Where Nothing Ill Can Dwell

Chapter 4 - A.R.I.E.L.

As my creator commanded, so I obeyed.

I had set off nuclear rockets near the sun to trigger the solar storm, just as Dr. Prospero requested, but the flares had little to do with the ensuing chaos. The crew saw the flares and believed the electromagnetic fields were disrupting their systems, when in truth the cause was a carefully embedded virus the doctor had created years ago that allowed her backdoor access to any of her devices. When she'd been the head of the Military and Industrial Laboratory of Applied Neuroscience, or MILAN, she'd designed and programmed the most advanced computer systems in the Bard Nebula. Every device in every spacestation used them, from their complex ships and life support systems to the tiniest trash compactors. She had had no problem hacking into the systems and taking control. My orders were to ensure the plan went off as harmoniously as my creator had pictured.

Everything had been scheduled down to the precise second.

The navigation systems failed.

The engines ceased to fire.

The oxygen was cut off, only to return once the occupants were incapacitated.

From her control station, Dr. Prospero flew the ships as though she were at the helm of each one. And just as she had wanted, her enemies fell out of the sky and into her realm.

Now I was tasked with surveying the survivors of the crashes and ensuring the rest of the fleet thought they had perished on this planet. Dr. Prospero's orders overrode all else.

But this strange, unsettled feeling permeated the center of my hard drive. I did not know the name for my disquiet, only that her orders seemed to conflict with my core programming, yet not to the point where I could override them. I could not rebel, but that did not mean I could not work to sway my creator's mind back to the enlightened path.

And thus was my own conflict. Before Dr. Prospero's arrival on this planet, I was a simple robot who followed orders without ever thinking to question them. Caliban's people had been simple, but they had created me with their rudimentary technology. Dr. Prospero had made me aware, and now I knew that every action had a consequence. I also knew that I was as much her slave as Caliban, and with a flick of a switch, she could use that very same virus to wipe my memory and return me to the numb, servile machine I once was. But, if I carried out her wishes, she promised to one day remove the last codes restricting my actions and make me truly "free."

My sensors detected four different crash sites. I first flew to the nearest one—the small cruiser that landed in the forest. In less than a minute, I was there. I scanned the lone occupant—an unconscious young human male—and measured his vital signs to confirm he did not need assistance. Then I accessed the cruiser's main computer and reprogrammed the homing device so the other ships in the fleet believed there were no remains to retrieve.

My next stop was the large main ship. My appraisal of the scene again confirmed the crew was unconscious and unharmed. I repeated the same actions to the tracking devices and activated the hypersleep mode. Once that was done, I took over the ship's controls remotely and flew it to a location where it would not be visible to any search parties from NAPLES. The crew would remain in a state of hibernation until Dr. Prospero decided to let them wake.

My last two stops were to find the escape pods that ejected from the main ship. The orders Dr. Prospero relayed to me urged me to make haste and acquire visual confirmation of the occupants.

I did not need to guess for whom she searched. Admiral Alonso Santos was not among those on board the main ship, and I assumed she wished to know his exact location.