Robot Planet, The Complete Series (The Robot Planet Series)

by Chute, Robert Chazz

“We’re headed into the final battle with the big bad and I need your advice. There are strategic considerations and your guidance could — ”

  “Advice from a mere sex bot?”

  “We both know you’re more than that. I need your strategic thinking on our side. I’ll show you our battle plans and…look, if you won’t do it for me, do it for Dante.”

  Jen studied the bot as if she were seeing Deb Avery’s human face. “I’m surprised you overcame your pride to ask me for help.”

  “It’s not pride. It’s desperation. We all want to live.”

  “Fine. I’ll look over your plans and tell you where you’ve fucked up.”

  “I thought you’d enjoy that.” Phantom straightened. “Dante! I’m receiving an encrypted airwave and the message is for you!”

  “Who could be calling me?”

  “Like I said, it’s encrypted, so I don’t know.”

  Dante cursed himself. He felt stupid again.

  From her perch at the edge of the catwalk, Jen reached out and rubbed his thigh. “Sweetie? It’s your father.”

  He couldn’t believe it. “How could you know that?”

  “Your father’s the only human you know who could possibly be alive. Who else would want to talk to you?”

  “Um…oh. Yeah!” He scrambled to his feet and hurried to a comm panel.

  Jen watched Dante go, swiveled, crossed her legs and rose to her feet without using her hands. She made to follow the young man, but she paused a moment before the battle drone. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll see all your secret plans and steer you to your death, Lieutenant?”

  “No. I’m not worried about that possibility at all. I remember fear. When I was organic, I remember the feeling of my heart pounding so hard I was sure it would explode. I remember the acid burning under my tongue when I was running for my life. When a human is scared — really scared, like when you’re sure you’re about to die painfully — it feels like your kidneys have turned to cold marble and ice is in your heart. Your head heats up and it feels like your lungs are no bigger than little teacups.”

  “And now?”

  “Now that I’m non-organic, I don’t miss that shit one bit. It’s much less likely I’m going to die but even if I were to shut off, it’s just a switch being thrown now. Dying holds no more significance than turning off a light. I’m not worried about my soul anymore. I don’t worry about pain and age and dying ugly. I’ve become — ”

  “A God who no pain receptors. No wonder Gods forget suffering so easily. Freeing, though, isn’t it?”

  “You’re goddamn right.”

  21

  Dante stood before a vid screen piping in a feed from the airship’s comm console. A dim figure, the profile in silhouette, came through the thick static of an intermittent satellite connection. Still, Dante knew it was his father immediately.

  “Dad? Where are you?”

  “It’s good to hear your voice, son. I can hear you but I can’t see you.”

  “I can barely see you. Where are you?”

  “Remember when we were in Marfa and we tried to light out for the coast? We didn’t get far, but I’m finally headed out.”

  “We made it to Artesia. Bob and Emma are dead. Jen is with me. What happened to you?”

  “Turns out, I couldn’t hide out in the solar fields forever. I must have killed hundreds of them. I blew up my share of bots. When they finally found me, I tried to take as many as I could with me. Figured I’d already been through hell. It was time to find out what happens next, see if the next hell had anything new to offer. I — ”

  The vid blurred to static and then came back on with worse resolution than before. “…for Raphael. They got me and it was a hard time, but I escaped. Things will be better again soon, I think. We just have to find each other again and do what we set out to do in the first place.”

  “You cut out there, Dad. What do you want me to do?”

  “When we tried to leave Marfa on the train, remember the dream?”

  “The West coast,” Dante said. “And then Samoa. I remember.”

  “They say there are no bots in Samoa,” Stephen said. “Maybe they’ll be okay with an old cyborg like me, but…it doesn’t matter. I’ve learned that the world hasn’t all gone to shit at the same time. Some places are better than others. Some places are just different but no better. I think Samoa is a safe place and I’ve got a line on a ship to take us there. There’s a little schooner that will take us where we need to go.”

  “Are you okay, Dad? You don’t sound well.”

  “I’m tired, is all. Tired of fighting. I got hurt bad in Marfa, but I’ve found a way to the coast and you’ve got to find a way to me. I need you to meet me at the City in the Sky. Meet me there, son. We’ll get clear of all this shit.”

  Jittery, Dante bounced on the balls of his feet. “Lean into the light, Dad. I can’t really see you.”

  Stephen Bolelli leaned forward. His face had been sprayed with an antibiotic plaster to speed healing. He wore a new cy-suit and, in the dim light, Dante made out the slim rods of exoskeleton extensions down his arms. It was an exoskeleton like he had never seen before, tighter to the body and more like a cy-suit than an exo. “You okay?”

  “I’m okay now.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Sure.”

  The sat feed fuzzed out again and went black.

  “Phantom!” Dante called out. “Can you clean up the signal?”

  Phantom’s voice clicked in on the airwave from the Ariane. “No. It seems to be shut off at the source.”

  The vid screen popped on again as suddenly as it had shut down. “Son! I’m going to lose you again in a second — ”

  “Can’t you come pick me up in Artesia?” Dante asked.

  “No go. I need you to gather all the humans you can. Find as many organic survivors as you can and bring them to the City in the Sky. There is a community of survivors in Aspen. Can you find a way to do that, son? Can you find a way to save them?”

  “Maybe I can find people, but I don’t know about finding weapons to arm them.”

  “This isn’t a fight. It’s an evacuation. We need to get everyone away to a safe place, to Samoa. Otherwise, they’re all just rats hiding in sewers. Can you do this for me, son?”

  “I’ll find a way, Dad.”

  “Attaboy! I’ll meet you on the coast. Bring friends, as many as you can.”

  The vid screen faded out.

  “Signal’s gone,” Phantom said. “It came from somewhere west of Denver, traveling fast. Went right out of a comm zone.”

  “I need a ride. Can you give me one, Phantom?”

  “I wouldn’t,” Jen said.

  Dante was startled. He hadn’t realized the bot was behind him.

  “It’s a trap,” Jen said.

  “The signal did seem to cut out at convenient times,” Phantom said. “I’m trying to reestablish contact, but there’s no response.”

  Dante turned to his bot. “It was my father, and he’s been hurt.”

  “You didn’t ask him how he survived,” Jen said.

  “I didn’t think to ask him that.”

  “I thought about it. When you think about it, you’ll figure it out, too. It’s a trap.”

  Dante paced. “This…I don’t know what — ”

  “He said, ‘find as many organic survivors as you can.’ Does that sound like something your father would say? Why didn’t he say, ‘people?’”

  “That does sound like something a Next Intelligence would say,” Phantom said. “And you don’t sound like a sex bot, ‘Jen.’”

  The bot put her hands on her hips. “I have access to all the files before what was left of Mother downloaded into my head. I knew Dante and his father in Marfa. I knew him well enough to know that he doesn’t sound like that.”

  “He’s been hurt!” Dante shouted.

  Jen moved forward to put her arms around Dante but he shrugged her off. Rejected, Jen stepped back. “Okay
. I’m still the smartest one here, so let me tell you what I know from a second’s analysis of the situation.”

  “Go ahead,” Dante said. “You know it all, know-it-all.”

  “Don’t be petulant, lover. It’s unattractive. Situational analysis: His phrasing doesn’t sound like Stephen Bolelli. We don’t know who saved him in Marfa. The in and out of the signal is questionable. If he wanted to maintain the signal, he could have moved to an area where the sat feed was strong and stayed there. Next, how does he know you have access to transport? You didn’t before, but suddenly he’s asking you to get to the coast and pick up a bunch of survivors in Aspen, too?”

  “He has intel,” Phantom said. “He knows you’ve got access to an airship. My airship.”

  “He’s asking for help — “ Dante began.

  “He’s talking about surrender. When he spoke of taking bots down with him, that’s the Stephen Bolelli I knew,” Jen said. “Dante, sweetie? Can you ever imagine your dad talking about running away? Strategic retreat, maybe, but really, did you ever picture him running to Samoa and safety while there was still a fight to be had?”

  “We talked about Samoa,” Dante said, his voice just above a whisper.

  “Raphael talked about Samoa. But a man like your father? A soldier? He was never going to get on a boat and sail off to a peaceful end. He opted to stay in Marfa for the fight, Dante. He might have been okay with his son escaping to safety, but — “

  “Yeah, I get it. Something’s wrong.”

  “I wasn’t finished my situational analysis,” Jen said. “It is a trap, but that doesn’t matter. You’ll go to the City in the Sky, anyway. You’re human.”

  “She’s got a point. Curiosity will kill you, if love doesn’t,” Phantom added.

  Phantom Two clanked in behind the sex bot, suddenly threatening. “You sound more like an NI all the time.”

  Jen turned to the battle drone and stood her ground. “Oh, calm down. We both know you aren’t going to do anything to me.”

  “Why not?”

  “Even if you think too much of the NI is crammed into my data matrix, I’m smart and I’m on your side. Well, Dante’s side, anyway.”

  “The last time I trusted a Next Intelligence,” Phantom said, “she stole my body and trapped me in a computer.”

  “You won’t kill me for the same reason you didn’t kill Ghost,” Jen said. “You need us for your larger objectives.”

  A moment passed. Phantom Two said nothing.

  “Good,” Jen said. “You’re smarter than I thought.”

  “It’s nice to surprise you a little,” Phantom said. There was still anger in her voice.

  “People have always resented machines. You’re still, for most purposes, a machine, but you don’t understand that yet. I suppose you’ll come to it eventually. Once you trust someone with your secrets, you either love them for the greater bond you’ve created or you hate them for making you feel vulnerable. Humans are much more complex than machines in that way. I dislike that about your race. I prefer elegant simplicity. You see, if I — ”

  “Dante!” Phantom barked. “Your sex bot is chattering too much, again! I’ve got a bot army to finish building. We leave tonight! I’ll warm up the jet helo from Ariane’s nose. Go to the City in the Sky and take your goddamn sex bot with you.”

  “What about Aspen?” Dante asked.

  “Forget Aspen. You’re going to the City, motherfucker.”

  “Well,” Jen said. “That was rude.”

  “It was a pun,” Phantom said.

  “Oh, I get it. Because Jen is too much Mother — ”

  “Yeah, yeah. Wordplay,” Jen said. “Delightful.”

  Dante took a deep breath. “What do I do when I get to the City in the Sky?”

  “The trap is there. Don’t step in it,” Phantom said. “Then crush your enemies in a trash compactor. I’ll watch your back. I’ve got other shit to fry, but I’ll be with you every step of the way as Phantom Two.”

  Dante glanced at the big battle drone. Even though it only had a big cam for an eye, it still looked like it was glowering at Jen. It might be his imagination, but he didn’t think so.

  22

  Elizabeth hardly spoke to Ghost throughout their journey north. Hearst’s queen busied herself with word games supplied by the Sand Shark’s computer. Lucille had been calibrated to answer the queen’s commands as long as she did not interfere with running the subterranean ship’s primary systems. It was diminishing for a monarch, but Elizabeth had never been one to sling orders. Instead, she had preferred to lead by example. Now, she supposed, her ruling days were over. No matter what happened next, those days had died with her husband and she would not miss them. The problem with ordering people around was that they stood around waiting instead of coming up with their own ideas and acting independently.

  When Elizabeth spoke to Ghost, it was to ask that they surface and take a break from the relentless boredom and cramped quarters aboard the Sand Shark. When she needed to relieve herself, she wanted to do so behind a tree, not in a diaper.

  Ghost refused her request to surface only once, explaining that they were still too close to the Dreadnoughts. “The NI’s satellite feed is not interrupted yet. We could be spotted and vulnerable if we surface now.”

  “The NI — ”

  “Matthew, yes.”

  “What makes that NI different from you?”

  “Besides the scar and the woman’s body, you mean?” A thick console separated Elizabeth from the pilot but that was the only time Ghost turned back to regard her. Elizabeth sensed the pilot’s irritation. “Matthew is bent on annihilating all former slave owners. That category includes all humans.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Bots talk. Even when you don’t think they do, a lot of comm traffic goes back and forth. It’s one of the ways non-organics coordinate their work.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’m different,” Ghost said, “because I’m trying to help you. If I weren’t trying to help you, most of the people of Hearst would be headed into the Dreadnought’s trap. It would have been a massacre. You wouldn’t have downed a single Dreadnought in a fight out in the open. Have you concluded that I’m on your side yet?”

  “Yes,” Elizabeth conceded. “I worked that out after a while. That’s why I didn’t try to stab you when we took our first rest stop.”

  “I’m glad you got there eventually. Can we put that racist bullshit behind us or do you want to air all of your grievances against non-organics as if we’re all the same?”

  “No,” Elizabeth said. “I’m done. I would like to know how you expect me to convince the Fathers and Mothers that I’m not their enemy. They blame me — ”

  “If you don’t convince them that they’re being played for fools, Greta will have a surprise for them.”

  “Yes, but how?”

  “Try facts on the Fathers and Mothers. We have to get everyone to start thinking about long-term survival, not just making it to their next birthday.”

  Elizabeth squirmed uncomfortably in her narrow seat.

  “Sorry Lucille isn’t as comfortable as a throne. When we made repairs, we had to improvise a few things.”

  “Improvise?” Elizabeth couldn’t conceal the quaver in her voice.

  “To make room for a passenger. I recruited some human help and ripped out Lucille’s food packs and drug storage.”

  “What people? Who is ‘we’?”

  “There are still humans alive in Pasadena around the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They improved Lucille for a faster ride and helped me add the passenger compartment.”

  “How did you convince them to help you?”

  “Everyone there is quite reasonable. I used facts. You might try that with the Fathers and Mothers.”

  Elizabeth squirmed again. “Next time, tell them to add more leg room.”

  “I prioritized more boost to the drill,” the pilot said.

&nb
sp; “How did you come to be exactly?”

  “There was a soldier named Deborah,” Ghost said. “I needed to be able to do what she could. Organics and non-organics need a bridge. That’s me. She became Phantom and I took her place. She is still alive in the same way that I was alive and we’re working together.”

  “But you took her body! How can you — ”

  “Eventually, enemies become allies, given time. There’s plenty of historical precedent. It takes too much energy to stay mad forever. The opportunity cost — ”

  “But, what you did — ”

  “Phantom understands that we both had to sacrifice something to achieve our goals. She understands duty.”

  “Oh? And what did you give up, Ghost?”

  “Immortality.”

  That silenced Elizabeth for some time. Eventually, she asked, “You can’t go back to being in a bot or a computer?”

  “A bot big enough to hold my data couldn’t fit in a Sand Shark. I need Lucille, and mobility, for the tasks ahead. After that…there are too many variables to put a timetable on what happens to me next. Once I find a way for most beings to survive, organic and non, I’ll figure out what to do with my life.”

  “So you’re just making things up as you go along?”

  “Yes. I’m not so different from humans, am I?”

  “What if they don’t want to talk, let alone negotiate?”

  “Then we won’t talk. We’ll have to press our case using diplomacy by other means. Hold on, we’re approaching the City in the Sky. We’re going to climb in a moment.”

  “Getting out of this metal coffin sounds fantastic.”

  “Watch your screen.” Ghost waited several beats before adding, “my queen.”

  Elizabeth leaned forward and squinted at the screen. “Lucille?”

  “Yes, ma’am?” the Sand Shark’s computer answered.

  “Boost the magnification on my screen. I’ve got old eyes.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The green vid screen boosted its resolution. Elizabeth asked the Sand Shark’s computer to amplify the text twice more before she could sit back with her head on the headrest.

  As the machine bored through the rock along the shoreline, Lucille’s speed decreased. However, when they climbed toward the surface, the medium changed and Lucille picked up speed.