Roboteer

by Alex Lamb

  Ira turned to Amy, but Hugo spoke again.

  ‘There is more.’

  Ira glanced back to him, one eyebrow raised.

  ‘I have found other weapons with the … hallmark of Transcended gifts, if they can be called that,’ said Hugo. ‘One appears to be a large-scale coherent-matter cannon. As far as I can tell, a similar trick to that employed in the suntap is used to keep superheated iron plasma in condensate form. It can then be accelerated to near-light speeds and fired like a laser. However, the damage to these devices is too extreme. Without another blueprint from the Transcended, we lack the means to make them operable.’ He looked meaningfully at Will. ‘Will you supply such a blueprint?’

  Will bristled. ‘I can’t,’ he said.

  Hugo’s nostrils flared. ‘Can’t, or won’t?’

  ‘Concentrate on the suntaps, Hugo,’ Ira told him. ‘That should be all we need. If we survive the war, we can always come back here.’

  Hugo met this suggestion with a sour face but Ira had turned again to Amy.

  ‘I have made one other discovery,’ Hugo added quickly.

  Ira regarded him levelly. ‘Really.’

  ‘The hull of the Fecund vessel is lined with Transcended-type projectors of some sort. The projectors are routed directly into the exohull, which is made of an iron-based alloy. I can determine no purpose or value for the alloy. It doesn’t appear to have been designed for structural strength or even field conductivity. Can you tell me what it does, Will?’ He fixed Will with another piercing stare.

  ‘No,’ Will replied coldly. ‘No idea. Sorry.’

  Hugo turned his attention back to the captain. ‘Sir, if the roboteer won’t tell us what we need to know, I recommend that we relocate to the outer solar system where the damage to the remains is no doubt a lot less.’

  Will shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘Let’s avoid accusations,’ said Ira. He sounded tired. ‘We’ll stay put for the time being. If we can’t meet our other objectives, you’ll have the rest of your life to explore. Now, Amy, what have you got to tell us?’

  Amy had been watching this interaction with a pensive face. She struggled for brightness.

  ‘I’ve been looking at some of the corpses we found,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘It’s more fun than you’d think, and the aliens were surprisingly like us in many ways. Organs in slightly wacky places and nerves made out of some kind of biopolymer, but otherwise more normal than I’d have guessed: carbon-based, cells with nuclei and all that. The tissue damage is extreme, of course, but there’s enough material to build a composite picture. Their DNA-analogue appears to hold six different kinds of amino acid, for instance, none of them the ones used by life on Earth. It’s a biologist’s goldmine.’

  She glanced around at the others as if trying to conjure excitement, then deflated a little. ‘On a more practical note, I’ve been looking at the other alien ruins,’ she added, ‘and I’ve found something surprising there, too. Not everyone died at once. It looks like some of these ships arrived later, and their crews starved instead of being roasted.’

  ‘Great!’ said John. ‘At least we’re not the only ones.’

  Ira glared him into silence.

  Amy gave a brittle smile and carried on. ‘It looks as if something prevented them from leaving. My guess is that their ships stopped working. Given that the Transcended can apparently alter a star, maybe they can also place it in a state in which suntaps won’t work. From what Hugo just said, it sounds like the Fecund were pretty dependent on borrowed technology. They would have been crippled without it.’ She shrugged tightly. ‘That’s it. Not much to report, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Well,’ said Ira, ‘the bad news, ladies and gentlemen, is that there’s no antimatter here. Amy and I have scoured the system. What’s more, we can’t find evidence of any of the juice-production methods we recognise. We even checked out the sites that looked like containment-failure cases. There’s not much left, as you’d expect, and the remains don’t tell us anything. The damage could equally have been caused by some kind of weapons fire.

  ‘But don’t worry, people,’ he added rousingly. ‘This is far from the end of the road. We haven’t even started investigating Hugo’s idea of a suntap-powered juice-factory yet, on the grounds that we’ve not known what to look for. There might well still be something we can use lying around in all this junk.’

  ‘Assuming they even used antimatter,’ Hugo put in.

  Ira ignored him. ‘Will,’ he said. ‘You got anything? Had any more realisations about this place?’

  All faces turned to Will. Will folded his arms.

  ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Another puzzle appeared in my private node, as I already told you, but this one’s harder than the last one.’

  The puzzle had appeared three days before. It was another SAP, hanging there in the middle of his mental space one day when he woke up – a cold reminder of the fact that his mind was still not his own.

  ‘I can’t get any of my adapters to fit it,’ he explained, ‘so the senses are still unreadable. I have this feeling that the answer to the puzzle is somewhere in the ruins.’ He paused. ‘I still think I’m supposed to go and look in person.’

  The puzzle had arrived with a strong sense that it was connected in some way to the Fecund ships, or something in them. Will had sent robots out in every direction to see if the data from them would trigger another alien memory, but nothing happened. The SAP senses he explored through were all too flat, too remote. The answer to this puzzle was something he needed to feel.

  Ira’s face was grave. ‘I told you, Will – no way.’

  Will clenched his teeth. That was the answer he had expected. He’d asked Ira if he could leave the ship two days before, when he’d first realised how hard the puzzle was going to be. Ira wasn’t enthusiastic then and he was no keener now. Will hadn’t exactly received a wealth of trust from the crew since his experience.

  ‘Okay, Captain,’ he said calmly. He knew better than to ask why. The captain already sounded weary of the subject.

  ‘Anything else?’ said Ira.

  Will shook his head. Everyone knew exactly what he’d been doing anyway. When he wasn’t helping Rachel with repairs, Amy and John had been conducting tests on his brain. Funny how that hadn’t turned up as a topic for discussion. He’d been unconscious in the tank while it happened, of course, but their activity logs were in the ship’s database for everyone to see.

  ‘Mr Monet, may I ask you why you think the answer is out there among the ruins?’ Hugo asked with mock-levity.

  Will gave him a hateful look. ‘A hunch, that’s all.’

  ‘I see,’ said Hugo. ‘A hunch. Captain, why do we have to tolerate this? It’s obvious that the roboteer knows more about this place than he’s telling us. Ever since we arrived he’s been drip-feeding us information, yet whenever we ask him anything direct, he pleads ignorance. Well, I’ve heard this excuse too many times. It’s gone beyond the point of believability.’

  The spring in Will’s insides coiled tighter. It was out in the open at last: the accusation that he was lying. He stared hard at Hugo.

  ‘What are you saying?’ he demanded. ‘That I’m being controlled by an alien?’

  ‘Far from it,’ Hugo replied sharply. ‘You showed your colours the day you deliberately routed the alien feed through to your private console. You’ve been holding information back from us ever since.’

  ‘Gentlemen, please,’ said Ira, but Will was already too angry to stop.

  ‘I routed the feed?’ he said incredulously.

  ‘I don’t see how you can deny it,’ said Hugo. ‘Your command signature was on the routing order. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?’

  ‘How about the fact that the alien had already taken my signature by then, fuckhead?’ Will snarled back.

  ‘Enough,’ snarled the captain.

  ‘Don’t make me laugh, Mr Monet,’ Hugo sneered. ‘What possible reason would an alien intelligence h
ave for communicating with you when there were better qualified minds on board?’

  ‘Perhaps because it considered me more advanced than you, Hugo,’ Will retorted. ‘How come you can’t comprehend that? That someone much smarter than you considers me a higher form of life than you are?’

  Hugo’s pasty features distorted into an ugly mask. He pointed a quavering finger at Will’s face. ‘Listen to him!’ he hissed to the others. ‘Have you ever heard such hubris? He might as well have proclaimed his guilt outright! Captain, as the senior scientific advisor for this mission, I recommend that we place the roboteer in restraints pending disciplinary action of the most severe order.’

  It was too much.

  ‘I’m sorry, Captain,’ said Will, ‘but I can’t listen to any more of this shit.’

  Will somersaulted and pushed off towards the door hatch, but Hugo grabbed his ankle while the door was sliding open.

  ‘Oh no you don’t!’ said the scientist, his voice heavy with self-righteous anger.

  Will had to bend upwards to prise Hugo’s fingers off his leg.

  ‘Let go of me,’ Will warned.

  ‘That’s it!’ Ira roared.

  Hugo scrabbled for a grip but Will pushed him away. Hugo managed to grab Will’s wrist and started lashing out at him with his free hand. He hit Will on the ear.

  ‘Tell us the truth!’ he shouted.

  Will wasn’t going to float around being mauled by an asshole physicist. He drew back his arm to punch Hugo’s bloated face.

  The next thing he knew, his arm had been seized. He turned to see John’s grinning face.

  ‘Sorry, guys,’ said John cheerily. ‘No nerd-fights allowed.’

  John dragged Will away from Hugo with practised ease and shoved him hard to the far side of the chamber. Will bounced off the padding and massaged his wrist. Then he turned again and aimed for the open door.

  ‘Stay right where you are, Mr Monet!’ Ira boomed. ‘Amy, please take our passenger outside for a moment while he calms the fuck down.’

  ‘Aye, Captain,’ said Amy.

  It was at that point Will noticed that the first officer had to remove a restraining hand from Rachel in order to move.

  John, meanwhile, had effortlessly grabbed a startled Hugo by his shoulders. He flipped the scientist in the air and threw him through the hatch head first like a missile.

  ‘Score!’ he said gleefully.

  Amy followed quickly. The hatch snicked shut behind her.

  As soon it was sealed, Ira rounded on Will and gave him a g-ray glare. ‘What the hell did you think you were doing leaving a crew meeting without being dismissed?’

  ‘Sorry, Captain,’ Will replied curtly. ‘I’d just had enough, that’s all.’

  ‘What kind of excuse is that?’ said Ira. ‘Do you think the rest of us haven’t? Do you honestly believe that anyone else here likes this situation any more than you do?’

  Will looked away.

  ‘Feeling sorry for yourself, Monet? Well, snap out of it! There’s no room on this ship for self-pity. It’s too fucking small. You are crew. Hugo is not. Crew means being a professional all the time, waking or sleeping. In case you hadn’t noticed, everyone aboard this ship is difficult to get along with, yourself included. Our job is to suck it up and stay alive. If you don’t like what’s happened to you, then I expect you to do something about it instead of whining.’

  ‘Then let me, sir!’ Will shouted back. ‘Let me look at the ruins, because it’s the only clue I have. And let’s face it – without more help, we’re screwed.’

  Ira stared at him icily for a moment and then blinked slowly. He clearly didn’t like the fact that Will had talked back to him, but some part of him must have seen the sense in it, because he didn’t explode.

  ‘Okay,’ the captain said. ‘Fair point.’

  John folded his arms and grimaced.

  ‘But not alone,’ said Ira. ‘I need a volunteer.’

  ‘I’ll go,’ Rachel said quickly.

  Will looked at her. She gave him a proud smile and then returned her attention to the captain.

  ‘Fine,’ Ira rumbled. ‘But you’ll both finish those repairs before you go.’

  ‘Of course,’ Rachel told him, then looked earnestly back at Will.

  Will exhaled. He felt exhausted and angry, but somewhere deep inside him, a new spark of hope had kindled.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Let’s do it.’

  9.4: IRA

  With the meeting over, Ira ushered the others out and called for Hugo. He drummed his fingers on the wall while he waited and tried to figure out where he’d gone wrong. Clearly the disastrous meeting had been his fault. He should have come down hard on both of them long before things got so out of hand. If only he wasn’t so tired. A powerful sense of failure at ending up in this hideous mess had robbed him of his ability to rest. He hadn’t slept properly since they’d arrived. Every time he shut his eyes, visions of Galatea burning came unbidden to his mind. He needed to get a grip on his crew, and fast.

  Hugo floated in with a wounded but defiant look on his face. Ira shut the door behind him.

  ‘Captain,’ Hugo started, ‘I’m well aware that you’re displeased, but frankly, I’m not sure you understand—’

  Ira cut him off with a slice of his hand. ‘I get it,’ he said quietly. ‘You think Will’s been holding out on us. You reckon he’s got something to prove and that he can’t be trusted. He’s unbalanced because he’s a roboteer and they’re all like that. You’re worried that the fate of the human race hangs in the balance because we’re indulging a single ill-informed individual.’

  If Hugo had noticed any irony in Ira’s words, it didn’t show on his face. It never ceased to amaze Ira how dim the incredibly brilliant could be.

  ‘Not quite,’ said Hugo awkwardly. He looked surprised that Ira was giving him room to speak. ‘There are actually two options. Either Will routed the feed himself, or the aliens were purposefully looking for a pliant host. In either case, duplicity is at work and we should not accept the status quo. It’s your duty, Captain—’

  ‘Don’t tell me what my duty is. I just want to make sure we understand each other. You think the answers we need are right in front of us, and we only need to get Will to talk – is that correct?’

  Hugo nodded. ‘Or at least, if we don’t explore that option—’

  ‘I disagree,’ said Ira. ‘I disagree because, as captain, it’s my job to trust my crew unless there’s a damned good reason not to. And so far, though I hate every part of it, Will’s story holds up.’

  ‘How can you say that?’ Hugo started. ‘His remarks—’

  ‘Shut up,’ said Ira. ‘I’ve heard your opinion of his remarks. You don’t need to repeat them. Here’s how it’s going to be. From this moment on, every concern that arises, every quibble, every disagreement you have with our actions, you bring them straight to me. In private. And then you do nothing unless I give you the green light. I don’t care how righteous or conflicted you feel, or how disappointed you are about what I choose to do. You suck it up like the professional you claim to be and let me make the decisions. And if you don’t do that, the consequences will be very simple. I will destroy you. If we ever make it out of here alive, I will see you up in front of a Fleet court for jeopardizing the war effort and you will spend the rest of your life in a terraforming camp digging holes in the sand and drinking your own recycled piss.’

  Hugo’s eyes grew wide enough to fill half his face.

  ‘Do you understand me?’ said Ira softly.

  As Hugo opened his mouth to speak, another crease of anger flashed across his brow. ‘Captain—’

  Ira held up a warning finger. ‘Careful,’ he said. ‘Yes or no.’

  Tears welled in the corners of Hugo’s eyes as he struggled not to argue his case. ‘Yes,’ he croaked at last.

  ‘Great,’ said Ira, before the man could start up again. ‘I’m proud of you. I’m glad you’re on board because I need you on t
his team. You’re a terrific asset, Hugo – a brilliant man. And we stand a much better chance with you than without you. That’s all.’

  He opened the door and pointed the way for Hugo to leave. Hugo had started shaking, he noticed, whether from anger, fear or disappointment, Ira couldn’t tell. He dearly hoped he’d done the right thing. Men like Hugo were notoriously brittle.

  As the scientist slid past, arms clenched tightly to his chest, Ira saw John waiting at the hatch.

  ‘A quick word?’ he said brightly. The light smile on John’s face belied the urgent look his eyes.

  ‘Sure,’ said Ira. ‘Why not?’ He tried to think of a time in his career when he’d had to mentor his crew so much just to hold things together. There wasn’t one.

  John closed the hatch and fixed him with a curious, lopsided smile. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘but I had to grab the moment. We’re overdue for our follow-up chat.’

  Ira nodded. ‘You’re right.’ In truth, he’d been avoiding it. John’s tone in the last meeting hadn’t impressed him. He’d been hoping that his security officer would unwind on his own.

  ‘Not a problem,’ said John. ‘We’ve all been busy. This time I won’t beat about the bush. Will Kuno-Monet is compromised.’

  ‘I know that, John,’ said Ira sadly. He rubbed his eyes.

  ‘Which means he’s a potential threat not only to this ship, but, if we get back to civilisation, to every single person he comes in contact with. If that thing inside him starts making viruses again—’

  ‘I think it’s a little early to be talking about threats, don’t you?’

  John made a little huffing sound. ‘Sorry, Captain, I said potential threats, not threats. I’m not proposing specific action here. That’s not my job. I’m just reminding you that Fleet regs have a recommended protocol for scenarios involving a compromised roboteer.’

  Unfortunately, John was right. Ira had tried not to think about it since Will came out of his trance. If Ira judged Will to be a danger to his mission or his crew, Fleet procedure required that they either had to coma him or kill him.