Simpoc The Thinking Computer
Page 10
first time he could see the entire airport in front of him. It was clear that something messy was happening on his right and as he approached 5 miles, he dropped the skids and could see a group of vehicle approaching from the left. Who is on his side?
The skids clunked down and the fuselage shook a little, but Tom was preoccupied with lining up on the centerline and beginning his flair. In this type vehicle the flair was quick and low, one quick movement to get the nose out of the way then, bang it’s on the ground. The landing slide was uncontrolled, Tom had directional control for only a few moments until he slowed down and lost rudder effectiveness. At that point, they’re along for the ride.
Alpha looked to the east and saw the craft approach and plow into the soil as it skidded it threw up a giant dust cloud. He tried to adjust his direction and speed to meet the vehicle as it stopped and heard over the com link that OUs broke through the defensive line and were making their way towards the landing site. Alpha directed all available mobile units to converge on the landing site to provide additional support.
As the lifeboat was skidding the last hundred yards, Tom pointed out to Joan that the conflict on the right appears to have defenders on their side and the others must be the attackers. He could only assume that the group of vehicles approaching from the left were friendlies. He announced the passengers to evacuate the craft as soon as it stopped and move to the left and the approaching vehicles.
The craft came to an abrupt halt and the cloud of dust overtook it, obscuring it for a bit. Alpha saw 7 humans emerge from the cloud running in his direction. He directed the 5 trucks with the electrical discharge weapons to create a perimeter around him and the humans until he could get them loaded.
5 of the 6 vehicles don’t slow down and seemed to be maneuvering around Tom and his group. The remaining vehicles slowed to a stop in front and he yelled for everyone to climb in the rear. As the last of them got in, the vehicle accelerated and moved away towards the buildings on the south side of the facility.
Alpha glanced through the window to the back of the truck. Once the humans were in, he directed the driver to head for a large hanger towards the middle of the parking ramp while his other 5 vehicles maneuvered and lined up following them.
Unfortunately, Alpha gauged the attacking force incorrectly and had his mobile units too dispersed to fully repel them. They broke through and he had to get to a defensible position so he could concentrate his remaining units, until the others on the facility could converge and provide a protective wall.
While bumping across the desert, Alpha remembered what little he knew about humans. There was very little loaded in his memory. He knew he must protect them and also that they were different from him. When they got to the hanger, it was interesting to meet one face to face and talk with them. So far Alpha’s communication had been through com links and he hadn’t a chance to use his vocal systems. Should be interesting he thought.
Date – 2051.6000
“SIMPOC; Alpha. We have picked up the humans and we are moving to a defensible position. We are engaged in a full-scale action with the uncontrolled units. At the present time, we are outnumbered but once we are in a position, I have the remainder of our units moving to defend us.”
“Alpha; SIMPOC. Excellent keep us informed.”
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Tom could see out of a small opening in the truck that they were approaching the main hanger at a very fast rate of speed. When they passed into the building, the driver slammed on the brakes and they were all thrown forward with considerable force as they screeched to a halt. The military in him told him to jump out and be prepared for action, so he climbed over the other passengers as they try to reorient themselves and jumped onto the ramp to see what he could do.
When the vehicle stopped, Alpha jumped out to get a view of the surrounding area. He wanted to give immediate tactical direction to his units and as he rounded the rear of the truck, he ran into a human. The result was harder on the human than Alpha, he was mostly metal and wire and the human felt soft and bounced off and skidded on the concrete after the impact. Both were stunned and looked at each other.
Tom tried to get up, but the time in space and the painful collision made him slow getting to his feet. Tom and Alpha looked at each other and made note. Alpha appeared to be over 6 ft. tall and had two arms and two legs. He was wearing a loose fitting overall. His face had all of the features of a human but was definitely a robot’s face. The eyelids were mechanical, the nose was much smaller and the mouth was just a small opening in the lower part of the face. There was no hair or ears, although there were small openings in the side of the face.
Alpha barely felt the collision, after all he weighed approximately 350 lbs. He watched as the human got up slowly taking long look at the wall he just bumped into. The human was a little smaller than Alpha and was wearing a green space crew man’s flight suit. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes. His face was covered with flesh and his eyes jumped around taking in all of Alpha.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment then Tom reached out his hand. Alpha was confused for a moment, then he remembered the human tradition of shaking hands, so he reached out and the human grabbed it and moved it up and down. The human’s flesh was soft and Alpha had to be careful not to squeeze too hard. After a moment the human smiled and said, “My name is Tom Herl, I was the senior staff engineer and senior military officer on Oasis.”
Alpha took a moment to form his words and said, “I am Alpha.”
Tom smiled again and said, “Ok, Alpha what are we dealing with?”
“Mr. Herl there is a large number of mobile units moving on this area. We presume they want to either capture you or kill you. I am here with a large number of mobile units under my control and I am tasked with protecting you and also maintaining control of this facility if possible.”
Joan had slowly lowered herself out of the truck, keeping her eyes on Alpha the entire time. She said as she approached her husband, “And who do we have here.”
Alpha moved his attention from Tom Herl to a smaller human who approached from the side. She was a couple of inches smaller than Tom and her hair was shoulder length. Her facial structure was softer and her overall body shape was very different from the other. After a quick review of human anatomy, Alpha recognized the differences as belonging to a female member of the human race.
“My designation is Alpha.”
“My…..designation is Joan, I am the Oasis commander,” She said with a smile. “I see you’ve already met my husband, Tom.”
Alpha sorted quickly on the term, husband and recalled that husband was a human designation of one of two humans matched for life as a team. The other partner was called wife.
“Yes……Joan. We just met.”
Alpha quickly sent a com message to the 5 trucks with the electrical pulse weapons, telling them to dismount from the trucks and set up a perimeter. They were told to defend the facility as needed until more of the local mobile units arrived.
“Tom Herl, Joan, I suggest we move to a safer place while my mobile units prepare to defend this area. There is a second floor to this structure where we can observe the unit’s movements and better direct our defense.”
“Where should our other crew members go? They were in space longer than we were and likely don’t have all of their strength back.”
“Please have them go to that briefing room and my mobile units will guard them.” Alpha said as he pointed to the main office space.
Joan shouted to the other Oasis crewmembers climbing out of the truck, “Go to those offices and wait for us, we’re going on top of the building to see what’s happening outside.”
“Ok, let’s go…which direction?” Tom said firmly to Alpha.
“Follow me.” As Alpha moved quickly towards a metal staircase.
As they ran, Joan smiled as she ran past a CH-47F Block 2 helicopter. Not a pretty bird but one she enjoyed flying for over 3,000 hours. Her momentary div
ersion had to stop so she could run harder to keep up with Alpha. His movement was very fast and they had to work to stay with him. Moving up the stairs 2-3 steps at a time, Tom noticed the metal creaking and his realized why the collision hurt so much.
At the top of the stairs, Alpha encountered a door and lowering his shoulder he went through it, with a loud explosion of noise and dust. They entered a room about 20X20 full of old cabinets and files, that hadn’t been used in years. The walls were all made of glass and this appeared to be an old observation room, used many years ago to watch traffic on the parking area in front of the hanger. For this purpose, it was ideal.
All of them moved from window to window to get a feel for the area and what they were seeing. They could see their craft and between them and the craft was a very large number of moving mobile units, Tom could only estimate the number to be almost 5,000. Between those advancing units and their locations, was a smaller force of units doing their best to slow the larger force. From other directions, smaller groups of units were moving towards their area but they weren’t positioned yet to engage the larger force.
Joan could see the 5 trucks that followed them had stopped and two mobile units from each had set-up positions. One of the units was carrying a large device which was connected to a rifle looking device being held by the