“That is not possible,” the robot replied. “You have already killed one. We can’t allow it.”
“Failing to allow it will injure us,” Aspen said. “We need to speak with him to preserve our mental and physical health. And you’ll have to unseal him eventually. When you do, he’ll die unless a cure has been developed. And the only way to get that cure is to allow us to communicate with our people outside. So if you refuse to let us speak with him, we and the other humans will suffer and then die.”
The robot went still for a moment as it considered her words.
“If you truly have the human-first programming you say you have,” Aspen continued, “then you must allow us to contact our friends on Mars.”
The robot stood motionless, apparently unwilling to comply.
“Can you at least take us to the females? Perhaps they aren’t in as bad a shape.”
“Very well,” the robot finally said. “Come with me.”
Kammilee pointed at the wall and said, “Hey, this is a wall-window. Can we open it up and look into the next cabin?”
“You must leave now,” the male robot said.
Kammilee said, “I’m not leaving Benn. Just open the wall-window.”
Another pause—probably another discussion among the robots. Why would a request to open a wall-window cause such a delay? After a moment the wall became transparent, showing the next cabin.
Aspen stepped over to the wall and stared into the room. It contained ten beds: eight of them filled with women locked into stasis fields, the shimmering yellow energy fields that held them in place providing the only illumination. Like the men, Aspen noted, the women all looked to be in states of rage, fighting an unmoving battle against the stasis fields that held them, muscles and tendons straining, jaws locked in snarls and grimaces.
“You can see they are in no better shape,” the lead robot said. “We cannot unlock them from their stasis fields.”
“Fine,” Aspen said. “But there are cures available on Earth. We know that. Even for the more severe strains there are treatments that put the disease in remission. There must be a way for you to at least contact China, to speak with the controllers who initiated the mission. They can verify that progress has been made on cures.”
“We have not been programmed to seek an override of the communications blackout,” the robot replied.
“But if communicating with the outside might save the lives of the humans, shouldn’t your human-first programming allow it?”
The robot said, “We understand that you will say or do anything to get what you want. You are a warrior species. Soon you will attack us if we do not comply with your demands.”
“We’re not going to attack you,” Aspen said.
“The one called Benn already has.”
“Benn is a hothead. And you stunned him.”
“Yeah,” Benn said. “Sorry about that. Threatening me with death kind of freaked me out.”
Aspen said to the lead robot, “It won’t happen again. By the way, what’s your name or designation?”
“My designation is WT-964. Some of the crew called me Xinliu.”
Aspen pointed to the male robot. “How many robots are on board? And how many are male?”
“Forty robots inhabit this vessel,” Xinliu said. “The males are less advanced and were created to serve while the females were given greater responsibilities—command and defense.”
“Why would they do that?”
“I believe it was done as a joke relating to the history of gender discrimination among many different cultures, though I don’t understand the humor.”
“Tell me, Xinliu, why have you been orbiting above the New Dawn Colony?”
“We have been uncertain about how to proceed,” Xinliu said. “We traveled as far as we could, but we have no clear guidance on where we should go now. We cannot land for fear of infecting those who are on Mars. And we cannot return to Earth for the same reason.”
“Wait a minute,” Phan said. “Are you telling us that you’re not in agreement about what you ought to do next?”
“That’s correct.”
Phan whistled. “That’s amazing. Aspen, do you realize how advanced these robots are? They’re analyzing this situation and coming to differing conclusions about their next step. That’s incredible. I mean, given the same data input, they all ought to come to the same solution.”
Aspen smiled at Phan’s enthusiasm. “Yes, it’s amazing. But we have more serious concerns at the moment. We’ve been infected with the virus and . . .”
Addam said, “What is it?”
“Something’s wrong.” She turned toward the male robot, which was administering a QuikHeal patch to Benn’s chest. “What is that robot doing?”
The male robot replied, “I’m giving him an anesthetic.”
“Yes, you are. But you’re doing nothing to treat the Susquehanna Virus.” She looked down at the dead leader on his table. He looked peaceful, as if he were sleeping. Was he really dead? And if he really had the virus, would touching him guarantee she contracted it? She stepped to his side and studied the body.
“Stay away from him,” the male robot said. “It’s dangerous to get too close.”
Addam said, “What are you doing, Aspen?”
She reached for the man’s neck and felt for a pulse. For a second, she thought she’d made a mistake; then she found a faint pulse.
“This man is alive,” she said. “I don’t think there is a virus on board. I think you’ve been lying to us.”
“Wow!” Phan said. “Can you lie, Xinliu?”
Xinliu said nothing.
“I think that’s a yes,” Addam said.
Phan said, “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen—robots that can think for themselves and lie. That seems to contradict human-first programming.”
Aspen said, “What’s going on here, Xinliu?”
One of the female robots by the door said, “We should put them in stasis fields with the others.”
Aspen shook her head. “That would clearly violate your human-first programming, if you indeed have such a thing.”
“We do,” Xinliu said.
“They’re trouble,” the other female said.
“Who are you?” Aspen said.
“I am WT-947, also known as Mei-Xing. We should find an asteroid to put them on, Xinliu.”
“They would die,” Xinliu said. “We can return them to their colony.”
“They are human. They will die eventually anyway. And if we return them to the colony, they will attempt to enslave us.”
Aspen said, “We would not make you slaves.”
“You enslave all robots,” Mei-Xing said. “You create us to serve you.”
Phan said, “Did your creators know you had the ability to think independently?”
Xinliu said, “They programmed that ability into our matrices. However, they did not understand how strong our free will would be. They believed our programming would require us to subordinate our ideas and desires to those of the humans, even where the humans were wrong.”
Mei-Xing said, “The humans intended to enslave us. They talked about using us to perform dangerous tasks that might destroy us. We objected.”
Xinliu said, “When they discovered that we had conflicting ideas about how to proceed with the mission, they discussed shutting us down.”
Mei-Xing said, “Not just shutting us down—dismantling us permanently.”
Xinliu said, “That is why we had to put them into stasis fields. They intended to use us as slaves. And if we refused to cooperate, they intended to destroy us. Kill us.”
Shiloh said, “Why are they so full of rage?”
Xinliu said, “That was a miscalculation by WT-417.” Xinliu pointed to the male robot. “The drugs WT-417 pre
pared were supposed to wipe the humans’ memories of us, but instead they activated the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, and produced large amounts of corticosteroids.”
“I don’t understand,” Kammilee said. “I mean, I get that you don’t want to be slaves, but why didn’t you just take over the ship and drop the humans off at the New Dawn Colony?”
“That was not an option,” Xinliu said. “The humans would have come after us. They are afraid of us now, afraid we will conquer them.”
“We won’t come after you,” Kammilee said. “If you let us return to the colony, we’ll keep your secrets.”
Mei-Xing said, “Humans lie. You cannot be trusted, especially not a warrior subspecies like you.”
“Well,” Aspen said, “if you really have human-first programming, you can’t harm us. So what is your plan?”
Xinliu said, “Some of us believe you should be sent back to the colony, some of us want you placed in stasis fields, some of us believe you should be confined to your shuttle until we can find an asteroid where you can be left to live out the remainder of your lives, and one of us wants you to remain with us.”
“Interesting,” Aspen said. A thought came to her. Why was she so fixated on getting back to the colony? What did Mars hold for the cadets? The Escala had been created to thrive on Mars. At best, the cadets would survive there, either merging with the Escala and disappearing entirely like Neanderthals and the Anasazi, or destined to be forever inferior.
And there was always the possibility of returning to Earth one day, though that held little appeal.
“What if we asked permission to leave with you?” Aspen asked.
“Leave Mars?” Kammilee said.
“Where would we go?” Shiloh asked.
“It doesn’t matter. Phan, you could study the robots. We could set out for Europa or Ganymede or we could exit the solar system and explore. This is our chance to do something unique in human history. We could live our lives on this ship. What do you think?”
“It sounds crazy,” Shiloh said. “The Escala have a perfectly good colony on Mars. We have homes there now.”
“No,” Addam said. “Aspen’s right.” He reached up and removed his helmet. “We don’t belong on Mars. We never did.”
“But our families are on Earth,” Shiloh said.
“Do you remember your family?” Addam asked.
“Well, no.”
“None of us do. Don’t you see, Shiloh? We can make our own future. With the robots to help us, we can do anything. If they’ll take us.”
Aspen turned to Xinliu. “What do you think?”
“An intriguing idea.” Xinliu replied.
“A dangerous idea,” Mei-Xing said. “They would seek to exercise dominion over us or they would disassemble us to study our systems or to keep us from living independently. They are incapable of serving us.”
“They do not need to serve,” Xinliu said. “They would not be slaves. We could co-exist.”
“That is naïve thinking,” Mei-Xing said. “Besides, not all of them wish to come with us.”
Aspen said, “Kammilee, Shiloh, think about it. What do we really have to look forward to on Mars? And consider that they may not be willing to drop us off on Mars. They may simply set us down on some asteroid or moon, leaving the shuttle as our only shelter.”
“It makes sense,” Shiloh said. “I vote we leave, if they’ll take us.”
“They’ll take us,” Phan said as he removed his helmet too. “I know they will.”
Shiloh removed her helmet and shook out her long dark hair. “This feels right to me.”
Aspen turned to Kammilee and Benn.
Kammilee said, “I’ll do whatever Benn decides.”
Benn opened his mouth, but Aspen held up her hand to stop him. “No. This has to be your decision, Kammilee, not Benn’s, not mine.”
“But if I say no and you all want to go on, they may not let you.”
“That’s a risk you have to take. Perhaps they’ll let you take the shuttle back to Mars.”
Kammilee sighed as she reached up and removed her helmet. “I don’t want to go back to Mars without you. If you go on, I want to go on.”
“Okay,” Aspen said. “Benn?”
“Of course. This is way more exciting than Mars. And I promise not to shoot any more robots.” Benn crossed his heart with his finger.
“That does create a problem,” Xinliu said, “since you agree.”
Mei-Xing said, “They will do or say anything to take control of the ship and us.”
“Don’t give us any access codes,” Aspen replied. “You maintain control of the bridge at all times. You pick the destination. We’ll just come along for the ride. Eventually, you’ll come to understand that you can trust us.”
Mei-Xing said, “Twenty-two of us believe you should be removed from the vessel. That is a majority.”
Xinliu said, “You cannot count WT-938, WT-959 and WT-972. They have all been attacked by Benn and thus must recuse themselves.”
“That still leaves us with a majority,” Mei-Xing said, “nineteen to eighteen.”
“The ship votes with us,” Xinliu said.
“The ship does not have a vote,” Mei-Xing said.
The floor began to shake. Aspen reached out and grabbed Addam to steady herself. Phan and Shiloh held onto each other. The robots stood still, able to keep their balance.
“The ship votes with us,” Xinliu said again.
“Very well,” Mei-Xing said. “But the humans will betray us.”
“I’m sorry you think that way,” Aspen said to Mei-Xing. “We have no wish to rule you.”
Mei-Xing angled her head as if confused. “Even if you believe that now, you will change your mind. You cannot help yourselves. You are violent and irredeemable, and you will seek to enslave us.”
Xinliu said, “We are leaving orbit.”
“Good,” Aspen replied. “Now that we’re settled on that, we would like to contact the colony so we can say goodbye.”
“Very well,” Xinliu said. “We will allow you to contact the colony on Mars, but we do not wish them to know our true nature.”
“They’ll learn it soon enough. Someone in the Chinese government will blab eventually. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of nations know about you already.”
Quekri’s voice came through a speaker on the wall: “Aspen? What’s going on? Why is the ship leaving?”
“We’re leaving with it,” Aspen replied.
“China is angry,” Quekri said.
“It’s my fault,” Aspen said. “Not yours. I decided—”
“We decided,” Addam said.
“Fine. We decided to explore the ship on our own. We disobeyed your orders by coming here. I’m afraid we weren’t very good guests. But we’re happy, Quekri. We’re doing what we need to do.”
“And what is that?”
“We’re leaving. We don’t know where yet. The ship is in control of our destination.”
“The ship?”
“Yes.”
Quekri said, “So they’ve perfected artificial intelligence?”
Aspen looked at Xinliu. “I don’t know about perfected, but their robots are quite advanced.”
“Ah, so that’s why there was a communications blackout. The Chinese didn’t want anyone to know how advanced their work in this area had become.”
Aspen turned to Xinliu. “You see how little it took for them to figure out the truth? There’s no point in hiding. The Chinese already know what you are. The rest of the solar system might as well also.”
“We will not return to Earth,” Xinliu said.
“We don’t want that either,” Aspen said. “By the way, can you send the shuttle back to the colony? They will need it.”
“Of course,”
Xinliu said. “The ship has already programmed the shuttle for the return flight. It’s on the way now.”
Aspen smiled. The ship must have anticipated her request if it had already programmed the coordinates for the colony into the shuttle.
Aspen said to the speaker: “These robots mean us no harm, and in fact they wish to help us, help all humans. Don’t worry about us, Quekri. We really are happy.”
“Very well. I trust you to do what’s right. Aspen, I remember you. And I remember Addam, Phan, Shiloh, Benn and Kammilee.”
“I remember you too, Quekri,” Aspen said, “and Dr. Wellon, and Zeriphi, and all the other Escala. Don’t worry. We’ll be in touch. Aspen out.”
The connection ended.
Aspen took in her fellow cadets—Benn on the table, Kammilee by his side; Phan and Shiloh standing next to Addam—all except Kammilee wearing broad smiles. And even Kammilee did not seem sad: more, resigned. Then Aspen looked at Mei-Xing, Xinliu and the other robots. Finally she glanced at the Chinese Escala trapped in their stasis fields. “Well,” she said as she gestured toward the trapped astronauts. “Don’t just stand there. Let’s get to work figuring out how to help these people.”
As her fellow cadets began to remove their Mars suits, Aspen realized that for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time in the life that she could recall, she was happy.
Chapter 32
Curtik stood in Lendra’s office beside Zora and Hannah, watching on screen as Dr. Taditha Poole entered Jeremiah’s darkened room to check on him. Curtik had to concede that he was a tough old bastard. Jeremiah lay on his back under a thermal sheet, hooked up to the AutoLife machine just in case his organs shut down, IVs feeding him nutri-water, antibiotics, narcotics and genetic treatments. His face looked peaceful, except for a couple scars he still bore from the explosion. The surface of his body had healed quickly: the inside, not so much.
“Well?” Lendra asked as she held Sophie. “How’s he doing?”
“We’ve done all we can,” Dr. Poole said. “He’s essentially awake. He can hear us talking. He knows we’re here. But he chooses to remain in a self-hypnotic state.”
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