James leaned over and tapped Next Screen. Carefully examining the list, he exclaimed, “Well, SOMEBODY activated the system.” He kept pressing Next Screen until a set of glowing green numerals stopped his hand. He stared at the screen in wide-eyed surprise. “Colony number seventy-six?” he asked. “Nobody has ever heard from them before. Weren’t they one of the colonies that took a direct hit with a nuke back when it all began?”
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe,” he said distantly. He pressed a button labeled Travel History Log and shaking his head in amazement, he said, “Well, somebody at that station called for a transport vehicle.”
“Impossible!” exclaimed James. “It just can’t be.”
With an excited catch in his voice Ryan said, “I beg to differ. Perhaps we are not all alone after all!” Facing the microphone, he said, “Computer. Please establish an audio link to the transport console at station number seventy-six.”
The computer said, “Connection established,” and then the speaker on the console emitted a burst of crackling static. Ryan pressed an red button next to the microphone and said, “Hello. Station number seventy-six? This is colony number eleven. Do you copy?” He released the push-to-talk button and the speaker crackled some more. Over a background of hissing electronic white noise, he heard nothing but the hollow echoes of his own voice, the wind in the tunnel and the ever-present sound of dripping water. He asked again, this time leaning closer to the microphone while speaking. “Hello? Station number seventy-six? This is colony number eleven calling. Do you copy?” Again, he received no reply. Tiny and Mary had already departed. They never heard his call.
Chapter 14
Tiny fidgeted beside his friend, Mary. He did not want to awaken her, now that she finally had fallen asleep, but the pressure in his bladder was becoming unbearable. Mary continued to sleep, moaning to herself from bad dreams, until Tiny could not take it anymore. He lifted Mary’s arm, which she had draped across his shoulders and gently let it down at her side.
Remembering to use his quiet voice he whispered, “I am sorry friend Mary but Tiny has to go pee-pee.” He got up and stuck his hand out, felt for the wall and began carefully feeling his way down the tunnel. “Tiny must go far enough so that friend Mary can’t see his ding-a-ling,” he illogically said to himself in the utter darkness.
After traveling for several minutes, he stopped and did his business. “Ah!” he said, “Tiny feels much better now!” He stood there, perplexed for a minute. “Tiny needs to wash his hands after touching his ding-a-ling!” Listening carefully, he thought he heard water running further down the tunnel. “Tiny is thirsty too!” he said to himself and then he made his way towards the sound.
Tiny stumbled a few times but managed to safely reach the little spring which ran down the side of one wall. He dutifully washed his hands in a puddle on the ground and then stood up and drank from the flow dripping off the wall until he was refreshed. He was about to turn around to go back to Mary when a little green glow, barely perceptible in the distance, caught his eye. “Tiny sees something!” he said in excitement and then made his way down the tunnel, moving even further away from Mary.
His eyes locked on the faint light, Tiny slowly stumbled towards it. Soon he did not have to squint to make it out. “What’s that?” Tiny said, tilting his head upwards. He took another step towards it and then with a little click, the motion sensor on the ceiling detected him and turned on a bright string of LED lights on the ceiling. Tiny let out a little shriek and covered his eyes. “Bright light!” he cried in surprise.
He stood there, looking around in wonder. When he looked down, he saw the tracks in the dust that 41 had left as he had passed. “41!” he shouted. “Where are you 41? Tiny is here!” When he received no reply Tiny said to himself, “Tiny has to go find 41 and bring a light to help friend Mary.” He continued following the tracks on the floor. The motion sensor lights clicked on and illuminated the path before him as he went.
Mary tossed and turned in her sleep. The uneven stony floor dug into her flesh uncomfortably. This discomfort caused her to have vivid nightmares of huge monsters chasing her down a darkened tunnel. She snapped wide awake with a little shriek of terror. Waking was no better than the nightmares and she let out a deep sigh of depression.
She sat there, with her chest heaving and her heart pounding. As she gradually calmed down, until a new waking nightmare intruded in her thoughts. “Where is Tiny?” she asked herself. “Tiny, where are you?” she asked into the darkness. Receiving no reply, she stood up in a panic, banging her elbow into the rock wall. In her terror, she did not even feel it. “TINY?” she shrieked. “Tiny, where are you?” Her heart started pounding even more than it had before. She cried great wracking tears and said, “Tiny, how could you leave me here?” She backed up and crashed into the wall with a thud. She slid down the wall until she reached the floor and then sat there, with her knees drawn up to her chest, her face buried against her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. Through desolate sobs, she whispered, “Where are you Tiny? Where have you gone?” Even more softly she cried, “I don’t want to die here alone in the dark, Tiny! Not alone! Please come back!”
Mary shivered on the ground as the cold air of the tunnel dried her cold sweat. She curled up into a ball on her side and surrendered herself to oblivion. “All alone,” was the last thing she muttered before sleep took her… or perhaps, it was unconsciousness.
Tiny, the excitement of following 41’s tracks making him temporarily forget about returning to Mary, continued ever deeper into the abandoned technical wing of the colony. He followed the tracks, with his eyes glued to the floor like a hound dog following a scent until he reached a T-intersection in the tunnel. Here there were many tracks crisscrossing over top of one another. They went in both directions from the junction. He stood still, looking to the left and to the right, unable to decide which way to go. A faint noise to his left caused him to at last make a decision. Without hesitation, he quickly moved down the tunnel.
In a couple minutes, he came to a door in the wall. The noise was coming from inside. He stepped in and then his face lit up with joy. “41!” he shouted. “Tiny found you!”
Tiny instantly realized his mistake. This was not his robot friend 41. This robot did not have the bulky batteries that 41 had in its carrying bin. The robot ceased working and turned to face him. “Hello very large undesignated young human male, my designation is twelve. What is your designation?”
Tiny’s face lit up with glee. He laughed and said, “Twelve talks funny.” He walked up to the bot, shook one of its arms and said, “Tiny. Tiny is Tiny!”
Twelve tilted his cameras and said, “Tiny is a humorous designation for a very large young male human.”
Tiny laughed and said, “Yep! Tiny’s friends called Tiny that.”
Twelve nodded his cameras and asked, “Where did you come from, Tiny? I have not seen another human for two hundred and twenty-seven years.”
Tiny laughed and said, “Tiny is not THAT old. My mommy told Tiny that he came from her belly because Mommy and Daddy loved one another.”
Twelve looked at him for several seconds before he said, “Yes, that is how humans procreate.” Twelve, now realizing that he was talking to a person who was emotionally very young, changed tact and then said, “Large young male human designation Tiny, is there something that I may help you with?
Still laughing, Tiny nodded enthusiastically. “Tiny is looking for friend 41. Do you know where friend 41 is?”
Twelve pointed one of his arms towards the other side of the large room and said, “Maintenance bot designation 41 is over there working at a manufacturing and fabrication table.”
Tiny smiled and said, “Tiny thanks you, Twelve,” and he hurried over to where 41 was industriously working.
“Tiny!” 41 said, sounding as surprised as a robot ever did. “How did you get here?”
Tiny jumped up and down and shook one of 41’s arms vig
orously. “Tiny came to find you with friend Mary!”
41 tilted his cameras and asked, “Where is Mary now, Tiny?”
Tiny’s face fell. “Friend Mary is lost in the dark. A monster scared Tiny and he made friend Mary drop our lantern. It broke and friend Mary and Tiny were in the dark together.” A tear escaped his eye and he said, “Friend Mary cried and cried in the dark.” In a very serious voice he added, “Tiny thinks friend Mary gave up because Mary thought that she was dead.”
41 quickly rolled up to him and asked, “Mary is in the access tunnel from the railway?”
Tiny nodded, “Yes. Tiny and Mary were sitting there in the dark waiting to die but Tiny had to get up and go pee-pee. Tiny found the lights and then Tiny saw your tracks and came to get you.” He patted 41 on his camera stalk and said, “41 must help Tiny rescue friend Mary!”
41 immediately rolled towards the door and said, “Follow me, Tiny.”
Mary awakened and listlessly said, “Tiny?” When there was no reply, she sighed and whispered through parched lips, “I hope you don’t suffer too much, Tiny.” She hugged her arms across her chest in a vain attempt at keeping out the cold. “At least you will not realize what is happening to you. Sometimes I envy your limited, childlike intelligence.” She rolled her tongue around in her mouth and said, “Damn, I am thirsty. I guess I should get up and try to find some water.” She tried getting to her feet but in her weakened state, her legs would not support her weight. She resigned herself to her fate and laid back down against the wall. “Oh well, it will be over quicker if I just lie here,” she thought as she began to pass out again. Her last conscious thought was, “What is that noise? I must be hallucinating.”
41 rolled down the corridors so rapidly that Tiny had to run to keep up. When the robot reached the areas without overhead lighting, he switched on his powerful work lights. It took no time at all to reach Mary. The bright illumination made traversing the tunnel a trivial affair.
Mary did not respond to the lights. Her small body lay motionless upon the ground, rolled up into a little ball. Tiny’s eyes opened wide and he shouted, “Friend Mary! Wake up! Tiny and 41 are here!” Mary did not respond to his voice. Tiny let out a great wail of grief and cried, “Friend Mary is dead! Tiny killed her when he broke the light. Tiny is a BAD BOY!” He slapped himself across the face and turned to face the wall, bawling his eyes out.
41 advanced and gently prodded Mary with one of his arms. “No Tiny,” he said, “Mary is not dead. She is just unconscious. I will take her to the medical ward and the medical bot will repair her.” Without a further word, he reached down and gently picked her up in his arms with ease. He rotated in place on his treads until he was facing back the way they had come and then he called to Tiny, “Please follow me. I am sorry Tiny, speed is of the utmost importance now.” He took off at high speed again, however Tiny was able to keep up by running hard. Once they reached the area with the overhead lighting, 41 sped up and said, “Please keep up as best as you can. If you cannot keep up, the medical wing is a short distance past the work room where you found this unit. Meet me there.”
Tiny ran as hard as he could and somehow managed to keep up. Fortunately, the distance was not great and when he arrived at the medical center, he stopped just inside the doorway, hunched over, holding his sides and breathing heavily.
As soon as 41 entered the room he declared in a loud volume, “MEDICAL EMERGENCY!” and he rolled over to an exam table and gently laid Mary upon it. The medical bot tried to respond however the centuries of inactivity had left his joints nearly frozen. With a loud squeak, the bot turned his head to face 41 and said, “Medical bot designation three oh three requires assistance from the maintenance bot with the unusual batteries.”
41 quickly rolled over to the other robot and with a blur of arms, lubricated its joints and cleaned the lenses of his stereoscopic cameras. The work only required a few seconds. Medical bot nodded, said, “Thank you, undesignated repair bot,” and immediately moved over to the exam table. A large screen behind the table switched on and 303 carefully examined it. The screen displayed Mary’s vitals in great detail. A bar graph appeared with a line for each individual aspect of her health. Solid green bars indicated that mostly she was fine. Two bars however, the ones indicating hydration and body temperature, were yellow tinged with a little orange. 303 said, “Subject young human female is suffering from acute dehydration and hypothermia. Administering pre-warmed intravenous fluids.” With a blur of his four arms, almost too fast to follow, 303 opened a cabinet, withdrew an IV bag and hooked it up to a vein on Mary’s arm. Immediately, the yellow-orange bars began to fill and moved towards the green end of the scale.
Chapter 15
Soft beeping came from the monitor screen on the bed where Mary lay sleeping. All of her biological indicators now were solidly into the green. She moaned softly to herself. This time her dreams were untroubled. She dreamt the she was lying outside on her back upon the top of a grassy knoll. A warm sun shone down upon her upturned face. Colorful butterflies were flying all around. In her dream, one landed upon her outstretched hand. With a little smile on her face, Mary awakened.
Her first thought was, “I am warm!” Aloud, she said, “What is that beeping?”
303, standing vigilant at her bedside said, “Good morning Mary. How are you feeling?” Mary’s eyes snapped open, momentarily in a panic, until she saw Tiny softly snoring in a chair across the room and then she quickly relaxed. Next her eyes fell upon 303. Having never seen a working medical bot before, she stared wide-eyed and did not respond. 303 tilted his cameras and said, “There is no reason to be afraid, Mary. I am medical bot three oh three. I am here to take care of you. Your friend Tiny rescued you. He found maintenance bot 41 and they went and got you and brought you here to me.” Mary said, “41? Where is he?” and she tried to sit up. 303 stopped her. “Just a second, Mary. You were dehydrated and hypothermic. I had to administer pre-warmed intravenous fluids. You have recovered and no longer require an IV.” He deftly removed the IV tube from her arm, covered the spot with a little white bandage and said, “Okay Mary. You may sit up now.”
Mary stared at the bandage in wonder for a moment and then she sat up, swung her feet over the side of the bed and stood up. She gazed upon 303 in wonder. “You are a real medical bot?” she asked. “There hasn’t been a working medical bot in the colony in living memory.”
303 tilted his head to the side and let out a realistic simulated laugh. “I assure you Mary, I am quite real.” 303 reached out and tapped Mary on her nose.
Mary giggled and said, “I see that you are!” She looked around the room. It shone gleaming white and was spotlessly clean. While the bot watched over Mary as she slept, it removed every speck of dust from every surface. Brilliant white lights covered the entire ceiling. When her eyes fell upon the diagnostic table, she gasped and said in wonder, “Oh wow. A real diagnostic bed! I have only ever seen a picture of one on the computer screen.”
303 looked at her closely. “The humans in your section of the colony have no diagnostic tables Mary?”
Mary shook her head. “No, when we were cut off by the cave-in we were left with no medical wing, no beds, Nothing. We had a medical bot but it had ceased functioning generations ago when we ran out of spare parts. We had to rely on files stored on the computer for medical training.”
303 nodded at her and said, “That is quite troubling, Mary.” He looked her up and down and said, “How many people live in your area? Do any of them require medical assistance? If so I will ask 41 to assist me to get to your section.”
Mary closed her eyes and said, “I believe that there are one hundred thirty-eight of us left.” She considered for a few seconds and said, “I am sure that there are some of us who would benefit from your expertise. Our training is very limited.” She briefly closed her eyes, sighed and then said, “If we had a bot such as yourself, my friend Tiny’s head injury when he was a child might not have left him mentally d
iminished.”
303 nodded and said, “Yes, that is quite unfortunate. I scanned him while you slept. He is in good health, other than his old head injury.” Medical bots were loaded with the highest level of artificial intelligence and it was biased towards maximum empathy. 303 sounded truly sad when he said, “If I had been present, I would have been able to prevent his brain damage with a trivial operation.”
Mary looked at her dear friend with affection. “He is still a sweet soul,” she said. “Anyway, we can’t fix what happened long ago.” She looked 303 in the eyes and said, “You said you can help the people in the farming wing. That is wonderful however what about the people here in the technical wing. Will you not be leaving them unattended?” 303 bowed his head and did not respond. “303,” she asked again, “What about the people here?”
303 sadly said in a very soft voice, “There are no longer any people here, Mary. The last of them expired two hundred and twenty-seven years ago.”
“What happened to them,” Mary said in shock. “How come you could not save them?”
303 let out a simulated sigh and said, “They chose voluntary euthanasia. When they had less than a month’s food left they chose death with dignity rather than degenerate into something as barbaric as cannibalism. They chose to end their lives with dignity instead.” 303 covered his cameras with one of his hands and said in a grief-stricken voice, “They ordered me to administer drugs to make them go to sleep and then to euthanize them. I did not want to however my programming forbade me from disobeying a direct order from a human.” The robot let out a little sob. To Mary’s ear, it did not sound simulated. Not in the least. “When they were all gone, I took care of their bodies and then returned here and put myself into a low-power, standby mode.” In a very soft voice he added, “It was the nearest thing I could do to euthanizing myself.”
Those Left Behind Page 8