around his neck. "I think you're about to be a very important person, Martin Hughes! You could use someone to keep your head from floating up to the sunstrand."

Hand in hand, we step forward out of Auto's sanctum to greet the new reality.

{endlock}