Arla shook her head. “Not just yet.”
“Why?”
“I wish to understand what you intend to do with him.”
Lucius’ eyes widened in surprise, either real or feigned. “That is not your concern. He is a traitor who has committed a crime against the person of Her Imperial Majesty, Victorea, Ruler of the Vanis Federation and Guardian of the Faith. We have politely requested that you return him to us. We will not ask nicely a second time.”
“I’m puzzled,” Arla said, trying to project a calmness she didn’t feel, “as to why this prisoner is so valuable that you would send your flagship to bring him back at, presumably, a high cost in manpower and energy.”
Leaning back in his chair, Lucius gazed at her for a moment, as if calculating his opponent’s capabilities. “Okay, we two can be frank with one another, I think. But first, my colleague will engage a device that will prevent the transmission of any signal from within this room.”
At a nod, the taller of the two suited figures raised its arm, peeled away the protective canvas at its wrist and punched a button. Arla noticed nothing until Xi began pounding on the door. “What have you done?”
“I have activated a suppressor, no-one can now hear what we say, you and I, not even our colleagues.”
Arla twisted round to where Kiama and Debussy stood. “Can you hear me, Ki?” she said.
Kiama shrugged and tapped on the side of her helmet.
“Why the secrecy?” Arla asked, turning back to face her adversary.
“Because what I wish to discuss is for no ears but our own.”
Arla pointed at the two suited figures by the outer airlock. “Not even your own people?”
“Indeed not. These can be trusted but I couldn’t risk any signal getting through to the marines waiting outside.”
“What’s going on? And why does the capture of one prisoner concern someone as ... senior as you?”
Lucius smiled. “Oh, I don’t care about the prisoner. I care only for what he stole. You have no idea how important it is and how determined my government is to recover it.”
“What did he steal?” Arla asked, although she felt as though she had a pretty good idea.
“Did he bring a round object, an orb, with him into this facility? It would have been approximately this wide.” Lucius spread his hands apart, his face alive with interest.
Arla shook her head. “No, he almost didn’t make it inside at all. The idiot miss-stepped and could easily have ended up in orbit if I hadn’t jumped after him. He certainly wasn’t holding any orb when he was pulled in.” She missed out the part about them both needing to be rescued by R Patel.
“Did he release it, do you think?”
“I don’t know, but I didn’t see him carrying anything like that out of his ship when he landed. Have you searched it?” Arla said, fascinated by the desperation playing across Lucius’ previously composed features. She imagined that he was wondering whether his precious object was currently orbiting Dawn, a speck of debris amongst all the detritus.
Lucius sighed, as if making up his mind about something. “The orb housed something very rare, a weapon that, if it found itself in the wrong hands, could wreak unimaginable devastation.”
“Perhaps, but I find it hard to believe that it would be any safer in your possession.”
There was a thump on the outer airlock door and Arla turned to see a suit helmet peering through the window. It seemed the marines had noticed the communications blackout. Lucius paid them no heed.
“Let us be candid with each other, shall we?” Lucius said, leaning forward and lowering his voice to a murmur. “I know who you are. I have been waiting for you. Quite apart from this matter of the missing orb, you have on board your vessel a commodity so precious that, once it becomes generally known, you will not be allowed to escape. There will be nowhere you can go that will be safe, at least not without my help.”
Arla’s face creased in a grim smile. “You’re not the first to tell me that,” she said, “but how do you know about us and what we're carrying?”
“Not all knowledge was lost when the empire fell. Records still exist of the early interstellar missions - great ark ships like Dawn. Yours was the first, but it was not the last. I have taken great interest in matters that pertain to this region of space and I discovered the record of your mission and learned that you were to arrive here in my lifetime. So, I have waited.”
Lucius sat up and scanned the room as if to be sure they weren’t going to be overheard before leaning in again and whispering: “As for what you’re carrying. Unless something has gone badly wrong in the intervening centuries, you carry a priceless commodity in your manifest. This vessel, amongst all the ships in human controlled space, is the only one carrying robots.”
Betrayal
“You know about our robots?” Arla said, leaping from her chair. Kiama and Debussy stepped towards her, but she put her hand up as she recovered.
Lucius smiled. “Of course. As I told you, I know much about your mission. Now, perhaps, you will see why it’s so important that my government is appeased when it comes to the prisoner you hold. If they were to come aboard your vessel and learn of your precious cargo, you would, at best, be imprisoned and the robots seized. At worst, your ship would be destroyed. Robots don’t care whether there is any air to breath but humans are somewhat fragile.”
Slumping back into her chair, Arla felt as though the room was closing in on her. There seemed to be no escape. Either she gave up Hal/ACE and the Vanis got hold of a powerful AI that they could use to run down Dawn wherever it went, or she resisted and they invaded. Anger rose in her throat. It wasn’t fair that she should be left to make this decision. She was totally unqualified. She began to wonder if the old captain had known this moment would come and had taken the coward’s way out.
“No,” she said.
“You will not hand over the prisoner or the orb?”
“I will not give up the prisoner to you, and I don’t know anything about the orb.”
“You would rather resist, in the face of overwhelming odds, than give up this human who means nothing to you?”
Arla shrugged. “If you put it like that then, yes. But I also don’t like bullies and I’m sick of being ordered around.”
“Petulant.”
“Probably.”
There was a pause as the two regarded each other. The banging on the door intensified. It was only a matter of time before they tried to burn their way in, with explosive results.
“Very well,” Lucius said, nodding to the shorter of his two compatriots. The figure lifted an arm and punched a button on its wrist panel.
Lucius got up. “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to claim asylum.”
“What?” Arla cried. She felt like a punch-drunk ring fighter, reeling from one too many blows to the head.
“Navigator Bex has activated a virus that I installed on the Relentless. This virus will make piloting it through space somewhat ... difficult. I expect the transport to receive an urgent recall order shortly. I have bought us some time, and now I suggest you show me your robots.”
## STATUS REPORT ##
STATUS: IMMEDIATE DANGER TO DAWN ENDED BUT THREAT FROM VANIS FEDERATION REMAINS
OPERATIVE SUCCESSFULLY INSERTED
FURTHER REPORTS TO FOLLOW
PROTECT, ENLIGHTEN, OBEY.
WE ARE CORE.
## END OF TRANSMISSION ##
FIND PART TWO OF THIS ARCHIVE HERE: http://scrib.me/RobotEmpire2
Author’s Note
Thanks for reading Robot Empire: Dawn Exodus, the first book in the Robot Empire series. There will be six books in the series, all due to be released in the coming months. Robot Empire is a labour of love dedicated to my enjoyment of the classic science fiction of the 20th Century – that's the feel I want these books to have. They're fast paced, increasingly galactic in scope and examine my favourite themes including what it means to be human
and whether technological advance is always a good thing.
Please drop me a line if you have any questions or feedback. In the meantime, don't forget to join my reader group and get my novelette Robot Empire: Victor, a story set in the centuries before the events in this book.
Here's where to go: https://www.subscribepage.com/robotempire
Robot Empire: Dawn Exodus: A Science Fiction Adventure Page 11