by R. A. Mejia
The threat to my life taken care of, I get to my feet in time to see the entire remaining portion of the forward section of the Argonaut as it is crushed and pulled down beneath the surface by the swarm of tentacles. I watch as the communications system I’d traveled so long to get to, disappears.
A sound behind me make me turn around, and I see the scout ship launch into the air. Its fiery thrusters burn more trees as it hovers for a moment, and its then shoots off into the sky.
“No! Darnit,” I yell, seeing my chance to escape the planet flying away from me.
“Sorry, John. Before the sensors from the ship stopped transmitting, I detected an outgoing signal. The scout must have had a remote access program to send the ship back to its base.”
I sigh and shake my head. “No, it’s not your fault, SAI. I’d just hoped we could hijack the ship and get out of here. Now, we’ll have to go home to restock and think of our next move.”
The rolly polly droid appears from the forest, dragging the pack of supplies. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, John. You’ve used up too much power using the gravity gun. We would have been fine if we hadn’t had to escape the destroyed ship, but you won’t make it back home. However, there is another place we can go to recharge the batteries we have.”
“Where is that?”
“The cargo hold.”
“You mean the same cargo hold that the pirates are looking for?”
“Yes. We need it for the same reasons too. We can use the military fabricator to make you new fully-charged batteries, or even better, we can use it to make a new communications system to contact the Federation.”
“Wait. How do you even know where the cargo hold is? You told me you didn’t know before.”
“That was true before, John. But once I regained access to the bridge and a record of the sensor system, I was able make a better estimation of where the cargo hold landed. I’m fairly certain that it is only fourteen hours north by north-west of here. You have enough power left with the spare batteries to reach the location. More importantly, I don’t believe it would be safe to return to our base, even if you could.”
“What do you mean?”
“There will be more pirates coming, John. They didn’t bring an assault cruiser and all those ships just to lose their prize to the two of us. If they get their hands on the military-grade fabricator, they will either use it to hurt a lot of people or sell it to someone else who will do the same. The scout ship has likely already sent a message back to the cruiser with the location of this area. It won’t be hard for them to spot our base, and my calculations say that they will arrive on the planet before we can make it back, even if you had the power to spare. Our best shot at preventing the pirates from getting the fabricator is to get there first.”
“But how are the two of us supposed to fight off a fleet of armed pirates?”
There is silence. Then hesitantly, SAI answers. “I don’t know for sure how we will John. I have several plans, but it will largely depend on the state of the cargo hold. Ideally, we’ll take control of the fabricator and either create a means of fighting or a way off the planet. But the truth is that you’re going to have to trust me and believe that this is the best option.”
That’s what it comes down to. Do I trust SAI enough to head towards place I’ve never been, with no extra resources and no preparation? The trip here took days to prepare for, and yet SAI is asking me to have faith that we can get to the cargo hold before the pirates and somehow beat them. I clench my hands, considering what she’s asking me and feel the artificialness of my right hand. I remember that it was SAI that saved me and gave me this new right arm.
I nod my head firmly, having made up my mind. “SAI, you haven’t let me down yet, and I do trust you. If you say you have a plan, that’s good enough for me. Let’s get moving.”
Chapter 12
After a quick change of batteries with the help of the rolly-polly robot, I’m off through the alien forest headed north by north-west. Knobby black roots slither around the ground like so many snakes, tripping me up, and forcing me into an awkward lumbering gait as I rush through them. but I continue traveling in the direction of the cargo hold, my mind split between the travel ahead and what will happen when the rest of the pirate crew arrives. I was barely able take out a single one, and that was with the help of the native fauna and flora.
Hours pass until finally SAI says the words that I’d been dreading to hear. “They’re here, John.”
“Who? The pirates?”
“Yes. They’ve landed a cargo ship outside of our base, and fifteen armed men are searching the ship for a way inside. One in a gold helmet seems to know his way around the ship and has walked up to where the elevator comes down. He’s using some device to try and gain access to the ship to command it to bring down the elevator.”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
“I have a plan, John.”
“Well, what is it?”
“I’m going to let them inside. Dropping the elevator down now. I’ve already prepped the ship.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I can’t have guests without laying out refreshments and party favors. I’m scanning the capabilities of each as they enter and go through decontamination. None should pose a problem.”
Sounds of men yelling and screaming can be heard over the comms. “What’s that sound, SAI?”
“The pirates are being attacked by my repair spiders. Individually, they couldn’t harm anyone, but together, they can strip out parts and cause damage to the pirate’s space suits.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I’m glad SAI is defending our home from the pirates, but she’s harming people.
The sounds of the screams lessen, and I hear laser fire instead. “Oh, they’ve started destroying the spiders. They’re working together better than I thought they would. Time for phase two.”
“What’s phase two?”
“The Rolly Polly brigade. I’ve created and equipped three robots with laser cutters from engineering.” I can hear more screams and blaster fire. “They are cutting the legs off several pirates as we speak, but they’re much less effective than I’d hoped they would be. It’s only a matter of time until they are blasted apart. The pirates don’t seem to care that they’re shooting each other too much. I’ve at least reduced the number of pirates from fifteen to eight. They’re much more cautious now, moving together in two groups of four with blasters out and ready to fire as they explore the ship.”
“What’s next, SAI? I know you have a plan.”
“You are correct, John. I do have a phase three. Since you left I’ve had my robots collecting and processing Annite to build up our stores and now I’m filling the entire ship with pure oxygen from the environmental systems. With their suits on, the pirates won’t notice until it’s too late.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I can’t allow the pirates to access the database here at this base. They’ll learn the exact location of the cargo hold if they decrypt my files, so I’ve decided to destroy the base.”
“Can’t you just delete the files?”
“No John. Just deleting a file doesn’t mean it’s gone. A good hacker would be able to reconstruct the data as long as they had access to the hardware it was written on. It has to be destroyed.
That means that there is no back up if I don’t succeed at the cargo hold. Worse, I’m not sure SAI will survive her sacrifice. If she’s intent on destroying her systems, then what does that mean for her? She is the ship, after all. If it’s destroyed, does that mean she’s killing herself?
“It’s time, John. The ship is filled with oxygen. Setting off explosion in 3, 2, 1.”
There is a brief explosive sound then only static. “SAI? Are you there?” I feel my heart beating faster as I ask the question again and again until the comms cut out completely, and a notification appears on my helmet display: Signal Lost. The quiet in my helmet
is disconcerting and I look around at the alien forest around me. A sudden sense of loneliness hits me.
Then, a sound catches my attention. It comes not from comms, but from outside my helmet. “Yes, John. I’m here.” I look down when I feel the robot nudge my leg. The lights on the bot light up, and I can almost detect a strained tone as she continues, “Were you worried that I’d killed myself? You don’t have to worry about that. As soon as the pirates landed, I started compressing and uploading myself to this robot. I’ll have limited functionality and won’t be able to talk to you over comms anymore.”
“Are you okay in there? You sound a little . . . stressed.”
“I’d say I’m more compressed than stressed. On a technical level, I am unharmed. There was no degradation of my code during compression or transfer. I could even force myself into an even smaller space if I needed to. It is just uncomfortable. I was made to run a star ship, John. I’m used to having more systems, more sensors, more computational space. For a human, it would be like living in a mansion for most of your life then being forced to live in a small closet.”
The analogy reminds me of my first apartment, a space in which I barely had room to lay down in. It was a mess of a place that made me feel anxious and claustrophobic, but it was the best I could afford in the overcrowded city. “Well, I’m sorry you’re feeling cramped, SAI, but hopefully it won’t be for too long before we get to the cargo hold. I’m sure there’s a roomier computer system there for you.”
SAI starts rolling away from me. “I can only hope.” When I don’t immediately follow her, she spins around, and I can almost swear her blinking lights frown at me. “Why aren’t you moving yet? We do have to hurry. I may have stopped that group of pirates, but more will be sent. They’ll comb the area now that they know where to look for their prize. At most, I’ve only delayed them a while.”
Together, we continue onward beyond the crystal forest to a pockmarked open field that extends off into the distance right up to the mountains. The field looks unassuming and plain at first but as we get closer the ground begins to rumble. Up in front of us a furrow in the ground appears about a meter across and it begins to move towards us. While I don’t know exactly what’s heading our way, I don’t like it and start to run away from it. I hear SAI rolling alongside behind me but don’t look back until I hear her cry out.
“John! Help! It has me!”
Turning, I see that something that looks like a giant armor-plated gopher has crawled out from the ground and grabbed SAI in its clawed paws. It’s only scratched the outside of her robotic body but is steadily dragging her back towards the hole it came from.
I pivot on my heel and turn back towards the creature and charge it, yelling out. I scream out, “Let go of her, you monster!” Unfortunately, that’s the extent of my thought-out plan, and as I reach the beast I tackle it. Only it feels like tackling a brick wall and the creature barely moves or even acknowledges that I’ve hit it. Panicked, I start to punch and kick the thing, but its armored body absorbed my blows. The creature wiggles backwards, dragging SAI ever closer to its hole, and I desperately try to use every tool I have. I activate the sonic hammer and while it pounds on the creature with sonic waves, they have little effect. The other sonic tools do little either. The gravity beam halts the creatures progress, but struggles to even lift it. However, the laser cutter turned up to maximum manages to cut through the creature’s tough plating.
With a squeal, the monster releases SAI and turns its massive body towards me more quickly than I would have thought possible and swings one of its long-clawed paws at me. I instinctively fall backwards and hear a screech as the tip of one claw scrapes against my suit. My screen flashes red as it registers the damage to the suit, but I’m too busy scrambling back to my feet to see how bad the damage was.
Once back to my feet, I see the beast waddling awkwardly towards me and have no trouble staying outside its reach. After a few minutes chasing me, the creature, whom I’ve decided to call a ‘moler’, realizes it won’t be able to catch me, turns around and heads back towards its hole.
SAI thankfully was able to escape when I hurt the monster and is already rolling away. When she doesn’t see me following, she calls out. “Hurry, before it gets back to its hole. It’s much faster when it can dig through the ground.”
I realize she’s right. We were only able to escape because it’s so slow on the surface, but when it gets back underground, it’ll be after us again. We make it about fifty meters when the ground begins to rumble again, and I glance behind me to see another furrow in the ground following us. SAI having had a head start is not the target this time and a few minutes later, the ground beneath my feet loosens, and I see long sharp claws dig through. I dive and roll forward, trusting my suit to armor me from swipes of the moler. I roll to my feet and keep running towards the mountain. A glance back shows the creature wiggling backwards into its hole, giving SAI and I a chance to run.
The scenario plays out four more times the same way before the moler decides we’re not worth the effort it’s expending, and it leaves us alone. By the time this happens we’ve almost reached the mountains and continue onward, only taking a break one we reach them.
Even though the suit enhances my strength and stamina, it does not replace them. By the time we approach the area where the cargo hold is supposed to be, I’m dead tired.
“According to the updated information from the bridge, the cargo hold should have crashed somewhere near here.”
Looking around, I see nothing but mountainous, rocky landscape. The ground is covered in a loose, shale-like material, making movement treacherous. Steam billows up from man-sized holes in the ground, and the thermal readings in my suit indicate a decided increase in the ambient temperature. What I don’t see, however, is any sign of the ship.
“I don’t see anything, SAI. There’s just rock and steam.”
Her rolly-polly robot body swivels towards me, and the lights flash. “Of course you don’t see it. If the cargo hold were just lying somewhere, then the pirates would have found it long ago. It must be hidden somewhere. Maybe it crashed, caused a rock slide, and has been covered in rock? I don’t know, but we won’t discover what happened just standing here. Start looking.”
SAI rolls away without waiting for a reply, but I find a waist-high boulder and sit down instead. Unlike SAI, I need to rest after our rushed journey here. I go through the sensor options in the suit. It’s not really been something I’ve had to use before. SAI usually takes over and runs all the scans remotely, but according to her, being limited to her robot body, she can’t this time. Most of the sensor options seem pretty straightforward and are used to regulate the suit. Sensors for pressure, acceleration, flexion and extension help with movement feedback, while gas sensors monitor internal and external gasses to make sure that I don’t suffocate.
The active sensors on the list are infrared, seismic, optical enhancement, radiation, and acoustic. Cycling to each places a different overlay onto my helmet’s display. Infrared replaces the rocky grey landscape with a colorful palate of reds, yellows, greens, and blues that indicate temperature from hot to cold. The hottest temperatures are concentrated around the holes in the ground, and I note that there are many more openings than I’d originally thought there were. Radiation sensors overlay white static over the normal grey landscape, showing energy patterns that are released. Everything on the surface has the same radiation level. Optical enhancement turns out to be a fancy way of saying ‘zoom.’
But it’s the active acoustic sensor that’s the most interesting. The suit has passive sound sensors that I use to listen to the sounds around me, but these work more like radar. My suit interprets the sounds and then overlays concentric circles over visual images to show where sounds are coming from and how loud they are. I can tell the direction SAI went from where I’m sitting. For example, there is a small pulsing circle overlayed on what I see when I look to the north. It moves around, tracking her as she
rolls over the rocks. Even when she stops moving, there’s a blip on my display because of the internal motors in her body. I throw a rock up a small hill and watch where it hits then observe the circular ripples that appear on my display as it hits the ground and bounces down the hill. It’s even better when it causes the other small rocks to fall. There are multiple ripples then, and it reminds me of the time my dad took me to a pond and we fed the fish. There were dozens of ripples on the surface of the water as the fish came up to get their food.
“You going to start searching anytime soon?” SAI asks, disrupting my small rest break.
“Yeah, I was just going over the active sensors in the suit. I’ll search to the west.” With that statement, I rise from my seat and start walking west, still cycling through the various active sensor modes and hoping for just some small sign of where the cargo hold might be. It takes me hours of searching, but I finally find a place that looks like something happened recently. I detect a large amount of steam rising from the ground near the base of one of the hills, but there weren’t any observable holes in the ground that might generate that much increased heat. Instead, it seems to be seeping from the base of the hill itself. I recalled SAI stating that a rock slide had covered the cargo hold and cycle to the acoustic sensor. I instantly note a small background hum coming from beneath the rocky ground. I try to dig through the loose rock, but after a half hour of work, I’m no closer to uncovering anything. There must have been tons of rock loosed by the crash, and it would take me months to excavate on my own. Instead, I return to where SAI and I parted ways and call out to her. She returns, and I take her to the area that I think the cargo hold crashed into.