“Well, on the strength of that I think I’ll have a beer then.”
Eleven
Sue, Myfair, and Leaf spent the next few hours sulking, sometimes together, sometimes not. Where the Skidians were concerned Bruce did not care to ask what they were up to and in Sue’s case he didn’t give a rat’s arse. None of the others seemed to care what the supernumerary passengers were up to either.
All the key players had stayed in the command centre. None of them seemed to want to find a place to have a snooze for the moment – they were too much in awe of the growing manufacturing modules on the asteroid they were tethered to and the implications this had for the future of their personal and professional worlds. They were not about to miss anything which might give them some extra leverage somewhere down the track.
Bruce sat quite happily in the comfortable chair he had managed to conjure up, holding a beer and watching the construction activities on the asteroid. The ship was still connected by a set of guy wires to the asteroid so it matched its tumble, which made Bruce feel a little giddy when he stopped to think about what he was seeing and, even more, where this was all taking place. He also got confused which way was up or down from time to time, even with his bum planted firmly on the seat.
The manufacturing units were making remarkable progress. In no time at all the unit closest to the ship had morphed into a small factory the size of a double garage with what appeared to be an anchor point of some kind attached to the roof.
Well, that’s what the old general maintained they were. He and the two doctors had remained huddled together most of the time. From time to time they took a break and looked out the window then went back to their discussion. But now, along with Wisneski, they all joined Bruce in having a drink and a nibble and watched the activity unfolding on the asteroid.
They had also taken untold photos of the parts of the ship they could access. They focused on the mounted touchscreens. The rest of the control system remained stubbornly resistant to their attempts for any response – the only thing they could get it to do was to pan the external cameras over the asteroid and the wider solar system.
Bruce could understand their interest in the technology on offer while fulfilling their requests for the food and drink delivered by the service modules – they were almost beyond comprehension in themselves. Who had ever heard of robotic waiting staff? He could also understand their frustration at having about them a vast wealth of technology that was beyond their ability to both fully comprehend and exploit for their own benefit.
If just being way out in the outer reaches of the solar system on an alien spacecraft was not enough, they were seeing micromachinery virtually grow into a rocket engine that would steer the potentially species-ending killer asteroid away from Earth. There was also the question of how the craft maintained gravity as it remained in station alongside the asteroid and, most importantly, what were the rules of physics being used to manage the ship’s propulsion system?
Clearly the ship must have multiple modes of propulsion. A wormhole engine or generator, or something similar, would be required for interstellar travel, and another system for orbiting around a planet and landing. Bruce had told them they had not entered a wormhole on the trip out to the asteroid and, based on their understanding on what entering a wormhole would look like, his passengers tended to agree with him. They could always see and identify the stars and planets of the known solar system as they travelled the relatively short distance from Earth. On the other hand, what would some hick farmer from the end of the world know about propulsion systems and the physics involved?
Bruce also had to chuckle cynically to himself at the way Shelly Shaw seemed to have put his clumsy attempts to impress her behind her now. It appeared she had put two and two together and seen the way the relationship between Bruce and Sue was deteriorating and seemed to think she might be able to use the situation to her advantage.
He didn’t know what Sue had promised Shelly Shaw and the others in terms of access to the Skidian technology but it seemed Shelly Shaw was angling to present herself as a contingency if Sue failed on any promises she had made or implied she could deliver. She sat alongside and allowed him an eyeful of her ample breasts each time she leant forward to pick a morsel from the plates in front of them or to take a drink. Bruce thought she was being a bit obvious. Her behaviour was counterproductive as it served, for some reason, to end any lingering attraction he had for her once and for all.
Bruce glanced across at Wisneski who rolled his eyes theatrically, and he heard a whisper of a virtual snicker that sounded like it came from Cop.
Just how effective is that kill switch, he wondered. Was it just a way of filtering out the background noise, and to make him feel better? Whatever the case, it appeared he had at least a degree of free will, and while the MPU nestled like another mind within his own, it was not omnipotent and quite possibly had little actual control over him.
Bruce’s virtual finger pressed the kill switch button. “Am I right?”
About what?
“I am just confirming the content of our earlier conversation: you can read some of my thoughts and intentions but you can’t fully control me behaviour and most certainly can’t control what I think.”
The MPU was silent for a moment. Bruce could almost imagine the bloody contraption sighing and taking a deep breath, gathering itself before it spoke to the primitive being that was his interface with the physical world.
Think of it more along these lines – I can interpret your thoughts in as much as a thought might be articulated; how you might talk to someone in a conversation. As I explained before, I can’t actually read your thoughts. I can only interpret what I think you might vocalise.
“Yeah right,” Bruce muttered. “Yeah right.”
“And you?” Bruce asked Cop.
“I have no idea,” Cop replied. “I’m just a dog remember.”
Bruce glared across at the dog who was apparently asleep, his head resting on his outstretched legs. The dog opened one eye and regarded Bruce for a moment then closed it again.
Bruce settled himself comfortably, ignored Shelly Shaw and the conversation that swirled around him and dozed off. One moment he was enjoying a pleasantly erotic dream, filled with nude female forms he vaguely recognised – or thought he did – then the next he was staring into the centre of a star which made no sense at all in the dream. Then Wisneski was shaking him awake.
Bruce opened his eyes and found himself looking at the asteroid slowly moving away from the ship. He could clearly see one rocket perched on its mounting and presumed there was another on the far side of the asteroid.
A steely blue flame – well, more a hazy blue trail – of ionised particles was flowing out the rear of the rocket exhaust.
The tests were successful, the MPU informed him. I have programmed the rockets to nudge the asteroid onto a new course into a wide orbit around your planet.
“The asteroid is on its way to its new orbit and is no longer on a collision course for Earth,” Bruce told the others, putting his own slant on the firing up of the rockets.
“Can we review the new orbit? Can you throw up a diagram of it on a screen, by any chance?” General Smith asked.
Before the sentence was finished the MPU had projected a chart depicting the new trajectory of the asteroid on the wall showing a wide orbit around the Earth out past the moon.
And way ahead of schedule, the MPU added rather smugly.
Bruce was really starting to wonder what it was with this machine. If indeed it was one. It seemed to be developing more and more of a human-like personality as if it were a breathing, thinking being. Bruce could never imagine an AI, no matter how clever, being anything other than a machine. There were some things a machine could never do, and one of those was to bring emotion into its thinking.
“The initial rocket tests have proved successful,” Bruce added. “And the MPU’s plan is well under way.”
“But we neve
r agreed to any plan,” Dr Roach began. “There are a number of considerations we need to take into account; we haven’t even done a simple risks and benefits analysis.”
“It is too dangerous and we can’t allow it …”
“I’m not sure any of us really has any choice or influence in the matter, mate,” Bruce replied.
“But you must be able to do something?”
“About?”
“Well, how about telling us the real reason the asteroid is out here? Why does the controlling AI want to send it on an orbit about Earth? There’s going to be enormous repercussions when the population of Earth becomes aware there is a rocket-powered asteroid on its way into orbit around the planet. It’s not about the orbit, or the potential danger to the planet and all who live on it, it’s the irrefutable proof the human race is not alone in the universe.”
“The potential consequences are enormous,” continued General Smith. “This whole exercise needs to be thought through in a lot more detail otherwise there is going to be complete mayhem. The invasion of Iraq and Syria all over again on a far greater scale.”
“You can’t just impose such a momentous event on the world without any warning. The revelation we’re not alone in the universe has the capacity to destroy nations and our way of life!”
Bruce wasn’t sure whether they meant the American one or the Western nations or the whole planet when they talked about ‘our way of life’. The questions and the accusations came thick and fast. He doubted much would change. He reckoned that once the initial saturation media cover that would result once the rocket-powered asteroid was ‘discovered’ blew over in about ten minutes, most people would forget all about it until it finally swung into orbit close enough to Earth for someone to mount a mission to land on it and investigate it fully.
Until that happened, despite any high-resolution pictures from high-powered telescopes, what was actually happening on the asteroid would just be informed conjecture.
“We’re now headed back to our initial departure point. Look, I don’t really think we have much choice in the matter – the MPU is too powerful for us to influence,” Bruce repeated. He didn’t add he had started to question whether the MPU might have an ulterior motive it hadn’t yet shared with him.
He was not in the sharing mood, given the attitude of General Smith and Dr Roach who seemed to be holding him personally responsible for anything negative related to the space patrol ship and the asteroid, even though they had successfully pointed it away from impacting on Earth.
Twelve
Sue, the general, and the doctors spent the whole trip back to Earth squabbling among themselves, positioned as far away from Bruce as they could. No doubt they thought they could keep their conversation a secret from him, but they had not reckoned on the MPU giving Bruce a thorough rundown on their discussions. To be honest, Bruce didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out they were conspiring against him. Wisneski remained aloof from the discussions, while the two Skidians were nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile the three dogs grew a little restless until a service unit bearing food and water appeared. After satisfying themselves, making a bloody great mess in the process, they soon settled down again. Bruce thought they smelt a little manky. They had clearly been locked up for too long without a run, and had a good mind to give them a wash – well, see if he could get a service unit to give them a wash, but that would make even more of a bloody mess in the confined space of the ship and annoy everyone aboard.
“What am I going to do with them?”
I will return them to their origin point, the MPU replied.
“OK, that’ll give old Rangi a bit of a shock, even if the silly old coot has noticed they’ve gone missing in the first place. What about the other two, Myfair and Leaf?” Bruce asked, cocking his head in the general direction they had disappeared sometime before.
What do you suggest? the MPU asked.
“I guess they can come home with me for a while – while I put my own affairs in order. It seemed life is going to get a little interesting if Wisneski’s view of the world is correct.”
I won’t let any harm come to you, Bruce, the MPU promised reassuringly once again. Or Myfair and Leaf, it added as an afterthought.
“But are you sure you can protect me from the Americans – or any of the other great powers; they have huge resources available I can’t hope to match, no matter how clever I think I am.”
I don’t think any of you fully understand the capabilities of this ship and the technology I command. You have nothing to fear from any of your planet’s governments, their armed forces or their various security organs. Besides, I think you have other more pressing problems to deal with.
Bruce knew what the MPU was talking about. He could almost imagine what Sue was saying and implying. She would be trying to impose upon her fellow Americans how extensive her own knowledge of all things Skidian was and asserting her sense of entitlement to be involved in the big-picture events which she could see might provide opportunities for the future.
He sighed. This was not the time or the place but he knew that very shortly he would have to discuss their future with Sue and she was not going to like what he had to say one little bit.
Bruce assumed the ship would soon be landing and the group would disperse – or would it? He turned to Wisneski and asked, “What’s the plan, what happens next?”
Wisneski nodded to the quartet huddled together on the other side of the ship. “Not sure really. I’m taking my orders from the general but I’m not one hundred per cent sure he knows what he should do next.”
“So what do you think their next step is likely to be? What would you do?”
“I think you’ve got a honeymoon to finish, haven’t you?” Wisneski asked at last. “I’m pretty sure you’ll have a bit of breathing space but not much more than the next few days.”
Bruce had almost forgotten about his honeymoon in all the excitement and the trip he, they, had planned. He had been looking forward to it. Actually, if the truth be known, he had always been looking forward more to what he was going to be doing on his honeymoon than who he was going with. Now that was doubly true.
“I guess I have,” Bruce replied rather glumly as the thought of being alone with Sue for a few days weighed heavily upon him. “I guess I have. Last hurrah more likely,” he added to himself.
The general motioned to Wisneski to join the conspirators in their little huddle. He emphasised a few points with various gestures and emphatic pointing of fingers followed by some vigorous shaking of heads by both Sue and Wisneski. Amidst this, Shelley Shaw smiled across at Bruce.
It was a calculated smile by someone who was used to getting what she wanted by dazzling some poor mug with her beauty and charm, and the unspoken promise of special favours soon to be bestowed on the recipient. Which of course never eventuated for mere mortals like Bruce.
Bruce wasn’t having any of it. It just served to reinforce in his mind that while he did find her physically attractive she was actually a bit of a cow and he wanted nothing more to do with her if he could avoid it. In some respects, he was actually a bit offended by her behaviour. Did she think he was some kind of idiot? And that was before she actually did anything to really piss him off.
Ha! he thought. The next few weeks could actually be fun, playing cat and mouse with these guys who were in the process of deluding themselves further they were actually in control of events. They had a collective confidence they had the ability to manoeuvre him into doing their bidding in order to supply access to the technology on offer from the Skidians for the benefit of their various masters, their country and themselves. And not necessarily in that order.
Bruce realised this expedition had very quickly progressed from a mission to save the planet to one advancing the interests of the United States at the expense of everyone else, and he was not comfortable with that at all. Especially given his personal world view, reinforced by recent experience, that the
country was run by a group of complete nutters for the benefit of a very small section of the population.
The Americans had obviously given up on Myfair and were now most likely going to try and use Sue to get the information and access they so clearly desired, if he was not going to play ball.
Bruce had a pretty good idea what Sue had told them about her ability to control him and access the Skidian systems, and he was sure they would lap it all up. Now they had deluded themselves she was telling the truth, they were starting to make promises they could never hope to keep and create some kind of fantasy world they would entangle each other in. Well, that’s the lens through which Bruce viewed it.
“Yeah, I can manage Bruce,” he could hear Sue saying via the MPU. “We were on Skid together trying to feed them. In fact, I was the driving force behind all the initiatives we tried to implement.”
Yeah, right!
And they were lapping it all up, making themselves believe Sue was telling the truth. Because the alternative was the inability to grasp the promise of riches and power that was so tantalisingly close or, worst case scenario, somebody else getting to the asteroid or control of the spaceship before they did. At this point it wasn’t clear if they would differentiate between another United Sates agency or a foreign power.
As Wisneski ambled back over to him, Bruce could imagine how it would all unfold in the next few weeks. The ship would land and they would all troop back to office building where they had met earlier in the day. He and Sue would pick up the rental car and complete their trip. At the end of the honeymoon, instead of flying back home the two of them and little Bruce would be spirited off to some undisclosed location, then it would all begin. Just what the full plan would be, Bruce could only guess at, and he was sure of only one thing – if he did not cooperate, it might not be pretty. One way or another there would be a plan hatched to milk him for all the information and access they thought he possessed or had access to. Well, that’s what the he thought, anyway.
The Lifeboat Page 14
