Robot Awareness: The Inner Circle

by B. C. Kowalski

  -- "Jeft, One-Lung Alice hasn't been on the circuit in a couple of years, and people wondered why she showed up here today. Some speculated it might have been some kind of comeback attempt, but based on the way she is racing today, it doesn't appear she is here for any reason other than to go after Isellia."

  -- "I'm not sure what she did to anger One-Lung, but this is highly unprecedented. She hasn't been subtle at all. The security patrol has entered the race, and will be doing what it can to drag One-Lung out, but at some point they might have to stop this race Brill."

  -- "I hope the police are able to take care of this, Jeft, this is not something you want to see. And it would be a shame to have to stop the race here, but we definitely want to make sure our athletes are safe first. They're going to do what they can to extricate Alice before stopping the race entirely. Antoinette on a comeback journey, having a strong finish at the Farven Point 400, here today to compete, and now she's dealing with an angry aggressor."

  -- "We'll be back with more Xeno 750 action after this! Don't go away!"

  ***

  "What's happening?" Joey asked. They stood in a viewing room, along with the rest of the crowd. Like Farven Point, most of the race was viewed on a holo in rooms. Viewers only watched the start from the stands, then made their way to several viewing rooms to watch the action on holoscreens. The racers screamed across the otherwise dull conference room-like atmosphere.

  The atmosphere was very different than in Farven Point. Nearly everyone who wasn't connected with the races wore a suit. They mingled, chatted, made small talk as if they were at an art gallery. If not for the holo in the middle of the large room, one might never know a race was going on at all.

  "I don't know, Joey," Porter said. It didn't escape either of their notice that the other race attendees gave them something of a wide berth. Porter wasn't sure it was his handicapped status, or that they were dressed like ruffians by comparison. People with disabilities didn't rank high in Company culture — but neither did anyone who didn't wear a suit.

  "Hey, wait, I know that name!" Joey exclaimed, patting Porter's arm. "That's the woman from the refueling station. The one that hurt Robot!"

  Porter grabbed his arm lightly as several nearby attendees paused and looked in their direction. They had directed the robot to appear non-sentient to not garner anyone's attention. It was well known that the Company had bounties on all sentient robots to erase its failed experiment.

  "Gotta be careful what you say, Joey," Porter said in a lower voice. "Remember what we talked about."

  "Oh yeah," Joey whispered back. "But it's her. They said One-Lung Alice. The one the policeman told me about."

  Porter nodded grimly. "Yeah, I've heard of her. What the hell is she doing to Isellia? Dammit."

  A familiar set of hands rested on their shoulders. "Guys, we gotta go."

  Porter looked up at Celia, catching himself. The sight of her so close to him, touching him, made his heart skip a beat.

  "What is it? Isellia's in trouble."

  Celia leaned in to whisper. "We found one of the robots."

  ***

  Isellia slammed her hand down on the throttle, blasting her XR into a gap that appeared and closed in a matter of a few seconds. She timed it just right; her ship was now squarely in the midst of the pack. This crazy racer who seemed hell-bent on destroying her couldn't touch her as she cruised along with 30 other racers. The nutter could try to maneuver her way to Isellia by slowly working toward her, taking gaps as they came, but Isellia could simply do the same.

  But slow was the concern. Isellia had no desire to remain in the main peloton. At some point someone would break away, most likely in one of the rings, which tended to break racers up anyway as they maneuvered around rocks or twisted to avoid laser fire. Someone always navigated them better. None of the XRs were generally much faster than the others; they were all XRs after all, albeit with tweaks and mods that made some a little faster than others. Ability to handle the obstacles while managing fuel is what makes a racer faster than others. If you had more fuel, you could fly faster.

  So then what? Once the pack broke up, she'd be once again exposed to a racer that seemed more interested in taking both of them out rather than try to win. This crazy racer could afford to waste fuel. She could not.

  Isellia furrowed her brow and gripped the controls a little bit tighter. She'd just have to be faster.

  ***

  Porter and Joey followed the group of Celia, Rex, Kenpur, Dirk, Nix and Jeanna as they made their way to the back of the XR compound. The very dim roar of XRs could still be heard, but the ships were far enough off that it was nothing more than a slight background noise.

  "So what's so special about these robots?" Porter asked. "There are a lot of robots around. Trying to get the new model or something?"

  "It's more than that," Nix said, his voice halting and determined.

  "These robots, they be ..." Dirk trailed off.

  "They're like your robot," Celia said. They were stopped near a tunnel at the back of the complex.

  "What do you mean like ours?" Porter asked.

  Rex snorted. Celia continued. "It's not an ordinary robot."

  "Everyone can see that, but so what?"

  "No, you don't understand. It's one of the original 108. The first of their kind."

  "The original 108? But they were all destroyed."

  "Not all of ‘em," Rex muttered. "So what, these robots are like our robot? Like, they're going to be self-aware? And what, you want them for yourself?"

  "Well," Kenpur said, looking off in the distance. "It's more like we don't want Company C to have them."

  Porter stopped for a minute, staring off into the field beyond the XR field as he thought about the implications of Company C owning an entire batch of robots similar to theirs. He'd seen the robot fight. He was very glad the robot was on their side. He shuttered to think of one not on their side.

  "OK, so now what? We go find these things and destroy them?"

  "It be something like that," Dirk said, grinning.

  Celia pulled open the hatch to the tunnel. One whiff caught Porter's nostrils, sending him into a wave a nausea. "Oh hell no. Not the sewers again!"

  "No, you stay here," Kenpur said. "The rest of us will take care of it. Someone should stay to watch the race."

  "What about the kid?" Porter said, looking at Joey. "You don't expect him to go on this mission."

  "It's up to him," Kenpur said.

  "Joey, you can stay with me," Porter said.

  "No," Joey said. Porter looked at him with surprise. His defiant expression calmed, but he remained resolved. "I want to see them."

  "The boy could come in handy. None of us are robotics experts."

  "I can do it," Joey said, patting Porter's arm.

  "I know you can, but…” Porter stopped himself. He looked at the boy, and wondered if he were being over-protective. “OK, fine, I won't stop you."

  "OK!" Joey said, scrambling into the tunnel.

  Porter looked at Kenpur and the rest of them. "You all better take good care of him. If anything happens to him ..."

  "Oh, he'll be fine," Celia said, putting a reassuring hand on Porter’s shoulder. He couldn't help but feel condescended. Porter knew his was a weak threat, but he still meant it.

  "He'll be safe," Rex said. "Or my life."

  Porter nodded. They all entered the tunnel.

  ***

  -- "Folks, we're back with the Xeno 750, and I have to say, this is one of the oddest races we might have ever seen. We've got ourselves a race inside of a race, and it's not one we would like to see."

  -- "This is unprecedented in XR history, Brill. One-Lung Alice has been chasing Antoinette since the start of this race and hasn't let up one bit.”

  -- "Antoinette has carved out a spot in the middle of the pack, and has spent much of the race sitting right there, shifting a little as One-Lung shifts. She's slowly but surely maneuvered herself into a diffe
rent position every so often to avoid Alice, who rammed her early on in this contest."

  -- "You're probably asking yourselves at home, 'Why doesn’t the race patrol simply stop them both in their tracks and settle things down?' We wondered the same, but we've received word that both of their locking devices have been disabled, so the race patrol is in the same position we are: They can only watch until there’s an opening to intervene, Brill."

  -- "That’s right Jeft. We've got a couple of race patrol ships flying with the pack. They're monitoring the situation but unless they get a clear shot to clamp onto One-Lung, they're not going to be able to stop this chase."

  -- "It's disturbing, Brill, that's for sure. One-Lung has been out of racing for some time. She’s back on the course here today, we thought for a comeback, and now she's here to — what, enact some sort of revenge? But I don't think the two of them ever raced together. This is just baffling."

  -- "Well, we're not going to speculate any further. Allister Barkley is leading this race, with Arlo Luuu, and Chipper Jones following him. Other than that, the pack hasn't broken up, and who knows what's going to be happening with this chase going on in the middle of the pack?"

  -- "I think it might break up soon. Let's hope the race patrol can get this situation untangled. More when we return, with the Xeno 750!"

  ***

  The first ring brought a volley of lasers, which Isellia had no problem maneuvering around. She twisted, she dodged, and all the while she kept an eye on Alice, shifting herself around in the pack if her assailant got any closer than Isellia was comfortable with.

  The pack largely stayed together throughout the ring, if not a little more spread out than she would have hoped for. As the peloton came out of the ring's end, Isellia found herself toward the front of the pack, in a relatively good position. But some had already broken out, and with this chase going on, there didn’t seem to be any urgency to pull them back into the pack. If she wanted to win, she would have to charge. She'd have to make her breakaway and hope she could catch the leaders, or at least entice the pack to pull her in.

  There was no turnaround on this course. It was one big loop, so there was no way to pull off the slingshot maneuver she performed at the Farven 400.

  As the group entered the next ring, and she saw what lay ahead, she knew exactly what she needed to do.

  ***

  Dirk pushed up the manhole cover with the top of his skull, peering into the warehouse room. He squinted, adjusting his eyes to the brightness in contrast with the dark sewer tunnel. In reality, it was hardly bright at all — dull warehouse fixtures lit up a room the size of a small starship lined with shelving and platforms. To his right he could see a small laboratory off-set from main warehouse room, with various unidentifiable machinery stacked on metal shelving.

  "What do you see?" Nix asked anxiously behind him. He climbed the ladder with Dirk, eager to see what lie beyond the manhole cover.

  "A warehouse," Dirk said absently, still trying to get a sense of the place. "Wait, I see movement."

  "You do? Where? Hey, he sees movement," Nix called down below.

  "Be quiet now," Dirk hissed. "This be a situation for silent observationals."

  Nix bit his lip but stayed silent.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Dirk thought he saw some movement. Deep in the warehouse, he saw something human-like move between the crates and boxes. He only caught a glimpse of it, then it was gone.

  "Something's in there," Dirk called down.

  "What is it?" Nix asked, his voice a strained whisper.

  "I don't be knowing. Something strange is afoot, methinks," Dirk said. He twisted his gaze to the left, then to the right. As he did, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned more.

  He was face to face with a robot.

  ***

  Alice closed in on Isellia, her ship bearing down from above in what must have been the worst possible position for Isellia. They'd entered the second ring of four they would face throughout the course. The obstacles were mini magnetic fields, which drew an XR toward it if it got too close, throwing off the ship's heading and making it difficult to steer. If you were flying your XR alone, it was an annoyance; in a pack it the wrong move could be race-ending.

  Isellia looked behind and tried not to panic. If this went wrong, she'd be in a world of trouble, a sitting duck. She had a hard time making out Alice’s XR, but she knew the menace was up there. Isellia flew next to Ghust LUX, their wings nearly touching. Isellia guessed, hoped, that Alice didn't want any additional collateral damage. LUX flew with a big syndicate, and one that wouldn't take too kindly to someone intentionally sabotaging their racer's ship. Isellia had no such protection, or at least not one that Alice would have known much about. Kenpur and his crew would likely make mincemeat out of Alice, but unfortunately for Isellia, On-Lung had no way of knowing that.

  She couldn't fly next to LUX's all-black XR for the entire race. She'd just be one opening away from destruction. Her skin grew clammy as she flew closer to her target. LUX flew a safe distance from the large cluster of magnetic field generators laying up ahead, just as Isellia would have wanted.

  At the last minute, she broke away from Ghust LUX, taking a sharp turn toward the magnetic field cluster. She could almost feel Alice behind her, closing in for the kill. She pulled up, pulling her further toward the far end of the magnetic field. She hoped Alice would come at her from the backside, the most logical place to try and ram her. Getting hit near the afterburners would likely take Isellia out of the race and maybe out of commission completely.

  She could feel the pull of the magnetic fields, the cluster compelling the ship toward it. She readied her finger on the switch. She could see Alice in her rear sensor. Almost ...

  Now! She flipped the switch, reversing the polarity on her ship's hull. The effect of the reversed polarity send a shockwave bursting through the magnetic fields, sending both of their ships hurtling through space; Isellia's not exactly forward, but in that general direction, and Alice’s mostly backwards because she had been positioned behind the magnets.

  Isellia found herself hurtling forward, struggling to right the ship as she spun out of control toward another XR.

  ***

  The robot leapt down into the tunnel after Dirk, who had slid down the ladder, forcing Nix to slide down it as well. Each rolled out of the way as they hit the bottom of the sewer, quickly backing away from the ladder to put as much space between themselves and where the robot would be were it to leap down.

  The robot looked similar to their robot but slightly bigger and colored a shiny, metallic white. After landing on the top rungs, it stepped slowly down, one rung at a time. It had spotted its prey, analyzed it, and concluded that there was no need to rush in capturing or killing its targets. It was right. This estranged robot knew the tunnels far better than Kenpur or his crew could have hoped to.

  "Kenpur, what do we do against that thing?" Nix said, standing behind him.

  Kenpur said nothing, but looked at Celia. Celia patted Rex lightly, to tell him she'd handle it, and jumped in. The robot came down, and as it reached the bottom step, its back panel came into view. Celia reached for it.

  "Shit," she said, backing away.

  "What's the problem?" Kenpur asked.

  "They changed the plans. You need a tool to open its back panel. There’s a opening for a tool that didn’t exist on the other ones. Even the ones we saw in the auction didn’t have that. It must be a recent upgrade."

  Joey’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I bet I have a tool that can get it open.”

  “How do you know, Joey?” Celia asked. Joey turned a little red at the attention.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Joey said. “But the Robot’s control panel was locked when I first met him. I was able to open it. If I could just get my tool kit.”

  "Nix, take him back,” Kenpur said. The robot had turned around. "The rest of us will have to fend him off until then."

 
"Sounds fun," Rex muttered.

  "Take care of him Nix," Kenpur called after, as they readied themselves. The robot took on a fighting stance.

  ***

  Isellia gripped the controls tightly as she hurtled toward the oncoming ship. She pulled hard on the steering grips, trying to catch back the centerpoint of the ship so it would regain a steady, level flying course. It meant timing a burst of energy while pointing the steering column in just the right direction to regain control.

  She jerked the throttle and twisted the flight controls at just the right moment, the ship jolting into just the right position. She pulled up on the joystick, buzzing the top of the other XR she'd been flailing toward. It soon was a fading speck on her radar as she flew through the next checkpoint ring.

  "Yaa!!" she hollered, punching the XR's console, rattling the gauges it contained. She could now afford to put some distance between herself and the nutjob who was following her, who hopefully was hurtling backwards as fast as she was charging ahead.

  ***

  Yardley watched the race with some disappointment. The holovision cast an orange glow on the room as he watched One-Lung Alice's ship twist and turn backward, the opposite of the direction of the finish line, and of their intended target.

  He looked around the suite — large glass panes looking out over the XR course, it’s half-dome glass affording a view of the sky as well as the launch pad. He sat in the room alone, standing before the long, black, shining table that held the holo unit the race was projected onto. The hors d'oeuvres remained mostly untouched on a similar black table off to the side.

  Typically reserved for Company C Executive class workers entertaining off-world clients, or a rare reward for exceptional work, today Yardley had the entire suite to himself. And he'd enjoyed himself, revelled in the chase, until now.

  "I'm starting to think that one simply can't find good help these days," he said, shaking his head.

  Then his comm device rang.

  ***

  -- "Well this is a surprise, Brill. Folks if you're watching at home, we've just seen a huge update in the battle taking place between Antoinette and One-Lung Alice."