by JD Clarke
Legion rose, nearly overturning the table. “You have it all wrong! Those machines are the devils! They destroyed my planet! They killed my people! What was once a rich and vibrant world is now mostly ice and rock. My people and your Nick are there fighting now for the return of our home. How can you feel for these monsters that have no soul?”
“Legion, sit down please. Dena did not mean any offense,” I told him. “She is only thinking of an old Earth tale. Humans often think in such terms. We often review our actions in the light of good and evil. Our stories give us a framework for evaluating what we do.”
“Legion, I am sorry,” Dena said in a very calm and soothing way. “I meant no disrespect for what your people have gone through. I know in your eyes, the Unity are the epitome of evil. I was just comparing their society to the ideal society that humans have always sought to achieve—perfect equality and peaceful coexistence among the members.”
The female Warrior, Grace, reached over and took Legion’s arm, gently guiding him to be reseated. Legion was still stiff and breathing heavy from anger, but his thoughts were restrained when he addressed Dena.
“I know that your world too is threatened by the Unity. You must hate them as much as I.” Legion looked directly at Dena as he spoke to her. His unblinking eyes revealed no emotion. “I have no sympathy for them. They should all be destroyed. They are the soulless machines of destruction created by the ones that kidnapped and tortured my people for their own purposes, to use us like beasts.”
“You and the humans speak much about souls, Legion,” Sybil said from the door as she and Claire entered the mess hall. “But in all our exploration of many worlds and many biological creatures, I find no evidence for such a thing.”
“You would not,” Legion replied. “It is not something that can be measured. You will not find it in your devices.”
“And would you wish we were destroyed as well as the others?” Claire asked, standing next to Sybil.
“I was speaking only of the machines that fight against us.” Legion was visibly uncomfortable. “You have proven yourselves in battle. You have aided us, and I consider you allies.”
Sybil and Claire came to the table to sit on either side of Mako. “But do you trust us, Legion?” Claire asked.
Legion gave Claire his unblinking stare. “No, I do not. You and the other androids do only what is right for you. You have no sense of honor. You have no sense of duty to sacrifice for those that depend on you. You cannot feel the bonds that living people feel—”
I interrupted Legion before he went too far. “Claire, you must understand, as Sybil has begun to understand, that we do not give our trust lightly. It must be earned. It has only been after sharing many dangers that I was able to begin trusting Sybil.”
“And do you not trust me also?” Claire asked and turned toward Mako.
Mako hesitated for a moment, a moment too long. “I have begun to trust you, Claire. Our relationship is new, and it is still developing. You have to give it time to mature.”
“There is no bond between us?” Claire asked Mako.
“Of course there is.” Now Mako was visibly uneasy. “It is developing. It takes time, Claire.”
It was time to change the subject. “Claire, did you or Noomi find any signs of intruders aboard the Defiant?”
Claire was slow to turn her attention to me. “No, Commander, we found no indications of any ingress by any foreign object, neither organic nor mechanical.”
“I think I was just delusional from my paranoia,” Dena said, helping me steer the discussion in a new direction. “I can remember imagining even the maintenance robots staring at me, plotting.”
“Does anyone trust me?” Sasha asked, looking around at us. How I wished she would learn to keep quiet.
“Yes, Sasha, I trust you,” I told her, hoping to get off the subject.
“Even though I tried to kill you and take the ship?”
“Yes, you’ve changed since then. You’ve grown into a more stable person,” I told her.
“Then can’t Claire grow and develop as well?” Sasha asked.
Legion stood and left, without a word. His companions followed him out of the mess hall. It was not a good omen. It would be a long trip back to Earth, with little to do and too many differences among the crew.
“Of course she can,” I said, looking over at Claire. “I am sure Claire will learn to trust us, and we will learn to trust her. It just takes time.” I got no response from Claire.
“Now I should go and check on Jackson. He is certain to have questions, and I want to make sure he feels comfortable here.” I gave Dena a kiss on the cheek as I got up to leave. Mako and Dena were telling the others about Earth as I was leaving.
I found Jackson and Noomi in the robotics lab. They were looking over a 3-D display of some type of electronics device. It resembled a holographic processor.
“Hey, Jackson, Noomi, how’s everything going?” I said as I entered the lab.
“Hello, Commander. Noomi and I are just going over some improvements to our android processors.”
“Please, Jackson, call me Jason.”
“All right, Jason, but it does seem a little strange calling you by my name. Still, I need to get used to it, I suppose. I remember talking to other people in the past named Jason. It’s a common-enough name, but they didn’t have my old face.” He laughed at that. His laugh sounded just like my own, naturally.
“Yeah, but you’re better looking. Don’t you think so, Noomi?”
“Yes, Commander, I do think Jackson is quite handsome.”
I caught a look between them that told me they had become more than friends. “What are you working on exactly? It looks like a processor unit.”
“It is. We are attempting to design a scaled-down holographic processor unit that will fit into our android bodies, giving us more processing power and greater memory storage. The problem is it requires a larger power source, and that exceeds the storage area within the android body.” Jackson pulled up a new display showing a different android design, a life-sized depiction. “As you can see, with the new space requirements, an android body large enough to accommodate the upgrades would be significantly larger than the average human.”
“Yes, it is more than a head taller than me and looks even bigger than a pro football player.” The 3-D display was bigger than any human I had ever seen.
“That’s the problem. Since we are going back to Earth, I would prefer to fit in. An android body of this size would stand out like a freak and be very intimidating, and it may be hard enough for us, as androids, to be accepted back home.”
I thought it over for a moment. “Have you looked at the computer and power systems on the new warship we captured from the Unity? The systems on it are undoubtedly improvements over the previous designs.”
“That is exactly our next step. The weapons guidance system for the plasma cannon uses a newer processor design.” Noomi looked over to Jackson as she went on. “We were concerned that you and the rest of the crew might be uncomfortable if we used a weapons processor as our main computer unit.”
“The processor just crunches numbers. Its design purpose should have no effect on your software personalities, right?”
“Of course not,” Jackson answered. “It was just a concern I had. Besides, any personality changes would be registered by the main holographic processor unit that all the androids are wirelessly connected to, and a diagnostic program could be installed to ensure continuity of personality traits.” He hesitated for a moment before bringing up the next subject. “I have also designed an upgraded more-robust chassis. It will stand up to small arms fire and even absorb a great amount of punishment from energy weapons before failing. Of course, I realize the initial concerns of making the androids superior to humans, but I would like the improvements for my own android body.”
“I suppose it’s stronger and faster than a human as well.”
“Yes, it is, Jason.”
/> “I understand your concerns if you do not wish to upgrade the other androids,” Noomi added.
I understood Jackson’s desire to be the most he could be. I would want to improve if possible too. “Go ahead with your upgrades, Jackson. I’ll have to consult with the other crew members about allowing the upgrade to be given to the other androids. Their status as ex-Unity members puts them in a different category.” I didn’t see how we could refuse. Doing so would send a strong message to the androids that we did not trust them and that they were not true allies—we were just using them. Perhaps a waiting period, time for them to prove themselves, would be an acceptable solution.
“Thanks, Jason. As soon as we decide on a new processor design, I’ll put the fabrication orders in.”
“Sure, no problem. How is Claire fitting in?”
“She has moved in with Dr. Tanakai and Sybil,” Noomi stated it so matter-of-factly that I was a little surprised that I had not been aware of it.
“What does Sybil think about sharing Mako?” I had to ask.
“It did not occur to me to ask.” Noomi seemed a little puzzled.
“I got the impression that Sybil was not happy with it. She hasn’t said anything, but little hints have been there.” Jackson smiled; he knew what I was thinking. Jealousy was one of the key emotions I had hoped to implant in the Unity. If Sybil was totally OK with sharing Mako, then my plan might not work. On the other hand, if Sybil showed signs of jealousy, then I was sure others in the Unity would be experiencing problems as well.
The Second Ring
There was plenty of free time on our voyage home, so now was the perfect time to explore the last of the rings. I had been reluctant to look into it since we always seemed to find nothing but trouble on the rings. The Second Ring, like the third, was locked, and ingress was only available to the captain of the Defiant, which was Legion’s neural net. I decided to announce my intentions to go onto the Second Ring over breakfast; everyone would be there. Even Jackson and the other androids had begun joining us for breakfast. It was a time of social interaction, catching up and enjoying one another’s company.
“I was thinking of exploring the Second Ring today. I’ll need your help, Legion.”
“Of course, Jason. I look forward to another adventure. Things have been too quiet. Perhaps we will find another enemy to defeat.”
“I would like to accompany you as well, Commander,” Sybil added.
“Sure, I don’t know what we’ll find though. The ring is locked, and there is no record of its contents on the Defiant’s computer, at least not that I can find.”
“I know what is on the ring.” Dena looked up from her breakfast. “It is a vast nursery, an arid plain with Ancient One embryos in stasis. The sands are nanobots tasked with guarding the embryos.”
Dena’s answer surprised me. “Then perhaps you should go along with us. Your neural net belonged to the ship’s doctor. It may be needed for access on the ring as well. How do you know?”
“I had a dream about it. While I was hiding on the First Ring, when I was alone, I had a dream that I was walking among them and choosing which ones to awaken. It was more than a dream. It was a memory.” Dena got quiet for a moment, lost in thought perhaps. “I’ll come along,” she said, then went back to eating.
We suited up in our light armor, with only our side arms, except Legion. He always had a pulse rifle and short sword with him on any excursion, and I am sure he always hoped to use them. Sybil had brought only a single .45 instead of the normal brace of two pistols. The entry to the elevator opened easily for Legion, and we rode up to the Second Ring in a relatively short time. It was the smallest of the rings attached to the Defiant, and so the elevator shaft within the ring’s spoke was short also. When we arrived, we looked out over a vast desert landscape, just as Dena had predicted. There were groups of embryonic eggs arranged like some weird orchard. The “orchards” were scattered about the landscape, each of different size and number of individual eggs. The embryos were egg shaped with a leathery semitransparent covering. They were mounted or growing from a central stalk. Each egg could easily hold a full-grown man, and each stalk was thick and solid. Overall, it did give the appearance of a tree trunk supporting a large leathery fruit, one egg per tree.
“Let’s get a closer look. I want to see if there is any detectable movement inside them.” I started walking down the short ramp that led from the elevator to the ring’s floor or ground since it appeared as a rolling desert. The sand shifted and crunched under my boot as I stepped off the metal ramp.
“We should chop them all down.” With Legion’s words, the sand shifted around as if blown by the wind, except there was no wind.
“Careful with that kind of talk, Legion. Remember the sand beneath your feet are really nanobots designed to protect the embryos. At the first sign of threat, they will begin to disassemble your molecular structure,” Dena reminded him.
“And I doubt that you will be able to stop them, whether you wear the captain’s neural net or not,” I added.
“Your weapons will be ineffective as you begin to dissolve into the sand. To us, it would appear that you are sinking. The nanobots would actually be dissociating the molecular bonds and dispersing your atoms from the bottom up.” Sybil’s description was enough to make Legion pause.
“Is this what you saw in your dream, Dena?” I asked her.
“Yes, it is. The entire ring is like this, grove after grove of stalked embryos. They are just waiting to be awakened. Each has a fully grown Ancient One inside. Once hatched, a neural net can be implanted in their skulls, and their education can begin via the ship’s computer.”
“They were planning on colonizing the galaxy with these young. Things did not turn out as they hoped.”
“No, Commander, but I fail to see the logic in their plan. It would only have delayed being overtaken by the Unity. They were unable to fight.”
“Perhaps they had another plan besides fighting, Sybil.”
“They were weak. They were running away from conflict with the enemy.” The disgust in Legion’s thoughts were obvious as he communicated them to us. “There is nothing to see here.” He turned and walked toward the elevator.
Dena continued to stroll through the orchard of embryos, stopping now and then to reach up and place a hand on one, feeling for the life within. It reminded me of how humans often feel the stomach of a pregnant woman. Sybil and I stood together, watching her.
“Commander, you and Dena have a monogamous relationship.”
“Yes, Sybil, we do.”
“Is it by mutual consent, or would you prefer it to be otherwise?”
“Dena and I both prefer it that way, Sybil. Being monogamous has added benefits in a relationship. The bond between us is deeper, stronger than it would be otherwise. Why do you ask? Is there a problem between you and Mako? I know that Claire has been living with you and Mako. Was that your idea or his?”
“It is not a problem. It was his idea, or perhaps it was Claire’s. I have no information on what was discussed between Mako and Claire in my absence. I have noted a difference in our relationship since Claire has been included. I find it difficult to determine the probabilities of possible outcomes now that another individual has entered our relationship.”
“And that uncertainty bothers you?”
“Yes, Commander, it does, and I cannot determine why it bothers me.”
“It’s called insecurity, and it can lead to jealousy. Perhaps you should speak to Mako and tell him how you feel. Perhaps you should tell him that an exclusive relationship is what you desire, if it is.”
“Thank you, Commander. I will consider your advice.”
March of 2172
The sun was a small dot of light when we made the jump into Earth’s solar system. We had to begin our deceleration and plot an approach course that would put us in position to establish an orbit near our home planet. I wanted to put us in an orbit around the sun just outside of Earth. I
did not want to make a direct path toward Earth in case our intentions were misinterpreted. There was a lot to do, and suddenly, the weeks of travel to get here seemed to have been wasted with inadequate preparation.
“We should begin monitoring for signals from Earth. They may be trying to contact us. They’ll be aware of us soon, if they aren’t already,” I told Sybil. We were all on the bridge, watching as Jupiter slipped by. Our displays, acting as large enhanced windows, were filled with the planet and its large red spot in an ocean of turbulent clouds. Saturn and the other distant planets had been on the far side of the system as we entered. We were all disappointed to miss seeing Saturn’s rings.
“It is a magnificent sight, Jason! A very impressive world.” Legion was dressed in his light-combat armor as were his three Warrior companions.
