See Chapter One
Chapter
Eight
A
Quest
After they were back
in the small mess hall they had been using for a while Jay Johnson
pulled Tamita close and whispered “Even if we install new computer
cores you said the bad programming might be coming from another part
inside the robots”
She nodded.
“We might need to
take some of them apart and inspect each piece” he concluded. The
prospect of being electrocuted or torn apart by sabotaged robots was
worth the extra effort to prevent. The main computer had a long-range
6,000 year plan built in to its system, while humans are worried
about more immediate things, such as their own lives.
“If that is what
needs to happen to end this mess, then we can do that” she answered
“This ship needs those robots if it is going to have a chance to
make it for 6,000 years”
Jay thought about
this. Pretty much every part on every robot would be replaced several
times over before this voyage is ending. He hoped replacing the cores
was the end of it or barring that, finding the part that had been
sabotaged from the design stage.
The main computer
spoke up “I have designed a more efficient computer core for the
Corridor Service Module and it is being built as we speak. Gopher
should have it brought to you within a quarter of an hour.”
Jay Johnson was
impressed “redesigned and built in such a short time, that is
impressive'
The computer was
silent but Tamita laughed “Please tell me you aren't trying to
charm the computer, I don't think praise is going to compute”
As promised Gopher
entered the room carrying a ceramic and metallic-looking all with
grooved edged around it that were obviously meant to fit into a slot.
Jay Johnson picked it up and examined it while the main computer
spoke again.
“You will need to
open the top access hatch on the unit, then open a secondary panel
inside of that and replace the computer core. It should be fairly
straight-forward, as these were made for humans to be able to repair
easily” it told them
“See” Tamita
said standing up from the table they were sitting at “Sounds
condescending but it doesn't mean to be”
They returned to the
lift and then walked back toward the bridge, all of the service
module robots were still where they had been stopped previously. The
one closest to where they had come from was the one Jay Johnson had
named Goth. Corridor Service Module G-27.
“Looks like a
silver and black refrigerator lying on its back, doesn't it?” Jay
asked jokingly.
He climbed on top
while she leaned over from the side. The access port was easy to
open, being no real reason to make them otherwise. Jay Johnson laid
on his stomach to get a close look at the inside, he could see where
the secondary hatch was inside but there were things in the way. So
he took the chance to hold the wires and stuff to the side with one
hand and open the hatch with the other.
There was a white
and silver ball, looking only a little different from the one printed
up by the ships computer. He reached down and pulled, it came up out
of its slot quite easily. He put it aside and Tamita handed them the
replacement. He dropped it and it slide into the slot, a tap of a
finger made sure it was embedded snugly.
“That was easy”
he said, sitting up and closing the top hatch.
The computer spoke
up through Gopher who was a few feet away “I will have this unit
push the others out of the way and then fix some of the damage that
was caused. If you want to be out of the way during this operation
you might want to leave the area now”
Tamita and Jay
Johnson walked back to the lift and he leaned close to her and
whispered “Did you feel the urgency to the computer wanting to fix
the damage? We're in the middle of nowhere, most systems are
automated, what did the computer not tell us?”
The computer
monitored the module called “Goth” by the humans as it
reconnected and rewired the connections to the bridge. Some of the
first connections to be reconnected were the least important, but it
was progress, those needed done before the main trunk line could be
fixed. There were thousands of computers on the ship but losing
access to the bridge hindered some of its operations.
A lot of exterior
sensors were directly wired to bridge computers, thus the computer
had only partial data about what was happening outside the ship. This
could leave the mission in danger, there were occasional meteors and
comets even this far out into the heliopause. To the computer sensor
darkness, not knowing where danger might be, was unsettling.
Tamita and Jay
Johnson entered Biological Habitat 2, one of the smaller ones, so
they could try to get a little privacy.
“This ship is so
big that I haven't seen most of it” he told her “I have no idea
where the passengers are being stored. I guess I could figure that
out though, but there is so much else I haven't seen”
She nodded “What
else is there?”
He took a fallen
twig and found a dirt area without grass and sat next to it. He drew
a rectangle “We have only been to about this much”
He filled in what he
thought was right and they were surprised. Even after spending
several years living and exploring Jay Johnson had been to less than
ten percent of the volume of the ship. “I reckon a lot of this side
of the ship is fuel that we took on from Jupiter” he filled in the
back quarter of the ship. “I bet much of the center is the storage
for the passengers” he filled in another quarter.
“The manufacturing
and the stuff they make things out of must take up some space, but I
bet there is enough air and water to take up a quarter of the ship
too” Tamita added.
“That still leaves
a good fifteen percent of the ship that is totally unknown to us”
Jay Johnson said “I know the computer doesn't tell us everything.
It took close to four years before I ever saw a corridor service
module! The computer had never mentioned them to me before I ran into
Goth while jogging”
“What would the
computer do if we asked to see the other fifteen percent of the
ship?” Tamita asked, curiously.
Jay Johnson
shrugged. “That probably depends on what is there, I guess”
“So, we just go
and look without asking then” She said with a grin “We're adults,
we don't need to do what daddy computer says”
When they left the
biological habitat they were holding hands and Tamita was leaning
against Jay a little, despite not being physically handicapped. The
computer noted this, it believed that the two humans were at least
very good friends now. Watching them would teach it a lot about the
stages of human bonding and its files on this were growing.
When Gopher
approached them they let their hands fall to their sides. This was
curious, was their friendship supposed to be a secret? At such as
early stage in a relationship was it not secure enough to show
others? There was much to learn, but 6,000 years was a long time.
“The service
module is operating as expected. It is repairing the wiring and
tubing to the bridge, fixing its connection to the rest of the ship!”
Gopher reported to the humans “The computer has begun manufacturing
enough replacement computer cores for all of the corridor service
modules”
“How many of them
are there?” Tamita asked
“The original plan
call for there to be two hundred and forty of them, but this was an
inefficient use of resources. Instead we have forty” Gopher told
them.
“That is still a
lot” she said looking doubtful.
Jay shook his head
“If they are all as easy to replace as on Goth, then it won't take
too long I guess, besides it means traveling to parts of the ship we
haven't seen yet”
“Oh, right”
Tamita said putting on a fake smile and laughing nervously to the
little robot “Good point, humans like seeing new things”
The little robot
then chirped “Okay, I'll go get the next batch of replacement
computer cores right now!”
Then it was gone.
“Chippy little
thing, isn't she?” Tamita asked
“She?” Jay
asked, frowning “I never assigned any gender to the robot before.”
“Gopher just seems
like a 'she' to me”
“I always thought
Gopher was like a child” Jay asked “Or is that kind of the same
thing?”
“You better start
running!” she said with an evil smile. Then they laughed and ran
all the way toward where the service robots were still cluttering the
area near the bridge. Instead they were all lined up neatly, leaving
room for the humans to maneuver their way through.
“That makes things
easier, thanks Goth” Jay told the robot that totally ignored him,
as it always did since they were not made to interact with humans. “I
guess we'll get these first before having to travel to get the rest
of them” he said.
“Let me do some of
them” Tamita asked “Unless you think this is far too dangerous”
He laughed “It's
like changing a light bulb, I think you can handle it, little lady”
She shook her head
“You should at least attempt a John Wayne drawl when you say that”
“I'm terrible at
impersonations”
They finished
installing the new cores to the service modules outside of the bridge
in little time and then began moving from section to section and deck
to deck where Gopher told them others were located. Replacing the
cores was easy, the traveling took longer and they mostly used lifts
instead of walking.
Then Jay Johnson
stopped, the door-frame here looked different, bigger, the frame was
red too and entered a strange looking chamber. The chamber had a tall
ceiling and was dominated by a silver cylinder at the center.
Tamita entered after
noticing he wasn't with her and going back.
“What is this
place?” Tamita asked in a quiet voice.
“I don't know”
he said “Look how big those tubes to the cylinder are. It could be
part of some kind of cooling system”. Tubes entered from the floor
and ceiling connecting to the cylinder.
“No labels or
signs at all” Tamita said walking around the vast cylinder “Not
even a warning sign”
Jay Johnson was
thinking hard. “I know the water and air storage sites are a
thousand or more times this size. I guess it could be part of a
filtration system but this is kind of weird”
Tamita shook her
head “Don't you think this could be part of the cryogenic
suspension system?”
Jay looked around
for Gopher, it was hanging out in the corridor looking into the
chamber through the open doorway. He wondered why the computer or
Gopher hadn't answered any of the questions they had spoken out loud.
“Gopher what is
this chamber for?” he asked walking toward the robot “What does
that do?”
Gopher backed up a
few feet.
“I do not know. My
map of this area is incomplete” it said
Then the main
computer spoke up “As you get closer to the front of the vessel
there are bigger and bigger blind spots for my maps. I assume that
the construction was becoming rushed because of the launch deadline”
How could they leave
parts of the ship outside the control of the computer? It didn't seem
to make much sense.
“Was there any
last minute adjustments or additions?” Jay asked
The computer
answered “There were many small last minute adjustments, mostly
minor changes but there was one major addition. Part of the forward
section of the vessel, which is a large blind spot”
“Me and Tamita can
go and check that out” Jay Johnson told the computer. After
thinking the computer was hiding something from them this was even
more worrisome.
Gopher disappeared
again. The computer answered “I will leave that up to you. If you
do insist on exploring the unknown parts of the ship you should take
certain tools with you. It will keep you in contact with me”
When Gopher returned
it handed them small wristbands, then said “I also cannot access
the dark parts of the ship”.
Jay looked at
Tamita, he was starting to have second thoughts about this.
The main computer
spoke again “Scan the dark areas of the vessel as you explore and I
will be able to add it to my internal memories and the main map of
the ship”
Gopher accompanied
them for a while. Then the entire look of the vessel changed. The
rail that Gopher hung down from did not extend any further. There was
less lighting, the metal bulkheads were darker, as if the metal were
not as refined as the rest of the ship.
“Everything looks
different” Tamita said “I guess they really did add it at the
last minute”
“This project took
a long time, 'last minute' was probably a matter of months” Jay
guessed looking around and moving the wristband like it was a
flashlight. When they came to the first hatches Jay was almost
surprised that they refused to open. He punched in the code for door
access but got a red light in return.
“This is
different” Jay said “I wonder how many of these will open for
us?”
Not many, he decided
after the next set of hatches refused to budge, So they continued to
walk until they came to a T-section. “Looks like we might have
reached the front of the ship” Tamita said.
The voice of the
main computer came from their wrist devices, but it sounded tinny
“Most likely, there is only about 4 meters between this corridor
and the outside of the vessel. I believe it is made up of triple
hull. There are other decks to check”
Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
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