Custodians of the Cosmos

by Drayton Alan

  After a moment, the mist was gone and everyone removed the goggles and respirators.

  Lou looked around at the other remaining crewmen; he had the highest rank, not counting the captain. “Looks like he’s in no condition to make decisions. I guess I’ll take command. Belle, what is the ship’s status now?”

  “We’re still overrun. The squidmen control all major strategic systems on the ship. They’ll soon come here.”

  “Are they killing crewmen?”

  “No, sir, they aren’t hurting anyone,” Belle reported.

  “Okay, maybe it’s better if we don’t fight, we’d only get ourselves killed. Everyone put down their weapons,” Lou said.

  A familiar voice over the intercom responded. “Well done, Lieutenant. After all, I’m not a heartless murderer. I’m your old shipmate. I had to take control of the ship, the captain is not fit as you yourself just said, and since I’m still the first officer that makes me captain.”

  Lou answered him: “Frakes, that’s fine, just don’t hurt anyone. We will cooperate with you; we know you have always been kind to those in need. Besides, we are all…”

  “If you say, orphans, I’ll space you!” Frakes interrupted. “I did read the script you know. Why does everyone keep doing that to me?”

  “I was going to say, we are all fans of yours. We loved your portrayal of the pirate king. Didn’t we?”

  Everyone in the room made a point of being heard agreeing. Even the captain now in a dazed stupor sang, “It is a glorious thing, to be…” He trailed off.

  Frakes teleported into the room with a squad of squid. “You are just saying that because I can kill you, aren’t you?” Frakes asked.

  “No, not at all,” Lou said.

  Nigel spoke up. “You was the best pirate I ever saw in a play thingy.” Revealing he had never seen a play thingy before.

  Everyone else agreed again as if their lives depended on it. They did in fact.

  “Okay, stop.” Frakes drew out the sound of the vowel to show he loved the attention. “You’re making me blush. It was just a normal performance with my own little flair. I’m nothing special.”

  Everyone saw this was the time to disagree with his false modesty and began again insisting he was the best.

  Frakes was reveling in the praise.

  “Captain, enemy ships approaching!” a squidman’s voice on Frakes’s communicator squealed.

  “One moment, Samuel. I’m with my fans. You deal with them.” Frakes looked around the room. Then he said, “I really need to know if my performance was good. Wait, Frederick, you were in drama—was I really the best?”

  Kale, not happy to be singled out, thought about it a moment. He had to admit honestly, that despite diverting from the script, and murdering people, Frakes was in fact, the best pirate king he had ever seen. Maybe even the best actor he’d ever seen. So he told him the truth.

  “Sir, I can truthfully say yours is the best—not only pirate king, but acting performance—that I’ve ever seen.”

  “You like me, you really like me!” Frakes exclaimed. He looked at the other crewmen for confirmation. His face was nearly incandescent with pride.

  “Of course, sir, we all like you.” Kale went on, “We are just afraid of you killing us. Since you’ve become a murderous cyborg.” Too late, he realized the honesty gate was still open, and he was still talking. So unwisely, he kept talking. “The fact that you’re a robot doesn’t affect our opinion of your performance. I mean you were really awesome in the play, aside from killing people and stuff. I’m sure your computerized brain didn’t affect the performance at all, much.” Finally, he quit talking.

  Frakes face was blank as if he had trouble processing what he had just heard. Something in his expression clicked; he looked sad and confused. It changed again but this time to angry, then back to sad. The man’s internal struggle against the machine reflected on his face.

  “I’m not a ROBOT!” Frakes said the word with disgust.

  A squidman’s voice came over Frakes communicator again. “Sir, it’s the Lactarian ships, they have come in force, and we are losing. What are your orders? Captain respond!”

  “Oh, just go away! Just get in your ships and fly away!” Frakes yelled. “I’m tired of playing your king.”

  “Yes, sir, full retreat, all forces back to the ship.” The squidmen in the room teleported away.

  Frakes stood there alone, shaking and jerking. An internal battle seemed to rage inside him as he tried to process the revelation he was a cyborg.

  Was it possible he hadn’t known? Kale looked to Belle, whose face was genuinely concerned.

  She began. “Horatio, you were badly hurt. They made you a robot, a cybernetically enhanced human, to save you. It’s okay, we’re here to help you. We’re your friends, we can help get rid of the virus that is causing the malfunction you’re currently experiencing.”

  “Get away, I don’t need your help or your pity! You’re to blame for this!” Frakes gave Belle a threatening look. “You wrote the code in my head! I see your name on every entry.”

  Kale was concerned. “Belle, stand back. You’ll be hurt.” Kale moved forward and tried to pull her away, but she resisted. He couldn’t budge her. She was anchored to the ground like no one he had ever met before.

  Frakes reached over and effortlessly pulled Belle from Kale’s grip. “Get lost, Kale.”

  “Let her go!” Kale grabbed a rifle off the floor and pointed it at Frakes. “I’ll shoot.”

  Frakes laughed. “You couldn’t hurt me if you tried. How exactly will you shoot me without hitting Belle? Put it down, boy, you don’t even know what you’re doing?”

  “I think I do!” Kale shouted. He moved closer and pointed the gun directly at Frakes’s head, point blank range, but he couldn’t pull the trigger.

  With a single quick movement Frakes grabbed the gun from Kale’s grip and pushed him backward hard. He went flying backward and struck a shelving unit. Frakes threw the gun against the wall, smashing it.

  Belle twisted free and kicked Frakes hard. Something inside his leg popped, and it leaked fluid.

  “You kick hard for a girl,” Frakes said and laughed.

  As if on cue, Reggie came rumbling out of the robotics lab fully repaired. Sensing danger, he positioned himself between Belle and Frakes.

  Reggie blocked him from hurting Belle, but Frakes pushed Reggie. Reggie rolled back unharmed but got traction and rolled forward again.

  “Leave him alone!” Belle yelled. “You were a miserable human and now you’re an even worse robot! Why don’t you just shut yourself off?”

  She tried to kick again, but Frakes grabbed her leg and twisted it hard. There was a snapping noise and her leg broke in two. The bottom half fell to the floor, and a stream of hydraulic fluid sprayed out of its end. Oil stained the floor.

  In surprise, Frakes pushed Belle to the floor. She tried to pull herself away from him on her hands.

  “You are a robot, like me?” Frakes said in anger and confusion.

  “No, I’m a cripple. I just have robot legs. I’m not like you at all.”

  “You think you’re better than me, but you’re not!” He pulled the rapier from its holder and raised it to kill Belle.

  Everyone tried to stop him, but he was fast, faster than almost everyone in the room. Except Reggie.

  Reggie rammed Frakes pushing him away. The sword clanged harmlessly against Reggie’s metal shell.

  Frakes looked at Reggie with disgust and said, “You again! Every time you block me! And here you are again! How many times must I destroy you? I hate you. You ruined my life.”

  Reggie gave Frakes a look that might have been pity. It was hard to tell, but his optic sensors seemed large and sympathetic.

  Frakes stared bitterly and with open hatred at his ultimate nemesis. Reggie was the one person who had what he’d wanted. Reggie was liked by the entire crew and Belle spent all her time with him. Belle had made Reggie, and she had created t
he code that eventually became him.

  Frakes looked at Reggie. “You’re my brother, that’s why I hate you. I have always hated you, ever since the first time I saw Belle repairing you. You’re my rival—my real enemy.”

  It was true Reggie was the robot that Belle loved. The one she doted over and pampered, her favorite. Frakes hated his brother Reggie.

  Frakes’s mind clouded with rage and jealousy. Reggie was built to replace him; all the primal sibling fears from his human childhood surfaced and focused on Reggie. He had to die. That way Belle would love him instead, pamper him instead, and care for him. But she would just make another Reggie; as long as she lived there would be a Reggie—she must die first. The woman, his mother, must die. He must stop her from making any more robots.

  Frakes lunged at Belle intent on murder.

  Reggie’s synthetic heart hurt as he watched his brother lunge at Belle. He had no choice; he had no voice, no way to prevent him. Reggie replicated a wall exactly in the spot where Frakes moved, just as his blade was ready to strike Belle. Suddenly, Frakes was part wall, part man, and part robot. Reggie gave him a last sympathetic low beep as Frakes stopped dead. A cheerful beige veneer now encapsulated him. His sword fell to the ground and his arms flailed uselessly. His eyes stared forward. They flickered a moment and froze. Frakes was dead. The wall that was Frakes stood still for a moment barely tilting, then toppled forward, face first, hitting the floor with a thud.

  The captain came out of his stupor just long enough to shout: “Hurrah for the Pirate King!”

  It was over at last. Frakes was no longer in pain.

  Everyone in the room stared in disbelief. It had ended so quickly.

  A handful of medics arrived and treated injuries.

  Kale ran to Belle and held her while she wept in his arms.

  Nigel just stared at the After Math and thought about the calculation that Reggie must have done to replicate a wall in the exact location Frakes would be at that exact moment, all while he was moving. “Those was some deadly math skills for certain,” he said in a low voice.

  Chopi mopped the floor where fluid had spilled.

  Lou, who had been running on adrenaline until now, leaned against the wall, his arm in pain. As he started to pass out a medic tagged him and he teleported to sickbay.

  Other crewmembers stood there bewildered, watching as each of the wounded was teleported away. Until there were almost none left.

  A female crewman approached the red-haired ensign who stood mouth open, transfixed on the sight of Frakes. “Sir, what do we do now?” she asked. “We are awaiting your orders.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, sir, you are the ranking officer. Everyone else is injured or dead.”

  She was correct, he was the only one with rank still standing.

  “Okay.” The ensign smiled and looked at the other expectant crewmen. “I got this.”

  He began giving orders in rapid succession and getting updates on ship status. “Get repairs underway, let’s get this mess cleaned, and prep for duty. Computer, teleport me to the bridge.” The ensign vanished.

  Belle, who was sitting on the floor, looked at Kale. Gone was the scared little boy who had been afraid to ask for help to get his food. Now in his place, was a scared little man who needed her. And she needed him too. “Can you please just hold me a moment?” she asked. “I’m in bad need of a hug.” Kale obliged.

  Belle’s feelings were a tangled mess; she had hated and loved Frakes. Like the child who had always tested her, infuriated her, and pushed her. Yet, she now realized that it had been a desperate cry for help. Frakes was just an artificial intelligence plunged into the confusing mess of emotions, urges, and feelings that are human. Sure, she had tried to make allowances for these in her programming, but how could you write an algorithm to anticipate each individual’s complex and varied mix of emotions and memories. How arrogant she and the others had been to think they could integrate with the miracle of the human brain. She shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d latched onto the role in the play the way he did. Plays simulate and encapsulate the human experience into a comfortable, linear, and predictable path. Unlike the random chaos of real life. Perhaps the virus had nothing to do with it. Perhaps this was an error with the overall concept of cyborgs.

  Kale sat there, not thinking anything deeper than the warmth and feeling of Belle’s embrace. His mind raced with a million possibilities. Visions of a possible future life they might share, a life of love and tenderness. The potential of happiness and joy seemed to stretch out endlessly before him. Yes, he’d been surprised she had no legs, but he thought he could overlook that. She was still the same sweet girl he’d fallen in love with.

  After chasing away the remnants of Frakes’s pirates, the Lactarians teleported to the Cosmos to check on Nigel and the crew. The princesses Glendena was with them. Nigel went to his wife and hugged her.

  The cleanup and repairs took over two weeks. The Cosmos was able to limp back to Falcon station for repairs. Lieutenant Lou recovered fully from his injuries and was back to work. A new captain and first and second officers were to be assigned to the Cosmos, and would arrive in a few weeks.

  The red-haired ensign had done an outstanding job and received a promotion. The poor man couldn’t wait to change into his new gold-colored tunic. He pulled off the red one and the dread that accompanied it lifted as he pulled it from his head and cast it far away from him.

  Chapter 18

  In the days that followed Kale and Belle had started dating and the glint of a romance was slowly growing. The thought of it filled Kale’s every waking moment. He spent all of his spare time doting on Belle. She’d repaired her leg and was recovering from the emotional impact of the confrontation with Frakes.

  She liked Kale’s attention, but she still had worries about dating a younger guy. Belle hated herself for allowing Kale to get this close. She had vowed never to let it happen again but here she was in another relationship.

  Everything seemed to go smoothly until a month later. Nigel approached Belle privately in the break room. Kale was in the other room chatting to the lieutenant.

  “Heya Belle, I got a little something I’m needing to discuss.”

  “Sure, what is it?” Belle asked, concerned by Nigel’s serious tone.

  “Well, it’s something been kinda bothering me since Glendena and me been talking.” Glendena had been living on the ship with Nigel ever since the battle with Frakes. Nigel hesitated.

  “Go on,” Belle encouraged.

  “Well, I got curious about how Glennie and her fleet found us after the captain had made the hasty jump. I mean we were in the middle of nowhere and all. So I asked Glennie, and she told me something that’s been bothering me loads.”

  “What is it? Nigel, just say it.”

  “I wouldn’t have believed it myself but Glennie’s people found stuff out about Kale. I don’t think the boy knows, I need your help. Since you and him getting kinda close in a romantic way, I figured you’d need to know before anyone.”

  “Okay, what’s the big secret?” Belle was getting anxious.

  “Kale has been spying for Quibbler all this time, sending him info.”

  “Is this a joke? Kale a spy? You’re kidding.” Belle almost laughed, but Nigel’s face was dead serious.

  “I wish I was kidding,” Nigel pulled out a strange device. Its screen was printing out the conversation Kale was having with Lou in the next room. The words appeared on the screen as he spoke, in real time.

  Belle recognized the technology immediately and understood what was happening. She became even more upset.

  “Please tell me this is a mistake. Kale has an STD?” Belle looked hurt. “No way! How did he get it?”

  “I figure Quibbler tricked him somehow, but it don’t matter. You know what those things do to a person. We can’t wait, we have to tell him and get the dang thing removed before Quibbler kills him. I’m sure once he knows what happened, he will b
e glad to have it removed.”

  “That’s not how it usually works, but we can try.” Belle’s face had gone pale.

  Belle and Nigel called Kale into the break room.

  “What’s wrong?” Kale asked. “You look like someone just died.”

  “Have a seat here, Kale. I got bad news,” Nigel began. “Do you remember Quibbler injecting you with something? A chip?”

  “Yeah, when we were looking for you after you disappeared. He said it would help me find you. It happened before I knew it. At least I think it happened, the memory is kinda fuzzy. I figured it was another of his scams. Every time I try to think about it… the memory… What did you guys need again?”

  “We were talking about the chip Quibbler stuck in you and you just blanked out.”

  “Oh, that thing—it don’t do nothing, just itches sometimes.” Kale was distracted.

  “Actually, Kale.” Belle tried to remain calm. “That chip is extremely dangerous. Where did he inject it?”

  “My arm. He claimed the chip would build my confidence, help me cope with situations to find Nigel. But like I said, it didn’t work,” Kale insisted.

  “That’s what the drug it synthesizes makes you believe.” Belle was searching his arm for a scar. “That drug is potent and extremely addictive.”

  “No, he told me it was a chip, there’s no drug. I’d almost forgotten about it. You guys are wrong about… What was it?”

  “We’re not wrong, let me scan your arm.” Nigel passed a device over this upper arm and Kale jerked as a pain shot through his whole arm.

  “You were conned,” Nigel said. “Quibbler is a terrible bad man. It’s my fault for introducing him to you. I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t understand. Why are you making such a big deal out of this?” Kale asked.

  “Why would you ever let Quibbler do that to you?” Belle asked, upset that Kale could be so gullible. “I thought you were smarter than that.”

  “I didn’t see the harm, besides he’s one of Nigel’s friends, helping us find him… he was helping us.” Kale was still repeating himself.