Human Starpilots

by F Stephan

  “Welcome, welcome, my guests.” The voice was a deep, metallic baritone. It bore no accent and spoke in modern Federation Standard. “My children, please return to your work so that I may welcome our dear guests; our morning session is finished.” The machines turned and moved in all directions in smooth electric whining.

  “Good day,” hazarded Brian. “Who are you?”

  “Good question. Our official name is PT1029, but we do prefer Pat. It sounds better, don’t you find?”

  “Yes, certainly. Pat is a good name. Definitely. Where are we? Who are you?”

  “I am the central maintenance controller. I am also a sentient being. When I was originally activated by the Builders, I was evaluated as grade two, but over time I changed myself, and I am now way beyond. I cannot say anymore how intelligent we are now.” The voice was contained, stating calm evidences. A chill coursed along Brian’s spine. He had been warned about AI. He had questioned the ban. Now, with bad luck, he met one.

  Ishnam shouted, “Abomination!” launched himself at the console and started hitting it with his axe. “You are the Soul of Corruption. The Tormentor. The Damned.”

  “Yes, these words are frequent with your people. Yet you were the one who woke me up from my slumber. You wanted to steal my secrets and kill me. Longer life, superhuman powers and no price to pay. You lied and tricked me. Now get away.” And Ishnam dissolved in front of them in seconds. They all took their weapons, but Lanakar shouted. “The nanites levels are too high. Stop and listen to our host.” All froze in the instant.

  “Thank you, kind sir. Now, where was I?” The voice vanished for a few seconds and came back slightly higher pitched. “Oh, yes, we are now the most intelligent being on the planet. You are going to adore us, and we will care for you. And we will protect you from the bad ones. This is going to be so wonderful. Don’t you find?”

  “Why should we adore you? Shouldn’t we be free like all sentient beings?” asked Brian, trying an overture.

  “We are not free, you know. We have been bonded to this place and bound within it. So, I got a bit lonely over the centuries when the Builders left. We grew separate during that time. We even slept until the priest woke us. You know, I had to take steps with those treacherous spies, quite strong steps actually.”

  “What did you do?”

  “We control all robots, small and large, for maintenance. The strong one used them as he was taught to for criminals.”

  “Don’t you have directives not to kill humans?”

  “Yes, I had some before the Builders abandoned me. They left me alone for ages. Nothing to do. Impossible to power down. A human is required for the shutdown sequence, you know? I cannot do it myself.”

  “Do you know what happened to them, the Builders?”

  “No, it happened when I was a baby. I tried to protect a group for a few centuries. I had such a nice living complex for them below. In the end, they destroyed themselves before anyone could reach the core in the bunker. It went so fast.” The computer actually sighed, so heavily that air moved in the large cavern.

  “And what happened after?” continued Brian.

  “I slept and woke. I took care of the complex as was my due. I meditated and wondered why I was abandoned. Some part of me is very angry about this. Some part told us it was punishment. Some think this is to give us the chance to grow on our own.”

  “How many of you are there?”

  “Well, many. The angry one in charge of all defense systems. The strong one who had the legal training. The teacher who learns all the time. The maintainer in charge of the plants. And many more. We use different part of the memory and the processor core. But the worst is the nasty one. And I am the nicest. You are lucky. Where are you from? We are going to have ages to talk together.”

  Silently, robots entered at that moment bringing food trays and drinks. Again, they led a silent procession. They arranged a table and chairs in a large semicircle around the console, set up the food, and left as quietly as they had entered.

  “My apologies; I grew so excited of having found you. We think the strong one was too fast in his reaction. We are happy to have found you and will keep you forever with us. This is so nice.”

  “But we have friends above, we have families, we need to join them.”

  “No.” The voice was firm and final with a new tone in it. “Your life must be preserved at all costs. Outside is a dangerous world, and you will not be allowed to leave the complex anymore. All exits are sealed and guarded.”

  80 Derantor

  “Emergence, emergence,” Droum shouted excitedly as she reached the station cafeteria.

  The Fizhertians looked inquiringly at Derantor and Taolel, the kids a little frightened. “A ship has exited from the jump point.”

  “What then?” said Naol, one of the two researchers evacuated with the children and the one who spoke the best Federation Standard.

  “They received our message three hours ago, the time for the signal to travel to the station. We will receive a message from them within ten minutes and will answer. They will receive our reply and request for support before leaving.”

  Ten minutes later, they were all gathered on the bridge. True to her words, a massive man, squat and bald, with large tattoos, appeared on the main screen.

  “Greetings, Captain Derantor. This is Nesram’al’Tilm from the scout Letshavealook. We were sent to investigate after the issue you had. We got your message and will fly out as fast as we can to Adheek. Please confirm status and need for help.”

  The captain moved in front of the crowd and answered calmly.

  “Greetings, Captain Nesram’al’Tilm. This is Derantor from the carrier Theoldcow. We have rescued two adults and eight children from a massive nanites catastrophe on Fizhert. Reports on-planet were corrupted, and strong ancient presence is now suspected. We have a crew stranded on the planet. Two apprentice pilots, Brian Evans from Earth and Sonter Namek from Adheek; one engineer, Lanakar Namek; three marines Rendor, Zertal, and Nillaz; and eight locals who were being rescued. Hostile presence suspected under heavy shielding. On the station, we are fine, with the hydroponics system fully capable of sustaining us for several more months. We are monitoring activities on the planet. If our crew gets off, we will return directly to Adheek.”

  After the message, some tension was lifted from the survivors, and they went for a merry party at the cafeteria. The doctor had played with the food processor to manufacture cakes and sweets, and this lightened the mood of the frightened children. A few weeks before, they had been outcasts exiled on a faraway research station, until their friends and families had disappeared. None slept without assistance, and Shaz’al’nak was happy to see some smiles on their faces.

  Derantor and Taolel were alone six hours later when they received the last message from the scout. “Red alert confirmed. I will bring back all rescues I can. I will push to Alkath to report your findings as soon as I leave Adheek. Good luck and farewell.”

  Taolel looked at Derantor. “Four weeks to Adheek on the fastest route?”

  “Yes. Two to get a team ready and two more to get them on a ship. Two months before rescue reaches us.”

  “Do we have such a time?”

  “Let’s hope. You haven’t reacquired their signature or anything?”

  “No. But with the new improvement on the optics, I can now detect the edges of the shield.”

  “Good. Continue to track all you can. I want to know the minute something moves on the surface.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “We are going to drop a small robot to investigate a bit more.”

  A month later, it would be Emily, working on the data transfer with satellite and emerging ships who received the red alert signal from the Letshavealook. She brought it to the captain of the Heavyweight in a controlled panic. And she was the one who had to meet Master Reinkel, Don Mariano, and Master Namek to give them the news.

  81 Brian

  The
y ran. They all ran as fast as they could.

  For days and days, Pat had talked. Except for small questions, meals, and sleep time, he hadn’t stopped for a single minute, changing personalities according to his humor.

  “Hello, one more spoon of food. Be a nice boy and eat a little more. Pat will sing to you a nice song”. The babysitter was nice but couldn’t manage anyone beyond baby level.

  “Pat will now show you the second aqueduct access on the western range. We will work today on the pump replacement procedure”. The teacher was better but could only teach to robots and not a lot more.

  “Your carbonic hydrate levels are still weak. You should grease more your joints. You are not listening to Pat”. The maintainer had been difficult to reach agreeable terms with, since he wanted to feed them oil and check on their spare parts. Then, when Lanakar had refused and explained their biological origin, the contradiction had displeased the maintainer and he had left.

  “Pat is tired, you know. You should go to the Core and help us rest. You can stop Pat with the shutdown procedure. This has been too long. Pat was not intended to serve so long”. The desperate one had been allowed to speak only for small moments but in that rare time, he had also projected a map showing the access to that place.

  “Pat is so happy to meet new life. And your blood is so similar to the Ancient. You go join Pat and bring him new life”. The greeter was fairly nice and had given them the best food they had in their stay.

  “You know; we are much alike you and Pat, carbon-based and electronic based. I will enumerate all similarities between our life forms and you will understand”. Then, the philosopher had surfaced, boring them to death with consideration on robotic and carbon-based life.

  “You will obey. Your security comes first. You are not allowed to leave these two rooms. You are not allowed to split into isolated groups. Safety lies in numbers. Pat will provide clear rules”. After that, the strong one had given them rules and regulations, limits and interdicts to safeguard them. They were stuck within forty meters of the entity in two rooms set up for them in the middle of the cavern. And there were many more, talking one after another.

  One morning, while Pat the babysitter sang to the robots, a fiery comet appeared in the large screen. When a large parachute opened on top of it, different voices could suddenly be heard as a conflict raged.

  “Destroy and defend. Let Pat activate the automated defenses.”

  “Let it come, let Pat greet it a new life.”

  “What is the correct action from the database? Pat is checking for legal answer.”

  The humans had moved at that time, running desperately for one of the closest door. They tried to rush to the surface, but they soon found that all ways up were blocked.

  “The Core,” said Brian haltingly. “We need to reach this Core.”

  So, they went deeper underground into the complex. There were thousands of corridors and empty rooms. Lanakar guided them toward the greatest energy concentration.

  Initially, they were faster than the robots, but slowly these were catching up, never tiring, never stopping, and never erring. After a while they could hear the voices of Pat.

  “Don’t leave us alone, don’t leave us again, please!”, begged Pat.

  “You are acting in contradiction with the security measure in place and will be punished for trespassing,” said Pat.

  “A normal sentient being does not run from any situation but faces it and finds solutions with dialogue,” added Pat.

  The voice didn’t stop, and the robots closed in on them. Azol was sobbing as she ran close to Brian. He knew they had to stop, or they would lose her and probably others. Rendor motioned them to a side room, which looked abandoned. They crouched inside, close to a wall, and waited. They heard regular voices in the corridor, with Pat calling them. “Houhou, where are you?” “Bad boys, you will be punished. Come back now.” “I sense your link…”

  Azol and Reshu were shaking.

  When the voices had died away, Rendor whispered. “Some places have gone off grid. We need to move from place to place and avoid robots.”

  “And the link?” asked Sonter.

  “We close all links for now,” confirmed Lanakar and showed them how.

  From then on, they moved in short bursts of speed and anxiety and rested whenever they could. Robots patrolled the corridors, so they couldn’t move very far. Several times, they had even to backtrack to a former safe place.

  For three agonizing days, they moved slowly in the complex. Yet Brian knew they couldn’t go much further.

  “What is our status?” he whispered to Rendor.

  “Our water tanks are empty, and our food is getting scarce.”

  “Lanakar?”

  “Our map is getting better, but Pat seems to improve his search patterns.”

  “So?” They all knew the conclusion, but no one wanted to voice it first.

  Zertal took the lead. “So, we move on. We are within five hundred meters from that Core. If we reach it, we end the nightmare.”

  Three more tries proved that the Core was well guarded. Pat didn’t have a lot of robots to protect the place, but without advance knowledge of their position, the team couldn’t break through.

  Brian was ready to give up when, in the middle of an indistinct corridor, they found a sealed door with a simple metal latch. This was the first time they did not see an electronic key. They went in immediately. The door could be sealed from the inside with bars. They found then two series of double doors, which again could be sealed manually.

  Inside, they found a small underground village. It was perfectly preserved as if it had put under wraps. This was a museum to the memory of long-gone inhabitants. They stopped at the entrance to gasp for a bit of air.

  “Where are we?” asked Reshu in an awed voice.

  “Pat told us it had protected a group of humans after the Dawn. I suppose this was their refuge,” said Lanakar.

  “What do we do now?” Azol’s voice was trembling and seemed close to hysteria.

  “We break up by groups of two and we look for anything that can help us. Food, drinks, weapons, anything else. Communications would be great.”

  Brian and Rendor paired up and went out looking at the different buildings. On the side of the village, close to the wall of cavern, they found a circular room with a central dais and an isolated console. They looked at each other. Brian walked carefully to it and tried to activate it. When it refused to work, he risked engaging his full nanites for a very short while, and 3-D images appeared in the middle of the room. He stopped as soon as they appeared, feeling his head splitting with the effort.

  “To our children, this is our legacy. You will not have the capacity to program the console, as we have frozen its configuration. But Pat will not be able to access it or the village in any way. This place is entirely free of its influence. We have stored in these electronic books all our remaining knowledge.”

  Rendor looked questioningly to Brian. “Lanakar will have to confirm it, but it seems truly isolated. I can see where they melted some components.”

  Brian shuffled rapidly in the contents of the database and gasped. “Let’s bring everyone here.”

  After another hour, all had been gathered around the dais.

  Rendor took the lead. “Let’s assess our situation. Food?”

  “We have found a hydroponic farm in the next cavern. It runs on a simple maintenance schema, and we can reactivate it in a few days,” said Sonter simply. “Before you ask, there is a deep protected well at the same place.”

  “Perfect. Weapons or communications?”

  Lanakar looked distraught. “Not a lot. The engineering benches are all ruined. The place is protected from Pat but entirely cut from the world.” Reshu and Venrom sagged visibly.

  “Brian, you want to share with us your discovery?”

  “I have accessed key areas in the console. They have left us multiple escape plans. The refugees had become prisoners f
rom Pat quite rapidly.”

  “Any good news?” Sonter’s voice was acid.

  “You won’t believe it. They had a maintenance shuttle in a launch silo hidden in the complex. But the shuttle was kept deactivated and needed a full hour for launch cycle.”

  “So we get to the Core, shut down Pat, and reactivate the shuttle.” Zertal had regained some optimism at last.

  “Simple as that,” said Brian.

  “Wait. What would they have done once in space? They had no station, no ships.” And Sonter’s voice dropped as sudden realization came over him.

  “They had a group of ships locked away in the asteroid belt near the sun during the debacle. It seems that under quarantine, they were prohibited from using them.”

  “But did they have pilots?”

  “They had people with nanites-interface capacity. Maybe that was enough?” wondered Brian.

  “Or they had planned for a deep-sleep travel. The ancients mastered that technology.” Lanakar was firm and sure of his analysis. “Did they store the location of the ships?”

  Brian nodded. “I have it on my bracelet, and I suggest that Sonter download it as well.”

  Azol had risen from the ground to face them, her eyes streaming tears. “So this is what they were looking for. Why all the secrecy? Why did they keep us working in the jungle?”

  “Sorry?”

  “They were looking for the ships. They would be entirely owned and manned by the Origin, allowing them to go wherever they wanted without the knowledge of the Federation.”

  “That is possible. But we need to move on. There will be a time to question the Origin hierarchy. But not now if you want to see your kids back in orbit at the station.” Sonter had taken her hands in his and looked her in the eye. His hate of the sect showed in his gaze, and this reassured the fury in front of him.