Blank: Begin Again
They could have deactivated me within seconds. Not anymore.
The strain from being inside the wormhole without a harness sent me careening from the main console onto the deck. I wasn't thinking about my odds of escape or my chance for survival. All I knew was I had managed to steal a military reconnaissance vessel, a bullet-shaped shuttle meant for short missions. It was sleek, spotless, and hadn't been commissioned yet. The bridge could seat a crew of four, though I was the only one aboard.
I got to my knees.
"Where are we?" I asked Axiom, the shuttle.
"We are 8 AU from Earth."
I stumbled to my feet and sat down at the helm. The planet before me invoked a grin as I witnessed the smooth icy rings encircling Saturn for the first time. The gas giant's largest moons were specks of yellow and white sprinkled around the pale-yellow planet, with faint swirls of brown and grey hues wrapped around it. I snapped out of it when another stealth vessel appeared from the same wormhole.
"Turn shadow mode on."
"Initiating shadow mode," replied Axiom.
The ghost filters on the shuttle activated to manipulate the vessel's emitted and reflected radiation to match that of its surroundings. My vessel was now concealed. The other shuttle initiated the same tactic and it too dissipated into the background. Their position no longer displayed on the main console map.
A subspace hail came through on the comms system.
I contemplated the urge to ignore it. The smooth, low beeps cut through the silence at one second intervals. Twenty seconds passed before I finally decided it was better to know who was aboard.
"Let the message go through one way."
Aura! Aura Swain! Surrender immediately, that's an order from the Solar Government Space Force. Any resistance and you WILL be fired upon.
Warrant Officer 1 Soren Stowe. He'd survived the blow to the head. Like a cockroach. Somehow, I knew he would.
Then another voice.
Aura, this is 2nd Lieutenant Fuentes. Please, don't do this. This is treason.
Arlo. A desperate breath escaped my chest, though I didn't even need to breathe in this bot body. I was a machine with only my human consciousness intact. The rest of me was dead.
I wished I could have taken him with me. But he was still human... he would only slow me down.
"Breached Fault Protection. Incoming missile, auto-maneuvering sequence initiated," said Axiom.
"Disable Fault Protection. Sever any way this shuttle could be detected."
"Initiating Disabling Sequence."
The missile's trajectory gave away their position. I had no weapons aboard. I knew that much about this half-stocked vessel. The display screen revealed the weapon would fail to make contact.
Another voice came through.
Swain, this is Senior Spacer Mintero. Come on now, you have us out here at zero-dark-thirty chasing you around Saturn. I must say though, your choice in escape routes is quite nice—
Teddy, not now.
It was Arlo again—addressing me as though we hadn't been lovers for the past ten months.
Swain, listen. It's not too late to change your mind. Look, I know it hasn't been easy for you, with the job reassignment... but it will only get worse if you don't come back now. Please... don't do this...
"Find me another wormhole," I said to Axiom. The thought of surrendering, of answering to the SGSF after this... hadn't occurred to me. I'd committed treason. Bots had been dissolved for lesser crimes.
Cannon fire rocketed passed me, just missing my vessel. They could have hit me by now. They're trying to warn me. I had no doubt Arlo was pulling rank on Stowe to keep him from blowing up my shuttle and calling it an unfortunate series of events.
"Scanning for wormholes..."
Aura! You'll be deactivated for this...
You'd love to see that, wouldn't you, Stowe?
Stop threatening her... Aura, just come back now and we'll sort everything out...
"Scanning for wormholes..."
"Well scan faster!" I rubbed my temples with stiff fingers.
A missile whizzed by. Another one followed.
"Wormhole detected."
"Where does it lead?"
"35.5 AU from Saturn, near the orbit of the planet Neptune."
"Open it and send us through."
"Initiating wormhole travel."
The shuttle accelerated as a thick beam of dark energy shot from the bow. The console's screen showed another missile had missed my now speeding and very visible shuttle thanks to the activated propulsion system accelerating the vessel towards the expanding tunnel. The initial energy blast was all it took to start the self-expansion process that would soon form as the opening of the wormhole. A Counter Defense Web enclosed the vessel, ensuring its safe passage through the tunnel.
"Entering wormhole."
The strain of being inside the passage sent me barreling into the bulkhead behind me again. My hands gripped for anything to hold steady. I felt my body being pulled towards the stern of the shuttle, away from the console. Managing to low crawl back to the seat, I strapped myself in with the harness tight across my chest.
I saw where I was headed--Neptune and its fourteen moons. A ring of galaxies, bright, tightly clustered, and almost glistening had they not been static, surrounded the shuttle. Behind me, those galaxies elongated like LED lights stretched and distorted. I was getting used to the turbulence and colors whizzing by when I found myself on the other end, speeding through space near the dark blue planet.
I'd made it.
My screen showed the other vessel had made it too, but quickly dropped off the radar.
After I initiated shadow mode, I heard the comms system again. Aura, this. Aura, that. No. I wasn't going back. Not now. Not now that I've made it this far. I had to lose them. Lose Arlo.
A red dot appeared on the screen.
"Incoming missile, initiating auto-maneuver sequence."
The shuttle bolted forward, slipping away from the line of fire.
"Can they see us?"
"Negative."
"How are they detecting us?"
"Unknown."
Aura? Aura? Aura! Answer me!
Arlo. Something primitive in me wanted to call out to him for help. Save me. It wasn't so long ago we were watching explosions together. Fireworks for National LEO Day--the day the Low Earth orbit stations became a Republic. It was the first time he'd kissed me in public, risking a court martial. I pictured the reflection of fireworks in his hazel eyes again, and how I couldn't decide which view was more inspiring. Now he was in the ship doing the firing.
"Scan for another wormhole."
"Scanning... scanning... wormhole found."
"Where does it lead?"
"Unknown."
Three more red dots showed up on the screen, heading in my direction. A gut feeling told me these were no longer warning shots.
"Enter it."
"Initiating wormhole entr—"
The shuttle rattled. The console lights flickered.
"Undetected cannon fire has grazed the stern."
"What's the damage?"
"Energy systems malfunctionniiinnnng..." the voice from the shuttle distorted.
"Can the CDW remain active inside the wormhole?"
"Unnknowwn..."
The red dots on the screen were getting closer to the vessel.
"Initiate wormhole entry."
"Init...iaaaaating."
Another beam shot through empty space towards a now expanding tunnel. The shuttle raced towards it. The red dots were now visible missiles, just missing us, flying by like highspeed space debris.
From inside the technicolored tube, I could see only a black void on the other end.
"Are you still there?" I asked Axiom.
"Functioooning..." The ship's voice was breaking up.
"I need you to send a blast to seal the wormhole exit the second we leave it. Can you do it?"
"Sy-stems co-uld destabilize."
"Do it anyway."
I couldn't see the other vessel, though I didn't doubt they were behind me.
As my shuttle tumbled out of the other end of the wormhole, Axiom sent a beam directly towards the tunnel.
I thought I caught a glimpse of their vessel, but the beam closed off the exit so fast I couldn't be sure. The wormhole was gone.
I almost expected it to be a trick, for another stealth missile to hit me--not leaving an inch intact this time. But there was only silence--a serenity that now seemed abundant in the infinite vacuum outside.
The screen in front of me flickered on and off.
"What's your status?" I asked.
"Functio..."
All power on the console turned off. Then the power in the shuttle. The artificial gravity deactivated.
I fumbled with the controls. Sweat trickled down my forehead--another human feature I wished I could deactivate along with my fear.
"Power on. Axiom? Power on."
Nothing.
"What's your status?"
Quiet. I looked around. A digital pad and a smart pen floated near the helm. Darkness outside. Stars lightyears away.
"Axiom... turn the power back on." It was more of a whisper than a command.
No response.
I shut my eyes. You can survive in a vacuum. You can fix this shuttle. Still, I felt a weariness that resembled the need to faint. Could a machine even faint? Could I destabilize, too?
--
I scanned the offline holographic manuals, clicking through as many pages as I could. One by one, I memorized them--the perks of an enhanced memory. Axiom had two decks, with engineering on the lower deck. After unstrapping the harness and prying the bridge door open, I floated down the hallway. The narrow corridor was illuminated by the soft glow of emergency floor lights. I floated down a staircase onto the lower deck, then drifted into Main Engineering, which was right below the bridge.
I tinkered with the modules on board. I uninstalled and reinserted the smart cards in the motherboard. I tried resetting the BIOS, and when that didn't work, I attempted a hard restart of the primary smart chips. Nothing. If only I was wearing my mag boots, I could have gone outside to check the damage.
I floated off deeper into the shuttle, opening random lockers in the Cargo Bay. Glow stickers illuminated the insides. Made for situations like this.
Powerless situations.
I found food, water, even coffee. Blankets. Medical supplies. I made a mental note and closed the lockers. No tool would be useful if I wasn't able to tether myself to the shuttle. I floated back upstairs, opening and closing lockers in the Cargo Bay on the upper deck. I found nothing of use.
--
After tinkering with the system and searching lockers for what seemed like hours, I buckled into a rack in the quarters nearest to the bridge and stared at the metallic ceiling. Eyes wide open. Body still. I could tell the oxygen was running low, but I knew I wouldn't function any differently. These bodies were made to mimic a human, though I didn't have the same vulnerabilities. The elements couldn't harm me, yet no one tells you they can't program your psychology out of you. That you'll still feel. That you'll want to do things with your new body you did with your biological self.
Take long, hot showers. Drink coffee. Have another body on top of you.
I watched strands of my blue hair sway in front of me. Was it worth stealing this shuttle and awaiting an unknown fate in the middle of nowhere? None of the ancient books mentioned where machines go when they die.
I considered the alternative. Continue to be an electronic slave and a science experiment. I thought about my recent reassignment from spy bot to... undercover sex bot. S-bot for short.
I should have escaped sooner.
If you'd told my younger, human self that I would become a spy bot for the SGSF, I would have told you they'd never want someone like me. I was an Unlisted from Old Town. Not chipped. Hard to track.
Protected by the New Privacy Act in theory--though in reality, we were hunted more than we were protected. Some called us criminals, traitors even. My family in particular. They saw us as traitors to the Solar Government... though the word traitor made me laugh. In my eyes, being against a corrupt government meant you loved the solar system more than those who complied.
My options were clear when they finally captured me. I'd either be put to death, or I could turn against my people and become a double agent. But me becoming a traitor against my own wasn't enough for them. I was to become a guinea pig. A robotic lab rat that could be deactivated at any time. I was to be a thing you could use. A thing you could experiment on. A thing you could kill without consequence. Mind transfer, or MT, wasn't a perfect technology. It was a classified project of the SG carried out by the solar military and Spherelia, Inc., the company who created MT tech. Transferring human consciousness into bots--or humanoids--was an evolving experiment. Anything could go wrong. Only the Unlisted were used to test it.
There were other types of bots. Maid bots. Nurse bots. Pilot bots. According to public knowledge, none of them were former humans. But public knowledge was often a string of comforting lies.
Yet they had no idea that when they were monitoring me, they were monitoring a counterfeit chip feeding them false information. They had no idea I'd figured out how to disable the deactivation process. And they had no idea--I couldn't help but smile when I remembered this--what else I'd created in my spare time at the barracks.
I unbuckled myself and floated towards the main console on the bridge, strapping myself in. I fumbled around the few pockets I had on this outfit, which consisted of a black blazer with no shirt underneath, a red bra, short black shorts, blood red boots that ran up to my thighs and fishnet stockings. My s-bot attire. The perfect camouflage. I chuckled. Not that it mattered now.
I felt the small gadget in the left pocket of my blazer. Please work.
I pressed the button on the device.
A projection shot out in front of me, then disconnected from the apparatus. The shape of a floating black cat appeared. He was cartoonish in appearance--at least in his smaller form. I had programmed him that way. His bright yellow eyes looked around and then back at me.
"Blank! Where are we?"
"I won't need my alias out here, Pixel. We're stranded. I don't even know where we are."
"Why is it so dark?"
"It's going to be like this for a while. Maybe forever."
I placed my elbows on the main console and buried my face in my hands.
"So, you did it? You stole the shuttle? We're fugitives?"
I took my hands off my face and nodded, then rested my chin on my palm as I stared outside into infinity.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice high pitched.
"The shuttle took some damage during the escape, then lost power after sealing a wormhole."
"OOhhh... are we still being pursued, Blank? I mean... Aura..."
"I don't know. I suppose we could be expecting company at any moment. Though if they do know my whereabouts, I don't know what's kept them away so long."
"How long have you been out here?"
"Feels like forever. Hours, maybe."
"What are we going to do, Aura?" His little body twirled upside down for a moment. I modeled him after a black street cat I once knew when I was homeless.
"I don't know."
"Well, what have you tried?"
"Everything I could think of."
"And what haven't you thought of yet?"
"Well. I'd love to solve that riddle," I said, more to myself.
"Let's go exploring!" he said, his big eyes appearing and reappearing as he somersaulted through the air.
I turned my head towards his tiny frame. "Exploring? Pix, the shuttle's dead."
"Have you checked for damage outside yet?"
"No. We were hit by cannon fire, but it just grazed us. I've been trying to fix it from the inside. I don't know what kind of damage is out there."
"Well, let's go and check!"
"I don't have my mag boots, and I couldn't find any onboard."
"No mag boots onboard? What kind of shuttle is this?"
"A half-stocked one."
"Explains why you were able to steal it. You'd have to be crazy to shoot out into space with it!"
"Yea, you'd have to be."
I sighed and closed my eyes, mentally thumbing through the pages of the manuals I had memorized earlier.
What did I miss?
I heard a low rumbling that sounded like it was coming from outside. As I opened my eyes, I gasped. My jaw dropped. A tunnel of distorted galaxies was slowly expanding in front of our vessel.
No. No, no, no.
I couldn't tell if it was the same wormhole without the console's galactic map. A monster of a ship exited the tunnel. It made our vessel look like a fishing boat near a yacht.
"Pix, we've got company."
Pixel turned around and floated next to me.
"Whoaa, no way! Is that from our solar system?"
"It has to be... where else? Unless we're about to be the first to make contact with aliens. Maybe they won't detect us."
The ship's exterior had multiple mismatched panels--some a deep grey, some red, some a discolored green--as though it was built with whatever scraps were around. They were clearly resourceful.
"What should we do?"
"All we can do is wait."
I tried placing the ship... have I seen it before? I couldn't see a name.
A holographic detection net projected from the bow of the ship. It scanned its surroundings from starboard to port. Axiom was on its port side.
We floated there together, staring at the beast outside. Hoping it would find different prey. The detection net swooped in our direction. If there had been air, I would have held my breath anyway.
The net passed through our vessel before turning off. There was a long pause. Then the ship turned toward us.
They found us.
"They found us!" Pixel yelled.
The large vessel was on a slow, deliberate collision course with Axiom. It floated forward with the determination of a shark that had spotted its next meal.
"Do you think they're trying to hail us?" he asked.
"I don't know," I whispered. I felt a paralysis throughout my body that resembled a sense of calm. I was frozen, hypnotized by the approaching monster.
It wasn't long before the mystery ship's rugged metal was all we could see. It was getting so close I thought it would crash right into us. No longer were we floating in space with no direction. We were now motionless prey awaiting our fate.
The front of the ship opened like the mouth of a whale. It drew nearer, and all I could do was watch as the dark became even darker. We were inside the mouth of this beast as its teeth slowly closed.
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