“If it will help, they number in the billions on a planet with food, when it runs out they eat each other until either a new food source is found or they all die. They can use almost any tech items we or other humanoids have made, but seem incapable of designing their own. They seem to be individual minds, not a collective entity, but also appear to be like a swarm of bees. Each with a function. You have bees? We have no knowledge of how they communicate.”
I nodded.
“I’ll ask you, why not destroy this door thing and stop them from coming in the first place?” By his attitude I was getting serious doubts about our Mike guy.
“Mike I think—”
Lucy cut me off. “Mike, I am a computer, I run on logic. I know what things like feeling and fear and love and hate are in the abstract. But I need to clarify some things for my electrons to digest. Indulge me please?” She watched him intently, right up in his face.
“Okay, what?” he finally asked.
“This team was selected by whom?”
“Lord Pitviper.”
“You are selected as its official leader?” she asked.
“Yes, I have military and security training.”
“Mike, I don’t know your culture other than the information left behind by Honor and her staff, and what I have observed and been told since, does your military training include deliberate undermining of your superiors in front of those of lower rank?”
“You’re nothing but a damn robot, a piece of metal and you aren’t my superior!” He started to get up.
“No, but I am, and so is she.” I pointed to my wife. “You have insinuated listening to a robot is wrong, by connection we are wrong. Only you are right, and I find that troublesome. Who do you really work for? Lord Seacodent?”
His temper flared out of control as he jumped at me. I almost smiled as I threw a short jab and a hard left cross. True I was just a half elf/half human and he was the more muscled, but my climbing had me as hard as nails and I was never beaten in school in either wrestling or boxing. He went down with a crash as the others on his team started to stand up.
“Sit!” I commanded, as I checked Mike to insure I hadn’t kill him. I had hit him a bit harder than I had intended. They looked to each other, not sure what to do. “Are you also working for Lord Seacodent? I said sit!” They finally sat down as I picked up Mike and sat him in a chair. He didn’t know it, but he was going home, I’d made up my mind.
“Lucy, contact Lord Pitviper and inform him we need a replacement for Mike, please. The rest of you report to your rooms and wait for further orders, or do you also wish to leave?” I glared at them and all decided to quietly exit the mess hall.
I saw Mike coming around; he was wiping blood off his mouth where I split his lip pretty good. He glared at me, pure hate. “You sit there and don’t move. We are getting a replacement for you. I think Lord Pitviper will want some questions answered.”
Lucy had just remained standing and observed. Finally she said, “You are a trained fighter? That was as near to perfect a punch as I have listed in my data.”
“A little training in school, more natural ability I was told. Never lost a fight if that is what you mean. Elven reflexes versus Dwarfish muscle, no contest in a fair fight.” My wife smiled, all knowing. I had won her heart following a fight.
“I see,” Lucy said.
I was just turning toward Mike when he bolted, not at us, out the door. Lucy almost laughed as she spoke over the Comm’s, “Come back, Mike, nowhere to run up here. The chopper will be here in a few hours to give you a ride home.”
“Shut up! I will destroy you, melt you down to slag before I go. I got my orders and they don’t include leaving you functional.”
“As I suspected, he works for Seacodent. So damn obvious, I just worry he might have another, a real spy, in our group,” Loka said.
“One at a time, one at a time,” I told her. She took my hand and inspected my bleeding knuckles.
“You knew he’d flip didn’t you? You knew he’d attack you and you egged him on, just like you did against Scott when you won me,” she said, as she kissed my hand and released it.
“I knew he would do something. Didn’t really think he’d be so stupid as to try that though. We have to insure where all the loyalties are. All our lives will depend on each other and the sooner I can dump those that think like Mike, the sooner I can feel comfortable in what we are trying to do. Do you regret my beating Scott to win your hand in school?”
“Lord Seacodent doesn’t work for the MKs and is just doing what he believes is best for us. I am sure others are just as afraid as he is. All we needed to do was send him packing, Lord Pitviper would have handled it. Now we have a lunatic bent on destroying us running loose in a facility that has many unknown dangers and possible weapons,” Loka said. “No dear, I never regretted it either.”
Over the next three hours I reassembled the rest of the team, I had them swear allegiance to Loka and Lucy. I knew they represented the various Council members, we had no problem with it.
“If any of you are spying for Lord Seacodent do it openly. We don’t care who you represent here, you represent our planet in what may become a fight for its existence. Lord Seacodent has proven to be a coward, caring only for himself and his reasoning is as flawed as he is. If any work for him, identify yourself and join us openly, or you can leave when the chopper comes. I promise I will kill anyone from here on who jeopardizes our mission to save Olgreender.
All swore. I set them up as groups of two and sent them looking for Mike. Lucy reiterated the death rooms and death signs and they all picked a different direction to search. Find and contain was their only order on Mike. I wanted him alive.
An hour later Loka and I were called to the yellow door. Lucy stood there covered in thick garments. “The idiot not only went into the outer chamber, he tried to disrupt the cooling to cause a meltdown. He entered the core room, never had a chance, zap. I need to close the doors and adjust the controls. You two, same as before, I was just getting to like this body too.”
She went in and shut the door then, after a bit the yellow door opened and what almost looked like a slag heap fell out holding a little box. I took the rods and removed the box to the decontamination room, then shoved the slag behind the door and re-closed it.
Loka and I took showers again, destroying everything we wore and cleaning the box that contained the essence of Lucy on a few sticks of memory. We checked everything on the counter machine and we were in the green.
Loka took the box to the lab and sure enough, Lucy had rebuilt another tread-like design. Loka handled the installation and soon Lucy was once again a functional robot with one eye and one arm out the top. Ugly, but functional.
“No more Mikes please,” she said. “I thought he damaged the inner door, didn’t catch it before, it is sprung at the bottom. Mike had almost started a meltdown.
“I have the door secured for now, but I need to do more repairs so I have initiated shutdown procedures. I am making a new body, this one will be useless after the repairs as well.
“Sometimes I find the sacrifices you humanoids are willing to do for each other quite admirable, other times just totally dumb!
“While I remake parts of my body, go meet the chopper. I already recalled the teams, they should all be in the cafeteria by now.”
Loka took my hand and led me out of the Lab. When we were in the hall I took off the earpiece and hers and set them aside as I pulled her out of hearing range. “You know in some minor way I have to agree with Mike.” I saw the look on her face, but she said nothing. “It’s just that we all but gave this robot computer our lives and authority over us, our planet, our very souls, and yet we know absolutely nothing about her, or it. I still get the feeling she is withholding information from us.”
Loka looked into my eyes and took my hands. “I trust her. I feel, I don’t know, almost like I know her, like a sage grandmother or something.”
“It
isn’t so much I don’t trust her, just that I have concerns.”
“Good, then you are still my normal, intelligent, Elf husband I married.” She smiled and kissed me. We retrieved the earpieces and went to the ledge. The chopper was full, a squad of armed men and women, fifteen in all, unloaded. I told the pilot there were no returning passengers, he’d committed suicide. I gave him the memory sticks for Lord Pitviper from Lucy. He saluted and was soon gone.
An elder woman, clearly part Elf, approached and said, “Eldon and Loka?”
We both nodded.
“I am Elnaethor Lithlinde, Lord Pitviper talked the council into bringing me up from the southern Army HQ. I am one of three female Generals currently serving.
“He posed a strange question to me and I told him my answer. I was ordered to tell you as well. Olgreender is my home, Lord Pitviper is one of my bosses, and yes I can follow orders when I understand them and they do not violate my oath.” She looked to us both. “I assume one of you will tell me what is so strange here that I must be questioned as to my loyalty?”
“Will a galactic war do for now? One where we are nothing but lunch?” I asked.
“The rumors of a strange device that has knowledge of the ancients are true then? We have had no official word other than great discoveries have been made.
“Oh, I’m sorry, call me General or El.” She looked to Loka.
“No problem, come and meet the strange device. Her name is Lucinda, or Lucy for short. Bring your detail as well, we can get it over with in one pass that way.” Loka turned back to the strange door that would soon be part of an ice-cube again. “We never leave it open for guests.”
Lucy was moving back and forth in the Lab, her treads humming lightly on the floor. We could hear her mumbling to herself, almost exactly like one of us might do. She saw us enter and stopped, turned the single eye toward us and moved forward a bit. Most of the detail backed up in fear. Not the General.
Lucy said, “General! Lord Pitviper filled me in on you and your team, happy to get some pros rather than the security force he sent before. Glad to meet you by the way.” At that her single arm extended from her head and offered a handshake. The General accepted and smiled.
“I know, I look a mess. It is a functional design for now, my new one should be done by morning. Were you filled in on what we need yet?”
“Only that some guy called Mike decided he didn’t want to follow orders,” El said.
“And tried to destroy the gates and us with them. Lucky for me I keep some things secret. Not because I wish to, but because I must. Anyway, he committed a form of suicide, but he didn’t know it. You people, I will only warn you once. If it is yellow with a boat propeller on it as Eldon calls it, or it is red, it can, and will kill you. Stay away, are we clear?”
The General glanced back to her detail and all nodded. “They understand.”
“Good. For those not in the know, this young man is Eldon and I have been given written documentation from Lord Pitviper, signed by a majority of your Council, that he is in command, followed by his wife Loka, and then your General. Your Council could not bring themselves to apply official status to a computerized robot, that would be me.” She laughed but the speaker system wasn’t right and it sounded almost like someone gagging and trying to throw-up. “I will fill the General in while the rest of your detachment find rooms and food. Loka, if you’d be so kind as to assign them rooms and we will meet you all in the cafeteria. I will require all the force be present as we finalize what we need to do.”
Loka just nodded and raised her hand and motioned back toward the door. “This way, please.”
Lucy waited until they left, then turned to the General. “Eldon will give your force earpieces in a bit. Make sure your men get them and wear them, please.”
I went to the table and picked one up and showed her how to wear it.
“Okay, General, the short of it. A group of bugs, billions of them, invaded our galaxy from another, maybe as long as two thousand years ago. It was the fault of the ones called humans. Yet it was not intentional. I don’t have all the translations in place, but I estimate as many as four or five thousand humans were here and bred with you. At that time you were little that could be called sentient, but were humanoid. So you see, this place is really old.
“Fast forward a few thousand years and we have the here and now. The humans that accidentally allowed the invasion are believed to be gone, eaten.” At that I saw the General give an incredulous look. “Yes, eaten. These bugs eat anything with blood, even each other. They are called MKs or Morant Küchenschabe, and rather than repeat it all, have Eldon give you the rest as he finds suitable accommodation for you. Eldon, I’ll meet you in the cafeteria in, say, an hour and a half?”
I nodded and took the General’s pack she had set on the floor when she came in. She started to protest but stopped herself.
She was assigned an apartment next to ours and she marked it with my marker pen. I showed her a quick version on how to use it all, and led her to the cafeteria, showing her the various signs I had come to understand. “Lucy can direct you if you get lost.”
“All these gadgets are thousands of years old?” she asked, as we came to a corner.
“Yes, Lucy said some things have been upgraded since this place was made, but the overall functions of many things are the same.”
“Are we really in danger of attack by these bug things?” she asked. Then, “Which way to the mess hall?” I pointed and she wrote on the wall, ‘mess hall’ with an arrow and smiled at me. Dang, I hadn’t thought of that. So simple.
“Yes, General, I think we are in extreme danger. They attacked Lucy’s ship on one of the planets—we saw it. We tried to help but all were dead except the computer.”
At each junction she marked an arrow that said Barracks pointing the way we came and another toward the eatery.
As we entered the Caf…err, mess hall, about half of her new group were there as well as the remainder of the old. I had explained along the way about the various problems with Lord Seacodent, Mike, the assassination of Cullves, and various meetings. She felt she had the gist and would try to get a handle on it.
Loka took her aside and explained the equipment, the food processor and the menu system for the adventurous or not so. After she and her group had eaten she introduced me to two of her five officers. Lt. Tallynnmae, her Aide-de-camp and a Captain Galadiir, her Second In Command. All the officers but one were young and Elf. The Lt. said to call her Tally and the Captain said he preferred to just be called Tici, which was short for Ticindornar. The Lt. was cute as far as a brawny Dwarf woman could be called such.
El filled them in as to the basic mission, to prepare to stop a bug invasion. When everyone was done eating and sipping either juice or coffee, Lucy came in, arm waving for attention as she moved to the open area in the center. All turned to see her.
“If the General will care to join me?” she asked.
El stood and moved to the center next to the machine.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am called Lucy or Lucinda. I am a program on a biomicrochip. A type of mini living computer, if you will. My official designation is Model 86473 BioStar Artificial Intelligence Group 12. Or more commonly, BSAIG12. Code named Lucinda. I was manufactured long ago on a planet called Frevway as a backup spaceship computer. I was activated a few months ago when the main ship computer sustained damage from an MK attack. The damage was excessive and the ship crashed with the loss of all life. Eldon and Loka saw the crash and attempted to assist, which gave me a means to move my programming to here. I have reason to believe Frevway may no longer be in humanoid hands. No certainty.
“Those of you not sure of what is going on, our galaxy has been invaded through an innocent mistake, and a large portion of the then known humanoid populated planets has ceased to exist as a result.” Someone raised a hand and Lucy said, “Please let me finish my part then the General can field your questions.” That person put their h
and down.
“Eldon, myself and Loka, have been to Earth already, just a large warehouse area guarded by killer robots. I received a little information from there and what was aboard my ship when I was activated. A lot of what follows is guesswork on my part. The MKs were named by Earth, a German name that means those who come to stay, or visitors who come to stay, not sure. Morant Küchenschabe is what they are called. Think of them as eight to twelve feet tall cockroaches with a single arm with a huge pincer that can cut you in half, snip. They also have several legs and some rudimentary hands on the forward legs. Their exoskeleton allows them to be extremely thin from the side. The only reference of successful kills show head attacks. One shows a bayonet through the underside and up between the eyes.” Here Lucy stopped and looked around. Some seemed visibly shaken by the mental picture she was drawing.
“They have a disjointed jaw and can almost swallow a human whole, although from the scant battle reports, their favorite tactic is to snip off your heads, suck up the blood then devour the remains. They seem to have mental control. They don’t stop at each kill, so they are purpose-driven to finish a task. Other than the millions that came through the gates before all of the gates could be destroyed, and other than the names of a lot of believed dead planets, I have little more to add.” She turned her machine-body to the General, since she had no head she needed to in order to see with the camera. “General, I can give you a bit more details as to the when and how, but that is the situation. Oh, Frevway had no honor gates and only a few ships, but the bugs found them anyway, which is why I think they will find this planet with time.”
El said thank you to Lucy then in a loud, clear voice, she said, “Listen up, all of you! Come to attention.” Some of the security people didn’t move, some reluctantly stood.
“Captain Tici you are ordered to shoot anyone in the room who is not at attention in ten seconds!”
A Planet's Search For History Page 8
