Test Planet 01

by Jen Cole

  Chapter 2

  Well I’m back and everything’s changed. I guess I should start by explaining what happened. When Harvey turned up just after seven, I was ready with a bag of food and a water bottle.

  “Good morning, Nick,” he said in his butlery voice. “What are your plans for today?”

  “I need you to carry these,” I said, opening one of his panels and depositing my food and drink. “Now we saddle up.”

  I expected him to question the provisions – you know, “Why carry food when everything you need is in the compound?” But he didn’t say anything. Guess he thought he’d ‘humor the kid’.

  We zipped around for a bit and then I took him to a section of the wall farthest from where the scientists were meeting, and told him to rise to the top. From where we hovered, I could see out over the land but when I pushed on the chair-back to go forward, but Harvey didn’t move.

  “I’m sorry, Nick. I cannot take you outside the compound.”

  “Sure you can,” I said in my most cheerful voice. “You have to. Aren’t you always telling me you’re programmed to advance human knowledge? Exploring will help me learn new things about this planet, which will advance our knowledge.”

  “You’re just a teenager, Nick. What could you learn that the scientists in the compound, with all their experience, have not already discovered?”

  I pulled out the first of my logic tricks. “That’s the operative word, Harvey – experience. Yes experience has advantages, but it also has weaknesses. Gaining experience takes time. You get older in the process, and old people become set in their ways. They use ‘tried and true’ methods, which may not work so well on a new planet. Also the scientists are all specialists. When they’re outside, they pretty much ignore anything not in their own fields. Inexperience is my advantage. I can look at this place as a whole, with fresh eyes. That could help me see things the scientists have missed.”

  “I grant it’s possible, Nick but you know the rules. Anyone wishing to leave the compound must take at least one other person with them, in addition to myself.”

  I took a deep breath, not too dismayed. I hadn’t really expected to win the first round. You might be asking why I didn’t just go out with one of the scientists. Well I’d already done that. Since we’d arrived I had on different occasions been out with Mum, Dad and a few of the others. Talk about boring! I was forced to hang around while they carefully took their readings and collected their samples. They seldom went far and never let me go off by myself. When I’d point to an interesting object in the distance, they’d say something like, “That’s not in today’s sampling area,” or, “It’s out of my field.”

  I’m telling you, being forced to stick with a scientist outside is more frustrating than staying in the compound. My first approach with Harvey having fizzed, I pulled out my next logic trick.

  “Harvey, the two-person rule doesn’t apply in this case.”

  “How so, Nick?”

  “Well, as I see it, there are three reasons for that rule. Firstly, two people have a better chance of fighting off an attacking animal. Secondly, two can help each other across tricky terrain and thirdly, if one person becomes trapped in some way, the other can help them out. But those reasons are only valid if you’re just floating behind as an encyclopedia/collecting device. I’m not using you that way. You’re my flying horse. If an animal attacks, we can zip out of harm’s way. Rivers and harsh terrain are no problem – we fly safely above them, and if I get off and walk into quicksand or some other trap, all I need do is grab onto the chair and you can pull me out.”

  “Nicely argued, Nick,” said Harvey. “However there is a fourth reason for having another person along.”

  “Which is?” I knew what was coming.

  “To quote an old saying, two heads are better than one. Some situations require good decisions rather than fast getaways. Two people working on a problem from different perspectives have a better chance of coming up with a solution than one person alone.”

  “No worries,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant and hoping Harvey wasn’t able to detect the sweat I could feel prickling my armpits. My next argument wouldn’t convince a human but it might just work with a robot who wasn’t quite an AI.

  “In your database, you have the profiles of everyone on the ship. You could make a hologram of one of those people to come with me. A holographic person weighs nothing so we won’t have to sacrifice maneuverability.”

  There was a slight pause as Harvey processed this and my optimism surged. Usually he took no time at all to come back with a stopper.

  “It’s true I could create a holographic representation of any of the colonists,” he said. “And using the voice patterns stored in my database I could even make the hologram sound like the actual person, but it wouldn’t be a real person.”

  “Real enough for our needs,” I argued. “Your database holds everyone’s history, IQ and personality, so you could make the hologram respond exactly the way the real person would. That would give me someone with a different perspective to discuss problems with.”

  “What if we became separated, Nick? I can’t project a hologram further than ten meters.”

  “You don’t have to be the projector, Harvey. My communicator is projection-equipped.” I tapped the button in my earlobe. “It has a five-kilometer range so even if we became separated you’d still be able to hear what I was saying and project the hologram and its responses through my communicator.’

  I held my breath.

  “You seem to have covered all contingencies, Nick. I believe you are correct. A hologram projected through your communicator should suffice as a second person. Who would you like to accompany you?”

  I could scarcely believe my luck. Not only had Harvey bought my argument, he was allowing me to choose who would come along. Before the colony ship had left Earth, all the families selected for the voyage had spent a couple of months living in an orientation village. We were taught all sorts of skills related to starting a new colony, but most importantly we got to know each other. The shrinks on the project had insisted this was better than having everyone wake up from cold sleep to start life on a new planet with a bunch of strangers.

  I’d made several friends in those two months and the closest of them was Lachy. He and I were on the same wavelength and I was opening my mouth to say his name when I suddenly rejected the idea. The thought of interacting with a fake Lachy was too weird.

  An image filled my mind – Sienna. In my memory she was tossing her dark curls disdainfully. Sienna’s sixteen – only a year older than I am but she looks down her nose at me like I’m some snotty kid. No way would I have any chance with the real Sienna when everyone’s woken, so why not go out now with a simulation?

  “How about Sienna Williams?”

  “What makes you think I’d want to go exploring with you?”

  I twisted to see her sitting right behind me. And yes, that was just the kind of thing she’d say. Harvey had reproduced her expression and tone of voice exactly.

  I pushed hard on the chair-back and we shot forward over the wall. She gave a gasp. If she’d been real I’d have felt her hands grabbing my waist. This was going to be fun. I could say or do anything without having to wear the consequences.

  I looked out over the landscape. It had many familiar features, but then the ship’s automated systems had spent a thousand years searching for a planet that could support human life. Naturally Test 01 bore similarities to Earth.

  Far to the south, blue mountains rose. Harvey, being solar-powered, could make that distance, but he was unlikely to get me home before nightfall and I didn’t want the scientists learning of my secret excursion.

  Closer to hand, a stream meandered across the mauve plain and ended in a vast purple swamp west of the compound.

  “Those wetlands look interesting,” Sienna said.

  Secretly I agreed with her. They’d be a great place to explore, but I hadn’t though
t to bring nets, collecting jars or insect repellent.

  I spoke disparagingly. “The scientists have already covered that area and anyway I’m after bigger wildlife than you’d find in a swamp.” I pointed to some nearby hills where exposed chalky rock faces dropped away sharply. “How about over there?”

  She sniffed. “Suit yourself.”

  Harvey spoke up. “If I might suggest, Nick. You’re more likely to find large animal life in the forested area on the other side of the plain.”

  What was he trying to do? Embarrass me in front of Sienna?

  She gave a laugh. “I agree with Harvey. What can you hope to find at the base of some old cliffs?”

  I could hear myself becoming defensive. “Maybe the carcasses of big animals that have fallen off.”

  “Would animals so stupid exist?” she said. “Oh wait, I can see one sitting right in front of me.”

  “Very funny,” I muttered, turning Harvey towards the forest.

  The ‘forest’ turned out to be not trees but huge bamboo-like stems, a pinkish-red in color. Clumps of purply-green leaves quivered at the tops of them like some kind of Dr Seuss fantasy. The trunks grew so closely together that my legs kept getting scraped as Harvey weaved his way in and out. I was kind of surprised at the lack of complaint from Sienna until I remembered that holograms feel no pain.

  Finally I told Harvey to stop. “I’m going to walk. It will be easier.”

  The forest floor was spongy with fallen leaves and as I stepped between the trunks, marveling at their smoothness, I couldn’t resist running my hands down their polished surfaces.

  “This is amazing,” cried Sienna. She’d skipped ahead of me and was now turning, her face full of wonder. “So beautiful. Hey, there’s a clearing up ahead.”

  Resisting the urge to call out for her to wait, I ran to catch up.

  “Oh no!”