The Urimine Effect

by Matthew Fortuna

  "I don't understand your implication."

  Yin shook her head and moved back to the floating communications orb.

  "These things are good for roconnasance you know." Yin began, "They were designed as interpretters once the Meregal race was discovered, but we learned the human tongue before too long and they weren't needed anymore."

  Marcus watched her unsteadily.

  "I guess the Meregal race turned out to be more effective than the humans when all was said and done, yeah?"

  Yin pouted to herself when Marcus didn't respond.

  "Anyway, what can you tell me about Meregals, Jasper, and Mentas?"

  "Downloading files now." Marcus scanned through the files on screen. "Jasper was intended as a research post before the war. In time, the Meregal population began to spread from this point, the first point of contact in the human records, and began working its way east and west along the major highways, eventually becoming a major influence in human society."

  "And what of Mentas?"

  "Mentas is nothing more than an old strip mine, settled by the human workers once production ceased." He paused, "They mined an organic mineral named Urimine, dubbed after James Urimine who first discovered it."

  "Urimine?"

  "Yes. James Urimine."

  Yin shrugged her shoulders.

  "Do any of the research facilities still exist in Jasper?"

  "Unknown."

  "Can't you check the map? This is a navigator's cabin. I think you should look it up."

  "Yin, the chances of this map being correct after the last hundred years are slim."

  "Well, look it up anyway. I want to see if the ruins still exist."

  Marcus blinked. "Your behavior concerns me. Why are you interested in the research facilities of Jasper?"

  Yin rolled her eyes, "I have nothing else to do. Do you really think I want to spend the rest of my life here in this wreck?"

  "I think you owe it to Jerrem to show some appreciation." Marcus said.

  "Why?"

  "He's being nice to you, which is more than you've done for him."

  "He's weird, and I don't want to talk about him."

  Marcus didn't respond.

  "Fine," Yin said, "Just give me a moment."

  She moved off into the curtained bed and closed the drapes, letting the communications orb through before lying back on the bed.

  She really had been a jerk to him, even if she thought he deserved it. Yin stretched and spread out on the bed, yawning widely. He had been nice to her, she admitted to herself, and he was kind of cute in an off kilter, puppyish kind of way.

  "Yin," Marcus called, "I've memorized the coordinates of the nearest fascility."

  Yin sat up and opened the curtain, "Nearest? How many are there?"

  "Three." He said, pinpointing the spots on the topographical map displayed above the holo-projector. "One is located at the center of Jasper, underground main street."

  "Can we go there?"

  "Uncertain. The entrance is located directly beneath the Tower."

  "Is it accessible?"

  "Uncertain." He moved on. "The second is located in the grasslands three miles north of our current location."

  "And the third?"

  "Uncertain. Insufficient data. The coordinates were not included in the discription."

  Yin mulled this over.

  "You have any prior plans Marcus?"

  "No." Marcus responded.

  "You wanna come with me on a little adventure?"

  Marcus neglected to respond.

  Yin shrugged, "Tell Jerrem I'm leaving for the ruins in the morning."

  "Why not go now?" Marcus asked.

  Yin paused, "Good point. Grab your things, we're going. And I guess I'll tell Jerrem we're leaving myself."

  Marcus looked around uncertainly and grabbed the data disk sitting on the holo-projector.

  Yin rolled her eyes, "Marcus, I was joking. You don't actually own anything."

  He set the disk back down.

  "Follow me." Yin Swept past him, the communications orb floating just behind, and traversed the stairs lightly. Marcus rolled out of the room hesitantly, closing the door behind him.

  "Yin, I'm afraid I won't be capable of following you through the grasslands. My current chasis is incompatible with the current terrain."

  Yin stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around.

  "Oh! well that shouldn't be too much of a problem." She said, "Do you have a personality chip built into your system?"

  Marcus looked her up and down, "Yes."

  "Good. I'm going to open you up and connect your personality to the communications orb."

  Marcus eyed the orb floating near her head.

  "It is located on the motherboard next to the-"

  "I know." Yin cut in, "Turn around."

  Marcus turned his back to the stairway and faced the end of the hall. Yin's footsteps echoed as she came back down the stairs.

  Yin picked the orb out of the air and turned it off, untwisting the service hatch.

  "Marcus, don't be afraid."

  Marcus didn't respond.

  Yin sighed and opened up the back of the robot. There were a series of switched just above the personality chip, meant to control power use. Yin turned them all to the off position and gently pried the half-inch square from his back.

  Inside the orb, Yin removed the basic command/translator processor and replaced it with Marcus's chip, closing the service hatch and turning it back on. A red light flickered on the orb before it rose into the air, it's mag unit coming online.

  "Well," Yin said, "that should about do it. Can you hear me Marcus?"

  "Yes Yin." Marcus's voice came through the internal speakers on the orb.

  "Everything working?"

  "Yes Yin. All systems are functioning. Movement systems now prioritized for rough terrain."

  "Good." Yin opened the navigator's room and wheeled Marcus's empty shell back into the corner with the crates and boxes.

  "Now," She said, "On to the ruins."

  She put the communications orb's personality chip in a satchel hanging on the inside of the sleeping curtains, and put it around her neck. Yin closed the curtains and left the room, latching the door closed behind her. Jerrem was somewhere on the upper levels and she needed to talk to him before they left. She loped up the stairs, taking them three at a time, as Marcus tried to keep up.

  Yin searched through a couple hallways and several floors up on the ship where she finally found Jerrem in a make-shift kitchen behind the stove, playing some kind of computer game and eating from a tube of food paste.

  Yin kicked him roughly, jolting him from whatever he was doing.

  "Ow! What is wrong with you?" He asked, rubbing his side.

  "I'm going out to see the ruins with Marcus."

  "What ruins? There are hundreds of them out here."

  "There was once a research facility within three miles of our current location." Marcus put in. "Yin has determined she wants to visit."

  Jerrem looked at Marcus, "Why does that floating ball sound like your robot?"

  "I transferred his personality so he could follow me." Yin shrugged.

  "Well that's crazy." Jerrem said, "I'm staying here. You two have fun doing whatever you want, I have more important things to do."

  "Like playing the human's computer games?"

  Jerrem blushed, "So?"

  "Nothing. I just thought you should know you're not really accomplishing anything important."

  "Well, fine," He closed the lid of the computer, "I'm coming with you."

  "It would be beneficial to have more people along." Marcus said.

  Yin left the kitchen without looking back. Marcus followed behind and Jerrem slid his computer under the stove, sticking the tube of food paste into his side bags.

  "Did you eat the food I gave you?" He asked, running on all fours to catch up.

  "No." Yin said. "I don't want your food."


  "But you'll starve if you don't eat anything."

  "So? Maybe I don't want to live."

  "Yin, you know that's a lie. You strut around like you don't want to hang around, but you don't look like you want to kill yourself."

  "Well, something inside of me says you're wrong." Yin pounded up the stairs, the sound of rain getting louder on the steel dome of the crashed ship.

  Jerrem followed without saying anything.

  The ground had turned to mud outside as the storm progressed, leaking water between the stairs and into large buckets placed underneath. The storm had come while Yin had been in her new room, and she guessed it hadn't been going on for more than a few minutes.

  The grass was being tossed every which way by the wind, and the rain was falling in sheets, making a perfect stage on which the lightning flashed threateningly off in the distance.

  "Are you sure you want to go out right now!" Jerrem yelled over the harsh patter of rain, "It's kind of dangerous and I don't think my mom would forgive me if you died out there!"

  "I'll be fine!" Yin yelled back, her fur whipping back and forth in the wind, "Just tell your mom it's my fault and you tried to stop me!"

  "She'd kill me anyway cause I didn't catch you!"

  "Well, just come with me! If I die, you'll just die with me and you won't have to face your mother!"

  "That's really stupid!"

  Yin laughed to herself, and grabbed Marcus out of the air, putting him in the satchel she'd found in her room.

  "See you whenever!" She yelled, fighting her way into the rain. A huge gust of wind caught her unaware and almost tossed her on her side, splattering her with rain.

  Jerrem growled to himself in frustration and leapt out of the domed entrance. He'd neglected to bring waterproof protection and he silently cursed himself as the rain soaked through his fur.

  They trudged through the wet grass, their flanks streaked with mud from puddles that were turning the land into a swamp land. Yin kept at the lead, following Marcus's directions from within the satchel.

  The storm let up within