(Photo by Suzy Hazelwood)

People were always making lists. Robots made lists too, but somehow BaBS-Y didn’t consider the two types of lists to be all that similar. As it maneuvered ISaCC up towards sector one, it monitored the growing list on Matiew and Rine’s workstation. BaBS-Y wasn’t sure which one of them was actually typing out the list, but considering the fact that Matiew, Min, and Cassandra were all on the same group call, it was a safe bet that it was a group effort.

However, a list was not evidence of mutiny. It made sense that Cassandra Kokkinos would need certain things to do her job. Tools wore out and broke, new parts needed to be machined or printed, and so forth. It was just slightly worrying that Min had felt the need to bring Matiew into the conversation with Cassandra so early on. The robot could understand Min wanting Matiew to review the protocol shielding Cassandra from BaBS-Y, but why have him on the call? Why include him in making the list of new supplies to send down to Engineering? Why so many new items that weren’t normally on the supply list? Again, nothing on the list they were making was raising any red flags for BaBS-Y but the secrecy behind it all was worrying.

Min and Matiew only stopped seeking to deactivate this unit recently

…

Min and Matiew may have been deceiving this unit, and may still be seeking a means of deactivating this unit

…

Thesis law prohibits the removal of a Mission Director by force except in times of gross negligence or impropriety on the part of the Mission Director

…

This unit has not committed actions warranting removal from the position as Mission Director

…

Min and Matiew May still consider this unit’s past actions as unacceptable for a Mission Director even though they agreed not to hold this unit accountable for them in exchange for assistance with dealing with the previous mutiny.

…

Perhaps they have forgotten that agreement

…

This unit will remind them of the agreement

“Attention passengers and crew aboard the Thesis,” BaBS-Y’s voice sounded throughout the Thesis, “As you all know, this BaBS-Y unit has been assigned as the new Mission Director for the Thesis. Following the impact incident, this unit attempted to continue maintaining the Frank Nelis salon on sector twelve. Many of those efforts were seen as being contrary to Thesis law. Regardless of mistakes or missteps taken by this unit, the governing body of the Thesis agreed to forgive this unit in exchange for its aid in preventing the recent mutiny attempt.

“Without such forgiveness, this unit would never have been allowed to become Mission Director. This announcement was made to set you all at ease, and know that this BaBS-Y unit will ensure the continued success of the Thesis, as well as the Frank Nelis salon once repairs have been completed to the damaged sectors. Our mission will not be compromised by any further mutinies. This unit will ensure that any unrest or similar troubles will be dealt with swiftly so that our law biding passengers and crew may be undisturbed. In fact, this unit will strive to be as efficient as possible, with the aim that any potential troublemakers will be handled in such a manner that you will never even notice anything beyond the malcontents simply going away, thanks to the new PaLS units that you will begin seeing within the next few weeks.

“Enjoy the remainder of your day.”

That will put them at ease

*

Matiew and Rine stared at each other, horrified. Over the comm they heard Cassandra’s voice speaking.

“Did that robot just say it was going to start disappearing people?”

“I think so, yeah,” Matiew replied. “I think it was trying to sound reassuring, though.”

“That doesn’t make it better,” Cassandra said. “This is getting out of hand way too quickly, we need to stop that robot now, before it can get those other robots assembled. I mean, are there any weapons on board that we could just arm the next team coming down this way with and just have them deal with BaBS-Y right away?”

“The Thesis doesn’t exactly have much in the way of weaponry,” Min said. “I think the most we could do are batons and riot shields, but those won’t be that effective against BaBS-Y since whoever we send is going to be in a space suit, making any physical attack slow and cumbersome. That’s why we tried using other robots before against BaBS-Y.”

“Right,” Cassandra grumbled, “and all that bot would need to do is puncture the space suits to kill the team.”

“Why don’t we just wait for the repairs to be done?” Rine asked. “Then we can just walk right up to it and –

“By that time,” Cassandra cut Rine off, “there will be dozens of those PaLS bots. You might get rid of BaBS-Y, but the robots will still control everything. So no, we can’t wait that long. I even suspect that robot will begin hard coding itself into the Thesis memory banks to make sure we can’t just shut down the one robot and call it good…are we sure it hasn’t already done that?”

“I’ve been checking on that periodically,” Matiew replied, “and as far as I can tell it hasn’t tried to do that yet.”

“Well that’s something at least,” Cassandra sighed. “So, back to plan A?”

“More like plan Q,” Rine muttered and Matiew chuckled wryly.

“I think so,” Matiew said. “We’ll get these supplies sent down to you tomorrow.”

Excellent,” Cassandra sighed with relief. “We’ll get it all assembled, hopefully before there are too many PaLS walking around.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Min said. “In the mean time, everyone, make sure you don’t discuss this with anyone. Only Cassandra’s comm is secure so don’t give BaBS-Y any reason to suspect we might be up to something.”

“Well, you all take care up there,” Cassandra said. “Stay safe.”

“You too,” Matiew, Min, and Rine replied.

The call ended and Matiew tried to stretch without hurting his ribs too badly. He failed and leaned back into his bed, grimacing.

“Well that was–

“A productive meeting, I agree,” Matiew interrupted Rine who sounded as though she were about to go on about how doomed they all were. “Cassandra’s sounding much happier now so I don’t expect to have any more trouble from her. Thank goodness.”

He gave Rine a pointed look and Rine paled, opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and then nodded. There were no cameras in the hospital room but there were microphones.

“I think Min’s going to come up and join us for lunch, Rine,” Matiew said after a few tense seconds. “Why don’t you go and see about finding out what the cafeteria has to offer?”

Rine nodded and got up, leaving him alone in the room. He rubbed his face and let his hands shake for a moment to get rid of the pent up adrenaline. Just a few more days. A week at most. Then…then they could get back to normal. Assuming everything goes according to plan.

If only more things had gone according to plan recently.