The Final Six (The Final Six #1) - Alexandra Monir Page 0,85

to take everyone’s eyes off Dot—and me—for a good five minutes. Plus, Robotics Ops is one of the only times it’s just us finalists and the AIs, with no human instructors or team leaders around, which gives us our best chance.”

“I don’t know.” He sighs. “Even though I—I am starting to believe your theories about the RRB, I still believe in the mission, too. You know how much I want, need to make the Final Six, and Cyb is a decision maker. If this could hurt my chances . . .”

“I understand,” I say quickly. “Don’t worry.” Maybe I am asking too much.

“What will you do, then?”

“I’m not sure,” I reply. “But I’ll have to think of something. Maybe when I’m at one of my private training sessions in Mission Control, I can get near Pleiades—”

“The NASA supercomputer? No. No way.” Leo holds up his hands, exhaling. “Let’s just go with the plan that doesn’t involve any more hacking. I’ll do it. I’ll ask the question.”

“You will?” I look at him in surprise and delight.

He chuckles. “Yes, you weirdo. This better be worth it.”

I wrap my arms around his neck. “It will be. I have a feeling.”

We take our positions as soon as we reach the Mission Floor, with Leo standing right in front of Cyb and me off to the side—the closest in the room to Dot. I try to make eye contact with the AI, but her head is swiveled away from me, watching Cyb lead the session.

“As you’ve seen in your simulations, there are points on our journey that require two of you to perform a spacewalk while Dot and I, and the rest of the crew, remain inside. During that time, if ever there is a communication failure, we will rely on the new telemetry software in your space suits to monitor your status,” Cyb explains. “Today, we’ll be showing you how to read the telemetry signals, and going over emergency procedures.”

Leo clears his throat.

“Is that—is that what went wrong on the Athena mission?” he blurts out. “Was communication lost because the astronauts didn’t have this caliber of space suit equipment?”

I inch closer to Dot. Everyone is watching Leo and Cyb.

“Excuse me?” Cyb utters after a pause.

“Well, I—I mean, even though no official cause was ever given for the tragedy on Mars, there had to have been a reason, right?” Leo rambles. “I guess I’m just wondering what it was.”

Cyb makes a series of mechanical sputtering sounds in response, and I can feel all the finalists in this room recognizing the same truth: the robots have clearly not been programmed to discuss the controversial Athena and its perished astronauts.

But I can’t think about that now. I seize my opportunity, quickly reaching for Dot’s mechanical arm, and the AI turns to face me.

“I hear you have something for me,” I whisper to the machine.

Dot’s artificial eyes bore into mine. She expresses no surprise at my words, confirming that the AI did in fact receive my command. So then, why . . . ?

“Follow me,” I say under my breath. I slip behind one of the hulking mock-up modules, out of Cyb’s and the group’s line of sight. “I received a command on my tablet last night,” I fib. “It said something about deciphering biosignatures, and that you would be bringing them to me.”

“I am the backup machine,” Dot says quietly, her voice like the female twin of Cyb’s crisp, clear tone. “Only my superior is authorized to deliver materials to the humans.”

Logic, Naomi, I tell myself. Remember, the robots work off logic. “But that’s not true anymore, is it? Have you ever received a command by mistake?”

Dot hesitates. “No.”

“That means something changed,” I insist. “You were chosen for this task, Dot. Not Cyb. And only you and I are allowed to talk about it.”

I can see the wheels turning in Dot’s machine-mind, and I press on. “One of the Europa Mission leaders clearly needs both of us to do this. You can’t go against your leaders, can you? I know that I can’t.” I give Dot an imploring look. “What if this is some kind of test to see how well I can read the scientific elements, to determine if I should be one of the Final Six? They need your help finding out . . . and so do I.”

I half hate myself as I use logic-filled lies to sway the innocent robot. But as Dot looks back at me, registering my words . . .