The Fire Inside

by Skye Ryan

She climbed inside the pod and clicked the button on the module. She took in a deep, shaky breath. Her heart was racing and her hands felt clammy. The module beeped and a flashing light on the end turned green. She closed her eyes and after a moment’s hesitation, placed the module against her neck and squeezed. A long, thick needle quickly rammed into the back of her neck and into her spine. She could feel fine tendrils winding themselves up and out, and she gasped in shock and pain. Soon though, she found herself falling into a strange sort of dream- like state and she was no longer aware of the pain. She was floating in an abyss, and could only feel the extreme pressure of something above her. It seemed to increase tenfold as if she were being squeezed through a tube.

  Without preamble, she opened her eyes. Except, they weren’t her eyes. The eyes she saw through were calculating temperature, pressure and heat and sending in waves of information to her cybertronic brain. She watched as the pod next to her closed its shield, heated its thrusters and boosted itself into the air. It hovered for a moment near the dome, and a long, low humming began as the pod took off into space. Lia tried to sigh but found she had no air in her lungs. Then she found that she wasn’t breathing. She began panicking, about to scream when she suddenly remembered she wasn’t human anymore. Well, she was, but the body she was in certainly wasn’t. She looked around the room and took in the space. It looked completely different in this body. There were frequencies of light she would never have noticed as a human, and much of the details of sight were lost with normal human eyes. She could see individual dust mites, tiny creatures that scuttled here and there on the floor, and if she concentrated, could analyze the properties of what she was gazing at. She could hear frantic voices coming closer and laid back into the pod and closed the shield. She closed her eyes and set herself to sleep mode.

  An AI unit didn’t “sleep,” per se. She simply powered down the most taxing of her programs but her central processing unit still collected data and information. She could see the men searching for her, and the sound of the key turning into the lock as they came into the room. She could hear them spread out, and by the sound and pattern of footsteps she surmised that there were three men, one with a rather bad limp and the other two who were at least over 6 feet in height. They mumbled to themselves and wound in and out of the lines of shelves and equipment before one of them gave a shout.

  “Hey, you don’t think she used a pod to get away?”

  One man grunted, and she could indicate by his tone that he seemed indifferent. The other man spoke up, his tone disbelieving.

  “Whadya mean used a pod? Most of these girls have only half a brain. They can barely operate a clothing press let alone program a pod.”

  “I guess you’re right. No, she’s got to be here somewhere. Maybe hiding on the grounds. We’ll get some men to sweep the area. She may be in the woods.”

  “We’ll check there then. Maybe check the girls’ dormitories again.”

  The men talked for a bit and the conversation turned casual, and then eventually sexual.

  The men began joking about what they’d do if they found her.

  “You know, I’d give her a nice good poke, I would.”

  The other men agreed. “Yeah, but you can’t touch these ones. These Constants have to be pure. Can’t open up those flower buds.”

  One of the men laughed heartily. “Well, they got more than one hole. I could poke ‘er and she’d still be pure, know what I mean?”

  “But these Constants ain’t no fun. They don’t want to do anything. Boring I tell you. Will tell ya no in a heartbeat.”

  The three guffawed and then finally left out the door with a loud slam.

  Disgust rolled over her and she blinked hard, expecting the flood of angry tears, but her biotronic eyes remained dry. She concentrated hard and what seemed like a tear slipped out. She placed herself in full hibernation mode and waited in the darkness.

  *

  Something was tapping at her consciousness and Lia began the process of updating her systems and opening various programs. Her consciousness pushed outwards and she opened her eyes. A man in a white lab coat was prodding lightly at her and she blinked a few times.

  “This one is operational,” the man said. “Ship it on to Telax-V. I think they have an order of five they’re waiting on. Doesn’t appear to be any damage.”

  Voices glided in and out and Lia struggled to make sense of them. Some of the voices were soft and gentle, others hard and scathing. Her field of vision became crystal clear and she realized they were arguing.

  “We can’t have this shipment running through the Trivan system. These are valuable goods, and the Empire can’t afford to waste any money replacing them!”

  Lia turned to the voices and noticed the one who had spoken was the man in the lab coat. The other two were female. They were dressed in similar attire.

  “That one’s watching us,” one of the women, the brunette observed.

  “It doesn’t matter,” the blonde-haired woman stated, “We aren’t saying anything we could get in trouble for.”

  “Well I for one, am against not sending the packages through the Trivan system,” the brunette protested. “It would take two standard weeks to get to the destination otherwise!”

  “I agree,” the blonde said nodding. “They are already breathing down our necks about the last shipment of AI’s. And you know who got the flack for that? She and I did, that’s who!”

  The man shook his head. “It’s a bad idea. There are too many different factions in that area of space.”

  “So, what would you suggest then?”

  The man thought a moment. “Maybe send them over via Regulus-IV. That’s a common shipping route.”

  “Yeah, and did you hear about the ship that went through there last week? It got blasted to smithereens! The Council is still in a rage about that. Not that I blame them. That was over a hundred million credits lost! And for what? To prove a point?” the blonde remarked angrily.

  “Well,” the brunette added, “I say we call central and ask them what we should do. If the shipment gets lost it’s on them.”

  Everyone nodded their assent and all was quiet for a time. The three worked busily about the lab, seemingly ignoring Lia as she looked about.

  Finally, the brunette glided over and shot Lia a smile. “Alright, this one is all ready to go. Good night to you.”

  Lia blinked a few times and then darkness crossed her field of vision.

  Her programs went online when her pod fell hard to the floor. The glass shield shattered and Lia was instantly “awake.” She scanned her surroundings and realized she was in a dark, dank hold beneath a star ship. The space around her was quaking and bucking and her newer, faster brain began to calculate that her odds of survival would decrease each moment she remained in the hold.

  She slipped out of the broken pod, careful to avoid the large pieces of glass though she felt no pain when a piece did find itself embedded in her synthetic skin. It was an odd sensation, if one could call it that, but before Lia could properly analyze it, her programming was propelling her out of the hold and into the main part of the ship. She walked through the ship, her nose analyzing the air and she could tell that parts of the ship were on fire and that deadly chemicals had been released in the air. She spied a shipmate on the floor gasping for air, and when she went to aid him, her programming showed that he was already dying, his chance for survival less than 1%. She stood and sauntered quickly past and onto the second level, past a large window.

  She felt the ship lurch and though she knew she had to keep moving, she was in awe at what she saw. She had never seen so many stars. It was as if there were diamonds all around them. She placed a hand on the glass and stared hard. She wondered what made them shine so. Her programming immediately brought up a profile of stars as burning and luminous balls of gas, each with different compositions of helium, hydrogen or some other element. She sighed, her brain had given her an apt description, but she preferred her ow
n. She turned on her heel and continued walking. The halls were eerily quiet and she made her way to the bridge. She peeked in and noticed that much of the crew was engaged in combat.

  Lia didn’t know whether to aid them or do nothing at all. She stood there, contemplating her next move when the ship moved sharply to the right and then she was thrown against the wall. Her vision skittered and she could tell she was crucially damaged. Her systems tried to compensate for her loss of power, but to no avail. Once again, she found herself shutting down.

  CHAPTER THREE

  A voice bounded across her consciousness and she opened her eyes. She looked straight into a pair of brown, but very human eyes. They looked back at dispassionately and she observed the owner of the eyes was male, and he was holding a surgical tool. They were in some kind of shack. Lia looked around and noticed debris along the floor and upon various surfaces. The man was wearing a colorful jacket emblazoned with a flag.

  The man turned from Lia and began speaking in a language she didn’t understand at first. Her processors then began deciphering, and it was if he were speaking Empire standard.

  “Luckily I was able to fix this one. It would have a real shame if we couldn’t. These things go for a lot of credits around this way.”

  Another man in a similar jacket was sitting on a stool and looking at several metal pieces through a magnifying glass. “Yeah, you’re right. We gotta get her over to the town square. They’re about to start the bidding.”

  “Hang on, mate,” the man on the stool replied, “I want to finish this first. This was some real good shit we got off that ship.”

  “Nah, let’s go now. We got all day to do that. Not everyone can say they nabbed a B-185 though. This thing is top of the line.”

  “Yeah,” the other man replied and threw down the piece he’d been studying. “Let’s go.”

  “Should I put a bag over her head or something?”

  The other man shot him a look. “Are you dense or something? It’s a damn machine. Why should we care what it sees? We’re selling it anyways.”

  She found herself being roughly pushed toward steel double doors that were slowly opening. Sunlight hit Lia’s face and she instinctively squinted and then realized she didn’t have to. Her eyes automatically adjusted for what light was needed for her to see. She and the two men walked to what was most likely the town square. Scores of people were milling about and the din of conversation was loud on Lia’s new ears.

  The two men walked her over to a set of men haggling over the prices of scrap metal and they tapped one on the shoulder. He had a long grizzly beard and was studiously going over the metal pieces.

  “We got a new piece to enter into the bid.”

  “What ya got this time? The last thing you tried to sale was nothing but junk.”

  “We got Empire type shit man. Real good stuff. We got a B-185, man.”

  The man flipped up a pair of glasses and leveled rheumy gray eyes over them. He scratched his beard thoughtfully as he looked Lia over.

  “Hmm, you all got something good this time. Well, you know what they say, even a blind mylard gets a fig every now and again. Now let’s take a closer look at it.”

  Lia was strangely calm as the man inspected her. He humphed a few times and then finally smiled broadly.

  “Gentlemen, I do believe you have an item for bid. Put her on the block.”

  The men whooped and hollered and pushed her onto the steps leading to a stage. There were several large items on the stage and a moderator was standing off to the side, preparing to officiate.

  The bidding went quickly and soon Lia was the only thing left on the stage. She wanted to be terrified, but something in her programming seemed to assure her of her survival. It was a more peaceful experience than being a human, but Lia slightly missed the feeling of a racing heart and the stale taste of fear.

  “We have on the stage now,” the moderator announced, “An Empire Grade B-185! This baby can do just about anything! Cook, clean, break open vaults, watch your brats, whatever you desire. Bidding starts at 15,000 credits.”

  The crowd went wild. Lia watched with indifference as bids were bandied about. In the back of her mind she was already calculating her chances of retrieving her body, and with any of the people below her that chance stood at a good 85%. A small kerfuffle began at the edge of the crowd and people began moving away and parting for a figure walking straight for the stage. A man with dark skin and hauntingly cruel hazel eyes was looking up at her speculatively. Lia’s programming was at odds with her human nature. Looking down from the stage and into his eyes, she had a feeling that going with him would reduce her chances of retrieving her body to almost nil. Her programming edged out her human intuition and a profile of the man came to the fore. He was a war lord. In fact, he was the number one enemy of the Empire. His standards of torture and abuse were horrific even by the Empire’s standards and he was collector of fine things, including artificial intelligence units. For the first time, she felt a tiny feeling of fear bloom within her. The man smiled and raised his hand. Lia turned to the moderator and saw that he was pointing to the war lord and nodding.

  The war lord opened his mouth and the crowd quickly quieted.

  “One million credits,” he said coolly. The moderator grinned, his face filled with greed.

  “I got one million credits,” the moderator yelled, “Any other bids? One million going once, twice,” Lia tried to resist the urge to swallow convulsively. However, right as the moderator was bringing down his gavel, a single shot rang out.

  The war lord staggered and then fell over. The crowd fell silent as they watched him fall. No one moved and then suddenly there was pandemonium. Shots rang out in all directions, people yelled and screamed at one another and the auction suddenly became a free for all. It was madness. Lia leaped off the stage and into the forest surrounding it. She was slowly backing up when she felt herself barrel into someone. She quickly turned and saw a man with sandy dark blond hair and a chiseled face looking down at her. He placed a finger on his lips and said “Shhh.”

  Lia nodded and they both waited in the wilderness until the last of the shots had rang out the air was quiet. She turned to look at him and he smiled.

  “My name is Dr. Corvan Jax. Pleased to meet you.”

  Lia blinked back at him, unsure as how to respond. Her mind calculated several different possibilities before settling on one. “I am model number B-185 serial code X5431.”

  The doctor grinned. “That’s a mouthful. Let’s shorten that to something more agreeable, shall we?”

  Lia thought a moment and then nodded.

  “Alright,” he told her, “I think I’ll call you Cara. That’s a nice name.”

  “It is a standard name for a human,” Lia found herself saying “It is agreeable.”

  “Well, good.”

  Lia took in the doctor’s Empire stitched clothing and regulated uniform. She looked over his hair and body and compared that with those from whom she had been taken. She calculated that the doctor was most likely affiliated with a region in space ruled by the Empire. If so, she could lay low for a while and listen for reports of her disappearance, obtain a ship, and retrieve her body. She calculated the myriad possibilities and decided her plan had a 94% chance of success.

  “Doctor, you are in standard Empire issued clothing. I assume you have residence in region of space controlled by the Empire. Why are you here in what I assume is rebel territory?”

  The doctor smiled. “I get some of the best parts, odds and ends from rebels. The Empire has banned many things; this has stifled significant portions of my research. I have many contacts here and today I was seeking some precious metals, but instead I found you. I could always use an AI unit, especially one as advanced as you are. Since no one is around I assume I can just take you home.”

  Lia said nothing and simply stared. The doctor sighed and looked back to where the stage lay, he then looked over in the opposite direction and pointed.


  “My ship is about 4.2 kilometers that way. Are you damaged?”

  “No,” Lia replied, “I am fully operational.”

  They set off at a brisk pace and pushed through the heavy cover of trees. They walked for about a mile in the forest when they suddenly came upon a clearing. They continued on passed a grassy field and a burned-out village and arrived at his ship.

  Lia studied the ship as they moved closer to it. Her programming automatically inundated her with details about its make, year and model. It was a starship meant for long travels and could go as fast as several thousand light years when in high speed.

  He tapped the console on the ship’s side and a door appeared. It opened with a light whoosh and he beckoned her inside.

  “Ladies first,” he told her smiling.

  Lia did not reply and made her way in, her gaze absorbing everything about the tiny ship.

  She moved quickly to the seat adjacent to the pilot’s and strapped herself in. The doctor soon followed suit and sat in the pilot’s chair. He strapped himself in and then powered up the controls. They were soon hovering in the air and when they reached critical height, began to engage the thrusters. With a low hum, the thrusters powered up and Lia felt surprise and wonder roll through her. She had been on more ships in the last few days that she’d ever had in her lifetime. As the ship powered up and then sprinted out into the vast reaches of space, Lia couldn’t help but smile. For the first time in her life she felt something akin to freedom.

  “I didn’t know your models knew how to smile,” the doctor observed and Lia felt her smile quickly disappear.

  She tried to think quickly on her feet. “The latest B-185 models are programmed to simulate human behaviors. I believe smiling is often one of them.”

  “Hmm,” the doctor told her and nodded, “I suppose that makes sense. Why have an AI if it can’t adapt? Very clever.”

  Lia wanted to heave a sigh of relief but instead settled for looking out into the cold, dark reaches of space.

  “What do you research Dr.?” Lia asked and he turned to her, surprised.