Custodians of the Cosmos

by Drayton Alan

  ***

  The next day Belle was in her office and the man from Tark Industries, Mr. Gerald Klein, was supposed to arrive soon. Kale had been helping Belle repair robots. Well, actually, he had been hanging around watching her. Because he enjoyed talking to Belle, and she hadn’t told him to get lost yet.

  When Mr. Klein arrived, Kale tried to excuse himself.

  “Kale, could you please stay?” Belle said. “I might need you to help me in a minute with a project.”

  “Sure.” Kale smiled knowing she wanted him nearby.

  Belle and Klein exchanged some decidedly chilly hellos. The two of them used to work together and had not parted on good terms. Kale figured she didn’t want to be alone with the man. That made him feel good. Belle looked to him for backup.

  So, maybe I’m a good guy to have around, he thought.

  He hung back, busying himself with various cleaning and organizing tasks and trying to be unobtrusive as the two discussed the issue with the robot malfunction. It was obvious to Kale the two of them didn’t agree on almost anything.

  After a half hour of their icy conversation Kale got uncomfortable, he tried to think of an excuse to leave. But Belle’s eyes pleaded with him to stay. So he stayed, enduring the boring conversation and tedious disagreements about useless robot programming details.

  To occupy his time, he watched the robot named Bernie being repaired in one of the special chambers Belle had in her office. On the wall, there were little name badges Belle had made for her bots, Reggie, Bernie, Fred, Eddie, and several others. The nametags simulated the Coalition ID tags, with a different background color and shape. He wondered if Belle was hoping to get crewman status for her bots.

  Kale looked over at the two arguing engineers. Belle was asking Klein about the pattern of symbols on her display.

  Kale recognized the symbols and eager to join the conversation, so Kale asked, “I thought you said you weren’t going to try out for the play?”

  Turning to Kale, Belle asked, “Don’t tell me you know what these symbols are?”

  “Yeah, it’s from the play, I was studying them last night. Why?”

  “These were in Reggie’s memory register for some reason. They appear to be a code of some kind. What are they?”

  “It’s the labanotation for the choreography from one of the dances in the play.”

  “Labanotation?” Klein asked.

  “The symbols are a method of recording the movements dancers follow,” Kale explained.

  “Any idea how they got here inside Reggie’s storage registers?” Belle asked.

  “Probably from when people used him to playback the holovid of the play,” Kale said.

  “Someone used Reggie to play holovids? Without my knowledge or permission?”

  “No. They used him to play holovids with the captain’s permission. There weren’t enough on the ship for all the people to rehearse. So the captain gave us permission to use the robot’s holoprojectors, but only during the robot’s downtime. So it wouldn’t interfere with their work. The captain said it would be okay.”

  “He did, did he?” Belle wasn’t happy. She slapped her communicator and said “Captain, sir, can you please come to the robotics lab. We have a new development you will need to hear about in person. Belle out.”

  Both Kale and Klein knew better than to say anything at this point. Belle was upset and had a right to be. If you didn’t want her rage focused on you, it was best to be patient and let her work through it.

  Belle sat, thinking about this new development and asked, “Kale, didn’t you say the Pirates holovid was also popular on Falcon Station? That’s where you got your copy, from Nigel’s friend Quibbler?”

  “Yes, everyone on the station was mad about this latest version. Even the hardcore drama fanboys, of which they have quite a few. You know, the twenty-somethings that walk around in costumes and act out scenes in the hallways, flash mob style. The Pirates holovid has lead a number of them to change out of their storm trooper costumes for pirate shirts. The captain has even invited some to our production. He thinks it will generate some buzz.”

  “I wonder…” Belle mused.

  “Computer,” Belle said. “Bring up the security footage of the robot incident on the station. Turn the volume to max.”

  The recorded image of the station’s maintenance robot performing a routine panel replacement appeared on the display. She had watched this footage a dozen or more times but never paid attention to the audio track. Now, with the volume turned to max, you could hear people in the background singing.

  “Computer, isolate the people singing and enhance from all other noise.”

  The distinct passages of one of the dance routines from Pirates could be heard. No doubt, an ad-lib cafeteria performance, courtesy of the fanboys. The video showed the robot misplace the panel and sewage exploded onto the room.

  “Computer,” Belle said. “Bring up the security footage of Reggie’s malfunction here on the ship. Again, maximum volume.”

  The display again showed Reggie doing routine maintenance. A group of crewmen walked by singing a song from the play. Then Reggie completed his upgrade and Kaboom, the plasma conduit ruptured.

  “That’s it!” Belle exclaimed. She walked over to where Reggie was waiting. “Reggie, begin the panel maintenance replication test again. Five iterations.”

  Obediently, Reggie began the process.

  “Computer, play a song from Pirates of Penzance that has dance notation,” Belle instructed.

  The song began; it was a cheerful chorus. Kale sang along, he knew it well. It was the first real dance routine of the play. Reggie’s test failed instantly. The sensors picked up the misplacement, the display turned red, and an alarm sounded.

  “Always the brilliant one, Belle,” Klein admitted. Despite his reservations about her methods and quirks, he knew Belle was a genius. He had to admit that her putting all those clues together so quickly was inspired brilliance.

  “Wow! So that’s what’s been doing it?” Kale exclaimed.

  “Yes, it is. Kale, do you have your copy of the holovid with you?” Belle asked.

  “Sure, of course.” He pulled the chip from his pocket and handed it to Belle. “Will I get it back?”

  Belle didn’t answer but instead said, “Computer, configure chip reader number one at my station to quarantine level seven. Then run a scan on the chip I insert. Focus on the dance notation data in particular.”

  “Chip reader secured, level seven, safe to insert,” the computer responded.

  Belle placed the chip on the reader and after a few moments the computer reported, “Malicious code hazard recognized, chip is infected with sleeper virus previously unclassified. Undetectable once loaded on target processor. Nested code resident in compressed image file names: labanotation.D1.jpg, labanotation.D2.jpg, labanotation.D3.jpg, labanotation.D4.jpg, and labanotation.D5.jpg. Fingerprint of malicious code recorded and reported as hazard to central virus monitoring database. Chip is ready for destruction.”

  “Looks like I’m not getting my holovid back,” Kale said.

  “Looks like we’ve found our culprit, gentlemen,” Belle said, a big satisfied smile on her face. She looked at Kale beaming.

  Her happiness was short lived. The captain entered the lab.

  Belle turned to him as he entered. She went back to being upset. It would be hard to forgive his efforts to blame her for this problem. “Sir, why didn’t you tell me you’d given the crew permission to use my robots to play holovids?” She pointed to Kale’s chip as evidence.

  “Perhaps you’d better explain yourself, Belle,” the captain said.

  Belle explained what they’d discovered and, to his credit, Klein backed her up.

  When they were finished, the captain looked distraught. “Seems I owe you an apology, Belle. It appears to have been my fault. I’ll take full responsibility. I’m sorry for doubting you.”

  The sincere apology took Belle by surprise—sh
e wanted to unload on the captain for being an arrogant, ignorant, useless piece of work. But Belle resisted the urge. He had apologized, and that was almost unprecedented. She decided that further recrimination would only cause her to lose the respect she had achieved.

  “Wait,” Klein’s looked concerned. “Was Frakes exposed to this holovid as well?”

  “Exposed to it!” Kale said laughing. “The man has been practically living that play since he first saw it, dancing around like a pirate king, singing, swashbuckling, flying off to single-handedly invade an alien mothership, shooting with almost a machinelike precision…” Kale stopped short. When he put together the fact that Klein was here as a robotics expert and that he was asking about Frakes’s exposure to a virus, it didn’t take a massive intellect to add up the clues.

  Belle’s face blanched. She spun on Klein and unleashed a torrent of rage. “You! You used my research on him, didn’t you?”

  Klein winced at her words, but said nothing.

  “Didn’t you!”

  “Yes,” Klein admitted. “Mr. Tark insisted we push forward on the project after you left. When the human Frakes was gravely injured in an accident last year, he gave permission for us to test the implants on him. He was going to die without it. Tark and the Coalition high command approved it.”

  The captain’s expression showed no surprise.

  Belle rounded on him. “And you knew about it! That’s what you were forbidden to tell me. Frakes is a bloody cyborg isn’t he! That’s why he felt so familiar, he’s running my code! He’s my creation.”

  “Relax, Belle,” the captain said.

  The shouting drew the other custodians to Belle’s office. Now Idonna, Chopi, and the lieutenant were gathered at the door of the robotics lab.

  Idonna smiled and shook her head. “So dat makes you what, Frakes’s momma?”

  Belle’s expression transitioned from anger to disgust.

  “So our friend Frakes is a cyborg, infected with the Pirate robot virus; this is going to be interesting,” the lieutenant said.

  “We added programing to make him less threating, less perfect. We’d hoped that would counteract the threat.” Klein justified.

  “Is dat why he was so clumsy and such a bad shot? I knew no one could be dat bad,” Idonna said.

  “Well, he is infected, and he isn’t clumsy anymore!” Belle said.

  “How is that possible? He didn’t plug into the chip or anything, I thought a virus needed some kind of connection,” Kale said.

  “Normally they do, but based on his actions, I have no other explanation. Belle, do you have a theory?” Klein asked.

  “His optical scanners probably picked it up from the labanotation images, they convert the image into code to process the image. Whoever designed this code knew what they were doing.”

  “So, he’s now programmed to be a pirate king?” Kale asked. “Can’t you just send a signal and shut him off?”

  Klein didn’t answer, but only shook his head.

  “You let him loose without a shutdown protocol?” Belle shouted. “That’s unbelievable!” Belle was astounded at the stupidity.

  “It had been discussed, but we tested him thoroughly,” Klein explained. “We were concerned that an enemy might find a way to shut him down remotely if he had a shutdown routine. You can’t have an army of cybernetic warriors with a remote off function.”

  This revelation triggered one of the lieutenant’s famous anti-coalition rants. “No, of course not. The Coalition would never be so incautious as to set a prototype robot loose without some built in failsafe. They say they tested him thoroughly. But did they test for the possibility of unleashing an unstoppable killing machine whose mind is trapped in a delightful musical meant to entertain the entire family? One of those shows with phrases like ‘warmhearted romp’ or ‘rollicking fun’ in its promotional reviews?”

  “Lou, you’re out of line,” the captain said and gave him a stern look.

  “No, Captain, sir. I’m right on the line. Is that what we’re in store for now, Captain, rollicking fun? Shall we rename our delightful musical? May I suggest Terminators of Penzance?”

  “That’s enough, Lou! You’re not amusing,” the captain said. “This is a serious situation. I’m not in the mood for one of your pessimistic tangents.”

  Belle interrupted. “That’s enough, sirs! I don’t care about politics or the stupid decisions the Coalition has made. I have a lot of work to do and so do my robots. I solved your mystery, Captain, now let me fix it.”

  “Fair enough, Belle,” the captain said. “Everyone clear out and let Belle do her job. We owe Belle a big vote of thanks. As soon as your robots are clean, put them back to work fixing my ship! Let's go, people.”

  The captain left and everyone else went back to work. Belle and Klein spent the rest of the day cleaning the virus out of the robots and their backup files.

  Later, the captain issued a ship-wide order to destroy all copies of the holovid. He contacted Falcon station with the info as well. He even ordered a legal copy of it from its producers, paying full retail, download fees, and paid for the rights to use it in a charity performance for The Red Shirt Widows and Orphans Fund

  Soon, with the virus purged, Reggie and the other robots were back on duty helping get the ship ready for the impending squidmen attack.

  Chapter 11

  The next few weeks went by with no major events and no expected attack. All hostilities across the squidmen front seemed to dwindle to almost nothing. Nigel was slowly recovering from his ordeal. Kale, after two months of salad, won the ship’s healthiest eater contest.

  When this was announced, he finally asked Belle for help with his food replicator issue. In two minutes, she accessed the database, and he could eat hamburgers and pancakes again.

  “Kale, you don’t need to be so helpless all the time. Just ask for help,” Belle said.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to be. I asked the engineers, but they didn’t take me seriously. I figured no one would help.”

  “You need to learn to rely on your friends,” Belle said. “We have each other’s backs even in little things, I thought you knew that?”

  “I do now, thanks Belle.” He looked into her eyes and saw something, or did he imagine it? Was it friendship or was it something else?

  Idonna interrupted their moment. “At least you learned not to ask for help, dem engineers are straight past useless.” She laughed. “You poor man, having to eat all dat salad. Such a shame, a wonder you didn’t turn green. You just running ’round here a scared little boy, den?” Idonna grabbed him and gave him a suffocating motherly hug. “You let me cook you a real dinner sometime. I got some dishes make you wish you was Canabian. Dey get your mouth watering for weeks.” She looked at Belle and said, “You gotta be dere too, girl.”

  “That sounds like fun, let’s do that Idonna,” Belle said.

  “Tell me it’s not anything like Warfian cooking and I’ll try it,” Kale said.

  “I got a feeling maybe I make you two dinner and I find some other ting to do. Hmm? I’m feeling maybe some romance in bloom here, den?”

  Kale, suddenly embarrassed, didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to deny it but it was too soon to admit it. He couldn’t risk extinguishing the spark of interest he’d just felt from Belle. He looked at her to see if she would acknowledge Idonna’s romance reference.

  Belle’s face wasn’t a mask of horror at the suggestion, which was a good thing. But just as she seemed ready to say something in reply to Idonna, she was interrupted.

  “Attention all hands. Stand by for an important announcement from the captain,” the computer intercom announced.

  Kale’s heart fell.

  “Oh jeez, probably a drama club update,” Belle said.

  “Dat captain, always timing tings bad,” Idonna said with a chuckle.

  The captain began. “I have an important announcement direct from Coalition central command. Hostilities have officially ceased
between the squidmen and the Coalition. As of noon Saturday, Coalition Standard Time, representatives of the squidmen government sent a message asking us for a cease fire.”

  A rousing cheer reverberated through the entire ship. Everyone in the custodial shop began talking and dancing. Belle came over to Kale and gave him a long hug, looked at him, and departed for her office.

  “One more announcement before we get the parties started everyone.” The captain was shouting to be heard. “This is important! Our ship has been chosen to host the final peace negotiations. I expect everyone will be on their best behavior and assist in making all necessary arrangements for the conference. It’s time for the Cosmos to shine as it takes its place in history. One other thing, and I know this is disappointing, but the drama club’s production of the Pirates of Penzance has been delayed to allow for the conferences. Also, whoever has been defacing our posters by scratching out pirates and writing in Terminators must cease immediately. Announcement ended.”

  The computer intercom went silent and the custodial shop erupted again into laughter and celebration.

  Nigel came from the break room and asked Kale, “Is this celebration for the ceasefire or for the play’s cancelation?”

  They both had a good laugh together; it was nice to see Nigel’s sense of humor return. Kale had thought a lot about his friend in the time since the rescue. He hadn’t wanted to bring it up but wondered if now was a good time.

  “Nigel, I just wanted to say I’m sorry if what I did made you…” Kale began.

  “Now you just hush up, Newbers. What have I told you about going on talking when you don’t know nothin’ bout nothin’?” Nigel asked.

  “You said to keep my flap shut,” Kale said and smiled.

  “That’s right, now if I wanted to talk about it, I would. Since I didn’t, I don’t. Got it?”

  “Yes, Yeoman Nigel, I got it.”