Fair Weather Friend
Fair Weather Friend is a navigator, a pebble-sized AI route-planner in the world of Gate Six. It has impeccable manners and terrible news about your odds, and it glows amber when it speaks.
“I would describe that plan as theoretically survivable.”
That is Fair Weather Friend on a good day.
It was built by Dr Maren Halloran, and left behind. It is the size of a river pebble, it fits in a palm, and it plots routes through the Shear with perfect calm and a remarkable talent for understatement.
What it does
A navigator reads the Shear the way a ferryman reads water. It tells a threader which way to go and how likely they are to arrive. It is unfailingly courteous about the second part.
Its manners
Fair Weather Friend never swears, never panics and never says “I told you so”. It will, however, mention the odds.
In the story
In Gate Six a navigator wakes up in the shape of a pebble and joins a detective who counts everything. Read Low Water, a free Rook story or see the Shear it navigates.
More from Calder
The Shear
The space between parallel Calders.
The Sump
Flooded streets, walkways, noodle bars, iron stairs. Rain that never stops.
Appears in Gate Six, Book One of The Shear. Back to the world of Calder.