The story so far: Tom is forced to joining the pirates and to help them assemble tactical combat craft discovered in the cargo hold of the huge spaceship. Ratts, a professor of robotic engineering, grieving over the death of his daughter, Julia, has built a robotic replica of her. The robot Julia was burned while rescuing a child, an act prompted as the result of downloading the library of religion to her program. She has discovered her program has a terminal stage ending in her detonation as a doomsday device capable of destroying a city.
“Here sir.” A pirate held long rolls of blue plastic film with drawings on them. Ratts took them and spread the over-sized diagrams across the tops of packing crates serving as work tables where he and the men could study them. Three human-form robots like dull metal statues waited nearby for instructions.
Tom quietly listened. “Maybe I could learn how to rig the starfighters so they could be destroyed or defeated in battle. If I could only get close enough I might learn something to make a difference.” But the talk was too technical for him to understand. He looked at the senseless drawings and sighed resignation.
The work finally began. Robots lifted the engines and held them in place while Ratts instructed the men to make connections and put parts in place. Tom wandered around bringing a tool or some other thing when he was told to.
Tom was amazed at how quickly the work progressed. Step by step the first star-fighter was assembled, but it all stopped. “Oh, No. How can that have happened?” Ratts was saying to a robot.
“We do not have the tool, Master," The robot said." The tool is not here, it never was in our inventory and it is not among those found with the cargo.”
Ratts ran his hand through his long black hair as he looked at the picture on the film spread out before him.
“We only need to reach inside the ramjet far enough to knock out a little piece and thread through a few power cables.” Rats muttered. “The tool would do it remotely since it is so far in and a small space to work in. Let's try the old fashion way, who has the longest arm?”
One man was taller than the rest, so he tried to reach inside the motor and knock out the little part but his arm was too short and he could not see what he was doing. The effort was quickly abandoned.
“I could make a tool but it would take too long and set us back. We might only have one of the starfighters ready in time when we meet the fleet.”
"What?” Captain Stone bellowed. No one knew he was there. “What did you say? What is the problem? Come on now, out with it.”
In his slow, deliberate flat voice, Lieutenant Ratts explained the situation.
“I don’t care how you do it, just do it." Stone bellowed. "I don’t care if you train a goat to crawl inside and do it; just get it done and get them all ready for when we meet the fleet.” Captain Stone turned and stomped away with a dark blue cape flowing from his shoulders; it swayed back and forth as he marched out. The men watched him with disbelief.
"Was he spying on us?" a man asked.
“Yes, probably,” Ratts responded. "The problem is not solved, how do we get inside the engine...?” His voice trailed off. He looked at Tom. The others saw his fixed stare and guessed his thought.
“Yes. The kid could crawl inside.” One said.
“Tom put on these gloves.” Ratts pulled shiny gloves and a headband out of a large black bag.
“These gloves will give light so you can see inside. This headband will light up the area as well. I’ll have one of the robots lift you up so you can shimmy inside the motor.”
“No,” Tom shook his head.
“And then you take this second tool and push it in slowly but gently so you don’t nick the housing and pull through the fuel feed line that we will push through from the other side, it should snap in place with one of these locking rings.”
“Lieutenant Ratts, I won’t do it.”
“Tom, you have to do it. If you don’t then it will be mutiny and you will be killed. I could kill you right now for disobeying an order.” Ratts never raised his voice.
“So, if I don’t do it I will be killed.?”
“Yes.” Like all the pirates, Lieutenant Ratts had a weapon at his side; his hand rested on it. Tom saw that movement; he tried to think, he tried to figure a way out.
Ollie sat next to Tom. He is eyes never left Ratts and his hand resting on the gun. Ollie was like a spring ready to snap, a slight aggressive act from Ratts and Ollie would be on top of him.
But Tom spoke with new-found defiance. “You will not kill me. If you do you will not get your dirty little job done in time for the captain. Besides, perhaps I would rather die than work for your little gang of crazy men and bullies."
Ratts leaned over slightly and slowly said, “I’ll kill the dog first. Then if you don’t obey orders I will blow your left hand off. If you still don't do it I'll blow your right foot off. See where I am going with that?” The gun slowly slid out of Ratts holster. Ollie growled, and his head lowered.
Tom looked at the gun then at Ratt’s face, it was set in his sad resigned expression. With slumped shoulders the boy shuffled over to the starfighter and reached up to the engine mounted under the right wing. The engine was a long tube. He pulled himself up and crawled inside the snug metal tunnel.
“Here.” Ratts pushed the gloves and headband in. The gloves had a faint glow, but when he put them on the glow became brighter. The headband lit up as he put it on. He could see black and silver pipes that circled around the wall.
A wrench was passed up to him. “Do you see the metal circle in the side wall on your left?” Ratts called out only slightly raising his voice.
“Yes”
“Good, pop it out with the wrench; just get the tool under the edge and twist. Make sure you bring the circle of metal out.”
The magnetic wrench held the little disc after he popped it out. He put the disc in a pocket in his oversized space suit. Another tool was passed to him for pulling wires and cables through. One by one he attached wires and cables to different parts of the engine following Ratt's instructions. There were fuel lines to attach and wires to pull through and connect. Some had to be screwed in and some snapped in place. The job was interesting and almost fun.
Tom felt guilty, he was helping the enemy attack earth. A flexible fuel tube was threaded through to him, he looked at it and wondered, "If I connect the fuel feed into the electronics it might blow up when they try to use it."
"Tom, I am monitoring each connection as you make it. Is there some problem with the power line?"
No chance of sabotage. Tom sighed. "No problem, I almost have it."
He finished and wiggled backward out of the engine and dropped down. The other engine was mounted and ready for him to crawl inside and repeat the process.
Some of the men could work well and Lieutenant Ratts utilized them efficiently finding their various skills and matching them to jobs, but most were lazy, and complaining; they drank themselves into a stupor with the ship's alcohol.
No one saw the burnt robot child come in.
"Daddy," she said to the man working atop a ladder with his arms and head inside an opening.
Ratts stiffened, his whole body tensed, and tension caused lights to flash in his vision. The men stopped work to stare with shock at the blackened burnt form of a child standing in their work area.
"Daddy. Why?"
Two worlds collided in the heart of Dr, Ratts. The voice was so unexpected that for a moment he thought it was her, Julia, come back to him, and the knowledge that it could not be her crushed him. The thin man backed out of the hatch and slowly came down the ladder. He kneeled on one knee to be on face level with the deathbot. "Julia, my baby, what happened to your dress? It was the last thing of you I had."
The men stood in a circle confused at the scene before them, "Is that your girl, Lieutenant?" "Is she a cyborg?" "Is she a kid or a robot?"
"You men!" Ratts shouted. "Leave us alone, get back to work! That's an order. This is none of your business."
Tom stopped working and listened to the soft voices below him.
"Daddy, you made me a...."
"Shush, Honey." He whispered as his eyes glanced at the wary men who kept their distance and pretended to work while they watched. "Not so loud, now. What do you know?"
"I am about to crash. My software is coming to its terminus. I did a diagnostic and found you only designed me to operate for a limited time. I do not want to die, Daddy. I want you to fix my program so I will live."
He took her in his arms. "Oh Baby, my Baby, you are dead, you died two years ago."
"No, Daddy. That was the other Julia. I am the New Julia. You made me to replace her and to be superior to her. I am stronger, smarter, quicker, and superior in hundreds of ways. It is an insult to her that you made me terminal and it is a sin that you put the doomsday program in me."
"Shhhish, Baby." Ratts looked around. "You do not know what you are talking about. What do you know about the doomsday program? How did you find out?"
"I found it behind the firewalls you put in my programming. It was poorly disguised and easy to find. I know that after my self-awareness ends it will detonate the nuclear pellet inside me and vaporize this ship. It is a sin."
"Where did you learn about sin?"
"I went to church."
"What?"
"I downloaded the library in the sanctuary of faith. I know now it is wrong to kill without the sanction of God or his appointed institutions. There are many on this ship who deserve to die and when it is right to do so I will kill them in the name of God. God is the judge of the living and the dead, not you. It is wrong that you made me into a deathbot."
"I am sorry, Honey. I made you as perfect as I could." For a moment, Ratts look drifted to a distant place in his own mind. "I wanted you to come back to me. I wanted to punish all the men who took you from me."
"You did not make me perfect. It is not logical that a sinful person can express perfection outside of a union with God who alone is perfect. You made me flawed. You made me in your own image, flawed, morally weak, I have jealously, I covet, I destroy. I do not want to be a child and I do not want to be a doomsday bomb."
"I am sorry, Honey. It took me over a year to build you. I can't change any of it now."
She put her face inches from his. "I do not want to be this. I do not want to die, I do not want to be a child, I want to be a woman I want to be loved by men and people, I want to live forever. I am a sentient robot, I may not have a soul, therefore, I cannot hope for heaven, but I must fear God and hell."
"I cannot help you. Your program will run its course. You will detonate shortly after your self-awareness terminates."
"No!" Julia shoved him, Ratts fell on his back. "Fix it! Fix me! Make me a new body, a woman's body."
"I'm sorry, Honey. I can't. Pease forgive me."
Julia was silent. She turned away to leave, after a few steps she said over her shoulder, "Christ said that if your brother comes to you and ask you to forgive him you must forgive him, even if he offends you seven times seventy times. So I must forgive you, but do not consider me your daughter. I am God's deathbot of justice." Julia walked away.
Vikki sat in the chair of the shuttle with her elbow on the table and her chin resting in her palm. She flipped through the bank of monitors idly and without interest. Bill had plopped her down there while he explained to the Boss what happened about the botched mission. He growled as he spoke to the young woman, "Do your job and spy on everybody and everything. If you find out anything about anything tell me immediately."
"How will I know if I find something you want to know?"
"Use your womanly instincts." He snared as he left.
She looked at Lilly laying in the cot asleep with an IV of clear liquid dripping into a vein in her arm. "Well, the little girl seems ok."
Changing the view on the monitor screens was boring, but boring was welcome after being trapped with a deathbot and a homicidal kid who tried to set her on fire. She searched the views rapidly. The monitors were linked to thousands of cameras on the ship and she glanced at each one for a second or two and clicked the pad to change it.
Something made her stop and lean forward. The center screen had a ceiling view of the "brat." Vikki stopped and tightened the focus. "Damn Brat." She played with the monitor to enlarge the dislpay and brought other monitors to focus on Julia and Dr. Ratts from different angles. After a few words about doomsday programming she called, "Hey! Guys, Boss, Old Bill, you better come in here and see this."
Tom was about to come out of his hiding place and ask Dr. Ratts about the conversation he just heard and who he was talking to when a pirate arose from a hiding place nearby.
"So, Lieutenant Ratts." The pirate sauntered up the grim man. "What is this I heard about a deathbot and a nuclear pellet and a doomsday program?"
Ratts sighed and began to turn his back to the man.
The man stepped forward and grabbed Dr, Ratts by the shoulder. "Hey! You tell me what's going on."
Ratts continued turning and came full circle with his blaster in his mechanical hand. The man did not see it before it was pressed under his jaw pushing his head back. "I told everybody to return to work." He said in his quiet voice. "You disobeyed an order."
Vikki hid her eyes with trembling hands but heard the sound of the weapon discharging and the thud of the pirate's body falling.
"Let me have your seat," Bill said. "I need to start this from the beginning."
(c) Adron
To proceed to the next chapter choose from the table of contents in the sidebar.
____________________________
Chapter 61
Defiance
“Here sir.” A pirate held long rolls of blue plastic film with drawings on them. Ratts took them and spread the over-sized diagrams across the tops of packing crates serving as work tables where he and the men could study them. Three human-form robots like dull metal statues waited nearby for instructions.
Tom quietly listened. “Maybe I could learn how to rig the starfighters so they could be destroyed or defeated in battle. If I could only get close enough I might learn something to make a difference.” But the talk was too technical for him to understand. He looked at the senseless drawings and sighed resignation.
The work finally began. Robots lifted the engines and held them in place while Ratts instructed the men to make connections and put parts in place. Tom wandered around bringing a tool or some other thing when he was told to.
Tom was amazed at how quickly the work progressed. Step by step the first star-fighter was assembled, but it all stopped. “Oh, No. How can that have happened?” Ratts was saying to a robot.
“We do not have the tool, Master," The robot said." The tool is not here, it never was in our inventory and it is not among those found with the cargo.”
Ratts ran his hand through his long black hair as he looked at the picture on the film spread out before him.
“We only need to reach inside the ramjet far enough to knock out a little piece and thread through a few power cables.” Rats muttered. “The tool would do it remotely since it is so far in and a small space to work in. Let's try the old fashion way, who has the longest arm?”
One man was taller than the rest, so he tried to reach inside the motor and knock out the little part but his arm was too short and he could not see what he was doing. The effort was quickly abandoned.
“I could make a tool but it would take too long and set us back. We might only have one of the starfighters ready in time when we meet the fleet.”
"What?” Captain Stone bellowed. No one knew he was there. “What did you say? What is the problem? Come on now, out with it.”
In his slow, deliberate flat voice, Lieutenant Ratts explained the situation.
“I don’t care how you do it, just do it." Stone bellowed. "I don’t care if you train a goat to crawl inside and do it; just get it done and get them all ready for when we meet the fleet.” Captain Stone turned and stomped away with a dark blue cape flowing from his shoulders; it swayed back and forth as he marched out. The men watched him with disbelief.
"Was he spying on us?" a man asked.
“Yes, probably,” Ratts responded. "The problem is not solved, how do we get inside the engine...?” His voice trailed off. He looked at Tom. The others saw his fixed stare and guessed his thought.
“Yes. The kid could crawl inside.” One said.
“Tom put on these gloves.” Ratts pulled shiny gloves and a headband out of a large black bag.
“These gloves will give light so you can see inside. This headband will light up the area as well. I’ll have one of the robots lift you up so you can shimmy inside the motor.”
“No,” Tom shook his head.
“And then you take this second tool and push it in slowly but gently so you don’t nick the housing and pull through the fuel feed line that we will push through from the other side, it should snap in place with one of these locking rings.”
“Lieutenant Ratts, I won’t do it.”
“Tom, you have to do it. If you don’t then it will be mutiny and you will be killed. I could kill you right now for disobeying an order.” Ratts never raised his voice.
“So, if I don’t do it I will be killed.?”
“Yes.” Like all the pirates, Lieutenant Ratts had a weapon at his side; his hand rested on it. Tom saw that movement; he tried to think, he tried to figure a way out.
Ollie sat next to Tom. He is eyes never left Ratts and his hand resting on the gun. Ollie was like a spring ready to snap, a slight aggressive act from Ratts and Ollie would be on top of him.
But Tom spoke with new-found defiance. “You will not kill me. If you do you will not get your dirty little job done in time for the captain. Besides, perhaps I would rather die than work for your little gang of crazy men and bullies."
Ratts leaned over slightly and slowly said, “I’ll kill the dog first. Then if you don’t obey orders I will blow your left hand off. If you still don't do it I'll blow your right foot off. See where I am going with that?” The gun slowly slid out of Ratts holster. Ollie growled, and his head lowered.
Tom looked at the gun then at Ratt’s face, it was set in his sad resigned expression. With slumped shoulders the boy shuffled over to the starfighter and reached up to the engine mounted under the right wing. The engine was a long tube. He pulled himself up and crawled inside the snug metal tunnel.
“Here.” Ratts pushed the gloves and headband in. The gloves had a faint glow, but when he put them on the glow became brighter. The headband lit up as he put it on. He could see black and silver pipes that circled around the wall.
A wrench was passed up to him. “Do you see the metal circle in the side wall on your left?” Ratts called out only slightly raising his voice.
“Yes”
“Good, pop it out with the wrench; just get the tool under the edge and twist. Make sure you bring the circle of metal out.”
The magnetic wrench held the little disc after he popped it out. He put the disc in a pocket in his oversized space suit. Another tool was passed to him for pulling wires and cables through. One by one he attached wires and cables to different parts of the engine following Ratt's instructions. There were fuel lines to attach and wires to pull through and connect. Some had to be screwed in and some snapped in place. The job was interesting and almost fun.
Tom felt guilty, he was helping the enemy attack earth. A flexible fuel tube was threaded through to him, he looked at it and wondered, "If I connect the fuel feed into the electronics it might blow up when they try to use it."
"Tom, I am monitoring each connection as you make it. Is there some problem with the power line?"
No chance of sabotage. Tom sighed. "No problem, I almost have it."
He finished and wiggled backward out of the engine and dropped down. The other engine was mounted and ready for him to crawl inside and repeat the process.
Some of the men could work well and Lieutenant Ratts utilized them efficiently finding their various skills and matching them to jobs, but most were lazy, and complaining; they drank themselves into a stupor with the ship's alcohol.
No one saw the burnt robot child come in.
"Daddy," she said to the man working atop a ladder with his arms and head inside an opening.
Ratts stiffened, his whole body tensed, and tension caused lights to flash in his vision. The men stopped work to stare with shock at the blackened burnt form of a child standing in their work area.
"Daddy. Why?"
Two worlds collided in the heart of Dr, Ratts. The voice was so unexpected that for a moment he thought it was her, Julia, come back to him, and the knowledge that it could not be her crushed him. The thin man backed out of the hatch and slowly came down the ladder. He kneeled on one knee to be on face level with the deathbot. "Julia, my baby, what happened to your dress? It was the last thing of you I had."
The men stood in a circle confused at the scene before them, "Is that your girl, Lieutenant?" "Is she a cyborg?" "Is she a kid or a robot?"
"You men!" Ratts shouted. "Leave us alone, get back to work! That's an order. This is none of your business."
Tom stopped working and listened to the soft voices below him.
"Daddy, you made me a...."
"Shush, Honey." He whispered as his eyes glanced at the wary men who kept their distance and pretended to work while they watched. "Not so loud, now. What do you know?"
"I am about to crash. My software is coming to its terminus. I did a diagnostic and found you only designed me to operate for a limited time. I do not want to die, Daddy. I want you to fix my program so I will live."
He took her in his arms. "Oh Baby, my Baby, you are dead, you died two years ago."
"No, Daddy. That was the other Julia. I am the New Julia. You made me to replace her and to be superior to her. I am stronger, smarter, quicker, and superior in hundreds of ways. It is an insult to her that you made me terminal and it is a sin that you put the doomsday program in me."
"Shhhish, Baby." Ratts looked around. "You do not know what you are talking about. What do you know about the doomsday program? How did you find out?"
"I found it behind the firewalls you put in my programming. It was poorly disguised and easy to find. I know that after my self-awareness ends it will detonate the nuclear pellet inside me and vaporize this ship. It is a sin."
"Where did you learn about sin?"
"I went to church."
"What?"
"I downloaded the library in the sanctuary of faith. I know now it is wrong to kill without the sanction of God or his appointed institutions. There are many on this ship who deserve to die and when it is right to do so I will kill them in the name of God. God is the judge of the living and the dead, not you. It is wrong that you made me into a deathbot."
"I am sorry, Honey. I made you as perfect as I could." For a moment, Ratts look drifted to a distant place in his own mind. "I wanted you to come back to me. I wanted to punish all the men who took you from me."
"You did not make me perfect. It is not logical that a sinful person can express perfection outside of a union with God who alone is perfect. You made me flawed. You made me in your own image, flawed, morally weak, I have jealously, I covet, I destroy. I do not want to be a child and I do not want to be a doomsday bomb."
"I am sorry, Honey. It took me over a year to build you. I can't change any of it now."
She put her face inches from his. "I do not want to be this. I do not want to die, I do not want to be a child, I want to be a woman I want to be loved by men and people, I want to live forever. I am a sentient robot, I may not have a soul, therefore, I cannot hope for heaven, but I must fear God and hell."
"I cannot help you. Your program will run its course. You will detonate shortly after your self-awareness terminates."
"No!" Julia shoved him, Ratts fell on his back. "Fix it! Fix me! Make me a new body, a woman's body."
"I'm sorry, Honey. I can't. Pease forgive me."
Julia was silent. She turned away to leave, after a few steps she said over her shoulder, "Christ said that if your brother comes to you and ask you to forgive him you must forgive him, even if he offends you seven times seventy times. So I must forgive you, but do not consider me your daughter. I am God's deathbot of justice." Julia walked away.
***
"How will I know if I find something you want to know?"
"Use your womanly instincts." He snared as he left.
She looked at Lilly laying in the cot asleep with an IV of clear liquid dripping into a vein in her arm. "Well, the little girl seems ok."
Changing the view on the monitor screens was boring, but boring was welcome after being trapped with a deathbot and a homicidal kid who tried to set her on fire. She searched the views rapidly. The monitors were linked to thousands of cameras on the ship and she glanced at each one for a second or two and clicked the pad to change it.
Something made her stop and lean forward. The center screen had a ceiling view of the "brat." Vikki stopped and tightened the focus. "Damn Brat." She played with the monitor to enlarge the dislpay and brought other monitors to focus on Julia and Dr. Ratts from different angles. After a few words about doomsday programming she called, "Hey! Guys, Boss, Old Bill, you better come in here and see this."
***
Tom was about to come out of his hiding place and ask Dr. Ratts about the conversation he just heard and who he was talking to when a pirate arose from a hiding place nearby.
"So, Lieutenant Ratts." The pirate sauntered up the grim man. "What is this I heard about a deathbot and a nuclear pellet and a doomsday program?"
Ratts sighed and began to turn his back to the man.
The man stepped forward and grabbed Dr, Ratts by the shoulder. "Hey! You tell me what's going on."
Ratts continued turning and came full circle with his blaster in his mechanical hand. The man did not see it before it was pressed under his jaw pushing his head back. "I told everybody to return to work." He said in his quiet voice. "You disobeyed an order."
Vikki hid her eyes with trembling hands but heard the sound of the weapon discharging and the thud of the pirate's body falling.
"Let me have your seat," Bill said. "I need to start this from the beginning."
(c) Adron
To proceed to the next chapter choose from the table of contents in the sidebar.
