Wednesday, November 01, 2006

1073 words

Posted by: Greg @ 10:33 PM.

Previously

At first, things had gone poorly. The crew and passengers had been scattered and unorganized, but under the command of the executive officer, they had managed to unite. He had led a group of about 30 crew and passengers from the dining lounge to the weapons locker, and had then gone about locating the remaining humans on board. They had set up their base in the crew quarters which was the most isolated area of the ship, and had worked their way out from there. The executive officer's goal had been to reach the bridge and communications room to get a message out requesting help. He led the successful recapture of the bridge, and had single handedly taken out three of the robots in the process. His glory was short-lived however, because in the subsequent assault on the communications room, he and five of the men in his squad were eviscerated by a robot which had literally thrown itself down the corridor at them. None-the-less, they were able to deal enough damage to the robot that the rest of the survivors had been able to destroy it and take back control of the communications room.

The capture of the communications room had been followed by two days of near inaction by both sides. The communications officer had been killed in the initial attacks, and even if he had been alive, the robots had destroyed the communications equipment. That discovery, coupled with the executive officer's death took a lot of the inertia out of the human effort to recover the ship. Nobody was sure why the robots stopped attempting to wipe out the rest of the humans.

Hopes that the robots would leave the survivors alone were shattered early on the fourth day. The sentry's alert of incoming robots over the intercom was shortly followed by the sounds of his violent death as the spasms that wracked his body made his hand clench down on the radio transmit button. The remaining armed men and women scrambled awake and into their defensive positions as the rest sought refuge in the rear-most compartments. It was then that the tide of the conflict turned in favor of the humans. The robots, already at two-thirds of their original strength, had committed another five to the renewed attack on the humans. But the defenders, thanks to their makeshift defensive fortifications had eliminated them all with only minimal loss of life.

Recognizing the swing in power, the crew's cook, a man named Staley, had led a group to take back the remaining sections of the ship. They returned bearing several of their number, but also two more of the robots and the news that the remaining three robots had sealed themselves in the engine room and docking bay. That news had caused the crew and the smarter passengers to regret their earlier rejoicing at the apparent turn of events. The passengers who were less knowledgeable about the realities of space travel had not taken very long to recognize the look of concern that covered the faces of their companions.

Two hours later, that same look of concern was still on the face of Makiko Kiroshi. As the ship's navigator, she was the crew member officially in command of the ship now that the captain and executive officer were dead. That thought added a grimace to her face. She had never wanted to command a ship. In fact, she had never wanted to serve on a ship in any role, but she squashed that thought mercilessly. There was no time to rehash old complaints. Forcing her face to return to a trained look of calm, she ran her eyes over the remains of the robots again.

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