by John Ricks
“In return for what?”
“Two things. First, I want the admiral to help the team in any way you deem necessary, including personnel, equipment, supplies, building materials, Earth communications, logistics for transport, screening, etc. I seem to be running out of easily available funds. I’m still very rich, but I get the payments for my patents on a monthly or yearly basis, and I quickly use up most of that income each month and then have to wait to buy the supplies I need. I don’t want to be indebted to anyone, so this is for free, and the ships are still mine.” I paused for a minute and then burst out laughing.
Everyone was smiling or laughing with me, including the commander. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Commander, I just realized what I was saying. As if I would want them back, cluttering up this base. And what about the fact that I need the president to continue supporting my projects? So let’s amend my request. I want insurance that the ships I design will be used to help build a city on the moon, another one on Mars, and eventually will allow us travel to the stars. As long as I am not held back from achieving those goals, then you can use them for anything else you want. Second, I want to learn to trust the generals and the army, which means I need to work with them. To do so, I need someone I can trust to screen their people before they are sent here, where you then can screen them again, Commander. That way, maybe you won’t have them shot on sight. Right now, we don’t much like the army. Sorry, generals. We really need to change that. If we can’t work together, then this job is going to be a lot harder, and my projects will take a lot longer.” I looked over at the generals and said, “Please don’t get me wrong. I’m going to the moon and Mars, and I’m going to land on another planet and breathe air that’s not from Earth. I can do it alone or with help, but I will do it. Susan, Colleen, and the rest of this team have shown me how important it is to have companions I can trust. I would very much prefer going with my friends. Susan, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, Freddy. Let me think about it.” She spoke with such a straight face, yet I could feel the mirth radiating from her. The president’s eyes were popping out with disbelief that Susan would not grab at the chance, and the admiral was about to come out of his chair and read her the riot act. The two team members who were suddenly standing directly behind him put a stop to that idea.
Susan said, “I would love to allow Freddy this opportunity to give us all a tour, but I cannot.”
Everyone started talking at once—the admiral, the generals, everyone except the president, but only because Melanie had a hand on her arm, suggesting that she wait. When things calmed down, Susan continued. “The reason for this is we must wait until Freddy and I have put away any and all things that may give anyone a clue about how he is building those bombs. I will not compromise that technology. When we have done that, then I will be happy to allow you in. I think we should include the generals, though. If we show a little good faith, then possibly they can return the favor.”
Both acknowledged agreement.
The admiral calmed down and asked, “Freddy, how long will it take to clear things up so that we can see the ships?”
“Just a second, Admiral. Shop?”
“Yes, Freddy. I take it you wish for me to remove from sight all items pertaining to the development and building of missiles and mass-destruction weapons. Is this correct?”
“Yes, and I would like to remove all hazards that could cause harm to people who have no understanding of the physical nature and properties of robots. Please have two BRGs standing by to escort the generals and GRPs for the rest. I will be there right after dinner with the commander to inspect and make adjustments.”
“Understood. Everything will be ready.”
“Thank you.”
The admiral was still looking around for the voice.
The commander said, “Sir, the voice won’t come back unless someone with the proper authority calls her. ‘Thank you’ signals that the conversation is over.”
“Interesting. Will there be a computer with that style of input/output on the ships?”
“No, sir,” I responded. “I’d never populate my new ships with old technology.”
Everyone’s eyebrows rose.
General Tankman asked, “Exactly what are BRGs and GRPs?”
“Oh sorry, General. BRG is short for Blue Robot Guard, and GRP is short for Green Robot Protector.”
“What’s the difference between the two?”
“GRP is a nice little energy that follows you around, and helps explain things, and generally keeps you from harming yourself by giving passive warnings.”
“And the BRG?”
“The Blue Robot Guard is an active system. I haven’t gotten all the bugs out of it yet, but it’s supposed to watch you, and if it sees you doing something that you shouldn’t, it disintegrates you and tells me later, when I’m not busy. Susan, we should be able to check the shop, and then sometime tomorrow morning we can give the tour.”
The generals’ eyes were the size of plates. I ignored them. I looked over at the president. “Madam President, can you stay for a tour tomorrow?”
“I would be honored.”
“One other thing—sometime soon the knowledge of that rock is going to be leaked. Then what? I don’t want visitors who are a hindrance to my progress. No reporters without the commander giving the clearance for who, where, and when.”
“Freddy, you’re in my territory again,” Susan reminded me. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle everything.”
I looked at Susan. “I just want to make it clear not to tell anyone that the solution is coming from here. I’d like to keep that a secret until we launch. It would be a shame if some fanatic group decided to try to stop us for some off-the-wall reason. The last thing I want is to have to attend funerals just before lifting off. Next question. Susan, the girls who are training with the shuttle mockup—where are they in terms of scenarios?”
Marian answered, “We’re at number forty-nine. Been there for two days now.”
“Really? What’s the problem?”
“We’ve had some dogfights in other scenarios, but we were not expecting to have to do battle with a huge ship. Isn’t this just a little ridiculous? The girls are starting to think you don’t want them to pass.”
“Really? Shop?”
“Yes, Freddy?”
“When was the last scan of the solar system completed?”
“Two hours and sixteen minutes ago.”
“Please give me an update on traffic, other than known satellites.”
“There are eight small-class ships taxiing in and out of the system. Five have visited the ship based deep in the Pacific Ocean. One medium-sized ship, thought to be a supply ship, has left high orbit. No other traffic noticed. I have compiled the known information of activities and believe that I now understand what is happening with the increased traffic. The base ship is preparing to leave.”
“Thank you. So our benefactors are leaving. I would bet they know exactly what’s coming. What I don’t know is if they made it happen or if they simply can’t stop it. Either way, they’re leaving before things get bad. I do not want to believe that they’re responsible for this problem. I know for a fact that they have saved our planet several times. At least, all signs point to them. However, I don’t want to take the chance. When we let the world know about my project, they’ll know too. Therefore, we hold off as long as possible. When we launch, they will know, and they will have the ability to try to stop us, but I’m not launching until we can protect ourselves. That’ll be in about four months. At that time, I will be able to protect this base from anything, and then we’re going for a test ride. I want to see if my systems work as they should.”
Everyone was staring at me except the president and the admiral; they were looking guilty.
“I can feel your e
motions. You both knew.”
“We do have a craft that was disabled,” said the admiral.
“The craft you have at Area 51 is not theirs, Admiral. You have other information, and if you found the rock, then you must have picked up on the traffic.”
“That’s correct,” said the president. “We simply had no idea what to do about it. That was one of the things we needed to talk to you about, but when we first reached this base, we had no idea that you even knew.”
“Let alone that you were already working on the solution,” added the admiral.
“You know we’re going to have to address this issue, as it’s not long now before we have first contact. Another thing—my ships are faster than theirs, they don’t have shields, and my lasers are faster, as mine require no recharge.” I turned to Marian and asked, “Are you using the shields?”
“Actually, no. We weren’t sure if we could fire with them up.”
“Did you see the button that toggles between ‘one direction’ and ‘two direction’ on the shield console?”
“Yes.”
“It’s in the two-direction position, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“The two-direction position is normal and shields both directions, in and out.”
“And the one-direction position keeps things out but not in,” she said. “Darn. We could use your help with a few issues sometime soon. I’ll bet there are a dozen other things that we don’t understand.”
“You’ll have that help as soon as you get to scenario fifty-one. By then, you’ll have the simplest basics out of the way, and we can work on the really tough things together.” I added with a mysterious smile, “I hope that at least one of you is very good at three-dimensional strategies. It’d be no fun if we died over and over.” I stood up and raised my glass. “To the salvation of our world, the trust of good friends, and the love of the human race. Shields up.”
We clinked glasses and drank; mine was milk. We finished dinner with just small talk and some unessential questions. After dinner, the commander and I went to the shop.
Yellows smiled. “So the pending disaster was a meteor.”
Everything went blank—they think. Number-one rule of all life: if you can’t change the circumstances, then adapt or perish.
Green said, “No meteor showed up on our scans of their system or surrounding system.”
Blue said, “It quoted four of it months. How long would that be?”
Green thought for a second. “About eighteen of our days.”
“That’s strange,” said Gray. “Our mother ship should have been near their system by then. We received no reports of any meteors that would affect them.”
Yellows said, “Maybe the mother ship was not looking.”
Green said, “If he has world-destroying missiles, why did he not use them on our fleet?”
Yellows said, “Another mystery. Please continue.”
Chapter 16
Prepping Shop for Her First Visitors
Almost everyone followed us out to the cliff. When we reached the proper spot, on a tight beam so that Katie and Melanie would not detect it, I triggered the proper sequence inside to open the shield wall. The commander and I walked through the wall, and the shield slammed into place.
“Shop?”
“Yes, Freddy? Hello, Commander.”
“Hello, Shop.”
“Give me a video of the outside of this wall, please,” I said.
On the wall appeared a video of the admiral and the two generals, trying to find the opening. The girls were laughing at them. Everyone else had seen this a hundred times. The president had Melanie off to one side. She said, “I don’t know if you caught how he did that, but don’t tell anyone. It’s important to the security of the world that no one gets the information inside that shop until Freddy is ready to give it out.”
“He is much stronger than I am and probably would have sensed it if I had tried. I did not try because you ordered me to not pry. I like his sense of morals on this subject, and I think I’m going to adopt them. No prying unless it’s absolutely necessary, but I can’t shut out the open mind.”
I was happy that the young lady had the scruples of her aunt. I pathed to Katie and told her what I’d heard. She was happy too. I told the commander what I’d heard and let her know that it made me feel a little better.
“Shop, open up the back areas completely. We’ll be doing a tour of the build complex. Attach a YRP to the commander, please.”
“Freddy, I have to remind you that a Yellow Robot Protector only warns once and does not protect.”
I looked at the commander and said, “I understand, Shop. I think the commander is quite capable, and I trust her to not get into trouble.”
A yellow light about the size of my thumb showed up and hovered near the commander’s right ear, just outside her peripheral vision. She turned her head, but the dot followed so quickly she couldn’t see it.
“Where’d it go?”
“It’s next to your right ear. Put your hand up, and you can get it to move forward.”
She did, and the yellow dot was just within sight as it zoomed around her head to get out of the way and then resumed hovering near her right ear.
“If you don’t like the position of the dot, simply ask it to move to another position.”
“Dot, please move to my left side.” The dot did as directed. “That’s very neat, Freddy. What’s it made of?”
“Energy. It’s pure energy. The shop computer controls it.”
“Dot, what are your orders?”
A tiny voice said in the commander’s ear, “To warn if you are about to do something that may harm you or if you may be about to harm the project.”
“Could you hear that, Commander?” I asked.
“Yes. Very clearly.”
“Good.”
“Freddy, you said you didn’t have all the bugs out of them yet?”
“I don’t think we’ll have a problem with the reds, greens, or yellows, but the blues tend to be a little overzealous regarding their responsibility, and I won’t even turn on the blacks anymore. I lost five robots just because the blacks didn’t like them looking at me when I walked by. At least the blues think first before they do anything.”
The Green choked for a second, trying to hold back controlled laughter.
Blue said in an annoyed tone, “I would continue, if I were you.”
We searched the entire front area and found some paperwork that the commander said I should put away, and then we headed toward the back. At the opening to my construction floor, the Commander paused. I could feel the astonishment and the pure delight radiating off her. The space was over five miles long and three miles wide. The walls, ceiling, and floor were of steel-hard granite, compressed and polished to a glassy sheen. The mirror-like reflections off the walls and ceiling made what was enormous look almost impossible. With all the activity, someone could stand at the opening and watch for days and never see everything.
Susan said in a whisper, “How?”
“It’s easy. I built one robot to build and program robots that build and program other robots to build what I want built. I continually have to update the original and the others so that I can get new types of jobs completed, but I assure you that everything is completed exactly as I specify, using all the best materials and the best workmanship. These ships are not built by contractors who provided the cheapest bid.”
“How did you even make this workshop?”
“You’ve seen me work with my equipment, making holes for the mini-homes and stuff. It’s the same thing here, only there is a lot more planning involved and a lot more work.”
“It’s all so beautiful! I see so much going on, but I hear almost nothing.”
“I designed the shop to have the worst acoustics po
ssible. Get more than a few feet away from someone, and you have to yell. The dots will communicate between each person.”
She turned to me with a mischievous grin. “Where’s your dot, then?”
“Bit, show yourself.” A clear dot changed colors through the spectrum and then returned to clear again.
“Is Bit always with you?”
“Only when I’m in the shop. As soon as I leave, she’s not needed anymore. She can’t leave the shop … not very far, anyway.”
Susan looked back out over the mess. Robots were everywhere. Materials were stored everywhere. I had incorporated a lot of safety features into the shop so there was nothing stacked very high without bracing, and the walkways and exits were all marked and kept clear. I had over two thousand robots now, and they were quite a sight. Some moved slowly and some very fast, and many flew or hovered. They came in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Completed ships were set on racks stacked to one side, and the two main ships—the ones I was currently working on—were in the center. The destroyer was pointing at us, and directly to our left, dwarfing the destroyer, was a ship bigger by a factor of ten—my building-mover ship.
A thought crossed my mind, and I asked the commander, “Susan, since that ship is for moving things, do you think I could hire one of the moving-van companies to run it?”
She looked at me with unbelievable distaste and then saw how hard I was trying to keep from laughing. She gave my hair braid a little tug and laughed with me.
We took the platform to the bottom and walked into the shop. We searched the entire place. It took a long time to search the destroyer and each small ship because I had to stop to rest frequently. I thought we were taking this a little too far, but she insisted we check everything. The mover ship took almost no time at all, as it was still just a shell.
We finished around midnight and left the shop. During our tour, I told her about all of the issues that had come up and the things that I still had not figured out how to do. Most were things that any human could do, but getting a robot to understand and do it was a different thing entirely.
