Confessions and First Contact
I stepped into the EVA Module and palmed the airlock button.
Nothing.
"A! Close the airlock!"
" I have disconnected all unnecessary components to the ship to save power. You will have to manually close the airlock."
That door weighs over 200lbs. I swung it back outwards and used my newfound weight on this planet to pull it back inwards. The latch snapped upwards and I was able to crank it tight.
"Can I decompress?" I asked.
" The planet is over 80% oxygen. I have decompressed the ship to accommodate you to the pressure and oxygen in the atmosphere. Just open your suit Sir."
She was right. The air was crisp. Kind of... Sweet smelling.
" Well, A, between the Jameson and this O2, if I start dancing in my underwear be sure to put me back into stasis."
"Noted Sir."
I passed by her robotic body hung up in the EVA Module. A was back inside the ship itself.
"Where is your arm? You have a locator; you can find it by just activating it."
"You were outside Sir and I had to transfer into my robotic form to assist and protect you. The EVA and cargo room was in disarray. I did not have time to find it. I will find it later."
I made my way through the mess. The cargo bay was a disaster. I kicked aside some crates and there on the floor was a robotic hand sticking out, fingers twitching. I reached down and pulled up the entire arm from the floor. I held it up to the camera on the wall.
"Found it.."
I sat down in the Command chair on the Bridge. A had the entire ship already cloaked. The front screen was no longer an actual outside visual but a darkened screen with digital pixels of what was outside. Proximity detectors were picking up the various birds and animals that had come to see what this strange thing was that landed in their backyard.
"Sooo, are we going to talk about this A?" I ventured.
"Sir?"
"Your last mission. Why you don't want to be erased once we get back home."
Silence.
I decided to take the initiative.
" I know the story. It was the Arcturus Mission. Colonists. It was a micro-meteorite storm. Blew right through the deflector shield.... Fucking Company! Buying from the cheapest bidder."
"It is against my programming to allow harm to come to humans, Sir."
" I know. But the Commander of that mission over-rode your programming as is the right of all humans in certain situations. And he..."
"He was incorrect, Sir."
" Yes, he was A. Yes, he was. And the company wiped your memory to cover up the mistake and blamed it on AI programming... Is that why you kept me in stasis during the crash?"
" It is against my programming to allow harm to come to humans, Sir."
I sat there quiet.
So, this is why A was so conflicted. The initial collision activated her protective responses. But the collision must have opened some buried file from before. She just, well.. Defaulted to her original programming. And in doing so re-wakened those lost files. This is why A freaked out after the crash.
She blamed herself for it.
She was disabled to prevent the Arcturus Mission disaster and was caught blindsided by this sudden planet that appeared out of nowhere causing us to crash. So, she kept me asleep while she juggled this busted up ship as best she could.
That is going to be one hell of an expensive therapy session. Is there therapy for AI?
BEEEEP!..BEEEP!...BEEEP!...
"What is that A? That is not some raccoon running around outside."
" I think the local inhabitants of this area have found us, Sir."
Great! I rolled my eyes back and leaped out of the Command chair I just settled into. I toggled some of the remote cameras to get a better look on the monitors.
The cloak will not allow them to actually see the ship but give it a few minutes until one of them bumps into it. Then, the party is all over. In a normal landing procedure either myself or A would have set the Union down under stealth in a nice remote area so as not to upset the natives. Most of the time one would spend as little time as possible on an alien world to take care of whatever it was you needed to then beat feet outta there. Some of the worlds on our trade routes have made it clear they don't want humans around. But this place is nowhere on the charts, and I haven't had the time to figure out where this planet came from to cause us to end up in this predicament.
A already assumed her robotic form and came up next to me attaching her arm. She raised her repaired arm, tapped two of her fingers and the proximity alarm went silent. The ships lights changed to red.
" I do not detect any weapons, Sir."
"Good! They are a strange looking humanoid, that's for sure... What is that...? Is that the camera, or are they all.. What the hell is that?"
" They all seem to be some varying shade of a neutral color, Sir."
" And all their clothing is almost identical to each other." I crossed my arms to study this more. Then, something caught my eye. "The fuck are those?" I pointed to the background on the monitor. In the back of the group was another group holding their distance. They seemed hunched over, almost turned backwards into themselves walking both Bi-pedal as well as on their hands. The upper torso somehow turned up inside of itself. Despite the ability of A to remotely ascertain a situation, even she leaned toward the monitor and rotated her eyes to get a better look. On a separate monitor she spelled out her findings until the script ran down to...
...........................NO KNOWN ENTITY..........................
We both collectively turned our heads back to the main monitor. I did a double take and looked back at A.
"You have no idea, do you?" I joked.
" There is nothing in the ship's computer or in my memory despite the various erasures, Sir." We both just stood there and watched.
"Do they??... Are their heads up their asses?" I finally said. Again, A leaned into the monitor. She zeroed her right eye and opened a separate window that enlarged the images. Sure enough there was a group of seven wandering around in the back with all of their heads tucked up into their posteriors.. Or, what I assumed was their posterior... Or, even their head?
I kept my eyes on the main group, studying them. Upon closer look I noticed they all had a brown ring around their necks and a very downcast look to their faces. Suddenly, they all seemed to turn together towards the ridge where the engine cowling sheared off.
A was still fixated on the rear group (no pun intended). I side tapped her shoulder and pointed to the monitor.
"They are moving towards the engine, Sir."
"Yup..."
The engine cowling was not cloaked because it was no longer part of the ship. As if they wouldn't have found it anyway. The Union left a nice debris field behind including more than a few downed trees stretching a good football field length upon its unfortunate arrival.
I switched the remote cameras to follow them as they made their way to the ridge. A couple more of them had assumed the head tucking.
But the group had moved out of view. Most of the remote cams were either damaged, gone and /or on the starboard side buried in the ground. The cloaking monitor was just a proximity monitor. It detected movement and pixelated images of what was there but could not give me details.
" Can we send out a probe? I've lost them."
" I would not recommend that, Sir. We can launch one while cloaked but the appearance of a strange airborne device out of no where will definitely arouse suspicion."
"Shit.. Well, it's only a matter of time until they figure this cluster fuck out. And I have no training for extraterrestrial species contacts."
I paced a bit. We better get the universal translator online.. If it is working. A must have heard me mumbling.
"I am going to bring up the UT to record their speech patterns, Sir."
I sat back down in the Command chair and pulled up the Jameson.
TAP...TAP..TAP..
The cargo bay and rear hatch alarm light went to yellow and began blinking. I tossed my head back and groaned. That time had arrived.
TAP..TAP..TAP..
A stopped by my chair. "You may want to be sober for this. Sir."
No, I thought and poured a full shot glass. A made her way back through the mess of the cargo bay and leaned into the hatch door.
TAP..TAP..TAP..TAP..
She turned back to me. "It would appear someone is knocking on the door, Sir.. It is, as humans say, 'Someone has come calling'."
I tossed the shot back in one gulp.
A cheeky and emotionally scarred million dollar AI computer and I get stranded on a planet with it...
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