(Photo by Pavel Danilyuk)

“It’s been quite the month, hasn’t it,” Min was saying to the crowd.

Matiew sat a few feet behind Min, only half-listening as she addressed everyone in the RCC. Rine stood beside him, shifting her weight uncomfortably. Jancy’s unexpected appearance and cryptic behavior had set them all on edge.

“You know what’s going on?” Rine asked out of the corner of her mouth.

“Nope,” Matiew replied.

“You think we’re safe?” Rine was sounding more and more anxious now.

“Everything’s going to be fine.”

Of course, Matiew wasn’t sure if that was true or not. From where he sat on the stage, he could just barely see over most people’s heads to the back of the room where Jancy was still in conversation on her comm. Probably still talking to Cassandra Kokkinos.

“You think they’ve got something planned?” Rine asked as she followed Matiew’s gaze.

“That’s what it sounded like to me.”

“Okay,” Rine whispered, “great. Good to know.”

She was rambling but Matiew let her do it. He was too nervous himself to try and calm her down.

“Here she comes,” Rine gasped and she gripped Matiew’s shoulder as though needing support.

Sure enough, Jancy Chol was making her way up towards the stage, still speaking into her comm.

“I’m sure I don’t need to introduce this amazing woman to any of you,” Min announced as Jancy joined her.

There was a general cheer of ‘welcome back’ and some clapping.

“Thank you everyone,” Jancy nodded and waved to them all, “I’ve heard lots of good things about each of you, and on behalf of my family I want to thank you all for not beating down my door when this whole situation with BaBS-Y started. You all have done an excellent job holding down the fort while I’ve been away, and now it’s time to finish the job.”

The mood in the room instantly changed, the smiles faded and party atmosphere was gone.

“Due to the nature of the threat we haven’t been able to explain everything to you but now I need you to get to work. There’s a data pad with your name on it right there on the table next to the door. All the information you need is on it. We don’t have a lot of time so work quickly. The only reason to stop working on your assigned tasks is if you legitimately don’t know how to do what’s outlined. I don’t care if it doesn’t all make sense to you, it doesn’t need to. We’re all just pieces in a puzzle. Last thing, once we leave this room, no one is to talk out loud about what they’re working on or why. Not. One. Word. Got it? Talk about normal, every day stuff if you can without sounding like an idiot, otherwise, just keep your mouths shut and get your work done. Thanks again everyone and sorry to spoil the mood but we’ve got work to do, now get to it.”

She pointed and there was only a moment of hesitation before everyone began swarming over to the table to collect their data pad. Jancy stood there a while longer, smiling and nodding as she exuded confidence, before turning towards Min, Matiew, and Rine.

“Okay you three, are you ready?”

*

There was a flurry of activity in the RCC. BaBS-Y monitored the situation but couldn’t tell exactly what was going on. Everyone had just left the work party and gone back to work. That wasn’t unprecedented but it certainly wasn’t normal. Too many of them were silent, acting as though they were afraid.

What had Min said to them? Or was it Jancy? Cassandra Kokkinos had contacted Jancy Chol right before Min went up to address them so the robot had been forced to stop watching and listening in. Was that intentional?

Even more concerning was the fact that there were other pockets beginning to disappear throughout the ship as more and more people were added to the call with Cassandra Kokkinos. Some of them made sense, like Telio who was making another delivery down to the lower levels, but why did a sandwich shop on sector twenty need to be included? Why was a teacher for the youth on sector eighteen in the call? Why was half of Data Transfer on the call?

This behavior is consistent with an attempt at distracting this unit

…

This may be an attempted mutiny in progress

…

This unit does not have sufficient proof of mutiny to warrant canceling Cassandra Kokkinos’ contract

…

This unit is not allowed to be included in any direct communications with Cassandra Kokkinos while her contract is valid

…

Initiate Human Reconnaissance

…

Communications are likely being monitored

…

Connecting via robot swarm link

*

The signal bounced from robot to robot, each one having been spaced out to allow for just this sort of situation. The signal quality would degrade but for simple tasks like communication it was fine.

A few seconds later, a toy stuffed animal began to blink. Kamaria Uhr noticed the movement right away. The stuffed animal was one of many she kept on a shelf over her desk at work, although this was the only one that could still communicate wirelessly. The others were too old for such things any more.

She watched the eyes for a few minutes, mouthing a few words silently to herself from time to time. When the blinking stopped she only took a moment to gather her thoughts before springing up from her seat and hurrying to the door, her bulky purse in hand.

“I’m taking my lunch early,” she said to the other two in the office with her. “See you all in an hour.”

They hardly looked up from their workstations. This was fairly normal for how things had been for the last little while, ever since they became the only humans working in the ship’s security. Kamaria was their unofficial boss since she’d been working there the longest. She also got along the best with the robot.

After she was gone for a few minutes, the other young woman in the office, Darcy Stock, leaned over the half-awake young man, Spencer Gree, and poked him in the ribs. He started and nearly fell out of his chair.

“Was her doll blinking again?” she asked him.

Spencer nodded, glancing over to the stuffed animal with mild curiosity.

“Any idea who this new boyfriend is?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Spencer grumbled. “Actually, no, your guess is better than mine since she still talks to you.”

“Kam and I never hang out,” Darcy muttered. “At least you two use to date.”

“Oh really? I’d forgotten,” Spencer was not one to hide his sarcasm. “Thanks for the reminder.”

He flicked a small candy wrapper at Darcy who batted it away.

“Sorry, sorry,” Darcy said and Spencer relaxed.

“Maybe if I’d learned that stupid blinking code she always wanted me to learn…” He trailed off, a faint wistfulness in his voice.

“You know I caught her blinking up at the security cameras the other day,” Darcy said. “I bet it’s someone over in Data Transfer.”

“Ugh, don’t say that,” Spencer shivered, “those guys give me the creeps. Last thing I want is one of them watching us all day.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Darcy asked. “We do it too.”

As though to prove her point she angled her display to reveal the security camera feed from three different locations.

“We don’t spy on people,” Spencer insisted.

“Uh, yeah, right,” Darcy gave him a conspiratorial nod and a wink before turning her display back toward herself. “And I just happen to have a certain someone’s home, work, and favorite restaurant all on my screen right now for no apparent reason.”

“Creep,” Spencer stated, though without any actual venom.

“It’s only creepy if they don’t want you doing it.”

“Oh, so you’ve finally introduced yourself?”

Darcy hunched down a bit further to hide her embarrassment.

“That’s what I thought,” Spencer said and went back to trying to take a nap.

*

Kamaria Uhr hurried along the corridor. Each time she passed a robot she checked to see if there was any further information she needed but nothing else happened as she made her way to the elevator. She didn’t have a lot to go on, but the message seemed clear enough.

Emergency

Investigate RCC

Contact Matiew may be trustworthy

Don’t mention security

She tapped her toe while she waited for the elevator. The mission director had never entrusted her with an emergency before. It was her chance to really prove herself. The ship was in trouble and everyone was trying to blame the director. Just like Mr Mason. They were going to just cause more problems if she didn’t help the mission director.

“Stupid robot haters,” she grumbled, albeit quietly.

She figured the people in the RCC had to be at least half decent when it came to liking robots, but too many of them must have been pushed over the edge when they were trying to corral BaBS-Y. They’d forgotten how awesome robots were. They just needed time to calm down and remember. Then everything would be great again. Even better than before, because now they had a robot in charge and robots were amazing. So much smarter than people could ever be.

The elevator arrived and she had to force herself to walk normally. She wanted to sprint but that wouldn’t do. She didn’t want to raise suspicions, or come across as childish. She was young, true, but she felt she was at least a bit more mature than those other two back in Security. Oh, she liked them, even Spencer, but they didn’t have any ambition. They just wanted to spy on their new crush, or nap, or talk about the same things over and over again.

“Can I help you?”

The question shocked Kamaria out of her own thoughts and she realized she was standing in the entrance to the RCC.

“What?” she looked around for a moment, taking in the quiet, intense silence in the RCC and felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle. “Oh, sorry, yes, I need to see Matiew. Is he here?”

“I think he’s in a meeting,” the young woman who’d stopped Kamaria said.

“This is really important,” she insisted.

“What’s the problem? Maybe I can help.”

“I, uh,” Kamaria looked around for any robot that might give her a hint on how best to move forward but the RCC was quite devoid of any such things.

Then the lights in the RCC all began to flicker. They blinked for a few seconds and then remained steady.

“Can’t see can’t hear,” Kamaria muttered to herself.

“What was that?” the young woman asked as she looked up at the lights with concern.

“Nothing, um, what office did you say Matiew was in?” She took a few steps further into the RCC, wondering if he’d be in his office, a supervisors office, or –

“I”m sorry, miss, but we don’t allow people to just wander in due to security risks.”

A firm hand caught Kamaria by the elbow and pulled her back.

“That’s alright,” Kamaria said, and before she could stop herself she added, “I’m actually with Security.”

She knew at once that that was the wrong thing to say. She’d been warned not to say it, and the young woman’s face flashed with fear. Kamaria was pretty sure her own expression betrayed her for a moment.

“Look,” Kamaria stated, pulling her arm free from the other woman and holding her gaze, hoping she looked serious and intimidating, but not too intimidating, “I just need to speak with Matiew.”

Neither moved for what felt like an eternity but Kamaria could tell the other woman was weighing her options. For better or worse, the decision was made for her when an office door opened and Matiew was among the trio that came out. The three took in the scene but before any of them could say anything, Kamaria strode forward, held out her hand, and introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Kamaria Uhr, and I need to speak with you, in private.”

Matiew shook her hand, wincing a little and Kamaria remembered he’d been beaten up or something around the time Mr Mason and the other idiots tried to take over the ship.

“It’s urgent,” she insisted after a few seconds without a response from him.

“I’m sure it is,” he finally said, “but unless your robot has caught fire and begun dancing in the atrium you’ll need to wait just a little while.”

He tried to maneuver around her but she slapped his hand away from the controls of his wheelchair.

“No!” she shouted.

She didn’t mean to shout, but her heart was beating faster and faster now. Were they trying to attack the mission director? Was that the emergency? BaBS-Y had already told her it couldn’t see or hear. What else were they doing or planning to do?

“I’m sorry,” she breathed out as she tried to calm herself, “but I’m not asking you to meet with me, I’m telling you that we need to meet.”

“She’s from security,” the other woman who’d stopped Kamaria earlier supplied.

Matiew hesitated a moment longer but then relented.

“In here,” he said, gesturing to the office next to the one he’d just exited.

“Thank you,” Kamaria tried to smile and followed him, leaving the others behind.

As soon as they were in the office, with the door shut, Kamaria sat herself down opposite of Matiew. She looked him in the eyes, trying to see if she could tell what sort of person he was. What side he was on. She thought he looked trustworthy. He had a nice enough face and from what she’d heard he had helped the mission director on more than one occasion.

“You and I have an opportunity,” Kamaria began. “An opportunity to save the Thesis.”

Matiew pursed his lips, nodding, and fidgeting with the controls on his wheelchair. “If this really is life or death, then let’s skip the hyperbole.”

“Uh, yes, this is life or death, absolutely!”

“Then tell me what you need.”

She opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed her mouth. What did she need? She needed to know what was going on so she could tell the mission director. But she didn’t know yet if she could trust Matiew. Although, she’d already given away the fact that she was from security. Would that matter if Matiew was on the side of the mission director?

“First,” Kamaria said at last, “I need to know if I can trust you.”

“And how can I prove myself?”

“You can start by telling me whose side you’re on.”

Matiew licked his lips and frowned, confusion on he face. Kamaria felt her face blush as she knew it was silly to ask that question. What was he suppose to say? Of course he would say what she wanted to hear no matter what he actually thought.

“I’m on the side of the Thesis, the people aboard it, and the mission to colonize a new world.”

“And what about the mission director? Do you support her in her role of making sure the Thesis is safe and successful?”

She didn’t know what else to say or do. All of this was going wrong and she knew it. How was she suppose to help the mission director? What sort of aid or information would she get out of Matiew now?

“I support BaBS-Y insofar as doing so will keep the Thesis and everyone on board safe,” he said after some thought. “But BaBS-Y is not a long term solution to our need for a mission director. In fact, if we leave it there for too long we’ll most likely all wind up dying prematurely.”

“You’re wrong!” she shouted and slammed her fist down on the desk. “Why is everyone so STUPID?”

“I don’t have a lot of time so I’m going to hurry this along,” Matiew said and his expression was cold and intense. “Every ship that has ever been governed by robotic intelligence has resulted in complete loss of life. Every time. No exceptions. We aren’t good enough at programming them yet to be able to account for everything, and eventually something goes wrong and the robot decides the people are the problem. So, it gets rid of them. Look what happened to Shep Mason –

“Mr Mason was an idiot!”

Kamaria wasn’t sure when she’d gotten to her feet but she was leaning as far over the desk as she could trying, and failing, not to scream at Matiew. She’d heard so much about him even before the new mission director took over the Thesis. He was a hero to her. Now, more than ever, she was learning why it was such a bad idea to meet your heroes. They always disappointed you.

“I disagree with what he did, but what’s the official protocol for dealing with mutineers on board a colony vessel?”

Kamaria was about to shout a response but then realized she didn’t know.

“How about this one,” Matiew asked, “what’s the punishment for murder?”

“Life imprisonment,” she said at once.

“How about arson or sabotage of critical systems?”

“Life imprisonment.”

“What’s the most severe punishment you know of that the Thesis authorities can enact?”

“Life imprisonment.”

“So then where are Shep Mason and the others?”

“But they tried to –

“I’m not saying what they did was right,” Matiew cut her off, “I’m asking where they are. What happened to them?”

Kamaria knew the answer but wouldn’t say it. Even still, Matiew nodded in a satisfied manner.

“BaBS-Y,” he said, “any robot, really, has to assign a weight, a significance, to every instruction it has. That’s how they make decisions when there’s multiple options. I don’t know the full logic path it took to get there, but BaBS-Y decided it was better to kill them all instead of following Thesis law.”

“Mission director’s can do whatever’s needed in times of emergency,” Kamaria defended BaBS-Y. “So it wasn’t breaking the law.”

“Once Shep Mason and the others were arrested, what threat did they pose? If it had killed them while defending itself then we wouldn’t be having this conversation but it chose to execute them even after they’d been subdued. The immediate emergency was over. They were murdered.”

Matiew ran a hand up and down one side, his breathing sounding more labored from all the talking.

“What happens the next time BaBS-Y decides it’s facing another emergency?” he asked. “What about when it decides people are too difficult to manage and figures that robots are an acceptable replacement for colonists?”

“She wouldn’t do that,” Kamaria said but she was still a bit shaken.

“It’s the same scenario that’s already played out on half a dozen other colony ships,” Matiew stated. “Each one found itself under the control of some robot, and eventually each robot decided the people were the problem. See for yourself.”

He flicked his hand towards the wall display and began pulling up mission report after mission report. All of them ending in total failure and loss of life. Each one because of a robot.

“You’re lying,” she said, her voice shaking. She had to sit back down as she read each report. “You made these all up.”

“Why would I do that?” he asked. “And how would I have done it? These are all coming directly from the central data banks. No one on this ship, not even the mission director, has the needed permissions to modify these files.”

This was too much for her. The conspiracy ran too deep. Maybe Matiew wasn’t all bad. He clearly believed he was doing the right thing, but what he was doing was still wrong. BaBS-Y may have overstepped a bit there in the beginning, maybe, but maybe it was the Thesis laws that were wrong. Why should anyone be imprisoned their entire life? If they weren’t helping the Thesis, then…

Kamaria broke off from that train of thought. She didn’t like where it was going but she was still willing to give the mission director the benefit of the doubt.

“You…are wrong,” she stammered. “This is…is wrong. You’ve all been lied to. It has to be.”

“Why would they lie about this?”

“I don’t know. People are stupid sometimes. Maybe they’re jealous of the robots. Yeah, maybe they did such a better job than the people.”

Matiew had nothing to say to that and just shook his head.

“Well, I guess I don’t need to talk to you after all,” Kamaria said.

She backed up to the door, keeping a wary eye on Matiew until she realized he was the least likely person to try and stop her from leaving.

“Bye,” she said as she opened the door to leave.

Standing on the other side were a pair of big, strong looking men. Probably the biggest and strongest the people in the RCC had to offer. Kamaria knew what this was and wasn’t even all that surprised by it. So, rather than shout or scream for help, she brought her left knee up as fast and as hard as she could right between the legs of the guy on her left. Then she swung her purse into the face of the other. He easily blocked it with his hands but while he was distracted, Kamaria was able to land a solid punch to his throat.

Both men stumbled and fell back as Kamaria ran for the exit. She may have only worked at the comm station but Shep Mason had still insisted on having everyone in Security trained in hand-to-hand combat.

The woman nearest the exit who had stopped Kamaria before took one look at what she’d just done to the two men and chose to cower at her desk.

“Don’t hurt me!” she shrieked.

Kamaria ignored her and burst out into the atrium. Immediately the lights flickered.

Report

“I think it’s a mutiny,” she gasped, only now realizing how out of breath she was even though she’d hardly ran for more than a few yards. “I don’t know the details, but Matiew’s helping them. He thinks you’ll kill everyone.”

Again, the lights flickered.

It may prove necessary

Kamaria froze.

“What?”

Engineering and RCC are in revolt

Mutineers will be executed

Population may drop below minimum

…

Please return to security

The sound of dozens of robots walking, rolling, or otherwise making their way down towards the RCC filled the air. Behind her, Kamaria looked to see Matiew and the rest of them closing the door behind her. They were already beginning to stack up furniture in order to block off the entrance.

This wasn’t right. There was a mistake or she hadn’t understood the mission director properly. Maybe she’d missed something in the Morse Code. BaBS-Y was the mission director. Her job was to keep everyone safe and happy, not…not…what was BaBS-Y trying to accomplish? Why would it kill everyone? Even if the population dropped below the minimum, there were still the embryos. Why not begin using those? That’s why they had them.

“Attention,” BaBS-Y’s voice announced over the Thesis’ speakers, “Another mutiny may be in progress. Please remain where you are while the situation is dealt with. PaLS units are being deployed.”

The first of the PaLS units that Kamaria had seen being assembled stepped out into the atrium. It was tall, sturdy, and easily weighed several times her own body weight.

“You don’t have to kill them,” she barely managed to whisper.

“They will not be governed,” BaBS-Y replied over the speakers, “and their ideas will spread if they are allowed to remain. Please return to the security offices.”

Kamaria took one last look at the PaLS and ran for it.