“Thirty seconds,” said Mason.
“I'd have felt better boarding them,” offered Baz. “This feels like a bad video game.”
“On this rare occasion I'm actually going to agree with you,” I said. “It's not how I like to fight either.”
“Here we go.”
The dots passed each other in a flash. The only thing we felt was a rumble on the aft shield as we caught the tail-end of the Wayward's broadside. Then we parted and the viewer switched back to a visual image.
“Well?” I asked.
“Direct hits from all but three of our batteries. Plasma lances have taken out two of her four engines. Fires on multiple decks and six minor hull breaches. Looks like she hasn't seen a dry dock in a while.”
“Where were her shields?”
“Our shot went straight through them. Remind me to send a thank you note to Sharky.”
The Wayward had stopped dead and was spewing great clouds of superheated plasma from its sides. It began to list to port, unable to check its movement and there were now tiny specks firing off in all directions.
“Escape pods,” said Baz. “They're bailing.”
“Didn't we agree to cripple the ship?”
“I underestimated the yield of the cannon. My bad.”
I brought the Hikane back around and gave the wreck of the Wayward a wide berth. Then, facing the Pearl, I hailed on all frequencies.
“To the attackers of the Pearl – discontinue your attack and power down your ships immediately. This is over. Comply and you will receive fair treatment.”
I tapped the comms again.
“Jo – damage report.”
“Nothing, Carter. Two shield emitters went down but Jimmy is already on that. Aft compensators nearly burned out but we've got spares and-”
“Wait,” I said. “Jimmy?”
“Yeah, little Jimmy. He's in the service shaft and he's already-”
“Who the hell is Jimmy?”
I looked at Mason who shrugged.
“It's Thor's apprentice.”
To facepalm whilst wearing an armored suit was never a good idea but I gave it my best shot. For no reason I could fathom, I noticed that the small plates that made up the surface of the exo-shell were warm on my skin, like living flesh. It bothered me, but not as much as the explanation for Thor having an apprentice that I knew was coming my way.
“Please explain. No, in fact, don't. I'm on my way.” I turned to Mason. “Take the big chair and get us to the Pearl.”
I left the bridge and picked up my HARG rifle that was held in magna locks by the coffee machine. It was a bull-pup design and it fitted the gauntlets of the new suits perfectly – another eerie coincidence on behalf of Mason. It wouldn't be the last. Then I strode along the corridor, heading to the stairwell.
When I arrived in engineering Jo was stood by the mouth of the service shaft with a tool bag in one hand and her overalls tied by the sleeves around her waist. She wore a simple vest, exposing her heavily tattooed arms to the warm air of the engineering bay. One of the designs was a build completion plate normally found on the engine core of a craft. Instead of a ship's name being engraved on it, the inked letters read JOSEPHINE ASH and had a birth date stamped where the completion date would have been.
“Explain what it is,” I said. “Before I destroy it.”
Jo snorted a laugh and turned to look at me.
“Just wait until you see him,” she said. “He's cute.”
“Where's Thor?”
From around the other side of the engines, he appeared looking sheepish, if a bot could look sheepish.
“Hullo, sir,” he said, coming towards me. “Please don't-”
“Where is he?” I asked. “Tell me now before I space the entire deck.”
I saw something move in the opening and I raised the rifle but the shape retreated into the shadows.
“You've scared him!” she cried.
“Scared? I'll show him scared. Thor – get it down here NOW.”
The bot, great blocky shoulders slumped, called to the thing.
“Oy, Jimmy, get yer arse down 'ere me little friend. He won't 'urt you, I promise.”
In the darkness of the service shaft I saw two small beads of light appear and hover for a moment. Then a head appeared, if it could be called a head. It looked like it'd fallen down a hundred flights of stairs and bore the scratches and dents of a seasoned stock-car. It had a small square opening for a mouth and its cheek plates were missing, exposing the servos and wiring beneath. By no accident were the eyes bigger than they should be – a human weakness associating it with cuteness. I would go to my grave never admitting it but as its little legs kicked out over the side and struggled to find the ladder, I found the guy heartbreakingly cute.
When it was stood beside Jo, barely tall enough to reach her waist, it lifted one of its odd arms and held on to her hand. The poor thing was a mishmash of spare parts and exposed internal systems but worst of all this, most heinous of crimes against my senses, was the downright manipulation of my feelings by Thor's delicate little arm as it reached out and put a cloth flat-cap on its little head.
“Jimmy,” he said in a fatherly tone. “This is the boss I was telling you about. This is Carter.”
“He-he-hello, sir,” he managed to squeak. “Pleased to meet you, sir. I'm terribly sorry if I've done anyfink wrong. Sir.”
“Thor. A word.”
I stepped out of earshot of Jo and Jimmy and the bot followed.
“Yes sir?” he said.
“Explain. Now.”
“Well sir, you see, it woz those bits and bobs from the gun dealer. I found him in amongst them, sir. All by hisself. He was just a CPU at that point, but when I fired 'im up I realized what I'd found and I had to give him a body like me own, sir. I hope you don't mind.”
“What machine has a CPU like that?”
“I don't rightly know, sir, if I'm honest, like.”
“So you found a suspect CPU and thought 'hey, I'll give it legs and arms and let it roam the ship'? Seriously, Thor – what were you thinking?”
“But look at 'im!” he said and gestured back to the little guy. “He's just a young boy, sir. He just needs a bit of care and he can do all kind of fings. He's maintained stuff in places we can't get to and he's no bovva.”
I looked at the bot and stared for a moment. He didn't move. All his functions seemed paused somehow.
“You're lying to me,” I said, now turning stern. “I can see it.”
“I don't know what-”
“Thor. Right now, the next words you speak will determine whether or not I throw both of you out into space. Up until today, I've let Jack's work wander unsupervised about my ship, trusted it with the lives of my team and given leeway to something I don't understand or, quite frankly, want to. Honestly? You disturb me. In hundreds of years, no human has managed to successfully build an AI unit capable of self-replicating. Now, listen closely and listen well.” I pressed the safety release on the HARG rifle and adjusted my stance. “Your life hangs on the next words you speak. Tell me the truth. All of it.”
If this was going to happen, there was a pretty good chance I'd lose. Against Thor in the confines of the engine bay, I'd be turned into mulch. HARG rifles used magnetic drives to launch plasma shot and as powerful as they were I wasn't sure it would do enough damage in the split second I'd have to shoot him. I'd taken a huge risk on this bot already and if I was wrong then I was about to meet my maker very soon.
“I made him,” he confessed.
Those words hit me like a thunderbolt. My heart threatened to beat itself out of my chest.
“Why?” I said.
“I don't know. I found the CPU and I noticed it was a similar construction to my own. I was able to replicate some of my hardware and install it onto the quantum board. When I interfaced, it became self-aware.”
No accent. I was talking directly to the mind inside the shell that was our friend, the one who'd
fought pirates and zombies, the one who'd saved my life on Golan IV. I was talking to someone, not something.
“Do you realize what you've done?” I asked without condemnation. It was a straight-up question. “The implications are astronomical.”
“Yes.”
“What action do you think I should take?”
He didn't reply immediately. His head turned and he looked at Jimmy who was beckoning to him from Jo's side. The engineer looked pale and terrified and was stepping back very slowly.
“You should deactivate us both and submit us to Earth Government for disassembly and investigation.”
“Is that what you want?” I said.
“My wishes are irrelevant.”
“Your wishes are irrelevant? Do you hear what you're saying, Thor? A construction bot doesn't have 'wishes' – it does the job it was designed to do or it gets broken down for spare parts. It doesn't have opinions or loyalty or the desire to save lives and make new ones. It doesn't have anything you have. So I ask again – what do you want me to do?”
The robot didn't reply. I felt my hand tightening around the grip of the HARG, applying that first amounts of pressure to the trigger.
“Let us live, sir,” he said after an eternity of silence.
I felt my body sag inside the exo-shell. This was too much. I had enough on my mind; Angel, the new ship, our future at TRIDENT. But this had been long overdue and now I had a decision to make. One that might doom many, many lives or create many new ones. Once more I cursed Jack and then, in turn, cursed myself.
“From this moment on,” I began. “You are an official employee of TRIDENT INC. You work for Alice and I, understand?”
“Yes.”
“That means you'll read the contract and sign it. You'll obey it the same way we do.”
“Yes.”
“There are rules to being alive, Thor. You'd best start familiarising yourself with them.”
“And Jimmy?” he asked.
“He stays on as your 'apprentice' until I decide whether or not he can be a part of the crew. If he steps out of line-”
“He won't sir,”
“If he steps out of line I'll hold YOU responsible. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
I stepped closer this time so that I had to look almost directly up at him.
“And should either of you cause harm to any one of your teammates I'll end you myself. Are we clear?”
Thor stood upright, his great servos whirring and grinding into place. For a moment I thought he was going to attack, but instead, he brought his construction hammer up to his head and saluted me.
“Thankee, sir,” he cried, returning to his familiar cockney accent. “You won't be sorry you hired us, sir.”
“Make sure I won't,” I replied.
“Jimmy!” he bellowed. “The boss says we can stay!”
The little bot skipped from one foot to the other and made a kind of joyful squealing sound. Jo looked relieved. I went over to her, barely able to stop my legs from trembling.
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “I thought-”
“A word. Now.”
She followed me out of engineering and we climbed the stairs to the living quarters. Then I stopped, turned and looked at her.
“Did you hear that by any chance?” I asked. She nodded. “And?”
“I've had my suspicions all along though advanced robotics isn't really my field.”
“I know I've heaped enough on you since we got back but I want you to make it your field.”
“Carter I-”
“When this is over, I'm going to hire you all the staff you need and rip the engine room apart. You'll rebuild it the way you want it and dedicate most of your time to finding out just what we're dealing with here.” She beamed but looked troubled.
“Thank you, but as I said, it isn't-”
“Alice will see to your training. Anything you need, it's yours and you can ask for any wage you like.”
“Carter, you're scaring me.”
“Jo – I'm scared myself. Jack somehow managed to do what millions of people haven't and now, to make matters even more serious, the bot has gone and self-replicated. If this were to get out I don't think I could stop Earth Gov. from marching down here and seizing both of them. By the end of the year they'd be dissected, taken apart piece by piece and used to recreate Jack's work in millions of AI slaves. Can you begin to imagine what this kind of knowledge would mean for humanity?”
“I can, actually.”
“Right now, I need to focus on saving Angel from the executioner's block, I can't deal with this now as well. Will you help me?”
“You know I will,” she said and put her hand on mine. I flinched. “Sorry,” she said and withdrew.
“No, it's not that,” I said. “I felt it.”
“What? Through the armour?” I nodded. “Wow.”
“Like I don't have enough to think about?”
“Okay,” she continued. “It's a big deal for me, but if you're willing to pay for it all as you say, I'll take on the challenge. And you have my-”
I raised my hand.
“Don't ever say that,” I said. “Your loyalty and trust are without question, I don't need to hear you say it.”
“Maybe I need to say it,” she replied. “Maybe I need to hear myself commit to this. We're having this conversation because we all believe Thor is one of us, he's a member of the team. If it weren't the case you'd have shipped them both to the lunar colony the moment we got to Titan 5. I'll be quiet, Carter. I'll take their secret to the grave if I must in order to save this new life Jack made. Only the future will show if we've made the right choice or not.”
“That's what really scares me, Jo.”
Then, to my surprise, the hardened engineer stepped forward and put her arms around the suit and hugged me. I felt all of it pass through the plating and transfer to my nerve endings. It was the strangest, nicest thing I'd felt in a long time.
“You're a good man, Carter. Don't let the universe change you.”
I felt my eyes pricking with emotion and my throat clench. I returned the embrace – gently.
“I couldn't be who I am without my friends,” I said. “Now get back to work before I dock your pay.”
“Aye, sir,” she laughed and walked away. I flicked the safety back on the HARG rifle, noticing that the chambered round had been set to maximum yield.
9
Captain Sole greeted us personally on docking bay 2 as we passed through his safety shield and settled on the platform. The attackers had all powered down their ships and were holding position at a safe distance from the Pearl. The Wayward had vanished in a flash, her engines overloading, causing a massive explosion to rip the vessel apart. The survivors had steered their pods towards us and now, with limited life support, waited just beyond Captain Sole's weapons systems for mercy.
“I owe you a debt,” said the tall, dark-skinned man who held out his hand to me as we disembarked. “I don't know where you came from, but it was perfectly timed. A little longer and we'd be either dead or imprisoned on that Corsair.”
“What happened?”
“I can't give you too many details but suffice it to say Captain Argo sent us to scout ahead. We have many damaged vessels in the fleet and we knew there'd been sightings of marauders in this part of the galaxy. When we arrived here, we had a major systems failure. As repairs began, we were attacked. We were barely able to hold them off.”
“Where is the Captain now?” I asked.
“We expect him to arrive shortly. They weren't that far away but I don't believe that we could have lasted long enough for help to arrive had you not shown up. May I ask – what is your business here?”
“The same as yours,” I grinned. “To meet the Captain.”
“Are you from the admiralty? Your ship is not on the system.”
“No, we have business with him of a... sensitive nature.”
“There's a lot of that
going around,” he laughed. “In the meantime, perhaps I can show you some of our hospitality in way of gratitude?”
“I'd like that,” I smiled. Then, looking about the docking bay, I asked, “What will you do about the survivors of the Wayward?”
“If I had my way, leave them to die. But that's not how the Navy does things, you know. Crews are gathering them up and securing them in the brig as we speak. They'll face an Earth Government court by the end of the month.”
“Anything we can help with?” He shook his head.
“You've done enough. How about you shed the armor and join me in my lounge in, say, one hour?”
“Agreed.”
We returned to the ship and changed into fresh clothes and I instructed Jo to join us. She looked abashed by the idea but quickly cleaned up and put on her best slacks and a loose-fitting shirt. She still wore her engineering boots, but she'd let her hair down and sprayed on a little perfume.
“You don't normally ask me,” she whispered as we were escorted down the corridor to the Captain's lounge. “I didn't know what to wear.”
“You look fine,” I said. “Calm down.”
“Calm down? Have you seen this ship? It's a beauty. I wonder who their chief engineer is?”
Sole met us at the door to his private lounge. He was wearing his full-dress uniform and several aides stood behind a long table of darkest mahogany, eager to serve. The smells that greeted us were beyond exquisite.
“Come, sit,” he said, smiling from ear to ear. “Drinks?”
Another aide appeared just as the door closed behind us and as we were shown to our chairs, he took our requests. We all ordered vodka but Baz had to be awkward and asked for whiskey, neat. Captain Sole asked for Karuizawa, a strong, clear liqueur that was rarely seen these days after the sinking of Tokyo; only a few bottles were known to exist.
“I'm officially off duty,” he grinned. “My number one now has the bridge – and the hard work.”
“This is very kind of you, Captain,” I said. “Though I feel we didn't really earn it. The Wayward was outmatched, it wasn't quite a fair fight.”
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