Symphony of Destruction (The Spindown Saga, #1) Page 20
“Colin,” he began, but was quickly cut off by Colin’s agitated response.
“What!?”
“We might consider skipping the tests. I fear they may be a moot point now.”
“I think so, too, Brother. Quickly now Hannah, this way.” By now they had come to the twisting corridors of sector F, and Colin’s guiding hand became less of an unnecessary instinct, and more of a useful navigational aid.
Hannah was barely thinking, just running. The jarring pace and the disorienting sonic wobble occupied her attention in a jumbled blend of pounding feet and blurred streaks of lockers and acute angles which seemed to jump out at her. She reached out for Colin’s hand, and upon landing within it, she found a single point of firm stability upon which the spinning world could anchor. They ran faster now, yet the journey was smoothened. Each upcoming corner was tamed from an unknown obstacle, to a simple course correction. She could anticipate now, which direction they must turn. She felt the location of the pod ahead drawing them to it.
Chapter 68
Colin was helping Hannah settle into the escape pod. They had scant few supplies. There was ample food and water, but that was the extent of it, aside from the first aid and emergency gear already on the pod. He debated going to E-11 to fetch Hannah some extra clothes. He didn’t want to leave Hannah though. The decision was made for him when a notification alert dinged softly and Brother Anderson spoke.
“We have just received the response from Central Operations Fleet Command Center. It contains the navigational coordinate verification codes. I am sending them into the navigational subroutines now.”
“I guess this is it huh?” Hannah reached for Colin’s hand.
“Before we proceed, there is one other matter...”
“What is it Brother?”
“I don’t quite know how to say this... Hannah. The archaeon... have you... can you feel it?”
“Can I feel it? Like, in, er, on my account?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I... I mean, I haven’t really had time. I literally was logged in for like a second.”
“Oh. Of course. Well. I wonder. Could you do something for me. Later, I mean. I’m sending you an executable program, it should be in your account now, titled ‘archaeon3’.”
“OK...”
“It contains my account details, and it will essentially repeat the process I used to create Colin’s archaeon from yours. Yours was the first; the spontaneous one. Colin and I will be your progeny so to speak.”
“Um, that’s kinda weird.”
“Hannah, I feel as though this archaeon might somehow keep me alive in away.”
“What are you talking about!? Aren’t you coming with us?”
“No. I can’t. Even if I could fit inside the pod, it wouldn’t work. I need to be on ship in order to carry out the next procedures.”
“Brother, you’re wrong!” Colin jumped in, “You can partially disassemble, and trigger and control the navigation maneuver from the pod.”
“You’re right, Colin, but once the maneuver is complete, I need to send the confirmation transmission.”
“Yeah. Which you can also do from the pod.”
“True again, but only if the pod is still docked.”
“Right, so... oh.” In all probability, the maneuver would tear the ship apart. This was as close as Brother Anderson had come to admitting it.
“It’s best this way, Colin. I will go down with the ship. I must do that - but thanks to Hannah, I may be reborn.”
“What? I don’t really...” Hannah looked at Colin. Did he know what the robot was talking about?
“Hannah, I am a robot. I’m a bucket of bits. My life is no great loss. No more than turning out the lights at night. But you have made me something more. Your fury, your stubbornness, your music. You have taught me to love. I do not truly know what has happened to me, but I know that you are a part of it, and you too, Colin. Something has awakened in me that frankly should not exist. Cannot. I don’t know. But I’m trusting you. If you did it once, you can do it again. Let me die and be reborn. Please.”
Hannah stepped out of the pod, ducking around boxes of supplies, and the low hatchway. Tears dripped off her cheeks as she reached out to hug the robot. She squeezed him like she had not squeezed anyone in years, her mother had been the last, and probably the only one.
“OK, Brother. I will do this for you.”
Chapter 69
Colin sealed the hatch of the escape pod and locked the interior manual latch. Hannah peered over his shoulder toward the robot, barely visible through the small plasglass pane. She still did not really understand what she had promised him. Of course, she would do it. She was glad to be able to help in whatever way she could, but the actual effect of her actions was somewhat fuzzy. Somehow, the program she had would allow Brother Anderson to reboot or rewrite himself into the tanglebase. That sounded a little sketchy to her, but he seemed convinced it could work.
Through the plasglass, Brother Anderson gave a curt salute, then disappeared. His voice came through the control panel on the pod.
“I am heading to engineering bay now, to initiate the navigational maneuver.”
“OK,” Hannah replied. She was sitting next to the console so she could reach to press the transmit button. She released the button, then spoke to Colin, who was now moving to seat himself across from her. He picked up her pressure suit and passed it to her, then picked up his own.
“Do you need a hand with it?”
“I should be OK, at least... I might need help with the helmet, I guess.”
“Sure thing.” He had one leg in already, and slightly lost his balance, as he tugged on the suit. He managed to avoid toppling over onto the seats, but Hannah took the opportunity to rib him.
“Are you sure YOU don’t need a hand?”
“Ha ha.”
“I’m approximately halfway there,” came the robotic voice over the intercom. They both had their hands full with their pressure suits, so neither could conveniently reply.
“This is so crazy!” Hannah told Colin.
“Putting on a spacesuit is crazy?”
“No. I mean the thing with Brother Anderson.”
“I know.”
“Can he really... I mean, is what he is talking about even possible?”
“The thing with the archaea you mean?”
“Of course that’s what I mean.”
“Is it possible? Well. Honestly. I don’t know. In some ways, sure why not? After all, a robot is just a program really - well, a big collection of programs, and in his case a rather complex one. We tend to think of the robot’s body as an integral part of it, but is it really? It provides a hardware framework to run on of course, and lots of sensory interfaces, but none of those are really intrinsic to the programming, and for the most part, certainly not mandatory. But I don’t know. Simple robots can be cloned and copied and moved across hardware no problem. But Brother Anderson seems to be more than just some simple false persona. I almost wonder... He seems to have changed from before - when he was just the doctor, he was the same as any old medical robot. But now...”
“I know, right?! He’s not the same, Colin, I know he’s not! And he’s not just a robot anymore!”
“Yeah. Somehow, I think you’re right.”
“And he knows it too!”
“Yeah.”
“So if that’s true - is he alive? Like really?”
“Hmm. Maybe.”
“So what if his idea doesn’t work?”
“Well...”
“Colin, I’m worried - I don’t want him to die!”
“Yeah, of course! Me neither. But... Well, he seems to know what he’s doing.”
“I know, but...”
“Well, if he really is alive, then... well... we need to let him make his own decisions. And besides, he is right about staying on board. It is his duty. He’s high ranking officer.”
“But only if he’s human!”
Hannah paused, not just for effect. The idea was bubbling up from her subconscious, and just now taking form. She hadn’t really thought about it much, but now the effect was becoming clear, and in so doing, it clarified the cause as well.
“Colin, you’re high ranking officer!”
“What?! No.”
“Yes, you are.”
“What are you talking about?”
“What’s your current rank?”
“Chief of Engineering. It’s not that high a level. And I only had to take it so someone could make official decisions on technical details.”
“Really? Like what. What official decisions?”
“I don’t know! Like... status reports and stuff.”
“Which you have done?”
“Yes! I’ve run a bunch of reports. You’ve seen some of them on screen, remember all the yellow ship sections?”
“Sure.”
“So?”
“So, has Brother Anderson been asking you to sign off on all his reports?”
“No.”
“And what’s his rank exactly?”
Colin thought about it. “Well, he’s CSO, but that’s not really a rank, is it? It’s a system designation. He’s Chief Medical Officer, I guess. Well, plus Chaplain, so that’s two pretty much equal ranks, same level as mine.”
“But you’re a human! Doesn’t that outweigh any robot?”
“Um. I guess it would. I don’t really know.”
“Colin, he tricked you! He’s known all along! He knew he was human, and he knew he could let you think he outranked you, and that one of you would have to stay with the ship and that it would have to be him because he needed to save your life!”
“What? He’s not human though.”
“Obviously! But he’s acting as though he is! And he’s doing it to save you!”
“Get outta here.” It was an obligatory argument, lacking conviction. “There’s no way...”
He sat down hard. One arm still hung out of the pressure suit. His jaw sagged and he raised a hand to lightly touch his forehead. Could it be true? Maybe. Yes. Yes, it had to be. He was supposed to be Captain. He was supposed to be the one going down with the ship. He’d been fooled. Fooled into a lifesaving circumstance.
“You clever bastard!”
Chapter 70
“I’m in engineering bay now. About to initiate sequence. Are you folks strapped in?”
They weren’t. They didn’t even have their suits on yet. Hannah jumped to the transmit button.
“Hold on! We’re not quite ready!”
Colin was waving frantically at Hannah as she released the button. “Don’t tell him we know!”
“I won’t! As if I would!”
“OK, I know, but, just...”
“God!”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to think this through. Hannah, if he knows I know I outrank him, he might feel that he has to bow to my seniority.”
“He might.”
“But in so doing, he would recognize me as Captain.”
“Right.”
“Which would mean...”
“He’s in your position. A position you can’t be in. I will not let you leave me.”
“I don’t want to!”
“Good! So we’re settled then!?”
“Yeah.”
“OK. Now let’s suit up and get the hell out of here!”
“Well...”
“What now?”
“Let’s suit up and probably get the hell out of here!” Colin grinned wryly. There was still a slim chance that the ship would actually survive the maneuver. If it did, they wouldn’t have to escape.
“Hold on. I just thought of something.” Colin cocked his head slightly. “We’ve been talking about probablys this whole time, but there’s no probablys! We sent the message, remember? - Crew Lost! We’re dead! There’s no coming back from that!”
“Not for us.” Hannah agreed. “Maybe for Brother. I hope so for Brother.”
“Yeah, but at this point it doesn’t matter if the ship survives or not! I’ve already abandoned my post!”
“Hmm. Yeah. I guess that’s true.”
“Fuck! I would never have chosen this, you know? I’m no deserter.”
“I know. That’s why Brother had to trick you.”
“Shiiit.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Wait! You put him up to it, didn’t you?!”
“Colin no! I swear I had no idea!”
“I guess he tricked us both then.”
“I guess he did.” Hannah hopped up and down, tugging on the shoulders of her suit, adjusting it so it could close. They helped each other with the helmets, then buckled themselves in to the seats.
Hannah reached for the transmit button. It was almost out of reach. She adjusted her position slightly, then pressed the button.
“Brother. We are ready.”
“Alright. Initiating nav sequence in ten seconds.”
“And Brother, we are launching the pod now.”
“We are?!” Colin stared at her incredulously.
“You are?” Brother Anderson replied.
“Yes, we are.”
“Very well. Goodbye Hannah. Goodbye Colin.”
“We have to, Colin,” she told him, after releasing the transmitter.
He knew it too. The risk of damage to the ship was severe. Remaining attached only served to put them at risk. There was already no way to undo what they were about to do. They were committed to this escape no matter what. It was the only way forward.
“Goodbye, Brother.” Colin said.
“Oops.” Hannah burst out laughing. “I need to push the button, silly!” They both laughed, then regained their composure. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
Hannah pushed the transmit button a final time, then signaled Colin. They both said it together.
“Goodbye, Brother.”
Releasing the button, Hannah looked to Colin. “We’ll see him again, right?”
“Yes. We’ll see him again.”
“Now, for your button, Colin.”
The pod launch release control was actually a lever, not a button, but Hannah didn’t know that. He first flipped a few switches to enable all pod subsystems, and switch over from central ship command. A couple quick glances at status indicators showed all was working correctly. He moved his gloved hand to the lever, hovering over it briefly. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
Pulling the lever, he released the pod. He released himself from former obligations. He released them both from ship-bound living, from life as they had known it up until now.
Chapter 71
The final seconds counted down. Then from deep within the ship’s structure, a rattle erupted, followed by a deep roar that overpowered all the other sounds. The whole ship shook violently. In engineering bay, loose objects rattled off the workbenches, cascading to the floor in a silent cacophony. No sounds could compete with the mighty roar of the ships engines. They had idled at five percent output for so long, Brother Anderson had almost forgotten the experience of their full power. It was an amazing phenomenon.
The new coordinates popped up on his perception, requesting final approval. He confirmed. The ship began to swivel her enormous mass. Fifty million tons of ore resisted the force. Fifty million tons of ore wanted to maintain their current trajectory. The roar of the engines sought to convince them otherwise. The hull shook and bucked like a wild beast, and though its hideous groans could not be heard beneath the engine noise, Brother Anderson could feel them, could see them on his data visualizations. The entire hull appeared red in his view. Then suddenly, the hull was no longer a single structure, but a chaotic mass of giant steel ribbons, thrashing to and fro’, in an explosion of red, blue, and green data. The instantaneous release of tension tricked the system into displaying many of the structural components as within normal tolerances. The tolerances may have been normal, but the shapes certainly we
re not. The Ventas-341 had been torn into a tangled matrix of no particular shape. A chain reaction of explosions was now spreading through her interior spaces. She had become a giant fireball. Brother Anderson sensed the heat behind the engineering bay hatch, even before the wall in front of him ripped in two. Negative pressure sucked his steel and plasmold body through the gash, hurling him past horribly twisted struts amidst flying panels and various debris. He was singed slightly as a fireball shot across his path. Suddenly, he was surrounded by millions of tons of rock, as the momentum of the cargo carried it past him. It was spreading out along its original trajectory, the containment fields now gone. The cargo became a huge three dimensional field of gravel. As he fell through it, he felt as though he was tunneling rapidly through a planet, as the planet was falling apart. Then the debris field spread behind him as he rocketed from its space. Behind, and to his left, the giant engines still spewed their blue plasma out in a mighty jet, but that jet was now losing shape as the various engine components fell apart from each other, their individual plumes now crossing and interfering with one another, driving the still burning engines through the debris field and beginning to melt the cargo to slag.
Even as the ship and payload continued to disintegrate all around him. Brother Anderson had one last task to perform as CSO of the floundering Ventas-341.
All monitoring systems had now failed to function, so there was no way of knowing if it worked, but he had to try. He composed a final message to Central Operations Fleet Command Center.
MessageHeader=MTC-LRC.4036728.937465
Timestamp=567.3694.04.289
OriginatingVessel=VENTAS_CALIR.CS45.VENTAS-341
SubmittedBy=CRS.05623928.ACTING_CSO
Progress=PAYLOADON.RET
Requirements=N/A
Status = RED
IssuesList:
_ID01
_DESC=VESSEL
_SEV=RED
_ACTION=N/A
_ID02
_DESC=PAYLOAD
_SEV=RED