by Chris Hechtl
The Terran colony ship Sacagawea jumped into the outskirts of the Antigua star system in the usual explosion of energy and light. “Not bad. Not bad at all,” Captain Tristan Mayer drawled. It was his first time as captain of Sacagawea. He'd served on her once as a navigator and had made a run of colonists to Pyrax years ago. The old girl had made runs to some of the inner colonies while under contract before she'd been contracted by the company to run colonists to Antigua.
“I hope they are ready for us,” Vicky Jepsen his XO said. “We're a couple years early,” she said.
“They'd damn well better be ready. I don't want to be stuck in orbit any longer than we have to be,” the captain said peevishly. “We burned all sorts of records getting here.”
“Yes, sir, that we did. That buoy we saw though, that worries me,” the XO said.
“Yeah, I'm not certain what that is about,” the captain said, sitting back in his chair. “Possibly someone dropped it to scare colony ships out. You know, a prank like the corporations pull from time to time to throw each other off.” Well, he wasn't going to fall for it, he reminded himself.
“I'm not so sure,” his executive officer said.
“Look, Vicky, I've been coming here for years,” he said patiently, with just the right hint of exasperation in his tone of voice. “I know bullshit when I see it. And that buoy smelled to high heaven. We'll find out the truth when we get to orbit,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she replied dubiously.
Ten days later the ship made orbit. The crew had grown increasingly worried when the planet hadn't responded to their hails. When they were established in orbit, the captain ordered the cameras to search the ground. What they saw was devastation, crater after crater where lines which looked like roads led to.
Consternation had given away to horror and disbelief, and then fear had started to set in as the crew realized where those roads had led to.
“What the devil happened here?” Captain Mayer demanded.
Vicky shook her head. She knew her instincts and that buoy had been right. “I don't like this. Sensors, keep watch of the star system. Whoever did this might be lurking,” she said.
The captain gave her a sharp look, but he was interrupted before he could say anything.
“Sir, no one is responding to our hails,” a communications rating reported. “It's dead down there. I can see where they had towns but … it's all gone,” her voice trailed off in a near whisper. “All those people …”
“What do we do? Do we even have enough fuel to get home? I knew we shouldn't have ignored that warning buoy! Damn it!” the XO cursed, shaking her head.
“That's enough,” the captain said darkly. “If it's anyone's mistake, it was mine. It is mine. We'll deal with it. Navigation, turn us the hell around and plot a course for the hyperbridge back to Sol.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“We'll need to conserve fuel and power …,” the XO said.
“That you can work on. I want to know how much fuel and resources it is going to take to get back to Sol. We'll need to conserve, so if it is a choice between speed and fuel use, we're going to have to go ballistic as much as possible. If, that is, our life support can handle it.”
“Where is a nice gas station or an ice ball when you need it,” the XO muttered.
“If wishes were fishes, we'd all be fed for life,” the captain said. He shook himself. “Enough of that. Get moving number one.”
“Aye, sir,” the XO said as she took herself off to run the calculations.
The ship turned away from the seemingly dead planet and lumbered for deep space and the long journey home.
(@)()(@)
Doctor Grayskull scowled at the interruption. It wasn't like he didn't have a lot on his plate at the moment. He hated visitors. “What is it?” he demanded, looking up and then around until his A.I. appeared before him.
“Sorry, Doctor, but you wanted to know if the ship has left. It has now broken orbit and is headed for deep space.”
“Good,” the scientist growled, turning back to the matter at hand.
The Sorceress considered her reply for a half second. The doctor had been concerned that it had been a trick initially, especially after the alien ships had departed. There was a lot of relief when the alien ships had left; she had expressed her own in an exploration of her own personality evolution. The doctor had waved it off at the time.
Now she wondered if her creator really was a hermit. All the signs were indicative that he was. From her study of human psychology, she knew it wasn't healthy. Humans were social creatures; most needed some minimal social interaction on a regular basis. Apparently, that was one of the reasons she had been created she knew.
“It was Terran though?”
“Yes, sir. I have confirmed it with a telescope,” the A.I. replied, showing him an image of the ship and then a voice stress analysis of the caller. “The ship is the Sacagawea. I confirmed it based on the verbal information as well as a comparison of the images I captured and those within the database files.”
The doctor grunted. “They are safer away from here,” he rumbled as he turned back to his work. Contrary to what the A.I. thought, he really was trying to figure out new methods of combating the aliens. One such had taken up the majority of his time at the moment. He'd wanted to find a way to turn a soldier into a super soldier, using his technology to turn one man into a one-man army. He'd hit upon the idea of nanites of course. He'd extended his castle theme to embed the nanites into a wizard rod initially, but his latest version was a sword. He was now working on a transformation matrix, something that would allow the user to power up and down at need. There was no need to be a muscle-bound freak breaking the china when one didn't need to be after all he thought.
He'd also hit upon the idea of cybernetics and extending the nanites to a second being. As usual though the mechanics of the process were proving to have some difficulties in implementing successfully. But if he got it right, not only would the user be a superman, but the user also has armor that would literally be grown onto him and his or her partner.
Once he had the process down, he intended to replicate as many swords as he could. And the neat thing about the nanites were that he could add features, as many as the nanite memory queens could handle. He scratched his jaw as he considered the data bandwidth needed to update the queens and how to do it from the castle … and power, they'd need power …
“Are you certain of that, Doctor?” the Sorceress asked, interrupting his thoughts before they got to the equation phase.
He shook himself, annoyed at being dragged back into the here and now. “I am. The damned aliens will be back eventually,” he said gruffly. “If they land they'll just get bombed again, and we don't want that.”
“I wonder where they went?” the A.I. asked. “The aliens I mean.”
“I don't know. I'd say anywhere is better than here, but I'd probably kick myself later if I found out they did this to someone else, or worse, to Sol,” the scientist said as he continued to tinker with his latest project.
“Agreed.”
“I've got to concentrate here,” he said pointedly as he leaned over and focused on the microscope.
“My apologies, sir,” the A.I. murmured as she fell silent and then returned to her duties managing the castle.
(@)()(@)
Malory Randall wondered what was going on as she suppressed a cough. It was the umpteenth time she'd done both of those things.
She knew she had to suppress the cough, ever since Birdy and Hope had died of pneumonia; the kids had been frantic anytime anyone got sick. She couldn't blame them. It was just a dry cough though, a tickle at the back of her throat she couldn't quite get rid of. It only got worse when she got into a coughing fit.
She turned to check on the kids. Patricia was holding her own, grimly aware she needed to put up a brave front for Tirel. Her husband Donald was off gathering wood with the other survivors.
He'd tried his hand at hunting an
d had lucked out. Paki Bello, the Neogorilla in charge of the hunters, hadn't been amused when Don had come back having fired seven shots but not hitting anything, which was why Don had been relegated to getting firewood and playing gopher.
She, like everyone else, didn't know why the aliens had done what they had done and then pulled out as mysteriously as they'd come. She didn't know; she really didn't care. She was happy for the reprieve and hoped it would last. Miss Thrakle, the late governor's wife and what leadership the survivors had, insisted the aliens would be back, that they might be sitting up there waiting for the survivors to come out so they could bomb them again.
Which was why they kept digging the caves deeper and hunting for other ones. Parties ventured out to gather resources. They had to survive, but they did so in small groups and were careful not to leave trails back to the caves.
It was an ongoing struggle to survive. Sometimes it was a daily thing; sometimes it was harsh just getting through a day without wanting to throw the towel in she knew.
For the kids if for anyone else was why she hadn't. She'd nearly died when Hope had passed away; it had torn her heart out as badly as Birdy's death had. But she'd more or less been resigned to the death, and in a way it was a blessing. Hope wasn't suffering like the rest of them were, she wasn't in pain, and she was at peace with her maker.
If they didn't find more resources soon, all too many others would soon join her, Malory thought bleakly as she finished her bundle of washing in the stream. She wrung the rags out and then brought them back to the cave to lie out to dry by the fire.
(@)()(@)
Magellan's crew watched the planet as the ship stealthily crept through the star system. Many onboard were starting to hate their scouting mission. The star system was bereft of any radio signals, an ominous sign. There was no sign of the enemy either thankfully.
As they approached the planet, Captain Cooley ordered the communications department to call the planet. If they didn't receive a return signal within … he glanced at the clock and then nodded once. Thirty hours, he thought, twenty-nine hours and fifty-eight minutes and dropping, they'd have no choice but to keep on their course past the planet, using it as a slingshot to get to the Triang jump point.
He hoped and prayed someone was down there and had the ability to respond to him. All it took was a quarter of a watt to send a signal to orbit he knew.
“Come on, pick up,” he murmured softly.
(@)()(@)
The Sorceress A.I. noted the broadband radio transmission on all of the known frequencies as well as the caller. The fact that the ship had gotten past her sky watch program intrigued her. She was tempted to wait to inform, the doctor but he had left instructions to inform him of such things.
She pulled up the recording of his order up from her archives and put it in her short-term memory for easy access. He hated it when she used his own words against him, but he knew she was right.
“Doctor Grayskull, another ship has entered the star system. It is a Terran ship and is calling the planet,” she said.
It took three tries to get through to the doctor. When he finally looked up, she could tell from his expression that he may not be happy about the interruption but he needed it. He still didn't understand that he should draw on others for things, fields he didn't understand she thought. Not that he could at this time, she reminded herself. He liked puzzles, and he liked to learn new fields despite his age. But it wasn't easy and having to learn an entire field just to figure out a problem wasn't easy.
Take for instance his current preoccupation with creating a super soldier.
“Another ship?” he asked blearily.
She monitored his vital signs and noted his blood sugar was low. He also had a lot of fatigue toxins and lactic acid in his muscles. She instructed the prototype nanites in his body to take care of the toxins and lactic acid. That would help clear some of the aches. She also used them to adjust his blood pressure to relieve his tension headache.
“I was just working on the adrenal issue and the muscle problem and how to reinforce the vascular system to handle the changes. If I can't handle it right, the subject's heart is liable to give out …”
“Doctor, the ship?” the A.I. said patiently.
He stared off into space and then blinked slowly. A thought formed about replacing some of the subject's nervous system with super conductors. But the translation on either end would negate the advantages … and besides, he'd have to find a way for the nanites to make the substance. And wouldn't the body naturally reject the material over time? He shook his head.
“Doctor? The ship?” the A.I. pressed.
“What, another one? What is this, grand central station?” he demanded. He was unsure if the ship is a trick or not.
“Doctor, you need sustenance. Even I require power for my processors,” she said as she used a robot to make a quick energy meal for him. She kept it simple. She would have liked to have made one of his favorites, but she wanted something quick.
He opened his mouth to object, but she flooded his lab with the smells of the cooking food. He inhaled and then exhaled slowly. His stomach rumbled right on cue. “Okay, you win that one,” he grunted as he got up. He stretched slowly and carefully, aware that he'd spent a lot of time in his back brace trying to work through the problem. He really should have moved to his chair or a pod. Cerebral challenges might best be solved within his cybernetics he thought.
He also wished he had access to some of the databases outside the ones he'd brought with him. It was terrible that he was trying to figure out fields well outside his own interests.
“You are going to use materials to enhance the user initially correct? And then use the nanites to enhance strength, endurance, reflexes, stamina, and pain later?” the A.I. asked, entering her conversation mode. Sometimes talking a problem through helped him conceptualize it. And sometimes she teased a way around a problem that had stymied him due to lack of sleep or food.
“Yeah. See, I can't sustain it indefinitely at range. So, the idea is to draw power from the castle, use the sword as a sort of antenna. The user would gain a brief sudden surge of power …,” the doctor said as he scratched and went to relieve himself.
When the toilet flushed, she heard him wash up. She waited patiently for him to exit the bathroom. “Is the food ready yet?” he asked.
“Yes, Doctor,” she replied. One of his other inventions was a new version of a food replicator. He had created it out of need to recycle his limited stock of food. It wouldn't work forever, but it was enough for the moment.
As he ate the A.I. piggybacked a bot on to the ship's signal. She got enough of a response to determine the ship was indeed human.
“Sir, the ship is indeed Terran. The Magellan, according to the records she is an LGM survey ship. They are attempting to make contact with the planet.”
“No one home but me it seems,” he replied.
“They are offering to drop care packages to help. My exterior remotes have seen survivors from time to time. Undoubtedly, they could use the extra help to survive the winter, sir,” the A.I. replied.
The doctor grunted as he picked at his meal. Suddenly the idea of his eating a meal while some poor kid was outside hiding in a cave eating grubs wasn't so appealing to him. He'd seen the Sorceress's remotes; after all, he'd built them to resemble Terran birds of prey.
“Okay,” he said. “Let me finish my meal.”
“And perhaps someone on the crew might help you with your own problem or give you some additional medical database files to help you reason through them,” she suggested slyly.
He snorted. “You already sold me, young lady, no need to rub it in,” he mock growled as he finished his meal.
“Very well, Doctor,” the A.I. replied with a brief smile.
(@)()(@)
Ahab shook his head as the captain looked at him. Captain Cooley crossed his arms and closed his eyes for a moment.
“So, that's it. We just mo
ve on? Leave them?” Kathy asked in dismay. “All because they couldn't make our deadline?”
“Yes,” the captain said, ignoring the note of reproach in the woman's voice as he went over and took his seat.
“Not yet,” Ahab said, throwing his right hand up in the air as his left cupped his earpiece. “I've got a signal!” he crowed triumphantly.
That sent a cheer through the bridge. He impatiently shushed them and then put both hands on his headset to hear it clearly. When it repeated he looked up. “Skipper, it's from an A.I. A Doctor Grayskull is calling.”
“Doctor …”
“Doctor Dreyfus Grayskull?” Shelton demanded, turning to Ahab. “Are you frackin serious?” he demanded.
“Someone we should know?” Captain Cooley asked.
The selkie looked guiltily to him. “Sorry, sir. He's a genius. He sold a bunch of his patents to Lagroose Industries. He kept his hand in inventing though. They set him up with shares and a lab.”
“Well, Antigua was set up by shareholders from Lagroose Industries who traded their shares in for ownership of the star system,” the captain mused. “Put her, him, and whoever through.”
“The doctor is a man. Human,” Shelton replied.
“The A.I. isn't,” Ahab reported as he put the signal through to the bridge overhead.
“This is Captain Cooley calling Doctor Grayskull, is it? It is good to hear your voice,” the captain said, instinctively looking up and addressing the ceiling.
Motion in his plot made him turn in surprise. After a moment a holographic image of a woman and a man appeared. “How …?” he turned to Ahab.
Ahab's face puckered in a surprised sour expression. “She hacked our system, sir.”
“Indeed, I did,” the Sorceress replied. “I'm not called a sorceress for nothing,” she replied with a brief smile. “May I present Doctor Dreyfus Grayskull,” she said, with a hand wave and slight bow to the human male.
“Doctor,” Captain Cooley replied with a polite nod. “As I said …,” he halted when the doctor waved an impatient hand.