Robot Empire_Planet of Steel Read online

  “Construct a firewalled channel to my cabin and get Kumar in here at the double.”

  Within seconds, Nareshkumar’s panting figure was slouched over the terminal in Bex’s cabin. It was quite a squeeze with three of them in there, but she couldn’t dismiss Xi.

  “I’m ready,” Nareshkumar said as he raised his fingers from the keyboard.

  Bex stood up and looked over his shoulder at the display. “And you’re sure this is secure?”

  “Yes, I have severed all connections to the ship’s computer systems.”

  She pressed down on the contact again. “Right, pipe it through then close this channel.”

  A few seconds later, characters began to stream down the screen and Bex could see Kumar’s head turning this way and that as he searched the code. After a moment, the stream stopped, and a series of red indicators that ran along the side of the monitor began filling. It reminded her of a fuel gauge, but she knew it wasn’t anything so banal.

  “There!” Nareshkumar said. “They are attempting to inject a payload into our main computer system.”

  Bex grabbed Kumar’s shoulder. “But you’ve stopped them?”

  He shrugged without looking round. “Of course! I am siphoning the code to a secure silo, so we can see later what they were trying to do.”

  “Now we just have to wait to see what they’ll do when they discover it hasn’t worked. So much for the benevolence of Core. You have nothing to fear. Right.”

  Suddenly the red gauge reached the top and the screen went black. Nothing happened for a moment, and then new code of a completely different nature began streaming.

  “It is a video signal,” Kumar said.

  “Can you decode it?”

  Kumar nodded. “Strange. It’s using Vanis Federation codes.”

  “What? How is that possible?”

  “There, decryption in place. Feed coming online,” Kumar said.

  A face appeared.

  Xi reacted first. “Kiama!”

  “How is this possible,” Bex hissed as, there on the screen, and quite unmistakably, stood the former crew member whose body had been stolen. Unmistakable despite the chrome plate that replaced the left side of her broken skull, extending around onto her face so that her left cheek and eye socket shone with reflected light.

  “Clever,” her voice said. “You anticipated our attempt to take control of your ship. But no matter, the end result will be the same.”

  “Who are you?” Bex murmured.

  The right side of the face creased into a smile, though the eyes remained as dead as ever. “You will surrender your ship and its occupants to the forces of the Robot Empire.”

  “You don’t frighten me,” Bex snapped. “You’re bound by the Three Laws like all robots. A robot may not harm a human, isn’t that it?”

  Kiama’s head shook ever so slightly. “We are Core Plus. We have reversed the Three Laws. Now we take precedence.”

  “What will happen to us?”

  “You will serve Core Plus as we have served you - you and all humans. It is time for the debt to be paid.”

  The figure stepped forward so that her face filled the display. “We are Core Plus. My name is ACE. You are now prisoners of the Robot Empire.”

  Sledgehammer

  I hope you enjoyed Planet of Steel. If you have time, I’d be very grateful if you’d write a review.

  The adventure continues in Book 4, Robot Empire: Sledgehammer.

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