I stood there like a moron.
A was jabbering away with the little girl (at least I thought that was what she/it was). Once and awhile, I would catch my name or the name of the ship, company. I would come back to reality and smile, nod. Everyone just looked past me like I was some sort of, well... Moron.
How did this happen? I am not a Planetary Minister. There are entire levels of Corporate and Government that handles First Contact issues. I'm a freighter pilot. And probably not for long once the rescue beacon reaches the nearest outpost and sends a ship. Those jack wagons back home will pull my flight status quicker than spit. They will blame me on some Charter Clause and how I violated a dozen inter planetary treaties.
Who are these people? Why do they stick their heads up their asses. Oh, look! That one over there is doing it now. I mean, what the fuck?
"Sir."
I looked around. I looked at my hand still holding the shot glass. 'Go back inside.' said the voice in my head. There are plenty of rations until rescue arrives. Let A handle this. I gave her a dismissive look behind her back as she babbled on with the underage androgynous one. A would probably enslave these hapless mooks for the next robot war. Screw it, she can have it.
"Sir!"
"What?"
"It seems we are to accompany them to their settlement and be guests for a dinner of sorts."
"Are you sure I am not on the menu?"
A crooked her head and tisked-tisked me. " From what I can deduce these people do not eat any meat proteins of any kind."
" Oh, this should be fun."
" Please try to remain open minded, Sir. Wave to them and smile."
So, I did and several more of them shoved their heads up their asses.
A just looked down and I could hear her android brain calculating various probabilities of the two of us being made an example of in the town square.
"Yeah. Just what I thought. Lead the way oh Great Emissary to this feast you talk about."
"I am not amused, Sir."
"Nor am I."
So, off we went.
The terrain was not unlike Earth. Forests, rocks. We hiked along a really cool river. A did a quick analysis of the water and, yes, it was pure water. She detected traces of fish poop and other detritus of animal and amphibians in the samples. This planet had life and lots of it.
And I left my fishing pole back home. At least A was armed so if we could shoot a deer... Maybe.
This whole thing reminded me of an old movie from the mid 20th Century. Something about apes and a weird future. I think the main character in the movie eventually died.
Maybe I will die here.
Perhaps This is what happened. Some sort of messed up Heisenberg time loop. I could not disregard the idea that I may be back home in some dystopian future. There have been many stories of freighter pilots who came back from a jump and they have no idea where they are, what year it is Earth Time. Me? Personally? I consider The Union my home. It has everything I need (or want). It may be corporate owned but as long as I bring in the goods, they pay me and off I go on the next haul to some God forsaken star system. I have been trapsing around this galaxy since I was... Good God! It's been THAT long?
The Heisenberg Loop idea was beginning to sound plausible.
We kept walking and crossing over what looked like ruins. Everything was covered in vines. The trail we walked swept into narrow hollows and opened up into straight lines with high rising mounds of vegetation and trees on each side of the trail.
"There was once a civilization here. Sir."
"I figured you were scanning."
"Always, Sir."
This made me think. Maybe, bring up some of the issues we had discussed earlier. I mean, since we seem to be on a trek. Why not broach conversation?
" Why did you allow me to go outside alone when we first landed? I thought your programming was to watch out for me at all times."
" I did, Sir. Considering the crash must have scared off any fauna in the area I calculated a near zero chance anything would attack you. We did make a loud entrance upon our arrival, Sir. Any predators would have been scared off."
I pointed my arm ahead and behind us. "But what about them?"
" As you know yourself, Sir. Even I could not have determined there were sentient beings on this planet."
" You could not even detect the rear of the ship was not cloaking, either."
A stopped and turned towards me.
" I was still in diagnostic mode, Sir. I am sorry that I could not perform my required orders. It seems I keep failing at protecting....."
"Stop it!" I scolded. "None of this is your fault. The Arcturus Mission was not your fault, and neither is this. I read the log. This whole thing is fucked up. You landed us as best you could, and we are alive. Now, I need you!"
" Thank you, Sir for using the term. 'we are alive'."
I paused and put my hand on A's shoulder.
"We will figure this out together."
"Minus your sarcasm, Sir?"
"Oh no..No...No.." I patted her shoulder and I walked on. "Come on, A!"
The settlement was not all that primitive. On a distant hill were windmills and solar panels but they were not in much operation. Water flowed through the main area of the patch of homes, not unlike homes built back on Earth a century ago. Everything was growing wild but some areas were dotted with a rudimentary agri-based economy. I noticed, though, there was no livestock.
More of those 'people' came out of their homes (more like dwellings) to see the strangers who have come to town. Heads went up their asses as we passed by. A and the Androgyny continued to speak. A was becoming quite adept at picking up the local lingo. Her programming is quite extensive where it comes to language. All ship installed AI Droids have a library of dozens of planetary languages, syntax, slang, intonations.. You name it. Once she found the primer regarding this place she was off and running. I wondered what their writing looked like.
Then it hit me.
There were no signs. No signage. No writing displayed anywhere. We passed by what seemed to be shopkeepers, businesses of some type, but no sign saying who or what they were or did. I mean, you could clearly SEE what they did. One place had clothing, another had baskets and storage boxes, there was a hat store (Maybe I should get a hat to remember this trip!).
"Or a T shirt." I mumbled out loud.
A spun around. " A T shirt, Sir?"
"Oh.. I was just remarking about the hats and wondered out loud if I should get a hat and T shirt as a souvenir. Y' know, ' I crashed on a strange planet and all I got was this lousy T.... shirt'.... No?"
A was doing that head tilt like a dog trying to understand what you are saying.
"A... souvenir you tin headed. Oh, never mind."
" We do not have anything to barter with these people in exchange for goods and services, Sir."
" We got all that Iridium in the hold. I'm sure they could use some of that. I mean how do they keep the lights on around here? Those solar panels and turbines are covered in vines and grime."
" That Iridium is company property and we cannot take any of it, Sir. The laws are very strict and you could face serious prison time. My programming requires I report such a suggestion."
"So? Report it. It will be weeks before a rescue. Then the salvage. You know those Yahoos are going to skimp on the inventory they recover.. Jeez A! It's just a frikken T shirt. Forget it."
The whole party stopped. The Androgyny crooked her (its) head to A. My attitude must have alerted them. It tends to do that to people (of all species). A translated our conversation.
She must have translated it verbatim. I caught her using the term 'Iridium' and then she babbled on in their language trying to describe it. The Androgyny stepped back in horror then turned to the crowd and kept repeating what sounded like "new-klar.. new-klar!" More heads went up their asses and some ran back into their huts.
A tried to reassure our little tour guide. She must have asked what the issue was because the Androgyny started rambling like a crazy person. I motioned with my arms to slow down.
"What is she saying?" I stepped closer to hear her. The strange babbling began.
" A great sickness once covered the land." Recited A. "The great machines that made the cities glow... Burned.. They burned for many seasons. Great fires in the night sky. The sickness spread and no one could see it coming... No, they did not know what it was. Machines were broken. It made the sickness."
"new-klar!, new-klar!" the girl pointed back towards the small city we passed through. "Booomsht!" She threw up her hands.
Obviously something happened and there was a huge fire and lots of these people died.
"Was it a war?" I asked.
"Not the way she is describing it, Sir. The machines that made the cities glow. Not machines of war. If I am interpreting that correctly, Sir."
"A meltdown? A power plant?"
" Given the limited information we have that may be a good guess, Sir" I turned to face the trail we just walked. I pointed back with my arm.
" Did we just walk through a radiation zone?"
" I didn't detect anything, Sir. I would have alerted you long before. As you know it is against my programming to..."
I held up my hand to stop A in mid speech. For a droid whose first protocol is to protect their assigned human(s). A has a funny way of leading me into some sketchy situations.
" I want to learn more about this." I said. I leaned down towards our exasperated friend and motioned for her to lead us on. I stayed next to A.
"You didn't happen to mention how YOU are powered, did you?"
" No, Sir. She seems very upset about anything concerning fission or fusion power. I suggest we concoct a ruse to calm any fears about me if she asks."
" Yeah, we'll tell her you run on pixie dust and happy thoughts."
" The Peter Pan idea may not work, Sir."
" Ya never know A. Who knows what they believe?" We walked on to the center of the settlement.
