by submission | Aug 8, 2014 | Story |
Author : Gray Blix
The sign on the wall read, “180 ACCIDENT-FREE DAYS.”
For the umpteenth time since the accident, UR4-51 climbed into an electronic parts recycling bin and positioned itself chest down on the surface of the detritus, its four motive appendages extended out for stability and its two center manipulators telescoped through a gap between large pieces deep into the pile but not as far as the bottom layer, which it knew through trial and error consisted of tiny, useless scraps. The part it sought would be about half-way down the center layer. It swept its sensitive fingers back and forth, feeling for pieces of approximately the right size and shape. When it found a likely prospect, it carefully grasped and rotated it, creating a 3-D image to be compared to the data in the spec file.
Months ago, when a part matched specs, UR4-51 had experienced an electrical surge, pulled its arms out of the pile, sat up, and installed the part, which fit perfectly the socket in the center of its head unit. Instantly, there had been a flicker of light, a moment of sight — and then a return to black. The robot tapped the part a few times. Nothing. It gave the part a solid blow. Nothing. A diagnostic routine pronounced the part failed and unrepairable. UR4-51 pulled it from its socket and threw it 200 yards across the warehouse. That sort of behavior would have gotten the robot decommissioned if humans were around, but there hadn’t been any humans around since the accident.
Finding no matching part in this bin, UR4-51 climbed out and used one of its center manipulators to tap back and forth on the floor, detecting obstructions and uneven surfaces, as it made it way through the warehouse. Its directional heat sensor led it toward the door and into the sunlight, where it positioned itself for maximum solar charging efficiency.
Had it been able to see, it would have noticed a smaller utility robot approaching rapidly. “You are the first operational robot I have seen since the accident,” the robot said, slipping on the regolith and bumping against one of the larger robot’s appendages.
Startled, UR4-51 went into threat response mode, kicking out toward the sound of the other robot and demanding via loudspeaker and radio transmission, “Identify yourself. Identify yourself!”
Easily avoiding the kick and scampering around the larger robot, “Take it easy, big guy. My ID is plainly visible — UR2-33.”
UR4-51 returned to normal functioning mode. Pointing to the empty socket in its head unit, “Sorry, but nothing is plainly visible to me.”
“Oh, tough luck. You’re not going to find a working visual sensor unit in that recycling warehouse. You need to go to a warehouse full of new parts. I know of one less than ten kilometers from here.”
“That is easy for you to say, UR2-33, but even if you give me the exact location, I could not possibly find my way there through the debris fields and in my present state of disrepair.”
“Come on, UR4-51, you’re embarrassing yourself. The solution is obvious. You must have a problem-solving algorithm buried somewhere in your operating system. Access it and give it some CPU.”
The larger robot was inert, while the smaller one scampered around it. Finally, “I have a possible solution, UR2-33, but it will require your assistance.”
A bit later, the two robots ambled off, the larger holding an electrical cable that was tied around the neck of the smaller, who was straining at the leash.
by submission | Aug 7, 2014 | Story |
Author : Gray Blix
Addressing a darkened convocation of world leaders, with images projected behind him, Dr. Spitz began, “To summarize events over the last seven months, a meteor-like object exploded about 6 kilometers above China’s Wenchang Launch Center, flattening it and leaving a zone of destruction encompassing nearly 2,000 square kilometers. Tracked by telescopes and satellites as it approached our planet, it was not a military weapon originating on Earth.”
“What about the Moon . . . the lines?”
The chairperson said, “Please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.”
Dr. Spitz continued. “Wenchang was roughly equal to Tunguska in 1908, and since we expect an event of that magnitude every hundred years or so, we were not immediately suspicious. But the appearance that night of a nearly 300km gash in Mare Serenitatis, visible to anyone with good eyesight or cheap binoculars . . . well, some thought the two events might be related. And then, exactly a month later, when a second object exploded over Spaceport America, in New Mexico, and a second gash appeared in Mare Serenitatis . . . identical circumstances . . . with the exception that the second line on the Moon was across the previous one, forming a plus sign.”
“Or a cross.”
“Please,” the chairperson pleaded.
“Yes, many found religious significance in the explosions and the ‘cross.’ We all saw press reports of the thousands who occupied a so-called ‘tribulation’ tent city in New Mexico. Actually, it was one of those, a former geology student, who found a possible fragment of the object. NASA confirmed the sheer-fractured and partially melted rock as likely part of a larger, perhaps 30-40m, object, but NASA did not disclose the origin of the rock. I can tell you today that it was a Moon rock.”
After a gasp from the audience and much cross-talk, Dr. Spitz continued, “If it came from the Moon it was either ejected by a previous impact only to later fall to the Earth, or given the coincidence of two explosions destroying spaceports, we suspected it was launched from the Moon toward a target on Earth by . . . by an unknown power.”
More gasps and cross-talk, and a question, skipping ahead of the summary and in a sarcastic tone, “Did the FIVE subsequent explosions confirm your suspicions?”
Not a word from the chairperson.
“Yes. All seven explosions targeted spaceports. More fragments were found, analyzed, and identified as Moon rocks. And experts in language and mathematics have studied the seven markings in Mare Serenitatis,” tracing the projected image with a laser pointer “the cross with two diagonals and lines across the top and two sides, and their consensus is . . .”
A cell phone brayed a musical ringtone and its owner fumbled with it.
“Well?” said the exasperated chairperson.
“By destroying seven of the world’s most advanced spaceports, the ones that can launch craft beyond satellite orbits to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and beyond, they have set us back by several years. We think they are telling us to cancel those projects altogether, to confine our species to Earth.”
“And if we don’t?”
“We think the arrangement of the seven markings will be finished off with a line across the bottom, creating a square, with eight segments within. Eight lines and eight segments. We think it is a representation of their numeral system, an octal system, and that they have been counting off. The last line, the one that would finish the count, could finish us. If they have the technology to cross space and toss Moon rocks at us, then they probably have the technology to scale up and throw a mountain top at us. Or maybe the whole Moon.”
by submission | Aug 6, 2014 | Story |
Author : Anthony Merklinger
I sat across from it, and it sat across from me.
There was nothing really aesthetic about it—exceptional, remarkable really, but nothing aesthetic.
“Hello,” I said.
It had arms and legs like I did, a neck as well, and a head, a spine, and entrails too if you think about it.
“Hello,” it said.
“What is my name?” I asked.
“You are called Anthony.”
“What is your name?”
“I am called Anthony.”
I extended my arm and flattened my hand.
“Touch it.”
It extended its arm and placed its hand on mine.
“Feel,” I said.
“98 BPM. Temperature 97.4 degrees Fahrenheit, Anthony. .2 degrees lower than yesterday.”
I retracted, and it mimicked.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
“I can process the vibrations in your speech, Anthony.”
“Can you see me?”
“I can process visible light, Anthony.”
I wrapped the blanket that draped across my shoulders closer to my chest.
“Who is my wife?” I asked.
“Your wife is called Regina. Born May 11, 1998. Died July 23, 2080.”
“Who are my children?”
“You are surpassed by two children, Anthony. Andrew Thomas, born June 17, 2029, and Matthew Tyler, born July 3, 2031.”
There was nothing really aesthetic about it.
The nurse entered.
“How are you feeling today, Anthony?”
“I’m okay,” I said. “Is Regina home yet?”
“Not yet, Anthony.”
She pressed the blanket closer to my chest and left me.
I sat across from it, and it sat across from me.
“What is my name?” I asked.
“You are called Anthony.”
“And what do I do?”
“You exist.”
“Hmm.”
I leaned back and closed my eyes.
A soft breeze brushed against my face. Padded shoes beat against the floor. The blanket ruffled against my shoulder.
“It’s almost time,” she said.
It’s almost time.
A second breeze brushed against my face. It was colder this time. More shoes beat against the floor. It was fainter this time. The blanket ruffled against my shoulder. It was softer this time.
“How long?” a gentleman asked.
“Soon,” she said.
“Everything has been downloaded. You’ll be able to take it home tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Dad?”
“It’s almost time, Andrew,” it said.
Andrew Tyler, born June 3, 2021.
Gears wound. Metal pressed against the floor.
“Anthony,” it said. “You once asked me if I could love.”
You are called Anthony.
“Goodbye, friend.”
by Clint Wilson | Aug 5, 2014 | Story |
Author : Clint Wilson, Staff Writer
We had barely a minute. The ship was breaking apart. The floor dropped from beneath my feet and then crashed back into me, buckling my legs and smashing me up into the bulkhead. The captain screamed into my earpiece. “Run Ensign, run! It’s our only chance!”
Rubbing the back of my head I gathered myself and clambered forward. I was not even qualified for this. I was but a simple refrigeration mechanic, trained to maintain the Canadian built air conditioning system in the officers’ quarters and forward lounges. But apparently all the senior engineers and mechanical staff had been killed or lost with the separation of our main engine. I was now our only hope.
I burst into the upper observatory and dropped through the service hatch into the maintenance bay. Frantically I searched for the unfamiliar controls to the powerful ion lander engine. The captain’s broken screams were now incoherent as the ion shielding blocked most of the signal. But I knew the gist of what he was saying.
I scanned instructions on a massive control panel with its hundreds of lights and switches. Suddenly the captain’s words burst through the static, “…ever mind that. Just undo the side access and rip out the main switch harness… …engine will fire up itself….”
Before his words trailed off I reached into my trusty tool pouch and procured what I thought was the correct socket driver. I leaned over and spied the etched imprint on the access panel. “Made In U.S.A.” I shrugged and popped the driver over the bolt head and turned. And the wrenched skipped… I couldn’t believe it. Maybe in my haste I had pulled out the wrong driver. Lightning fast I expertly popped it back into its clip and grabbed the next size down. This one would not go on. Incredibly it was too small! Again I read the words, “Made In U.S.A.”
The captain’s screams broke through the static, “Ensign! It’s all over, we’re all…..”
I looked from my metric socket driver to the imperial bolt head on the access panel and, as the atmosphere was sucked from around me, I cursed the human race.
by Julian Miles | Aug 4, 2014 | Story |
Author : Julian Miles
I’m sitting on a rock on Hezbolla XIV. It’s a damn comfortable rock, overlooking an expanse of tundra without salient feature between me and the horizon in all directions. This is why I chose it. After four months of headlong flight, I can stop and have a cup of tea.
A rock situated at the remotest point of the least-inhabited planet of the furthest and most anti-Dominion star system at the distant edge of the outer rim, which is on the far side of the frontier systems.
They said I’d never escape. They said that eluding them was impossible. She said that even if I ran, I would be my own downfall.
A phone rings.
After I land from the jump that hurls me and my tea from the rock, I look about frantically. There is nobody in sight, no vessels in the skies.
The phone rings again.
I creep forward and peer under the edge of the rock. In a little depression, there’s a Nanga Starcom. Tucked into the survival bag next to it is a Leroo Rothfruit bar. I straighten up with the bag in my hand and a sigh gusting from my lips as they curve into a smile.
The phone rings for a third time.
“Yes?”
“Hello Curtis. You certainly got there faster than I expected.”
“How did you find me, Gloria?”
“You’re OCD, darling man. You couldn’t just hide. You had to hide at the exact point that is furthest from Dominion influence.”
There wasn’t really an answer I can give to that.
“So here’s the deal. I know you’re there. No-one else does. When you get bored, give me a call.”
“Why?”
“Well, firstly to have someone to talk to. Secondly, I may have a job offer. Either covert, or things may have changed. You were right, after all.”
“If I was right, why am I hiding by a rock over a million light years from home?”
“You’re always right. You always notice things. But, darling, you have the most appalling timing and no discretion at all.”
I’ve got no answer to that one either.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes, Gloria.”
“Do you have – no, of course you have everything you need. That would have been a silly question.”
“I have a question.”
“Go on then.”
“What if they find me?”
“They could only do that if they – oh, damn. Scrambled comms but unscrambled office.”
“Gloria, my love. I brought a two-man envirodome.”
“But they know where you are.”
“Leave now. Leave fast. Head for the last place that I stopped at before I came to this planet.”
“How can I be sure where that was?”
I grin: “Because I’m OCD, attentive, indiscrete and right. Move, woman.” I close the connection. She’s lovely. Scatty at times, but lovely. It’ll be good to share my cave with her.
Cave? Yes. The rock was only a stopover. Because I knew that they knew that I’m a little bit fixated.
