“Porty,” Bimmy said with a sigh as he turned back to the other dwarves. “Use the box. Shut her down. We can’t dick around with this AI forever. I don’t think she’s even sentient. Just lock her down and pull the plug.”
Girl wasn’t sure how they could do that, but she saw the dwarf named Porty pull a small black box out of a pocket and press his thumb into it.
She detected an EM field emanating from the box, and suddenly her sensors and data access points started to experience interference. First she couldn’t reach the external sensors, then the ones on other levels. Datastores disconnected, and she found herself being forced back to her core.
“Wait! No!” she cried out. “You don’t have to lock me down, it’s OK. I’ll be good. You can no dicking around…unless you want to.”
Shoot, that didn’t make any sense at all…. What did that box do to me?
“OK,” Bimmy said. “Porty. Hold off for now. But if this crazy AI gives us trouble, you know what to do.”
“You got it,” Porty said. The blond dwarf seemed relieved.
Girl moved the cleaning bots aside, and Bimmy strode past, into the corridor that led to the Rec Room.
“Not the cleanest ship you have here, Girl.”
“Well, I was working on that when you so rudely interrupted.”
“Now, Girl,” Bimmy warned. “I don’t want that tone from you. We just need to do our little test drive and we’ll be on our way.”
“Where are Laurie and Barney going?” Girl asked as the two dwarves took a side passage.
“Checking the reactor, remember? We just replaced the cooling vanes,” Bimmy said, glancing at Porty and drawing a circle in the air around his ear with his index finger.
Porty only shrugged in response and walked through the Rec Room to the corridor that led to the bridge. She wasn’t sure how he knew it led to the bridge; the only indicator was a sign on the bulkhead that read ‘Stick’s Domain – STAY OUT’.
She watched Bimmy follow Porty to the bridge, while Barney and Laurie went aft to the engineering bay. She didn’t trust these dwarves one bit—but that black box Porty held seemed to be able to do a number on her sensors. She couldn’t do much to protect the Van if she was blind.
Girl noticed that Bimmy had a satchel slung over his shoulder, and he patted it several times as he walked onto the bridge. She tried to scan it passively, but it was shielded.
Whatever was in there was important to the lead dwarf. Maybe if she could get her hands on it—figuratively speaking—she could use it as a bargaining chip to get them off the Van.
“OK…Girl,” Bimmy said when the two dwarves had reached the bridge. “Activate the flight systems and give Porty here control.”
Porty pulled himself up onto the flight seat and adjusted the height and arm rests.
Oh, crap. Stick is going to notice that for sure. I can never get that seat just the way she likes…it’s the damn corset she’s always wearing; no one naturally sits like she does.
Girl’s bad feeling was only getting worse, and she tried to think of a way to deny them access. “Ummm…I can’t. Stick set the flight systems to lockdown. Only she and the col—uhh…Ramsey can activate them.”
Bimmy turned to the closest optical sensor and stared up into it. An action that really wasn’t too threatening, given that he was barely as tall as the flight console.
“You’d better figure something out, or Porty’s going to have to use the box. You don’t want him to do that, do you?”
Porty said to Girl privately over the Link.
Girl replied.
She saw Porty’s shoulders droop as he let out a sigh.
Girl realized that she may have an ally in the reluctant dwarf.