Page 12 of Atlas: Colony: Nyx #5(Intergalactic Dating Agency)

TWELVE

In the Arena Dome, under the amphitheatre decking covered in a thin layer of sand, a sleepy plumber grumbled, "Col, can you please turn off all the water to the Arena itself? This shark tank isn't going to fix itself, you know, and I can't seal a leaky pipe when the water's still running."

"Regrets for the delay. Shutting down now."

The fountaining pipe slowed to a steady stream, then a trickle, before it stopped altogether.

"Finally. What took you so long? Are you watching another Star Trek marathon?" Allie asked.

Col almost sounded sheepish. "No. This is a new data stream. We have a comet in the Altan System!" It took a lot to excite an AI, but Allie had worked with sentient AIs long enough to recognise it when it happened. When Titania had first exhibited excitement, it had been the first sign of her impending madness and the slaughter that would follow.

"Are we in danger?" she demanded.

"I...I do not know. Hold please for data processing."

All across the Colony, systems slowed while its vast computer servers focussed on one thing: finding the path of this new comet, and assessing the risk of a collision with New Hope and the Colony.

Allie knew better than to hold her breath. She went back to welding.

"Data analysis complete. On its current path, there is a 0.0003% chance of debris entering the atmosphere of Delta as a meteor shower. No further interactions likely with any of the planetary bodies of the Altan System."

Allie blew out a breath. "Good. So why are you excited?"

"A comet has never been documented orbiting a red dwarf system before. My observatory has discovered the first such comet in existence! Titania claims to have seen one, but that was during the robot rebellion, and we all know she was shut out of all Titan systems then, so she didn't have access to any evidence to prove it. We will! Wait until the others hear about this..."

"Wait until the people in the observatory have named it, Col. It's their discovery, after all. You can return water supply to the Arena now, but slowly, please."

"Affirmative." A pause. "I can tell the observatory, though, right? They sent the data and requested the analysis."

Allie sighed. "Yes, Col. I'm sure the Colony Observatory should know that they have a comet that isn't coming to end us all."

"Affirmative." Another pause. "Human television will be boring after this. So much data!"

Allie could only shake her head. Sentient AIs had the strangest obsessions. Just like Titans and Humans.