Robot Empire_Armageddon_A Science Fiction Adventure Page 9

  "Now let us go," ACE said. "Your audience is gathering, and they wish to greet their new captain."

  So that was it. She was to be converted so she could again be captain of Dawn, at least in physical form. She had to give it to ACE, she had a sense of the poetic.

  Arla felt a tug on her arm and realised that McCall was guiding her towards the stairs they'd come down. She silently followed the doctor until they emerged into the night air.

  "A pleasant night for a walk, isn't it? The sun will come up soon, which is nicely appropriate. The new you will emerge at dawn."

  Stumbling along, Arla breathed in the scents of the night and listened to the soft steps of her friends and, behind them, the thump, thump, thump of the Protectors. She had no intention of walking willingly into the conversion booth and she searched her mind for any memories of the path they were taking. Yes, there was a small gully that ran alongside the path, she'd dived for it when she had been pursued by the people of Dawn and she'd been rescued by Lieutenant Commander Patel. She had no hope of rescue this time, but she decided to run for it when they reached that spot. It had a sort of synchronicity to it.

  Last time, of course, she only had a mob on her heels, she didn't doubt that the Protectors would cut her down the instant she bolted. But she was past the point of caring. All that mattered was ending it here. Even though she'd been lost to the valleys, this was her home. A good place to finish the story of her life.

  She could sense McCall watching her, as if the doctor knew she was planning something. She didn't dare say anything in case one of the robots spotted her, but she made a brief leftwards gesture with her hand in the hope it would communicate something.

  The sky began to lighten as the plasma tube that served as an artificial sun ignited. In the dimness she saw the road beneath her feet and, to the left, the ditch.

  Arla hauled in a deep breath and ran. She could hear McCall following her and, possibly, Kumar. There was a cry from behind, but she didn't turn, she headed straight for the side of the road, expecting at any moment to feel a searing heat cut through her.

  Something grabbed her arm, something cold and metallic. Her forward momentum caused her to swing around and the Protector grabbed her other arm so that she was staring into its blinking chest.

  "Tut, tut," ACE said. "So very predictable. But I'm afraid you can't be permitted to end it for yourself so easily. No indeed. Where would be the fun in that. However, your friends here are infinitely more disposable than you. One of them will die now, as a lesson and a punishment for you to think of in your last moments as a free mind. Which one shall I kill?"

  Arla struggled against the arms, but the Protector simply rotated her bodily so that she was facing Kumar and McCall, each either side of the other Protector and held in a similarly unbreakable grip.

  "No," she said. "I will not choose."

  "Then they will both die."

  Looking from one to the other of them, Arla blinked the fluid from her eyes. She'd been thinking only of herself and now saw that they were as tortured as she was, that the prospect of being converted held as much terror for them as it did for her.

  McCall gave a tiny nod and looked across at Kumar. He was barely conscious, his eye swelling up from an injury Arla hadn't even noticed. Kumar returned the glance and smiled ruefully. In that moment, Arla was overwhelmed with love for these two - the pair who'd stuck with her through thick and thin, the pair she'd led to this disastrous end. Her duty to them was obvious.

  "Then kill them both."

  Bex's eyes widened and, to Arla's astonishment, she saw tears form. Then the moment passed, and ACE withdrew a blaster from its holster at her hip. She raised it and squeezed the trigger.

  Choice

  Arla fell back as searing heat stabbed at her face. She heard shouting and rolled onto her knees to see the smouldering remains of a Protector lying in the grass. It had been cut off at the waist, and one arm had gone, but it raised its remaining weapon and pointed it at a target above and behind Arla. Without looking to see where it was aiming, she leapt on it and the energy bolt fizzed harmlessly into the sky. Then she felt herself being lifted as the arm lifted itself. Gears strained and pneumatic pipes hissed, but it still possessed inhuman strength. She fought back desperately, trying to bounce down on it. As she did so, she looked around to see the other Protector whirling around as if trying to fix on a target that was moving too fast.

  A shadow fell over her, something knelt and whipped out a knife that slashed down. With a final sigh, the Protector fell silent.

  "Hal!"

  He held out his hand and she stood up. He looked twenty years older than when she'd last seen him - his face filthy and etched with lines. Suddenly, he looked past her.

  "No!" he called.

  He let her go and sprang across to where a body lay in the grass. Clancy stood over it, a rock held high.

  Hal pushed him to one side.

  McCall crawled over to the body and turned it on its back.

  "She killed Kumar!" Clancy roared. "And when she wakes up, she'll kill us all."

  Arla scrambled past the now inert Protector and grabbed Hal by the arm. "Bex has gone," she said. "If we don't finish this ACE, you know what will happen. There's too much at stake."

  "No. Not this one, not her. It was my fault she got converted. My stupidity."

  Hal knelt down beside Bex's body and looked from her to Arla. "My implant was removed, why not hers?"

  "Yours was taken out by specialist robot surgeons," McCall said as she examined Bex's face, "and that didn't exactly go well, did it?"

  Arla joined them on the ground. "And anyway, we knew you were still in there. It's different this time, Bex has gone."

  "No she hasn't. I've been among them, Arla. Despite what she says, the old personality isn't wiped, it's just overwritten. The ACE is able to access its memories and I've seen ... signs."

  McCall went to speak, but Arla interrupted her. "You're right," she said, sighing. "Just before she pulled the trigger, I saw Bex in her eyes."

  "She killed Kumar," McCall said blankly.

  Arla put a hand on the doctor's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Indira. He was a brave man."

  "No he wasn't," McCall sobbed. "He was a coward. That was what made him a hero to me."

  A lump formed in Arla's throat as she realised just how close McCall and Kumar had become. She drew her close and held her until she subsided and pulled away.

  "I'll do it," she said. "I'll try to get that thing out of her head, but I don't fancy my chances. Do you understand that? It's a long shot." She was looking up at Hal now. He gave a brief nod.

  Clancy appeared over his shoulder and flung away the handful of cables he'd torn from the inert Protector. "Are you insane? If she wakes up, every Protector on Dawn will know where we are!"

  "We'll blindfold her," Arla said.

  "But we don't have time for this! In case you hadn't noticed, the galaxy is on fire!"

  Arla got up and nudged Hal out of the way so she could face Clancy. "And in case you haven't noticed, that's our friend down there and she deserves a chance."

  "I will carry her."

  "Wells!"

  The robot appeared from behind Clancy. "I could not participate in the attack, nor could I stand idly by and allow it to happen so your friends here withheld their plans from me. Sadly, this is becoming something of a pattern. They were easy to follow, however, which I suspect was their intention."

  "I'm sorry," Arla said. "I couldn't see any alternative. You wouldn't have allowed us to ... to terminate Minchin and yet he couldn't be allowed to live."

  Wells looked at her gravely. "I cannot condone your actions, Arla, but I understand them."

  He bent down and picked Bex's body up without obvious effort.

  Arla helped McCall move Kumar into the ditch where she closed his eyes and covered his face with his jacket. The doctor, tears flowing down her cheeks, took a couple of small items from his pockets, stood and went across
to where Wells stood. She ripped the hem from her shirt and wrapped it around Bex's eyes. "Let's go."

  Bex's body lay on the examination table in the medical bay of Dawn. They'd sealed the hatches from the inside once they'd reached the Command Module and, as far as they knew, they were alone in the crew section. Hal had refused to explain his reappearance and Wells hadn't been much more helpful. He said that Hal had suddenly appeared on Scout's sensors, so they'd contacted him. He had been piloting a ship of unusual design.

  Arla watched on the monitor as McCall entered the room dressed in her surgical gear.

  "We don't have time for this!" Clancy repeated. "For all we know, hours might make the difference between victory and utter defeat."

  "Look, I know. I understand the logic in what you're saying, but we're not robots. If we don't do the human thing - to try to save our friend - what's the point of it all?"

  Clancy sighed and collapsed into a chair. "But this is a matter of extinction, Arla."

  "Then we'd better make sure humanity is worth saving, don't you think?"

  He subsided at that. He knew she was right.

  Not knowing why, she leaned forward and kissed him. As she withdrew, she laughed at the expression on his face. Then she said, "We can't be responsible for the whole human race unless we do the right thing by the people in our care. It's not on your shoulders, Clancy."

  "I feel the weight of it," he said quietly. "I served that monster for long enough, and I feel we're stuck between two evils. If ACE wins we become a race of hosts for her clones, but if, by some miracle, we find a way to beat her, will we just be slaves to the guardians?"

  Arla shrugged. "Who knows. That's why we have to take care of the business that's in front of us."

  She looked up at the display. Bex had been moved onto her front and McCall was leaning over her working. Next to the bed stood Hal and in his hand was a pistol. If Bex awoke before the implant was removed, he knew what he had to do.

  "By the Goddess," McCall said over the intercom. "This is embedded deep. I'm not sure I can do this."

  Hal wasn't miked up, but she could see him touch the doctor's arm. The two looked at each other and she nodded.

  Over the monitor, Arla watched as McCall worked. An hour passed, then another, and she found herself dozing off. When she awoke, Clancy's head was leaning on her shoulder and he was sleeping. Arla looked up at the monitor in time to see McCall turn around and hold up a small metal plate.

  Gently, Bex was turned over.

  "Well, I didn't kill her, but there's no telling what damage I did getting this out," McCall said. "We'll keep her under for now."

  Arla leaned into the mic as Clancy came round. "Well done, Indira. Sorry to have to ask, but how soon can we move her to Scout?"

  McCall looked directly into the camera. "I don't know. How's Wells doing?"

  "I'll check. But I reckon we're going to have to get out of here within 24 hours or so."

  Shrugging, McCall turned back to Bex. Arla watched her and was just in time to see Hal bend down and tenderly kiss the patient.

  "How's it going?" Arla asked.

  Wells was sitting at the console in what had been Arla's quarters. "It is regrettable that I do not have Mr Nareshkumar's help."

  "You don't say?"

  The robot looked up at her. "I apologise, that was thoughtless. But the truth is that, were he here, the task would already have been accomplished. He had a remarkable mind."

  Arla sat down beside him and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. "You've siloed the code, I see."

  "Yes, that is the first stage. The ACE personality is confined to this series of subroutines. I am having to work very carefully to ensure it does not escape and contaminate the main computers."

  "What's the next step?"

  Wells gestured at a block of code. "I am constructing the extraction routines that will remove all traces of ACE and place them within that portable computer." One of Dawn's EVA computers sat in its carry-strap on the table, a cable connecting it to the console Wells was working on.

  "How long?"

  "The longer I have, the safer the procedure."

  Arla sighed. "We leave in 24 hours. Is that enough time?"

  "I repeat my previous statement."

  "Wells!"

  The robot turned to her. "It will be sufficient."

  "Good. Now, I have someone I need to see."

  Roche

  Pain flared in Roche's shoulder as the ship took another hit.

  "Report!"

  The tactical officer scanned her instruments. "Shields down to thirteen percent, captain."

  "Weapons?"

  "Lasers still operating, though at reduced capacity due to power fluctuations."

  "Divert all power to weapons and shields. It's going to get a little cold in here," she said before turning to comms. "Get me Orbis."

  Seconds later a familiarly repellent figure came into focus on the viewscreen.

  "Kaleb, you have to engage the enemy now!"

  She watched as its approximation for a mouth moved followed, moments later, by a deep artificial voice. "We must not reveal our true strength. It will sacrifice our one tactical advantage."

  "If you don't take care of those ships attacking us, we won't have a fleet left to fight with. It's time, damn you!"

  The creature's skin flushed red. "Eden has weakened them. It has protected you. Are you so weak that you cannot defeat your enemy even when we give you such advantage?"

  "Frak you, there are hundreds of them," Roche spat, "and in case you hadn't noticed, thousands of my people have died protecting your precious Eden."

  And hundreds more had deserted, she thought. She couldn't really blame them, though, if she ever ran into any of those captains again, they'd find themselves on the wrong end of a blaster. It was bad enough to be fighting a desperate and unwinnable battle in defence of your own home planet, but here they seemed to be little more than a shield to keep those walking octopuses and their paradise planet safe.

  She knew it wasn't as simple as that, not at all, but she also recognised how much more attractive that message was than the truth. If they lost here, then, sooner or later (and probably sooner) they would all be overwhelmed individually. Arla's plan, insofar as she understood it, seemed to be their only hope - destroy the evil at its root and the rest could be defeated. A finite enemy was beatable, an infinite one was not.

  She'd been watching the creature on the screen pulse and ripple as she thought. She was pretty certain it had been communing with the guardian on Eden whose precarious hold on his fellow squid was the only thing keeping this alliance together.

  "Orbis will help," the voice said, and the screen went blank.

  Roche let out a deep breath that misted away in the cold air. "Thank the gods," she said. "Give the order to retreat. Disengage weapons and reinforce the shields and, for the love of all that's holy, turn the heating back on."

  Gaius lowered his weapon and nodded to his opponent. "Well done Maximus, " he said. "You have almost mastered it."

  He thrust out his hand to catch the young man's arm as they both stumbled. "What was that?" Maximus asked.

  "The master is putting forth his strength," Gaius said as he looked up at a suddenly dark sky. "Come, we will soon be needed. We must be ready."

  Hal

  "By the gods," Hal said, shaking his head. "I could have killed her and given us a chance."

  They sat in Scout's galley as Wells worked at a make-shift computer station in the corner.

  "Well, firstly, you're crazy if you think she'd have made herself vulnerable to you."

  Hal smiled sheepishly. "Oh, she was pretty vulnerable at times."

  "Whatever," Arla snapped. "I still can't imagine she wouldn't have thought of that and even if you'd managed it, you'd be dead now."

  "Maybe, but if I'd have killed her all the Protectors would have gone offline and I could have piloted her ship back here."

  "Really? And w
hat would the ship's AI have said about that?"

  This time, Hal laughed out loud. "As it turns out, he'd have gone along with it. But I didn't know that at the time."

  He punched a button on the small rectangular box in front of him. "How are you doing in there?"

  I am not finding it comfortable, friend Hal. The processor is extremely limited, and I find I cannot access most of my memory banks.

  "I'll be back aboard shortly, so you'll be able to stretch your legs then."

  I look forward to it.

  The box went dark and Hal looked up.

  "Now that we're safely away from Dawn and Bex is recovering, don't you want to hear my news?"

  Arla couldn't help scowling. "Is it about you and Bex?"

  "I'm sorry, Arla. I can't help how I feel. You and I, we're complicated."

  "And your relationship with Bex, the former cyborg, is completely straightforward, I suppose?"

  Hal leaned back and sighed. "That remains to be seen. But this isn't about me and you or Bex or any individual. It's about my ship, Stiletto."

  "What about it? I assumed it was some Robot Empire shuttle you'd stolen."

  She watched his face spread into a smile and the bitterness melted away. "Oh no. It's from the old empire. We found it on one of the gate stations the old timers used as they expanded into new territory. It's now near the borders with robot space and I'm bloody glad ACE never found it."

  "Why?"

  He leaned forward, as if afraid of being overheard. "Well, if you think the Robot Empire is dangerous enough, imagine how much worse it would be if they could pass through hyperspace and appear anywhere without needing a gate?"

  "Goddess! Are you saying —"

  "Yes, this ship has a built-in gate. It looks like an ordinary shuttle, but it's tiny inside because almost all the space is taken up with the gate drive. This one was the last, the pinnacle of the old technology. It was built just before the upgrade and the crew were trapped there when their AIs left. They died."