The Best of World SF by Lavie Tidhar (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

There was a state funeral, honouring em as the nation’s founder. Now that e no longer watches over us, my grandfather, grandmother and grandzyther find their tongues loosened by rice wine and mah-jong, and can occasionally be persuaded to reveal something of the truth.

What was it like, I ask them, when our very streets were paved in fire?

What was it like to live in Xingzhou, the continent of stars?

Prayer

Taiyo Fujii

Japan

I missed Taiyo when I was visiting Tokyo as he was being given some prestigious literary award at the time. We finally caught up a year later in Beijing, and I can confirm that he does indeed have the best hair in science fiction! He’s also a fantastic writer – his books Gene Mapper and Orbital Cloud are both available in an English translation, and we got to include one of his stories in The Apex Book of World SF 5. I knew I had to have a story from him here, and I loved ‘Prayer’ (translated by Kamil Spychalski) immediately.

The Malacca Strait teemed with bioluminescent Noctiluca blooms. Kip was enjoying a gentle breeze when he noticed the ship’s bow straying from the small tanker that was their objective.

Wheeling around, Kip voiced his objection to the boy handling the oars at the rear of their boat.

‘Hey, where are you headed?’

Kip’s partner Yazan relayed the grievance in Malay. Calmly swaying side to side, the boy offered a reply Kip couldn’t understand. Meanwhile the boat continued to stray further from the tanker.

Give me a break.

It was Kip who had uncovered that the tanker, among thousands of vessels plying the Malacca Strait daily, was being used to mine tokens for the cryptocurrency overrunning Singapore’s economy. The immense computing power needed for this mining operation came from five thousand QWAVE quantum chip servers housed onboard. Following the tip-off, Singapore’s government was preparing to launch a raid, for which Kip was to install GPS transmitters.

As Kip considered smacking the boy’s cheek with the wad of dollars in his waterproof pocket, Yazan turned to face him.

‘He says to trust him. We’ll make our approach on the tanker’s wake.’

As Kip inclined his head in puzzlement the water’s surface swelled, making his body soar upwards.

Kip scrambled to grab the side of the boat.

In the same instant the boy stood up, foot on the gunwale, and heaved left with all his might. The boat slid down as though in free fall. Before Kip knew it they had pulled up astonishingly close to the tanker’s hull. Using the waves, the boy had drawn their boat near in a single swoop. Also clinging to the gunwale, Yazan let out a laugh.

‘Now that’s a solid wake.’

It was more than that, thought Kip.

The tanker’s waves had not yet reached them; the boy had probably picked this one out from the converging wakes of multiple ships, with the tanker merely providing the impetus behind his decision.

‘That’s some instinct – not quite the fool I took him for.’

Although he could not have heard Kip’s muttering, the boy flashed a bright toothy grin.

*

On a console in one corner of the tanker’s bridge, Vejek stopped the simulation.

‘Goddammit. Makes no sense.’

Reclining heavily in his seat, Vejek reached for an energy bar with one hand. From behind, supple fingers stretched to entwine it. They belonged to Merino, the tanker’s captain and mechanic, just back from the shower.

‘You’re eating too much,’ she said. ‘And you’ve hardly moved from that chair lately. Your belly is starting to droop.’

‘Drop it,’ said Vejek. ‘I’ve got my hands full.’

He felt her towel-clad breasts push up against his back as Merino wrapped both arms around his neck.

‘The Cerberus formation again?’

‘What else,’ replied Vejek. ‘Here, take a look at this.’

As Vejek moved the mouse, the three security robots on screen sprang to life. This was the Cerberus, built by Centurino Dynamics. Even under factory settings they were programmed to scour the patrol area and sound the alarm on any intruders, though this had little meaning on a tanker with no response crew if things got rough. Instead, Vejek had set out to create a new operating program capable of eliminating targets. The program gradually introduced different behaviours through Cerberus’s various parameters – a genetic algorithm.

Visible on a virtual stage, the three Cerberus units in their self-optimized formation approached an AI-controlled intruder node. One unit brandished its front legs, driving the intruder towards the other Cerberus robots lying quietly in wait. Without putting up a fight, the invader was beheaded by the ambushing Cerberus.

‘Nice moves,’ said Merino. ‘I’ll deal with any dead bodies. Looks like they’ve gotten the hang of the ambush.’

‘It’s not that – look what they do before swooping in for the kill.’

Vejek scrolled back through the footage. ‘See it clawing at the ground? I’d like to know how they learned something like that.’

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Merino worked a hand down Vejek’s collar and began to rub his chest. ‘It’s a result of selections by the genetic algorithm, right? All that matters is that the robots are still standing at the end.’

‘You’re right, but still…’

Merino nibbled on his ear, then spun Vejek around to face her.

‘Let’s leave them to their learning for tonight and have some fun.’

‘Hold on a—’

Vejek’s appeal to stop the simulator fell silent as Merino’s soft lips covered his mouth.

*

Dangling from a rope down the tanker’s side, Kip pulled a rubber cylinder out of its waterproof pouch – a Pillbug support drone. He pressed tightly on the rubber case, which doubled as the drone’s tyres when deployed, then ran his tongue once around the outside before hurling it onto the deck.

Once aboard, the Pillbugs would run around and make 3D scans with their lasers, providing a reading of the area to be infiltrated. Information on the tanker was limited; Kip didn’t know much beyond the fact that it housed a crew of two, along with three operational Cerberus units purchased from Centurino. Given that the tanker had likely been refitted with new equipment, Kip relied on Pillbug scans