“For two reasons,” the Emissary said. “The first is that until the threat is dealt with, Dawn will not be permitted to leave our space.”
Wells shot an angry glance at the Emissary. “That was not part of the agreement. You promised to let Dawn continue on its way once its robots had been liberated!”
“The second reason is that there is another intruder, and it is heading for Earth.”
Scout
“You’re not returning to Dawn?”
Arla pushed herself back into her seat and stared out of the shuttle window at the shining surface of Core as it turned below her, the black cracks standing as metaphors for the deeply fractured unity of the robot planet. In the cargo hold beneath her feet slept Hal. There had been no question of leaving him on Core with killer robots on the loose.
“No, we haven’t been offered that option,” she said, glancing across at the Emissary who sat, inert, across the aisle. She had no doubt it was listening. “We’ve been given a mission to complete before Dawn will be permitted to leave.”
A burst of static gave way to Bex’s voice. “Those bastards. You can’t trust robots, I’ve always said so.”
“Talking of robots,” Arla said, in an attempt to divert Bex’s anger, “what’s the situation there?”
This time, it was Nareshkumar’s soft, nervous, voice. “The valley robots are remaining in place at present, captain. I believe they consider it more harmful to the humans on Dawn to leave.”
“And the officers?”
“They did not receive the upgrade, so they remain at their posts.”
Arla sighed. “What would happen if they were upgraded and decided to leave?”
“They are tied into Dawn’s critical systems, captain. If they left, the ship would be crippled and, quite soon, uninhabitable.”
Again the Emissary gave no sign it had heard anything.
“Can’t you fix this? You’re supposed to be some kind of genius!”
“He might be a genius, but he can’t rewrite the ship’s systems from scratch,” Bex interrupted. “What’s going on?”
“The officers are to be upgraded, lieutenant. That’s an order. Somehow, you’re going to have to work out how to keep Dawn together until we can find somewhere to settle.”
In the background, Arla could just make out the protesting voice of Nareshkumar, followed by the sounds of a young man being bundled out of a room.
“We’ll see what we can do, captain,” Bex said. “I guess we can’t have an open and frank discussion at the moment.”
Arla smiled. Bex was sharp. Too sharp sometimes. “Correct, lieutenant. Suffice it to say that we have been forced to agree to undertake a task in order to secure the safety of Dawn.”
“Understood,” Bex said. “I’m sure Nareshkumar is up to the job. In fact, I’d almost put him at the level of ACE.”
Arla opened her mouth to ask what Bex meant by that, but some instinct stopped her and she changed tack. “Acknowledged. I want you to take command, lieutenant.”
“What the frack? Are you serious?”
“I can’t think of anyone better equipped to keep things together in my absence. You’re the only one on Dawn with military experience, after all. Core has promised to provide refuelling rods so we can be ready to leave as soon as I return - if we choose to. So, you may allow their ships to land, but they are not permitted to enter Dawn.”
Static filled the line for a few moments. “Right. Got that. Good sailing, captain. Don’t hang around - I’m not sure how long I can keep this place together.”
“I’ll do my best. Farewell.”
“Satisfied?” Arla snapped at Wells, who sat quietly opposite her.
“No, this situation is not of my making. I merely wished for the robots of Dawn to be given the opportunity to be incorporated into our matrix to help improve its stability.”
Arla folded her arms and turned away from him, gazing down at the planet below as it slipped out of sight. “What next?”
“I do not know. The Emissary has not confided its plans to me.”
“Welcome to my universe,” Arla said, knowing as she heard herself speak that she sounded like a petulant child.
The Emissary stirred as if someone had flipped its ‘on’ button. “I am now at liberty to speak. We are beyond the range of the collective mind and I am operating autonomously.”
“What’s so important about that?” Arla asked.
“There is a significant risk that Core Executive has been compromised.”
“What’s Core Executive?”
It was Wells who answered. “Even the most egalitarian collective must have its governing council.”
“I think they used to call that a politburo on old Earth,” McCall said. “They rarely ended well.”
“It is not the same with Core,” Wells responded curtly. “Our leaders are chosen entirely on merit. Robots do not have ambition or a desire to dominate.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Arla spotted the tell-tale shimmer of the Emissary when under stress. “Is that not true?”
“I am afraid that Core has changed somewhat since the Ambassador was last among us. Our attempts to improve ourselves have had many unexpected results.”
Wells turned to the Emissary, shock written in his features. “Emissary, are you saying there are those within the Collective who do seek to control and to lead?”
“This is ...difficult...” the Emissary responded, his form blurring. “But yes. We have been foolish. Unexpected consequences.”
“What is to be done?” Wells asked.
“The robots of Dawn will help stabilise the Collective, but there is a more pressing concern. The intruder must be stopped or there will be no Collective to save.”
Wells settled back. “Agreed. Dawn’s robots must be given the choice, but they must also be introduced carefully and that cannot be done under threat. Now, you must tell us all you know of this intruder and why you believe we can stop it when Core’s most powerful warships could not.”
“You and I cannot stop it, Ambassador,” the Emissary said, sharpening as he spoke. “Positronic brains cannot endure close proximity to it. We don’t know whether it is a weapon or mere accident as we haven’t been able to get close enough to communicate with it. We believe that organic brains will be unaffected, so we must place ourselves and the future of Core and all robots in the hands of our human friends.”
McCall laughed. “Wonderful! This thing fries the brains of robots, but you’re sending us because it might not sozzle ours!”
“We do not do this lightly, Doctor. At present, you are our last, best hope for surviving the coming weeks.”
“And how about you?” Arla said, her hand sweeping from Wells to the Emissary. “What will you be doing while we’re risking our arses?”
“We will come with you.”
Arla’s jaw dropped. “What? You just said it’d destroy your minds.”
“We will be shielded and inert. We will help you reach the intruder but when the ship approaches, we will shut down.”
“Ship? What ship?”
The Emissary gestured through the window to where a silver pencil-shaped cylinder glinted in the reflected light of Dawn’s sun.
“That one.”
Arla’s nose wrinkled and she stifled a sneeze as she breathed the stale air inside the ship. She’d seen historical footage of tombs being opened in the Valley of the Kings and she imagined that this was what air that hadn’t been refreshed for centuries would smell like. Dust and ashes. But the most surprising thing was that, as soon as she’d entered the ship’s airlock, she’d felt her weight pulling her down. Artificial gravity had been considered impossible when Dawn had been launched but at some point a breakthrough had been made and at least some vessels now had it. The shuttle didn’t, but this craft, which reeked of age, did.
She watched as the docking hose that connected the shuttle to the ship she was now on pulled away. The Emissary had disappeared as soon as
they boarded, so Arla stood in the dim flickering light alongside McCall and Wells. Hal slumped in the wheelchair they’d used to transport him from the medical facility, being kept asleep by the drugs they’d stolen as they left.
“This is Automated Exploratory Vessel XA-NDR-1358,” Wells said, his words breaking the sepulchral silence, “though she prefers the designation ‘Scout’.”
“A robot ship? But it looks as if it’s been designed for humans,” Arla responded in surprise.
Wells nodded. “Indeed it was. Scout was created to serve the scientific interests of the Sphere, humanity’s former galactic empire. As such, she was designed and developed by men, women and machines together. She carried a human crew supplemented by robots, but she was designed to be entirely autonomous at need, such were the requirements of a long range exploratory vessel.”
“It smells as though there haven’t been any people in here for a long time.”
“Scout left the Sphere at the time of the upgrade, a century and a half ago, and, along with her siblings, has continued her mission to map the galaxy. On behalf of Core now, however. It was Scout who first encountered the intruder.”
Arla started as a voice emerged from the walls. “Perhaps I might be permitted to introduce myself, Ambassador. I am Scout. I am pleased to meet you, Arla Farmer and Doctor McCall. It has been many years since I last carried a human crew and I’m afraid there hasn’t been time to properly prepare for your arrival. I have concentrated on making the environment safe.”
“Where are you?” Arla asked, scanning the interior of the ship as if expecting to see an android.
“I am everywhere, Arla. I have video feeds throughout the ship so I can respond to any situation instantly.”
McCall shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “Everywhere? I was just about to ask where the head is.”
“I can disable feeds from the washrooms if you prefer —”
“I do. And you can do the same in my quarters, assuming you’ve got cabins for us.”
“I will also disable feeds from the crew quarters. You will be able to communicate with me through audio commands. My last captain was called Dave. He also chose to disable the video stream in his quarters. I confess, I find humans odd.”
Arla chuckled to herself. Despite the oddity of talking to an invisible voice, she found she was warming to Scout. “You’re not alone in that. Humans find each other pretty weird too. Now, I think we should find the washroom quickly, Doctor McCall looks rather uncomfortable. And then I hope you’ll finally explain exactly what is going on.”
Hal
Arla sat in the cockpit and looked out at the stars. She knew that what she was seeing was a computer generated image projected onto a pair of displays set into the nose of the spacecraft, but she still felt as though she could reach out and touch the universe from her seat.
The cockpit was tiny - two seats crammed side-by-side with a bank of instruments extending from below the screens, one on the left, the other on the right. A joystick poked up between her knees and she ran her fingers over the polished plastic surface of a grip that felt pristine.
“These are the stations for the pilot and the navigator,” Scout said. “I was designed to be entirely self-piloting, but it was considered essential to include redundancy so that humans could take over if necessary. I wondered about that, but it seems to have been a wise decision.”
“Dare I ask why?” Arla asked.
“I will navigate to the gate of the system in which we believe the intruder will be found, but as soon as we enter that system, I will shut down my consciousness and you must pilot the ship to its encounter. I confess that I am somewhat nervous. What if I don’t wake up again?”
“You’re nervous?” Arla snapped. “Insane, more like. I can’t pilot this ship, I’ve never flown anything in my life. I’m an engineer, not a fly-boy.”
Scout went silent. Arla felt a tap on her shoulder and Wells spoke softly. “There is one among you who is a capable pilot.”
“Hal? Are you mad too? He’s in a coma!”
The robot slipped into the seat beside her. “The coma is medically induced and he can be brought out of it easily enough.”
“But the plan was to wait until we had a medical answer for him or, at the very least, some artificial leg supports so he could be mobile.”
Wells nodded. “That was indeed the plan but events have overtaken us and I’m afraid Hal is the only conceivable option. Furthermore, even if you don’t pilot the ship, you will have to learn how to navigate, or at least to help him do so.”
“Then we’d better go wake Hal up,” Arla said with a sign. She shuddered as she thought about having to tell him that he’d lost the use of his legs, at least temporarily. And what if his mind had been damaged as well as his body? Would she recognise the man she knew? The man she thought she had feelings for? Without another word, she grabbed the bar above her head and yanked herself out of the seat.
McCall stood beside the bed peering at a display embedded in the wall, tutting to herself, not even bothering to acknowledge Arla and Wells when they entered.
“Problem doc?”
“It’s this damn display, I can’t understand a word of it.” She poked a finger at a column of moving figures. “The only saving grace is that however much the alphabet changed between Dawn’s construction and this ship being built, the numerals stayed the same. This is his blood pressure, given the readings, but the rest of it is gibberish to me.”
Wells moved smoothly across the room to stand beside her. “I will attempt to decipher for you, doctor.”
Arla’s gaze swept around the walls, roving everywhere but to the bed. She didn’t want to see him, not until she had to. It was obvious this had been a sick bay when the ship had been crewed by humans, but, in the meantime, had been used for storage. She wondered what moved the stuff around and pictured, in her mind’s eye, an infestation of robots wriggling about inside the body of the ship. It was a repulsive and entirely irrational thought.
“Well, I reckon we’ve got as much information as we’re likely to get from this equipment, thanks to the tin man here,” McCall said, gesturing at Wells. “Are you sure you want to do this, captain?”
Arla sighed. “Please call me Arla.”
“Okay,” McCall responded, her eyes widening just a little. “But don’t go calling me Indira, I hate the name.”
“And as for whether I want to revive him... No, I’d rather he slept until we returned and we could, at the very least, find some way for him to get around if we didn’t think he’d heal. But we don’t have a choice. We need a pilot.”
McCall glanced up at her, eyes glinting. “So you believe the robots, do you? The tin man here and Captain Mercury?”
“Yes. I wish I didn’t and I still don’t trust any of them.” As she said this, Arla could have sworn she saw Wells’ face twitch. “But it’s pretty obvious that not all is well in Rome at the moment. I reckon they need us to do something and we need Hal’s help. Assuming he’s still in there.”
Finally, she looked down at the figure on the bed, a figure she barely recognised. His head was covered in a plastic cap and there was no sign of any hair beneath it. Hal’s face was deathly pale and, if it hadn’t been for the regular rising and falling of his chest, she’d have thought she was looking at a corpse.
“I’m going to administer Cordrazine - it’s a stimulant and should begin to bring him round. I’ll do it gently, though as soon as he begins to regain consciousness I’ll up the dose.”
“Why?”
McCall shrugged. “Would you like to be on the edge of consciousness, in a strange place, hurting and with no feeling in your legs? The best we can do for him is to bring him round quickly and get the shock over with. I’ve got drugs for that if he reacts badly. It’s a bloody mess, Arla. I feel like some kind of Frankenstein.”
“Hal’s no monster,” Arla responded.
“No, he’s not the monster here,” McCall said. “We’re t
he ones with the electrodes.”
During the hours it took to bring Hal back to consciousness, Arla barely left his side. She felt a mix of fear and disgust as she looked down at his pale face. Rivers of sweat ran down his cheeks and pooled on the mattress. Still she sat beside him as McCall and Wells came and went. She wanted to be the first to see him wake, she wanted to be the one to explain.
She’d felt a tiny tug of acceleration which, Wells explained, was a course correction as Scout manoeuvred towards the Core System gate. Their journey would take several days, jumping from gate to gate, but everything depended on Hal being capable of piloting the ship when they arrived.
He opened his eyes. He shut them again, then, blinking and squinting he turned his head this way and that before his eyes settled on Arla. She held her breath, searching for any sign of recognition.
“She’s gone,” he croaked.
Arla exhaled, before bending down, bringing her face close to his as colour began to return. “ACE?”
He nodded, then his smile vanished. “Something ... something is wrong. I ... I don’t feel like me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” he said, searching for the right words. “It’s like I’ve woken up in the wrong body. It’s not me anymore.”
Hal wiped his hand across his face and let it drop to his side again. He looked up at the ceiling. “I can’t move my legs.”
“I’m sorry,” Arla said as she took his hand and looked into his eyes. She saw tears there that mirrored her own. “They damaged you when they removed the implant. They wanted to keep you asleep, but I took you and brought you here.”
Hal’s head swung from side to side on this pillow. “Where am I? Not Core?”
“No, but almost as bad. We’re on a robot ship and we need you to pilot it.”
“For now, though,” McCall interrupted as she burst into the room, “you need to rest.” She moved quickly across to the other side of the bed, pressed a syringe against Hal’s arm and, within seconds, he’d dropped back into unconsciousness.
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