Just Another Scout

Chapter 1

We entered the 47th system on the route while I was sleeping. My android companions piloted the scout ship to the outer fringes of the system and scanned it before waking me. I guess they had been instructed to do so because they did that every time. Lea, one of the androids, woke me up this time.

"Good morning, Alex. We are now at the 47th system," informed Lea as if I didn't know. We had been en route for several days now.

"OK. Thanks," I said and yawned.

"Anything interesting in this system?" I asked, even though I remembered that the long-range scanners had detected nothing but a normal system-just like all the previous ones.

"Actually... yes." Lea surprised me, and I stood up.

"Yes? What is it?" I asked as I searched for my underwear and quickly got dressed.

"We entered the system a long way from the furthest planet. During regular scanning, we detected electronic signals from the second planet. The computer is still running the decoding process," Lea answered.

"Well, let's go and see," I said as I stood up.

We walked through the ship corridors toward the bridge. Although I was very curious about the unknown signals, my gaze wandered across the passageway walls. They definitely required something... well, something refreshing. Perhaps I should paint something, or have the androids do it, I thought, even though I knew I'd rather do it myself.

"Lea," I said as my eyes jumped from wall to wall.

"Yes, Alex?" Lea answered.

"Get me some painting equipment-brushes, canvases and so on. I want to paint something to brighten up our corridors," I told her. "And get them today. I want to start this evening," I added.

"Yes, Alex," Lea answered obediently, and I smiled to myself. Our androids look and act very much like humans, and they are extremely loyal to their owners; as they should be since that's how they're programmed. The androids have been with me for the last year or so, and humanity as a whole had learned about androids only four years before. One year after "The Revelation."

It still gives me the shivers. I remember vividly where I was when I heard about the Revelation. My friends and I were having our regular pub tour, and at first we dismissed it as a joke. During our tour that evening, we witnessed the same attitude from others as well. The reality hit me hard in the early hours of the morning. I met a girl that night, and we just watched the news and held each other silently until the dawn. I also remember that I was very afraid in the morning and the following day. Even after five years and after all I've seen and heard, I'm still afraid. And I still get the shivers.

"Are you cold?" asked Lea.

"No, just thinking..." I said quietly.

Lea said nothing.

We entered the bridge to find it was empty. The other androids had apparently found something else to do.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

She maintained continuous communication with her fellows and knew where they were at all times.

"They went to check that our equipment is in order," Lea answered.

"All of them? It hardly requires them all," I commented.

"No, but they also check that our weapons are in order," she said in her typical voice.

I looked at her but said nothing. This was interesting. We'd had no use for weapons so far, and this was the first time the androids had even mentioned weapons-let alone checking them.

"Let's see what we have," I said and waved Lea to show me.

Lea sat down in front of our main viewer and showed me the signals. Definitely artificial, but the computer hadn't yet decoded their meaning.

"Any idea?" I asked.

"It is likely that the civilization on the planet hasn't yet left their own field of gravity. Otherwise, we would have detected orbiting satellites or some other artificial equipment. It is also likely that they have no equipment to detect us even if they were monitoring space. Nevertheless, I recommend activating stealth mode," Lea said.

"I agree. Please do so." We couldn't be too careful, since we had no idea what to expect. Actually, we did know what to expect, but just not from this particular system.

Lea activated the stealth mode, and we silently moved into the system. As per standard protocol, we made use of planetary gravity fields to accelerate us so we used minimum energy from our engines. I wondered if that was really necessary, since obviously there was an extremely low chance that anyone in this system was advanced enough to detect us in stealth mode. But I kept my opinion to myself, and regardless of the androids' loyalty to me, they would never violate standard protocols.