The Natural Selection Retaliation

by Kyle Robertson

  “You downloaded everything you know in just two hours?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I just talk fast I guess.”

  “I have to check what you put in me, give me a sec.” She began her REM eye sweep motion.

  Carlos was apprehensive about her finding out what his first comment was, but he stayed right there.

  Her eyes slowed.

  “Carlos, No one has ever done that to me before!” She was surprised.

  “So that means if I do it wrong the first time I’m fine because you have no prior reference,” he said nervously. “You’re not offended?”

  She walked up to him, put her hand on his cheek and kissed him.

  “No, Carlos. I’m actually intrigued.”

  Carlos felt much more relaxed with her statement.

  “We can do a flight with the Huntress two-seater trainer tomorrow. It’s late. You auto-pilot and let’s get some dinner.”

  Alikira agreed.

  “Let’s see what Gaia cooked up. Y’know, after we eat, I want to try your activity. Just remember, through pain or pleasure, I can still multi-task.”

  “Do not worry, Bonita. There will never be any pain. I’m tired of constantly fighting. I want to do the opposite tonight.”

  Carlos was serious. It didn’t matter if she had to be polished later. He didn’t see the machine. He saw a beautiful young woman.

  They both went to dinner.

  

  The next morning, Linda came into her room.

  “Hey, Di. How ya feeling this morning?”

  Alikira looked at her in a dreamy gaze.

  “I’m feeling kind of… moist this morning.”

  “What?! Oh, you mean lubricated.”

  “I guess you can say that,” she said. “Carlos can lubricate well.”

  Linda got curious immediately.

  “I’m empty, Di. You better fill in my dirt.”

  Alikira smiled.

  “Activate our tele-link. I’ll do more than fill you in. I’m gonna pave you.”

  Linda sat back waiting to receive the information. Alikira started her REM thing again.

  After about 5 minutes, they both broke their trance.

  “Okay, Di. I didn’t know your recollections of amorous events came with a feel component. Carlos is cute, but I never wanted to ‘feel’ him. And that was a digital recollection with no loss. You can just tell me next time.”

  “Sorry, Linda,” she said. “But now I’m guessing you know why I’m very happy this morning.”

  “Well, I never fathomed he could do that. I didn’t know he was double-jointed. Now I have to take a shower.”

  Alikira couldn’t wipe the smile from her face.

  Carlos rekindled my reason for fighting. I have to destroy the Program, so we can do that again, multiple times.” Her motivation accelerated two-fold. One was for Cole and the other was for her.

  “Sailing the entire Pacific Ocean can get deadly boring, so I’m glad you have a new ‘toy’ to play with,” Linda said.

  “Carlos is teaching me how to fly,” she said. “There’s an Antila Huntress top deck calling my name.”

  “So, he’s teaching you in a hot rod instead of a bus,” Linda assumed.

  “He said something about the landing-gear impact absorption design and some ‘calling the ball’ thing. White on white, you’re alright, red under white, you’re alright, red on red, you’re dead. All I know is I’ll access his teachings and be in the air with him.”

  “Okay, Di. Go be in the clouds with Fly Boy. I have to inventory and stockpile my cleaning supplies away from our cleaning automatons. Steve found them three days ago and he said they were harmless.”

  “It’s kind of ironic,” Alikira said. “We’re using machines for convenience to travel to the machine who made them to destroy it.”

  “If the Program wasn’t so arrogant to think the extinction attempt would’ve wiped out everyone in one fail swoop, we wouldn’t be here to use those automatons to travel to destroy it,” Linda said. “It was designed by a human with human flaws. Those flaws are inherently in its system. Kayleigh told me Marc said it may be our next evolutionary step. Just like the Crazies, he doesn’t get evolution. Nature does natural selection. A human can’t artificially accelerate a natural process.”

  “See, you and Chip are too smart. Maybe you should hook-up with the transiton.”

  “No, he’s Gaia’s property. I don’t want to screw that up,” Linda said. “Besides, I have a mind. I like muscles more in a physical sense.”

  “Then maybe you want some Steve. I’m kidding! After you said muscles, I couldn’t resist. I have a date with a hot rod,” she said.”Oh, and with a Huntress as well.” She left for the deck.

  Linda sat and thought, we both do like to destroy things. Her kid may have some validity to it.

  

   Steve went to Chip’s quarters. He put his Magrupt on his desk.

  “I need you to calibrate the aiming reticle. Veronica’s off eight centimeters.”

  “That’s like calibrating a rain cloud,” Chip said. “Why do you need to be so accurate when it’s mainly used as a cascade?”

  “A marksman always wants his weapon accurate to portray the impossible,” Steve said.

  “You’re going for concentrated stream distance,” Chip assumed.

  “No, Brain Nut. If Di gets captured by a crazy automaton, I could turn it off without hitting her.”

  “And that highly unlikely event can happen on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific,” Chip clarified the uselessness of tweaking his Magrupt.

  “I heard you stopped that gargantu-robot at the prison thinking the way I do. If it worked for you once, why be doubtful now?”

  “I’m not doubtful. Your methods are sound when needed. Right now, they’re just not needed.”

  “I thought you finally got it, Chip. My skills always have to be top notch at any time. This world ain’t a safe environment anymore. Our commander died beyond our control. I’ll be damned if I let Di get murdered when it’s in my control to stop it. Calibrate my aiming sight before the highly unlikely comes outa nowhere to bite us on the ass.”

  Chip acquiesced and began to adjust his reticle.

  “I’m gonna need you here to zero your sights. This isn’t an individual job.”

  Steve pulled out his penlight, turned it on, and sat it on a table across the room.

  “It’s a perpetu-energy light, so it won’t go out unless I turn it off.” He looked at Chip micro-adjusting. “Thanks for getting my craziness, Transiton.”

  “You better be lucky I embrace the name transiton, or you’d be out of luck, Brute,” Chip said. “You’re welcome.”

  

  Sledge and Kayleigh were working out in the fitness facility.

  “Are you sure you want me to push your leg that far back?” he asked.

  “With Jenny, I’m the top. I won’t shatter. Treat me like I’m Steve.”

  Sledge pushed her leg a little closer to her head. He didn’t want to hyperextend her thigh.

  “I’m a soldier, Sledge. I stopped wearing tight mini-skirts because I can do this.”

  She put her leg behind her head.

  “Why do you think Jenny won’t leave me?”

  Sledge stepped back.

  “Hey, I’m into weightlifting, not Yoga.”

  “That’s a ballet exercise. I don’t do too many downward dogs either. I’m just flexible.”

  “Why isn’t Jenny working out with you?”

  “She’s inventorying her insects. She didn’t think Carlos had proper pressure in the plane when he transported them to the naval base. Why do you ask? Are you nervous?” she asked.

  “I just feel… uncomfortable stretching with you. You make me feel like the perverted dad.”

  “Are you ‘uncomfortable’ stretching with Chip or Marc?”

  “No, but they’re guys.”

  Kayleigh realized his primitive ur
ges put him in this spot.

  “Look, Sledge. I’m just like them in every carnal urge and innervation. Get over your uncomfortableness. I will never find you attractive. Do you think Steve is sexy?”

  “No! Not if my life depended on it!”

  “Then think of me as one of the guys,” she told him. “Now, spot me on some bench-presses.”

  Sledge realized his stupidity and went to put weights on the bar.

  “How heavy do you want the bar?”

  “I’m feeling pumped. Put on thirty-four kilograms.”

  “What are you? Around sixty-one kilos? That’s over half your bodyweight.”

  “That’s another thing you’re good at. Guessing weight. I can do three reps of ten. Just spot me.”

  Sledge gave her the bar and spotted her.

  

  Everything was moving along. Steve honed his aim, Linda stockpiled her chemicals, Gaia had healthy sustenance, Kayleigh and Jenny had their weekly date, Sledge watched over everyone, Chip calibrated security around the carrier, and Alikira did a deck landing with Carlos’s help.

  It was taking a while to traverse the Pacific, but they kept themselves occupied.

  Carlos was in the helm’s station when he saw something he hadn’t seen in years. He was scanning the ocean for any opposition and saw a bird flying alongside the carrier.

  “Hey, Di! Come and look at this.”

  Alikira walked to Carlos and he pointed to the bird.

  “Is that a seagull?”

  “No, Carlos. The Program has a nostalgic morbidity. That’s bad luck. It’s an albatross.”

  “I thought they went extinct about two centuries ago.”

  “They did,” she said. “Get Steve. I think I need a marksman.”

  Carlos went to get Steve. Alikira hoped the bird wasn’t a new model generation, because she still had the recently updated control protocols.

  Steve came into the helms station with Carlos.

  “What’s up, Di?”

  “How far is the globed range of your Magrupt?”

  “It’s calibrated for a two-kilometer concentrated burst.”

  “I just have a one hundred seventy-meter vertical control range. Can you drop that bird?” She pointed at the albatross.

  “When I narrow my stream, I can hit it,” he said.

  “Do a low-frequency setting, so we can reactivate it.”

  “That’s a bird, Di, not a borgey.”

  “When was the last time you saw a bird? And in the middle of the ocean without a perch anywhere near no less? You blank it and I’ll catch it.”

  “I used to play Rothchild,” Carlos said. “I can catch it.”

  “You play Rothchild with kush-spheres. You need to play a real sport like Brawzak,” Steve said.

  “Rothchild is a sport of accurate delicacy. Brawzon is a malicious mindless excuse to hurt your opponent. I see why you’d like that ‘blood fest’. I can catch a bird with Rothchild playing. You’d crush that bird, Brawzak maniac.”

  “You like Brick Diamond and he likes Perrimore, Steve, big deal. You shoot it and he’ll catch it. Let’s do this job the accurate delicate way.” Alikira said as she walked to the deck.

  “Come on, Fly Boy,” Steve said. “I don’t care what Di says. Brick Diamond would liquefy Perrimore.”

  Carlos followed Steve, shook his head and smiled.

  They went outside to see the albatross staying with the Yamato flying about 400 meters high. It was in a static state with the carrier.

  “When I saw birds in the old world, they flew faster than that,” Steve said.

  Chip came to the deck to show Di his new capacity archive storage unit when he saw the three looking up.

  “What’s with the bird, Guys?”

  “Remember that highly unlikely reticle zeroing objection you had earlier? That bird is the ‘highly unlikely’,” Steve said and aimed his Magrupt. “Ready to score some points, Fly Boy?”

  “Drop it. I’ll catch it.”

  Steve fired his EMP pulse at the albatross. It was a silent fire, but it worked. As it fell, Carlos positioned himself under it.

  “I’m going for the title; watch out!”

  As the bird plummeted towards the deck, Carlos set his feet to catch it. He didn’t damage the bird when he caught it. Alikira remembered his soft hands.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Chip. I need your micro-driver set,” Alikira said.

  “That thing’s a drone?!” he was surprised.

  “If it isn’t, you’re gonna have a messy table. Remember when I wiped the food drone signatures and reprogrammed them as an auto-food delivery transports? I’m about to keep it from tracking us. We’re rerouting to Russia’s east-coast, Carlos. Time to use my Tech-ripper skills.”

  She took the albatross from Carlos and they all walked to the carrier’s lab. Linda was adjusting her countdown timers when they walked in.

  “Clear a spot, Linda. Chip’s getting his tools and is about to perform surgery on a bird,” Carlos said.

  “It’s a drone, Linda. Transiton didn’t magically learn vet skills,” Steve told her.

  Alikira sat the albatross on the table while Linda cleared a spot.

  “That has feathers and everything. How did it make a drone look so realistic?” she asked.

  Chip came in as she was marveling over it.

  “That drone is built for stealth subterfuge. Even in self-repair, you’d still think it was a bird.” He took out his micro-drivers and a spray can of solvent. Alikira assisted.

  “Spread its wings, Di. I have to find the seam.”

  “You know I’ve done this before.”

  “I know,” Chip said. “But they’re my tools and you can tell me if I screw-up.”

  He sprayed the albatross and a visible separation revealed itself around its neck. Chip lit the seam with his micro-driver and saw the seam fastener. He detached the head.

  “I’m happy it wasn’t bloody. I think Linda would line my bunk with an entry shape charge plastique if it was,” he said. “The rest seems like the mechanics, Di. Hack the brain. This is the Tech-ripper skills I do not possess.”

  Alikira inserted one of her info tentacles into the neck to wipe the connection and prior surveillance memory. She augmented the programming to a jamming alert beacon.

  “Reseal it, Chip. We have a new alert defense beacon now. When it activates to normal in twenty minutes, we won’t have to worry about being found. The anti-image stealth anti-radar detection bubble system is still working, right?”

  “I just checked security. The stealth bubble is operational. Click it on at the helm.”

  She took the albatross up to the top deck to have itself reactivated.

  “The reason I called the Program nostalgically morbid was this scenario was once a poem published in seventeen ninety-eight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It was about a tale of a sea voyage with an albatross as a dark supernatural omen.

  It helped at first, but the mariner shot and killed the bird. They lost their way in the Arctic and with no guidance, their water supply depleted. It was a tale of shooting yourself in the foot,” she said. “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”

  “Then why did you ask Steve to shoot the bird?” Carlos asked.

  “I’m turning that rime on its head. Steve didn’t shoot the albatross to kill it. We’re using it this time as a good omen. It’ll protect us and Gaia has manufactured plenty of pure water. The Program doesn’t know I know its intentions and can switch them. I don’t think it has a human strategy algorithm built in. I understand its design, it doesn’t know the ingenuity of a human mind.”

  “How do you know of this ancient poem?”

  “In Victoria, our school wasn’t modern, so we studied ancient stories. I did a book report on it with a moral.”

  “What moral did you write?”

  “The obvious one,” she said. “Don’t shoot birds that crap on your boat.”

&
nbsp; All of a sudden, the albatross whirred to life and hopped towards Alikira. She picked it up, confirmed the pupil dilation acknowledgment code, and released it to patrol the air.

  “Click the stealth bubble protocol switch. I know it’s slated for a wartime situation, but I overwrote the protocol. We are in a war,” she said. “Get Gaia if you can’t read Japanese for the switch. She knows Kanji.”

  Carlos nodded and went to find Gaia.

  “You like taking away my fun, Di,” Steve said. “We’ll have no enemies on our voyage.”

  “We’ll land in America soon. I think you’ll get a whole lot of fun at Ocasio-Cortez Naval Base.

  Chapter Three: The Refueling Terror Debacle

  They traveled towards Russia. When they got to North Korea, they veered 76 degrees to get to San Francisco. There were no drones mapping their destination. The albatross returned every hour with a data purge report Alikira downloaded to see where all of the others were diverted to. That’s how she mapped their course.

  As they headed towards Ocasio-Cortez Naval Base, Steve spoke.

  “I think this refuel will be boring. Kayleigh told me the Program deactivated all the new borgeys and the automatons show no threat to anyone without an assistant, so if they’re still lingering, they’ll just be target practice. I feel like I’ll be shooting disabled kids.”

  “Stop asking for action, Steve, You just might get some. We’ve never seen an albatross drone before. We just don’t know what level of defense is waiting for us on the base,” she said.

  “All the military vehicles aren’t equipped with computers due to the North Mandoro hack of 3012, so she can’t control any mega-trek tanks. We’re clear, Di.”

  “Why are you calling the Program she?”

  “I had an ex who was just as cold and calculated as the Program and I won’t call it Candice because that gives it a human trait. The Program’s far from human.”

  “According to your explanation, Candice was ‘far from human’ too,” she said.

  “Well, you can never be good without practice and that’s exactly what Candice was; practice.”

  Alikira was curious about Steve’s attitude towards Linda. He wasn’t all that bad. He was direct, powerful, and muscular. Linda just didn’t know she described Steve when she was thinking of a man.