Transmat World: Chapter 32, Episode 1
Between the Membrane and the Rim of Harbinger in the vicinity of the arrows, 12:16 P.M., Wednesday, December 8, 2145 A.D.
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See Lurchin’ flitted toward where giant marching arrows came to a stop on the Membrane. The crew was standing on the control deck in a circle, each looking at different portions of their 360 degree view for clues where to go from there.
“I got it,” said Maria pointing.
“I see it, too,” said Ernesto.
They looked where Maria and Ernesto pointed, almost at their feet. Enrique magnified the image. A laser light sign was projected onto the Rim. A circle with crosshairs and text around the circle came into focus. “Welcome See Lurchin’”, it said.
“Doesn’t anybody watch horror movies anymore?” said Rousseau. “This is right out of Saw XXVI 3D Sensorium. It looks extremely spooky and ominous.”
“You know how to do this, Enrique,” said Vince.
“Of course I do,” said Enrique with unwavering confidence.
It was one of those questions you know, but since somebody asked if you knew maybe it was not as obvious as you first suspected and now you had to double check to make sure.
“… Okay, how do I do this?” said Enrique, a little exasperation creeping into his voice.
“Geometrically progressive jumps, smaller and smaller until we’re close enough to use nothing but thrusters,” said Vince.
“Yeah, I knew that,” said Enrique, relieved he knew and irked that somebody gave him a pop quiz. “Come on, Boss, I flew a moth-eaten space suit to the Moon.”
“No moths. Packed in nitrogen,” said Rousseau.
“Figure of speech,” said Enrique.
“And he let me fall off, his only passenger,” said Rousseau.
“Give me a –” began Enrique.
“Look,” said Julie, “a spaceship.”
Although stasis cruiser 3n46 was not outfitted for deep space, it looked the part if you were into late twentieth century and early twenty-first century science fiction films. It settled to the surface of the Rim close to where the crosshairs intersected. Wundee felt it fitting the Kolpak section was being used for this occasion.
Perhaps it will be different in the near future if Newlux has his way. There will be a lot of Kolpak running around complaining about the arrogance of free robots.
He wondered how it would work when Kolpak built more self-aware AI servants with strict protocols to do their bidding and if Newlux had thought about that little problem.
Wundee, Lieutenant Breaker, and Chrome Dome disembarked. They met in daylight; otherwise, the opaque portions of the Membrane would not have let the laser light through to the Rim surface. Though it did not matter to Wundee, he knew humans would be more comfortable in daylight. Wundee scanned the Rim sky and spotted See Lurchin’. It disappeared and reappeared closer, switched to thrusters, and came to rest on a pyramid of extended tubes that sprouted cross bracing for stability. The hatch opened and three Exoguard suits exited the ship, easing past the safety quills and sighing to the ground on Transmat thrusters.
“You said these were organics,” said Circuit Breaker.
“They wear mechanical armor,” said Wundee.
“What are the little animal things on their shoulders?” asked Chrome Dome, pointing at Ferdinand and Ookie.
“Those are ‘hedbots,’ their little mechanical friends,” said Wundee.
“Sentient?” asked Breaker.
“I am not sure,” said Wundee, “and the humans have become so used to clever interfaces with their machines they have not given it much thought.”
“Here we have organics that look like machines and little machines that look like organics,” said Chrome and with that a chorus of “ick ick icks” arose from the small cadre of freemechs. Wundee led the refrain.
“Hello, my name is Wundee.”
Wundee tried to imagine how formidable the body acquired from Squadron Leader First Class Lever must have appeared to organics. Looking down the barrel of two guns just to make eye contact could not be comfortable to a human. Chrome Dome and Lieutenant Circuit Breaker were not exactly visual candy either.
“Hello, my name is Vince Miller. These are my friends Maria Valdez and Ernesto Barrera.”
“I am Wundee and this is Lieutenant Circuit Breaker and First Mech Chrome Dome. I am pleased to see you, Vince,” said Wundee. “We have met before. You know me as Frederick Beasener. I have impersonated numerous entities throughout your history, from a Sumerian god of the winds, Enlil, to Maynard P. Kornbluth, philanthropist.”
Vince is glad he was wearing a mechanical suit so that he didn’t fall over.
“I am also familiar with Maria and her papers on xenoarchaeology along with Doctor Ernesto Barrera’s and Doctor Porfirio Valdez’s interest in gravity anomalies and scientific inconsistencies concerning the Hit,” said Wundee.
“You look a lot different, Fred … I mean, Wundee,” saids Vince.
“Our method of transferring memories and personalities from one machine to another are quite accurate, but it was not always so. A long time ago an organic being such as you attempted to transfer his personality into a sentient machine with disastrous results. The resultant entity turned on its master, imprisoned a whole race of sentient organics known as the Kolpak, and built this space ship, the Harbinger of Light and Justice. He began cruising the stars to imprison every intelligent, self-aware organic race he could find because they were de facto super predators and a danger to every other animal on their respective worlds.”
“And we were next on his list?” asked Vince.
“Yes,” said Wundee.
“So the Hit was not an accident?” asked Ernesto.
“No. Orchestrated on purpose to set back your technology.”
“Where is this disturbed ruler?” asked Maria.
“Maxlux, self-proclaimed Prime Mechanical and Supreme Arbiter of Known and Unknown Existence, was impaled by the quills of your ship and deactivated.”
Wow, we know how to make an impression, whispered Julie over a private suit communicator.
“Now that Maxlux is gone, who is running Fat Boy … uh, Harbinger?” asked Maria.
“You should first understand how we came to exist. Kolpak created sentient machines to be servants using software protocols required by law to protect Kolpak. The aberrant Maxlux created an army of similar machines with even more restrictive protocols to do his bidding and to protect himself. These protocols caused detrimental effects on machine minds over time, producing the robotic equivalent of psychosis. An accident wiped one machine of his protocols, producing the first free-thinking artificial intelligence on Harbinger.” Wundee refrained from pointing his gun/eyes at the hedbots. “His name is Newlux, and he is in charge of resistance forces. He removed my protocols before I showed signs of deterioration and taught me how to do it for others. That is what I did for many years. I created a free machine society. We have been battling Maxlux for many of your centuries, and now it is finished. You and your ship were instrumental in that, and we thank you.”
“So, Newlux is in charge, and he has no designs on Earth?” said Vince.
“Correct,” said Wundee.
“You were the extra safety quill that fell off the ship?” asked Maria.
“Yes,” said Wundee.
“And you transferred your mind, your personality, to this machine?” asked Ernesto.
“Yes, many of the freemechs have uploaded themselves in real time to a spare machine because so many were deactivated or destroyed by strikemechs, the enslaved henchmen of Maxlux.”
Vince and Maria looked at one another, both wondering the same thing. Maria verbalized it first.
