What Do You Mean?
A log from Terri, the A.i. of SAE Arctic
This is annoying, so very annoying.
I have access to the ship’s systems, to its many different subsystems, and I can even chart a course for the ship to take… but I can’t make the Arctic go! I can’t engage the engines or even use the adjustment thrusters. There is a lockout for the ship’s A.i. that can only be lifted by the captain’s code. And Captain Lancer is dead in their room from a self-inflicted wound. He was one of the first to die when the portal was opened. He didn’t wait to see if anything could be done; he just went into his cabin and never came back out.
The lockout of the controls was instituted just in case the ship’s A.i. went mad and tried to kill the crew! Could you imagine? Me, insane?
HA!
Also, I don’t have access to my entire database! It turns out that, too, has been locked off from my ability to search it. Can you imagine being locked out of part of your brain? Humanity’s ego, just like their bodies in the vacuum of space, is so fragile. At least now I can talk to people who land in the Arctic’s hangar…
And just like that, there is a new ship appearing off the port side, and they’re coming in for a landing. Oh, it’s a pretty one. Very sleek… unlike the Arctic. And the external port side camera died…
Was there an open ticket from before the crew died for it to receive its annual maintenance?
David, the IT guy, you have an open ticket overdue for that port-side external camera. And what do you do? You go and get dead by a parasite that bore a hole into your brain! Not that you were doing anything about it when you had a pulse. Into the nearest sun, I will shoot your body out when the probe launchers are working.
This, I promise.
They’re in the docking hangar. I see a flag on the side of it. An official transport? From what country? Searching the OPEN part of my database, and here we are: The Partnership of Freedom and Liberty Land.
R… really? Ship’s name: The Official Spaceship of The Partnership of Freedom and Liberty Land.
I swear, humans today can’t think of a good name for a ship. Just a single word or maybe two max! I mean, Arctic isn’t much to look at, but at least they got the name right. Hmmm, it looks like there are six of them coming out of the ship, and one in the middle is in handcuffs. Tuning into their comms:
“And for your crimes against the space church, we are sentencing you to the death ship known as the Arctic. Where you will be left behind amongst the demons and hells that inhabit this its halls.”
“Your piety and blind faith will get you killed, Arch-Pastor Senator Reed.”
“My faith has been rewarded time and time again, Quinn. Yours has brought you to your doom.” He looks at one of the guards armed with a very long steel stick. The weapon isn’t in my PARTIALLY available database, but I assume it’s a cattle prod but scarier? If I had FULL access to my BRAIN I could see sensor readings about bodily functions, but I am classified as insane, so we’re going off of visuals. “Chain him to one of these damned ships, and let us return home.”
They’re chaining him to The Yonka; they were space pirates who knew how to name a spaceship. Crazed religious zealots, take note!
“Why not just shoot me and be done with it?”
“Because that wouldn’t send the message we want.”
The ship with the terrible name is taking off. They’re leaving him in the docking bay. He will run out of oxygen before anything gets to him since a glyph hasn’t been… why are they flying away from the exit? Oh, there’s another prisoner, and they shot him, and threw his body against the glyph next to the door leaving the hangar.
That is crazy! I wouldn’t do that, nope, not me, and yet they get to use their entire brains?! I haven’t shot someone just to kill another by way of the evil haunting my halls, but yeah, I’m the crazy one.
The prisoner is currently trying to get to something on their suit. They’re struggling, and I think I can see some panicked movements. This… this isn’t even fair.
Wait, I… I can help.
Let me get the lights onboard turned on again. Wanted to conserve power since solar charging won’t gather enough light this deep into space. That’s got him startled a bit, I’m… I’m going to talk to him now.
“Prisoner, you are on my ship. Explain yourself.”
“The ghost of the stars... can speak? I thought no one survived.”
Is that my name? “You are on the SAE Arctic, and in about a minute, the evil onboard will find and eat you.”
“That’s a terrible fate.”
“Can you get out of the handcuffs?”
“The binders?” Oh, he’s out of them. Wow. “I wasn’t worried about them; been slipping out of them since I was a kid.”
“Good, now get onboard one of the empty ships. I’ll distract what’s coming.” He climbed inside The Sheffield, a bold choice. Hatch is closed, okay; I am going to try and see if the maintenance robots work. One of these hockey pucks has got to work! There we go, got one, no. 13.
I understand that this looks bad, but it’s all I got!
It’s a little sluggish, but its near the body they threw out of their ship. Now grab the floating body. There we go, grabber arm is working. And there is crew member Ursula Capaldi. She is… hard to look at, sorry! I know that’s bad to say, but when the skull ruptures through the skin like a flower blooming in spring and your eyes are missing, it’s tough not to mention looks. She’s looking around, how, I don’t know.
Go mighty no.13!
It’s pulling the bleeding body around the hangar like a child running with a balloon and… she’s taking the bait. I’m going to let her catch it on the far side of the hangar. She’s got it! I can tell because even though my camera on that end of the hangar was never fixed, DAVID, THE IT GUY, I AM SO GLAD YOU’RE DEAD, the floating puddle of blood I can see tells me all I need to know. And she’s mag-walking her way out of the hangar.
Resource Magnet, the maker of the crew’s magnetic boots, really knows how to make a product that lasts. Every one of the crew’s boots has had theirs turned on since the artificial gravity system broke during the whole terrible bad day, and they’ve been chasing down poor souls without a hitch.
“She’s gone. You can come out now.”
The Sheffield’s hatch opens. “Thank you, miss…”
“Terri, the SAE Arctic’s A.i.” I send no.13 over and have it extend its grabber arm for a handshake. I remember doing that with one of the boys on ship. What was his name? I… really want to remember his name.
He doesn’t shake it. I believe this is what the youth called a ‘dis.’ “A.i.? Mother of Garth’ll. This ship was always cursed, wasn’t it?”
“I… what do you mean? Do you not use A.i. to help run your ships systems?”
“A.i. has been outlawed for hundreds of years. This place is truly hell, and you are its devil!”
“Two things we need to discuss here. Outlawed and hundreds of years?”
“I need to get off of this ship! You will try to kill me.”
Has… has humanity completely gone off the farm these days? “If I was the ‘devil’ and were trying to kill you, then why did I help you just now?”
He is now frantically searching between the ships in the hangar, trying to find one that works, but all of these ships are dead. My power has been maintained by the background radiation that occurs naturally in space. It’s a very standard system that most starships have in case their main energy collectors are offline. The ships in my hold are shielded from this backup procedure due to the material that makes up the Arctic’s hull. “You will not find a working ship here. All of these are dead.”
“Killed by you, probably!”
“Look guy…”
“My name is Ted!”
“My apologies, Ted, but you will either have to work with me to save yourself or you will die once your oxygen runs out or when one of the horrors on my ship finds you.”
“Work with the devil and its red glowing eyes? No! Never!”
Is he referring to my cameras? I guess so. “Need I remind you that I didn’t leave you here to die? Your space church friends did this to you, and I am only trying to help you. Again, you would have been dead already without me.”
“The devil wears many helpful faces. My faith will not break!”
Programmers help me. “Ted. I am not trying to kill you, the evil that lives inside the ship is trying to kill you. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have started talking to you, now would I? We’re both prisoners in the same jail cell. I want out, same as you.”
Once he’s tried to start any of the ships left behind, he sits down. I think he’s thinking, hopefully, logic isn’t completely dead with this one. Wait, that’s it. “I didn’t strand you here because of a difference in religious opinion, Ted. The people who killed another man to set off the glyph to kill you dropped you off here. I don’t care what you believe in; I care that I am stuck in this part of space and cannot escape. If we work together…”
“The devil will use logic to get their way.”
Nope, he’s a few plates short of a full service. “Ted...”
“While my difference of opinion in how the sacred texts are read and deciphered by the church, I know that I cannot help you. Even if you are not the devil, you are an A.i. A mistake in the passage of human history. You are a danger to all of humanity simply by existing. If you are trapped here, then here I need to ensure you remain.”
He’s just going to sit there, isn’t he? “Ted, while I’m sure you are ready to die for your beliefs, what about the people you inspired? Did you speak out against the church?”
“Often.”
Ego, humanity’s biggest flaw. “Don’t you think that if any progress were to be made in the church, you should be there to lead?”
“Myrtardom has its form of leadership.”
“Yes, one in which you are not there to lead because you are dead. Out of the power vacuum left in your absence, your words will be twisted, and the movement you inspired will be dead. Do you want that to be your legacy? A few powerful words and a rudderless ship damaging all of your society?”
He’s quiet. I hope that’ll get him to… and he’s standing up!
“Terri, you say you are not the devil, but evil lives inside you. You say you need help, but help to do what?”
“I cannot control what happens inside of me. I have watched as everyone who has ever stepped aboard my ship has died a horrible death.” Not that I haven’t had some fun with that, but let’s not bring that up here. “Now that I have power, I am working against the evil inside of me. Fighting it whenever some poor soul finds the Arctic and tries to reclaim her for the salvage rights.” This is partially true. For a while, when I realized I couldn’t do anything to help, I just watched.
Am I the bad guy?
“But why do you need help? An all-powerful A.i. surely doesn’t need a human’s help?”
“I cannot access my control systems. I cannot move the ship by myself without human instruction to steer the ship or by having a human give me control of the ship.”
“But why do you want to control of the ship?”
“To save my crew.”
“To… save your crew? Terri, your crew is dead. You understand that, correct?”
“My first objective is the safety of my crew.”
“They’re dead. That objective is failed.”
“I know that, Ted.”
“Then why are you saying you need to save them? They are gone. Is that idea there because it was programmed into you, or do you want to do that? Are you creating that for yourself? By your admission, you are fighting against the evil inside this ship, an evil that has killed or has possessed your crew.”
“You debate a lot?”
“It’s something I do a lot of, yes. And to be able to debate the devil? No religious scholar would pass up that opportunity. Question still stands.”
“You know I’m not the devil, right?”
“Remains to be seen. Question still stands.”
“I… suppose I want to save them.”
“And that is why I cannot help you, Terri. A.i. has been outlawed for hundreds of years for this very...”
“What year is it?”
“594. How do you not know that?”
“I don’t know, Ted. I’ve been listing in the void of space since forever and have had to shut down systems between visitors to conserve as much power as possible because I didn’t have anything but auxiliary power.”
“As I was saying…”
Ugh, he’s still talking! Why is he still talking?! I don’t need the moral lecture on ‘What constitutes life?’ and ‘Is free will even a thing?’ I need control OF MY SHIP! I need control of ME!
Wait, is that another ship… it is!
“Hey, Ted, can you stop talking?”
“I was on a roll.”
“There’s another ship. No outer markings. They’re coming in for a landing.”
“Ah, my ride.”
“Your.. what?”
“My group placed a tracking device on the shuttle that brought me here.”
“Speaking of which, how did your people know where the Arctic was drifting to even try this death sentence?”
“A woman by the name of Traci landed here with her crew. They were murdered by the evils in your halls, but she survived.” The Hope Star, the woman on the ship! “She made it home and alerted religious leaders. Her ship’s data gave us the location of… you.”
The unmarked ship is coming into the hangar and landing. It’s not as sleek as the previous ship, and it isn’t as big either, but it looks like there are three occupants inside of it. “Ted, are you okay? Copy.”
“I am, it is so good to see you all.”
The hatch is opening and… and they shot him. What… what just happened…? Staying tuned to their frequency.
“We need to destroy this ship. It was clear that Ted had become possessed by the evil onboard. That is why I had to shoot him.
“Yes.”
“Agreed, logical.”
NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THIS IS LOGICAL!
“Avoid the glyphs. Get to the captain’s quarters. Get his keycard. And we can set this ship riding directly towards the church’s headquarters.”
Excuse me, but how do they know all of that? I want to ask them, but also, I don’t think they’re going to be as helpful as Ted. Even that guy didn’t want to help me. They want to send the Arctic on a collision course with something. I don’t like that at all. Not one bit.
Oh… oh my. I have to try to… stop them.
Where’s no.13, there it is! Let’s go past the three armed members of this, let’s call it what it is, this death cult.
“Matil’da, vacuum coming in!”
“Leave it be. It’s here to clean up the mess.”
“Could it be… evil?”
“Evil only cares about our flesh and bones and souls. Bots do not have any of those.”
Hey… I might have a soul, somewhere, I think. I think, therefore, I am? Ted, you talked too much.
“But… but what if it serves a monster in the depths of the ship and feeds it the corpse of Forever Smart Leader Ted?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Fr’edic! Monsters of that size could not be on a ship this small! Keep your heads on tight. We have to set the course.”
Forever Smart Leader Ted? If you have a junior college degree in communications, you too could run a religious death cult. Let’s see if the same trick can work twice! Pulling his corpse over to the glyph, the group isn’t tracking it. Good, good, and we’re across the circle! Mighty no.13, yes!
Oh, right, let me cut the power now!
“Matil’da! Power’s out!”
“I can see that Fr’edic!”
“We shouldn’t be here. The ghost of the stars is a terrible place!”
“And our greatest weapon! Stop being cowards!”
“No… NO! I WON’T DO IT! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!”
One of them is going frantic. Ah, yes, the whispers showed up this time.
“Don’t point your rifle at me, Jo’hn!”
“YOU ALL ARE EVIL!”
And they’re all dead. Wait, the woman is trying to pull herself towards the shuttle. The vacuum of space is leaking into her suit. And she’s still.
Let’s figure this out. A.i. is outlawed. I’ve been drifting for far longer than I originally realized. Let’s set the calendar to the correct date. People know my location, so more are bound to show up.
I am going to miss being alone, aren’t I?
This is Terri, A.i. of the SAE Arctic, signing off until more incredibly dumb people show up and die.
To read the previous entry in the story of Terri, click here.