Chapter 4:Electric Communication
The hallway was brightly lit, the ship running at optimum efficiency. Metal hit metal as one teal and green AI moved through the salvage ship. He turned down a corridor and into a large dock that was the main part of the ship. He walked up to a glass window, a control panel infront of him. Pressing afew buttons, the words GRAPLING LINE LOCKED ON TARGET flashed infront of him. AI: "Let's see what we found." A metal line shot out into the open space just beyond the window. It attached itself to something and pulled it back onto a landing. "Huh? It's a robot. No, it's definatly an AI." Shutting the air lock, the teal AI went out onto the landing. "Hey buddy, are you alright?" The dark blue AI didn't responded, only an atom symbol lite up on his chest.
Fuzzy voice: "Hey... you alright....?" Tom's systems jump started themselves and he started to come online agian. How many times is this going to happen? Tom groaned, everything coming back into view. AI: "Wow, I thought you were long since gone." Tom: "Where am I? Who are you?" "I'd like to ask you the same thing. Name's Retch. This is my salvage ship." He grabbed Tom's hand and helped him up. "So what happened to you? Ship blow up? And who are you?" "Unless I've lost any memory, I'm Tom from the Absolution. And I don't really remember how I got out there." "Well, I asked if you were alright, aparently you're not." He pointed to Tom's arm where there were afew exposed wires and circuits. "No problem, I can fix it." Tom said. They walked back into the dock, "Let my repair bots do it. That's what they're good for. Then we'll find that ship of yours and/or figure out how you got out there." Retch offered. "Thanks. Were's this ship located anyway?" "In the Jiflery Solar System." "What? Great. The Absolution is no where near here."
Sara: "Why haven't they found him yet...?" Sara said to herself in a worried voice. The Clydes outside beeped. Kay's voice: "What happened anyway?" Kay asked over a vid link. She was down about 55 levels. Sara sighed, "That boy's accident proned, I swear. There was a fuel malfunction so Tom went to check it out. Something sparked and..." "I get the picture." Kay said, looking out a hole in the Absolution's side that was being repaired by afew Cylde-50s. "We'll find him. Tom can get through just about anything." the pink Robot said. "You sound awfully sure," Sara responded. "My calculations show that there's a 55 to 75 percent chance that we'll find him. I like those odds."
Retch: "You know, the only reason I found you was because of the type of metal you're made out of. Who designed you anyway?" Tom: "My ship's onboard computer Sara." A little cylinder shaped robot dashed off after repairing Tom's slightly damaged arm. "You're ship designed you?" "Uh, sort of." "Pfft. I have an on board computer but I don't use him. Mel!" Retch yelled. Voice: "What is it?" On a nearby screen a yellow-ish face appeared. "This is Mel." Retch explained, "Yo, say hello to Tom." "Hello, nice to..." "Yeah, yeah. Okay." Retch turned off the screen. "Thing's an annoyance." He said. Tom: "He's an AI just like you." "I don't want it bossing me around. That's what it used to do. Now it just runs navigation. You don't let your comp. talk trash to you, do you?" "Sara's kind of different." "That so? Ha, so you got a girl computer. No wonder you like it," Retch laughed, "Come on, let's go see if we can track down the Absolution."
A fleet of small silver ships cruised passed a nebula. The technology on their ships was primative but effiniant. Robot: "Sir, we've found them." came a voice over a silver bot's radio. 'Bot: "About time. Open a channel!"
Bot's voice: "This is COM312 calling the Absolution but I believe we've already met." Kay: "Tell me that's not who I think it is." Kay ran up to Sara's screen at the six boards `in the bottom level of the ship. Sara: "I'm afriad so," she allowed the picture of Kay's brother to appear on the screen. Bot: "Sis, there you are. When are you coming back?" he asked in an annoyed and upset tone. Kay: "I'm not, Com. I like being here with Tom and Sara!" she stated. He looked pissed, if anyone could tell. "Oh, yeah," he said, "where is that no account captain?" Sara: "Not exactly here at the moment." the computer informed him. "Why don't I believe you?" he questioened. "Because AIs can lie and robots can't?" Kay: "Oh, ouch." "Sorry, Kay." Sara smiled. Com: "Enough of this! Is he there or not?!" "No. And I'd like you to leave us alone untill we can find him." She cut the link, Com disappearing. Kay: "Alright Sara. Now lets go find Tom."Com: "That damn computer," he swore, shutting his own side of the link. Robot: "What do we do now, boss?" "Well... While the leader's away, the intruders will play... Launch an attack on that ship!" All hell broke loose as a barrage of shots fired on the Absolution all at the command of Kay's brother. The Absolution's shield appeared around the ship, blocking the attack.
Sara: "I'm afriad the shield's power won't last forever," she informed Kay who was watching the attack. Kay: "Than we gotta' fight back." She was in the elevator, heading for the bridge. "We're not equipped with any weapons. This is a research ship." Sara responded. "Great. Then let's try to out run 'em," she suggested, running over and plopping down in Tom's chair. "Right," Sara said, "Switching engines to hyper drive. The jump will deactivate the shield for two seconds before hand." "That's okay. Just make the jump." Kay instructed. She'd definatly been hanging around with Tom too much. "Going to hyper drive," Sara said. The ship rattled as the shield dropped and laser fire slammed the side. The Absolution's engines kicked into high speed, rocketing the ship away from the other ships lasers.
In a blue streak of light, the Absolution was out of sight and Com ordered his fleet to stop the attack. Com: "Damn it! Follow them!" Voice: "We can't match that speed, sir," another robot said over the intercom. "Than go to maximum speed and try to!" "Yes, sir."
Retch and Tom walked into a large room, a star map situated in the center and screens along the walls. A light beeped on a screen to their left as they walked in. Retch: "A ship just came out of hyper speed close by." Retch informed the other AI, as he examined the screen. Tom: "Which ship?" "Can't tell. Something's up with their long range communication. We'll have to get closer to get any contact. Mel!" The same yellowish face from before appeared on a nearby screen. Mel: "What is it?" "Set a coarse to meet up with this ship. I want to make sure it's not in any trouble." "That's awfully nice for someone like you." "Hey, shut up. I'm a nice guy, just not to anyone that tries pushing me around. Now set the coarse." Mel sighed, "Sure." he disappeared back into the ciruitry of the ship. "We'll be in range shortly. The ships not that far off." Retch said to Tom as they got into a conversation over the salvage ship's systems agian. Retch was going over their path that Mel had just plotted when another group of beeps sounded from a rearby screen. "Uh-oh," he said. Tom: "What's wrong?" "A fleet of smaller starships just came out of a slower hyper speed behind the first." "Might be a complete fleet," Tom said. Retch shook his head, "No way. They just started attacking the larger one." "Can you bring up a picture from here?" "Sure can." Retch tapped afew keys, letting the image fill the screen. Tom jumped, "Hey, that's my ship!" ,br>
Kay: "He followed us! Those ships never had a hyper speed option before!" Kay was going nuts at the keyboard, trying to get a clear shot of what was going on. An outside Clyde was blow to pieces, destoying several images. Kay sighed in exasperation. Sara: "Your bother's inovative if nothing else." Sara said, the ship getting slammed agian. "I'm diverting all power to the shield. And there's another problem." "What is it?" Kay asked, annoyed. "The long range communication was knocked off line in that last jolt before we jumped to hyper speed. We wont be able to call for help." "Well we're going to need it!" Kay said as if Sara didn't already know that. "Damn it, I wish Tom was here." she swore.
Retch: "What do you mean it's your ship?" Retch asked in surprise as he ran after Tom to the dock. Tom: "I mean that's the Absolution. Along with afew old enemies," Tom answer as they skidded to a stop. "Does your ship have any weapons on it? The Absolution doesn't so Sara and Kay are in real trouble over there." "Well, yeah, but I've never had to use them. I wasn't created to run this specific ship so..." "Great. Okay," Tom went over to the control panel, "Mel, we need some help," Tom said. Mel showed up on screen, looking slightly surprised, "How long untill we're in communication range with the Absolution?" Mel: "Only 300 seconds, Tom." he answered. "Can you arm this ship to take out the fleet attacking it?" "I can say that I am more than capable of that task." Retch: "Now wait a minute. Mel isn't anything but a navigation system." "Maybe I am to you," Mel retorted. "Shut up!" Tom: "Retch, I have to save my ship. Mel's my best chance of that. I'll owe you, okay?" Mel: "Contact possible in 120 seconds," Mel reported. Retch: "Alright." the AI resolved, "but it's not good for anything, I'm telling you."
Kay: "We have to get out of here somehow!" Kay said. Sara: "We could make another hyper jump but it would drain the engines. We would be in the same position as we are now." "Getting pummeled! That shield wont last forever and when it's gone, so are we." She was finally able to get a clear shot of the other starships. The lead one was of coarse her bother's. "I should have re-wired him that time his circuits got fried working on those stupid ships." A beam of light suddenly whipped across the screen, two or three of the ships getting destroyed. "What the?! What happened?" "I'm detecting another ship off the port side." Sara told her. Tom's voice: "Hi, Sara. How's it going?" "Tom!!" The image showed up on her screen, "Where have you been?" she asked. "It's a long story." Another shot blasted away four more of Com's ships outside. Kay: "What's with the re-enforcements?" "You can thank Mel for that but I'll explain later." The group of silver ships turned their direction suddenly on the salvage ship now in view.
Com: "Where'd they come from?!" voice: "Not sure, boss. Should we return fire?" "Of coarse you idiot!" The fleet began attacking the salvage ship, a shield shooting up imediatly.
Tom: "Mel, return their fire." Mel: "Yes, sir." the computer responded, taking out another small group of ships. "72% of enemy fleet remaining," Mel said. "We just have to scare them off somehow." Tom thought out loud. "I really don't want to destroy them." Retch finally spoke up after being ignored for the entire time, Retch: "Leave that to me. I got an idea." He started in at the other control pannel, a series of beeps following.
Outside, two portals opened in the ship's front. Com ordered them to hold their fire, wondering what the hell was up now. Two lines suddenly shot out of the opening, each with a grapling hand infront. The ships scattered, afew getting caught by the lines and blowing up. Amongst the laser fire and tentacle like grapling arms, the fleet of ships were out done. If they were fast enough to escape the lines, they got hit by the lasers. Com might have been a worker robot, but we knew when a strategy was failing. He recalled all of his remaining robots and made a hasty retreat with only 51% of his original numbers still undamaged. It didn't stop him, however, from taking one last charged shot at the Absolution which phased the shield but not enough to take it down.
Kay colapsed back into Tom's chair on the bridge of the Absolution, Kay: "Whew. That's over with. Is Tom still on the line?" she asked, looking up at Sara's screen. Sara: "He's on his way over to the ship." Sara informed her. "You did a good job, Kay." "I didn't do anything." "Then maybe Tom never does either, because you acted just like him," she smiled. Tom's voice: "I heard that." the AI said over Sara's communication sytem.
Tom: "Who says I never do anything?" he asked, walking onto the dock after jetting over. Sara just laughed. "So I'm really rubbing off on Kay, huh?" He went up to the bridge, Sara and Kay waiting for him. Kay: "Is there a cure for that?" she asked, jokingly. Sara: "So who's our new allie?" Sara asked, a picture of the salvage ship coming onto her screen. Tom: "Hold on, I'll get him on the line," Tom opened a channel between the two ships, "Retch, this is Tom. You read me?" Retch's voice: "Loud and clear man. How's it going over there? That ship still in one piece?" "We're still here. This Sara and Kay by the way," he introduce the girls. Mel popped up on a screen behind Retch. Mel: "Hello there," he said more to Sara than anyone. "Yeah, alright," Tom quickly said then turned to Retch, "Thanks for your help." Retch: "No problem. But, um, since you do owe us..." "Oh, yeah, that." "Since I'm a salvage ship and your an exploration vessel, it would be good for business to team up for awhile. Just because you guys have been all over." Retch purposed. Tom and Sara exchanged glances then Tom answered with a shrug, "Alright. We're heading to a wreck anyway."
The two ships adjusted headings, turning in the same direction. The Absolution was in the lead, with the other starship behind. Two AI maned ships had never worked together before.
The End
Characters introduced in Chapter 4: Retch, Mel
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