Episode 9

Bohdan woke up in a small room that was hardly better lit than the laboratory. One of the neon tubes had malfunctioned—it blinked incessantly and emitted an irritating buzz.

The captain looked around. He was lying on a narrow bed that resembled a hospital cot more than anything else. Beside it stood a tiny nightstand, on which someone had left water and a plate of stewed vegetables with a crust of fragrant wheat bread.

With relief, he noted that his hands were no longer shackled to the bed, though the characteristic bruises were still visible on his wrists. He tried to sit up. His head spun, and his body ached terribly.

The commander took a few steps and almost immediately had to return to the bed. His mouth was unbearably dry, so he grabbed the mug and drank with the greed of a traveler gulping water from a well—even knowing it might be poisoned.

“Seems fine,” Bohdan shrugged and decided to try the main dish. The stew—young potatoes, green broccoli, ripe carrots, and aromatic dill—felt like an unimaginable luxury, as did the real bread crust.

Where would vegetables and grains come from in the desert? he wondered, but chose to think about it later. After prolonged hunger, he wanted to savor every bite of real food.

A strange sensation suddenly seized him.

He was being watched.

He turned—and nearly cried out in surprise. Standing in the doorway was the girl from his dream.

“Enjoy your meal,” the fragile figure said.

She looked to be about eight years old.

Not much older than Zlata, Bohdan noted silently and replied politely,

“Thank you.”

“I brought you some ointment.”

Her aquamarine eyes focused on the bruises on his wrists.

“Daddy said it would ease your pain.”

“So you don’t know that Terence—”

“—isn’t my real father?” she finished for him. “I figured it out a long time ago. He’s too… um… perfect. Not that I’m complaining, but parents don’t behave like that.”

“How exactly?”

“For example, Terence never scolds me for misbehaving. A few times I deliberately damaged the notes in his study, and he didn’t even reprimand me. My real daddy used to tremble at the very thought that I might ruin his sketches.”

“Then why do you keep calling Terence ‘Daddy’?”

“That’s how I show my gratitude. He’s the only one who’s taken care of me since the Great Boom,” the girl sighed heavily. “Sometimes I think he loves me, but then I remember that robots—even ones as perfect as him—aren’t capable of feelings. He cares for me because my father ordered him to.”

“What is the Great Boom?”

The captain didn’t miss the shift in her mood brought on by the painful memory.

“Three years ago, a super-powerful eruption occurred on the Sun. The explosion coincided with an eclipse, so the Moon acted as a kind of shield—it partially softened the thermal blow and protected the atmosphere. The solar prominences shattered the satellite into fragments, which burned up before reaching Earth.”

The spoon slipped from Bohdan’s hand.

“You’re incredibly smart for such a little one.”

“I read a lot,” she snorted. “Terence likes my hobby, so he encourages it in every way.”

“What happened next?”

“The air heated so much that Antarctica’s glaciers melted. Sea levels rose, most of the land was submerged, and what survived turned into desert.”

“When we were approaching, I saw some green areas near the coast,” the captain objected.

“Flora is slowly recovering,” his new acquaintance countered. “Terence says it’s algae and moss—but I wouldn’t be so sure. It might be radiation spots.”

“You probably know about the magnetic anomaly too, don’t you, clever girl?”

“Of course.”

She clearly enjoyed instructing. Bohdan, meanwhile, was eager to learn as much as possible. He was searching for answers to the questions that had haunted him since entering the orbit of the mysterious T-431.

“Since the South Pole no longer exists, magnetic waves disperse across the planet, and where they intersect, flares occur,” she explained with unmistakable confidence.

The commander was deeply impressed by Terence’s ward. Had he not seen her silhouette, he could have sworn he was speaking to the professor himself.

He trained her well, the astronaut thought.

“Shall we take a walk?”

Her proposal broke his train of thought.

“I’d love to.”

As they walked down the corridor, Bohdan’s vision darkened. He stumbled constantly.

“Hold on to me.”

The girl offered her thin shoulder.

“Thank you.”

Her gesture moved him. She understood compassion.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Jennifer. But you can just call me Jen,” the girl winked.

“I’m Bo—”

“I know who you are. I peeked into your dream.”

She lowered her eyes. The commander assumed she felt guilty for intruding.

“How do you do it?”

He made an effort to keep his voice neutral.

“I don’t really know. Terence says it has to do with neural connections.”

Bohdan smiled bitterly.

“Robots always look for logical explanations.”

A sudden flare of anger threw him off balance.

“Don’t call him that!”

Jennifer recoiled, offended.

“He’s like a father to me. I survived only because of him.”

She nodded insistently when she noticed doubt on Bohdan’s face.

“It’s true. Right after the explosion, Terence grabbed me and brought me here—to our underground bunker.”

How fiercely she defends him, the captain fumed inwardly. That bastard really washed her brain.
But he understood that it would be impossible to shatter the lies Brainy had drilled into her for years. No—first, he had to earn her trust.

“How deep are we?” he asked.