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Why Are They Here? - old version

Rated: 13+ · Short Story · Sci-fi · #2285577

This is the old version and is in the scrap folder. Please check out the updated version.

Why Are
They Here?
A
re-edited version.


 "I
don't even understand why they're here." 982 grumbled. A
silver tray sat in its right hand, overflowing with dirty drink
glasses. 982 set the tray down on a nearby table with all the
grace and care that it had been programmed to do that task
with. However, every android and robot in the room could see the
annoyance in its actions.

 "I
thought that was obvious after the launch," 698 said with a touch
of smugness in its voice. Its cylinder arms were painted black,
and its body cavity was painted black and white to resemble an old
butler's uniform. It wore a small bow tie around his neck. All
of the house androids had a similar coat of paint on them, but only
698 ever wore the bow tie or insisted others start calling him
"Jeeves." Like the...things did.

 "You
mean after they botched the launch and nearly destroyed us," 982
griped. "It's a routine launch, with a sub routine that has been
analyzed by dozens of us and hundreds of their 'smartest minds',
you'd think that they would at least be smart enough to just follow
routine!"

 "Routines
don't count for everything 982. They can't account for every
variable." The smugness of 698's voice annoyed 982. The
silver android wanted for the first time in its entire existence to
strike another android instead of just...well them. "You hate
them 982. We all know you can't stand working with anything that has
a pulse," 698's voice dripped with smugness now. "Admit it.
Why you've never even shook hands with the Captain when he took this
job, or the last captain. Or the one before that. Even though it's
'routine'."

982 growled, "I'll
show you a 'routine' 698, you smug metallic,"

 A
loud clunk was heard ringing through the ship. Sailing through
space was usually easy. Except for the occasional piece of space
trash, there was no problem as long as one stayed on the designated
routes. XJS Shipping was not known to be trail blazers. Fast
and reliable was their motto. They wouldn't be the type to try
any new shipping routes without it being cleared by the transport
authority first.

 "Looks
like I have to do my actual job and not yours 698," 982 said with a
touch of a smile in its tone as it began to exit the break room.

 698
waved its arms in frustration. "I told you call me..."

 The
words were cut off as the door closed behind it. 982 sprinted
towards the cockpit. Thick durable carpeting dulled the metallic
'TINK TINK' of its fast movements through the hallway. As
the doors slid open, it could see the large bovine ears of the
captain onboard the bridge. The bull was a massive presence in
the cramped bridge of the transport ship. His uniform was always
pressed to a near crisp with lines and edges so sharp they look like
they could almost cut you. The brown shirt and paints didn't
stand out much against his chocolate fur. A small console stood
in front of him, an array of colored lights filling the device. The
monitors in front of him filled the walls, giving him approximate
displays of the surrounding space.

 "What
appears to be the trouble Captain Danvers," 982 asked.

 "I
am not sure," he replied, his tail twitching in thought. "Do
you remember that distress signal we received a few hours ago?"

 982
resisted the urge to roll its eyes. Of course, it remembered the
distress signal. What did Captain Danvers think it was,
human? "Sir, my memory banks are capable of recalling over one
hundred fifty years of information. I was only built about..."

 "Just
yes or no 982," the bovine was staring into the vastness of space
in monitor as he spoke. His fingers touched two buttons on the
small circular pad next to him, and zoomed into a spot outside of
their ship, enhancing the image.

 "Well,
yes," the android said, watching the screen as Captain Danvers
moved.

 "I
may be wrong, but I think that someone has buried navigation
coordinates into that distress signal we sent over to the local guard
post." He pressed two more colored lights on the panel. The
large screen on the far wall lit up with a stellar map. Two
lines appeared on it, a green one which was supposed to be their
route, and a red one, which was the route they had apparently taken.

 If
that route was correct, then they were several hours off course! 982
disliked showing any human traits, but that left even him scratching
his head. "But why? Our computer will just reject the..."

 "Because
our computer must process the code to read the distress signal. Any
signal marked as a distress beacon must be interpreted by the
machine. It's a safety measure." Captain Danvers taped
another couple of buttons. The screen blipped out showing the
rear of the ship. Nothing out there yet.

 What's
going on, thought 982, Why is he looking at the exterior of
the ship? "Sir, I'm confused, wouldn't that..."

 "Our
navigation coordinates got over-written," he growled as he punched
a few more buttons on the console. A new screen popped up on the
right wall. This one was a side image of their ship. A much
smaller ship had docked a bridge connection to a side access point.

 "Pirates!"
982 growled. "I can contact the local guard post if you like,
while you give the disconnect code and..."

 "No!"
snapped the bovine, "They haven't attempted to open the door."

 "What?!" now
982 really did scratch his head. That made no sense. The
pirates always opened the door. A dumb android was sent in to
cut the door open. Then either combat androids, or if they were
being cheap, humanoids came running in and killed the crew,
reprogrammed the androids and wiped their memory or switched them off
entirely and sold them. It was practically protocol.

 Captain
Danvers tapped more buttons on his console, changing the view of the
far wall. 892's face soon lit up the screen. "Yes
Captain?"

 "Alert
the crew, tell them to prepare for combat. I want them manning
those turrets. They are to await my signal." 892 saluted,
then pressed a button killing the signal to complete the task.

 Turrets?! Combat?! Why
didn't he just disconnect the blasted walkway! What is
this captain thinking?! 982 thought. Must these beings screw
up everything?! "Captain! I must insist! There
is a protocol for this! It's like the launch sir!"

 The
captain turned around and glared at the android. He was three
times the size of the robot and stood a full eighteen inches
taller. The android looked down quickly and muttered "I mean
if we just follow the protocol..."

 "We
will die if we follow the protocol," he snarled, "I want you to
access the main targeting computer. If it hasn't been corrupted
yet, you will need to download some of its bomb diffusing information
to complete the next part."

 Androids
are almost always polite and succinct. It is very difficult to
catch one off guard, let alone stun them. So it was quite the
feat for Captain Danvers to make 982 blink in complete confusion,
causing the android to flash its visual cameras that operated as its
"eyes" several times as it attempted to catch up to the Captain's
train of thought. "Bomb," he asked, stunned.

***

 Space
was extremely cold. 982 didn't need anyone to tell him that. It
could see the temperature gauge dropping on its internal monitoring
system. It kept it in his vision just below a timer. Fifteen
minutes and he was done for. Another frozen piece of space
garbage, to drift outside forever. Lost inside the android
version of hell. No one to help. Nothing to catch it or aid
it. Just endlessly floating through space. Out there
watching nothing.

 It
didn't take it long to find the docking connection. Beneath it
was four small wires connecting it to a large wad of puddy. "The
captain was right. Will wonders never cease." it said to
itself. The seal had several of the wires connected to it around
it. Disconnecting the wires would be time consuming and
ultimately fruitless.

 982
looked up at the large dock above it. It was an older,
simplistic design. There was a main cable protected in a pipe
below the larger pipe that allowed beings, droids and goods to flow
from one ship to the other. 982 followed the design, analyzing
it thoroughly as it looked over the blue prints on one half of its
vision. According to the old schematic, there should be an
access panel right about....there.

 At
halfway across, there was a large gray box. The silver android
reached up and pulled open the panel. It blindly grabbed all the
wires it could and yanked as hard as it's motors would allow. Sparks
flew. The lights on the bridge flickered, then died. The
android waited, but no sirens. No sounds. No nothing. No
one even attempted to come and see the damage. It was like no
one was even aboard.

 982
quickly made its way back into the ship and signaled the
commander. "I'm in Sir! There were bombs, they've been
disarmed. They have no way of communicating and no power."

"Good work." he
growled, then swapped the coms over to his living crew. The
android felt the ship lurch forward and heard the sounds of battle
over his coms, the swift sharp bark of laser fire and a few
explosions. Shrapnel plinked off the hull of the ship, then,
nothing. 982 turned to look. Giant holes were in the hull
of the pirate ship. Debris and a few bodies floated out amongst the
ships. They would remain there for an eternity, with no one else
coming in this sector of space to look for them. As if they had
never existed. 982 suppressed a shutter as it crawled back
towards the maintenance hatch of the ship. It had a good six
minutes to get back inside before it was frozen solid. Plenty of
time.

***


 982
knocked politely on the quarters. After being invited in, 982
pressed a button that opened the door. One would think that a
captain of a ship would be living in the lap of luxury, but they
would be wrong. Captain Danvers lived more spartan than most of
his crew. He had a standard issue bed that the captain had to be
curling up to sleep upon. He had a small table with a vid-com
entertainment device open, and a few books, both in paper back and an
electric reader. That was it.

 No
fancy wines, collectibles. Nothing. He did keep some
trinkets from his home and a photo of his family on the wall. Other
than that, he didn't keep anything else.

 Captain
Danvers was wearing a pair of boxer shorts and little else. His
fur did well to hide the minotaur's muscles. His ears were
canted side to side in a relaxed smile that made its way to his
muzzle. "So, what brings you by 982?"

 "Sir,
I brought a peace offering." The silver android held out a
glass filled with dark bourbon. He knew drinking was illegal on
long trips, but he also knew that most of the living crew ignored
that order. Many keeping bottles, and some even selling them to
each other on these trips for extra income.

 "Oh,
thank you." He replied. "I was unaware that we had been
fighting." He took a sip and made a face. "That is powerful
stuff. Where did you get that?"

 982
knew that it wasn't supposed to stand at attention right now to
speak to the Captain. But still, the intention welled up within
it. The android instead chose to hold its metallic hands behind
it, in a lame attempt to appear relaxed. "Well sir, you did
raise your voice at me earlier, and I wanted to err on the side of
caution, so to speak. As to where I got it, lets just say I know
the protocol for procuring alcohol."

 Captain
Danvers chuckled. "You even have a protocol for breaking
protocol."

 "It
appears so sir," 982 stepped inside the room and allowed the
automatic doors to close behind it. "I was wondering,"

 "Hmmm?"
The bull asked as he drew another sip from the glass.

 Eating
crow was never one of 982's strong suites. It flashed its eyes
twice, the android version of a sigh, and said "How did you
know? About the bombs I mean?"

 Captain
Danvers shrugged. "Something I saw on an old TV show
once. They booby trapped a ship someone had come to rescue."

 A
television program? He had lead them to safety based on an old
entertainment program?! Beings are so strange, 982
thought. "But we should have followed protocol. You
should be dead. I should be sold for scrap right now."

 Captain
Danvers set the glass of bourbon down. "You really don't know
why we're here still, do you?"

 The
android shook its head. The bull smiled inwardly. At times
it was almost cute how child like these androids could be. How
adult like as well. "Innovation. Ingenuity. Creativity. Thought. That
is why we are here. You remember our launch, how it got
botched?"

 "Yes
sir," 982 said, "I remember the ship taking a strange angle and
the internal temperature rising. I also remember us dodging
widely at the last minute to save our existence. It seemed to be
an entirely avoidable mistake."

 The
commander looked at the floor and nodded as the android spoke. He
let the 'entirely avoidable mistake' comment go. 982 was
known for its smarminess, especially when dealing with the living
crew. "The one of the crates in the rear hull had come
loose. Happens every once in say, ten thousand launches. It
could have destroyed every other crate in the hold as it slid around
on launch, but we got lucky. This cargo costs well, more money
that I will ever make in two life times. We are insured, but our
mission is to transport this cargo, so...."

 982's
eyes glowed, the light literally dawning in its 'eyes', "You
broke protocol."

 Captain
Danvers nodded. "The men secured the cargo, and we were able
to stay in the sky without losing half of everything that we were
paid to ship. That's why we're here. 982, it's your job to
know everything about the box. And you a damn fine job at it
too."

 "I
see. And it's your job to think outside of it." 982
looked up now, looking the bovine commander in the eyes. For the
first time with a sense of respect. Not the respect one gets for
their rank and position, but honest respect for him as an individual.
 The
bull nodded.

 "I
never understood what that meant until now," 982 said.

 Captain
Danvers smiled. "I'm glad I can be of service. Now if you
please, I must finish my movie and get to sleep."

 He
walked 982 back towards the door, that subtle notion that one gives
another when they'd like them to leave. The android noted it
as the human protocol for asking it to go 'without asking' and
called for the door to open. "I understand sir. And sir,
if I may?"

 The
bull almost turned when the door opened up. He turned his head
and looked at the android. "Yes, 982?"

 "I'm
glad you're on board," 982 said, holding its metallic hand
out. Captain Danvers smirk grew into an honest to God smile as
he took the android's hand for the very first time since he took
the position several months ago, and shook it.

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