by Gary Naiman
Lucinda gripped the seat’s plasma arms. “Stealth?”
Kenney eyed the image. “Yes... and one of their best if I’m correct.” She turned toward the shaken woman seated beside her. “Now why would Synapse position one of its stealth subs within striking distance of a Neptune mining platform?”
Lucinda glanced at the red digits. They had passed the five-mile marker and were descending at incredible speed.
“Brace yourself.” Kenney swept her hand across the instrument panel in a slashing motion.
Lucinda clung to her seat as her body was pressed downward into the plasma. She blacked out for a moment from the sudden G-force. When she regained her senses, the rover had decelerated to a full stop. The tiny sphere floated motionless in the black void, one mile above the seabed.
Lucinda gripped her throbbing head. “What happened? Why did we—?”
“I think you know, 0021.”
Lucinda looked at the blaster in Kenney’s left hand. “What’s wrong with you?”
Kenney pushed up from her seat and gripped an overhead strap with her right hand. She nodded at the holographic screen, her left hand pointing the blaster at Lucinda’s head.
The two women stared at each other. The only sound was the air rushing through the sphere’s interior pressure vents.
Kenney broke the silence. “It appears your colleagues are about to launch a robotic attack on the Neptune platform.” She eyed Lucinda. “Now why would they want to do that? Aren’t we all on the same team? The Consortium? Neptune? Synapse? Can you explain that, 0021?” She waved the blaster at the hologram. “Look at them, all pumped and primed for the big attack.” She locked her eyes on Lucinda. “What must I do? What would you do?” She glared at the stunned woman. “Defend the platform, right? Seems appropriate.”
Lucinda couldn’t speak. She stared at the blaster while cursing her stupidity. Fool! They knew all along. They had you pegged before you landed. Your robot was your only chance and you abandoned him. Gog’s words crackled in her ears. They are everywhere, 0021. They study your every move.
Kenney nodded at the hologram. “Your stealth sub is launching its Forty-threes. Excuse me, 0021, I have some unpleasantries.”
Lucinda stared at the twin robots jetting from the Stingray toward the platform’s umbilical tube. Kenney’s voice echoed in her ears.
“Got them, Terence?”
Gianopolis’ voice crackled in the speaker. “Our lasers are locked on them, sister. Give me the word.”
Kenney clenched the blaster. “Given, my brother.”
Lucinda reeled from a tremendous power surge. She stared in disbelief at the ruby-red beams striking the Forty-threes. The hologram flickered with static from the two paralyzed robots.
Lucinda watched the robots slow to a halt before beginning an uncontrolled descent to the bottom. They offered no resistance while fading into the ooze.
Kenney smiled. “I believe those creatures are your best, 0021. I’m sorry for putting you through this, but it’s important you know the strength of your enemy.” She nodded at the compromised robots. “Quite simple, actually. Your Forty-threes are virtually indestructible, as was Achilles, except for his one fatal weakness.”
Lucinda collapsed in her seat, her eyes staring at the hologram.
Kenney shrugged. “No way to disintegrate your sophisticated metal warriors, so we capitalized on the Consortium’s Human Edict.”
Lucinda’s eyes widened. “The Robotic Code?”
“Call it what you like, 0021. Your robots will not attack humans. The Human Edict is programmed into their plasma psyche.” She smiled. “This is the first time we have exploited that weakness and it has proven most fruitful, all because of a simple encoded message transmitted in our ruby laser bursts. Surely a woman with your robotics background knows that message.”
Lucinda stared at her.
“Come, 0021, I’m sure you know the Edict. Thou shalt not harm a human under any circumstance.” Kenney waved the blaster at her. “I’m surprised your elitist superiors overlooked the consequences of their blunder. Another tribute to their arrogance.”
Silence.
“Say something dreg!” Kenney pressed the blaster against Lucinda’s temple. “Or do you want to take your final pathetic thoughts to your grave?”
CHAPTER 21
Defeat
Zirdak peered at the motionless Forty-threes falling through the ooze. “What’s wrong with them? Why aren’t they attacking?”
Number One swept his hand across the command console’s instruments in a futile attempt to energize the disabled metallic creatures. He turned to the sub’s onboard robotic engineer, a.k.a. #03, who is standing at the front console, his eyes locked on his computer screen. “What is it, Three?”
Three looked at him with widened eyes. “The Forty-three’s have been neutralized by a ruby laser burst from the platform.”
One stared at him in disbelief. “Impossible, their force fields can deflect any laser.”
Three looked down at his computer screen. “My God.”
Zirdak rose from his command chair, his eyes locked on the engineer. “That term is not permitted, Number Three.”
Three stared at the screen.
“What are you saying, Three? Get it out.”
Three gripped his console. “The laser burst contained an embedded message. The Forty-three’s were neutralized by a simple message.”
“A what?”
Three looked at his shaken commander. “The Human Edict, sir. The robot’s prime directive.”
“Edict? What the hell is that?”
“It’s part of the Consortium’s Robotic Code... deeply embedded in each robot’s memory. A robot must not attack a human at any cost.”
Zirdak shook his fist. “Then change the damn thing!”
“I cannot, Captain. It’s a Consortium mandate. We must contact the Consortium for that permission.”
“The Consortium? Are you insane? We’re under attack!”
Three collapsed in his chair. “I’m sorry, Captain. It’s the one thing we never anticipated.”
Zirdak charged at the shaken officer, but was stopped cold by Number One’s shrill warning.
“Incoming, Captain! Massive energy burst!”
Zirdak spun around and stared at Number One with desperate eyes. “Evasive!”
One reached for the console, but it was too late. The incoming ruby blast was awesome, its magnitude the most powerful on earth. And well it should be. After all, its lethal light protected Neptune’s Mariana Trench complex, the most important facility on earth, the planet’s sole source of synthetic food preventing global starvation, revolution, and massacre.
The conning tower vibrated from dislodged mesons, the subatomic glue holding matter together. The Stingray was disintegrating from a tremendous surge of photons, as were its eight occupants.
Zirdak rushed toward his communications officer, but Number Two vaporized before his eyes.
“Two!” Zirdak collapsed in Two’s empty plasma chair, his fingers groping at the instrument panel’s fading violet transmission light. His voice gurgled his final words.
“Hear me, Overlord! Our robots are neutralized! We are under attack from —”
Zirdak’s voice faded. He stared at his disappearing hands and arms. A strange chill ebbed through him. He collapsed in the vaporizing chair and gazed at the digital clock which had ceased to scroll, and he was gone...
CHAPTER 22
I Am With You
Kenney stared at the deserted seabed. “Well done, Terence. Your embedded message worked perfectly.”
The rover’s spherical wall crackled with Gianopolis’ ecstatic voice. “We did it?”
“We certainly did, brother. Their Forty-three’s plasma brains are fried and their stealth sub belongs to eternity.”
Kenney smiled while listening to the victory shouts coming through the overhead speaker. “You there, Hilda?”
Romanoff’s voice crackled.
“With all my heart. This is the greatest moment of my life.”
Kenney’s eyes filled with tears. “Then you’re both ready?”
Gianopolis broke the silence. “We are more than ready, sister. We are honored.”
Kenney fought back a sob. “May your journey be swift, dear friends.”
“And yours sister. God bless us all.”
Kenney blinked away a tear and glared at the shaken woman seated beside her. “And you, 0021? Are you ready to face your destiny?” She raised the blaster. “It will be over in fourteen minutes. First, the blazing heat and light. Then the shock wave crushing the rover’s hull.” She leaned toward her shaken prisoner. “But you’ll never feel it because you’ll be dead.”
Lucinda raised her head. “So will you, scum. So will you...”
Kenney shrugged disdainfully. “Bravely spoken, dreg, but like all your assumptions, wrong again.” She raised her chin in defiance. “I’ll be long gone when the bomb detonates. A quick trip to the surface for a rendezvous with a fortuitous transport sphere and I’m out of here. No sense sacrificing myself to this great victory. Must stay alive to drive the revolution.”
Lucinda wasn’t listening. She looked down at the useless lump on her wrist while recalling her exchange with Gog.
You’re saying they know?
Yes, 0021... they have known for some time. They are extremely intelligent.
“Still with me, 0021?”
Lucinda’s head snapped up.
Kenney eyed her. “I must confess something. It’s hard to dislike you, 0021. You’re so innocent... so naive. It’s a miracle you’ve made it this far.”
Lucinda clenched her fists and stared at the hologram, and the ooze that once housed the twin Forty-threes and vaporized sub.
“Nothing to offer? Well, that’s expected. After all, you’re nothing but a brainwashed lackey of the elitist Consortium pigs. An underling at best.”
Kenney’s words ripped into her. She glared at her captor.
“Do you know what surprises me most, 0021?”
No response.
Kenney shook her head. “You still don’t know the truth. After spending six months with Franz and three days with me, you haven’t a clue.” She smirked at her prisoner. “So naïve ... so pitiful.”
Lucinda raised her clenched fist. “Pull the fucking trigger!”
Kenney nodded and pointed the blaster at Lucinda’s head. “I’ll leave you with this final thought. If you knew the truth, I think you would join us.”
Kenney waited for a reaction, but there was none. Lucinda’s widened eyes were locked on something beyond her assailant.
Kenney jammed the blaster against Lucinda’s nose, forcing blood. “Say something, dreg! Say something before I fry your atoms!” She stared at Lucinda’s stunned face, and it struck her. She’s not looking at me. What the hell is she looking at?
Kenney turned to the viewing screen and froze. She blinked in disbelief at the blue eye peering at her from the blackness. The four-armed creature floated in the deep, its blue eye throbbing.
Kenney pointed the blaster at Lucinda’s head. “You did this! Damn you!” She gripped the blaster’s trigger, but never squeezed it. The Project Director was blown off her feet by a tremendous plasma burst from the Meta’s blue eye. She slammed into the rover’s metallic wall, her bones shattered, her internal organs ruptured. Her broken body crumpled on the floor, the neutralized blaster lying at her side.
Lucinda gripped her head and pushed off the metallic floor. She stared at the specter gazing at her from the viewing screen. “Gog?”
The Meta disappeared. She looked down at the crumpled remains of her assassin and for the third time knew the incredible power of her metallic friend.
* * *
Gianopolis rested his hand on Romanoff’s. “It has been a magnificent journey, sister. You were my best traveling companion.”
She nodded and gripped his hand.
He sighed while scanning the glistening ZZ-4 cells covering the walls. They were standing in the center of the solar energy conversion chamber, the life source of Neptune’s Mariana complex.
Gianopolis rested his hands on the small control console and ripped away one of its modules, exposing a concealed black button. He wrapped his arm around Romanoff and took a deep breath. “Ready, sister?”
She grasped his waist and stared at the button. “Vaporization will be swift?”
“Most swift, my sister. There will be no pain.”
Outside the sealed compartment, the twin Guardian robots focused on a disturbance their sensors had detected beneath the platform. The object sped toward them at incredible velocity. The corridor shook as the lower hatch was blown away.
There! The Guardians locked their ruby lasers on the four-armed creature rising from the blown hatchway, its blue eye throbbing. The Guardian’s edict was clear. Destroy all nonhuman threats! They fired their lasers point blank, but their deadly rays had no effect on the charging Meta. The Meta’s blue plasma surged through the Guardians, paralyzing them.
Inside the solar compartment, Gianopolis had placed his finger on the black button. He clutched Romanoff and uttered his final words. “I do this for humanity, the destruction of the Consortium, and the beginning of a better world. God comfort us.”
The sealed door disintegrated in a brilliant flash of blue light. Gianopolis heard Romanoff’s screams.
“Do it, Terrence! They are upon us!”
He pressed the detonation button, but nothing happened. They were engulfed in blue plasma, their eyes frozen on the massive robot floating before them.
Gianopolis drew his blaster, his mouth spewing curses. He fired again and again, but to no effect. The last thing he saw was Romanoff charging the Meta ... and all went black.
* * *
“Can you hear me, 0021?”
Lucinda blinked at the amber eye glowing in the darkness.
“I am sorry for anesthetizing you. The rover was imploding from my laser blast. It was best you sleep until safe.”
She sat up on the sleep bubble, her hand gripping her head.
“You are well?”
Lucinda took a deep breath. “How did you find me?”
The eye flickered. “I am quite fast.”
She stroked her aching neck. “Where am I?”
“In your sleep chamber.”
Her eyes widened. “The device!”
“It is disarmed.”
“What?”
“Disarmed, 0021. I disarmed it.”
She stared at the amber eye in disbelief. “But we were six miles down? They were about to set it off? How did you—?”
The eye flickered.
“Damn you, robot! A non-response to human inquiry is forbidden. Answer my question.”
The Meta’s voice crackled. “I am uncomfortable with my action.”
Lucinda felt a wave of dizziness. She collapsed on the bubble, her hand gripping her forehead. It took a few seconds for her head to clear.
“0021?”
She rubbed her forehead. “I dreamt of Tabulek. I was trying to contact him.”
“You were not dreaming. I cleared their jamming and established contact.”
She looked at the Meta. “Then he knows what happened?”
“Yes, 0021. I advised him of our success.”
She sat up on her elbow, and it struck her.
“Gog?”
“Yes, 0021?”
“Are the three Anarchists dead?”
“Yes, 0021. They are dead.”
“Is that why you’re uncomfortable? Because you violated the Human Edict?”
“No, 0021. There is a greater reason.”
Lucinda fell back on the bubble, her eyes on the darkness. She tapped the lump on her wrist and awaited Tabulek’s hologram, but nothing appeared.
CHAPTER 23
Debriefing
The interrogator rested her hand on the plasma chair and leaned toward Lucinda. “I must ask you a fina
l set of questions. It requires that I maximize your brain scan. I’m afraid it will prove uncomfortable, but it is essential.”
Lucinda nodded at the copper-uniformed woman.
The interrogator backed away. “Let us begin.”
Lucinda’s fingers dug into the chair’s plasma arms. In her training, she had been well-schooled in Synapse’s debriefing procedure. The final interrogation was barbaric with the photons intensified to maximum cranial penetration. Besides inflicting extreme neurological pain, full intensity scans exceeding one minute could result in permanent paralysis and loss of memory.
The interrogator aimed her remote at the orange beam radiating downward from the shadowed ceiling, its photons focused on Lucinda’s forehead. “I am sorry, 0021. I wish there were another way.” She watched Lucinda’s body convulse from the surge of photons.
Lucinda raised her clenched fists. “Ask your fucking questions!”
“How can we be certain you were not brainwashed aboard the platform?”
“Because you know I was not!”
“How can we be certain the Gordian Octagon wasn’t a mind-altering device? After all, you have admitted to feeling exhausted after attempting to solve it. That exhaustion is a telltale sign of fatigue from brainwashing.”
“Damn you, I’ve told you everything! In a few seconds I’ll be a vegetable! So quit your stupid questions and review the encephalogram!”
The interrogator pressed her lips to Lucinda’s ear. “Final question, 0021.”
“Bitch!”
“Are you a traitor?”
Lucinda shook her clenched fists. “Damn you to hell! My loyalty is above reproach! My accomplishments are second to none!”
“You haven’t answered my question, 0021.”
Lucinda glared at her. “IF I WERE A TRAITOR, YOU WOULD BE DEAD!”
The interrogator pointed the remote at the ceiling, dissipating the orange beam in a burst of flickering static. She leaned toward Lucinda and smiled. “You may rest, 0021. The debriefing has been completed. There will be no further questions.”
Lucinda gripped her throbbing head while fighting the sobs. She felt the interrogator’s cold hand on her bare shoulder, followed by a burst of air against her arm.
