Space Murder

by N L Haverstock

  “How sure are you on all these numbers?”

  “I am quite literally betting the whole lava farm on it.” Horton turned the screen to show me a field of numbers that meant nothing to me.

  “And the shield will hold through exiting the atmosphere?” I asked.

  “Once.”

  I blew out a breath through my teeth. “That is about the worst possible news we could get that still qualifies as good news.”

  Chloe gave me a small smile while Raph chuckled. Horton made a noise like a coughing hiccup that I took to be agreement.

  “Here’s the plan. We have a tight timeline, but I don’t want to make a mistake. Chloe, I want you to do another quick health check on everyone as we prepare the ship. We will aim to get into the air within thirty minutes, where we will make a straight shot to the ship. It is still incapacitated, but we can use the lockdown room while I send a formal notification to my representative that—what is that noise?”

  There was an urgent beeping that was unfamiliar to me. Raph raised his unit then flipped around to stare out of the cave. I followed his line of sight just in time to see our freighter ship, which was in orbit around the planet, explode. Even as far from us as possible, the intensity of the explosions burned the image into my retinas. My shock was closely followed by the realization that our one hope of escape had just been vaporized.

  My only sense of relief came from knowing that no one was still on the ship.

  Horton shoved me aside as he barreled toward the cave entrance. He dropped to his knees, and the package he had been carrying fell to the ground. The blanket slid off to reveal that he had been carrying a wooden box with a red light on the side.

  Before I had time to puzzle out that mystery, he howled in an anguished scream that was so low and deep that it vibrated in my gut. “No! Eugene!”

  Chloe raced to his side to hold him, but I was rooted in place. Our last chance of escape was gone, and we were marooned on a hostile planet. But I still felt that his extreme grief was uncharacteristic for anyone, let alone him, a being who had thus far weathered every adversity well.

  The box at his side lit up, and a mechanical voice spoke. “It’s okay, Tonny. I’m here.”

  Horton ceased wailing and slowly turned to the box. He lifted it to eye level. “Eugene?”

  “What in the name of photons is going on?” Raph asked.

  “Not a flipping clue,” I replied, sure that my inevitable mental break had finally occurred.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Horton hugged the box to his chest, stroking it with his thick fingers, the talons dragging across the wooden surface. “How? When? I told you that you couldn’t come!” He turned the box so the light faced him.

  The mechanical voice returned, the red light flashing with each syllable. “I wanted to come along and experience the planet. Plus what if you needed me? I wanted to help save the captain too.”

  “You got to listen—oh never mind. Eugene, I’m just glad that you’re okay.” Horton hugged the box to his chest and turned his large head to rest it on the surface.

  “Did I have a stroke?” I asked.

  “Nah, Cap. I’m seeing it too.”

  “Our ship blew up!” Chloe said in an empty tone as she sat next to Horton in the red dirt.

  I patted her shoulder. “I know, but I think I need to sort this out first. Horton, please explain.”

  Horton rocked the box in his arms, his eyes closed.

  “Horton!”

  Horton jerked his head up and looked around. He slowly returned from wherever he had been mentally. He cleared his throat and stood up. “Captain Laika, this is Eugene.”

  “I thought you said Eugene was just a pet name for the engine, but I suppose it is safe to assume there was more to that story?”

  Horton twisted his foot on the ground. “Yes, I had never been away from home for so long, and it’s really lonely in the engine room, so I installed a little artificial intelligence program to keep me company.”

  Raph stomped over. “You installed an AI on my ship? Those are banned for a reason! How dare you?”

  “They aren’t so bad, and I was really careful. The parameters were pretty strict. At least at first.”

  Raph jabbed a finger at the box. “That’s what they said before, but look at what happened at Gamma X. An AI highjacked the whole ship for two weeks.”

  “They were attempting to take kids to a slave planet for punishment because of petty offenses!” Horton countered, his voice rising in anger.

  “The whole crew was locked out of control.”

  “Because the captain was a bad man. The AI was right.”

  “And what if that thing decided we were wrong and cut us off?”

  The red light on the box was flashing in an agitated pattern. “I would never do that. You’re a good crew. Captain Laika is the best captain around despite what the official records at fleet administration say.”

  Horton took a step toward Raph. “You were plenty happy to take the bonuses we got when Eugene tweaked the engine.”

  “Eugene,” I interrupted, “what does it mean that you are here rather than on the ship?”

  Everyone stopped talking to look at me then at the box in Horton’s arms.

  “Eugene, answer me!”

  “Yes, Captain Laika,” its tinny voice replied. “This wooden box is where I store my programming during docking when fleet runs a virus-detection program. We actually have a few spares in case one is damaged. When Horton said he was going on a rescue mission, I convinced him to take a spare with him to gather data so I could process it when he returned.”

  Chloe smiled at the box. “Aw, you were bringing your program back a toy.”

  I shushed her and gestured for the box to continue. “And you stowed away?”

  The red light flashed twice. “Yes, I copied over my main program, along with my database of previous decisions. Tonny relies on me, and I knew I might be of help.”

  “Tonny?”

  “I took the last syllable of his name and added the Y because my research indicates that it is common for entities that spend a considerable amount of time together through work or by choice to give each other name variations as a sign of affection. He calls me Genie.”

  I let out a sigh. “And what is the effect of you leaving the ship?”

  Eugene did not reply immediately.

  I took a gamble based on the interaction we had so far. “Eugene, you need to tell me the truth.” I didn’t have any experience with AIs since the fleet outlawed them ten years before I was born, and I had always lived on a fleet vessel when not in fleet training. But I did have experience as a captain working with crew members, and I could lean into that. “Genie, I’m the captain, and I’m in charge here. You know that I need an honest answer.”

  Eugene made a noise that sounded like a sigh. “I had to decide where my main programming and decision database would go. I can be in multiple places at once if the programming can communicate and integrate the information in real time, but this unit doesn’t have the ability to communicate with the ship beyond a kilometer unless I have access to a larger communications portal. I left a perfectly adequate replica behind. It should have been able to keep the ship stable without my presence. But you do realize that the ship would have exploded long ago without me, right?”

  “Uh… pardon?”

  “The ship had a virus. Horton and I were the only reason it ran. It should have exploded within the first few months.”

  My ship? I turned to Horton, unable to form words in my shock.

  Horton rubbed his foot in the dirt and avoided my eyes. “Fleet wouldn’t do anything. We had it under control.”

  I finally stammered out a question. “How do you know that?”

  “I reported it, and they claimed it didn’t show in any of their scans. Even when I tried to show them, they said I was just making a mistake. I removed it with Eugene’s help, but six months later, it showed up again, right after we
docked. I’m sorry, Captain. I wasn’t sure if you’d believe me.”

  I paused, waiting for some emotion to assault me, but nothing came. Eventually, it was clear that the numbness I felt was my reaction. I could have questioned the little AI’s assertion, but in my core, it felt true.

  Raph had a tumultuous history with the fleet, but he wasn’t willing to easily accept that they were so faulty that they couldn’t locate a virus. “We don’t know if that box is telling the truth. It probably messed up the ship. It wasn’t supposed to be installed at all, and now our ship has blown up. We have to wipe its memory before fleet finds us.”

  Horton tore over to Raph, towering over him by at least a foot and outweighing him by probably more than a hundred scaly pounds of pure muscle. “Don’t you blame Eugene! That ship has been a death trap since day one, and I couldn’t have kept it from blowing up without Genie’s help. I tried to get help from fleet, and they either gave me the runaround or ignored me. Plus, someone dumped a gosh-darned toolbox full of tools into the engine, or did you forget that part?”

  I had never seen Horton angry, let alone as angry as he was now. The air vibrated with his voice.

  Raph stepped back, his mouth moving like a fish out of water.

  Horton advanced, the box under one arm and the other hand jabbing a talon at Raph. “If you wipe Eugene’s database, that would wipe his memory. Even if I reinstalled it, he wouldn’t be the same program. You can’t kill Genie!”

  The little red light flashed quickly. “Navigator Raphael, often, my programming assisted you during your course corrections to help you be a better pilot.”

  Raph stepped back as though he had been slapped, then rage contorted his face. “I don’t need help from anyone to fly. I’ll wipe you myself.”

  I stepped between them, pushing Horton back. Fortunately, he gave in freely to my pressure. “Enough. Nobody is wiping anyone. But Horton, you need to promise not to ever install Genie anywhere else without my permission.”

  Horton nodded.

  I waited then addressed the wooden box. “Genie, I need you to promise as well and code that into your programming.”

  The red light flashed. “But what if you are unconscious and can’t give permission? What if I have data gathered that you don’t know about? What if your life is at risk?”

  I rubbed my forehead. I should have taken those philosophy electives. “What can you promise?”

  The little red light turned on and off in a pattern for five or six seconds. “All my programming and databases are consistent with the idea that you are a good captain, and if I was on your crew, then I would adhere to the guidelines you set because you have demonstrated that you care for your ship and crew in a way that my findings determine will be beneficial to long-term survival.”

  For a machine, he had a way with words. I smiled at him. “That is probably the nicest thing a machine has ever said to me. Horton, I need your verbal agreement as well. I don’t want to be caught off guard again.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Chloe was watching the entire interaction from a distance, but Raph was still fuming, his nostrils flaring with each breath.

  “Raph?” I asked.

  He looked at me, his mouth twitching like he wanted to say something but his brain was holding it back.

  I gestured at the sky beyond the cave, where our last hope of escape had recently exploded. “We need to get over this and anything else because we need to work together or we’ll all die.” Dying was pretty high on the list of possibilities whether we got along or not, but it didn’t seem like the right time to share that news. The tension in the group was as high as the heat and humidity.

  The little red light flashed. “Navigator Raphael, based on a reply you made, I believe I haven’t given you enough context to understand the intention behind my comment. I have assisted you when you controlled the ship. But based on my analysis of your control movements compared to the research Horton downloaded for me of other fleet navigators, you are approximately thirty-four percent more efficient than the rest of the fleet. I have not found another navigator that exceeds you in efficient movement control, reaction time, or decisions made that resulted in a positive net gain.”

  Raph’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you saying that I am the best navigator in the whole fleet?”

  “I have not evaluated every single navigator, but based on the ones I have evaluated, it is unlikely that there is a superior navigator in the fleet. While my assistance improved your performance, you are already far superior to any of your peers or higher-ranked officers.”

  Raph’s mouth opened and closed very slowly. Then he nodded. “Okay, I accept your apology.”

  Chloe took a drink from a purple bottle. “That’s just great. Now we can all hold hands and sing while we wait for certain death.” She hiccupped then blew out a raspberry.

  I snatched the bottle from her hand. “What is this?”

  She giggled. “Medicine.”

  I gave it a good sniff then pulled my head back and blinked hard to clear my eyes. “It’s mostly alcohol. Go drink some water and sober up because we are going to need everyone to make this plan work.”

  “How?” Chloe stumbled slightly to the side. “I heard the report. We can’t use the shuttle to do anything. We’re just going to die on this forsaken red oven!”

  I grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face me. “We can still use the shuttle for something. Misdirection.” I turned to Raph, Horton, and my newest official crew member, Eugene. “Let’s go into the shuttle, and I’ll explain.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Within the hour, the plan was ready. For better or for worse, we were committed. Chloe had been monitoring the cave entrance. She confirmed that every fourteen minutes, a shuttle passed overhead cruising down the coastline from the left. They would then disappear off to the right as the cliffs blocked her view.

  Our stolen police shuttle was in pretty bad shape. We moved it onto the beach exactly thirteen minutes after a patrol had passed. The shuttle slowly, and quite unsteadily, rose until it was roughly level with the top of the cliff. Raph held the shuttle there for fifteen seconds until the next patrol appeared around the bend, right on schedule.

  Eugene’s red light flashed with excitement. “The patrol has locked on with their scanner. Go!”

  Our shuttle shot toward the atmosphere in what we hoped looked like a frantic bid for escape, but the patrol shuttle was right its tail. They must have switched out shuttles from the ones that had chased us earlier in the day because this one had massive firepower.

  The first shot missed, but the second and third were direct hits. The police shuttle abruptly shifted directions with each hit, and part of the ship fell off into the ocean below, causing the gulpers to rise to the surface. Finally, as we had suspected would be the case, the patrol shot a rocket. It rose into the air, slowly gaining on our former transport until the moment of impact. The resulting explosion was so bright it looked like a second star had been born in the atmosphere. It probably blinded everyone within miles.

  By the time the visual flare had died, there was nothing left in the sky but a faint puff of smoke. The pieces, no bigger than the large red grains on the beach, fell slowly. They looked like a dark cloud slowly drifting down over the ocean.

  Raph stood next to me at the entrance of the cave. “Do you think they bought it?”

  “I’m hoping so. It is well known that you can’t fly a shuttle without being in the shuttle. If they believe we were making a mad dash for escape and were killed in the process, they will stop looking for me, or rather us, as they surely knew that someone helped me. Eugene, are you picking up anything?”

  A second then a third patrol ship showed up overhead. They hovered at the top of the cliff, orientated toward the ocean.

  “Yes,” Eugene said. “The first contact patrol is reporting that he picked up the heat signature of four passengers and they refused to listen to his commands to land and be boarded.
The pilot says that criminal vessel sent a confusing message in reply, so he followed orders to shoot it down. No survivors.”

  I looked at the AI suspiciously. “What message did you send?”

  “‘Hasta la vista, baby.’ I pulled it from my ancient history database. The context was goodbye because we are leaving in a glorious fashion.”

  I suppressed a smile. “Well, it worked. In fact, I’m a little concerned with how quickly the three of you rigged that up. Theoretically, the safety programming should have made it impossible for Raph to control a shuttle remotely or falsify passenger heat signatures.”

  Eugene blinked. “It was Raph. The shuttle was fighting the information being fed to it, but he was able to react faster than it could adjust. No one else could have done it.”

  Raph’s whole face lit up, and he gently tapped his fist on the side of the box. “That’s right, Genie. We make a great team.”

  I narrowed my eyes at the little box. I needed to have a serious discussion with Horton about what abilities the AI had for embellishment. It was good that Raph was no longer angry, but I was concerned about the amount of truth bending that might be going into that endeavor.

  “What now?” Chloe called out. She was reclining in a chair we had stripped from the shuttle. Next to her was a pile of everything that hadn’t been nailed down. She was holding her bottle but not drinking from it.

  We had overridden most of the safety features on the spacecraft except one. All fleet ships had a black box that would send out a signal to headquarters. It had probably first gone off when we were shot at repeatedly, then again after the gulper attack, but most definitely when the shuttle had been vaporized.

  I turned back to Chloe. “We wait. We have enough supplies at this point to last a few days in this cave. The fleet was already sending reinforcements, which should be here in the next few hours.”