by Scott Baron
The aliens on Earth’s surface had one key weakness in their monitoring systems. Having killed off the indigenous people hundreds of years prior, all they monitored for now was non-organic movement. The occasional cyborg survivors foolish enough to brave the surface were typically picked off in short order, their metal parts setting off the alien detectors. Daisy, however, was, by her nature, a sort of walking stealth unit.
Now if only she knew what exactly it was that she was supposed to do.
Gently rubbing her sore ribs, she snapped out of her fog and picked up her pace to gear up for the last thing on her plate before she could break for lunch.
Barry and Ash, the two resident cyborgs, greeted her as they approached from the opposite direction.
“How was your combat sparring today, Daisy?” Barry asked as he neared.
He didn’t seem to hold any grudge against her for frying him with an EMP grenade when she made her escape from her old ship, the Váli, several months prior.
“Fine,” she answered.
“I see you have a scrape on your elbow,” Ash noted. “May I offer you a bandage? Or perhaps you’d like me to escort you to the medical unit?”
Ash still creeped her out, even months after her arrival. At least Barry’s body was reasonably close to human. A false-man with a freaky cyborg endoskeleton hiding beneath his lab-grown flesh.
Ash, on the other hand, was a much earlier model, and he just felt off. Something about the older cyborgs; they looked human but had some strange element to their speech and motion that put some people on edge. People like Daisy.
“No thanks, Ash. I’ll be fine. Gotta get out there and finish clearing the mess outside Hangar Three before lunch.”
“Ah, yes, another project to complete before this afternoon’s meditation and acuity training with Fatima,” he said with a warm smile. “Very well, then. We shall leave you to it.”
Without another word, the two mechanical men walked off, leaving Daisy alone with her thoughts, however troubled they might be.
Chapter Two
Moving around on the surface of the moon wasn’t all that bad. Once you got used to the funky gravity, that is. It was the bulky spacesuit that made things difficult, but Daisy figured that was a minor inconvenience compared with the rather serious discomforts of freezing, suffocation, and death.
“Stupid thing,” she grunted as she struggled to heave another piece of reclaimed scrap onto the pile accumulated beside Hangar Three’s massive doors.
It was bound to have happened eventually, a rock slide occurring as part of the crag above the base gave up the ghost and came a-tumbling down. The only problem was it had gathered more than a few friends along the way.
While the reduced gravity of the moon lessened the impact, the rock slide had managed to not only scatter the spare parts Daisy had been so meticulously removing from the collection of bits salvaged from the debris field surrounding Earth, but it had also strewn boulders and spare parts alike in front of the hangar doors.
“Yeah. You were right. Damn thing is all jammed up in the door’s track,” Sarah said.
Just my luck, right? Daisy replied. Two weeks of work, all strewn about, and now I’ve gotta get the door cleared to boot. At least this looks like the last one.
She grunted as she hefted a salvaged comms coupling back to join its brethren in a small stack under a rocky overhang. It had taken her most of the prior afternoon, and much of the current morning to get doors clear and the last of the pieces back where they belonged. All that remained was a final cleanup of any remaining rocks that might still interfere with the door’s action.
Looks like it’s mostly clear. You think those smaller ones over there will be in the way?
“Nah, they look fine to me.”
Oh, thank God. I am so ready to get out of this stupid suit, Daisy silently replied as she keyed on her comms.
“Hey, Sid. Would you please open Hangar Three’s doors when you can? I think I’ve finally got them cleared.”
“Of course, Daisy. Just give me a moment to ensure no one is currently in the hangar. I will open them once it is clear and depressurized,” the base AI replied.
“Thanks, Sid. Standing by,” Daisy said. She knew it would likely take a minute or two before the massive doors would rumble open.
Get this done, get back inside, grab a bite of lunch, and I should still have plenty of time to spare before our––Daisy noticed something poking out of the dust. Hey, does that look like a piece of an AI cradle to you?
“I see it. Not sure, though. Might be.”
I didn’t know we had any of those in with the salvage out here. Figured the big brains would want to keep any high-value components like that tucked away inside.
“Might have been in the last load Donovan and Bob dropped off. Maybe it was just covered by dirt and got overlooked.”
Daisy sighed. Well, I’d better go get it.
She trudged out in front of the hangar doors, making her way to the mostly buried device. She knew she was well clear of the doors themselves, so their cycling open was of little concern to her.
Yep, it’s part of a cradle, all right, she commented as she pulled the unit free from the dusty soil. There. That wasn’t so hard. Once in a while, things actually go my way.
“Always tempting Murphy, aren’t ya, Daze?”
Yeah? What can he possibly do to me that’s any worse than being stuck out here?
“Um, you’re in a near-vacuum at sub-freezing levels, two hundred thirty-eight thousand miles from Earth. You really want to ask that question?”
Daisy laughed as she began dragging the AI cradle back to her pile of salvaged parts.
“All is clear inside, Daisy,” Sid informed her over the comms. “Hangar Three will now cycle open.”
“Copy that. Thanks, Sid.”
“My pleasure, Daisy,” he replied as the massive doors began to move with a low rumble she could feel through her boots.
“Oh, and guess what? I found a partial AI cradle. It must’ve somehow come in with the last salvage load.”
“Interesting,” Sid replied. “It would be useful to have some extra componentry on hand as backup parts, should the need ever arise.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d––”
“Daisy, dive left!” Sarah shouted in Daisy’s head.
She trusted Sarah completely, and knew far better than to pause for even a second to ask why. Dropping her cargo, Daisy dove as hard to the left as she was able, landing at an awkward angle as she roll-bounced and tried to scramble to her feet. Behind her, rocks were tumbling down from above.
She ran as best she could in the awkward gravity, trying to get clear. It was like a nightmare, one where no matter how hard you tried, your feet felt like they were trapped in sucking mud.
“Daisy, I sensed a geological disturbance. Are you okay?” Sid asked.
Heart pounding loud in her ears, she turned and looked back at the relatively small mass of rocks that had shaken loose and come tumbling down when the door’s rumbling disturbed them.
Thanks, Sis. You saved my ass just now.
“I saved both our asses, technically. But you’re welcome.”
Daisy turned and began walking for the airlock.
“I’m okay, Sid. We had another rock slide out here. Nothing too big, but how about you have Donovan do a few flyovers and hit the hillside with his engine wake to shake free anything else that’s loose up there so we don’t have any more issues.”
“Of course. I’ll have him do that when he heads out on his next drift run.”
“Thanks. I’m calling it a day out here.”
“Understood. I will request that Barry and Ash clear the new debris as soon as they are able.”
“Sounds good to me,” she replied.
I did my part. All the salvage is back where it should be. Fatima can’t give me any grief about not completing her task.
Daisy looked at the newly fallen pile of rocks.
&n
bsp; Aw, shit.
The AI cradle––at least what was left of it––was sticking out from beneath the debris at all sorts of wrong angles.
Better it than me, she figured.
“Hey, Sid. Sorry, but the cradle got smashed up pretty good in the rock slide. I don’t know if anything is salvageable.”
“Understood. While regrettable, what is important is that you are safe.”
Her hear trate slowly lowered back to normal as she made the long trek back to the welcome warmth and relative safety of the base.
Exiting the airlock into the base’s fresh air, blissfully free of the restrictive bulk of the space suit, Daisy took a quick whiff of her sweatshirt as she walked the quiet corridors of Dark Side back to her quarters.
I suppose a shower would be the polite thing, she considered.
“No need to assault Fatima with your post-labor BO.” Sarah chuckled in her head.
“Not to mention Tamara’s funk rubbing off on me from earlier,” she said with a laugh.
“Eww, you did not just go there.”
“Totally did.”
“You’re such a freak, Daze.”
“Says the disembodied ghost of a genetically-engineered planetary savior.”
“Okay, you got me. Point taken.”
“Don’t sweat it, Sis. They still push that ‘chosen one’ crap on me too. Being dead, you’re the lucky one in that regard. At least they leave you alone.”
“In their defense, they don’t know I’m here. And excuse me? I’m lucky being dead? Screw you, Daisy. I’d trade with you any day just to be able to enjoy a meal, or go for a run, or take a really good dump.”
“Jeez, Sarah. Really?”
“You never know what little pleasures you’ll miss until they’re gone.”
“Any other classy gems or insights you want to share?”
Her sister went silent, but Daisy could almost hear her gleeful giggle in the recesses of her mind as she walked to her quarters.
Unlike the somewhat restrictive living spaces she had been accustomed to aboard the Váli, Dark Side Base was like a resort by comparison. Not exactly a resort, perhaps, but it was a much more spacious and comfortable living arrangement at least, one aspect of which were the private showers in each crewmember’s quarters.
When the base had been fully manned, only the officers and science crew were afforded private rooms in the safer confines of the rock-ensconced technical buildings. Now, housing barely a dozen humans total, the inhabitants had their pick of lodging.
The facilities that had not been hidden under the moon’s rocky surface were rendered empty shells when the alien invaders bombarded them to oblivion as they passed on their way to Earth. In the aftermath, the remaining intact structures, safely tucked under rocky ledges, briefly housed the few dozen survivors out of a base of hundreds.
They had thought they’d somehow miraculously escaped unharmed.
They were wrong.
The remaining habitable spaces soon began suffering catastrophic decompression one by one when the aliens’ horrific AI virus was released, sending the powerful mind of Dark Side Base spiraling into insanity and collapse. In the span of but a few hours, it had vented nearly every chamber to space before melting down into a spasming chunk of fused neuro-circuitry as the virus overloaded its core.
The handful of remaining survivors who had been lucky enough to have had access to space suits before decompression found themselves alive, but unable to power up the base without a viable AI operating system.
They even pulled the fried, half-meter-cube of the AI brain from its docking bay and attempted to override the safeties manually. It was a valiant effort, but the base was military in origin, and top secret at that.
The security protocols originally designed to keep anyone from disabling the AI to take over the base had ultimately resulted in those poor souls suffocating in their suits as they ran out of oxygen, unable to restart the scrubber network that provided them an endless supply of fresh air.
Daisy tried not to think of the long-dead bodies Fatima had slowly dragged out of the facility when she came to live in it all those years ago. It must have been horrific, but she had done that, and far more.
In fact, over the decades, Fatima had somehow accomplished the seemingly Sisyphean task of rebuilding and restoring most of the facilities and hangars not directly impacted in the attack.
One by one.
By herself.
She had restarted the organic materials food replication processors and air scrubbers first, followed by the water system that tapped into a deep ice field hidden far beneath the moon’s surface. The breaking of the hydrogen/oxygen bond provided the base both a source of combustible fuel in the form of hydrogen, and a clean oxygen supply indefinitely.
The hangars took a bit more work, and it wasn’t until nearly a decade later that she managed to get the first of them fully functional. From there, she spent the next few years repairing a small utility ship, and once that was finally flight-worthy, she set to work, drifting in the debris field, maneuvering using only her compressed air thrusters in order to stay off Chithiid scans as she slowly accumulated useful parts from the destroyed fleet scattered in orbit.
It wasn’t much of a life, but at least it was life.
“At long last,” Daisy said with a sigh as she stepped into her quarters. She reached into her shower compartment and spun the knob, a steaming blast of water beckoning her to join it. Daisy stretched high, then twisted from side to side, feeling her cracked ribs twinge uncomfortably as she did.
“Not quite healed,” Sarah commented.
“Nope. Not yet. Apparently, even I don’t heal that fast, it seems.”
“Bummer.”
“I’ll survive,” she replied with a little laugh as she stripped out of her funky workout attire and stepped into the beckoning hot water.
Chapter Three
Daisy’s hair was still damp as she walked the corridor to the mess hall, her stomach rumbling loudly, as if to urge her on faster.
Despite her abdomen’s vocalizations, a patch of expertly-welded wall made Daisy stop in her tracks, as it had more than once since she’d taken up residence there. She ran her finger admiringly over the perfect seams, lingering as she traced across the one, and only, tiny imperfection in the weld.
All by herself, she did this. Dragged the metal here, sealed the breach, welded it all together. And the whole time without a single human to help her.
Daisy shuddered at the thought. The loneliness must have been unbearable, yet Fatima seemed the most tranquil and at peace of the entire crew.
Who knows? Maybe her training actually will be useful, Daisy pondered as she wondered if it might even help her calm her mind and accept this unexpected new life.
She continued on her way, her footsteps quietly echoing off the walls. Up ahead, she noticed the research lab’s door was open, faint music drifting out into the hall.
“Hey, Chu,” she called out as she passed the open door.
The technician looked up from his work and flashed a warm smile.
“Hey, Daisy. Dang, you look pretty beat up. Training with Tamara again?”
“You know it.”
“Well, if you break anything, let me know. I’m pretty sure I can get the medbot to fix you up in no time.” He laughed and returned his attention to the microscope in front of him.
Chu, she had learned, while looking human, actually possessed an impressive array of artificial organs, as well as several ceramisteel replacement bones. She never did ask him what happened to him to require such invasive repairs, and figured he likely wouldn’t want to relive whatever necessitated them.
He was one of the resident crew Daisy got along with easiest, and she saw no reason to sour that relationship. Besides, the uncomfortable fact was, all of them were modified to at least some extent, though some, far more than others.
Tamara had served as her ship’s botanist, and her mechanical arm, though
designed for combat, also accommodated a variety of attachments, allowing her to swap out accessories for her gardening work as needed. She loved that arm, and Daisy doubted she’d take an organic replacement even if Mal grew her one.
Finn, their chef-slash-apparent former commando, also had a partial metal arm, as well as several replacement fingers on his other hand, acquired after an incident during the flight to Dark Side Base.
Gustavo, the ship’s navigator, possessed a cybernetic eye, along with a chunk of skull that had been replaced. He was massively enhanced, fine filaments running from his brain to the AI connection in his head, allowing him to plug directly into the ship and help navigate the vessel when Mal needed assistance.
Doctor McClain and Captain Harkaway each sported a mechanical leg, though Harkaway’s was far older and slowly showing signs of wear and age. Reggie, the Váli’s co-pilot, sported a shiny metal left hand, five replacement ribs, a ceramisteel femur, and a bunch of other mods, all required by some ailment that had ravaged his body.
Then there was Vince. Oh, Vince. The times they had shared still made her warm inside. She had been so in love with him. Then she saw the scans revealing the almost undetectable enhancements to his body. Reinforcements, to joints, filaments of metal fused to bones, and a small AI mounted in his brain.
The shitty thing was, she had truly loved him up until that revelation. The revelation that her boyfriend was a machine.
That particular discovery had hurt her much more than the others, though, in all fairness, it was Vince who actually felt the pain far more tangibly when Daisy, having just learned his true nature moments before, abruptly sealed a door on him, cutting his arm off at the shoulder.
He had survived the trauma, his limb reattached in their ship’s medical unit, and only sporting a thin scar for the ordeal. Not only that, he had shortly afterward both saved her from Earth’s hostile surface, as well as forgiven her for what she had done to him. All in the same day, no less. It was more than a little bit of a mind fuck.