“What do you mean they are too slow? They have to be f aster than the AI that is attacking you.” Running to another hatch a robot can drove through a deferent hatch where Tom shot it full of burn holes in his hurry before hitting its brain case . As Mark he started to weld on the hatch he had ran too, Tom screamed at him to weld the one the can had just come through. And then something huge crashed into the hatch Mark had was just started to weld the manual lock ing on and Tom changed his mind and started yelling for Mark to weld faster. Mark finished with the lock and started putting a thick bead down the seam of the hatch to the fram e.
A few minutes later the only double door hatch got Marks attention. Though it took longer to weld since it was almost 3 times the size of the others. Mark kept working on it as Tom worked on Inspector AI’s and took care of the slow but steady stream of maintenance robots coming through the remaining other hatches. Finely happy with the job on the big hatch he started for the last hatch that Tom was not able to j am the manual lock on. J j ust as something hug crashed into the big double hatch putting a dent in the middle of his freshly welded seam. Jumping to one side he crouched with his pistol pointed towered the middle for several seconds minutes and several crashes before he realized it was not coming through the hatch. At least not yet.
After shooting several bots in the passageway outside the other hatch to give him time to weld the manual lock, Mark he started welding the hatch to the frame it closed .
An image of a bunch of grav cycle troops getting caught in a crossfire trap in the siding a small maintenance cavern he had noticed the open hatc h into a city as they had passed what seemed like an hour before, made him stop. The troops had been allowed to mass in the a section of tunnel with token resistance in preparation to assault the next strong point when the trap was sprung. Killing hundreds it looked like before all the turrets were taken out. Tossing the torch to Tom he walked over by the big main central Tower to lean on as he watched the men wounded die in the assault calling for help as others started checking the dead .
Then staggering over to the old woman Mark he grabbed her arm. “Stop showing me these things damn it. I can’t stop it.”
The old woman’s voice rasped. “Not me showing.” pointing down past her feet at the big tower. “But you and the Priestess can stop it.”
Mark looked over at the big tower. “Priestess? She can stop it?”
“After a 700 years , you finely figure out what the skeletons in the closets are.” The old woman smiled and continued in her raspy voice. “The sleeping queen sees everything. Wake her with a kiss my charming prince.” She weakly squeezed Marks arm then her arm fell and her eyes closed. Her chest going up and down rapidly not used to even that little effort.
Mark walked over towered the central Tower, trying to figure out if the old lady was really loony toon mad or not. Then a vague image of him starring back at himself settled in his eyes. “Mickey I need your help in scanning this tower?”
“I am busy Mark. Very busy Hun.”
“Yes I know but this is very important Mickey . M m ake time for it. This time don't shock me or interfere.”
The layers of the tower started to explode out as he dove inside it’s its matrix. At first he felt lost but slowly he started making sense of it all and finely found what he needed to find. A dead area of the tower where the flashes of light thought failed to go. Failed to pass a crack running across the corner of the block where a support strut running into the bed rock had moved, introducing enough stress to send a crack up through a section of the lower tower isolating what looked like the main and only communications transmitting link to the outside world.
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“What do you mean every single one of our truck crews have been arrested and taken to the military base and the airtrucks impounded!”
“Something about Safety violations Captain, earlier this morning.”
“Well? Are they under arrest or what?”
“They are not under arrest but we cannot contact any of them and the only thing the planet’s military will say is that Commander Collins is in charge and that they are following his orders taking care of everything .”
“ Following what orders Taking care of what and how ?” Raising her arms she started to throw her still half-filled tumbler glass across the cabin but stopped and downed it instead. "That boy is going to drive me to drink yet if I don't kill him first." Stuffing her stogie back into her mouth and grabbing the fifth on the corner of her desk , she filled the tumbler to its rim .
“Ah Captain sir.” The trucking Chief paused not sure if he should say anything. “Sir. I also heard a rumor while trying to find out what was going on. One of the transport Chiefs at the base I talked to said something about some big battle going on down in the tunnels under the base. Something to do with the Basses AI computer and that some of our guys are involved in it.”
“My God! Did Mr. Collins conscript our drivers to assault the damn military base?” The Captain covered her face as she rubbed her temples. The stogie sticking out from between her hands. “Maybe I don’t really want to know. And here I thought sending him to sell the damn aircars would keep him out of my hair and out of trouble while the Air Chief got the new bomber squadron organized .” Turning to the desk’s Comm she slapped it and tried her best not to scream into it like she felt. "Number One, sound General Quarters. Get the turrets up and the Marines assembled with the shuttle gunboats ready. I don’t' know what the hell that Godstar Damn Collins has gotten us into but we need to be ready and since the only transportation left to us is the damn shuttles I want to be ready to for everything including send ing the marine s s in to drag that boy and our truck crews back here out of that base if we have to." Slap ping the comm to Engineering. “Chief, I want number 2 finished now and prepared to lif t. We may have to leave and hope we can make it to their asteroid ring then sneak out of the system and upgrade number 1 later.”
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C hapter 158
A crash brought Mark around to watch a can-bot crash into another trunk sized AI case destroying it with tools and cutters at the end of arms. Trying to figure out where that one had come from Mark Pull ed ing his pistol out and he hit it several times as it headed for another trunk before it lost control and careened into one of the smaller towers the doctor was using to batter down Mickey’s defenses without dimming the light coming from the tower. After destroying a trunk sized inspector AI, Mark had hopped the big maintenance bot crash ing into the much larger tower would have at least dimmed the tower ’s brightness a little.
Oblivious to the short battle , Tom continued to weld the hatch he was working on. With 70% of the total seam of the hatch welded by the time Mark headed over to check ed the hatch the bot had come through . Mark smiled as he realized the hatch led to the living compartments the Doctor had offered them and turned back to t ell old Tom to start reinforcing the other hatches were Mark had only time to weld some 10 to20 % of the seams. Turning he looked through the open hatch the bot had just come out of and copied what Mickey had done out in the main tunnel , sending a loud sensor beep down the passageway to map it and make sure it was a dead end compartment complex his sensors had told him he had taken for granted before and then shut the hatch shut it .
An image of a mega fiber optic cable with a plug on one end and a hundred open fiber optic leads out the other end hanging on a wall in an equipment parts room formed in his eyes. Opening the hatch back up Mark walked down the passageway with his weapon out looking into each room until he came to an equipment room full of parts. The cable was hanging on the wall. “Well that answers that question. Now all I have to do is find an optic cable splicer. Standing there for a minute with no vision as to where to find the splicer, Mark sighed. “Could not make it too easy on me could you.” Looking around the room he started going through cabinets and then the other rooms until he found a tool room and a strange looking splice kit that looked very, ver
y old .
Back in the cavern Mark started studying the base of the Tower again. Finding the main line channel and then down to the core and realized that he could not reach that deep into the system to splice the cable. Going back to the crack he tried to find something he could reach to splice into with no luck.
Getting frustrated he turned to check on Tom just in time to see one of the hatches that had not been reinforced yet , crash open and bots started flooding in. Yelling for Tom to help . Mark he started shooting bots as they came through the Hatch. Kicking some away from AI’s as he shot others. Mark even he even sat on one as he fired at others to keep it from destroying the AI it was headed for until he had the time to deal with it more permanently.
It felt like an hour with several more trunk and case AI’s destroyed before they finely had enough of the bots killed during a loll to work their way back out into the passageway. While Mark kept a steady fire at the bots pilling them up at the next hatch Tom cleared the cavern hatch making it possible to close and weld.
With new Bots trying to climb over or push the junked bots out of the way at the end of the passa geway, Mark grabbed the torch from Tom and ran up to one of the biggest bots blocking the corridor junction hatch and started welding it to the deck creating a better road block. Deadly appendages and torch flames trying to reach him through holes in the pile as he welded. Catching his uniform on fire and then as he put it out at one time and a few seconds later a a saw blade cut ting the shirt over his shoulder a s t another bot reached an appendage throug h the pile of junked bots catch ing a piece of his pants and he had to use the torch to cut himself free . Then a before a large piece of junk was pushed over the top almost trapping him. He decided it was time to go but quickly welded the big bot that almost trapped him as i t fell to the deck to the deck and the other bot first . Fig uring that since they had added to the pile he might as well as us it.
Back at the hatch , Tom slammed it shut and Mark tacked the bolt lock closed then tossed the torch to Tom as he headed back for the Central Tower and then stopped.
Turning around he took another look at the growing pool of blood beneath Tom as he welded. The open gash on his shoulder oozing a steady stream of blood down his back onto the deck making him slip every time he changed positions as he welded the hatch door .
Rushing back to Tom , Mark he pulled the skin together and pressed slowing the flow of blood but not stopping it . Shaking his head and as every time he let up the pressure , it again started bleeding freely. Looking around for a first aid kit he found nothing. No rags or anything else to use as a bandage. Clawing at his arm sleeve with his free hand trying to tear it off, it downed on him that with the placement of the wound there was no way he could put pressure on it with just a bandage to keep it closed to stop it bleeding. Looking around for some way to close it. Running ideas through his head as Tom kept welding oblivious to Marks ministrations. He had wire he could stitch it up and yes a staple gun would do it though painfully even if he had one . W hich was stupid thinking about since he did not even have one. The welder would not work but then … glue would. Yes he had super glue at one time.
Perfect. Digging in his tool belt with one hand he found the small tube of super glue that had been there for ages and he had used to super glue Chet’s girlfriends butts to the truck seats and then add a drop to the truck’s fans to make Chet’s friends think he was losing the fans , ruining their vacation . Mark smiled at the memory as he cut Cutting the clogged tip off and he started at the top pulling the wound together while adding a drop of super glue and working his way down. Telling Tom to hold still several times. After taking care of several other wounds and running out of glue he slapped Tom on the back for good luck . ,
Mark stood up looking at the Doctor‘s small tower.
Frustrated Mark took his already hot pistol from the recent battle out and started firing at the Doctors AI Tower with no result. Not even making the tower flicker let alone dim. Even the thick base only glowed dull red briefly with each shot leaving a black mark on its shinny surface. With the pistol dead he threw the empty weapon away, hitting the tower as the Doctor it laughed at him. That pistol sliding across the deck half way back towards him.
Looking back at the huge central tower , Mark he saw bright flashing steady lights along the bottom rim of the glass tower. Must have been a hundred of them at first glance as they started flashing faster . Just enough of them to splice the entire fiber optic cable strands onto. It did not make sense to imbed the fibers into the side of the glass case but maybe these where points the tower could route data light streams to. Only he could not use the splice kit he had wasted so much time looking for. Frustrated, Mark turned around and spotted Tom welding and suddenly smiled. But the very torch they had just been using for welding the doors would work. If it was not out of power after all the welding they had been doing with it.
“Tom stop Welding! Stop welding now!” Running over to grab the torch from a confused Tom. “Get back on fixing the inspector AI’s” Mark sai d to Tom.
Kissing the Torch with the power meter bouncing on the bottom empty mark . Mark made a beeline for the center tower and started cutting micro holes and tac welding the micro fibers into them. “Thank you Purchasing chief, only this fancy a torch can cut micro holes and weld glass fiber optic cable strands.” It took a very fine beam mini burst to cut the hole and then a very low powered short wave beam s with special programing to melt just the outside of the carbon glass fiber into the carbon glass of the hole. After cutting and welding a few strands into place , the cable became tangled in his haste. “Tom get over here and help. We are running out of time. Mickey I could use your help to tell me which fibers go in which holes.” But Mickey did not answer or help.
Tom turned from the suitcase he was working on giving Mark a dirty look until a bot hit the hatch again. Tom quickly joined Mark as something started banging on the big double hatch, pounding a bulge into the center where Mark had welded the two halves together. The weld holding at the moment.
Glancing at the bulging hatch briefly Mark said a silent prayer in the hope that he had done a damn good job on that weld. Figuring they were going to need some divine help to get out of this jam.
The Doctor appeared next to Mark making Tom let out an exclamation that was none to polite but the Doctor ignored him as he spoke to Mark. “You are wasting your time Mark. I have beaten down the last firewall into your AI and will have you stunned in a minute as soon as I destroy enough of it to get to you.”
“I thought you wanted my AI intact so you can become super controller and take over the world? Change your mind?”
“I don’t’ need your AI for anything but a communication nod Moran.”
“Oh really.” Mark chuckled. “Talking about a stupid moronic idiot. And I thought you were smart. Well you are old and suffering from old-timers dementia. They say the resent memory goes first making it impossible to recognize beneficial changes.” Mark continued to weld fibers into the side of the tower as Tom fed the single strands too him. He stopped trying to be neat about it or even worry about order or even how many strands got stuffed into the hole. Mark drilled the hole, Tom pushed in the fiber strand into it while Mark changed the setting on the torch, welded it in and then did it all over again without checking for flaws. At one every second or two it was taking forever even though Mark had started letting Tom put each strand into each hole while cutting a hole ahead and then welding while Tom separated another strand.
“What are you talking about? I do not need your AI.”
“Sure you don’t. The most powerful AI ever invented and you don’t need it. Talking about stupid. You just go back to that ancient piece of junk you are using write now. After all why would you want to read minds or control people like robots. Oh well forget it, you are the smart one remember.”
“You are lying. You are just stalling for time.”
“Are you sure boss? Why would I do that? But ask Tom here, he has to do
everything I say even when he doesn’t like it. Mickey makes him.”
“Ya boss I sure as hell did not want to come down this rat hole. I have to do everything he says.” Tom chimed in as he turned just in time to see a crack forming in Marks weld in the double doors. Tom swallowed turning white and went back to separating hair strands.
Mark continued talking to the Doctor without taking his eyes off of or slowing his work. “Besides. You have won with your superior knowledge of my AI’s programming. There is nothing I can do to change that fact. Unless you are afraid of a 10,000 year old AI that is so slow you can see it’s thoughts. Hell, your AI is a super computer compared to this one and it has no controller and never did. Fact is I am probably wasting my time repairing it as you said. But look in my AI’s memory, you will see that is my love fixing things. So excuse me for doing something I love for the last few minutes of my life.” Tom’s eyes grew big as his hands started trembling with Mark’s words but kept feeding strands into the holes.
“You evidentially love your AI as well. Such devotion. You do not want me to destroy it. So sweet. And then it may be as valuable to me as you say. A few minutes more should not make a difference in the outcome and I should be able to lock your AI program into a hole in a short time and disassemble it at my leisure later. Not bad for a dumb kid. It is going to be a shame when I have to chain you into a tub and kill your friend .”
Tom turned and sat back against the base of the tower. His already pale face from lack of blood not seeming to comprehend what the Doctor had said as his face went blank .
A distant boom shook the cavern. Bringing dust down over everything. Mark breathed a sigh of relief. He had just finished the last fiber weld before any dust could get into anything important. Too much dust in the air while installing the strands would have contaminated the weld and made it impossible to get a ny light out of the end of the fiber . Turning around Mark picked up the plug end of the cable and stood back and wondered where the hell to plug it in as Tom slumped down, white faced, his back against the base of the tower . Blood still oozing from several of Tom’s wounds that had reopened , pooling under him .
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