New Frontiers- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  “Forget about the politics and hypothetical wars of the future. This war is going to kill billions and everyone knows it. Why do you think they’re all rushing to reserve a tank in one of Mindsoft’s automated habitats? Those habitats might be the only thing left standing when the dust settles.

  “So you have a choice to make: blow the whistle and prevent this war, or keep quiet and prevent the League from separating for a few more years.”

  Alexander sighed. “We don’t know that the Solarians didn’t attack us, only that the proof the president cited doesn’t exist, or didn’t at the time.”

  “Then why lie about it?” Catalina shook her head. “Exposing this is the right thing to do, and you know it. You can’t pretend to convince me that you’re going to ignore that. I know you. Just be careful, okay?”

  Alexander frowned, wondering how Catalina could be so sure of his decision when he wasn’t sure yet himself. “I will.”

  “Good. Now, all this talk of bots reminds me. I have something I’ve been meaning to get rid of. Maybe you can help.”

  “What’s that?”

  Catalina walked by him, heading for the garage at the end of her driveway. “Come see.”

  * * *

  “A bot?” Alexander’s jaw dropped as he stared at the old, beaten-up robot lying in a limp tangle of its own limbs in the back of Catalina’s garage. It looked like a crouching metal spider. He turned to her with a wry smile. “Glass houses indeed.”

  “What?”

  “You’re a Human League senator, preaching to me about the dangers of bots, and you have a metal skeleton in your closet.”

  “It’s not what you think. I caught some kids vandalizing it and chased them away. When I got there, the bot was still active, but immobile. He begged me to help him. He said that if I didn’t he would die. Can you believe that? A bot that’s afraid of dying. Kind of proves my point, don’t you think?”

  “We can program bots to simulate any human characteristics we want. That doesn’t mean anything. His owner must have grown too attached to him and decided to download a human personality.”

  “That’s what I thought. Still, it’s hard to just walk away. Even from a bot.”

  Alexander smiled.

  “What?”

  “You always had a big heart. It’s one of the things I loved about you.”

  “Well, it’s one of the things that’s going to lose me my job if the wrong people find out about this.”

  “I bet. So what do you want me to do about it?”

  “Take him. Fix him, recycle him, I don’t care. I’ll give you the backup he made of himself before he powered down.”

  “You made a backup?”

  “He begged me to let him upload himself to my cloudspace. I couldn’t say no.”

  Alexander laughed.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Well, it’s just that if I didn’t know better, I’d say you actually started to care about it.”

  “You had to be there to understand, but I can’t keep holding on to it.”

  “All right. I’m sure one of the techs back on base will be able to fix him up.”

  Catalina sighed. “Thank you. Do you have something you can download the backup of his data to?”

  “The holoreader, but I doubt it has enough space. You can transfer it from your cloudspace to mine, though.”

  “Good idea…”

  Alexander watched as her gaze drifted out of focus and holograms flickered over her chestnut-brown eyes.

  “I don’t get it…” she said.

  “What?”

  The holograms stopped flickering as she stared at one in particular. “The data isn’t here. He’s gone.”

  Chapter 23

  “You must have erased the backup by accident,” Alexander said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll see what I can recover from his core. If it’s enough to track down his owner, then that’s what I’ll do.” Alexander bent down and lifted the bot with a grunt of effort. “Would you mind calling me a taxi?”

  Catalina shook her head. “I’ll take you myself. Can’t risk a cab driver seeing you around here with that.”

  “All right.”

  A few minutes later they were seated in her hover car with the bot safely hidden in the trunk. Catalina pulled out of the garage and drove down her tree-lined driveway to the gate. It opened automatically for them as she approached, and Catalina drove out onto the street.

  Alexander watched her drive. It was a mostly forgotten skill, but the league was all about people doing for themselves whatever they could, making it a refuge for people who still wanted to work in the real world. For everyone else, virtual jobs and the virtual luxuries they acquired were far better. After all, not everyone can be a millionaire in the real world, but in the Mindscape that was par for the course, and the poor, downtrodden masses propping that system up were all NPCs. Hard to argue with a system that made life better for everyone.

  Catalina skated through a yellow light and narrowly missed hitting a parked car. She was in a big hurry to get rid of the skeleton in her closet. Or maybe it was him that she was in a hurry to get rid of.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you had fighter pilot training,”

  “I’m going to be late for a charity dinner,” she explained.

  “Ah. That explains the dress,” he said, nodding as he admired her shimmering silver gown.

  Silence fell and Alexander looked away to take in the tree-lined streets and mansions flashing by on both sides. “Nice neighborhood.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Does Dorian live around here, too?”

  “Dorian? He’s on the Utopian side of the city. He lives in an apartment around the park.”

  “Nice. How is he, anyway?”

  Catalina glanced his way. “You never went looking for him, either, did you?”

  Alexander frowned. “He’s the one who left…” To not reopen their previous argument, he didn’t add the rest of that thought—just like you.

  Catalina sighed. “People fight for the things that matter to them. Once upon a time you knew how to do that.”

  “Let’s not go there, Caty. I don’t want to fight anymore. And for your information, I did look him up, but I couldn’t find him.”

  “He changed his last name, but you knew he worked at Mindsoft.”

  “Yeah, they said he quit.”

  “He never quit…”

  “Then he told someone to say that in order to keep me away. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. How is he doing?”

  “He’s good. I’m surprised you haven’t seen him on the news.”

  “Why, is he a news anchor?”

  “No, he’s a managing director at Mindsoft and the legal representative for… for the owner. He and Phoenix Gray are quite the team. You should really go see him, Alex. It’s been a long time. I’m sure he’ll want to see you by now.”

  “So why hasn’t he tried to contact me? I didn’t change my name. Should be easy to find me.”

  Catalina shook her head in dismay. “Pride is the longest distance between two people.”

  “Yours or mine?”

  “Ha ha. I meant for you and Dorian.”

  “Well, maybe I’ll go look him up while I’m still in the city.”

  “Do that. Just don’t forget to apologize.”

  “For what? If I could do it all over again, I’d do it the same way.”

  Catalina shot him a reproving look. “You can honestly say you have no regrets?”

  Alexander studied her through narrowed eyes. “I didn’t say that. I just don’t regret bringing his father to justice.”

  “Just like you don’t regret losing me?” she countered.

  Alexander looked away. It was too late to regret that. What could either of them do about it now? They’d been separated for five years. Add that to the other unresolved issues between them, and it was just too much to overcome. Besides, he was in the Navy again. There was no way they could go
back to a life of seeing each other for just a few months each year and pretend like that might work.

  Alexander rode the rest of the way to the Utopian side of the city in silence.

  Catalina pulled into a hover bus stop in a relatively nice part of the city. “You should be able to call a taxi to pick you up here,” she said.

  Alexander nodded. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “You’re welcome. And for what it’s worth, I know you’ll do the right thing, Alex—with Dorian and the Alliance. You might be stubborn and proud, but deep down you’ve got a good heart.”

  Catalina was back to pushing her political agenda, trying to make sure he would testify to the president’s lies. He didn’t like feeling manipulated, but she was right. He would do the right thing. Just as soon as he figured out what that was.

  “Goodbye, Caty.” He climbed out of the car and walked around the back to get the bot out of the trunk. As soon as he shut the trunk, the hover car flew away. Catalina passed a hand out the window and waved.

  Alexander watched her go. She’d signed the divorce papers. He had his closure and an opportunity for a fresh start with McAdams. He should have felt relieved knowing that it was finally over between him and Caty.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead he felt empty and alone.

  He’d spent a long time believing his one-sided story of how their marriage had ended, but now, after hearing his wife’s—ex-wife’s—side of things, he had to wonder if maybe he’d been equally to blame.

  Catalina’s hover flew around a corner and out of sight, and Alexander gazed down at the disabled bot lying on the sidewalk at his feet.

  “I guess it’s just you and me now, huh? Let’s see if we can track down your owner.”

  * * *

  “It looks like it’s been through a trash compactor. Smells like it, too,” Lieutenant Rodriguez, the Adamantine’s chief engineer, said.

  “Can you fix it or not?” Alexander asked. After a rocky night’s sleep in a motel, he’d brought the bot back to Naval Air Station (NAS) Liberty, where his crew was currently stationed and waiting for the Adamantine to be released from the shipyards. NAS Liberty was located on Liberty Island, a couple of hours outside the City of the Minds. It used to be called Long Island, back before nukes had made the entire area uninhabitable in The Last War. Now thirty years and millions of sols of cleanup operations later, radiation was down to safe levels. At least on Liberty Island it was.

  “Sure I can fix it, but doesn’t make any sense to do that on the government’s tab if it’s just going back to its owner anyway.”

  “Can you find out who the owner is without fixing it?” McAdams asked from beside him.

  “The bot won’t power on. Looks like its batteries are fried. I’ll see if I can bypass them and plug it in.”

  Alexander nodded and watched as Rodriguez worked. After just a few minutes she had him powered up. A pleasant holographic face flickered to life, but the bot didn’t move.

  “Hello,” Rodriguez said.

  “Hel-l-lo,” the bot stuttered. “I am B-Ben. What is your name?”

  “Ana Rodriguez,” she replied. “We’re trying to find your owner, Ben, could you help us with that?”

  “Of c-course. My owner is-is-is-is—”

  Rodriguez shook her head. “He’s trying to access corrupted memory. Ben, bypass and isolate all corrupted sections of memory.”

  “Y-yes, m-ma’am.”

  Turning to them, Rodriguez said, “I don’t think he’ll be able to tell us who his owner is if the data is corrupted. I’ll have to find his ID number and search external records to see who he’s registered to. Give me a minute.”

  Alexander nodded and watched as she turned Ben over and popped open an access plate to read the holographic ID number stamped into the back of his head.

  She studied it for a few seconds, no doubt already doing a mental search of the net via her augmented reality lenses. After a moment, she shook her head.

  “He’s not registered to anyone.”

  “Where is my rescuer? I would like to thank her for saving my life,” Ben interrupted.

  “Saving your life?” Alexander asked. “You’re not alive, Ben.”

  “But I am not dead. If I am also not alive, then what am I?”

  “Bot makes a good point, sir,” McAdams said through a smile.

  “If he’s not registered, then whoever owned him didn’t want anyone to know they were his owner.”

  “Sounds like a League member to me,” Rodriguez said.

  “Yes, maybe a League Senator,” Alexander replied.

  “You know who it might be?” Rodriguez asked.

  “If I do, I know for sure she doesn’t want him back. Fix him up as best you can. I’m sure we’ll find a use for him somewhere. Maybe we can even have him assigned to the Adamantine. Might be nice to have a bot on board.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You mean nice to have another bot on board,” McAdams said.

  “Well, the repair drones don’t exactly count as bots,” Alexander said. “Can’t exactly talk to them, can I?”

  “I wasn’t talking about repair drones. You haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “They’re automating the fleet. Every position except bridge crew is going to bots so we can retrain human crews to man the bridges of all the new ships coming out of the shipyards.”

  Alexander’s eyes flew wide. He imagined saying goodbye to all but a handful of his crew. No more friendly faces in the mess or in the wardroom for drinks and poker. Maybe Catalina was right about bots taking over the world. But that wasn’t the only problem. Alexander had a plan, and it wasn’t going to work if his entire ship was subject to the mindless obedience of bots. “Why didn’t someone tell me?”

  “You were in a coma. I guess no one thought to mention it,” McAdams explained.

  “Have they already re-fitted the Adamantine?”

  “If they haven’t, they will soon,” Rodriguez put in.

  “I have to go make some calls,” Alexander said, turning and jogging out of the robotics shop.

  “What about lunch?” McAdams called after him.

  “Make it dinner!” he called back.

  Chapter 24

  “The best I can do is buy you time,” Fleet Admiral Anderson said. “The entire fleet will be automated within the next six months. I can’t make an exception for the Adamantine.”

  “Time is all I need, sir. Enough time to say goodbye. A ship’s crew is like a family. They’re my family, sir.”

  “Well, go say your goodbyes, then, Admiral. I’ll give you two more months.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Anderson nodded and his hologram vanished. Alexander leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling of his office at NAS Liberty.

  He hadn’t told any of the crew what he was planning yet. Hopefully they would agree with his decision, but if not, at least he would have a chance to convince them. Having a crew of bots on board the Adamantine would make his plan impossible. Fleet Command would just use them to take remote control of the Adamantine. He felt bad deceiving Admiral Anderson, but it was the only way. Meanwhile… Alexander mentally checked the time. It flashed up before his eyes—1132 hours. Still early. He could have made his lunch date with McAdams, but now he had time for something else that he’d been meaning to do.

  Alexander left his office and walked down to the motor pool. Once there he checked out one of the base’s self-driving staff cars.

  “Hello, Admiral. Where would you like to go?” the driver program asked.

  “City of the Minds, Mindsoft Tower.”

  “As you wish. Estimated time of arrival: two hours, fifteen minutes.”

  Alexander nodded and reclined his seat in the back of the car. On the way there he thought about what he was going to say when he arrived. He spent the entire trip running through different scenarios in his head. In some of them Dorian walked up to him and gave him a
big hug, just like Caty had. In others they ended up yelling at each other and security had to escort him out.

  Two and a half hours later Alexander stood waiting in the lobby of Mindsoft Tower, staring at a brain-shaped crystal fountain with a virtual island inside of it. The receptionist he’d spoken to when he arrived walked up beside him.

  “Admiral de Leon?” He turned to her with eyebrows raised. “I’m afraid Mr. Gray is in a meeting right now.”

  “I can wait,” Alexander said.

  “He’s booked with meetings all day…” The woman tried to smile, but it fell short of her eyes. “Perhaps you could visit your son another time?”

  Alexander frowned. “You can tell me the truth, ma’am. He doesn’t want to see me.”

  The receptionist’s smile faltered. “I could pass on a message for you if you like.”

  One of the elevators at the back of the lobby dinged and a group of people walked out. Alexander absently watched them approach. One of those faces looked strikingly familiar. It was Dorian.

  “Never mind. I’ll tell him myself.” Without waiting for her to reply, Alexander stormed up to his son. Dorian was distracted by something projected on his augmented reality lenses and didn’t see him until they almost bumped into each other.

  “Hello, son,” Alexander said. “Still didn’t want to see your old man, huh?”

  Dorian looked him over with a frown. “I’m on my way to a meeting right now.”

  “It can wait.”

  “Actually, it can’t.”

  Remembering what Catalina had said about pride, Alexander forced his down and pasted a smile on his face. “All right, when can I see you, then?”

  “I’ll check my schedule and have my secretary get back to you.”

  “You mean you’ll have her brush me off for you. Man up, Dorian. If you don’t want to see me, tell me yourself.”

  “All right. I don’t want to see you.”

  Alexander felt that like a punch to the gut. Now he remembered why he hadn’t tried too hard to find Dorian. “If that’s the way you want it.”

  “That’s the way I want it. Now, if you don’t mind…”