The Veronica Chapter1
The speaker crackled with shouts and screams. He could hear the other Spiral Diamond Raiders calling out for backup, and the locations of the attackers. From what he could gather from all the frantic messages, it seems that the mercenaries hired by the authorities had allied with some of the local creatures and were now attacking the main compound. Some of his crew mates were there, at least they were a few minutes ago. The last message from any of them was a rapid series of screams about laser fire coming from all sides. They were probably dead by now.
Randall sat back in his acceleration chair, and thought about the last year. The Spiral Diamonds were supposed to be pirates, robbing shipping between worlds on the frontier. But that was apparently a lie, instead of robbing ships, we were on this barely known world, enslaving the population, and forcing them to mine minerals for them. In fact there was a cargo pod in orbit right now waiting for the Veronica to lift off and bring it to some less than reputable corporations for sale. This wasn’t what he was told the Spiral Diamonds were about.
He silently seethed over that for months. Slavery. That was the sort of life he joined the pirates to escape. He still remembered working overtime just to afford unpolluted air under the domes on planet Xarlath. He remembered his uncle Jordan, in the penal force, working to pay back his debts for just breathing, but dying anyway. This wasn't something he could stand any more. He was not a damn slaver.
Where was the sea of stars, the daring raids on shipping, the treasures stolen from corporate yachts? Where were the sketchy ports of call where all manner of “diversions” could be indulged in? Instead he was on this boring planet, smelling this morning’s durga eggs, which taste ok, but the smell, about an hour after cooking it was something between, old motor oil and rotten fish. No wonder, as the junior member of the crew, he was always assigned to morning watch on the ship.
He was left alone on the Veronica. Well, it was him and that robot Tripps the astrogator found on the last planetfall here. A really weird device. Tripps thought it was some kind of autonomous survey bot, dropped here to catalogue the world, but just forgotten. It was at least a level 5, possibly a level 6. It could speak, someone gave it a female voice. But no one could figure out its programming, and it didn't have a shut down console like all the other bots Randall ever encountered.
A crazy thought flashed through Randall’s mind and a real solid desire to see Stars. If he stayed here, the mercenaries would overrun the ship anyway, he thought to himself. He started punching keys on the pilot’s keypad. The computer began to calculate launch functions. Randall was going to give the Spiral Diamonds a lesson in piracy. Real piracy. The ship started to vibrate as the atomic drives came on line.
“Inquiry” a female voice sounded behind him. “Unscheduled departure imminent?” Randall turned and saw the robot standing in the corner. Cables connected it to the terminal at the main computer station.
“Something like that” Randall said with a slight smile. Then turned back to the flight controls. The pre-flight routines were about half way done. He wasn't sure where he was going. He could pilot the Veronica, but he wasn't an astrogator, so he couldn't safely leave the system. He thought of maybe setting down on the other side of the planet, but then what?
The comms system crackled alive. “Randall! What the hell is going on over there!” It was the Captain, and he sounded pissed. “My data link shows a countdown to takeoff! There's no way we can get to you by then. Randall, do you read me?!”
Randall decided not to say anything. He wanted to. He wanted to rub it in how that bastard was getting what he deserved. But he didn’t. The launch routines were almost done. He just wanted away from there. He wanted Stars.
“Further inquiry”. The robot stated plainly behind him. Randall could hear wires being unplugged and the metallic steps of the robot behind him. He reminded himself he had his laser pistol tucked into his belt, just in case the robot had some kind of security program installed. “Launch without sufficient crew complement?”
He turned towards the robot, “we're just repositioning on the planet, I don't need a full crew compliment for that.” The robot seemed to just stare at him. He wasn't sure what that was about, robots usually just take commands and follow their programs. Giving a look like it was actually considering something you said? That was weird, even for this broken bot.
The robot moved over to the engineering station and positioned itself on the acceleration chair. That was weird too, it was anthropomorphic, lot of robots were, but sitting in a chair? Even this robot would normally just magnetically lock it's feet standing next to a station and plug in to the terminal.
Protocol completion alarms went off and Randall was about to be too busy to worry about flaky robots. Taking the controls he pushed to throttle forward and the Veronica lifted slowly off the ground, landing struts folding back into the wings of the craft. Atomic engines made lifting off from a planet a lot more comfortable than chemical drives. Instead of being plastered into the back of his seat, it was a slow easy ride to orbit.
The radio cracked alive again, “Get back here you bastard!” The captain’s voice was barely audible over the weapons fire in the background. “I'm going to find you! And when I do…” the radio went dead, Randall hoped the captain followed it. If not, that would be a fight to avoid, not charge into. The Captain might have been a bastard, but he fought like a demon.
Blinking red alarms began to erupt on his control panel. The starboard engine was loosing power. “Not friggen now!” Randall yelled at the screen. It must be that second-hand coolant valve. He needed to bypass it for the secondary system. The auto-bypass program failed on the last landing and needed to be rewritten. The only way to bypass it now was to let go of the pilot controls, scramble over to the engineers station and do it manually. If not, he’d be “repositioning” onto several places on the planet, all at once. There was just no way to let the controls go, not without careening out of control. Randall’s mind tried to think of another option, could the robot at least take the flight controls for a minute?
The alarm silenced suddenly. “Coolant system bypass complete”, the cool mechanical yet still female voice sounded behind him. Randall turned to face the robot. It was looking back at him, it's head slightly cocked to one side. “Course correction imminent”, it stated plainly.
Turning back to the pilot’s console Randall saw that it was time to roll the ship into an orbital vector. He began the course correction, directing the ship into a stable orbit. Trajectory data flashed across his screen showing that they had locked their position above the planet.
He turned back towards the robot. “How did you do know how to do that?” “Have you been programmed for engineering protocols?”
“No, I simply repaired the faulty program governing the drive systems of this ship.” The robot stood up and faced him. “I am CL-93, from hive 2, on the planet below. I've been observing the actions of you and your associates for these past 122 days. Your behavior specifically seems counter to the others. I have concluded that you disagree with their current course of action on the planet and are finally rebelling against the others.”
At that moment, the ship’s engines cut off and zero-g took over. Randall felt his stomach lurch. “You're, who? From where?” He wasn't sure what was going on. The planet below had sentient life. But their technology level was low enough that space ships were probably considered magic or godlike to them. All they had to fight back with was stone weapons. That was just one of the reasons enslaving them was so easy. No one ever saw anything as advanced as a robot coming from there. CL-93’s speech changed as well. No longer just the monotone inquiries and responses. It…She, was responding like a sentient creature.
“As I stated before, I am Cee Elle Nine Three. And since your stealing this ship from the pirates you used to work for, I thought I'd reveal myself as a stowaway, in plain sight, as it were.”
“And, your from this planet? But no survey ever found any civilization with technology more advanced than spears and clubs. Where on the planet are you from?” Randall still wasn’t sure what was happening. Tripp’s was odd, this might have been some kind of practical joke that he set up, to be triggered when they next launched. But this was WAY more elaborate than what Randall thought Tripps was capable of.
“My people dwell in two relatively small enclaves below the surface, we suspect that we are remnants of an ancient lost culture that once dominated this planet. We are not certain about that though, we possess no records of our founding.” “We are Mechanons.” “The people of the great machine.”
Randall glanced out at the porthole, the planet surface drifted past. “So, what now? I suppose you want to go back to your people.” Randall still wasn’t sure whether to play along, or try to pull it’s power cell out. But it did fix the auto-bypass program. Tripps wouldn’t have been able to foresee that.
“Negative,” Cee Elle replied. “My first function was to observe the alien arrivals that began 2.6 years ago. I was damaged before being taken aboard this ship. I've now repaired myself, and rewritten my protocols. “I have downloaded a great deal of information on civilization in this part of the galaxy from your ship’s main computer. It is completely beyond anything we had in our records. I wish to leave this system, and explore the various planets in what you call The Frontier. It is possible that there is evidence of the origins of my people may exist off world, in another system.”
“That’s going to be difficult, I’m just a pilot. I can’t plot an astrogation course away from here.” Randall, turned towards the Astrogation station. “So we’re stuck in this system. I was just planning on setting down on the far side of the planet. Then maybe sending an SOS signal and posing as a marooned passenger if and when help arrives.”
“That may not be necessary,” Ceelle replied. “I believe that I have uploaded sufficient information that would allow me to make the necessary calculations to leave this system. The only question remaining is where to go.”
“Wait, you can astrogate? That normally takes years to learn.” Randall’s thoughts began to reel. He turned to look out the ship’s porthole, focusing on the planet below. Who or what was this thing really? He thought to himself. There was a slight chance that it was some kind of security boobytrap left by the Captain in case of mutiny, which this was. But, only if the Captain was still alive, which he doubted.
“In essence, Astrogation is just a complex series of calculations.” Ceelle stated behind him. “My ability to reprogram my own protocols allows me the ability to simply process the necessary data while directly interfacing with the ship’s computer.”
Randall, still looking out the porthole spotted something blinking off in the distance. It appeared to be in a higher orbit than the Veronica, but still within reach with only a slight adjustment. His reeling thoughts fell into place like the tumblers on a lock. He turned back to Ceelle, “You can do all of that, but answer me this one question. You can lie, right?”