“He’s one of the terrorists!” she blurts out. A couple of the interlopers turn to Angela-
The rapid flashes of gunfire fill the shuttle. All four of the armed individuals drop down dead. Angela lets herself breathe out in relief.
“You did it! They’re all dead” she cries out. Lynsey’s guns fall from her hands, and she slowly turns around. Angela gets up to hug her but stops short. Lynsey moves a shaking hand to a gaping hole in her side.
“I need…I need…” she croaks, battling to lift her arm, before collapsing.
“No!” Angela screams, rushing over. She grabs Lynsey’s face in a panic, shaking her to keep her eyes open. She looks at the wound and recoils back, wailing in desperation. The smell of seared flesh hits her, and the impulse to gag nearly overpowers her.
“Oh God baby, please be alright. You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay, right? You need…you need…a medkit!” she says, leaping to her feet and sprinting to the medical storage unit. Her hands won’t stop shaking, causing great difficulty in opening the unit. She eventually gets it open and spills most of the items on the shuttle floor as she wrenches the med-kit out. She rushes back to her stricken wife, wiping her eyes before fumbling with the box.
“Don’t worry baby, I’m going to help! You’ll be completely fine, you’ll be fine” she whimpers. The box won’t open. With an angry shout, she smashes the box against the floor repeatedly until it cracks open. Most of her basic medical training escapes her, but the small tube-like object she requires is instantly recognisable. She takes it and delicately places it over the steaming hole in Lynsey’s side. The device quickly fills the wound with a hardened foam-like substance. It will numb the pain and keep Lynsey alive until they get out of there. And they will get out of there, Angela tells herself.
“Alright, you’re gonna be fine. This will keep you going” Angela says, her voice cracking. Lynsey’s face is ghostly pale. Even with the medical foam holding the wound together, she is visibly in extreme pain. She grunts as she lifts her hand to Angela’s face. Angela clasps her hand tightly. Tears flow openly down her face.
“Angela…you look terrible” she whispers, forcing a faint smile. Angela snorts a laugh, shaking tears from her face.
“You’re the looker, that’s true” Angela replies weakly. She bites down on her tongue to hold back a sob. This can’t be happening. Lynsey’s smile fades, her face overcome with sadness. She coughs a little before speaking.
“Angela…you are so perfect. I love you more than anything” she says quietly, her own eyes filling up. Angela knows what she is really saying, and she can’t hold back her anguish.
“Please don’t talk like that. I’m going to get us out of here” she moans. Lynsey chuckles and instantly wails with the effort.
“More of them will come. The shuttle’s stuck. You need to use…use an escape pod to get out of this ship” She says. Angela brushes tears away from Lynsey’s eyes. As she does, Lynsey smiles, before closing her eyes.
“Lynsey, don’t! Don’t, please, baby, please don’t! I can’t live without you!” Angela cries, squeezing Lynsey tightly. Indescribable happiness washes over her when she hears the faintest groan. She’s still alive. But she needs help desperately. Angela gets up, frantically looking around the shuttle.
“I’ll get us out of here, Lynsey, I swear,” she says, rubbing her eyes heavily. She needs clarity. She goes to her chair and activates the shuttle’s engines. She tries to simply overpower the clamp, but all that happens is angry groaning as the metal strains against the magnetic locks. Angela screams wordlessly, her frustration boiling over.
“Work! What do I do, what do I do…” she says out loud. She manually shuts the shuttle door and goes back to her seat. The other ship still has access to their system, but it hasn’t locked her out. Her hands are still trembling, but she manages to locate the medical facility on the station. She must get the shuttle there somehow. Lynsey shifts slightly, drawing her attention. Her eyes flutter open. She has a glazed unfocussed look in her eyes. Angela can’t bear to see her like this. Her agony multiplies a thousand-fold when she realises that she has pushed Lynsey into this situation. She assumed the ships weren’t dangerous, and now her beloved wife lay dying in front of her. She freezes for a few seconds, utterly overcome with shock and guilt and torment and anger at the situation.
She has to get Lynsey out of here and there is only one way she can think of. She worked her trembling fingers over the console, activating the Paris Drive’s warp facility. She focuses the Drive’s energy directly below the shuttle, ignoring the clanging safety warnings as she does so. The ship would likely suffer catastrophic damage, not to mention the shuttle itself. A faint wheeze drew her attention. Lynsey’s hand has fallen from the wound, and a little blood is visible. Her eyes shut again.
“NO!” Angela screams, activating full power. Instantly the shuttle shakes with a terrible ear-piercing racket. The hull crumples in several places, and storage units burst open, throwing the contents across the room. A thundering bang is heard, and all at once, everything stops. Angela ignores the ringing in her ears and checks their location. They’ve escaped the ship, having torn a huge hole in the larger vessel’s hull. Any crew in that part of the ship would quite probably be dead, although at that moment Angela can’t possibly care less. She sets the autopilot to the medical bay, thankful that the shuttle’s damage was non-critical, and activates a distress signal before rushing to Lynsey’s side. She scoops her arm around Lynsey’s head and gently strokes her face.
“You’ve got to be alright. I need you. I can’t do this without you” she cries. Her stomach hurts from sobbing. Lynsey struggles to half open her eyes. Her mouth moves as if she is trying to speak, but only a whimper comes out. She is horribly pale. Angela can barely look at her beautiful wife. A soft shudder rings through the shuttle, and it produces the most pleasurable feeling Angela has ever known. They’ve reached the medical facility, and the auto-dock procedure is beginning. As soon as she starts a relieved laugh, Lynsey is suddenly overcome with convulsions, shaking and frothing at the mouth. Angela screams. She wants to do something. Anything. But she simply freezes in terror. She doesn’t even notice the shuttle door opening, and a pair of medics entering. They come over to Lynsey’s still thrashing body, seamlessly linking a medical device with practiced hands and scanning it over her wounds.
“It’s my fault. It’s my fault” Angela admonishes herself angrily. Her stupid, idiotic, selfish need to jump in, to have things her way. She couldn’t help herself.
A hand from someone rests gently on her back.
“Try to remain calm, Sergeant,” a voice from somewhere says. Angela falls flat before curling into a ball, squeezing her eyes shut as hard as she can.
“Please don’t let her die” she prays.
Her head hurts. Her legs hurt. Her entire body hurts. She tries opening her eyes, but the light pierces through the darkness, causing her to snap them shut again. Her mouth feels bone dry. She can barely hear anything other than loud ringing. But she is alive. She spends ten painful minutes slowly wriggling fingers and toes, bending joints, twisting her neck. Every single movement causes ripples of stabbing pains everywhere, and she’s sure she is close to vomiting, but at least Lynsey knows she is alive and still has all her beloved body parts.
Eventually, the ringing in her ears dies down to the point she can hear muffled voices. Great, she’s been kidnapped. Probably to be eaten by cannibals or used in some kind of sexual experiment. She starts a chuckle at her own joke and immediately regrets it. Her groan draws the attention of whoever is in the room. She hears the footsteps as they come to the bed. Then suddenly, her pain dies down almost entirely.
“I don’t remember giving you permission to die, Lieutenant” a powerful, instantly recognisable voice says. With considerable effort, Lynsey sits up a little and opens her eyes. Amira and Nemmy stand at either side of her bed i
n what must be the station’s medical room. Lynsey lets her eyes adjust fully to the room’s light. Nemmy’s face is streaked and puffy. She has been crying. Amira’s face, of course, is as dry as a cup of sand. But the way she leans in, her wide-eyed look, it’s clear to Lynsey that she is deeply upset as well. A surprisingly reassuring thought. One replaced by a horrible consideration.
“Where’s Angela? Is she alright?” she asks.
“She’s fine. She’s sitting outside. She, uh, she’s in pieces. She blames herself for what happened to you” Nemmy says. It hadn’t even occurred to Lynsey.
“Tell her to come in, please,” she says. Nemmy squeezes her arm.
“Of course. Get plenty of rest. I hate seeing you like this” she says.
“If you think I look bad, you should go find a mirror, doll” Lynsey jokes. After the laughter dies down, her commanding officers leave and send in Angela. Lynsey’s good humour dies instantly. Angela looks terrible. Her face is swollen; her eyes are red and blotchy. She shuffles over awkwardly. She won’t look Lynsey in the eye, but she tightly grabs her hand.
“Lynsey, I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen” she says, sniffing and sobbing. Lynsey weakly returns her hand squeeze.
“Sometimes missions go bad, and I get shot, it’s the job”
“No, this was my fault. I pushed you into it. You wanted to get help, I stupidly didn’t listen. I promise I’m going to be more careful in future, I will”
“Angela…”
“This has been the worst day of my life. I hate myself for this”
“Angela!” Lynsey snaps, biting back a surge of agony.
“What?” Angela says in a trembling voice. Lynsey simply takes her face in both hands.
“Shut up and just let me look at you,” she says softly. Angela lets the tears gush down her face. Just being here with her is a relief. More than relief, it is pure happiness. Angela truly can’t live without Lynsey. If she is angry, if she can’t forgive what happened, Angela might as well throw herself out of an airlock.
“Angela” Lynsey begins, brushing matted hair out of her wife’s eyes, “I think I’ll take holidays on my own from now on”
Angela erupts into laughter. A deep, belly-aching, tension-relieving, soul-lifting laugh, filled with understanding.
Lynsey has already forgiven her.
Baser Instincts
Nemmy had been quite glad to spend a shuttle flight chatting to Ravaan. They had been called to visit a research base on a small moon for a technology demonstration of some sort. But due to Lynsey still recuperating, Amira had elected to remain on board the ship, preferring to make sure the Boomslang was safe. Nemmy suspected she simply had no wish to witness a tech demo. It gave Ravaan the rare chance to take part in one of these “missions”, not that he was particularly impressed with the concept.
“Captain, I really would have preferred if you had insisted on Major Ghannam accompanying you. Perhaps, even one of the other security personnel. They could use the training” He says.
“I don’t want you to be cooped up in the ship all the time, it’s not healthy” she replies.
“I appreciate your concern Captain, but I am in fact quite happy and comfortable on the ship” Ravaan informs her.
“Come on! You’re not even slightly curious about what we’re going to see?” Nemmy asks. Ravaan gives the faintest hint of a smile.
“I am somewhat interested, I must admit. I believe it has something to do with advanced robotic technology” He says. What it could be escapes Nemmy. Drone technology, most often used for EVA repairs and large construction projects, was already commonplace amongst all known societies. They had found some varied use as sentries for ground outposts and such, and even on the battlefield. Although it is still felt that real soldiers were required as much as drones. No one wants to be invaded by robots, after all. Robotic technology is also used to aid in surgical procedures. But as in many other fields, the complicated work is often left to humans. What new field is about to be explored here? Nemmy is excited to find out.
They eventually land on their assigned platform. Alonso has taken a turn piloting the shuttle this time. A mildly bumpy experience when landing, but Nemmy feels he did well for his first real shuttle flight. He seems extremely relieved to be on the ground as the shuttle is remotely moved to an internal location.
“Nice work, Alonso! If you can fly the big boat, you can fly the little boat, eh?” Nemmy jokes, slapping him on the back. He sighs, wiping his forehead.
“It’s hard work Captain! But I made it”
“Are you okay to wait here for us?” She asks. He nods eagerly, pointing to a pair of datapads on a tray next to him.
“Yes, Commander Mukesh has given me a couple of assignments to do,” he says. With a wave, she leaves him and follows Ravaan into the moonbase. As soon as they leave the shuttle area, a large anti-grav platform approaches them. They step onto it, and guard rails rise from the platform. When they both take hold of the rails, the platform wizzes them down the corridor. Slightly more colourful than the stations Nemmy is used to. Nice streaks of greens and yellows and oranges swooping around the corridor. Less than a minute later, they arrive at an auditorium entrance. The seating rows go down dozens of metres into the floor, with the stage area at the bottom of the bowl-like room.
The now familiar sight of various Captains, Fleet Captains, Admirals, and Regents file into various seats. And of course, one very familiar Sector Admiral, surrounded by the usual flunkies, arrives and takes a seat at the far side of the auditorium. The room fills swiftly as the last seats are taken. The ring lights around the room darken down and the doors close. A high up light beams illumination onto the stage as a woman leads a couple of men out of the floor entrance. Each man is pushing a tray with a large charcoal coloured cube resting on it. The woman interacts with the Strap on her arm before speaking, connecting her voice to every other Strap in the room.
“Hello and welcome to the facility. I am Ariana Verrecchia, Project Head of Advanced Science and Development. Thank you all for coming, I know you are busy. But I believe our demonstration will be worth your time” she says in a calming, confident voice. She motions to both men, who do something to the charcoal cubes. Nemmy can’t see what they are doing, but they leave the stage as soon as they’ve finished. The assembled crowd gasps as the “cubes” separate into parts, before arranging into humanoid shapes. The…things stand up straight, a strange concoction of cubes, orbs, and pipes. The uppermost cube on the top of each construct turns to face Ariana. Part of the uppermost cube opens on each construct, revealing a series of interchanging lights and assorted colours. The lights on the leftmost construct settle on a yellowish hue, whilst the rightmost construct does the same for a bright blue.
“Now before I get to the really exciting part, let me give you all the basic outlay,” Ariana says, walking over to the construct with the yellow face and tapping it on the “chest”. She begins pointing to various parts of the construct.
“The finest blended metal composite available to us. A combination of microgravity controllers and gyroscopic stabilisers allow collective or independent movement of any limb in any direction. They can generate both speed and strength far beyond that of any human, even with the most advanced limb replacements. I could go on but suffice to say that what you see before you…is the absolute peak of cybernetic and robotic interlinked technology” she says. It’s impressive stuff to Nemmy, at least what she understands. She isn’t quite sure why this requires a demonstration though. Judging by the awkward silence, nor does anyone else. Ariana though grins widely, the smile of a proud parent.
“But that’s not really why you are all here. These are two of my newest friends, Yellow and Blue. The first real example of fully sapient, cognitively aware, created lifeforms. Artificial Intelligence, ladies and gentlemen”
That statement grabs the
attention of everyone in the room. Absolute silence takes hold, a long, deathly quiet. Nemmy looks at Ravaan and shares his visible shock. Real A.I. was something theorised about for literally hundreds of years. The idea that it could actually happen at all, let alone exist right in front of them is mind-boggling. Clearly, Ariana expected this reaction, as she seems pleased. Amused, even.
“Impossible” someone mutters behind Nemmy. She is inclined to agree. Or at least expect some proof to go along with such fantastic claims. She guesses Ariana will have such proof; otherwise, there would be no reason to bring so many influential people here.
“To help explain the situation, Yellow has adopted a male persona, and Blue has adopted a female persona. They will go through a series of demonstrations to display their sentience. We have used several suggested criteria that such a creation would need to display in order to be considered truly sentient. After the first series of demonstrations, we’ll have a break. The various organising bodies have arranged for roundtable discussions for you to process this information. I believe you’ll need it” she jokes. Both Yellow and Blue “laugh” as she laughs, both producing a not-quite-human sound. They have been programmed with overtly male and female voices, probably to ease people into the idea of sentient robotics. Something about the concept unsettles Nemmy, but she remains deeply curious as to how such a thing can be accomplished.
She isn’t alone in that. The silence has been replaced with murmurs as everyone shares their views with their companions. Nemmy looks over at her mother. She remains visibly unmoved, although the people around her babble and gesticulate to each other. On the stage, one of the men pushes another tray up with a storage crate on it.
Unknown Earth Volume 2 Page 11
