Antipodean Collection
By
Shane Griffin
Smash Words Edition Published by Poupichou Press
All stories from this collection were First Published online in Antipodean SF
Copyright Shane Griffin 2012
Artificially Me
Veet opened his eyes and sat up. His vision resembled that of a film projector whose film was unravelling on the screen. He could hear panicked yells from above him, but it sounded crackled and tinny. He tenderly touched the back of his head and his hand came away smeared with red.
“Veet, stay still until I scan your functionality,” came the gruff synthetic voice of the manufacturing area android controller known fondly as MAAC.
“Right you are MAAC,” replied Veet sluggishly, as a tight scan beam washed over Veet from MAAC’s chest scan array.
“You appear to have sustained a serious head impact,” rumbled MAAC, “Company regulation 427 requires you to see the doctor for full medical examination.”
Veet looked at MAAC frightfully, “I’m going to be ok aren’t I?”
“I am not programmed to make that assessment Veet.”
“Right you are… I mean…I’d better go, right now,” replied Veet as he looked anxiously up at the floor above. He was half expecting another piece of scaffold to drop down on him again.
“Something strange about that,” he thought, but could not concentrate long enough to remember what it was. It was almost like his brain was resetting every thirty seconds.
“I will assist you to the doctor,” said MAAC.
“Right, right you are…I mean thanks,” mumbled Veet as he shakily found his feet.
MAAC lead Veet off the factory floor and up the long hallway to the company doctor's surgery. MAAC had already called through the incident so the doctor was ready and waiting at the medscan.
“H-hi doc, right you are,” said Veet realising for the first time that he now had an involuntary head twitch. The doctor's eyes widened fearfully when he saw Veet and he quickly ushered him onto the medscan.
“I’m ok aren’t I doc?” asked Veet as he lay down.
“Just lay still an try to relax Veet,” replied the doctor as he worked rapidly on the scanner.
“Right you are… I mean I just hope my brain’s ok."
“Veet you’ve managed to keep it in good shape for the last 127 years through worse…”
The doctor was interrupted by a loud beeping noise from the medscan.
“What is it doc?” insisted Veet.
“I’m…sorry Veet... your brain is dead…”
“What? But, but my thoughts are coming back to me, my head is clearing!”
“That’s because your artificial intelligence chip has taken over. I’m sorry Veet, but officially you are dead and no longer human. I have to…reset you.”
Veet looked at the doctor and saw the water in his eyes. He couldn’t remember what that meant, but he knew it was significant. He brought his own robot arm up to his android face and touched the ocular cameras that were his eyes – there was no water there.
“A shame,” said Veet, “I think someone might have killed me on purpose.”
Reluctantly the doctor hit his reset button and picked up the phone.
“Hello, I just wanted to inform you that Veet is no longer with us. He has been reset and is now company property. His asset number is 9627.”
“Right you are,” replied the managing director.
#
Controller
The control centre was stuffy, cramped and the only light came from the glow of computer screens. The only sounds for the moment were the subliminal whirring of hard disks as the external probes updated the systems with new data. Colonel Grant Russell sat rigid in front of one of the screens, the main screen where all of the data from the outside culminated into readouts and digital images. It was his window to the outside world, his only window.
Colonel Russell had 15 years experience in the SODT (Special Orbital Drop Troop) unit and was used to this type of operation. His face was marble as he watched the monitor and waited for the audio signal to come online. His concentration was so intense that he jumped a little in his seat when the audio finally crackled to life.
“Disposal unit G1 online sir!” snapped the synthetic voice. At the same time a video image looking from the eyes of the unit came up in one corner of the screen. In another there was a satellite image of the area around the unit. Both images looked clear and the Colonel breathed a little easier. The mission had been ambushed three times prior to this already.
“Let’s see how well they deal with an android,” he murmured to himself, “Ok, Disposal G1 it’s time to take out the trash! Move out!”
“Yes sir,” snapped the synthetic voice. Through the eyes of the android thick bushes parted way and beyond was a small flat grassy area which lead up to a brick building. The sunlight was dull and a light layer of fog reduced visibility.
“Proceed with caution to the west corner of Alpha building G1. Report any hostiles immediately.”
The android did as it was ordered without question. As it approached the corner of the building another came into view through the fog, leaving a narrow alleyway between them. The alleyway was in the shadow of the building, visibility was poor.
“Computer, switch to thermal imaging.”
The satellite image instantly flickered to a hazy green. No sign of any hostiles, yet.
“G1 proceed down the alley, maximum caution.”
The android rounded the corner and the visual image from its eyes faded in the poor light. The satellite image showed it moving steadily along the alleyway alone. Colonel Russell held his breath. Just as the android approached the end of the alleyway two, no, three vicious red heat signatures appeared on the roof of the nearby building.
“Alert G1, hostiles on roof of building Beta! Alert! Alert!”
It was too late. The android looked up just as the first projectile crashed into its optical unit. The image went to static, the satellite showed all three hostiles in relentless attack.
“No!” Colonel Russell screamed in anger as he jumped out of his seat, “I won’t let it end like this, not this time!”
Colonel Russell stormed from the control room down the stairs and into the alleyway beside the building where he lived. There he was greeted by the sight of his android slumped over, drenched in water, short circuiting, his garbage everywhere and finally by a large water bomb.
“I swear if I ever catch you kids I’ll…”
SPLAT
#
Lest They Forget
Johnny Waratah climbed into the snug padded seat and strapped himself in firmly, just like he had been trained. He was already starting to sweat in the confined area of the drop-ship. In fact, the smell of nervous perspiration coming from the 25 other men seated either side and opposite him was almost overpowering.
The sergeant marched along the rows of men, checking straps with his permanent scowl and cold glaring eyes. Johnny double checked that his plasma rifle was stowed safely in the bracket above his head. The hydraulic release claws from the mother ship let the drop-ship go with a reluctant hiss. Then, like a red hot rock, it fell.
As the drop-ship shook and bounced through the atmosphere and the G forces pushed from every angle, Johnny thought of his great, great, great grandfather who had fought in one of the big earth wars so long ago. He was not sure which one, so much time had passed peacefully since any war. Now though, as part of the developing stellar community, when diplomacy had failed against the Earth’s biggest rival the call to arms had been eagerly accepted. Johnny had joined without a second thought, enticed by the posters which proclaimed the ancient bat
tle cry “Lest we forget!”.
Johnny’s thoughts were interrupted by the sergeant's razor blade voice.
“OK first platoon! As soon as we make landfall I want a two hundred metre perimeter around the ship. We have to clear an LZ for second and third platoons so we can establish a bridgehead!”
“Yes sir!” rang loudly inside the confined space.
Suddenly the interior went blood red and the drop-ship began to decelerate rapidly. Johnny braced himself with his hands above his head, firmly gripping his rifle as he was squeezed into the seat. This was the first operation onto the enemy planet and his first in combat. Fear grabbed at his gut with a cold grip. The ship hit the ground hard and the seat straps dug into his shoulders like eagle claws.
“Ok you geriatrics! Let's move it, move it, move it!” shouted the sergeant.
Johnny’s training kicked in. In a flash he was unstrapped, plasma rifle in hand and charging for the exit ramp with the others. As he launched down the ramp and onto the planet's surface he screamed the battle cry with the others.
“Lest we forget!”
Before he had even finished the words he realised he had fallen into the depths of chaos. His platoon was taking immediate fire from steep rocky slopes not one hundred metres away. Slopes that should not have been there. They had come down in the wrong place and right on top of the enemy. Johnny dived to the rocky hard surface as the ground erupted around him. Someone to his left fell. The sergeant's voice rose somehow above it all.
“Take the slopes!”
Johnny rose with the others and charged up the slope firing blindly as he ran.
Of his platoon he made it the furthest before he was cut down.
As he lay sprawled across the rocky ground sound faded from his ears and he wondered where his right arm was. It was then he began to understand for the first time the real meaning of those immortal words - Lest we forget.
Too late he realised that he, like everyone else, already had.
#
Safety Zone
Josh, or Sir Josh of the Order of the White Knight Assassins, as he was generally referred to on the battlefield, ducked behind an old balding truck tire. He was breathing heavily. So heavily in fact that the dissipaters in his body-suite were having trouble keeping his heat and carbon dioxide output to below detectable levels. He had never been in a situation so intense before. The whole battlefield was filled with pursuers with all sorts of new sensors and camouflage upgrades. Not for the first time that night Josh cursed his aging tech.
Josh wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand then tapped at his temple to try and remove the graininess in the vision that his artificial cornea gave him whenever he was too hot. The eye glitched a couple of times then cleared a little. Very slowly he peered over the top of the tire then just as quickly ducked down again as his motion sensor alarms indicated someone moving toward him from the right and another around from the left.
“Damn!!” they were closing on him. If he didn’t make it to the safety zone they would surely have him and it would be all over. The safety zone was 30 feet ahead of him across bare ground, nowhere to hide. It was going to have to be a desperate run for freedom. Josh brought himself up to a low crouch, tapped at the small keyboard on his forearm and considered his options rapidly. His batteries were almost flat, which meant no camouflage, and that his pursuers didn’t even have to rely on sensors to see him. In fact all he had left was one shot of biochemical enhancers for his legs. It would give him speed, he wasn’t sure if it was enough.
With a deep breath he keyed in the injection sequence, jumped from his refuge and ran for his life. His motion sensors rang like alarm bells! They were all around him! But…none in front! A chance!
He was ten feet…eight feet…five feet from the safety zone when a sole figure suudenly materialised from a perfect camouflage and slapped him one the back as he ran past.
Josh hung his head in shame as he stopped short of the safety zone.
“Tag your it!!” laughed Sam Donaldson. “Yeah! Who’s the king now Josh!!”
“Yeah, yeah Sam. Anyone can win with that stupid new JLX5000 camosuit. Just wait until my birthday and I get mine.”
#
The Natural
Steve was a new kid at school, I didn’t know him very well. All I knew was that there had been some type of controversy at his last school which had resulted in his leaving. Everyone was curious at first, but when he wouldn’t let on nobody seemed to take much notice of him. He was pretty quiet and kept to himself. Then, one sports day our cricket team was short and one of the guys conned him into playing. We were up against one of the posh private schools.
We arrived early so we could check the calibrations on our bio-enhancer implants. Our team was pretty good, we all had the latest hacker upgrades loaded into our chips, but we would be no match for the privi’s. There was just no way any public access upgrades to a standard bio-enhancer could keep up with state of the art specialised sport chips.
As I ran through some quick ball skill sequences and twiddled with my own settings I noticed something weird. Steve wasn’t really doing anything, he was just standing around and waiting for the game to start. As the captains were having the toss I sidled over to him.
“Hi, Steve,” I said. “You aren’t worried about your bio being in cal?”
Steve smiled just a little before he spoke.
“What difference does it make?” I conceded this and we took the field after losing the toss.
Steve was pretty good in the field and he bowled pretty well. At first this didn’t seem that odd, I figured his parents were just a little more well off than he let on and they could afford a B grade sport platform.
By the end of the other team's first innings we were chasing a lot of runs, but doing better than expected. Everyone was happy with Steve and they were all asking him what chip he had. Steve was cagey and wouldn’t say a thing, but if there was little chance of him staying out of the spotlight with his bowling effort then there was no chance after see him bat.
Steve batted like a champion and won us the game. It was unheard of! The teacher of the private school went ballistic and started accusing Steve of stealing his implant. I was asking myself the same question. Then things really started to heat up as our teacher got into the argument. I took the opportunity to get into Steve’s ear.
“That’s the best batting I’ve ever seen! Where did your parents get the money for that type of implant?”
Steve shot me a look, a mix of anger and disappointment.
“If you must know my implant has been turned off since we arrived!”
“You mean you're a..” I stumbled over the word so he finished my sentence for me.
“That’s right I’m a natural,” he whispered.
Word got around as it always seemed to and before the end of the week Steve was gone. I never saw him again. At least I know that those stories about people being able to do things without the aid of computers isn’t all made up. Now I always turn off my implant for half an hour every day. I can even make coffee without my implant but, I would never tell anyone.
#
When Words Come to Life
Gary slapped into the high backed office chair in front of the computer in his study. He feverishly pushed the on button and fidgeted with the mouse as it booted up, in a vain effort to hasten the process. He cursed out loud as he opened the wrong file by moving too far down the menu in his effort to get started.
Gary had been trying to finish his latest science fiction book for the last six months, but had hit some major writers block. His ideas normally came to him freely, but recently they seemed to come in fits and bursts and not without a great deal of concentration.
He looked up briefly at the newspaper review about his first and only published novel. The bold black words glared at him from the wall leaping out almost hologramatically. “…the words themselves come to life…” was highlighted in fluorescent yellow. I
t had been his greatest trophy and his own personal bane for the last year.
“Not now though”, he clucked to himself as he clacked with determination at the bone white keys that had jeered at him for so long. This would be the greatest ending to a science fiction novel ever, he would once again truly bring the words to life.
“…Neil pulled Carla up out of the water onto the floating wreckage as waves splashed over th…”. Gary stopped typing and put his head in his hands as he hit his mental block again. This time he was determined to push through it, but as usual the more he continued to concentrate and type the more his head began to throb.
“You’re not going to stop me this time,” he shouted feverishly to the air around him.
“…Neil looked back down into the water and it began to boil…”
Gary stopped typing again just long enough to wipe away the sea water that had splashed in his eye before continuing. “…Neil was awash with terror as the great green tentacle snaked its way out of the water toward him and…”
Gary was shocked to say the least when the words dissipated from the screen, leaving only his own reflection. He rubbed his eyes and when he opened them again a slimy green tentacle swept out from his computer screen engulfing him in its iron grip. He began to struggle then stopped abruptly, realising it was futile. As he was drawn into the murky depths of his computer screen all he could do was curse himself for not writing a happy ending.
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