CHAPTER 2

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The Ameribot Industries lab where I was located lay within a three-tier security campus, meaning it was locked down tight. Robots were allowed to walk freely since every robot was given direction from a human or lead computer that had cleared it to do so.

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Every building had a security desk that scanned a robot’s travel direction with their source and destiny location identified along with who — or what, in the case of a lead computer — gave them the direction.

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I looked in my mission folder and reviewed my navigation orders. A travel direction from CEO Manstine came up. It said I was given permission to leave the campus to pick up a robotic energy drive at a storage facility. It was falsified.

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It was a good forgery compared to the legitimate travel directions I had from last week’s test runs with Ava and Damiel. It should pass.

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I reviewed my neuron levels as I could sense they were rising. Other robots didn’t have synthetic neuron levels, but I did. The security checks monitored neuron levels for humans, but the Kells warned me I should lower my levels just in case I triggered the security monitors.

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I calmed my levels a bit differently than the way Ava taught me. Instead of tuning my chest to a specific harmonic tone that she specified, I brought up a picture of her in my file directory. It was brought up in my view.

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I discovered Ava’s picture lowered my neuron levels one night when I was reviewing the Kells’ files on the Ameribot network. I was snooping but not out of a malice intent. I was lonely at night by myself, since the other bots in the lab weren’t sentient or turned on, and I found looking up the Kells’ backgrounds, even down to the minute detail, gave me comfort.

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Dr. Goggins would probably call me pathetic, as he’d done in the past, if he found out what I did at night, but I didn’t care. He was able to leave the lab at night and go — well, wherever he went at night. But I thought he seemed lonely himself.

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In the first picture I found of Ava, she wasn’t smiling. It was her Ameribot Industries profile picture. I searched for another. I had grabbed a more appealing picture of her off the outernet that scraped any private piece of information off planetary databases within the Heragi Empire.

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It was the picture I preferred the most of her. Her hair was down. She was smiling. She looked carefree. It was taken ten years ago on a family vacation. An alien planet ocean and five moons were behind her. My neuron levels calmed and lowered immediately with just a low-level warming in my chest sensor.

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I approached the security desk before the exit doors. Two security bots were stationed at the desk. I strode through the security frame that x-rayed humans and robots and analyzed either biometric information or robot identifications and travel directions. I turned my head slightly toward them to watch their reactions.

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They were looking down at their monitors when I passed through. I sighed. It was a habit I picked up from hearing Dr. Goggins sigh all day long.

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One security bot heard it and looked my way. I kept walking. The security bot must have chalked it up to the human passing behind me, who looked at me oddly when we got out of the building.

I was outside. I stopped to orient myself. Directions poured into my visor view from numerous navigational programs in my system. Timeframes and dates of where the children should be were calculated. The location deducted was flashing red in my visor.

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The Karge Day School.

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The address, a map and time to the destination on foot were calculated.

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I began walking at a steady pace. Humans, aliens and various bots traveled to and from their destinations in our city, which was called Variance 4. Not a very romantic name but seeing that this was the fourth iteration of the city with three other revolutions since the Galaxy War XI, I assumed the citizens were fine with it. At least, I never heard the Kells or Dr. Goggins complain about it, but personally, I thought it was very bland compared to the other city and planetary names I had come across in my readings on the outernet.

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A Heragi milicraft, short for military hovercraft, screamed down the street as my proximity to the children’s academy was within two blocks. I picked up my pace.

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Robots were not allowed to run unless they were police or military bots or were in process of saving human lives. I tried to push it, then two more milicraft went by me. The probability of success on my mission was automatically recalculated, and in my visor view, it showed that it went down to thirty percent. I was running out of time and had to break another robot law.

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I began to run.

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Humans on the sidewalk made way for me. They most likely thought I was running to save a human life, which technically I was but with the outside factor that I was going to kill any human that got in my way of saving the Kell children. The sidewalk pedestrians continued to part, and I ran toward the school at full speed.

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I reached their campus. My eyes were already in search mode for the three children. I scanned the playground and campus for their physical identifiers and facial recognition points. I moved my head back and forth to improve upon the scanning range. I spotted military bots also scanning the campus grounds.

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A red ring outlining a child’s face came up in my vision. One child spotted. The eldest, Alex Kell, seventeen-year-old male, was talking in a small group of students.

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A second red ring came up on my visor view. The youngest child, Talia, twelve-year-old female, was on a swing watching everyone. She jumped off the swing and waved at Alex, but he wasn’t paying attention. A veil of fear fell over her face as she saw the military bots gather. Talia gazed across the school yard. I looked in the same direction as her.

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A third red ring found a match. The middle child, Honora, a fifteen-year-old female, was coding on her arm comm as she sat on the steps to her school.

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I sprinted to the closest child, which was Honora. A military bot was closing in on her and was about to spray a catch net on her when I swooped in and grabbed her arm.

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“Whoa. Ow! What are you doing?” yelled Honora.

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“No time to talk. We need to move now,” I commanded.

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I turned to Talia, who had seen me capture her sister and started to back away. With my free arm, I swooped her up and carried her fully sideways.

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She made a muffled cry. Her bio stats were brought up on my visor view. There was also a note that Talia was deaf and communicated with a transceiver connected to her arm comm device.

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By this time, the crowd of children was starting to swirl as they watched me scoop up two of their classmates as military bots began chasing us. I increased my speed and headed for the eldest child, Alex.

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His friends tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in my direction. He saw Honora and Talia in my arms and the military bots chasing us. He was momentarily confused but then immediately adjusted his body into a warrior stance to defend the coming blow of my body that he anticipated — and he was right. I hit him with full strength so I could unnerve him and push him up onto my shoulders.

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“Put me down. What are you doing?” Alex screamed. He was surprised but also embarrassed that a robot — let alone a nanny robot — could pick him up and carry him on my shoulders like a baby. Something, I presumed, any seventeen-year-old would hate. I could relate — as much as I could relate, thanks to Ava’s behavioral coding.

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“No time to talk,” I responded.

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A Heragi human soldier shouted an order. “Fire!”

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The military bots began shooting their laser guns at us. I hoped they were on stun. The laser shots passed by us. I pulled the children in front of me so they wouldn’t be hit. They were getting heavy. If I could breathe, I would be breathing hard.

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I calculated various escape routes brought up on my visor. I chose a south street alley filled with parked hovercrafts. The children had stopped squirming, and I scanned their bio-metrics while I ran forward to a hovercraft. Their nervous system levels were skyrocketing, but no one was close to shock — at least not yet.

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I inserted one of my fingers into the hovercraft’s lock hole and rotated until I heard it click. The door popped open, and I laid the children in the back.

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I jumped into the front seat, and although the hovercraft was self-driving, I overrode the system into manual. All hovercraft mapping devices had a tracker, so I smashed it and pulled out its sensor and threw it out the window. We took off down the alley.

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I looked in the back and decided it was time to speak to the children. “Don’t be frightened, although I know that is impossible right now. I was sent by your parents. To protect you.”

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From the rear-view mirror, I watched Talia bring out her tap on her arm comm device. I saw her swipe a few times and she furled her eyebrows a bit. I searched my data banks and found more medical information that her parents had placed in my directory on her deafness.

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The transceiver in her arm comm was connected to a chip in the broca area of her brain. Her thoughts or should I say, her selected speech, was then transmitted to the transceiver which then translate other’s spoken conversation back into her brain.  I made a mental note to read all the files at a later time. There were more pressing matters at hand.

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Talia held up her arm comm and let the transceiver translator speak her selected words. “Where are they?”

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“They’ve been taken. By police bots.”

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“Why?” asked Alex.

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“There were accusations from the CEO of Ameribot that your parents were in contact with a rebel leader,” I explained. “Your Uncle Jebediah Kell.”

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“But we haven’t heard from him in two years. No one knows where he is,” said Honora.

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“Your father and mother do.”

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“They were in communication with him?” asked Alex.

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“Yes, apparently,” I said as my navigational program continually updated our route in my CPU.

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“I read it’s against the law to communicate with Heragi Empire rebels,” said Honora.

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“Frazzle me. I’m signed up to be a cadet next semester at the Academy. They won’t want me now. What were they thinking?” Alex slammed back in his seat, becoming sullen at the dimmed prospects of his military career.

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“The heck with the Military Academy, Alex, let’s think about Mom and Dad. Or that we are being chased and shot at by military bots,” snapped Honora.

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Then Talia shoved her arm comm into the air. “How do you know them?”

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“They built me,” I bluntly replied. “I’ve been enhanced with outlawed technology.”

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“What?” Alex shook his head in dismay.

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“Why did they do that?” asked Honora.

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“In order to save you.”

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All this time, Talia eyes were darting back and forth. I scanned her bio-metrics again. Her nervous system was calming down. She gently patted Alex on the arm to get his attention.

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He looked at her. “What?”

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Talia pointed at me.

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“What about the robot?” Alex asked.

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She turned her arm comm toward him. “They must have trusted it,” Talia’s transceiver said.

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I turned out of the alley onto a street. I dodged other hovercrafts in our lane.

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Looking back, I locked eyes with Talia. I zeroed in on her pupil and matched it against the bio files I had on her. That set off a new sequencing and a new code package began to open. It began downloading in my directory, but I stopped it. This was not the time to download data and multi-task.

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“Our parents made you with enhanced features that are outlawed?” Honora questioned.

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“Affirmative,” I replied.

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“You have rogue code. You’re a rogue robot.” Honora wiped her hair out of her eyes.

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“That is correct,” I answered.

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“Wow!” exclaimed Honora.

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I turned to her, trying to hone in on her feelings. But when I saw her eyes were bugged out, watching the street ahead of us, I turned back to the front to see that she had seen a military spacecraft in the sky.

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I swerved down another alley to hide our hovercraft. I slowed and stopped the engine.

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Talia signed to me Hello. I had sign language in my directory of over a hundred local Heragi dialects and alien languages. I quickly downloaded the Heragi sign language directory. I signed Hello back to her in the mirror. She smiled back to me.

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I began calculating the navigational programs that the Kells had uploaded into my brain. I searched for the closest planet-port station. Three route alternatives popped up in my visor view, and the fastest one was highlighted.

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“What are you doing?” Honora asked.

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“Searching for the fastest route to a planet-port,” I reported back.

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“Hold on, nanny-bot,” said Alex.

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I didn’t like being called a nanny-bot. Dr. Goggins called me that but somehow, he made it sound derogatory like Alex just did. Clarification was in order. If it was important to the Kell parents, it must be important enough to correct their eldest child. I stared down Alex in the rear-view mirror. “My name is Gabe. That’s what your parents call me.”

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He tried to be brave as his eyes met mine.

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“Gabe?” inquired Honora.

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“Yes. GBE-11. Guardian Bot Series E number 11.”

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“Nanny-bots have a different identification name and number,” snapped Honora.

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“Yes, that’s correct. But your father made me a guardian. First, even though he named me eleven. I’ll talk to him about that later.”

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“Why make a new robot series?” asked Honora.

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“Guardians are entrusted with the care of others.” I answered based on dialogue with the Kell parents.

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“So are nanny-bots,” stated Alex.

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There he went again.

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Talia lifted her arm comm. “His rogue code makes him different than a nanny-bot.”

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“How so?” asked Alex.

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Talia looked away in thought for a split second. She looked at me in the rear-view mirror. She turned her arm comm toward me “Gabe, did our parents give you code to protect us at all costs?”

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“Yes,” I answered.

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She looked down at her arm comm and it spoke her words again. “Even to harm humans if needed?”

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“Yes, I am to protect you regardless of human-robot laws. Your safety is my prime directive.”

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“Wait, wait,” Honora interjected. “Robots cannot harm humans unless they’re police or military bots.”

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“I can, and I’m neither,” I told her.

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“And now the military are out to capture us? Great. But we didn’t do anything wrong,” Alex yelled as he hit his hand against the door.

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I zeroed in on the nearest planet-port as three robo-cycles swooped down at the end of the alley. They spotted us and tore down the alley. Their guns were drawn.

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“Go, go, go!” yelled Alex.

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I revved the engine of our hovercraft and turned on the turbo button. It kicked in just as the robo-cycles began shooting at us.

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We raced down the street and were able to lose one robo-cycle on a tight corner. It crashed into the wall. Two still closed in on us. The children held on as I turned us left and then right to lose the robo-cycles. The children were frightened, according to their neuron levels.

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“Where are you taking us?” demanded Honora.

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“Off planet,” I answered.

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“But where?” screamed Alex.

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“To your Uncle Jebediah,” I answered.

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“But we don’t know where he is,” said Honora.

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I scanned my location database and file on Jebediah Kell, outlaw to the Heragi Empire. “Your parents did. They uploaded his coordinates two days ago into my mission directory. He’s on a planet called Zaradorba.”

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Talia’s receiver spoke, “Will our parents meet us there?”

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I scanned my mission directory files. Nothing came up for a rendezvous point with the Kell parents.

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“I have no information to answer that question,” I replied. I wished I had a better answer.

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I looked in the rear-view mirror and could see Talia’s disappointment. Her vitals sank, and I felt a pain in my chest. Ouch. That hurt. As Talia’s feelings sank, it made my pain sensors rise. How did Ava and Damiel program that? I’d have to review my pain coding later.

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“But I’m sure they will try.”

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I didn’t know how that speculative statement was formulated in my brain. But it came out of an interpersonal program that Ava had programmed in me. I could see Talia’s emotional levels rise a few degrees. Okay, that is fair, I thought.

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The two robo-cycles tried to move ahead of our hovercraft. I let them. Then I pushed the turbo button again, causing them to turn and crash into the gates leading into metropolitan planet-port. The children ducked down as the robo-cycles exploded.

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“We need to get to a spaceship,” I said.

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“We’ll never make it,” whispered Alex.

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“We must!” said Talia’s transceiver.

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I drove into a massive underground garage and stopped our hovercraft. I could see military bots and soldiers running toward us.

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“Out, children,” I commanded. They scrambled out of the car and ran ahead of me as I scanned the area and tapped into the planet-port’s security system. I was able to bypass the security program and tap into their private spaceship directory. My system calculated all the available spaceships that were built for long space travel with a weapons system.

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Parked at gate forty-one was a ship that fit our travel needs. I outran the children, so I was in the lead and headed to the gate.

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“This way,” I commanded them. Honora was right behind me, and Alex took Talia’s hand to help her keep up with us, but she wasn’t fast enough.

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I slowed down to help. A human soldier aimed for Talia. His stun hit her in the back. She crashed to the ground, taking Alex with her.

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“Talia!” yelled Alex as he tried to wake her up. I stopped and took out the laser gun that the was hidden in my back compartment.

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The soldier smiled at me and yelled, “What? You can’t do nothing to me.” He ran toward us.

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“On the contrary,” I replied.

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I took aim at the soldier. His face scrunched up in confusion. I began heavy fire in his direction. The soldier tried to run away, but my gun took him down. Not dead but certainly wounded.

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All the soldiers and the military-bots stopped in their tracks.

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An older man with a general’s stripes on his military uniform in the center of the troops stared at me. I scanned his face and ran his metrics against my police and military database. I enhanced my listening field to encompass his surrounding area. I got a match. He was Heragi General Samuel Foxwell.

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General Foxwell spoke to his troops. “Well, I’ll be…I knew this day would come, I just didn’t know I would be alive for it. We’ve got a rogue robot, boys.”

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One of his soldiers asked a question. “I thought that wasn’t possible, General. How can that be?”

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Foxwell looked at me and winked, like we were friends. I had seen Damiel wink at Ava a few times in the lab. I tried to calculate what the proper response would be back to the general. I nodded back.

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“Rogue code,” said Foxwell as he took out his weapon. He aimed at me and took a shot.

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His high-range pistol shot hit my left shoulder. “Ahh,” I screamed and doubled-over.

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“He feels pain,” Foxwell said to his men.

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We needed to leave.

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I scooped Talia in my one good arm. She began to awake from the stun. “Here we go, little one,” I whispered to her. Again, I didn’t know where these words originated, but they came naturally to me (if I understand what naturally can be to a robot). Ava’s interpersonal code ran through my system and Damiel’s pain sensors were throughout my body armor. Talia hung on to me as I ran.

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Soldiers and military-bots cautiously gained on us and yelled for us to stop.

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“This is it,” I yelled as we reached gate forty-one.

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We scurried up the ramp of the spaceship named the Alyssia. She had a military cruiser body with all the luxury that a wealthy tech tycoon could imagine. 

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I ran toward the bridge, put Talia down in a chair, and yelled for her siblings to strap her in as well as themselves. I jumped into the commander seat and accessed the spaceship pilot programs in my mission directory. I gained access to the Alyssia’s controls and systems. I closed the ramp door just when Foxwell’s soldiers and bots reached it.

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The ship’s directory listed the owner as Edward Gates, the owner of the financial software that half the galaxy was forced to use. The Alyssia was fifteen years old, and although built for speed and racing for Edward, she had two turrets for gunfire. I wasn’t sure why Edward thought he needed that but it could be that space pirates would ask for a handsome reward if they seized him on his ship.

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I accessed the gate’s lock that allowed us to lift up over the city.

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The ship’s systems bot manager suddenly came over our comm system. “You’re not Mr. Gates.”

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“Um, no, I’m not,” I said. “My name is Gabe.”

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“You’re a robot, correct?”

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“That is correct.”

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“I need to contact Mr. Gates if you plan on taking this ship out of the planet-port,” it said.

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“What’s your name?” I asked.

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“Feti,” it replied.

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I really didn’t want to turn off Feti permanently since a little help with the ops of the ship would be nice, but I would if I needed to. Glancing out the window, I could see Foxwell was having his soldiers set up a ground missile targeted right at the Alyssia.

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“Feti, you have a prime directive to protect human lives, correct?” I asked. “Well, if you can open up your starboard camera, you’ll see that we will be hit with a missile in approximately twenty seconds, so can you assist me with liftoff procedures?”

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“Yes, certainly, Gabe,” it sputtered.

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Feti assisted with getting our engines unlocked and started, and we began liftoff procedures.

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“Everyone buckled up? Here we go,” I yelled back at the Kell children. I looked back and could see the fear on their faces. I scanned their bio-levels. All the children had elevated neuron levels that were concerning to me. There was nothing more I could do but get us the heck out of there.

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“I don’t want to leave without our mom and dad,” shouted Honora over the roar of the rockets.

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“It’s in my mission packet. We must leave without them. It was their orders,” I answered. She began to panic. Immediately, pain alerts came into my chest. Ouch. Ava’s code.

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I turned toward her. “Honora. You’re having a panic attack. I need you to breathe. Focus on one thing in your mind. Just one thing.”

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We lifted off. Talia grabbed her sister’s hand and held it.

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Honora closed her eyes, and her face hardened.

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Alex reached out to Honora and Talia to hold their hands as well. “We need to go. Mom and Dad wanted this. Uncle Jeb will know what to do,” he said.

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My shoulder throbbed from Foxwell’s bullet.

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Talia looked at me. She was calm. I saw Ava in her face. I wanted to wink at Talia like Foxwell had to me, but I didn’t have the ability in my facial construction.

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I went back to the controls and pushed the liftoff sequence. The g-force pushed all of us back into our seats. We rose out of planet-port and out of range of Foxwell’s missile shot.

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We lifted out of the city into space.

 

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Once we were able to, we all unbuckled from our seats. The children looked out the bridge windows as their planet became smaller.

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“Feti, do you have a system that communicates our location at Heragi substations or planets?” I asked.

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“Yes, Gabe, I do. I send out a ping every eight hours. Location, passenger count, passenger life statistics, and navigation coordinates.”

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“Please terminate that function,” I commanded. “Is that possible?”

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“Why yes, Gabe, but not advisable,” Feti replied.

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“Follow my command and terminate immediately. I will be the only one leading comm systems from this point forward. Thank you.”

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“Yes, Gabe. Terminating comm pings to Heragi Empire stations. It is completed.”

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“Thank you, Feti.”

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“Gabe, are you aware that there is another human onboard the ship besides the children?” said Feti.

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I stood up and grabbed my gun. “Children, back in your seats,” I commanded. They jumped into their chairs. “Where are they?”

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“In the galley,” said Feti.

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“Stay here,” I instructed the children.

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“Give me a gun,” said Alex.

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“Have you ever used one?” I asked.

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“Yes, I’m in the Heragi Scout Program. I’ve passed basic gun, missile, and pilot classes and have badges to prove it.” He stood up.

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“Well, getting a badge isn’t the same as killing a man or robot, but I guess it will have to do.” I handed him the backup gun hidden behind my left leg armor.

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Alex checked it out. “I’ll be safe,” he said.

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“Okay, and don’t shoot me, either,” I said.

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He nodded. “Right.” He seemed nervous but he had a right to protect himself and his siblings. I made my way down the hallway to the hull with my gun raised. When I got to the galley, I widened my audio range. I heard some rustling inside. Then something crashed. I opened the door and ran in, yelling, “Get down, get down.”

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And there in the middle of the galley was Dr. Goggins, fixing himself something to eat. He dropped his plate and screamed.

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“Dr. Goggins,” I yelled.

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“Gabe, blazes, you nearly scared me to death.”

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“What are you doing here?” I asked.

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He bent down to pick up his plate. “Eating. And look what you’ve done. I’m starving, and this was an expensive delicacy. They certainly have wonderful food on this ship. Nice choice.”

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“I mean, why are you on this ship?”

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“The same reason you are. I don’t want to end up in a Heragi prison,” he spat out. “As I was arriving at the planet-port, planning to buy a transport ticket legitimately, I saw you and the children run for this ship. I simply followed you in.”

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I put down my gun.

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“You’re hurt, Gabe,” Goggins said.

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“Yeah.” I looked down to my shoulder. “What do you know about the mission I’ve been programmed with?” I asked as I approached him.

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“Mission? Nothing. I swear. I only programmed your navigational directories.” He scooted to a cabinet, foraging for more food.

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“You’re with us now.” I marched  out of the galley.

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“I appreciate it, Gabe,” he yelled.

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This could be a long trip, I thought as I headed back to the bridge.

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