The princess folded her arms even tighter. “Yes, that is quite obvious, Earther.”
“Then this is my promise to you,” I said. “We all get off this robot-controlled ship and back to our ship. From there we’ll make plans to rescue your people and our people.”
The princess became a little less rigid. “I suppose that plan does make some sense,” she said. “What is your name?” she asked, though it was more of a demand than a question.
“Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout Second Class,” I said.
She smiled. It was the first time I had seen any crack in her stony façade. “Well, Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout Second Class, you show surprising composure for a commoner.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“Now tell me, Baxter Moon, what is our next step?”
GiS, who had been quietly watching this unfolding, couldn’t bear it any longer. “I’m in command here,” he said.
The princess glared at him. “No, Animal, I am in command here! I am a member of the Aquarian royal family and world council. We do not recognize your authority.”
I vaguely remember them teaching us in alien culture awareness class that Aquarians were against Earth’s practice of modifying animals to make them more like us. They considered the practice to be unnatural (which it was) and barbaric. Of course our professor said that was all just hearsay. But the princess’s actions made hearsay reality. She was showing true contempt for GiS, like he was even further beneath her than we were.
I had to do something fast. We couldn’t have much more time before the bots came crashing into this room. Then we’d be dead ducks — trapped, sitting dead ducks.
“Princess, I know your people don’t agree with what some of my people do with animals,” I said.
“It’s unnatural, Baxter Moon. And ‘Your Highness,’ please. This chimp should be running free in the wild, not dressed up as a space chimp.”
“Uh, there isn’t that much wild left on Earth,” Elvin said, not really helping.
“Then he should be in a habitat! He should not be in command of humans!”
GiS was now really taken aback. He was getting ready to let the animal inside of him out. I knew, though, that no good could come from him going ape on the princess. Maybe the princess had a point. Maybe animals shouldn’t be in charge. After all no matter how much we “improve” them, who’s to say if our improvements are really improvements? Can we really take the animal out of the animal? Even if we could, do we want to?
However, this wasn’t the time and certainly not the situation for me to suddenly start thinking about the big questions. I had to focus on the task at hand — getting these two to cooperate so we could get out of here.
I locked eyes with the princess. Wow, she had nice eyes! They didn’t look through you quite as much as Commander Jasmine’s, still they were soft yet powerful, nearly hypnotic.
I shook my head. I had to keep my eyes off the princess and on the goal. “Princess, I understand your feelings. Believe me, I really understand them. But GiS is very intelligent and I value his opinion.”
I turned to GiS. “If you really are as intelligent as I think you are, you will be able to see the princess’s point of view.”
They stood there glaring at each other. You didn’t have to be an expert in animal to alien relationships to see neither of them would be starting a fan club for the other.
“Look, you two don’t have to get married, or even like each other, just get along,” I coaxed.
The princess looked at me. “Fine, I can not help my people if I die here.” She held out her hand palm down. She was expecting GiS to kiss it, though it was easy to see she wasn’t thrilled by the possibility.
GiS looked at the outstretched hand. He wasn’t thrilled with the possibility of his lips touching her hand.
“Baxter Moon, the voice of reason,” GiS said slowly. “Who would have thunk it.”
He touched the princess’s hand ever so slightly with his. They both seemed to prefer this to the hand kiss. They gave each other weak smiles.
“Great! Now can we get out of here, before these bots break in and break us?” Zenna asked.
Zenna had picked up the slack. She had bolted the door shut and was leaning against it making sure that no bots would have easy access to us.
The door was heavy metal so we couldn’t see how many bots were now in the hallway but we could hear them. They were banging on the door, clamoring to get in.
The princess looked at the door, she looked at me. “So, Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout,” she said. “What is your plan for getting us out of here alive?”
Now, that was a good question. I always pride myself of being able to think fast on my feet. It was time to prove to myself that my pride was justified. The bots had managed to over-power the crew of the Explorer, but we had a couple of things going for us that they didn’t. For one thing, we were armed. For another, and probably more important, our computer was still functioning.
“Zen, how many bots do you think are out there?” I asked.
Zenna leaned her ear against the door to listen. “I don’t know…” she said meekly.
“Guess,” I said.
Zenna shrugged. “Lots?”
“Can you be more specific?”
“I can be more specific but not more accurate,” Zenna said.
“Let’s just hope none of them have access to laser drills,” Elvin said.
“SC, how many bots are in the hallway?” I asked.
“Lots,” SC said.
I shook my head. “You have to be more specific than that!”
“I only have access to one section of the hallway’s internal cameras. I can extrapolate the number of bots in the hall based on that sample and the size of the hallway but it would not be as accurate as I would like.”
“Rough guess,” I said.
“I am a computer, I do not guess.”
“Rough extrapolation then.” I said.
“One hundred and three.”
I took a deep breath. I reviewed our advantages: we were armed and had a working computer. Plus we had Zenna’s muscles, Elvin’s brains, GiS’s coordination.
“Come on, Baxter,” the princess said, touching me on the shoulder. “We need to get out of here! I do not wish to have my people at the mercy of the TVTrons for one time unit more.”
I guess we also had the princess’s spunk on our side, but I wasn’t really sure how much help that would be.
“SC, can you send conflicting orders to the bots?”
“I do have some access to their control network. But what do you mean by conflicting orders?”
“Tell them to move left and move right at the same time,” I said.
“I can mimic their master computer, but it will only fool them for a short time.”
“That will have to be enough,” I said. “When they are confused, we rush out the door, blast them to the side and run for our shuttle.”
“That’s your plan?” the princess shouted. “To run?” She pointed at GiS. “Maybe we should hear what the animal has to offer?”
“Well…” GiS said.
“I wasn’t serious,” the princess said.
I was starting to kind of like this princess.
Elvin spoke up. “We’ll never make it down the ladder. We’ll be way too vulnerable.”
“What other option do we have?” I asked.
“I’m glad you asked,” Elvin said with a smile. “Now that I’ve had a chance to run some numbers, I’ve figured we can power the lift. We just don’t need life support.”
We all looked at him.
Elvin went on, his face covered by a huge smile. “We cut life support and use the saved energy to power the lift. It’s a quick trip down. So we just hold our breath. Then when we hit the bay, we reactivate life support, fight our way to the shuttle and get out of here.”
It certainly wasn’t the best plan I ever heard. But it was going to have to do. We could hear the bots grinding and pounding against the door. We had to act now.
I looked at the door. I looked at Zenna leaning on the door.
“Zenna, give your stun rod to the princess.”
“Okay.”
Zenna tossed her rod to the princess though I could see from her face she wasn’t entirely at ease about it.
I walked over to Zenna and put my hand on her shoulder. “You don’t need the rod because we’re going to be using the Zenna-dozer to get out of here.”
Zenna looked at me even more confused than usual.
“Dozer isn’t my last name,” she said.
“We’re going to use you as a bulldozer and the door as shield.”
Zenna gave me her deer in the headlights look.
“You’re going to kick the door down. That should take out the bots by the door. Then you pick up the door and use it as a shield and plow as we push the bots down the hall away from the lift. The rest of us will be behind you, picking off any bots that get behind us or can’t be plowed away.”
My team and the princess just looked at me. They weren’t exactly brimming with confidence.
“It will work,” I said.
“If Baxter Moon says it will work, then I believe him,” the princess said.
Zenna nodded her head. “That’s right, Baxter has been our leader and we’re all still alive.”
“He did kill us a couple of times in simulation,” Elvin pointed out.
Zenna looked dazed and then said, “Well this is life, not a simulation. If we die here, we really die. So it’s different and Baxter knows that.” Zenna looked at me. “Right, Baxter?”
I didn’t really know what to say. Elvin was right. I had screwed up in simulations. Zenna was also right in her own Zenna way. This wasn’t a simulation or a drill. I knew that. I would be taking no undue chances with the lives of my crew and the beautiful princess. Besides, I didn’t see a lot of options here. Then why did I feel so uneasy here?
Finally GiS spoke up. “Baxter is right. It’s our only way out of here!”
I don’t know why but hearing GiS say that was the extra confidence boost I needed.
“Okay, everybody but Zenna, energy rods ready!” I ordered.
They all powered up their rods and pointed them at the door.
“Okay, SC,” I said. “Do what you can to confuse the bots!”
“I am emitting contradicting orders,” SC said. “I am telling them to go right and left at the same time.”
I pointed my hand at the door.
“Zenna, bring the door down!” I ordered.
“Hit the top of the door, right then left,” Elvin said. “That should cause it to land on top of any bots in front of it without letting them get through.”
“Gotcha. I mean check,” Zenna said.
Zenna made a fist with her left hand. She pounded her fist into the upper right corner of the door, jarring the door loose. She quickly pounded her fist into the upper left corner of the door, the door crashed to the floor, flattening a bunch of bots underneath.
Between SC sending conflicting orders and Zenna sending the door down on them, the bots were now doubly confused. Zenna took advantage of their confusion, leaping into the hallway. She picked up the door and flicked it with her wrists. The force of the flick cleared out any of the nearby bots that had survived the initial crush from the door. Zenna held the door upright, using it to cut off any more bots.
She turned to all of us in the doorway. “Let’s go,” she said.
We followed Zenna into the hall and down the hall as she slowly pushed her way forward. We all had our weapons pointed, charged and ready, but we didn’t need them. Since the med lab was at the end of the hall there were no bots behind us to begin with. With Zenna pushing the door the bots had no way to get by her because the door was just wide enough to block the hallway. Even if the bots weren’t confused, there wasn’t much they could do to stop or even slow down Zenna.
We plodded forward, Zenna pushing and the rest of us watching her back. It was an impressive sight. We actually weren’t going that much slower than we would have been if we had been walking unimpeded.
The princess was impressed. “Are all human females this powerful?” she asked.
“This is nothing,” Elvin said. “You want power, wait until she takes her boots off!”
My confidence was growing with each passing step as we pushed closer and closer to the lift. This was turning out to be easier than I expected.
We heard rustling from the floor above us. The rustling stopped and was replaced by the sound of sawing. I should have known better than to think this was going to be a cakewalk. I actually had no idea what a cakewalk was but I knew this wasn’t going to be one.
GiS pointed up toward the sawing sound. “Drill bots,” he said. “They are going to use the ducts to drop in behind us.” Sure enough, almost on GiS’s words the ceiling tile above and behind us fell to the floor. A big drill bot dropped behind us. This was the type of bot used for deep space mining, basically two huge drills on the top of tank tracks guided with sensors. These drills were meant to bore through solid rock crusts of barren planets. They were now spinning toward us. Each drill head was bigger than each of our heads.
Elvin and GiS were both guarding the rear so they were the two closest to the approaching drill bots. Elvin was trembling as he aimed his energy rod. In fact he was so scared by the approaching bot, his first shot sailed over its head. GiS’s shot was much truer. It hit the bot directly in the drill. Unlike the other bots though, this bot kept coming.
Elvin gulped. “These bots are built to operate on planets with heavy electrical storm activity,” he said as only a geek could. “Our energy rods won’t stop them.”
“Not if we use them like energy rods,” GiS said.
He grabbed Elvin’s energy rod as he leapt forward at the attacking bot. The bot bore its drills down at GiS. GiS jumped over the drills to behind the bot just as the drill heads bore down on the floor. Sometimes it pays to be a chimp.
GiS pointed his energy rod at the bot, but instead of firing at it, he jammed the rod into the bot’s tread. Drill bots may have been built for tough terrain but they weren’t meant to stand up to an attack from an intelligent chimp. The bot lurched forward, now totally off balance thanks to the energy rod jammed in its treads. The bot tipped forward embedding its drills into the floor and wedging itself stuck. GiS smiled and hopped back over the bot.
Two other drill bots dropped down but it would take them a while to get past the wedged-in bot.
“Come on! Let’s move!” GiS shouted.