Free For Want of a Nail by Mary Robinette Kowal Page B

info?”
    He turned and leaned against the wall, shaking
his head. “No, Cordelia always connects us.”
    “I’m sorry.” The droop of the AI’s eyes drew a
portrait of genuine unhappiness.
    He waved his hand. “Just print it and I’ll dial
manually.”
    Rava rolled her eyes, glad to see him make such
a basic mistake. “Ludoviko, if she can’t transmit to us, she can’t
transmit to a printer either.” She triggered the VR keyboard and
lifted her hands to tap on the keyboard that seemed to float in
front of her. “Tell me and I’ll dial it.”
    Ludoviko sneered. “How old school.”
    “Bite me.” Rava tapped out the sequence on the
virtual keyboard as Cordelia gave her the routing number.
    Before she toggled the call, Cordelia said, “Oh!
Hardwiring! I’m sorry, I should have thought of that sooner.”
Cordelia’s shoulders relaxed and she put a hand to her chest in a
perfect mimicry of a Victorian woman avoiding a swoon. “You could
hardwire me to the main ship system and then I can use that to
reach my memory.”
    “Would that work?” Rava withdrew her hand from
the trigger. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a computer with
external cables to anything.
    “It should.” Cordelia looked down the back of
her chassis, like a woman trying to see the closure on her
gown.
    Rava toggled the keyboard off and walked around
to the back of the AI’s chassis.
    Beneath two shiny brass dials were four dark
oblongs. She’d forgotten that they even existed. “At least these
are easy to access.” She buried her hand in her hair, staring at
the ports. “Any idea where the heck I’m supposed to get a
cable?”
    “With her other spare parts.” Ludoviko didn’t
say “stupid,” but she could hear it.
    “And those would be . . . where?” Rava crouched
to examine the ports. They appeared to take a different socket from
the cable inside the A.I. “’Cause I’m thinking our family hasn’t
accessed that pod since before launch. You want to make a guess
about which of our pods has her spare parts, or were you suggesting
we spend the credits to have all of them brought up from the
hold?”
    “You can spend the credits.You dropped her.”
    “Will you two please stop fighting?” Cordelia
laughed breathlessly. “I’m trying to pretend that experiencing
memory loss is good for me. It builds character.”
    “Well, look.Wait.” Rava raised her hand. “Uncle
Georgo’ll have the inventory.”
    “Oh, there’s no need to bother him and fret
about fetching the pods from storage. You can go to Petro’s
Consignment Shoppe.” Cordelia brightened. “Someone else on the ship
must have a cable.”
    Rava nodded, relief lifting her mood a little.
“Yeah. I’ll bet that’s true. So I just have to ask Uncle Georgo
what kind of cable you take.”
    “Why don’t you take me to Petro’s shop?”
Cordelia cocked her head. “Then you can match the cable to my ports
without bothering Georgo.”
    “That’s—”
    Ludoviko shook his head before she could finish
her sentence. “You’ll do anything to avoid telling Uncle Georgo,
won’t you?”
    He wasn’t far wrong.When Uncle Georgo had
resigned as Cordelia’s wrangler and accepted a seat on the family
council, it had taken everyone by surprise. He was brilliant with
the AI and they had all expected him to keep that post until his
body succumbed to old age. At twenty-six, Rava had been far younger
than anyone expected when she’d succeeded to the role of Cordelia’s
wrangler. The last thing she wanted was for the family to say it
had been a mistake.
    Gritting her teeth, Rava toggled the keyboard
and called Uncle Georgo. His extension rang longer than she was
used to. When he finally toggled in, appearing in her VR glasses as
though he were in the room with them, his eyes were red and puffy,
as if he’d been crying. “Hello?” His voice trembled.
    “Uncle Georgo?” Rava leaned forward, dread
needling along her spine. “What’s wrong?”
    “I don’t . . . I