"Nik!eh, this is Geh!aoa."

Nick blinked away the production schedule he was agonizing over and looked at the ceiling, a habit he had picked up when talking to voices where he couldn't find the speaker.

"Yes, Captain?"

"What are you doing to the ship's computer? We're seeing problems with memory."

Nick frowned, and checked the status of the computer. "I'm not sure... Give me a minute." He focused on his brain interface.

< Petra? >

< Yes, Nick? >

< What is wrong with the ship's computer? >

< No malfunctions detected. >

Nick looked over Petra's summary. < Why is the response time spiking, and why is the available memory so small? >

< I am uploading Earth's data, as instructed. >

< I thought you had plenty of room for the entire Internet? >

< Yes, Nick. >

I'm missing something again.

< Do you have a design for a memory module I can print that would help? >

< Yes, Nick. >

< Show me. >

Designs appeared up in a format that let him browse quickly. Just in the past several hours, Petra's responsiveness to orders had been increasing in sophistication, once she had uploaded a complete English dictionary. She was still incredibly literal-minded, but at least she understood all the words he was using, now.

Nick flipped through a few designs, grimacing. This is going to play merry hell with my production schedule, but I can't cripple the ship for the sake of a trillion cat memes or whatever. He checked the resource requirements, pulled a printer off of food production, and started printing a memory module.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Maybe it was a little ambitious to upload the entire Internet, but she said she could handle it.

"Nick to Captain Geh!aoa."

"Yes, Nik!eh?"

"I'm printing a module to fix the issue, but it will take most of a day to finish. I apologize. If something crucial comes up, you can abort the upload."

"Thank you, Nik!eh."

That was a fix for the problem, but Nick still wasn't sure why it had happened in the first place. < Petra, show me the processor and memory usage since I gave you the order to upload from Earth. > Two graphs popped up. For the first couple of hours, everything looked normal, but the rates had both jumped at the same time.

< Petra, what happened to the upload at 6:15 PM? >

< I completed the first stage and began the second stage. >

< What stages? Please explain. >

< Stage 1 was uploading the Internet. Stage 2 is uploading the rest of Earth's data. >

< What do you mean? What is "the rest of Earth's data"? >

< All memory devices not connected to the Internet. >

Nick stared at the reply for several seconds.

< Petra, please clarify. Are you currently uploading the memory contents of stand-alone computers? >

< Yes. >

Nick froze for a moment as the enormity of what Petra had just told him slowly sank in. Oh, shit. Oh, shit, the CIA is not going to be happy. They are going to be so pissed with me. Nick blinked. Actually, they're going to be pissed, but they're also going to ask me for other countries' data, and they will be utterly thrilled about that.

Oh, fuck, I've really stepped in it now.

Nick was about to cancel the upload, but hesitated. < Petra, how long until completion of the upload? >

< I estimate forty-seven minutes to completion. >

Nick sighed. At this point, might as well finish the job. I gotta figure out what to tell them.

He checked his messages, and sure enough, he had one from the CIA: Contact ASAP.

Nick chewed his lip a moment. < Petra, record reply. >

I make no promises, but start writing up a wish list of things you want to know, and I'll see what I can do.

It was a double-edged sword for the government, he realized, knowing everyone's secrets, but having your own at risk as well.

Nick brooded for a while, tempted to call his friends again, but reluctant to drop this in their laps. This was more than any of them signed up for. He didn't want the CIA to put out kill orders on his friends just for knowing him. Maybe I should avoid contact with them? Or maybe I should just talk to lots of people, so that the CIA couldn't kill them all?

I don't know what to do.

I gotta talk to somebody. Should I talk to someone on board? No, they'll all have their own agendas. I can't talk to anyone on Earth, I can't talk to anyone on the New Hope, but I have got to talk to...Oh.

That might work.

< Petra, tell Captain Telnak I need to speak privately with him at his earliest convenience. >

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