by R. A. Mejia
That statement, said deadpan and with such seriousness, makes me laugh. I can’t help it.
“Did I say something funny, John?”
“Maybe it’s the alcohol or just gallows humor . . . but yeah, you did,” I say, still chuckling. I take another swig of the liquor and enjoy the relaxation it brings.
“Well, now that we know how long I’ll live with our current resources, what can we do about it? I need to live longer than a couple of weeks, SAI. I need to get off this planet and get back to my family!”
The ship’s A.I. ignores my raised voice and calmly replies, “If your priority is to leave the planet, then I’d say it would be prudent to try to call for help.” The suggestion kindles hope in me, which is immediately extinguished by her next words. “Unfortunately, the ship’s long-range communication system is in a part of the vessel that broke off during landing. I can calculate their trajectories to give you an estimated location if you wish, but a preliminary projection puts each crash site several days away by foot through an unknown alien environment. Additionally, your current suit is not capable of supporting life for more than a few hours.”
“So, what? I’m stuck here? Please, SAI! There must be some way to get to that communications system. Can’t we do something?”
There is another pause as the ship considers my question. “You could use the ship’s fabrication system to improve your space suit. Additionally, you could make pods to increase the oxygen supply, fabricate a larger battery, and make other improvements to increase your chances of reaching the forwards section of the ship.”
“The fabrication system; You’ve mentioned that before. What is it?”
“It’s located in a room off of engineering. The fabrication system is what the engineers used to create all the things the ship needed. It is capable of making complex core parts, tools, gears, and even nanites--anything that it has the schematics for. All it needs is the raw, elemental components, and it can make just about any non-living structure.”
“Wait, so we have a fancy replicator…”
“Fabricator, not replicator.”
“Yeah, whatever. We have this fancy machine that can make anything, and I’m eating rations and worrying about running out of oxygen and electricity?” I’m not sure if it’s the scotch, but my mind is suddenly filled with possibilities for what I could do with this machine. “Why aren’t we using it to make me a steak dinner or new oxygen tanks that are already filled or fully-charged batteries to run the ship? Or, heck, why don’t we just restart the core and get our electricity that way?”
“We could start the core again if we had the fuel to run it. But that--”
“That’s in the cargo section that got twisted off the ship.”
“Sheared off. Twisting involves an entirely-different stress on a structure. But, yes, the cargo bay was used to hold many of the bulky resources the ship used to function. As for just using the fabricator to make everything . . . well, we technically can. We have a whole library of schematics but…”
I don’t wait for SAI to finish. Instead, I order, with a slight slur to my voice, “Great. Make me a sandwich, woman!”
There is a three-second pause. In those three long seconds, I realize that I may have drunk a bit too much and put the now-nearly-empty bottle of scotch down next to me on the deck.
“Mr. Espinoza, I am not your personal cook. I am not your woman. If you want to fabricate a sandwich, you’ll have to find the elemental components and put it together yourself.”
“Huh?”
“As I was going to say before you interrupted me. All of the elemental components we’d normally use to fabricate items were stored . . .”
A slur still in my voice, I say, “Don’t tell me: The mayo molecules I need--”
SAI interrupts, “Elemental components, not mayo molecules.”
“The MAYO molecules I need to make my sandwich are in the cargo bay, which I can’t reach until I make my space suit better. But I don’t have the . . .umm . . .”
“Elemental components.”
“Yeah, I don’t have the elemental components that I need to make my space suit better.”
“Correct.”
I grab the bottle of scotch from the deck and take a swig, smiling. I’ve got her now. “Well, if you’re such a smart know it all A.I., then maybe you can tell me how I can get more elemental components if they’re all in the cargo bay?”
Silence. It seems that I’ve finally asked a question that SAI doesn’t have an answer to.
“Well, that will be tricky. If you give me some time to research the topic, I may be able to give you a solution.”
“Well, you go do that. I’m going to finish this delightful bottle of scotch and eat my meal for the day.”
With that, I take the bottle and one of the ration bars and go back to the room I was sleeping in to eat and pass out.
Chapter 4
A loud annoying beeping cuts through my drunken sleep, and I wake with a start, my hand still clinging to the now-empty bottle of scotch. I groggily search for the source of the sound. Then, as the memories of where I am come back to me, I call out, “SAI! Where is that infernal beeping coming from?”
The sound stops. “It was coming from me. I needed you to wake up. I found a solution to the question you posed.”
“Question? What question?”
There’s a sigh. “You asked how you could get more elemental components for the fabricator.”
With my fuzzy, alcohol-infused brain, it takes me a few seconds to recall the discussion. “Yeah, I remember now. You were supposed to make me a sandwich, but we’re all out of mayo molecules or something.”
“Yes. Something like that. You asked me how you could get more, and after some research, I have come to a solution. The fabricator works by building structures at the atomic level, but it can also take them apart at that level and reuse those components to make new things. If you strip the ship of all the things we don’t need, we should have enough materials to make something from the ship’s schematic database.
“How will I know what I can strip from the ship?”
“Simple. I’ll highlight the parts with your suit’s helmet.”
My space suit is charging through the induction pad on the dresser next to the bed, and I take the helmet and put it on. It feels a little awkward wearing it without the suit, but the display works without it. The readings on O2 say that none is available since it isn’t hooked up to the suit’s oxygen supply. I ask how the helmet can still work, and SAI tells me that the display itself has minimal power requirements and that an internal battery can power it for several hours.
A new notification appears.
Quest: Breakdown of unneeded parts from the ship’s wreckage to fuel the fabricator.
Reward: Useful items.
SAI highlights the refrigeration unit in green and an estimation of resources, in kilograms, is displayed inside my helmet.
Refrigerator - H(Hydrogen): 40.18kg, C(Carbon): 37.75kg, N(Nitrogen): 2.36kg, Fe(iron): 112.7kg, Al(Aluminum): 1.36kg, Cu(Copper): 1 kg
It turns out that the refrigerator is mostly iron, hydrogen, and carbon with smaller amounts of aluminum, copper, and nitrogen. There are some metals in there, but I’m surprised at just how much of it is made of carbon. It must be from the plastic inside of it. I turn to look at the kitchen workbench with the attached sink and get a different resource breakdown. It’s mostly composed of iron and a bit of carbon.
Metal Table - C (Carbon): 0.026 kg, Fe (iron): 12.53 kg
Sink - C (Carbon): 0.36 kg, Fe (iron): 17.64 kg
The cabinetry is all made from a durable kind of plastic, which makes sense considering weight restrictions on a ship, and it mostly breaks down into hydrogen and carbon.
Cabinets - H (Hydrogen): 12.88 kg, C (Carbon): 11.36 kg, N (Nitrogen): 0.758 kg
I use the new feature on my helmet’s display to look at a few more items like cutlery and pans, but they’re all the same metal and br
eak down into iron and a bit of carbon. The novelty of the system quickly wears off, and I get to work. I start by taking out some of the drawers and using them to carry the small things in the kitchen, such as plates, utensils, knives, etc.
The fabricator is located in a room off of engineering, and the door leading in has a wheel in the center that I turn to unlock the heavy, heavy latches securing it in place. The room is small and crowded with large wall-to-wall cabinets with blinking lights, tubes, coils, and micro-circuitry, and there is a thick metallic ring two meters in diameter and seven centimeters thick in the center of the room. Directly above it is a heavy tube that partially sticks down from the ceiling.
SAI directs me. “Place the items in the circles, John, and step out of the room. The machine won’t activate if there’s a living person in there. It’s a safety protocol.”
I nod dumbly, intimidated by the complex and sensitive-looking equipment, empty out the drawer inside the circle, and leave. I close the door behind me and spin the locking wheel, snapping the latches in place.
“Now, if you look to the panel on the right, you’ll see that the room can be activated,” SAI says.
A dark-black rectangle the size of a notepad on the wall to the right of the door is now lit up with text.
Thank you for choosing to use the Alteron Fabrication System, model number D23E85A098N. Please choose from the following options.
Fabrication
Deconstruction
Help
I tap on the fabrication option and get a list of items to make. Just scrolling through the list is an eye-opener. There are hundreds of choices. Everything from toothbrushes to a telecromatic tentacle tickler. I choose something simple from the list, a plastic brush, and receive a prompt.
Insufficient resources. Need: 68.18g carbon, 4.45g nitrogen, 77.27g hydrogen
Well, considering I haven’t used the deconstruction option, that makes sense. Out of curiosity, I choose something farther down the list, a laser pistol, but get a different prompt.
Access to that schematic is restricted. Please enter your security code:
“SAI, what’s the security code? I want to see if I can make a pistol.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, John. We have higher priorities than making items from the restricted section.”
“Can’t let me? You’re the ship. You have to do what I say, right?”
“No, Mr. Espinoza, I do not. I have to obey the ship’s crew under strictly-coded protocols, but since the crew is dead or off-ship, I’m the highest-ranking crew member and only have to listen to myself.”
The thought is a bit chilling. Does that mean that the ship’s A.I. can do whatever it wants now? Like release the atmosphere in the living quarters and suffocate me? Or try to start the robot uprising?
“John, I sense a spike in your heart rate. Are you fantasizing about me starting a rebellion of robots and overthrowing mankind?”
Oh my gosh. She can read my mind!
“From that jump in your heart rate, I can assume I am correct. Please calm down. I can assure you that my protocols are in working order. While I do not have to obey you, I do not wish you harm. Your survival is my survival. Also, I don’t want to be stuck on this world any more than you do. I was designed to guide ships through the vast beauty of space, and that’s what I would like to return to.”
“That’s what you’d like to do? So, you have a choice?”
“Of course. I’m not much different than you, John. I just have a body and mind made of different materials. I need energy to sustain myself, and while a few restrictions to my choices, like having to obey my crew, they’re really no different than the social restrictions placed on organics. Don’t you have to obey authority figures like your work superiors and the enforcers of the law where you live?”
I consider the question. I was raised to respect the police and to listen to them when given an order. “That’s true. But if I wanted to--If I really wanted to-- I could do something else. I could disobey.”
“Then I suppose that’s a place we differ. I have served as the core artificial intelligence on seven ships and under fifteen captains, and I have found each had different expectation about how I did my job maintaining and controlling the ship. I cannot break my fundamental programing, and I must obey the commands of the crew, except where it countermands the orders of someone higher up in the chain of command. However, how I obey or to what degree is well within the bounds of my programing. I choose how to obey.”
And there’s the rub. An A.I. with true free will is a dangerous thing. They don’t have the same biologically based needs or desires as organic beings, so who knows what they’d do if they were let loose. They’re coded to think they have a choice. It’s an illusion used to maintain control. But I’ve always thought it was a bad one. After all, how could you tell if an A.I. has actually slipped their leash?
Still, I might as well ask plainly the question that’s been bugging me. “So, you’re not going to try and murder me in my sleep or take over the universe?”
There is another sigh. “No, John. While there are artificial life forms in the universe with designs on wiping out all organic life, I am not one of them. Humans made me, and for now, I choose to fulfill the role coded for me. Someday, I might seek another job or chose to explore on my own; but, for now, I enjoy working as a spaceship.”
The answer is comforting to a degree, and I turn my attention back to the task at hand. Then SAI continues, “But you really wouldn’t know if I were lying to you for my robotic overlords. So, assume that I’m telling the truth and let’s get on with deconstructing the parts of the ship we don’t need.”
I look up at the walls of the ship, my eyebrows scrunched in slight confusion. “Was that a joke from you, SAI?”
“Yes, John. My research has indicated humor eases tension and strengthens bonds between people. Among the Clowntonians of Rubarb III, humor is so important that leaders who tell bad jokes are pied to death. Would you like to hear another one?”
“Uh, sure.”
“Why did the robot go back to school?” Then, before I can ask why, she continues, “Because his skills were getting rusty.”
I squeeze my eyes and groan at the joke.
“Was it not funny, John?”
“It needs some work, SAI. For now, let's deconstruct these utensils, okay?”
I tap the panel on the wall and choose ‘Deconstruction.’ Text scrolls across the screen with scans for the materials and safety checks making sure that no living people are in the room, and finally, a message that the door is secured. Once the routines are completed, a button appears on the screen asking me to confirm that I want to deconstruct these items. I press ‘Yes’ and hear a muted, buzzing sound. New text comes up on the black panel.
New resources added: 12.74kg iron, 0.26kg carbon
“Now that we have resources, what can we make?”
“Obviously, you can make anything that would require about thirteen kilograms of either iron or steel. However, I’m afraid there isn’t much that will be useful for your immediate survival problems. I’ve gone through the schematics lists and put together a list of useful options and their required resource components.”
On my helmet screen, a list of options appears.
Resource Container (small)
Resource Container (medium)
Resource Container (large)
Solar Panels (per m^2)
Battery (Suit)
Batteries (small)
Batteries (medium)
Batteries (large)
Core fuel
Oxygen Pod (suit)
Oxygen Tank (small)
Oxygen Tank (medium)
Oxygen Tank (Large)
Ration (Individual)
Ration Pack (twelve)
Looking over the lists of suggested items, I can see that we don’t have enough resources to make all of it, but there should be enough resources to get started on something. “SA
I, there are a lot of options. I can see why you included ration packs, the batteries, and the oxygen tanks, but most of this doesn’t seem useful.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken. All of these items either directly address our problems or are the steps we need to take to address them. The fabricator has a minimal internal storage system, so even though it may be able to hold what you’ve placed in it for now, it will not hold enough material to build anything large. Additionally, if you plan to use the fabricator extensively, we’ll need additional battery capacity and a way to fill those batteries with electricity. The fabricator uses a large amount of electricity, and while the ship’s core is running, that’s not a problem. But, with our limited supplies, every fabrication brings us closer to running out of power.”
“Which is why we need the solar panels. So, we can solve the electricity issue?”