Children Of Earth (Tales from the 23rd Century Book 1)

by Paul J. Fleming

  ‘Whoa!’ she exclaimed as the floor lurched downward away from her momentarily leaving her flailing in mid air before landing awkwardly and stumbling slightly before continuing on with her momentum. ‘How much punishment can this old tub take before we’re all sucking vacuum?’

  It was more of a rhetorical question, but although Ezri was almost a full corridor length ahead, she seemed to hear and shouted back in response.

  ‘The Erstwhile is an old freighter, designed for long-haul trips between colonies before the improvement in engine design, hence she had to be robust enough to endure whatever punishment was metered out by the natural environment together with triple bonded hull plating and an electro-screen defensive capability which means we can deflect the majority of an energy strike by dispersing it against the polarised hull plating,’

  ‘Oh good,’ Maia muttered as she tried hard to catch up, then raised her voice a little. ‘Glad you’re taking all this so calmly!’

  Ezri had reached the ladder which would allow her to descend down to the cargo deck and put her hands on the guide rails and her feet either side of the steps to allow her to slide down quickly, but tightened her grip momentarily to pause her descent enough to look back towards Maia who was rapidly approaching.

  ‘Calmly? I do not see what effect panicking would have upon our efforts. Indeed, in quick analysis of the performance of humanoids under duress where panic has replaced rational thought, it can be proven that such a response actually decreases efficiency and may lead to errors in their efforts and subsequently the failure of their mission.’

  Her grip released a little and she descended rapidly down to the deck plating of the cargo deck below.

  ‘Analysis? Humanoids? Anyone told you you’re not quite.. normal?’ Maia muttered, rolling her eyes to the ceiling before she followed Ezri’s example and slid down the ladder after her. ‘No offence…’ she added quickly.

  ‘None taken, I have adapted my program to identify sarcastic remarks by my organic counterparts and either respond or ignore them as the situation demands,’ Ezri replied as she opened the secure hatch and proceeded through it. ‘Captain Maddox has been a good subject to learn from with respect to ignoring sarcastic remarks.’

  As Ezri led the way and Maia moved to follow, the deck plating seemed to lurch slightly and a crackling hiss could be heard all about them, but at such a level as to be external to the hull of the Erstwhile. The hairs on Maia’s neck started to stand on end and she could swear her exposed skin was slightly tingling.

  ‘Have they hit us badly?’ Maia quickly asked, looking up and to either side quickly as if she expected to see some visual evidence of the noise.

  ‘No, that is the debris cloud and the electro-magnetic pulse wave refracting off our polarised hull plating. It would appear that we have been fortunate and the Captain has the correct frequency modulation to match the wave, else my own body would now be rendered immobile by the effects of the forces outside.’

  Despite the obvious distractions all about them during their flight from capture, Maia was increasingly fascinated by her current companion and the fact that she was not an organic life-form, rather a computer program within an autonomous shell which was carefully crafted to appear as life like as possible. Somehow her external appearance bore no telltale markings which were required of later avatar models.

  Most avatars in production on Venus where now required by rule of law to bear markings either side of their face and down their neck denoting the visual fact that they were in fact an artificial life form. It was a ruling brought in following the attempted assassination attempt against a high-ranking member of the Aries Corporation board of Directors by a digital personality in an android body who had infiltrated the escort detail during a scheduled tour of their laboratory facilities on Venus.

  Ever since the Venusian producers had refined their ‘real as life’ line of avatar models, there had always been a latent discontent around the possibility of duplicates of people being created and a conspiratorial fear that these artificial people were being used for some ill-meaning purpose to sway official decisions.

  The net result of the outcry following the assassination attempt by the ‘fake’ escort coupled with the public surge in discontent when the news was made public on SOLnet, led to artificial beings now being required to be properly identified with these markings.

  Very important members of both Venusian and Martian society were funded by their Corporations to undergo digitisation so that their personality and knowledge could be downloaded into an artificial shell should their organic life be curtailed through either malicious or natural means, their contribution to society continuing past their natural death for the betterment of all in their colony and in these cases, special dispensation was allowed to forgo the markings on their own personal avatars.

  Those who clung onto old religious beliefs protested that they were simple shadow reflections of the person, their soul being impossible to transplant into these artificial replicas. Others simply thought it was horrendously disrespectful to the recently departed and their families for the company to implement a replica of the deceased, which they owned the rights to, to further their own projects for continued profits.

  The only other exclusion permitted was in the rather salubrious entertainment industry, who had invested large amounts of capital into the further development of these avatars to promote the most realistic appearance and feeling possible for their clientele. They argued that the markings were in direct contravention of the goals they were striving towards and had invested heavily in and eventually a compromise was reached and they were allowed to continue with their development of unmarked ‘reality pleasure bots’.

  Maia felt suddenly awkward and tried to disguise this as best she could in her companion’s presence. If Ezri’s shell was not from before the ruling, or that of importance within the company hierarchy, then only one avenue remained for it to be so absent of markings.

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry I did not realise,’ she began as her mind fought to find the correct words to string together. ‘I thought you were just upset about me being here. I mean you’re obviously of Venusian origin, but I did not realise you were… I mean to say your manner should have… no, that’s not what I mean,’ she blurted out as she followed Ezri through the hatch into the cargo bay and turned to seal it behind her, ensuring that the atmospheric pressure on the decks above was retained when they depressurised the bay.

  ‘Please desist from your attempt at placating my non-existent electronic ego. As the Captain would say at this point, when you are in a hole, stop digging,’ Ezri replied as she held the secondary pressure seal hatch open and gestured for Maia to proceed through ahead of her.

  Maia obliged and laughed slightly with nervous relief that she had been absolved of any awkwardness with her new crew-mate. Sometimes she felt more at home tinkering with electronic equipment and mechanical devices as they posed none of the slightly testing social interactions by having no feelings to bruise. Ezri’s rather straightforward statement had done more to put her at ease than the program could have realised and Maia suddenly felt herself quite relaxed in her company as opposed to her initial awkwardness in the face of Ezri’s abruptness on the flight deck. In essence, she was once again talking to a machine, but this one could respond properly.

  As Ezri sealed the secondary hatch and indicated to the storage lockers to their right which held the protective suits and helmets for operating within a vacuum, Maia pulled the nearest one open and retrieved a transparent helmet and proceeded to place it over her head, closely followed by pulling out her protective gloves and sliding them onto her hands as she cast a sideways glance towards Ezri.

  ‘Do you mind me asking about your origins? I’m just curious how you came to be here with Maddox?’

  Ezri shook her head as she retrieved the helmet from the locker and slid it over her head, opening the comm. channel to respond to her query.

  ‘Not at all. I can cl
arify it for you whilst we proceed with our work which must take priority if we are to ever depart from the confines of the graveyard.’

  Maia nodded and the two of them turned to the open body of the cargo bay, Ezri taking the lead over to a large section of shelving covered by cargo netting which prevented the contents from scattering should the ship make rapid course changes, much like those they had been forced to endure recently. Pulling at the securing straps, she released the nets and proceeded to the first beacon and opened the maintenance and control panel on the facing side to activate its on-board computer and begin re-programming.

  Maia followed suit and did the same with the second beacon, following Ezri’s actions and guidance in the alterations they were making to these devices.

  ‘As you correctly identified, my shell is of Venusian origin. The captain managed to procure it on my behalf from one of the larger entertainment facilities on your own home world shortly after he had taken possession of my program. He felt that my operation required a suitable form and also that the computer on board the Erstwhile was not of sufficient operational power to host a digital creation without sacrificing many of the features present within my core matrix,’ Ezri explained as she completed her task on the first beacon and stepped around Maia to access the controls of the third one along the shelf.

  ‘You’re more advanced than any Venusian artificial intelligence I have encountered,’ commented Maia as she closed the maintenance hatch on her beacon and moved along to the next one in need of adjustment.

  ‘My program is not Venusian,’ Ezri replied as she made her adjustments. ‘I am Martian in origin, developed as a personal assistant and adaptive monitoring program for the youngest member of the Mannheim family.’

  Maia quite obviously paused in her task as she absorbed the latest piece of information. Turning slightly towards Ezri she narrowed her eyes slightly.

  ‘I’m sorry, Martian? You were developed by that Aries Corporation for one of their Martian Lords?’

  ‘That is correct,’ Ezri replied and then paused in her own task as she glanced to her humanoid companion and noted the slight change in demeanour at the mention of her true origins. ‘I said I was developed by Martians, not that I am either loyal to or working for them. At least not since the Captain intervened. Is this a problem for you?’

  Maia quickly shook her head and refocused her attention on the beacon before her, checking her inputs and suppressing the upset, which rose within her at the mention of Martians. Her thoughts briefly cast images of Tam and his charismatic manner into her mind's eye, her memories flooding forth in an unguarded moment.

  ‘No, no. I…’ she paused briefly to check her words before she spoke them. ‘I recently found out the Martian guy I was quite taken with and planned a whole future with was just using me as a front for an organised sting operation and that all those passionate nights and sweet nothings he whispered were just part of some scheme. I wonder if he’s on that ship that was tailing us?’

  Realising Ezri was observing her closely whilst she tried to clarify herself, she finished her work and closed the hatch and then shrugged rather dismissively.

  ‘Anyway, he’s in the past now. So you were telling me how you and Maddox came together?’ she prompted in an attempt to move the focus of their discussion back towards Ezri.

  ‘Yes, well, I was assigned to Simeon Mannheim who is the youngest and most wayward of the Mannheim dynasty on Mars. His reputation for drunken revelry and bringing the family title into disrepute is quite a sore point for the family, especially the Chairman of the Aries Corporation who happens to also be his Uncle. It was the Chairman who commissioned my development and assignment to his nephew in the hope that I would be able to adapt and learn, to shepherd the young Martian Lord if you want to consider it that way. To guide him through his daily routine and try to curb his disruptive behaviour. The corporation even had a dedicated team of PR professionals whose specific doctrine was to mask any embarrassment he may cause and deflect the attention of the Solar Media Press Core onto other news stories so as to prevent any scandals from emanating any further than the esteemed halls of Coprates Chasm.’

  Ezri closed the hatch of the beacon and once again stepped around Maia, who had become transfixed by her relating of her origins that she had forgone any thought of moving on to the next beacon on the shelf.

  ‘I think this should be the last one,’ Ezri commented as she opened the hatch and began to make the necessary adjustments. ‘At that point in my development I was resident within the Martian Mainframe and utilised the holographic projectors within Coprates to interact with my charge, as well as the many screens set about the place. I can say with confidence that he was not too pleased with my constant involvement in his daily routine. His constant reference to me as his ‘nagging nanny’ was one such example of his distaste for my presence but I had a job to perform. In any case, he was targeted by rebel forces whilst visiting Luna on an assignment to the Solar Exchange. The kidnapping attempt went sour, but during the debacle between the rebel agents and the Martian undercover security teams, the Captain was also present and pulled my charge to safety. Simeon was much too drunk after blowing off the assigned meetings with Lunarian officials in favour of trawling the drinking establishments around the spaceport to recount the exact events and how they transpired but attributes his survival to the Captain. On return to the suite he had been assigned in the company of the Captain, my scolding of his behaviour did not go down well and as a reward he assigned title to my entire program and matrix to the hero privateer who had pulled him out in the middle of a fire fight.’

  ‘What? He simply gave you over to Maddox?’ Maia asked incredulously as she watched Ezri’s fingers flitting across the input panel within the maintenance hatch of the beacon.

  ‘Much to the resultant annoyance of his seniors within the family back on Mars,’ Ezri confirmed with a nod. She finished her work and closed the hatch, turning to Maia.

  ‘We need to place these on the loading ramp and open her up, allowing them to float free of the ship before we trigger the program to send them on their way,’ she said, taking hold of the last one she had worked on and lifting it clear of the shelf as she moved away and over to the opening edge of the cargo bay loading ramp.

  Maia turned and gripped the one she had adjusted last, trying to lift it free as Ezri had done, but the effects from the artificial gravity within the bay and the subsequent weight of the device denied her any success to her efforts. She snorted in frustration and glanced over her shoulder towards Ezri who was placing the one she carried on the floor and turning back towards the shelving.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Maia said reluctantly to her digital crew-mate. ‘I can’t even get this one to budge, limitations of being just an organic I suppose?’ Her words were accompanied by a slight smile towards Ezri as she approached.

  ‘Do not apologise, I shall move these to the desired location. You have already aided greatly by recoding those two,’ she reassured with a slight arm gesture towards the shelving in general. She moved in as Maia stepped back out of her path and gripped the beacon Maia had attempted to lift, pulling it upwards and away from the shelf with an apparent ease when compared to Maia’s own aborted efforts moments earlier.

  ‘In any case, despite the efforts of the Chairman and other members of the Mannheim family using Company resources to try and re-acquire my program through legal means, it transpired they had not had the foresight to see that eventuality and that the transaction was perfectly above board as Simeon was a Mannheim and more than legally entitled to pass title to my program as he saw fit without recourse to any other member of authority.’

  ‘I’ll bet that really annoyed them,’ remarked Maia as she wandered back and forth alongside Ezri as the latter attended to moving the beacons one by one to the target area within the cargo hold.

  ‘Yes,’ she confirmed simply. ‘The Captain was owed a favour or two for previous endeavours he had undertaken and cashed
these in to procure this frame and also the skills of a noted Venusian cybernetics technician to make adjustments to the basic abilities and systems. In short, this body was upgraded quite significantly in order to provide me with a tangible place of residence outside of any computer core.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt your tales of yesterday Ezri,’ Maddox’s voice interrupted over the communications channel. ‘We’re being approached by a tug and it’s Marshal McCarthy demanding to know why I’ve broken through his screen without even saying hello. The patrol craft has decided against following but that’s not to say she is not waiting outside for us to emerge. Before I speak to him, how far off are we on those beacons being released as I have to warn him just incase he gets trigger happy and starts blasting them out of the sky and thwarting our plan.’

  Ezri placed the final beacon down aside its fellows in the target area and signalled for Maia to move with her over to the main cargo bay control panel set to the side of the main loading ramp, and to secure herself whilst they depressurised the bay.

  ‘Captain, the beacons are prepared and in position. I am about to depressurise and lower the ramp so we can launch them on their way to provide us with cover,’ was her reply to his query.

  ‘Okay, good. I’ll let you get back to telling Maia just how wonderful I have been to you,’ he remarked with the hint of a chuckle as he switched channels to external in order to contact the fast approaching tug vessel.

  ‘Is he always that flippant?’ Maia enquired idly recalling his dismissive nature in the diner on her first encounter with the rogue privateer and their subsequent flight from capture in which they seemed to be flying in the face of certain doom, but he retained what she considered to be a ‘devil-may-care’ approach. It was the main thing which had encouraged her to put her faith in him and follow, even though she had no idea who he was at all. He was just one of those people who exuded a confidence which put you at ease and people tended to listen to.