Colony Mars Ultimate Edition
Page 88
If only I could go outside.
Strangely, the prospect did not fill him with dread as it had before. Whereas the prospect of a return to loneliness now began to take its place. The outside world did not seem so frightening, faced with the alternative. So he would have to try. He owed it to himself -- and the droid. He stood up from his seat in the operations room with a long sigh and made his way to the maintenance airlock.
He checked his EVA suit several times, going over each sub-system in minute detail, all to satisfy him that they would not fail him. But mostly he was just stalling -- he knew that, of course. Finally, when he could take the checking and re-checking charade no further, his hand reached out and hit the button to depressurize the airlock. This time he let it run through to the end, and for the first time in years he took his first step onto the Martian surface.
He did not panic. In fact, he felt a wave of anxious excitement ripple through him as he took another step on the dusty surface. Yet he could sense the old phobia just below the surface, ready and waiting to come back if given the least opportunity. But he kept his mind on Gizmo. He needed it, and it needed him -- he would not fail it.
He focused on the APU building, keeping his eyes on it at all times, putting one foot in front of the other. As he drew closer, he could feel the fear recede and finally vanish completely as he stepped inside the shelter of the structure. His mind was now free to concentrate on extracting the droid. It was a process that took him longer that he had envisioned -- not that he had given it much thought, as the prospect of him standing here in the APU after so many failed attempts was beyond his mind's ability to conceive. Yet here he was.
He spent most of his time securing and supporting the structure to ensure that it did not collapse any further. He had brought some tools and a handcart, and after a few hours had finally managed to load the droid onto it and begin his short, but anxious walk back to the airlock and the safety of the colony.
Almost a week passed before Nills was ready to reboot the droid. When he had brought it back to the colony, he’d been so emotionally and physically exhausted by the endeavor that he slept for almost ten hours straight. When he awoke the next sol, he had spent most of his time checking the stats from the APU and walking around the biodome studying the plants. It was late into the evening before he finally set the droid up in his workshop and began to bring it back to life.
The AI had been partly right in its assertion that perhaps Nills's handiwork was not quite up to scratch. In his initial haste to create the robot, he had installed some of its delicate circuitry on the outside of the unit rather than going to the trouble of fabricating a more robust enclosure, something he had now rectified. Fortunately, the damage to Gizmo centered on the control systems and not the AI interface.
So, approximately one week after the incident, Nills was finally ready to reactivate it. He leaned over the terminal in his workshop and tapped the icon to initiate the bootup sequence. A few alerts flashed up, but nothing major, so he allowed the process to continue as the droid began to twitch and self-test its servos. After a moment or two, it suddenly stopped and rotated its sensor array in his direction.
"Hello, Nills. I would appear to be back in your workshop."
Nills clapped his hands together in delight. "Good to have you back. I thought I'd lost you in that roof collapse."
The droid began to move its arms and body again, this way and that, checking its level of motor control. "And fully functional."
"Better than ever, Gizmo.”
“You ventured outside and retrieved me from the APU.”
Nills nodded. "Yes, I... I just couldn't leave you there. I...forced myself to go out."
“Does this mean that you no longer suffer from agoraphobia?”
“It’s still there… I think. It’s just that I have more control over it.”
Gizmo finally stopped moving and focused on Nills. “Please explain, as I do not fully comprehend your actions. If the reason for my existence was a direct consequence of this fear, does that mean I am no longer needed?"
“No, don’t be a dumb droid, of course I need you. Why do you think I forced myself to save you.”
Nills lowered his head a little and continued. “I need your company, Gizmo. I can’t go back to being on my own, I would just go slowly mad.”
“Then this is an excellent outcome. Since my primary directive is ultimately to facilitate your wellbeing, it seems I can be of further use.”
“Gizmo, you saved the biodome. If it wasn’t for you I would have starved to death.”
“True, my abilities to operate in the three-dimensional world have enabled me to effect the necessary repairs to the APU, and as a result save the biodome. However, this droid’s existence is a direct consequence of your endeavor, Nills. So, in truth, it is not I that saved you. But rather you who saved yourself.”
Nills laughed. “Ha… if you say so, Gizmo. But you know what I think?”
“No, mind reading is not an ability I possess.”
“I think you and I are going to get along just fine. In fact, I think it may be the start of a long and fruitful friendship.”
THE END
Author’s Note
To receive updates, including notifications on future books in the series, please join my Readers Group or connect with me at www.geraldmkilby.com. You will also get a link to download my techno-thriller REACTION and the follow-up novella EXTRACTION for FREE.
Also by Gerald M. Kilby
Why not check out my other series, The Belt.
Commander Scott McNabb, of the science vessel Hermes, is three years into a five-year-long survey of the asteroid belt. It’s an excruciatingly dull mission, yet it keeps him far away from the agencies that are chasing him down. However, his fortunes change, along with the other four crew, when they discover a derelict spaceship in orbit around a binary asteroid.
The ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to Europa, and ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the solar system. But now that word is out of its discovery, the Hermes finds itself being hunted down by the very people Scott has spent so much time and effort hiding from.
So if Scott wants a new life, then he’s going to have to fight for it. And, after a lifetime of running, he’s not sure if he has what it takes. Then again, there is a deep river of rage welling up inside him, born out of a lifetime of countless accumulated injustices, each one inching him ever closer to the edge—and this could be the one that finally makes him snap.
About the Author
Gerald. M. Kilby lives in Dublin, Ireland and grew up on a diet of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and Frank Herbert. This developed into a taste for Ian M. Banks, Neal Stevenson, and everything ever written by Michael Crichton.
REACTION is his first novel and is very much an ‘old school’ techno-thriller. Whereas, COLONY MARS and THE BELT series are more of a hard sci-fi feast.
You can connect with G.M. Kilby at:
www.geraldmkilby.com