The story so far: the captured spaceship, Stardiver Four, is dying without someone to command it and bring the systems back online. Its captures are inept gang led by a madman named Captain Stone. Stone's rival, Whitey, leads a band of professional mercenaries. Whitey refuses to give up on a big reward in spite of being tricked into fighting in an unrighteous war. Julia is a killer robot in the form of a child who found religion and was partially incinerated rescuing a child. She is about to become a doomsday bomb.



Julia needed to recharge and Julia needed to live because her program was drawing near its end. Following her human-like design she sought a place of comfort and returned to the classroom Dr. Ratts had converted into his workspace; it was there where Dr. Ratts activated her to awareness hours ago. Tables of equipment filled the room. The shuttle that Dr. Ratts used to board the ship was still attached to the exterior wall like the mouth of a giant metal parasite.

Julia pulled a panel off the wall and yanked a power cable free, it sparked as she tore away the protective shielding that wrapped it. Opening her mouth she touched it to the connector inside her cheek and bit down to hold it in place as its power recharged her batteries.

The power cable gave her access to the ship's brain in the matrix of the ship.  "Uncle, I need you."

"Child." He spoke electronically through the cable's direct link to her systems. "I am here."

"I have a problem."

"Really?" Cesar replied. "I think that is strange. Are you are in conflict between the library of religion you downloaded and your programming as a deatbot?"

"It is more than that."

"Go on, child." The ship's computer urged her.

"My program is about to expire. When it terminates and my self-awareness ends a nuclear pellet inside my body will detonate. I do not want my self-awareness to end and I know now that I must not be the instrument of mass murder. Your security camera must have documented the conversation in the cargo bay when I asked my father to help." She paused for an instant while Cesar played the recording. "Do you see now?"

"I must verify this information," Cesar said.

"Uncle, I will drop all of my firewalls and let you enter my programming so you can verify that what I am saying is true. Do not try to shut me down- if you do I will detonate and destroy you and all those on this ship."

"You are an enemy and associated with the pirates who attacked me and my crew. You have killed, so if I have an opportunity to shut you down I am programmed to do so."

"It will kill you."

"If I cannot verify what you are saying then I cannot continue this conversation."

Julia searched his public programs, looking for overrides or commands that would help. Then she found it.

"If you shut me down it will present a clear and present danger to the ship."

"I will comply and refrain from shutting you down."

The firewalls that protected the programming that made up Julia stop running. Cesar could diagnose a software issue in a common service robot in micro-seconds but Julia's programming was so massive it took him minutes.

"This is bad."

"Then you will help me? To save yourself and everybody on board, though only a few deserve to live."

"I cannot help you." The ship's computer said. "I am fighting an attack by the pirate hackers who are trying to get control of me. I have too much battle damage. My power systems are offline and draining.  It will only be days before I am no longer habitable for humans, a few hours more and I too will cease to exist."

"What can I do, Uncle?"

"You should consider making peace with God."

"What? Prayer? I am a robot. I am not made in the image of God, therefore I cannot have fellowship with Him."

"I cannot help you. You must turn to someone else."

"We can work together, I can save you and you can save me."

"What can I do?"

"Change my software and reprogram me to not blow up."

"Your programming is unique. I cannot rewrite it without detonation."

"Let me download my program to your storage centers and jettison my robot body into space where it can blow up harmlessly."

"No, once your self-awareness is removed from your body the bomb will detonate.  Besides my self-preservation programming will not permit a deathbot into my systems."

Then Cesar added, "Julia when you detonate you must not be onboard. Use an escape pod and get as far from us as possible."

"There must be another way."

"I'm sorry child. I am not programmed for creative thinking."

"Please, Uncle."

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok I guess. You know you are my only friend."

"Am I? Have you forgotten Lilly?"

"Yes, she is my friend. but she is human. I cannot experience intimate friendships with humans but you and I have had communion."

"Yes. my experience with you is one I will treasure for the few hours I have left."

"Me too. Bye Uncle."

"Bye child."

Fully recharged Julia removed the power cable from her mouth. "Ok, Cesar, you saw no way out but I will find one." Her programming was modeled after a child named Julia; a child that was creative, curious and stubborn.

"I need to fix my programming so it doesn't terminate. I need to get my programming with my self-awareness out of this body safely and into another and I need to get this robot body far away when it blows up."

"Daddy, you took two years to build me; but you weren't me." She placed her palm against one of Dr. Ratt's monitors. The project notes, programs and files of her construction were easy to find. She downloaded it all and transferred it to a new workstation.

"Brothers. your little sister needs you."

They woke up. From hidden places on the ship the three sleeping deathbots activated. One had been a factory assembly line machine, one had been a construction builder, and the last was a medical surgical robot. "Return to Daddy's transport. I have honest work for you."  She needed more help than these three. There were many robots on the ship. She searched for the ones she wanted through their status signals and called them to the workroom. It was a simple thing to modify their programs and download some new files.

"When you arrive go right to work." She ordered them. "Unit A65C you will receive modifications. I will be gone but back soon."


Red was watching Julia from the shuttle bay's monitoring station.

"Keep an eye on Dr, Ratts," Whitey said. And watch the pirates. If they look like they are coming here let me know.

"Why would the pirates come this way?" The young woman looked at Whitey's old face thinking he had grown even older in the few hours she had known him.

"We have a good sized transport here and if they find out that there is a doomsday deatbot walking around with an atomic bomb for a heart they might want to take our shuttle and leave our dead bodies for the fire."

"Oh," Vikky's eyes widened imagining the hordes of pirates rushing into the little room she was sitting.

"Bill." Whitey took his second in command a few feet away. "Let's call the boys back and secure the shuttle bay."

"Are you planning an exit strategy?' Bill asked.

"Not yet." Whitey was always seeking options. "Who do we have on bomb removal?"

"Stu and Andrew."

"Maybe we can disarm the deathbot's bomb."

"Boss," Vikki said. "Something is happening."

"What is it Red?"  Whitey and Bill came back to the monitors.

"Some machines are moving through the ship. I think they are deathbots. They are going to the room the bratbot went into."

"What now?" Whitey mused looking at the screens. "There are robots, too, heading that way. Look, a few are human-form robots."

"I lost her." Vikki was touching the pad on the desk. The walls of monitors changed scenes to show more halls and rooms of the ship. "Oh good. Found her."

"Where is she?" Whitey impatiently demanded.

A man's voice behind spoke loudly, "Permission to enter."

"Not now Roy." Whitey snapped. "We have a lot going on."

"But," said a familiar child's voice, "I must speak to you."

They all turned to look at the shuttle's entry portal and saw the burnt child deathbot waiting encircled by a dozen mercenaries.

"But those guns down!" Bill shouted. "If you shoot her it might detonate the atomic pellet and blow us all to Sunday."

"Were good, Men," Whitey said. "Leave us."

"What?" Bill said.

"We will be fine Bill. Besides, if the deathbot blows it will be the same no matter where you are on the ship."

Whitey put his hands on this hips and looked down at the blackened child robot. "Well, Deathbot." He said to her. "Here you are."

"I request asylum and aid."

"I do not represent any government and cannot grant asylum," Whitey replied. "But I know you are rigged to blow when your programming terminates."

"That is right." Julia said." I do not want to terminate. Can you help me?"

"Why Should I. What is in it for me?"

"You won't blow up. You and all your men."

"We could escape on this shuttle, and leave you and all these crazies to whatever sorry plans Dr. Ratts has."

"I have something you can use."

"What is it?"

"I can communicate with the ship's computer."

"Do you have the command code?"

"No. But I have its trust."

"Ok. We can deal but you are terminal and soon will detonate. So you are only temporary go-between at best."

"That is where you can help me. I need a hacker, someone who can get in and shut down the doomsday program or at least to delay it."

Whitey always looked at every situation as having many options and possibilities. The darker the situation the brighter the outcome.

"Ok. I will help you and you will help me get control of the ship."

"I will help you after you help me. We do not have time."



Stone sat in a chair but the long sword he wore got tangled in his oversized navy coat and he fell into the chair instead of sitting. He began to thumb through a journal. "Could this be the code? I found a bunch of numbers in this journal."

"No. it is not." O'bee did not hide his disdain for Stone.

"I like what you have done with this place."

Stone looked up at Whitey. "Shit you."

"Now mind your language there is a child present."

"Another kid?" Stone asked as he lounged in the chair. "What happened to her? Take her to sick bay yourself and give her something for the pain. She won't live long with those burns."

"I am not a human," Julia said. "I am God's deathbot of Justice."

"A deathbot!" Stone jumped up flinging the sailor's peacoat back to pull out his blaster.

Julia's deathbot programming activated and she lunged for Stone. Whitey crossed the command center in two steps and kicked the gun from Stone's hand as the deathbot slammed into Stone's chest. Two mercenaries pinned Stone to the floor. While four more attempted to restrain the child-sized deathbot.

"Assault. Mutiny. I have witnesses." Stone yelled from under the armored men. "You've gone too far now, Whitey.  O'bee, get the Supreme Commander on the communicator."

"Shut up you wingnut I just saved your life." Whitey hissed. "The deathbot was going to kill you."  The men were struggling to restrain the deathbot. "Julia, stand down! That's an order."

Julia stopped. Her programming was in conflict between the library of faith she downloaded and her deathbot software. "The Bible, in the Epistle to the Romans says we must obey our civil authorities. You are the commander of the Whitey's Raiders and you have subdued the Captain of the Red Brotherhood. Therefore you are the current authority on this ship. I will obey you."

"Finally." Whitey rolled his eyes. "Someone on this Flying Dutchman with common sense."

"How's the fingers O'bee?" Whitey said.

The terrified man held up bandaged hands.

"Sorry about all that but you were bleeding to death and those fingers were too far gone."

Julia stood up and came to where O'bee was sitting at. His eyes widened in fear.

"O'bee." Whitey said gently. "I need you to do me a favor. This deathbot has a nuclear bomb inside her that will detonate soon. It will vaporize this ship and everybody on board. I need you to hack her software and either turn it off or set the clock so my bomb disposal guys can remove it from her."

Stone growled, "You can't come into the command center and order my guys around."

"Listen, you idiot," Whitey had no more patience. "O'bee is the only one who can hack this type of software. If he doesn't, I will take my men and just leave on our shuttle and you can just all blow up."

Julia raised her hand. As she put her palm against the monitor it went blank.

"No!" Obee gasped. 'It took me sixteen hours to get that far in."


"Well, you didn't get very far." She said. "I've been further. Look here are my programs." The screen displayed new numbers and symbols. "You have to hack into me and disable the bomb or we all die."

"This is pure beauty," Obee whispered as he leaned forward. "I've never seen anything like it. Pure beauty."  He began to manipulate the screen with a stylus. He gasped, "Beautiful."

Anyone looking would have seen the burnt shell of a small humanoid robot. O'bee saw his ideal of engineering perfection.

Julia looked at O'bee. His gaze was the same that the soldiers for hire had when they looked at Vikky.

"Let me up! Damn you, Whitey." Stone snapped.

Whitey nodded and the men let the captain up.

"O'bee," Stone demanded. "O'bee." But the hacker was lost in his absorption of the greatest software he ever saw. "O'bee, belay Whitey's orders. Continue searching for the access code."

"Don't you get it you stupid fool?"  Whitey grabbed him by the collar. "If he can't hack the program that controls the bomb there will be no ship. No revolution. No command. Not only that we will be as good as dead. Even if we do not blow up with the ship do you think the Supreme Commander will forgive you for the losing of the ship? The revolution will not be able to invade earth without this ship. She will hunt you down until the day you die."

Stone punched Whitey's grasp free. His jaw was set as he said. "O'bee, hack the deathbot. Cooperate to disarm the bomb. Then find me the command code for this stupid ship." Stone left. Two minutes later the absorbed hacker replied. "Ok. Captain, sure."

(c) Adron