Far Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  They went in and entered a station that was clearly the remnant of some chaos. The main courtyard and loading bay they entered just past the airlock still had some small billboards and video feeds but was empty of people. The area was scattered with abandoned boxes, bags, and junk. It looked like a fair number of people had left here in a hurry.

  Elsbeth pointed them down a corridor to their left and then past a few more turns. They came to a door for the electronics bay/server room. This door was substantial and locked. Elsbeth got a code generator from Peter and started working on the door’s electronic locks. Ximon looked in a few nearby empty rooms, but there was nothing of much interest. After a few minutes and a few curses, Elsbeth got the doors open and they went in.

  The room was filled with server racks and various other equipment. Most of it was still powered on, but it was clear that some system had been stripped from the racks, some of it none too gently.

  Elsbeth and Shao compared notes and headed for some racks in the back.

  Shao pointed to two sizable equipment racks. “These are the KSF solar monitoring system racks. However, most of the equipment is actually attached to the inner system monitoring system—the one they apparently did not tell the locals about.”

  Shao turned to Elsbeth, “Recommend we first ensure we know what everything is going and then you guys go tackle it from the outside while we disconnect from in here. Where we can, we’ll coordinate on specific lines and pieces of equipment.”

  ASOR stepped forward. “I believe I can directly connect to map some of the networking and will display it on your tablets.” He then connected to the switches themselves and another connection to the cable juncture behind the racks.

  The area was fairly crowded so Ximon stepped back as the three of them conversed.

  After a couple minutes Elsbeth said, “Okay, we’re heading out. We’ll get the external stuff as quickly as we can and then Mantis will get us back to the pad.” They headed quickly down the hallway.

  Shao and ASOR each started gently shutting down equipment at separate racks.

  Ximon found that he and Raiza were only intermittently needed and space was limited. So, he asked Raiza to stand by and assist while he examined a few nearby rooms for anything interesting. He could hear them start unscrewing stuff as he opened a back door, one requiring him to break it open.

  He found a couple offices with abandoned personal effects, books, and the like. Then he found a couple storage rooms. They had clearly once been neat and orderly, but people had made a mess as they took anything they considered useful or valuable.

  Ximon wandered further, investigating new rooms until he came to one labeled ‘Sensitive Electronics. Authorized Personnel Only.’ It had a substantial lock, but whoever used it last had left it open. Inside were more racks of equipment, but most were empty. There was also a small clean room of shielded glass for maintenance. Inside there, Ximon found a strange sight.

  There were what looked like nine robots, or portions thereof, scattered around with tools lying about and some cables running between. Most were not moving, but one metallic bot, partly broken, sat upright and was working on a computer between him and the others. Some separated robot limbs laid nearby.

  Ximon entered with tentative steps. “Hello. I’m Captain Sabo of the Mantis. May I ask who you are?”

  The robot spoke with some hesitation as if having some mechanical difficulty. “Greetings, Captain. We did not expect visitors. I am Illef-7, excuse me if I don’t get up, for I am unable.” He motioned to his body which ended at the torso—he had no legs attached.

  “What is this?” Ximon asked, glancing from one broken robot to another. “What are you doing here?”

  The robot replied with what sounded like a small laugh. He motioned at the other robots around the room. “We are the broken, unwanted, and abandoned, of no value to any. We were all in disrepair when the station was abandoned and were not deemed worth taking. My colleagues and I have come together to see if anything can be repaired and to otherwise spend the rest of our existences together until the increasing radiation levels terminate us.”

  Ximon was taken aback and looked repeatedly at the broken remnants.

  “Illef-7, I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Ximon hurried up and got Raiza, who had been neatly stacking equipment on carts whenever ASOR or Shao finished with one. He pulled her aside.

  “Raiza, I have found something odd in the back room. There are several damaged, abandoned robots, in various states of disrepair. I’m not sure what to do with them. Would you look at them and see what you think.”

  “Of course, Ximon. Though if their owners no longer found them of value, perhaps they have outlived their usefulness.”

  “I understand, but I feel bad leaving them. See if you think they’re salvageable, please.”

  He showed her back to the room and then he returned to help Shao and ASOR. He stacked things and strapped them down on the cart as they pulled items out of the racks.

  “How’s it going?” Ximon asked.

  “We’re making progress,” Shao said, “but we’ve saved some of the harder pieces for last.”

  Ximon wished he could help more, but, again, space was limited. He nodded and radioed Elsbeth. “How are you doing out there?”

  “Check your clock,” Elsbeth said, her word short and sharp. “We’ve only been out for a few minutes. We’re just starting on the first array now.”

  “Okay, just checking. Let me know if you have any issues.”

  “Sure.”

  Ximon worked on the racks with Shao for about twenty minutes as Shao and ASOR disconnected and pulled out the relatively small components. Then, they had to tackle the larger, heavier, and more interconnected components. Shao and ASOR had to work together on the and each took about fifteen minutes. As they got the last components on the carts and tied them down, Ximon went and checked on Raiza.

  She was helping Illef-7 with some components on the ground. After a minute, it appeared that she was trying to help him connect a leg.

  “Can I borrow you a minute, dear,” Ximon asked and Raiza followed him out of the room. “So, what do you think?”

  “Ximon, you are a man of compassion and it means a lot to me that you can feel for ones such as these as they are my kin. However, most of them are severely damaged and barely operational. Several are, if you will, dying and could not be viably salvaged. I believe only 3 might be worth considering, especially given our current time and space constraints—Illef-7, this childcare bot Ayah-RK, and the computational core of Euclidia.”

  She pointed from Illef-7 to a badly burned, seemingly inert female nanny bot missing an arm and then to the upper torso of a metallic bot.

  “What of the others?”

  “Illef has them connected so they can communicate. They will keep one another company until they cease being functional. They will not suffer nor know pain or fear.”

  “As you say, my dear,” Ximon said, his lips turning down as sadness crept into his eyes. “You are clearly the expert here.”

  She smiled at him and put her hand on his check. “I will work to prepare them. Could you ask ASOR to bring tools and assist me when he can be spared? And could you please also find me a cart or make one of those available? We should be able to get them back to the loading bay before Elsbeth and Peter are finished outside.”

  “Yes, dear. Thank you.”

  When he got back to Shao and ASOR, they were essentially done and ready to head back to the loading bay. Ximon was a bit frustrated that their estimation of inside and outside work was a bit off, but there wasn’t too much they could have done differently.

  Ximon told them, “Okay, slight change of plans. We’ve got a minor side project in the back. ASOR please take your tools and go help Raiza. Shao, you and I will take these carts to the loading bay. Once we get there, I’ll need to bring a cart back here for them. I’ll have to use one of these unless we can find another.”

 
ASOR said, “Yes, Captain,” and grabbed his tools before heading to the back room without further comment.

  Shao was more curious. “Ximon, what’s happening?”

  “We found some abandoned bots and Raiza is trying to salvage a couple.”

  Shao scrunched her face up, confused, and said, “Uh, okay,” but got ready on her cart.

  She started pushing her cart toward the loading bay as Ximon followed after.

  By the time they got to the loading bay, Mantis had already taken Elsbeth and Peter to the second array. So, there was nothing else for them to do but wait.

  Ximon said, “Help me look in some of these side rooms to see if we can find a cart of some kind. Otherwise, we’ll have to unload one of these.”

  “Ximon, why are we doing this? I thought we were trying to limit our time here and this seems to waste time and space. It seems strange. Is this another part of the mission that we didn’t talk about?”

  Ximon was a bit taken aback at that. “No, it’s not part of the official mission. It’s an opportunity we came across and I want to take it. So, strange or not, it’s the current plan and we’ll be done before Elsbeth gets back.”

  They rushed to rooms along the bay and the nearby ones down the hallways. They found a sizable flat cart that Ximon felt would work. He directed Shao to stay with the equipment and he rushed off with the cart to Raiza.

  When he got back, Raiza and ASOR were still hard at work, each on a separate bot.

  “I’ve brought a cart. Can you be ready in thirty minutes?”

  “If that is the limit of our time. If necessary, we will be ready, loaded, and en route within thirty minutes.”

  Ximon held up a finger. “Just a minute.”

  He stepped away and got an update from Elsbeth. They were just starting on the second array and she estimated it would take them about forty minutes, plus ten more to get back.

  Ximon thought about staying to help, but knew he’d just be in the way. He told Riaza, “Dear, you’ve got forty minutes. I’ll get out of your way and get back to Shao.”

  “Thank you, Ximon.”

  The group gathered back in the loading bay forty minutes later, just as Mantis was heading back to land. ASOR and Raiza had pieces of four bots on the cart—a mostly complete Illef-7, the semi-conscious Ayah-RK, the upper body of a robot with strange claw-like arms, and one separate head.

  Shao looked at the cart quizzically. “So, is robot parts our ‘side project’?”

  Ximon didn’t really want to discuss this further. “Salvaging potentially useful bots is. I hope to find they all have some utility for us or others. You’ll note it didn’t extend our time here at all.”

  Mantis landed a few minutes later and they loaded the carts on. Ximon noted several sizable antenna arrays, or pieces thereof, around the cargo bay.

  Raiza asked Ximon with a whisper, “Would you object if I placed these bots in cabin six for now? We’ll lose a few seats there but gain a few in the hold.”

  Cabin six was the one Raiza had set up as the sometime sick bay.

  “Of course, dear,” Ximon said, then turned to the others. “Okay, let’s get this stuff crammed in and head to Darcy-3. At first, we’ll go high burn, but then slow down. Once we’re out of the amber zone, we can take some time to organize it better. We obviously need to make room and get the seats back up before we get there.”

  After it was semi-organized ASOR and Peter volunteered to keep working, as the rest of the crew readied to leave. The Gs wouldn’t bother ASOR or Peter and they could strap themselves down to keep working.

  After leaving Darcy Duo, Mantis stopped at Darcy-3 and picked up another thirty people, slightly fewer than before since they had extra cargo. They delivered this group to 4.1 Metis and headed straight back to Darcy-3. There they picked up twenty-five more. Between those runs and a couple by the shuttle Galileo, that left only a skeleton crew on Darcy-3. The skeleton crew meant to stay for a week or more and had a ship’s pinnace at their disposal that could get them to Metis. Ximon wished them well and hoped they got off in time.

  As Mantis approached 4.1 Metis for the second time, Kochai Korai contacted Ximon to request more shuttling of personnel. She wanted him to do several more runs in system and then take a dozen or more people with them when they jumped. Ximon explained that they could do some, but not as many as she wanted. They debated for a while, with Kochai passionately explaining why the runs were important; the 4.1 Metis was near its capacity and couldn’t support them all for very long.

  Ximon ultimately agreed to shuttle one group from 4.1 Metis to 4.2 Charth and another to Darcy-5 Moon Mining before jumping out of the system. Ximon was finally able to convince her that they really couldn’t haul any passengers out of the system because they weren’t going anywhere populated for quite some time. Ximon appreciated the predicament but couldn’t deal with hauling a bunch of people around for weeks before they got to any inhabited system. Some of the people might be anxious to leave the system, but they’d be far less thrilled when they found that Mantis wasn’t going anywhere that they’d want to go. Additionally, the first inhabited system they’d probably hit was Irapce and they were trying to impress the locals, not ask for charity from them.

  The shuttling from 4.1 Metis to 4.2 Charth only took a couple hours and went without incident. The trip to Darcy-5 took quite a bit longer. The evacuees on that run were split. Some were glad to get farther from the sun, but some would clearly have preferred to stay on 4.1 Metis, since it was a bit nicer place to live.

  When they were done, Kochai thanked Ximon for the Mantis’ flexibility and for the Republic’s contribution.

  Ximon wished her and her people well and headed for a jump point. When they reached it four hours later, they made the first of two jumps to get to back Zanerus.

  Chapter Three: Irapce

  On their first full day in jump, ASOR-L met Ximon in the galley and asked to speak with him. Ximon was a bit surprised because ASOR had remained quiet in the cargo bay up until this point. However, with the fuel bladders completely drained and no extra passengers on board, ASOR was able to do a bit more with his equipment.

  ASOR-L explained, “Captain, given the severe space constraints and the substantial time between loading and probable use, Peter and I concluded that it would be best if I remained in the cargo bay with the equipment. Now that we have more room, I have repositioned the equipment somewhat. I am working on several pieces of equipment and would like to offer you and the crew an orientation tour.”

  Ximon said, “Sure. Would you like to do that now?”

  “If that is acceptable. May I suggest we meet in fifteen minutes?”

  “Okay, I’ll be there.”

  Ximon then signaled the rest of the crew to see if they wished to join. Shao, Peter, and Raiza did, but Elsbeth declined as she said she wasn’t feeling well.

  ASOR briefly explained the resupply equipment they were hauling. He pointed out a variety of spare parts of various kinds and explained that he, too, was meant to help expand the station’s capabilities. He displayed the bulk of the equipment, including two large, strange looking robots and quite a few smaller ones. One of the large ones was known as Automated Mining Outpost Robot (AMOR) and had one drill-like arm and one with a large grabbing claw. He was in charge of a group of smaller bots intended to mine various raw materials from the moon that Zased Station was located on. Another large one had four manipulator arms and was known as Automated Refining Manufacturing Robot (ARMR). ARMR would oversee manufacturing equipment and bots for the station. Between the mining and manufacturing, the intent was to make the station more self-sufficient for longer periods of time.

  Ximon was impressed and told ASOR so. ASOR said he would keep the equipment out of the way as much as possible and pack things up as he was done working on them.

  “Sounds good,” Ximon said. “Thanks for the tour, ASOR. I’m sure Alzroid will be thrilled when we get there. I’m sorry it will be a while yet before we
do.”

  ASOR simply replied, “We wait in patience.”

  A couple days later, Raiza asked Ximon to join her in cabin six. Here she had been working on the rescued robots, with occasional help from Peter and ASOR. Now she showed off her work. First, she had Illef-7. Raiza had gotten legs attached and working. He could get about fairly well and she said that he could perform his original task of computer and electronics maintenance also. Next, she had Ayah-RK, a rather dated childcare and nanny bot who had been badly burned and was missing an arm. Raiza had gotten her recharged, loaded various modules to replace corrupted brain functions, and repaired some physical damage. Ayah-Rk could now move about, though her walking was a bit clumsy and her speech slightly slurred. She still lacked a left arm and she had skin only up to her right shoulder and left hip—her head and left shoulder were bare metal. Then there was Euclidia, who was little more than a talking head with a small power module. Finally, there was the upper body of a robot with strange claw-like arms, and one separate head.

  “You’ve done amazing work here, Raiza,” Ximon said. “How do you envision using them?”

  “Ximon, I’m not completely sure. Elsbeth has said she will try to make some use of Illef-7. Ayah-RK can serve her main function in childcare, but we might find some utility for her on Mantis.”

  Raiza continued, “So, if you wish, we could place her with some community who requires a robot of her type. Failing that, Mantis has informed me of a charitable program that TSR is associated with. When we return to Tixaya, I feel confident that you or I could convince them to cooperate.”

  Ximon raised his eyebrows at that idea but resisted saying anything.

  Raiza caught the gesture and said, “There are many families, hospitals, or orphanages who could use a nanny bot but cannot afford one. Ayah, could help such people.”