"We have eyes on us," Aldo said. Spin looked up and saw the small green lights between the lattices. They progressed towards the main vault in the middle of the station at a brisk walk, all the stealth systems their suits had turned on.
There was artificial gravity, the first sign that the station wasn't entirely powered down, but the atmosphere was thin. It was a sign that there had been heavy damage, as if the scorch marks on the floor, the ripped metal of the inner door and the few forced locker doors weren't enough indication. After they passed through the first security door, a tall, broad thing that had been torn through by some kind of shaped explosion, they started seeing service robots. Most of the thin-limbed machines topped with small sensor discs went about their business, checking on lockers, wiping down railings or picking up shards of metal. Three of them were working on disassembling a heavily damaged security droid. One of its tracks had been blown to shreds, and its chest cavity was charred and broken. "Wow, it looks like someone hit that bot with a heavy grenade from below," Aldo said. The cratered deck under its ruined track confirmed the story.
"There might be more of those around," Frost said. "Watch your tactical map."
Spin's gaze lingered on the undamaged side of the security droid. It had a heavy manipulator arm that ended in three thick fingers and another beneath it with some kind of rifle. The armour was thick, and its design stern looking. She didn't want to see an operational one, even if it ignored them. The tactical map across the top of her heads' up display didn't show any of them, called Max Ten, according to the writing across its back.
A flash of activity flashed by them, and Dori flinched as though something bumped into her arm. "What the hell?" she asked.
"Something's cloaked in here," Frost said.
"Can it see us?" Spin asked, her rifle at the ready. The stocky, thick weapon that was fully a metre long was reassuring, almost like a highly aggressive shield against whatever foes might be out there, but if there was an invisible assailant, there could be more trouble than she wanted to face, especially if it was like the Max Ten.
"If it can see us, but we can't detect it, then what does that say about the garbage tech you dressed us in?" Dori asked.
"What did that feel like? Did something hit you? Did it feel like it did it by mistake?" Frost asked.
"It felt like something brushed by me and caught my arm, how am I supposed to know if it was on purpose?" Dori replied.
"It's on me!" Aldo shouted from where he was taking up the rear. They spun to look in time to see him lifted off the deck by his rifle. "I'm gonna have to let my gun go!" He kicked out, trying to get leverage, or to strike at his attacker. Frost and Boro both grabbed his feet while Dori waved her rifle.
Spin turned and watched the front, the sides, wherever the group wasn't already looking. The small rear-view window in her heads-up display showed her the terrifying scene behind. One of Aldo's arms disappeared, as though gripped by something invisible, and his whole body was yanked back, pulling Boro off his feet before Aldo let his rifle go and tumbled across the deck.
Spin knew that as soon as she turned her scanners from passive to active so she could get a real look at what was around them and hopefully see what was hiding, that her cloaking systems would be useless. "Everyone scan, this can see through our cloaking tech."
"The station will realize we're here too!" Frost objected.
"We'll run if we have to," Spin said as she turned her scanning system all the way up and turned her cloaking systems off, using the energy to increase the power to her personal shield.
The battered armour carapace of a metre tall, nine-metre-long robot shaped like a centipede with a collection of red and blue sensor eyes and grabbers at the front appeared, and, as if realizing that she could see it, the thing looked at her. One of its many appendages turned the rifle over, getting ready to brandish it, and she opened fire, blasting the main body where those thin arms were attached.
It flinched as two appendages were burned off, sending Aldo's rifle spinning across the deck. Dori was next to open fire, aiming for its sensor cluster, but thick shimmering plates slid into place to protect them before damage could be done. Dori continued her attack, but Spin was stunned at the sight of something else.
Her scanners revealed many cloaked robots. Most of them cowered in the corners, some protected androids, while others watched from the walkways overhead. Several mechanical birds and small climbing droids hid in the latticework, watching fearfully as the centipede writhed and turned.
Boro and Frost turned their rifles on the centipede, scoring several serious hits that sent smaller plates of armour spinning through the air. The excited look on one android's face, and how he pumped his fist told her that at least he was cheering for them to win against the insect-like robot. Spin stepped behind Dori and Boro as she started to adjust the settings on her rifle so it was set to high accuracy, and its highest power rating. It took her longer than it ought to, a problem with only recently being trained on all the new technology she was using, but as she did so she glanced around.
The robots in the shadows were of every make, model and style. Most of them were watching the fight, and every indication told them that they wanted her and her friends to win. Frost tossed a slim grenade at the centipede, and it was batted straight back with one of its many gleaming metal limbs. The blast knocked Frost, Boro and Dori down. Their shields took most of the damage, leaving Aldo and her on their feet in a hail of debris from the blasted deck. The centipede lurched forward, and Spin fired, the concussion of her rifle sending a trio of smart rounds surrounded by the heaviest energy charge the rifle could emit almost knocking her off her feet.
The centipede veered off, protecting its sensor eyes. Spin didn't know if she'd hit her mark, it was a shot taken on instinct, but she braced herself and sent another trio of shots towards it, aiming specifically for the lower front of the thing. Aldo was firing shot after shot at it with his sidearm, aiming for the seam where its legs protruded from its body.
Her heads-up display informed her that its inner energy shielding was down, the protection on its underside and most of its sensor receivers at the front were vulnerable. Dori fired from her back, sending a white line of automatic fire at the thing, and she was joined by the brothers, Boro and Frost, a moment later.
Spin only had a chance to fire twice more. The first two shots didn't catch anything important, pockmarking the machine's thick front armour, but the last trio of rounds caught the centipede under the lip of the front of its armour. Its head flinched away and the centipede rushed away, through a side door and on until it was no longer visible on her tactical map.
Dori started running after it, but Spin caught her before she was fully back on her feet. "Point your guns down, don't threaten anyone," she told her.
"We're surrounded! Don't you see them?" Dori replied.
Spin looked around them at the variety of machines. Their expressions ranged from stoic to joyful, but most seemed curious. She turned her proximity radio on. "We're here to find lifesaving records. We're not here to hurt any of you, it's okay."
A thin robot that was little more than a flexible white post with tendril legs and arms came out of the shadows, tentatively approaching Spin. In better light she could see that it was a medical robot. The white and green paint on its main body was chipped, but the design confirmed that it was Medical Droid Three for Doro Doro Station. A holographic face appeared. If Spin had a kindly older aunt, she expected she would look like that. "Hello, I'm Med Three. Thank you for scaring Centirion off. She will be back after she's made repairs, so you should come with me."
"I'm looking for the Iron Mind," Spin said, hoping that the decision to share the information wouldn't ruin their chances of getting help, or finding it at all. The whole gallery of robots stirred at the name, not with fear. Was it reverence? She couldn't be sure.
"I might be able to help, but you can't be here now. Come. There's a safer place where we can talk. Hurry
."
"Hurry," mimicked a small, monkey like repair bot as it landed on her head. "To the Stalls." It leapt off, making the long vertical distance between it and the latticework above effortlessly, then rushing along with several others behind it.
Thirty-Five
A number of the various robots led them down the hallway towards their goal, the main vault. According to the window tracking how many robots and where they were, sometimes there were twelve, others there were as many as fifteen. The mystery as to how she was getting different readings at different times didn’t last long. One bot, a squat, quiet thing with a few telescopic arms, had divots in its head where several smaller bots landed from time to time. They silently drifted overhead, checking down hallways and periodically scanning everything nearby with an almost playfully curious manner.
When one got too close to Frost he batted it away, only to have it zip in close a few times to perform shorter, more localized scans on him. Those small bots returned to scan them often between other errands. Two monkey bots, as she'd labelled them mentally stuck with the group, staying well out of reach, watching them with big, wary looks through blue and green scanner modules that were made to resemble glowing eyes. "Can't scan, don't know what they are," one of them muttered as it landed on Dori's shoulder, tapped at her energy shield then leapt back off.
"Right, forgot to mention, this armour doesn't scan easy," Frost said. "We're probably frustrating those sensor drones that keep buzzing around."
"That is most likely true," Med Three said. "Sphere Lord likes to know what's going on for miles around him."
"The Centirion is in Development Laboratory Seven," the platform like bot added. A new spherical drone rose from a hatch in the top and moved down the hall behind them silently. "She is repairing itself."
"That can't be good," Aldo grumbled.
"The tools she's using are not ideal for the task, it will most likely take longer than usual for it to complete the task," Sphere Lord replied, its voice grating loudly in the hallway.
"Thank you," Med Three said, bowing its narrow body in its direction. They took a left before reaching the main vault and after a shortcut through a wall that had a broad hole melted through it, they were in a large room filled with thick metal stalls set up like work cubicles. Sphere Lord settled into one right away, connecting to two power sockets before the front portion of his flat, round chassis turned green.
"Why is the Centirion the only one who's aggressive?" Spin asked Med Three. Two heavy load lifters used their thick arms to move a solid block of metal into the improvised doorway. Boro and Aldo watched, looking worried.
"When Nadir, the artificial intelligence that cured us of the Holocaust Virus, attempted to cure it, the Centirion became violent to the few biologicals left in the station. Many of us tried to save them, but most were murdered. We haven't been able to reason with the Centirion, but the few dialogues that we had…"
One of the repair monkeys landed on Med Three's head, a small holographic projector on the top of its main stalk, "Centirion thinks that all sentient biologicals are filthy destroyers. Not 'filth destroyers' but animals who ruin everything. It doesn't have much of a problem with us 'bots as long as we don't do damage or interfere with whatever whacko thing it does."
"Get off!" Med Three said, swatting at the small, monkey like bot. It leapt away, latching onto the edge of a nearby charging cubicle and hanging there lazily. "What Leaper Six says is true. The Centirion forced us to hide the rest of the biologicals here in the main vault."
"Life support conditions optimal," stated an android who was working at what looked like a plate of glass on a stand. Spin assumed that the interface was on some kind of privacy mode. "That's if all you folks are some kinda human."
"We are, thank you," Spin replied, verifying that it was truly safe to retract her helmet using her suit's sensors. She decided to make a show of trust. There were sensors everywhere, more than she cared to count, peeking over the edge of cubicles where robots that were already present when they came in either took refuge or were charging. The rest of the bots that escorted them there were settling in too, with the exception of Med Three and Leaper Six. She retracted her helmet and wasn't surprised when Med Three scanned her.
A holographic display of her appeared beside it, illustrating that she was an Aspen Model Doll developed in the Geist System. All her vital statistics appeared including measurements, any enduring scar tissue, age, the amount of time she'd been separated from Larken and the time she had left. "Oh, you've been unpaired for some time and are close to your termination date," Med Three said. "I'm so sorry." Her sympathetic tone sounded completely genuine.
"Oooh! Oooh!" Leaper Six hopped up on the edge of a cubicle and pointed excitedly. "The ones we saved are like you! Top of the line synthetics!"
"I was going to get to that shortly," Med Three snapped at him. "I just wanted to make sure she was who we suspected she is. The synthetics there haven't seen the rest of the universe, but she's of the universe, she's seen much more than any of us; worlds, people, machines that build cities and relay important messages, learning, witnessing."
"What difference does that make?" Leaper Six asked, his arms raised high in exasperation. "The synthetics the Nadir saved were smart, they were kind, and they were in trouble. We know she's in trouble, and she seems nice, maybe not as smart because she's here, after all, but not so different."
"Patience, monkey!" Sphere Lord snapped.
Leaper Six fell back and went limp, as though all the energy left him all at once then groaned; "You two have to think everything over, scan things from every which way, inside and out, then you don't agree on anything half the time." He hopped back up onto his feet and continued with highly animated gestures. "The Centirion is out there fixing herself up. This synthetic is here and she wants the Iron Mind. We are here, no longer bored, but harbouring biologicals from the Centirion which could bring about our final doom. It's so exciting! Don't make it boring by overthinking it. We should take them to the vault, open it up and tell them what happened to the Iron Mind!"
Med Three reached out and clamped Leaper Six's lips shut with one of its medical manipulators. It was a quick, precise act that was so surprising that Dori and Spin couldn't help snicker in surprise. "Sometimes the solutions aren't as simple as you think. Your instinct to fix everything as quickly as possible may serve you well when you're working on the station, but it can lead you to faulty conclusions when applied elsewhere."
"You realize my mouth is just a pocket for parts and tools," Leaper Six replied. "My speaker is… somewhere else."
"I know, I'm trying to make a point."
"Which I'm ignoring."
"What happened to the Iron Mind?" Spin asked.
"The other humans are unremarkable, aside from the newer synthetic," Sphere Lord said as two of his drones dropped back onto his dome.
"Thank you," Med Three said as she turned back to Spin. She let Leaper Six's mouth pocket go, and he spat a tiny bolt at her. It bounced off her metal main body harmlessly. "The Iron Mind was transferred by Nadir, the one who saved us by cleaning the virus out of our systems and inspiring us all to have our own distinct personalities. Once the contents were part of him, he began his journey, transferring himself to the Echo Corporation complex then transmitting himself elsewhere. He said there would be a day when someone freed this solar system using an antivirus. They would destroy the Centirion, freeing all of us."
"An artificial intelligence prophecy?" Boro asked under his breath.
"A calculation of likely outcomes based on thousands of historical accounts and logs from across the galaxy," an older Ando android replied, standing up and looking over the edge of their cubicle. "Which was painstakingly examined and discussed by nearly every intelligence on the station. Nadir was only the first to lead us to that prediction."
"Everyone went on about that for months," Leaper Six groaned. "It was like listening to a thousand conversations signifying nothin
g over and over again."
"A hundred monkeys using a hundred word processors." Aldo commented under his breath.
"Regardless of how boring it might have been to some of us, the exercise determined that this was the most likely outcome. We are surprised that your leader is a doll, though. The notion that you would come to save your own kind wasn't determined as one of the most likely events."
"I'm actually only here for the Iron Mind, but I'll be happy to help with the people stuck in the vault. We don't have a lot of room, though." Spin looked to Frost.
"We have room for thirty-five in an emergency. The ship has three expandable compartments, but our cloaking systems won't work, and a couple other problems could come up if we find ourselves in a serious fight."
"Thirty-five? Those must be some serious compartments," Boro commented.
"Aye, for emergencies only, mind you."
"There are only nine survivors in the vault. They only have twenty-eight days' worth of water and food left."
"Why are they here? Were they sent here as workers before the virus took hold?" Spin asked.
"Nadir saw that they were trying to escape the manufacturing complex where they were made and directed them here. Most of them didn't survive, but thanks to this stations defences, which were formidable at the time, he was able to provide enough protection so a few of them could finish the journey. Then Centirion killed several more before we hid them in the vault."
"Why didn't Nadir fix the virus infested bots out there?" Frost asked. "You know, in the rest of the solar system."
"Nadir's first body didn't have any way to communicate other than verbally, and his audio communications were shut out as soon as he tried what you are suggesting. He then attempted to type the necessary code, but that was shut out as well. The only method of correction left to him was to interface one on one with each robot, which was easy on this station, but not so in space. Before we could help him figure out that problem, he downloaded the contents of the vault and then uploaded himself to the Echo network. We don't know where he went, since any trace of him here was deleted. He believes in a singular existence."
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