Unwilling From Earth

by Andrew Maclure

  With that, Sally turned and walked to a large console in the middle of the room and sat down.

  Mark turned to Simon who had walked up to stand next to them. Simon pointed out the synthesiser and turned to join Sally.

  “Er, Simon?” Mark called out to him. “Would you like a drink?”

  “What? Oh, yeah, thanks.”

  Mark walked over to the synthesiser and pulled out two glasses. One was the same as Sally had when she was in the command centre, a tall glass with about a third of a litre of clear fluid. Mark sniffed it. As he thought. Neat vodka. He took a sniff at the other much larger glass and almost spilt it as he recoiled. It wasn’t something he would drink. Mark took the drinks over and handed them to Sally and Simon. Sally glared at him and drank half the contents of the glass in one swallow. Simon took his glass without saying anything, but gave Mark an odd look. Mark turned back to the synthesiser, pulling his tablet out of his pocket.

  “Where are you going!” Demanded Sally.

  “To get a tea. That OK with you?” Mark snapped back.

  “Get rid of that damned tablet and use your AI. You look like a moron using that. Simon, take him to Ti’rrk to teach him how to use it.”

  Simon stepped over to Mark and said: “Order your tea first, we’ll take our drinks with us.” He walked over to the synthesiser with Mark to get his tea.

  As they walked over to the place by the wall which they had used as their transit point, Simon said “Don’t worry about Sally threatening to throw you out of an airlock. She told me before we boarded Mother - by the way how did it get that name? Alan never gave it a name before. The People aren’t great at naming things?”

  “Ah, I may have had something to do with that but it wasn’t my idea. It’s a bloody stupid name for a damn great thing like this. But you were saying, Sally told you before you boarded Mother…?”

  “Yeah, she told me to make sure no harm came to you, and anyway, Mother wouldn’t allow you to get spaced.”

  “You didn’t stop her breaking my nose!”

  “No, that was funny wasn’t it.” Simon said with a grin.

  “Not from where I was standing - or laying!”

  That made Simon laugh out loud. Mark scowled.

  By then they had reached the transit point and blinked.

  Mark dropped his mug of tea the instant they arrived. They were in another control room of some kind with a scattering of consoles and a long bench alongside one wall that had various bits of equipment laid on it. There were various species sitting or standing at the consoles but what caught Mark’s attention was an enormous ant-like creature standing on four quite substantial legs, with the front of its body tilted up and its two front legs and antenna gesturing above the console.

  Did You Enjoy Your Trip?

  Mark stood staring at the Ant, tea dripping down his leg.

  “Did you trip?” Asked Simon.

  “What the - what is that?” Mark said pointing to the ant-like creature.

  “That’s Ti’rrk. She’s part of Sally’s personal staff so you’ll get to know her well. She’s also the Ant liaison and a communication specialist. She is the best person on the ship to teach you to use your translator properly and to use your AI. Apart from Alan that is, and I’m guessing you don’t want to ask him.”

  “She? That thing is a female?”

  “Of course. All Ant soldiers are female.” Simon replied. “Why didn’t you want Alan to fit you with an AI translator?” He asked.

  “I don’t like the idea of a machine rummaging around in my brain. The thought that I have got one is making me feel queasy.” Mark answered.

  “He shouldn’t have done it without your permission, but he’s done you a favour. You need one and you can only ever have one fitted. They can’t be removed, and the People’s are the best in the galaxy. It’s a pity he didn’t fit you with phase shift body armour too but don’t worry, ours is the next best thing and you will have a set to wear.”

  “Sally said the enemy had state of the art armour, so - will ours be as good as theirs.”

  Simon laughed. “Their body armour is state of the art for the rest of the galaxy, but ours is better.”

  “Let me get this right, this body armour. Is it something we wear - like physical stuff, or is it field-based protection?”

  “It’s both. It comes in sets. Between them, they give you a lot of protection, but it won’t stop everything. You can still get cut to pieces out there. Our troops are taking losses - too many, they are spread too thinly. That’s why we are going down as soon as our reinforcements arrive.”

  “Sally said you were fighting on four fronts, I don’t know much about tactics but that seems like a really bad idea. Whose idea was that, Sally’s?”

  “It’s Sally’s strategy to halt the enemy’s advance and hold them until our reinforcements arrive, tactics come from our tactics AI but final guidance comes from Orange, he makes the recommendation to Sally and she approves it. He is the finest battle tactician in the galaxy.”

  “Orange! But he - well, he has that look about him that the wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.”

  “My translator is not sure about the idiom you are using, but I think I know what you mean. Appearances can be deceptive though, he is as sharp as shit.”

  “Now that’s not something I would generally consider to be particularly sharp, but I think I know what you mean too. Maybe to others of his species he looks like Albert Einstein.”

  “Who?” Asked Simon.

  “Doesn’t matter. Look, I have a bit of a thing about insects, particularly when they are that big.”

  “Yeah, I know the feeling. I get creeped out by snakes so when we have to deal with intelligent ones I try to think of them as something else that just happens to be a bit snakelike. Works for me. You try it.”

  Simon was turning out to be quite helpful and friendly, in a rough, soldier-ish way. Mark found this surprising considering that the first time he met him, Simon seemed quite keen on the idea of beating him to death for no reason.

  Mark turned to Ti’rrk and shuddered involuntarily. He shut his eyes and remembered what Alan had said about the Ants. “…as big as a pony.” And tried to imagine that the giant ant-like creature was some kind of pony. He opened his eyes and looked at Ti’rrk again. “No.” He thought. “Not working.” He looked at Ti’rrk again, busy at the console, occasionally stopping to speak to people who approached her. She actually didn’t seem quite as scary as he thought she would. It was true she was a bit ant-like and definitely had six legs but she wasn’t just a giant ant, she was something else completely. Maybe it helped that he had seen such a variety of life forms during his brief time in space and had even started to accept Alan’s four arms as sort of normal.

  “Come on.” He said to Simon. “Let’s get the introductions over with.”

  Simon and Mark walked up to stand beside Ti’rrk and waited for her to speak to them.

  Ti’rrk turned and said “Hello Simon - and you must be Mark. I am pleased to meet you. I have heard much about you but frankly I have discounted most of it. You are a Friend of the People. That means a great deal to us Ants.”

  “Oh, er, I’m pleased to meet you too.” Mark said and instinctively held out his hand.

  Ti’rrk looked down at his hand and said: “I presume that is a customary human greeting?”

  “Er, yes, sort of, I mean, yes.” He said, feeling foolish for offering a handshake to a large ant-like creature that had no hands.

  “That is very interesting and I thank you for the gesture but as you can see I am ill equipped to reciprocate.”

  Mark’s AI gave Ti’rrk a low and languid female voice with a slow and precise delivery. It was the kind of voice that you couldn’t help liking. He wondered if this was just by chance or if it had something to do with the fact that she was a communications expert and was manipulating it to create empathy. Then he thought that was a stupid idea, her communications expertise was probably
all electronics.

  “Of course. Sorry. I am still pleased to meet you.” Mark said. “Good recovery.” He thought.

  “I understand you have a People's AI that Alan installed without your knowledge.” Ti’rrk said and gave a low chuckle. That surprised Mark, it was the first time he had heard a non-humanoid alien’s laugh translated and wondered if it was his AI or something she was doing.

  “That’s right.” Mark said. “However I am told I am lucky to have it.”

  “I would say you were told correctly. Now you need some help in finding out how to make the most of it?”

  “Yes please.” Mark replied. He was surprised to find that he was warming to this very alien looking alien.

  “I can understand why you wouldn’t want to ask Alan. Sally has told me that as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work for this incident, you are my top priority.”

  “I don’t know why. All she does is assault and abuse me.”

  “I presume she has a use for you.” Ti’rrk said.

  “That’s not a comforting thought.” Mark said glumly.

  Mark started to think leaving Earth had been a really bad idea. OK, his life had been boring, he had no friends, and he was in a dead end job but at least people were, on the whole, polite to him, didn’t assault him and he hardly ever felt as though he was about to be killed at any moment. Now he was in an alien spaceship it wasn’t boring but he still had no friends, he had no idea where he would be from one day to another, the one person he trusted seemed to betray him and the one person he thought was a friend on Earth had broken his nose, continually threatened him with death, was abusive and was intent on into dragging him into a battle zone where they seemed to be losing a war.

  On top of all that a giant ant was about to teach him how to use a machine that had been implanted in his brain without his consent and which he had been told could never be removed. He had thought he would be changing his life to be new, interesting and challenging, but it felt like he had entered someone else’s nightmare. Not only that, but the food wasn’t very good either.

  “I’ll take him from here and let you know when we have finished.” Ti’rrk said to Simon. “Mark, you seem to be distracted. Come, we’ll go somewhere that we can work quietly.” And led the way to the door.

  They walked a few metres down the corridor and entered an empty room. As they entered the room, a table started to extrude itself from the floor with a platform rising up about half a metre to one side of it. Ti’rrk moved with a sinuous walk over to a door on the wall and removed a human proportioned chair using her mandibles. The door was obviously a synthesiser. Ti’rrk placed the chair by the table and settled herself down on the platform next to it.

  “Take a seat and make yourself comfortable Mark.” Ti’rrk said to him. “You will need to concentrate on this. You will be developing skills unlike any you have had to learn before, but don’t worry, your AI was designed to be simple to use and will adapt itself to you to make it as easy as possible to control it.”

  Ti’rrk turned to look straight at Mark. Now she had his undivided attention he noticed that her large eyes, that he had assumed would be compound eyes made up of hundreds of small lenses, were in fact very large dark eyes looking much like he would expect to see on a mammal. Or possibly a squid.

  “Fat chance of me getting an alien device working but I might as well go through the motions.” Thought Mark.

  “Now you have acknowledged your AI it has taken that as permission to adapt itself to your neurological processes, so the first thing you need to learn is to make sure that sub vocalised thoughts like the one you have just had don’t leak into it and get translated out loud. To gain that control you will have to do more than just go through the motions.” Ti’rrk told him.

  Mark felt his face redden but refused to apologise. “OK, let’s get on with it.”

  After a long session learning how to control his AI and make use of the translator, Ti’rrk finally said “That’s enough for today Mark. It is time you had a meal and a sleep cycle. Use your AI to access the internal transport and go back to your quarters. Get your AI to call me when you are ready for another session.”

  “I’m a bit concerned that I could end up anywhere on Mother - or even outside of it. Even if I do get to where I want to be, I don’t know how to make sure I don’t turn up there halfway through a wall or fused into the floor.”

  “All you are doing Mark, is asking the ship’s AI to take you back to your quarters. The AI will take you there and make sure you arrive safely and in one piece. It will deliver you to the corridor just outside of your door. The transport system has a lock on it that will not allow visitors to move directly inside living quarters.”

  “OK, if you say so.” Mark sighed, not confident that if he was driving, he wouldn’t end up as part of Mother.

  Mark concentrated and told his AI to take him to his quarters. He blinked and was in his main room. “So, the AI obviously doesn’t consider me to be a visitor as it’s allowed me to come directly into my quarters. Interesting.”

  Using his Ai to interface with the synthesiser and with the help of the main AI, Mark programmed patterns for a decent curry with side dishes and naan bread - though the naan bread was a bit disappointing. This time though, the cola was pretty much spot on.

  “Maybe I could live here comfortably.” Mark thought. If he could extend his quarters as much as Alan had said, he could live out his life without ever having to see anybody again. He decided to get stuck into learning how to control his AI tomorrow. Ti’rrk said it would soon become second nature and he would use it without even thinking about it and then he would see just how powerful it was. After that - he would just lock himself away.

  New Quarters

  Mark woke up refreshed and a bit more optimistic than he had been. He didn’t know how long he had slept and there didn’t seem to be a day-night cycle on board Mother, so he didn’t know if this would be morning or evening for everybody else on board. He hoped he would learn all he needed today and would be able to come back to his quarters and lock himself in. None of Sally’s army could reach him here because the internal transport wouldn’t take them directly into anyone's quarters.

  After a quick shower, he ordered underwear with his fresh jumpsuit and shoes. He felt so much better when he was fully dressed. Mark instructed his AI to get the internal transit to take him to Ti’rrk’s communication centre. He blinked and was there. The communications centre was buzzing with activity. There were more people there than there were the day before, some of them rushing in and out, some just blinking in and blinking out again. Ti’rrk wasn’t there, which was a bit disappointing and while he was looking around wondering what to do, Simon blinked in and came over to him.

  “I heard you were here.” He said. “Come on, let’s get you kitted out.”

  “That’s OK thanks, I’ll just wait for Ti’rrk. She’s going to carry on teaching me how to use my AI, but thanks anyway.”

  “Ti’rrk is resting now. The next time you’ll see her will be on the way down to the ground. Come on, let’s go.” And with that, they blinked and arrived in what appeared to a huge warehouse with rows of tables covered in an array of equipment. Hundreds of soldiers of a multitude of species, many of them talking to each other, were milling around checking over and selecting various pieces of equipment.

  “Come on, kit suitable for you is over here.” Simon said as he grasped Mark's arm and pulled him along through the crowd towards a long table against the far wall. There were people walking up and down the table looking over the stuff on it. When they found what they were looking for, they grabbed what they wanted and moved away. All the people on this table were bipedal and between one and a half and two metres tall. As he got close to it Mark could see that arranged along the table in neat piles were large black backpacks on top of what looked like padded clothes. A black helmet sat on top of each of the backpacks.

  “These will fit you, grab a set and we�
�ll see about suitable weaponry.” Simon said, giving Mark a push towards the table. Mark stumbled forwards and did as he was told.

  Mark turned towards Simon and said “Look, don’t think I’m not grateful for this but I really don’t need these and I certainly don’t need any weapons. Apart from the fact that I don’t have a clue how to use them, I’m not a soldier, I came along to help Alan doing his archiving work. I’m definitely a civilian.”

  “You can’t be if you’re in here.” Simon said with a grin. “Everyone in here has volunteered to be a soldier in Sally’s army and only the very best get in. You are here, so you must be a volunteer. You’re privileged!”

  “But I didn’t volunteer! And what about my work with Alan?”

  “Alan is busy providing logistical support. The best way you can help Alan right now is to come with us. Let’s go.” With that, Simon grasped Mark’s arm again and pulled him toward wide tables with ominous looking equipment laid on them.

  Pieces of equipment were being picked up and checked by people standing at the tables and when they found something which satisfied them, they took it away. Autonomous trolleys full of replacements were constantly arriving and a small team of people were unloading them to replace everything that had been removed.

  “Choose what you want and we’ll leave.” Simon instructed Mark.

  “That’s easy, I don’t want anything from here, even if I knew what any of this was.” Mark answered, stepping back and clearly not happy about what was happening to him.

  “OK, I’ll choose for you. Are you right or left-handed?”

  “I’m right-handed but…”

  Simon interrupted. “What’s your sight like in both eyes?”

  “They are both fine at the moment and I’d prefer them to stay that way. The best chance of that happening is for me to stay on Mother!”