The Accidental Explorer

by George Deeb

  “Control, this is Dhona. Go ahead.” he replied.

  “Sir, what is your status?”

  “Just finishing search of the planet. Will be returning soon.”

  “Lanor, please transmit your latest report before returning to the ship.”

  “Will comply. Transmit report before returning to Eowaar.”

  If he had to send a final report, Dhona thought it best to do it before playing his joke on the Vialacteans. Of course his actions would still be recorded right up until engine shutdown on the ship, but this part would be the last thing on a long report. Most likely no one would even pay attention to it.

  He checked the temperature outside and found it was surprisingly comfortable, then sealed his helmet. If this had been at the planets dark side the extremely cold temperatures would have adversely affected the interceptors interior. Although his suit would have kept him alive, he would have had to explain why he had opened his canopy.

  “Open canopy and invert attitude along longitudinal axis.” he said.

  The canopy slid back, and there was a slight rush of air as the pressure differential between the atmosphere and the ship's interior equalized. Then the ship slowly rotated until he was looking down at the planet's surface.

  “Descend to ten limms at point one limm per fracin.”

  Slowly the interceptor got closer to the ground. As it did so, Dhona looked around for an appropriate object to use in his plan. He had almost reached his designated altitude when he spotted it. A rock about the same size as the palm of his hand, near to the rover.

  “Descend to five limms at same rate.”

  In a short time the ship stopped and hovered in place. Dhona carefully took hold of his side arm. He didn't want to drop it. In his upside-down position, he adjusted the weapons power level to minimum and aimed at the rear edge of the rock. He fired and the blast of energy knocked the rock up into the air and forward. It flew over the rover and landed in front of it. Dhona couldn't see where it ended up.

  “Ascend to ten limms at same rate.”

  The ship slowly rose higher and Dhona saw the rock had landed close the machine. But it was upside-down making it obvious it hadn't been there before. Frustrated by this minor glitch in his plan, he resigned himself to leave it alone. He was out of time, and by now very low on fuel. He directed the ship to upright itself, close the canopy, and slowly continue to rise upward. When he was far enough away, he initiated his flight back to the Eowaar.

  Chapter 15

  Moving In

  1

  April 2014

  Erika Aimsler drove her now four year old Mercedes convertible onto the long driveway of her uncle's home. She was a wealthy young woman who could afford to buy a new car whenever she wanted, but having the newest and shiniest didn't interest her. With the money she had inherited from her parents estate Erika could have spent the rest of her life in lazy luxury. But with all the interests she had developed from her family's influence she would be bored living like that. She understood how fortunate she was, and that even a four year old Mercedes was a financial luxury out of reach for many people. She made sure that the vehicle ran as well now as it did on the day it was purchased. That was a lesson she learned from her uncle Tony – keep your tools in good condition.

  She liked being in the mountains of Montana. It always made her feel like she was on vacation, which was usually the situation when she had come here in the past. But even after the long drive, there were still tears in her eyes. It had been very difficult saying goodbye to her aunt and uncle. They had effectively been her parents for the last eight years. They took her into their home, and treated her like a daughter, with as much love as they gave their two sons. They had seen her through the slow healing of her heart after the loss of her father and mother. Guided her through her final teen years, and her first date, first boyfriend, high school graduation, and college. When she pulled out of their driveway to come here, she had cried so much she didn't think there was any moisture left in her body. In her mind, she could still clearly see them and her cousins waving goodbye, all with tears in their eyes. She was already looking forward to visiting them on holidays.

  As her car came within fifteen feet of the garage doors they automatically opened and she drove in and parked next to the blue pickup. She liked the automation her uncle had built into the property. There were sensors everywhere, both in and outside of the house. Grabbing her purse, she went to the house entrance and heard the lock unlatch as she got close. This automatic response of the security system was triggered by the beautiful birthstone ring her uncle had given her when she had graduated High school. The ring was very light in weight, and made of a space age ceramic material. It acted as an 'identification badge' of sorts, communicating her presence to the house's automation computer. If anyone was home, her arrival would be announced to them over the distributed speaker system.

  A smile grew on her face, because now she would be scrutinized by what she considered to be the real security system of the house. This was the real test that you belonged here, and weren't an intruder. Her smile grew bigger as she walked through the door, knowing what was waiting for her. She looked down, and in front of her was a baby triceratops dinosaur, about as big as a medium sized dog. This small robot had started out as a simple robotic toy, but over the years had been extensively modified by her uncle. The camera eyes of the little robot pointed at her face for a second, then it started wagging its tail and making a yipping noise like a happy little puppy - its facial recognition software had matched her face. It then sat down in front of her, and raised its front paws.

  “Erika is home.” it said, several times, in an excited child like robotic voice.

  The little robot then sidled up to Erika and rubbed against her leg. She leaned over while laughing at its antics, and scratched the top of its head with her fingertips. It purred like a contented kitten. Erika laughed a little harder at that. Every time she came here, she found the little dinosaur's personality had been expanded in one way or another. It kept getting more lifelike.

  “Hello Vicious.” she said to the dinosaur, “I'm happy to see you too.”

  She knew that her uncle had programmed Vicious to only show these responses when it recognized her. With other people, Vicious acted more simple and robotic. She loved that her uncle had put in all that time and effort to make her happy when she visited. But then, as far as she was concerned, he was the greatest uncle in the world!

  Vicious was correct about her being home. Her uncle had recommended her for a job with the same company he worked for, and they had hired her. Her Engineering degree, and personal skills were just what they were looking for in an entry level position. She had to go through a comprehensive background and security check before she was offered an employment contract. Since the job required a lot of travel and long periods of being away it made sense for her to move in with her uncle instead of getting her own place where she probably wouldn't have time to get comfortable in.

  Vicious wasn't just an entertaining toy. He was the mobile extension of the house's security system, and also had his own internal and independent computer system. At night, the little robot would prowl around the house and outside property searching for anything that didn't belong there. It had IR and temperature sensors for heat detection (calibrated so that it could report actual temperature), distance calibrated variable focus lenses for eyes, hundreds of stored images in its non-volatile memory which it used for visual recognition, ultrasonic transducers for distance/proximity measurement, several microphones around its body for sound detection and direction determination, and its cute little horns could deliver a fifty thousand volt electric jolt.

  Vicious also had scanning lasers projected from each eye, each modulated at a slightly different frequency. This allowed three dimensional mapping of a relatively close object by measuring distance to object's features with the lasers and combining the two maps together. Sensors on the bottom of its feet could detect m
oisture content (which had come in handy when the water heater sprung a leak last year) and surface texture and temperature. It also had a vocabulary of over one hundred words and phrases which it could translate into ten different languages, had voice recognition capabilities, and was in continuous contact with the house computer via UHF and WiFi radio links.

  The electronics package in Vicious was enclosed in a hermetically sealed box, which also contained the rechargeable battery. The battery was capable of powering the robot for up to thirty-six hours, but Vicious was programmed to self dock in his charging station and recharge when power levels dropped to twenty percent and the house inhabitants were active, or the property was determined to be secure.

  Its programming also included 'Abnormal Attitude' algorithms which allowed Vicious to compensate for faulty sensors by making related measurements with its other sensors. If its ultrasonic module failed, it could measure distances by using the calibrated focus function of its eyes (lenses). Faulty temperature sensors could be compensated for with its IR sensors which could create a temperature map of the environment. If either of the radio links went down, it could continue communications using the other one. And since Vicious was the mobile sensor of the security system, it had a fail-safe package built in – an embedded stand-alone transmitter that sent an emergency 'Under Attack' signal. If three or more sensors malfunctioned, it was assumed that Vicious had been intentionally damaged, and the signal triggered every alarm and defense mechanism of the house – sirens went off, lights went on, selected doors and windows locked, and programmed communications went out over phone and satellite systems to the security company and Erika's uncle. There were even some more 'active' defense mechanisms that her uncle wouldn't tell even her about – something about keeping her legally immune from liability. The house was highly automated, and her uncle could monitor and control all of its systems from wherever he was at the time – assuming that location had communications to the rest of the world.

  This all made sense, and seemed very reasonable to Erika. To this day, her uncle's job was still a mystery to everyone who knew him. The long periods of being incommunicado made her suspect he was working deep underground or surrounded by very rugged terrain, where communications and travel would be difficult. It had gotten better over the years - From being out of touch for weeks at a time, it was now down to almost daily video chats. Being away for so long and often meant a high-tech house was only practical. He was a technical specialist, knowledgeable in many fields, and often worked with experimental technology that was unknown to most of the world. He loved his job, and the thought that she was soon to be working with him, and exposed to his secrets excited her.

  She had gotten the job because she met all the qualifications – a recommendation from an associate in good standing (her uncle), an educational background related to the work (degrees in both Mechanical and Electrical Engineering), and successful completion of job interview and background check (which no doubt was fairly boring since most of her life had been spent in school). What Erika found curious was that her new employer seemed highly interested with her familiarity with weapons – no, that wasn't it exactly – it was the fact that she was both comfortable and capable with weapons. They also seemed very impressed with her love of camping in the wilderness – which Erika took as an indication that she would be working someplace that wasn't close to civilization. Even to this day, the work location was still a mystery since her uncle had made it clear he would tell her about it when she moved in – he loved to keep her in suspense. But it really didn't matter much to Erika. She would be working with her uncle which was all she needed to know. She would also be the newbie, so she expected to be given all the grunt jobs. Still not a problem – she was willing to earn her place.

  Her uncle had taught her about firearms, and she was one of the few people her age (maybe the only one her age) that had actually operated and fired the quad fifty caliber machine gun fire control system that had been standard equipment on the tail of D model B-52 bombers. The experience had been a birthday present from her uncle. Those aircraft had been decommissioned long ago, but some of the weapon systems had been scavenged piece by piece and re-assembled by firearms collectors. Although it lacked the automatic radar tracking and targeting computer, the one she was able to fire had fully functional guns and hydraulics – and it was a kick in the pants, literally – because when those guns went off the whole gun mount shook violently, and she felt it through her whole body. When she got home that night, she couldn't stop talking about it to her cousins. Nothing says Happy Birthday like firing off several thousand rounds through a quad fifty cal! Over the years her uncle had also taught her to use handguns and rifles of various types, and she was a proficient marksmen.

  2

  “Where's Uncle Tony?” asked Erika.

  “Uncle Tony not home.” said Vicious, “Mersuul is home.”

  Erika tried to remember who that was, but wasn't familiar with the name.

  “Who is Mersuul?” asked Erika, just as she walked into the living room and noticed the sleeping woman stretched out on the couch.

  The woman was beautiful, but there was something strange about her that Erika couldn't identify. Something strange other than her hair. 'Oh my gosh,' thought Erika, 'her hair is iridescent. I'll have to ask her how she did that when she wakes up.'

  “Mersuul is friend.” replied Vicious.

  “So... Uncle Tony has a girlfriend, huh?”

  “Mersuul is Vicious girlfriend.”

  Erika chuckled, knowing that her uncle had anticipated her question, and intentionally programmed that reply. He was very good at that, anticipating things and preparing for them beforehand.

  “So she's your girlfriend, huh?” Erika asked, tickling Vicious under the chin. The robot's right rear leg moved rapidly up and down, like a dog getting its belly scratched. She chuckled again. That was a new response for Vicious.

  Erika quietly left the living room, trying not to disturb the sleeping stranger, and went to kitchen and made a pot of coffee. She had little doubt that if Mersuul was uncle Tony's girlfriend, she was a coffee drinker. It had finished brewing by the time she had gone back to the car for her luggage, and placed the bags in her room.

  A sleepy Mersuul walked slowly into the kitchen as Erika was spooning sugar into her cup, inhaled the aroma and smiled. She opened her mouth and spoke, but it sounded like a foreign language to Erika. A second after Mersuul stopped speaking, the voice of the house computer came over the speakers.

  “I love the smell of coffee just brewing.” it said.

  It took a few moments for Erika to realize the house computer was translating for Mersuul.

  “Oh. OH! Yes, me too. You mean 'fresh brewed' coffee.” Erika said, still surprised. She didn't know the house computer was programmed to translate languages. Her uncle had been very busy since she last visited.

  Mersuul looked closely at Erika's mouth, studying it.

  “Fresh brewed.” she mimicked in a clumsy but accurate copy of Erika's words. “Fresh brewed.”

  “Yes,” said Erika, “fresh brewed. I just made it. Would you like some?”

  The house computer once again spoke, but this time in the unfamiliar language - It was translating Erika's words for Mersuul. It wasn't like any language Erika had ever heard before. Mersuul's eyes went to the ceiling, where the speakers were mounted, as she listened to the translation. Then she smiled, and nodded yes. Erika took another cup from the cupboard, and poured coffee into it. Mersuul added sugar and just a touch of creamer. Erika pointed to the kitchen table and they each took a seat.

  “Do you speak English?”

  “Some. A little.” she said. Then she reverted back to her own tongue and the house computer translated. “Your uncle is much better with language than I am. Tony show me coffee. Very good. Warm. Warm me up.” came the computer's voice. “I show Tony bliml. Bliml better than sugar and cream. There is no bliml here.”

  “Blimal? What
is blimal?” asked Erika.

  Mersuul listened to Erika's question being translated, and replied.

  “Bliml like sugar and cream, but one and better.” translated the computer.

  Their conversation continued, as they drank more coffee and enjoyed some pound cake that was in the refrigerator. As Mersuul became more comfortable with Erika she began to use more English words to express herself. Erika had to mentally compensate for Mersuul's grammatical idiosyncrasies as they spoke, and realized the other woman was probably doing the same thing. As their conversation continued, Erika finally realized what it was that looked strange about the other woman. There was a very slight and almost imperceptible blue tinge to her skin. She would have to ask Mersuul about this later. For right now it was enough to enjoy the company, coffee, and pound cake.

  3

  They had moved to the living room couch, and over an hour had passed as the two got to know each other. As they continued, Erika realized there were some strange statements Mersuul had made, that couldn't be attributed to being lost in the translation.