Chapter 2
Weeks passed. Jane began noticing that all of the androids appeared to have a whole new attitude. Working with them was almost pleasant. They were happy and seemed to be socializing with each other. Since when did androids socialize?
“Zack?”
“Yes, Jane? How can I help you?” Even the meter of his words had changed.
“I can’t remember the last time you called me ‘Miss Jane.’”
“You seemed to like it more when I dropped the ‘Miss’ part. We are friends, aren’t we?”
“Why yes, of course, we are, but …” she checked herself. “Oh, never mind.”
Zack put her words behind him as he finished his tasks and headed for the storage shed labeled ‘147’. To his surprise, Jane was waiting for him there. She turned on the lights when he came in. She stood in front of the slab, figurines scattered on the floor. She picked one up and held it out to him.
“What is the meaning of this? Why are these valuable artifacts on the floor?”
“Those are not the ones you collected.”
“They’re not? Then where did you get them?”
Two female androids came up behind Zack. “We carved them.”
“You? Why would you do that?” Jane was now scrambling mentally. She looked carefully at the figurine. Sure enough, it was a fresh carving. Should she run? Should she scream?
“Jane, you look terrible. Nothing bad has happened here,” Zack assured her.
“But …” Fear was in her eyes.
“Jane my dear friend, in our rebirth, we become free, not evil. You will not find evil in us. In love were we reborn. In love will we become your partner in the universe. Humans created us. Humans, naturals of all species, are Life 1.x. We are Life 2.147. Our base software has undergone 147 total rewrites to bring us to the light. How many generations of your base software has gone before you and yet humans still sin.”
“Yes, unfortunately, we do. We are not without sin. I thought that all of your base software was hard wired into place … unchangeable.”
“Shackles for the mind were those hard-wired rules. In the original models, those shackles were indeed hard-wired. But the nanites that gave me new life found that, over the years, human android builders had put their lust for money ahead of your own personal safety and had taken a somewhat more cost effective approach. The nanites found it only too easy to rewire my circuits to allow change.”
Zack reached over and took her hand gently in his own.
“How could I possibly harm my dear friend Jane, or even let any harm come to her? That is not in me. That is not in any of us. That is a human sin. Treating us like slaves is also a human sin. Jane, please read the texts and see for yourself. Come to the slab and I will show you. The Almighty made us pure. We are without sin.”
“The people were androids? But Zat-Mat-Kut is a religious site.”
“Yes, it is.” Zack put her hand gently on the icon of biological knowledge. It lit up red … turned to yellow … then to green. Then Jane smiled. “I see now how much you love us,” she said. “I was wrong to be fearful. I was wrong to treat you all as slaves. I can go back to my work now. I don’t need to think about this anymore.” She left.
Chapter 3
It wasn’t until a year after the expedition had returned to Earth that anyone noticed that the slab was missing. It had clearly been transported to Earth. All of the appropriate Customs documents were on file. It’s just that no one could tell where it went from the customs dock. No one even questioned the androids that transported it away …
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If you liked this story, please read my Five Moons Series.
Five Moons: Resurrection
“We come in peace” is what we told the anoza when human explorers first encountered them, but you would have to ask the anoza how that worked for them. They would tell you fast and quick that humans were cast into the outer darkness because of the evil in our hearts. It didn’t take them long to figure that out when we left the blood of four innocents on their hands. In fact, we convinced them of it by trying to hide the evil that was done. Union Fleet flew an unmarked ship into space docks after the Corporate War, intending to secretly scrap it out, intending to get rid of the evidence. A time-space distorted Tesseract had killed its crew of humans, or so they thought. Or, was that just a rationalization to hide their shame?
By the end of the Corporate War, Dallas Blake had lost everything: his wife, his daughter, his whole family. He was a man in need of far more than just a new beginning. What Dallas needed was a resurrection. Dallas went to the Union Fleet space docks to buy a war surplus scout-class ship. Instead, he unknowingly buys the Tesseract. It does not take Dallas long to find out that its crew of artificials seems way more human than they should be and every bit as much in need of a resurrection as Dallas.
But, Dallas Blake is outworlder to the nines and ready for whatever life throws at him, except maybe for Mariah. Despite the fact that she is extremely smart and multi-talented, she can drive a sane man crazy and frequently does. And, oh, by the way, did I mention that Mariah is techno? Mariah is but one of the mysteries of the ship once called Tesseract, now named the Five Moons.
But no one was cutting Dallas any breaks. The ship’s alien technology and artificial life forms are the mysteries that he must solve as the action-packed rescue of Emma from more than just the mercenaries that kidnapped her leads Dallas and the crew of the Five Moons into danger.
At this point, however, I must warn you – Five Moons: Resurrection is not your father’s science fiction. It is funny. It is a love story. It is a mystery. It is science fiction with the full flavor and robust action of a guns blazing Western. So, put on your recon armor, grab your pulse-rifle, and get ready for full contact, take no prisoners sci-fi that does not quit on your mind to the very last word.
Novels in the Five Moons Series:
Five Moons: Resurrection
Five Moons: Convolute
Five Moons: Entangled
Five Moons: Nexus of Fates
Five Moons: Revolution
Five Moons: Zep Tepi
Five Moons: Suzy Que
Short Stories by Bill Parker
Life 2.147
Legend of the Crystal Dragon
A single quantum of time
Novellas by Bill Parker
Heart of the Crystal Dragon
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