(Photo by Pixabay)

“Absolutely not!” Min put her foot down. “That robot’s done something to the director and now it’s trying to use that as leverage.”

“We don’t know that,” Matiew said.

“Why is it asking for access to the cameras, huh?” Min asked. She was pacing back and forth across the small hospital room. “It has to know we already looked at the security recordings. What could it see that we missed?”

Matiew laid his head back onto his pillow and thought. Mr Jorgenson’s disappearance was a huge problem, not least because he was the mission director but also because of what it potentially meant for BaBS-Y’s capabilities. But then again, why would the robot kidnap him, and how would it even do that? Theories had been floated around about hijacking the elevator and putting Mr Jorgenson on a different sector, but then what? The sectors had been checked and there was no sign of him. The security cameras showed him leave the hospital and enter the elevator but as far as the ship’s records were concerned, Mr Jorgenson never pressed any buttons and the elevator only left that sector when someone else called it down to them. When the elevator arrived, it was empty.

“Why didn’t anyone ever think to put cameras in the elevators?” Matiew wondered aloud to himself. “I saw cameras on elevators back on Earth.”

“It’s a bit late for design suggestions,” Min said.

“Yeah,” Matiew sighed. “I imagine the council’s going to fix that oversight now.”

“Alright,” Min said after a brief pause, “I’m turning BaBS-Y down on its offer. I want to see if the council will just approve this agreement, even without Mr Jorgenson. Then, at least we can get that situation dealt with.”

“Sounds good,” Matiew replied. He watched his display, still showing the salon robot on sector 12. “Why do you still want access to the cameras?” he muttered.

“What was that?” Min asked.

“I was just wondering, if it was so willing to accept a new manager in exchange for having the salon back, why is it still trying to get access to the security cameras?”

“You think it’s lying to us?” Min asked.

“I don’t know,” Matiew admitted, “but I also don’t know why it wants the cameras in the first place. I mean, what could it do with that information that it can’t already do? It’s basically gotten itself into nearly every other system besides security.”

“It could override the lock down that’s currently keeping the damaged sectors sealed off.”

The answer wasn’t given by Min and both she and Matiew looked to Rine in surprise, having nearly forgotten she was there. The young woman shrank back slightly from their surprised looks.

“I mean,” she blushed as she corrected herself, “it would need to hack its way from cameras to the rest of the security subsystems, but getting into security is the hard part.

“And if it opened those emergency doors,” Min began but Matiew had to finish the sentence for her.

“We all die of suffocation.”

“And BaBS-Y gets a bunch of new clients,” Rine added.

On the display, BaBS-Y was still standing, watching the emergency displays. Matiew watched the stationary robot for a while, wondering what it was planning on doing next. However, the robot, no matter how troubling, was not a very captivating image since it was just standing there. Slowly, Matiew cast his eyes around to the other parts of the scene. It had repaired the broken benches and planters. Was that another ploy to trick them into trusting it? Then his gaze turned up towards the emergency displays where their communications had been sent. He read as their most recent message scrolled across the wall.

The Thesis council will need to vote on this agreement, but for now it is conditionally accepted. Unfortunately, the council cannot convene without Mission Director Paul Jorgenson who has been missing since yesterday morning. Do you know where he might be?

“Do you have the response for BaBS-Y yet?” Matiew asked. “I don’t want it to think we’re ignoring it.”

“What response?” Min asked.

“About the cameras.”

“I already sent it.”

Matiew frowned and looked back to his display.

“Does my screen need to be refreshed?” he asked Rine.

“No, it should be in real-time.”

“What’s wrong?” Min asked.

“The emergency displays down on twelve haven’t been updated.”

Matiew watched as Min looked back over her own displays.

“That’s…odd,” she finally said. “It says it was sent but…yeah, I’m not seeing it either.”

Min picked up her comm while Matiew turned his attention back to the display.

“Rine,” he said as a worrying thought struck him, “could you bring up the view from outside the RCC?”

Rine gave him a puzzled look, but obeyed nonetheless. A moment later the display changed. It was a familiar sight for Matiew, although the perspective was a bit higher up than he was used to. He watched the doors, his eyes glancing towards the clock every few seconds.

“What are you looking for?” Rine asked.

“Didn’t you two say security had put someone outside the doors?”

Rine hesitated and then looked back to the display. No one was in view.

“Show me the view just outside this room,” Matiew said.

It took Rine a moment to locate the specific camera but soon enough Matiew was looking at the hallway in the hospital where, halfway down was his door. A security officer sat to one side of the door.

“Min?” Matiew called over to her.

“Hm?” she looked up, distracted as she was clearly struggling with her comm, “What do you need?”

“Can you just go and poke your head out of the door for a moment.”

Min did so and Matiew heard the security officer asking briefly if they needed anything. Meanwhile, Rine gasped and Matiew nodded solemnly while on their screens, no sign of Min had appeared. The door hadn’t even opened.

“That enough?” Min asked when she came back to her seat.

“Someone’s taken over the cameras,” Matiew whispered.

“Are you serious?” Min asked, suddenly very concerned.

“You didn’t show up when Matiew had you look out there,” Rine stated. “It looks like the feed’s on a loop.”

“Then you two need to try using your comms,” Min said in a hurry. “I’ve been trying to use mine just now but it’s not working.”

They did try, but none of their comms worked.

“What is that robot up to?” Min was frantically typing away on her computer but Matiew just shook his head.

“I don’t think this is BaBS-Y,” he said. “Even with all the access it’s gained to Thesis’s systems, there’s just no way it could have taken Mr Jorgenson. And why negotiate with us at all if it was about to do this…whatever this is. No, I think this is someone else. Or maybe a group of people. Upset with how this situation’s been handled so now they’re taking things into their own hands.”

“Whoever it is, whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it now,” Min stated as she gathered up her things and began to pull out the wheelchair the hospital had supplied for Matiew. “And if it isn’t that robot, then we need to get out of here, now.”

Rine was already dismantling her workstation and stuffing it into the duffel bag she’d used to carry it here.

“Leave your ID’s here,” Matiew told them, “otherwise they’ll be able to track us.”

“How are we going to get off this sector?” Rine asked.

Min didn’t argue and just pulled hers out and tossed it onto the side table. Then she opened the door and asked the security officer to come into their room.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Someone’s taken over the ship’s security,” Matiew explained. “Communications are down as well. We think someone’s trying to take over the ship, or possibly –

“Okay, okay,” he said, “let’s all just calm down for a minute.”

Matiew didn’t like the way he was looking at the three of them, as though there were some sort of joke being told that only he knew the punchline for.

“I see you’re all getting ready to go somewhere,” the officer went on, “so why don’t I help Matiew here into his wheelchair and then we can go see what this is all about.”

Someone screamed. It was distant and hard to hear, but in the brief moment while everyone in Matiew’s room was quiet, they all heard it.

“You aren’t the one who escorted us here this morning,” Rine said with obvious fear in her voice. “The other guy was taller, and he –

Rine cut off as the man turned towards her, his smile as fake as could be.

“We switch out in shifts,” he said but without any real attempt at sounding convincing. “Now I believe we were in the process of getting you all out of here.”

He bent down to lift Matiew out of his bed. There was nothing he could really do but Matiew still tried to fend off the man. He tried to hit him, smacking him across the face and trying to keep his arms from getting around and beneath him, but his injuries were still sharp and after only a few seconds of resisting all he could do was scream in pain as he was lifted roughly and then dropped onto the wheelchair.

His vision flashed and he thought he might throw up. A loud crash of metal and splintering wood sounded as both Min and Rine cried out. Matiew swayed but managed to catch himself and avoid falling over and out of the wheelchair. He immediately looked around for the security officer, or the man who had replaced the real officer, and realized the man was lying cross-ways on the hospital bed. There was a rather significant wound on the back of his head and there were splinters of the side table strewn across the room.

“Okay,” Matiew gasped through the pain, “what now?”