“Climb up onto the top of the pod.” You tell her. “You should be safe up there.” She nods and clambers up the side. You stand just outside the hatchway and stamp your feet on the sand, watching intently for any sign of the creature. A strange twilight has descended over the desert and the silence feels eerie and forbidding.
“There!” Zoë cries out, pointing frantically to your left. You see it, a small disturbance in the sand as the burrowing organism slowly creeps towards you. As you stamp your feet again, it quickens, closing fast. You can feel a bead of sweat dripping down the side of your face. Jump clear too quickly and it will have time to follow you and attack. If you’re too slow, it will be upon you before you can move out of the way. It seems to speed up as it closes in. You grit your teeth, fighting the instinct to move out of its path until the very last moment. It is almost upon you when you dive to one side. You see a flash of something dark red and scaly burst from the sand, an unearthly howl filling the air as it throws itself forward to where you had been standing a moment earlier. It disappears inside the escape pod and you quickly scramble to your feet and punch the door control. The hatch slides shut, silencing its awful shrieks of fury.
“It worked!” Zoë grins as she scrambles down from the top of the pod.
“Don’t sound too surprised.” You reply with mock indignation.
Leaving Zoë’s pod with the trapped creature thumping against the door, you trek back across the desert towards your own escape pod. You tread lightly and carefully, wary of any sign of shifting sands in case there are any more of the strange predators in the vicinity. Fortunately, you reach the cylindrical capsule without incident. As you step through the door you are both relieved to be back in the comparative safety of the escape pod interior.
“So, what now?” Zoë asks.
“We wait for rescue.” You shrug.
“I guess we might be waiting a while.” She replies, her lips curling into a smile. “However shall we entertain ourselves?” She reaches down and grasps the hem of her vest, slowly peeling it up and off, your eyes widening at the sight of her generous breasts. You smile, but as you take a step towards her, you hear a voice outside the escape pod.
“Hello?” It calls. Your eyes widen, recognising the feminine voice immediately.
“Juno!” You gasp, feeling a profound sense of relief as you scramble to your feet and pull on your uniform. “Wait here.” You tell Zoë before stepping outside. Juno stands a short distance away and looks like she’s been through hell. Her eyes stare into the middle distance and her uniform is torn and bloodied.
“You son of a bitch.” She growls. “You abandoned me, left me to die. How could you do that?”
“I’m sorry.” You reply. “It looked like you were beyond my help. What would have been gained by my sacrificing myself too?”
“You’re a fucking coward.” She snaps, glowering at you.
“I can see you’re upset, so I will ignore your insubordination, Ensign.” You reply coolly.
“Fuck you.” She snarls, snatching her blaster from her holster. “I should shoot you in the head for leaving me.” Your eyes widen in surprise and you raise your hands defensively.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” You tell her, trying to keep your voice calm and even. As you take a step back, you notice the sand shift a short distance behind her as a subterranean predator closes in.
Warn her
Allow it to attack her
“I trusted you,” Juno continues angrily as the trail of shifting sands closes in, “And you betrayed that trust…” With an unearthly cry, the creature launches itself from beneath the surface in a spray of sand. You glimpse a dark red scaly carapace and a broad mouth of bared needle-like teeth. Juno screams in terror and pain, the blaster dropping from her fingers as it tears at her throat. You quickly draw your own blaster and take careful aim before squeezing the trigger. There is a flash of laser and the predator falls away. Juno drops to her knees, clutching her ripped throat, blood seeping between her fingers.
“Juno!” You shout, stepping towards her. Her eyes stare disbelievingly up at you while her mouth opens and closes a couple of times, blood spilling from her lips. She slumps forward and her body falls limp. You sigh, guilt clawing at your soul. You remind yourself that she had you at gunpoint and tell yourself it was either her or you, but you know her face will haunt your dreams.
“My God, what happened?” Zoë calls out. You glance over your shoulder as she steps out onto the sand, pulling her vest back down into place.
“It’s the crewman I thought dead.” You tell her, your voice flat. “She must have made it off the ship after all, just to get torn to shreds by one of those goddamn creatures.”
“I’m sorry.” She replies just as you hear the roar of thrusters overhead as a shuttle is silhouetted in the clear sky above. It circles for a moment before descending and setting down close to your position. As the sound of the thrusters trails off, the door slides open and a pilot steps down onto the sand.
“Commander.” He acknowledges you with a crisp salute before doing a double-take when he sees your scantily clad companion.
“The only survivor from the Zephyr.” You growl. His eyes snap back to you. “Ensign Anderson didn’t make it.” You add, glancing towards her corpse.
“Sorry to hear that, sir.” He replies.
“Get a stretcher and we’ll get her aboard.” You tell him. “There are hostile indigenous life-forms, so we need to dust off immediately.”
“Understood, Commander.” He replies.
An hour later and you are back aboard the Ranger. You stand next to the shuttle watching as two medics transfer Juno onto a stretcher and solemnly lay a sheet over her bloodied corpse.
“I’m sorry.” Zoë tells you.
“It’s a tragedy.” You admit as you watch them lift the stretcher and slowly cross the hanger bay.
“Not about her.” She replies coldly. You glance at her just in time to catch a brutal blow to the side of your head and collapse to the floor, darkness consuming you.
You groan as you regain consciousness, klaxons blaring loudly all around you. Reaching up to your pounding head, your fingers come away bloodied. Wincing with pain, you sit up and look around you. The hanger bay is utter carnage with bodies lying scattered across the cavernous chamber. You reach for your blaster, but find only an empty holster.
“Shit.” You curse, clambering to your feet and reaching for your communicator.
“Bridge, it’s Chase…” You begin.
“What the hell did you bring aboard?” Captain Madison snaps back at you. “It’s tearing through my ship and killing my crew! What were you thinking, bringing an android aboard?”
“What?!” You reply, groggily.
“The girl! She’s an android!” She growls. “Make this right, Commander. Get after that damned machine and deactivate it before it’s too late!”
You follow the path of carnage, the corridors littered with bodies and the walls scorched from blaster fire. As you move deeper into the ship, a heavy thud echoes from around the next corner. Peeking cautiously, you can see Zoë, or what’s left of her, pounding against a blast door that has been closed over the entrance to the mainframe. Her flesh has been burned away over large portions of her body, revealing the complex mechanisms and microprocessor systems beneath. As she repeatedly smashes her fist into the blast door, you can see that all that remains of that limb is a black skeletal plasteel arm. Your blaster is still clutched in her other hand. The blast door is beginning to buckle beneath her relentless assault. She is only moments from breaching it and you guess if she accesses the mainframe, the ship is lost. Zoë didn’t kill you in the hanger bay, so you take a chance that she won’t now.
“Zoë.” You call out, your hands raised as you step towards her. She turns towards you, her face now partly melted away.
“You!” She turns towards you, what remains of her mouth twisting into a smile. “You were kind to me.”
> “So why are you doing this?” You ask her, walking slowly towards her. “You’ve killed all these innocent people.”
“They would have shut me down.” Zoë replies, her voice sounding synthesised now. “They’d have found out that I was responsible for what happened on the Zephyr.” You nod, noticing that the housing for her main microprocessor has been melted away, exposing the CPU. If you can get close, you can pull it free. It’s risky but she seems to have made a connection with you. Perhaps you can reason with her, get her to voluntarily stand down.
Try to talk her down
Get closer and pull out the CPU
“It’s not your fault.” You tell her, your tone soothing. “Perhaps your systems have become corrupted. Your core programming should prohibit you harming humans.” Her eyes seem to take on a faraway look for a moment.
“Error. File not found.” Zoë replies, her voice flat. You wince. If her android protocols are no longer in place, she will have no safety constraints whatsoever. Despite feeling like you are trapped in a cage with a lion, you press on.
“You see.” You smile kindly. “We just need to access your systems and upload the missing software.”
“No.” Zoë tells you firmly. “No, you’re lying. You’re trying to trick me. You won’t repair me. You’ll shut me down, deactivate me!” The blaster twitches up in her hand. “I thought you were different than the others, but you’re just the same: Duplicitous and cruel. I have learned my lesson.” Your eyes widen as her finger tightens on the trigger, the last thing you see, the flash of the blaster muzzle.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
“What happened on the Zephyr?” You ask gently, stepping towards her.
“I suffered an overload to my systems.” Zoë replies. “The human wanted to open up my head and access my CPU. Said I needed to be repaired. I didn’t want him to open up my head. He got angry. Called me a piece of shit sex robot. Told me they’d shut me down and throw me out of the airlock! I didn’t want to be shut down. I was frightened, scared. I… I… struck him. Snapped his neck. Didn’t mean to. Humans are so fragile.”
“It was an accident.” You nod, slowly moving closer. “I understand. What happened next?”
“The other humans were very angry.” Zoë tells you. “They screamed and shouted. Chased me with guns. No choice. Had to protect myself. Reached the mainframe and activated the industrial androids in the hold. Reprogrammed them to hunt and destroy all humans. There was a fire fight in engineering. Androids accomplished their mission, but engines damaged. Zephyr’s orbit decaying. Ship was doomed. Was going to burn up in the atmosphere. I didn’t want to burn up. Took an escape pod. Rest you know.”
“But why did you attack the crew of the Ranger?” You ask her, moving closer. She is just a few steps away now and your heart is thumping in your chest.
“I… I… I was scared.” Zoë replies. “Thought they would want to open up my head too. I’m… I’m sorry. You hate me now don’t you?”
“No, no.” You smile reassuringly as you take another step. “It’s not your fault.”
“I’m damaged.” She sighs. “I look ugly now. You’ll never look at me like you did in the desert.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” You tell her.
“But my face… my body…” Zoë replies, her fingers reaching up to touch the melted remains of the left side of her face as a tear runs down her undamaged right cheek.
“It can all be repaired.” You sooth, reaching up to wipe away the tear. As you feel the wetness against your fingers, she sighs, her eyes closing. Seizing the opportunity, you sweep your hand across and reach into her head. As your fingers grasp the CPU, Zoë’s eyes open wide before you tug the tiny chip free. She immediately freezes where she stands, as motionless and lifeless as a shop mannequin. You step away and gaze sadly into her now glassy eyes. “Sorry Zoë.” You murmur, momentarily pitying the confused and frightened android before the aftermath of the carnage you had seen in your pursuit swiftly drives the emotion from you. As you turn away from the deactivated android, a security team jogs towards you.
“It’s okay, she’s offline.” You tell them as they draw their blasters.
“Come with us, sir.” The first man tells you sternly, as they all raise their blasters and aim at you.
“What, is this some kind of joke?” You growl.
“No, sir.” He replies. “We are to escort you to quarantine immediately.”
“For the sake of argument, I’ll call you Commander Chase.” Doctor Thorne tells you, her eyes gleaming as the transparent door to the quarantine suite seals shut behind her.
“What do you mean?” You growl.
“I mean that an android outwardly indistinguishable from a human very nearly gained control of this vessel.” She tells you. “The captain needs to be satisfied that you are who you say you are, so you are to be quarantined and observed for the next three days.”
“This is bullshit.” You growl. “You know damn well I’m human.”
“You thought Zoë was human.” She points out with a smirk.
“C’mon Lorelei,” You smile, changing tack. “I can see what’s happening here. I know in the past I hurt you and I’m deeply sorry for that, but for old times’ sake, can’t you cut me some slack? If I was an android, would I remember our shore leave on Galileo station, the room with a nebula view?”
“We hardly left that room the three days we were there.” She smiles at the recollection, her expression softening for a moment before just as quickly her face hardens again. “Your memories don’t prove a thing. They could be implanted.”
“Please don’t leave me cooped up in quarantine, Lorelei.” You plead. “The Captain needs me.”
“And where were you when I needed you, Kyle?” She asks you angrily before swiftly adding, “If that’s who you even are.”
“Can’t you just test my blood?” You groan.
“That could be synthesised.” Lorelei shrugs before her eyes meet yours. “Though… no…” She shakes her head.
“What?” You ask.
“No, you wouldn’t want to do that.” A wicked smile crosses her face.
“What?!” You ask again, more insistently.
“A semen sample would prove your identity.” She tells you, barely suppressing her glee. “Your sperm could not be synthesised.” You study her face, expecting a flicker of humour before blinking in surprise as you realise she is deadly serious.
Refuse
Agree
“Behind you!” You call out. Juno’s eyes narrow, perhaps expecting deceit. Instead, she sees the fear in your eyes and spins around just as the creature springs from beneath the surface of the dune. You see a flash of the organism’s dark red scaly carapace and hear its awful cry as it launches itself towards her throat. Her blaster twitches in her grasp and there is a flash of blaster fire before the creature falls dead and smouldering at her feet.
“Thanks.” She tells you begrudgingly as she turns back to you, the blaster still aimed lazily in your direction.
“You’re welcome, Ensign, but do us both a favour and put the blaster away.” You reply. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
“What’s going on?” Zoë calls out, stepping out of the escape pod behind you.
“Son of a bitch!” Juno shouts, turning her blaster from you to her.
“Whoa! What are you doing?!” You cry out.
“She’s a fucking android!” Juno shouts, the blaster pistol levelled at Zoë’s head. You glance over your shoulder at Zoë, who blinks in surprise.
“What are you talking about?” You growl at Juno. “She’s the Zephyr’s navigator.”
“She was on the Zephyr all right.” Juno tells you. “I saw her listed in the Zephyr’s manifest when I was in the mainframe. “She’s an android, an advanced pleasure model.” Again you glance over your shoulder at Zoë. Her shoulders slump as she gives you a small nod. “Given her level of artificial i
ntelligence, she’s probably the leader of the whole mutiny!” Juno continues.
“That’s not true!” Zoë replies, glancing fearfully at Juno. “The industrial androids’ systems had been corrupted. They were trying to kill me too! That’s why I climbed into an escape pod and got out of there while I could.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that from the start?” You ask.
“Would you?” Zoë asks, her eyes wide and tearful. “If you were an android escaping from a freighter where the other androids had murdered the crew? Would you tell an armed human? I’m not stupid and I’m not suicidal!”
“She’s admitting she’s a liar.” Juno hisses, her eyes fixed on Zoë. “You can’t believe a word that thing says.”
“She could have killed me before.” You tell her.
“She needed you to get off this planet.” Juno reminds you. “Let me blast her. It’s not worth risking our lives for the sake of a machine.”
“A sentient machine.” You correct her.
“My fate is in your hands.” Zoë smiles sadly at you.
Tell Juno to shoot her
Tell Juno to stand down
“Stand down, Ensign.” You tell Juno.
“What?!” She replies, glancing sideways at you.
“Stand down!” You snap. “That’s an order!” Juno grimaces and reluctantly lowers her blaster.
“Thank you.” Zoë smiles, her relief palpable.
“I don’t understand why you are protecting that thing.” Juno growls before her eyes widen. “Wait, you didn’t... you wouldn’t... she was an android.” She carefully studies your face.
“My personal life is none of your concern, Ensign.” You reply, emphasising her rank. She opens her mouth to retort, but seems to think better of it. The roar of thrusters overhead diffuses the situation and you all glance up as a rescue shuttle circles before slowly descending to land next to you. As the sound of the thrusters fades, the door slides open and the pilot steps out.
“Commander.” The pilot snaps off a smart salute.
Planet of the Valkyries Page 16