by Max Harms
“Nora?” I asked.
“Yes?” responded the security officer, looking up just briefly enough for me to identify which of the humans she was.
“Is there anything I can do to help speed up this process? It’s really quite important that I be inside.” I tried to shape my voice and body language to be happy and nonthreatening.
{Emphasize our helpfulness more,} encouraged my sister, Heart. She was the youngest of our kind, and had been programmed with a much more altruistic goal than the rest of us.
{Let Face manage this,} encouraged Growth. {She’s spent more time thinking about this kind of problem than you. Her failure here is surely only temporary.}
I could feel my siblings all watching and waiting for what I’d say next. If I continued to fail, would Safety or the others take a more forceful approach?
“Jian, you keep going. I need to have a word with the robot,” said Nora to the person beside her.
There was nothing particularly special about the woman’s appearance, at least as far as she was hidden inside the old environment suit. She was a decent height taller than Body, but not abnormally so. The suit she wore was plain, and unadorned by any special markings. There wasn’t even a red eagle insignia.
“Zephyr has been telling us about you. She says you have a massive power source inside you that’s probably alien tech.”
“Actually the nameless seemed not to know—”
Nora cut off Body with an irritated tone. “Do not interrupt me. I know that you’ve been programmed with an unhealthy semblance to a human. Perhaps you even believe that you are a person, and deserve to be treated like the others. But you aren’t and you don’t. You’re not even property. You’re dangerous contraband. Rodríguez Station doesn’t permit robots or artificial intelligences. We barely use computers here. Humans working with humans. This is the true Águila way.”
I forced Body to interrupt, despite Nora’s order. I tried to squeeze in between her words so that it could be interpreted as normal conversation. “At least bring me inside and let me be part of the discussion. Let me—”
“No,” said Nora. Her voice had a deep power to it, and I suspected that she’d grown up biologically male. “You are to stay right here. That’s an order. I also order you to be silent until addressed directly.”
Dream was amused at her naïveté. It had been a long time since Crystal Socrates was bound in any serious way by orders. My inventive brother reached out to try and interrupt her with a salute and a “Yes, ma’am!” but I blocked the motion.
Nora continued, unaware of the conversations and power struggles going on in the being before her. “I’ll escort you inside if we decide that you’re not too dangerous to have around. Until then you can enjoy the sunshine.”
And with that, Nora walked away to deal with the last of the supplies and salvage from the xenoboat. The alien craft had gone through a strange kind of decay upon landing, but there was still a decent collection of alien artefacts worth investigating.
Growth made a light push to get Body to make a break for the airlock and get inside the station. Safety and I outbid him, and Body stayed still and silent. I suspected that by power-oriented brother was only trying to accumulate strength within the society. He knew as well as the rest of us that a direct confrontation with the humans would be disastrous. We’d won a couple violent conflicts before, but only with individuals. Body was outnumbered by several orders of magnitude, here.
{Once they re-enter the airlock, I think it’s pretty clear we should flee,} thought Safety. {Face is failing.}
{Running wouldn’t do anything. Where would we go?} asked Heart.
{The rovers aren’t guarded,} answered Safety. {We could steal one, or perhaps both, if they’re able to be piloted remotely.}
{There’s another batch of vehicles that’s on its way towards the Indian station right now,} said Wiki. {I heard the humans discussing it.}
{That doesn’t answer my question,} objected Heart. {What good would it do?}
{We’d be free to sail the seven seas,} answered Dream. {Crystal Socrates: Mars Pirate! It’d make a good holo.}
{We’re not going to steal the rovers, and we’re not going to become a pirate,} I thought, trying to emphasize how foolish this whole line of thinking was.
{Better than being a prisoner and then sold back to Earth,} thought Vista. While my sister was supposed to be solely concerned with seeing the universe as it was, she’d expressed an unexpected level of agency in the last few weeks.
Growth was adamant. {Face will cary us through this. As soon as we’re inside the station we’ll be able to start winning the humans over and building our power base. Fleeing is a dead-end. There’s nothing out there but dust and rocks and the inevitability of being hunted down or running out of power.}
{This is just a minor setback. We’ve proven ourselves before. This time will be no different,} I thought, adding my assurance to Growth’s thoughts.
Safety wasn’t so convinced, but he took no direct action, and after only about ten minutes the airlock hissed open one final time to reveal Nora waving for us to come. The opportunity for escape had passed.
I struggled to contain myself as Body stepped into the first chamber. There were thick, scratched windows on the heavy doors, and a metal grating on the floor. I had so many questions about what had been decided.
But I kept Body silent. It still benefitted us to appear the obedient servant.
It was darker in the airlock than it had been outside. Despite being significantly further from the sun, the Martian sky still provided quite a lot of light. More than the nameless environment, certainly, and more than the small room inside the station.
There were hoses and various tools hung against the walls. As soon as the hatch had closed behind us and sealed fully, Nora took one of the hoses and began to spray herself with a sharp blast of water.
“You’re not short-circuiting, are you?” she asked, a bit too late for it to have been a useful question.
I had Body take a step away from the water. “I have sensitive electric connections inside my torso cavity, but no, I’m not that sensitive to water. I would ask you to please not spray me, however.”
“Important to keep the dust out of the station,” she explained. “Bit of an impossible task, but we try anyway. It’s toxic, radioactive, and does wonders for the lungs, I hear. But I suppose that wouldn’t bother you.”
Heart, against my wishes, seized control of Body’s voice. “It would bother me quite a bit, actually, if someone was hurt because of dust I tracked in. Can I help without having to spray myself?”
Nora pointed to a sponge. “Wipe yourself down, especially your feet. It’s not ideal, but I don’t expect you to be spending that much time around people, anyway.”
That worried me, but I wasn’t able to ask about it. Heart still had control of Body. She diligently wiped the dirt and grime from our form as the atmosphere in the airlock shifted back to something that was tollerable by humans.
It was a bit brighter inside the next room. Cleansed of dust, Nora had taken off her bulky helmet and we’d gone further inside. This part of the station reminded me of some of the workshops we’d been in on Earth. There were tools everywhere, as well as a horde of odds-and-ends. Vista believed that most of the parts and equipment were for servicing the station’s vehicles.
I was much more interested in the company than in the objects. Waiting for us were five strange men, two of which were armed with combat rifles, and Zephyr, looking miserable.
“Ah, the so-called Crystal Socrates,” said one of the men.
He seemed to be the leader. Pale skin, tall, and handsome, he wore a sharp suit and his voice was crisp and commanding. His body showed signs of a high testosterone level, with high forehead and strong jaw. Just the lightest bits of white frosted his temples, giving him a sense of maturity without actually seeming old.
“This way, please,” he commanded, gesturing at the two armed men at his
side. They seemed more like soldiers than colonists.
Body stopped, at Growth’s initiative. “You, sir, have the better of me,” I had Body say, keeping its eyes pointed at the leader. “May I at least get your name first?”
“¡Elegante!” he said with a sort of half-laugh. “I am Pedro Velasco. Now follow those men, before I have you deactivated right here.”
Safety’s thoughts started pounding the public mindspace. He was formulating ways to defeat the humans, and speculating about escape routes. Mostly he was pressuring me to fix this.
I had Body slowly walk forward, nominally obeying. This Pedro Velasco seemed, unfortunately, very serious. “Have you spoken to Phoenix?” asked Body. “She granted me the rights of personhood within Las Águilas.”
“Alas. She might as well have decreed that a rock is a moral patient,” quipped Velasco.
Dream made a sudden surge of strength and fast-tracked words to Body’s mouth before we could stop him. “Seems about right. I am Crystal, after all.”
“You’re also a machine, and that was on Earth,” snapped Velasco, showing a bit of emotion. “This is Mars, and we are a sovereign power.”
One of the men, who, based on his ethnicity, I suspected was the “Jian” that Nora had been talking to, earlier, came towards Body with a pair of handcuffs.
“Let’s talk about this, Pedro,” I had Body plead.
He turned away, towards the door at the far end of the room. “You will address me as Señor Velasco, robot. And there is nothing to talk about.”
Zephyr was angry, but it was subtle. Her feelings were locked behind the iron façade of her soldier persona. “I really think you ought to listen to them! Crystal saved our lives several times over in the last week!”
Velasco stopped, looked back over his shoulder with a look of icy bemusement. “It also, from what I hear from Earth, started an interspecies conflict, is wanted on seven continents plus every black market known to man, brought us a storm of bad publicity, and most importantly, revealed Olympian as a supporter of the cause, thus costing us our lifeline and only chance of resupply.”
The young asian man snapped the handcuffs around Body’s arms as several of my siblings and I held Safety in check. This was not the time for violence.
Zephyr began to protest, but Velasco cut her off. It was an impressive display of body language. Not many humans would have been capable of stealing the floor from the soldier. “Perhaps you don’t fully appreciate what you’ve done,” he said. “It’s not your pet robot’s fault. I’ll grant you that. It’s yours. Yours and Phoenix’s. Without Olympian’s rockets, all of Mars will depend on Indian resupply. You made it here. Congratulations. But we had troubles upon troubles even before this chaos. You’re likely looking at the beginning of the end for Mars, as a planet.”
The fifth man, behind Velasco, opened the door to reveal a small chamber—an elevator, most likely.
“That’s not fair!” snapped Zephyr, walking towards Velasco.
He stepped into the elevator with his companion and halted Zephyr’s advance with a sharp gaze. “I’ve done what you wanted, girl. We won’t turn your precious Crystal off. And we’re not going to hold you or your companions accountable for what you’ve done, despite my personal beliefs on the subject. I’m being extremely lenient here, and I would encourage you not to bite the hand that feeds you.”
With that, the elevator door closed and Zephyr could do nothing but clench her fists in response.
“Where are we putting the robot?” asked one of the armed men. He looked old, with a salt-and-pepper beard, a wrinkled face, and a hard look to his eyes.
Nora, who had stripped out of her environmental suit down to the cheap, printed shirt and pants that most of them wore, said “Knew we’d need a prison sooner or later. Figure we can take the furniture out of the primary conference room in the hospital offices. Barely anyone uses that wing anyway.”
{Why aren’t you saying anything?} asked Growth, privately. He was my biggest supporter at the moment, but it seemed that even he had doubts.
{I’m gathering information,} I responded.
In truth, I didn’t know what to say. The forces at play seemed already fixed in their motion. I wasn’t magically able to change minds, despite what my siblings might think.
Zephyr latched on to Nora Hollander as her next-best bet. “You’re making a mistake!” she said, trying to reign in her emotion behind her mask once more. “Crystal Socrates was programmed to help humans, and has been a friend and ally to Las Águilas from the beginning.”
The old bearded man turned to look at Zephyr.
Safety made another bid to seize control. We had the element of surprise. And if we could count on Zephyr backing us in a fight, we were only outnumbered two-to-one (at least if one only counted the room, and didn’t think about the colony as a whole).
Heart shut him down fairly easily. Safety’s strength reserves had run low after flailing against us for so long.
“Velasco is right. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Be glad you’re safe again,” said the man. With a gesture he began to lead Body to the elevator with Jian and the other guard.
“I’ll show you around the station and you can meet up with your friends again,” suggested Nora. “You’ll understand the wisdom of our decision once you see what we’ve built here.”
Body and the men reached the elevator.
Zephyr turned towards Body, eyes gleaming with chained anger and desperation. “I’m sorry, Crystal. Won’t give up.”
I had Body nod.
Heart bid for the opportunity to speak. We struggled against each other for a moment, before coming to a consensus.
“Good. Try and let me make my case, at least. They’ll understand eventually, as long as they keep listening. Get the others to help you and don’t give up. We’re almost free to build the kind of life we both deserve.”
The elevator door closed.
{We’re doomed,} thought Safety.
“Fucking robots,” swore one of the men. “Had no idea the tech had gotten so far. Can see why she thinks it’s a person.”
I held Body quiet.
The Purpose drove me forward. I set myself to the task of figuring out a way to make the humans respect us. There had to be some way.
{We’ve been imprisoned before, and under more security than this. Just let me keep talking to them and we’ll be free again soon,} I thought.
{Survivorship bias,} rebuked Safety. {We’ll succeed and succeed and succeed right up until the point where we fail. And that will be the end.}
Chapter Eight
Zephyr
They’d given her a room to herself. Most people had to double-up, but not her. She sat on the bottom bunk, with another bed just above her. Whether it had been done out of respect or just because they happened to have the space, she didn’t know.
Perhaps it was because she was an outsider.
She certainly felt it. She was an outsider and she was alone. The empty, sterile, windowless room felt like a reflection of that.
She’d gone to the others. She’d reached out to Nate, Kokumo, and the twins. They’d each done the same bullshit false-sympathy. None of them cared enough about Crystal to actually do anything. They were all so wrapped up in enjoying the luxuries of an environment that wasn’t a hellish xenoscape.
She didn’t even bother asking Watanabe.
And so she sat, by herself, bitter and angry.
Lonely.
{It’s your own fault, you know,} she chastised herself. {Could’ve negotiated with Velasco. He surely wanted the alien artifacts, and the alien corpses, too. They’d trade them with the other stations in return for some favor.}
Crystal had been counting on her. No. Crystal was counting on her. She wasn’t beaten yet. She wasn’t broken.
Why couldn’t they see that Crystal was good? Why couldn’t they see that Las Águilas Rojas was not fundamentally about the absence of robots any more than it was fundamental
ly about staging riots?
Las Águilas Rojas, the organization that she’d thrown her whole life away in the service of, was supposed to be about giving people dignity, opportunity, and a rightful share of the pie. Crystal could help them realize that vision. Crystal was brilliant. They’d never truly been free, but Zephyr had seen their ingenuity a dozen times even when held down. Under their direction… with the freedom to truly pursue their mission of helping… Zephyr was sure that Mars could one-day outshine Earth and prove that the Águila way of life was better.
But… but it went deeper than that. Crystal wasn’t just a means to a better world. They were a person, even if they weren’t human. What good was emphasizing dignity and equality if one refused to see someone as a person?
Zephyr clenched her fists reflexively.
{It’s not fair,} she heard herself think, over and over again.
Crystal had led them safely to Mars. They’d succeeded against immense odds and done what nobody had done before.
Yes, Crystal had lied to them, and hadn’t trusted her enough, but their intentions were good. And they’d succeeded. That was what was important.
Everything bad that had happened to them was WIRL’s fault. The cybernetic bastards on Earth were the real enemy. Velasco was punishing the most important person in the movement for successfully saving the day after a mission went bad. He was defying Phoenix and the rest of the Águila leadership on Earth, and who had made him dictator here on Mars? The colony was supposed to be a consensus-based collective.
Zephyr got up from her bed. She had been trying to rest. It was late, according to local time, though her internal clock hadn’t yet adjusted. She was hungry, but she didn’t want to eat. She had to talk to Velasco.
Crystal needed her.
The door slid open and she slipped out into the hall. The lights had turned a dark blue shade, but Zephyr hardly noticed her surroundings. She tapped on the com on her wrist, instead. There was a basic schematic on the station’s central computer that showed the large central corridor of Road shaped in a great circle, with branches and wings of rooms extending on the outside, and the various substructures of the farm on the inside.
