In the story so far, the spaceship, Stardiver Four, is captured by inept pirates and is adrift in space. Lieutenant Ratts created Julia, the deathbot, out of grief and for revenge, she is a self-aware killing machine that does not want to die in spite of being a living time bomb, her plan to survive her own destruction might also save the ship. The mercenary, Whitey, is trying to make sure that Julia leaves the ship before she blows everyone up.
The public announcement that there was a mysterious plague on the ship frightened Tom but to hear the Captain order the killing of anyone who was infected was shocking. "Lieutenant Ratts what is happening?" Tom asked from inside the engine where he was finishing up another connection.
The work on the starfighters stopped while the pirates sought to understand the danger. "Lieutenant Ratts," one asked, "What do you know about the plague? Is it for real? What should we do?"
Ratts looked down from atop a ladder leaning against on the starfighter. His black armored space suit was like a shadow against the oily black of the starfighter. "There is no plague. So put your weapons away and relax." He climbed on top of the sleek spacecraft and lowered himself into the command seat. "Give me a few moments to find out what is happening." His finger ran across the touchscreen until the communications came on.
Tom waited in the tight engine vent and the men stood in a group staring up at Dr. Ratts while he listened for answers.
In a distant passageway, Julia's robot legs pumped like the pistons in an engine propelling her through the long corridors of the ship at inhuman speed. Whitey and his men struggled vainly to catch her. In frustration, he touched the radio in his space suit's collar. "Red, what's on the monitors? Where is Julia? What do you see?"
Vikki sat in overwhelmed confusion at the makeshift table in Whitey's shuttle looking from monitor to monitor. "I keep losing the kidbot. She is moving too fast. You will never catch her. I see you."
"What about Stonebutt's men?"
They're so out of control, Boss, like dogs in hunting packs," Vikki knew she should stay on subject but asked, "Is there really some plague on the ship? I heard the security lady make an announcement then Stone ordered the infected men to be killled."
"There is no plague. Stone and Security are idiots."
"What about the kidbot? Is she still nuclear?"
"Yes. But she is going to take Dr. Ratt's shuttle and get away from the ship when she blows up."
"Wow, who would have thought a deathbot would sacrifice herself to save the rest of us?"
"Do you see her?"
Vikki tapped the monitor pad in rapid frustration. "I'm looking at all the images between there and that shuttle. OK, I just had a glimpse of her, but she is moving fast."
In the cargo bay the men listened to distant weapons fire; gathering their weapons they looked from Dr. Ratts to the entrance and back at Ratts. "What's that shooting, Lieutenant?"
"Stone's stupid announcement has men shooting each other." He slid out of the starfightger. "It will be over soon. I am going to find my daughter. You men stay here; it is easy to defend if you have to. I'll be back soon."
"Are you sure you want to go alone?"
"I'll be fine, you guys keep on getting the starfighters ready." Ratts left at a lanky trot through the main portal.
"Boss." Red's voice came out of his collar radio. "Dr. Ratts left the cargo bay and is moving through the lower deck. Could he be going to the shuttle?"
Whitey grit his teeth in rage. "That nutcase is trying to stop her, or keep her here until she blows us all to space dust."
Monitoring Whitey's comments brought Julia to a skidding stop in front of a communications center. Placing her hand on the screen she sent a burst, "Cesar, shut down all gravity generators, and seal all doors except those between this location and the shuttle." The debris that covered the corridor floor began to lift. Generating her own gravity Julia continued to run toward the shuttle.
As she ran Julia monitored the life signs on the ship; there were thirty-two fewer pirates now than only six minutes ago.
Without the gravity, Whitey and his men could only use handholds to pull themselves along in an attempt to catch up to Julia. "Red what is happening? Tell me what you see."
"The doors shut throughout the ship and the gravity has failed. Stone's men are trapped in little groups in different halls and rooms, so the killing has stopped. Dr. Ratts is still moving toward his shuttle.
Tom slid out of the engine as silently as he could and floated freely. Ollie was struggling with the weightlessness and unhappily flailing with his legs as he twisted one way and another in free float. The fearfull men were too busy making a barricade of boxes and freight across the main entrance to notice.
I still have the command code if I can get to the command center I can take over the ship and do something. "Ollie," he whispered. "Good boy, stay here, Stay Ollie, stay." Tom pushed himself off from the starfighter and began to float to a small back exit.
The shuttle was on an upper deck and the cargo section was near the bottom decks, so Ratts had to pull himself up many flights of stairs using the handholds. Tom was pulling himself up another stairwell.
"Tom you have to stop him." The voice came from a communication center ahead as he pulled himself along. Approaching it he saw the face of the boy on the monitor.
"What? Stop who?" Tom asked Cesar.
"Dr. Ratts is trying to kill her. You have to save her."
You mean Lilly. Dr. Ratts is trying to kill Lilly?
"No. He is trying to kill Julia, the deathbot. If he does the nuclear bomb inside her will go off and kill us all. You are the only one close enough to protect her. She must get on the shuttle and leave. Hurry! Stop him. Do you want the gravity on?
"What? Can you bring on the gravity generators?"
Tom fell to the floor. "Cool, are you in command of the ship?
"I can't explain now. Hurry and save Julia, Dr. Ratts is coming up the main passageway but you can get there ahead of him."
Tom began to run up the stairs. He could hear footsteps nearby getting louder as he climbed. The last flight opened to a long corridor near the classroom where Ratts set up his work area. Looking up the passageway he saw Julia. Her speed was mesmerizing and confusing. "How can anyone run that fast?"
Tom's oversized suit should have linked to the ship but it was a joke- the pirates made him wear it to humiliate him for their own fun. It was without battery or computer package to send his vital signs, so Julia was blind to his existence and almost ran into him before his presence registered.
"Out of my way!" she yelled. He flattened himself against the wall although there was plenty of room. "Decompression is imminent," She yelled as she passed him, "Get to safety kid."
"But Ratts is coming to kill you."
"Don't let him no matter what you do. He will kill me and when I die then you all die." She was already fifty yards past him. A sound behind him caused Tom to look back down the corridor. Ratts had come off a stair and was running in a tired lope toward him.
"Stop." Forgetting his taser Tom put his hands up as if to ward off a puppy. "Lieutenant Ratts, stop."
Julia reached the ripped opening to the classroom and bounded through. The empty bot body was standing in the center of the room as the surgical robot was finishing her face. Julia halted for only a moment to admire her hybrid design. "The hair is black, it is supposed to be red like in the images I sent."
"Sorry mommy." The surgical deathbot replied. "The nanites have not yet been programmed for the hair."
"No time now. Secure everything and make ready for decompression. When the shuttle breaks free, she must not float out. I will be downloading from the shuttle." Julia put her hand to a communication center and said, "Bye, Cesar." before leaping into the shuttle.
Ratts drew his blaster and pointed it at Tom.
"Drop it." said a commanding voice from behind. Tom half turned to see Whitey and his men.
Ratts sighed. "So, this is it. We all die here."
Tom could feel his heart pounding. He stood between Ratts and Whitey. He had seen Ratts kill before, and Whitey's men were about to fire weapons in his direction. He did not feel the panicking fear he had felt before but he felt a fear that was like an alert caution.
Three men stood behind Whitey. Raw willpower held his anger at bay, "Boys on my mark target his head and shoot. We will be less likely to hit the boy if one of us misses."
Ollie burst off of the stairwell and threw his weight against the lean body of Ratts bearing him down. Ratts landed on his back looking into the terrible frothing fangs of the dog that snapped and tore at the man's armored throat. Ratts' robotic hand clutched Ollie by the nape and tossed him aside.
The shuttle door closed securing Julia inside. She put her hand on the console communicator pad and her voice filled the ship. "Imminent decompression on deck C-section P8."
"Get out of there!" Whitey yelled, "she is going to launch without a bay closure."
"Ollie! come here!" Tom called.
Julia touched the monitor and commanded the gripping clamps to explode. The force of the blast thrust the shuttle from the side of the ship. Everything that was not secured flew out the hole created by the shuttle's departure. A Pressure door closed between the men and the classroom sealing the ship from the vacuum of space.
Julia brought the shuttle's engines online and turning the craft she fired to accelerated away from the ship.
Rats struggled to his feet. "No. Julia! No!" Dropping the blaster he stumbled past Tom muttering, "No. I lost her again."
Tom thought that he looked very old and small as he leaned against the pressure door. "I can't lose you again." He pounded the door with his fist as he wept.
The men watched Whitey for directions. Whitey looked at the bitter broken man weeping at a loss he was unable to move past. Whitey hated this man for building the murderous deathbots, but Whitey understood grief and for a moment he was back at the Cantina where he mourned his own losses by consuming lots of alcohol in the companionship of warriors. Looking at the wretched man he could only curse, "Damnit." Knowing the men at his back were looking to him for orders he gave the lowered hand motion for 'Stand down." He did not need to look to know they lowered weapons.
As the shuttle accelerated Julia closed her eyes and prepared to end existence as she knew it. With a hand on the console, she said, "Download and transmit." Her programs started to drain away.
Whitey touched his collar radio. "Red, do you have monitors on the outside.
"Yes, I'm bringing one up now. Why?"
"Report on Lieutenant Ratts' shuttle."
"It is leaving fast. It must be about two hundred clicks away already."
"Not far enough to save you." Dr, Ratts muttered.
"It just went to near light speed." It is passing ten thousand clicks.
"We might make it," Whitey said to no one.
"Twenty thousand clicks"
Whitey looked at Tom. "Why didn't you draw your taser when you were trying to stop him?"
"I am not like you. I didn't think of using a weapon. I am not like you and I do not want to become like you."
Tense minutes seemed to stretch forever.
"The shuttle passed five hundred thousand clicks." Vikki reported. "Boss, there was a flash. It's gone."
Tom watched without judgment as Ratts sunk to the floor weeping as he relived the grief of his little daughter's death. "She is gone, gone. I didn't get to go with her. Damn you. Damn you all."
Whitey shook his head and turned to leave. "You men help them back to the cargo bay."
(c) Adron To proceed to the next chapter click here or choose from the table of contents at the sidebar.
Chapter 64
The Deathbot Escapes
The public announcement that there was a mysterious plague on the ship frightened Tom but to hear the Captain order the killing of anyone who was infected was shocking. "Lieutenant Ratts what is happening?" Tom asked from inside the engine where he was finishing up another connection.
The work on the starfighters stopped while the pirates sought to understand the danger. "Lieutenant Ratts," one asked, "What do you know about the plague? Is it for real? What should we do?"
Ratts looked down from atop a ladder leaning against on the starfighter. His black armored space suit was like a shadow against the oily black of the starfighter. "There is no plague. So put your weapons away and relax." He climbed on top of the sleek spacecraft and lowered himself into the command seat. "Give me a few moments to find out what is happening." His finger ran across the touchscreen until the communications came on.
Tom waited in the tight engine vent and the men stood in a group staring up at Dr. Ratts while he listened for answers.
In a distant passageway, Julia's robot legs pumped like the pistons in an engine propelling her through the long corridors of the ship at inhuman speed. Whitey and his men struggled vainly to catch her. In frustration, he touched the radio in his space suit's collar. "Red, what's on the monitors? Where is Julia? What do you see?"
Vikki sat in overwhelmed confusion at the makeshift table in Whitey's shuttle looking from monitor to monitor. "I keep losing the kidbot. She is moving too fast. You will never catch her. I see you."
"What about Stonebutt's men?"
They're so out of control, Boss, like dogs in hunting packs," Vikki knew she should stay on subject but asked, "Is there really some plague on the ship? I heard the security lady make an announcement then Stone ordered the infected men to be killled."
"There is no plague. Stone and Security are idiots."
"What about the kidbot? Is she still nuclear?"
"Yes. But she is going to take Dr. Ratt's shuttle and get away from the ship when she blows up."
"Wow, who would have thought a deathbot would sacrifice herself to save the rest of us?"
"Do you see her?"
Vikki tapped the monitor pad in rapid frustration. "I'm looking at all the images between there and that shuttle. OK, I just had a glimpse of her, but she is moving fast."
In the cargo bay the men listened to distant weapons fire; gathering their weapons they looked from Dr. Ratts to the entrance and back at Ratts. "What's that shooting, Lieutenant?"
"Stone's stupid announcement has men shooting each other." He slid out of the starfightger. "It will be over soon. I am going to find my daughter. You men stay here; it is easy to defend if you have to. I'll be back soon."
"Are you sure you want to go alone?"
"I'll be fine, you guys keep on getting the starfighters ready." Ratts left at a lanky trot through the main portal.
"Boss." Red's voice came out of his collar radio. "Dr. Ratts left the cargo bay and is moving through the lower deck. Could he be going to the shuttle?"
Whitey grit his teeth in rage. "That nutcase is trying to stop her, or keep her here until she blows us all to space dust."
Monitoring Whitey's comments brought Julia to a skidding stop in front of a communications center. Placing her hand on the screen she sent a burst, "Cesar, shut down all gravity generators, and seal all doors except those between this location and the shuttle." The debris that covered the corridor floor began to lift. Generating her own gravity Julia continued to run toward the shuttle.
As she ran Julia monitored the life signs on the ship; there were thirty-two fewer pirates now than only six minutes ago.
Without the gravity, Whitey and his men could only use handholds to pull themselves along in an attempt to catch up to Julia. "Red what is happening? Tell me what you see."
"The doors shut throughout the ship and the gravity has failed. Stone's men are trapped in little groups in different halls and rooms, so the killing has stopped. Dr. Ratts is still moving toward his shuttle.
Tom slid out of the engine as silently as he could and floated freely. Ollie was struggling with the weightlessness and unhappily flailing with his legs as he twisted one way and another in free float. The fearfull men were too busy making a barricade of boxes and freight across the main entrance to notice.
I still have the command code if I can get to the command center I can take over the ship and do something. "Ollie," he whispered. "Good boy, stay here, Stay Ollie, stay." Tom pushed himself off from the starfighter and began to float to a small back exit.
The shuttle was on an upper deck and the cargo section was near the bottom decks, so Ratts had to pull himself up many flights of stairs using the handholds. Tom was pulling himself up another stairwell.
"Tom you have to stop him." The voice came from a communication center ahead as he pulled himself along. Approaching it he saw the face of the boy on the monitor.
"What? Stop who?" Tom asked Cesar.
"Dr. Ratts is trying to kill her. You have to save her."
You mean Lilly. Dr. Ratts is trying to kill Lilly?
"No. He is trying to kill Julia, the deathbot. If he does the nuclear bomb inside her will go off and kill us all. You are the only one close enough to protect her. She must get on the shuttle and leave. Hurry! Stop him. Do you want the gravity on?
"What? Can you bring on the gravity generators?"
Tom fell to the floor. "Cool, are you in command of the ship?
"I can't explain now. Hurry and save Julia, Dr. Ratts is coming up the main passageway but you can get there ahead of him."
Tom began to run up the stairs. He could hear footsteps nearby getting louder as he climbed. The last flight opened to a long corridor near the classroom where Ratts set up his work area. Looking up the passageway he saw Julia. Her speed was mesmerizing and confusing. "How can anyone run that fast?"
Tom's oversized suit should have linked to the ship but it was a joke- the pirates made him wear it to humiliate him for their own fun. It was without battery or computer package to send his vital signs, so Julia was blind to his existence and almost ran into him before his presence registered.
"Out of my way!" she yelled. He flattened himself against the wall although there was plenty of room. "Decompression is imminent," She yelled as she passed him, "Get to safety kid."
"But Ratts is coming to kill you."
"Don't let him no matter what you do. He will kill me and when I die then you all die." She was already fifty yards past him. A sound behind him caused Tom to look back down the corridor. Ratts had come off a stair and was running in a tired lope toward him.
"Stop." Forgetting his taser Tom put his hands up as if to ward off a puppy. "Lieutenant Ratts, stop."
Julia reached the ripped opening to the classroom and bounded through. The empty bot body was standing in the center of the room as the surgical robot was finishing her face. Julia halted for only a moment to admire her hybrid design. "The hair is black, it is supposed to be red like in the images I sent."
"Sorry mommy." The surgical deathbot replied. "The nanites have not yet been programmed for the hair."
"No time now. Secure everything and make ready for decompression. When the shuttle breaks free, she must not float out. I will be downloading from the shuttle." Julia put her hand to a communication center and said, "Bye, Cesar." before leaping into the shuttle.
Ratts drew his blaster and pointed it at Tom.
"Drop it." said a commanding voice from behind. Tom half turned to see Whitey and his men.
Ratts sighed. "So, this is it. We all die here."
Tom could feel his heart pounding. He stood between Ratts and Whitey. He had seen Ratts kill before, and Whitey's men were about to fire weapons in his direction. He did not feel the panicking fear he had felt before but he felt a fear that was like an alert caution.
Three men stood behind Whitey. Raw willpower held his anger at bay, "Boys on my mark target his head and shoot. We will be less likely to hit the boy if one of us misses."
Ollie burst off of the stairwell and threw his weight against the lean body of Ratts bearing him down. Ratts landed on his back looking into the terrible frothing fangs of the dog that snapped and tore at the man's armored throat. Ratts' robotic hand clutched Ollie by the nape and tossed him aside.
The shuttle door closed securing Julia inside. She put her hand on the console communicator pad and her voice filled the ship. "Imminent decompression on deck C-section P8."
"Get out of there!" Whitey yelled, "she is going to launch without a bay closure."
"Ollie! come here!" Tom called.
Julia touched the monitor and commanded the gripping clamps to explode. The force of the blast thrust the shuttle from the side of the ship. Everything that was not secured flew out the hole created by the shuttle's departure. A Pressure door closed between the men and the classroom sealing the ship from the vacuum of space.
Julia brought the shuttle's engines online and turning the craft she fired to accelerated away from the ship.
Rats struggled to his feet. "No. Julia! No!" Dropping the blaster he stumbled past Tom muttering, "No. I lost her again."
Tom thought that he looked very old and small as he leaned against the pressure door. "I can't lose you again." He pounded the door with his fist as he wept.
The men watched Whitey for directions. Whitey looked at the bitter broken man weeping at a loss he was unable to move past. Whitey hated this man for building the murderous deathbots, but Whitey understood grief and for a moment he was back at the Cantina where he mourned his own losses by consuming lots of alcohol in the companionship of warriors. Looking at the wretched man he could only curse, "Damnit." Knowing the men at his back were looking to him for orders he gave the lowered hand motion for 'Stand down." He did not need to look to know they lowered weapons.
As the shuttle accelerated Julia closed her eyes and prepared to end existence as she knew it. With a hand on the console, she said, "Download and transmit." Her programs started to drain away.
Whitey touched his collar radio. "Red, do you have monitors on the outside.
"Yes, I'm bringing one up now. Why?"
"Report on Lieutenant Ratts' shuttle."
"It is leaving fast. It must be about two hundred clicks away already."
"Not far enough to save you." Dr, Ratts muttered.
"It just went to near light speed." It is passing ten thousand clicks.
"We might make it," Whitey said to no one.
"Twenty thousand clicks"
Whitey looked at Tom. "Why didn't you draw your taser when you were trying to stop him?"
"I am not like you. I didn't think of using a weapon. I am not like you and I do not want to become like you."
Tense minutes seemed to stretch forever.
"The shuttle passed five hundred thousand clicks." Vikki reported. "Boss, there was a flash. It's gone."
Tom watched without judgment as Ratts sunk to the floor weeping as he relived the grief of his little daughter's death. "She is gone, gone. I didn't get to go with her. Damn you. Damn you all."
Whitey shook his head and turned to leave. "You men help them back to the cargo bay."
(c) Adron To proceed to the next chapter click here or choose from the table of contents at the sidebar.
