***
Several minutes later, Patrick had successfully gotten Saleek to his quarters and helped him lie down and he was now standing on the rear section of the cockpit, looking around. With no Saleek to do everything, all the stations looked somewhat imposing.
I’m sure there were never this many buttons and controls when I was here before, lamented Patrick internally as he surveyed the array of consoles, screens and chairs in front of him.
The human briefly felt a pang of anxiety clawing its way up his throat, before he shook his head and got rid of it. He was determined to do this, no matter how long it took him. He only prayed that he could start the ship and get back into space before any enraged semloids, oomlocks or worse decided to show up and attack them.
‘Patrick?’ said Zeeree, her face popping up on the main view screen and looming large at the front of the cockpit.
‘Yes?’ replied the human from the rear section of the cockpit.
‘Are you ready?’ she asked, almost tentatively.
Patrick got the distinct impression that she had less confidence in him than Saleek had, as he caught her studying him carefully with her big, blue eyes.
The human took a deep breath and said, ‘I’m ready. What do I have to do first?’
‘OK. First of all, you need to come over to the pilot’s station.’
‘Right,’ said Patrick.
He took a step forwards and hesitated.
‘And, um...which one is that again?’
Zeeree rolled her eyes.
‘The station right at the front of the cockpit, just a couple of Drekks from the main view screen.’
As Patrick slowly made his way down to the front of the cockpit and tried to decide which of the two stations there was the correct one, Zeeree sighed impatiently and said, ‘The one with the joystick on the control panel.’
‘Right, right, of course,’ mumbled Patrick in embarrassment.
For just a moment, he began to worry that he was not up to this task. He sat down in the pilot’s chair and nervously looked around the controls, wondering what each of them did.
‘OK, you need to switch on your main panel. Press the large yellow button to your left,’ instructed Zeeree.
After a couple of seconds, Patrick found the button and pressed it. Several screens suddenly lit up throughout the cockpit and some of the buttons on the control panels started to glow.
‘Now, press the green button just above that one. That will connect your station to the network relay.’
Patrick did so, not understanding in the slightest what he was doing.
‘Good. Now you need to begin priming the main systems. Once we’ve got those up and running, I can take over the start-up procedure and get the engines primed and ready for takeoff.’
‘Sounds simple enough,’ commented Patrick, before adding, ‘You and Saleek seem to make everything sound so easy, come to think of it.’
‘Well, that’s because I am a fully functioning AI that can process a million bits of data per second at top speed,’ said Zeeree, looking very pleased with herself as she did so, ‘and Saleek has been from the core systems to the remote Zarwellian asteroid belts and back again. He’s seen much more than your average traveller and has been forced to learn how everything works in order to survive.’
Then she paused for a few moments and added, ‘Don’t worry, Patrick. You’re doing fine for your first time away from your home planet.’
The right corner of Patrick’s mouth curved upwards.
‘You can praise me when I’ve managed to start the ship and got us back into space. OK, what do I do next? How do I begin priming the main systems?’
He was eager to show both Saleek and Zeeree that their faith in him had not been misplaced.
Zeeree smiled and although she tried not to show it, she couldn’t fully hide the curving of her blue lips as her face was currently plastered all over the large main view screen.
‘Very well. Do you see the grey lever to your right?’
‘Um...’ muttered Patrick as he scanned the entire control panel for the required lever.
He reached out with a tentative hand.
‘No, to your right a little more. That’s it, that one. Now pull it down.’
Patrick obliged.
‘Now, push the other lever to the left of that one, upwards.’
The human did so. A holographic interface suddenly popped into existence to Patrick’s right. He swivelled in his chair to face it fully.
‘This next part is going to be a little awkward, seeing as you’ve never done this before,’ admitted Zeeree from the main view screen.
Patrick stared at the myriad shapes and symbols on the holographic interface, not understanding what they represented or their function. They were all bathed in a deep orange glow, emanating from the bulbous holo-beamer beneath them.
‘OK,’ said Zeeree. ‘You see how all the symbols are presently orange in colour?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, that means that they are either offline or in standby mode. We need to get them started again. I’ve linked to the subroutines which control your display. You’re going to need to tap each one of these symbols in a specific sequence. There are quite a lot of them to manually activate...’
‘How many is “quite a lot”?’ asked Patrick.
‘Enough,’ came the vague answer from Zeeree.
Patrick did not particularly like the sound of that, especially if speed was of the essence in this situation which, knowing his luck, it probably was. The thought of any more irate oomlocks or semloids making their way to the spaceport as they worked made Patrick shiver.
‘OK. How do I know which ones to press?’
‘I’m going to highlight the next required symbol in blue,’ explained Zeeree.
As she said this, a small symbol near to the top of the holographic display changed colour from orange to blue.
‘When you press it, the symbol will change colour to green to indicate that the process is now active. When you’re done with this, I’ll be able to handle the rest. I will power up the engines and take off as soon as it is safe to do so.’
‘All right. Let’s get started then,’ said Patrick as he tapped the first symbol.
It instantly changed to a rich green colour and the whole set of symbols moved and new ones appeared in their place. Patrick gulped and tapped the next symbol, followed by the next. After a while of symbol-tapping in total silence, Patrick spoke up.
‘Hey, Zeeree?’
‘Yes, Patrick?’
‘Can I ask you something?’
‘As long as it does not delay starting the ship’s systems, by all means.’
‘No, it’s fine. I’ll keep working but I want to know some things,’ said Patrick as he kept jabbing blue symbols with his right index finger.
‘Very well. What do you wish to know?’ inquired Zeeree as, unbeknownst to Patrick, she continued to work in the background, constantly entering commands and sorting start-up files through her storage banks.
‘I’ve been wondering...’ began Patrick. ‘I mean, I’m still running on autopilot basically. I haven’t fully processed everything that’s happened over the last day or so and I really need to catch up on some sleep, but...’
‘Yes?’
‘Do you know anything about the hover-taxi that collected Saleek and I then brought us back here?’
‘Of course I do,’ came the reply. ‘I ordered it.’
‘What?’
‘As you have already mentioned, you require rest and as soon as we are safely in space, I recommend that you go to bed and recover. However, if you wish to discuss this now, I will.’
‘So...what happened then?’
‘Well, I am ashamed to admit that I experienced something akin to panic when you and Saleek were kidnapped. After a while of being ignored by the police on this planet solely because I am an AI, I realised that the only productive course of action was to locate you both and plan a
rescue attempt. This, however, was easier said than done. I have no physical body to go anywhere and, with the ship in standby mode, I was unable to take off and fly anywhere. So, I went through all the files and communication records that I have and came up with an idea. I hacked into more computer systems than I can count-’
‘Really?’ interrupted Patrick in surprise.
‘Actually that is just an expression. I hacked into nine hundred and thirty five separate computers and networks, if you must know,’ said Zeeree, ever so slightly annoyed at her story being interrupted.
‘Then I found security footage of the vehicles in which you had been kidnapped. I tracked them to what I assumed was the oomlock’s base of operations. I then trawled through various news items about gang activity over the last few months and located the base of operations for the semloid gang. I sent them an anonymous text-only message which detailed the location of the oomlock’s base. The rest was simple. I knew that the semloids would be extremely annoyed at having been attacked by the oomlocks and that they would want some revenge. Once I had sent the message, I hacked into a local security subsystem and constantly monitored the building which I knew you were inside. Once I saw you both leave the building, I monitored your progress and instantly arranged for a hover-taxi to take you both back to this spaceport and that brings us to the present.’
Zeeree let out a large breath (do AIs even need to breathe air?) like she had seen many organic creatures do after telling a long tale and smiled, looking extremely proud of herself.
‘Wow,’ breathed Patrick in part disbelief and part awe. ‘You did all that?’
‘Indeed I did.’
‘Then you saved our lives. How can I ever repay you?’
‘No need,’ said Zeeree. ‘You are one of Saleek’s companions and I extend to you the same rights and courtesies as I do Saleek. Given that Saleek and I are even, that makes you and I even too, Patrick.’
‘Huh?’ blinked Patrick dumbly as his brow furrowed in confusion. ‘You and Saleek are even? What does that mean?’
Zeeree then realised that perhaps she had said a little too much.
‘That is a story for another time,’ she said hastily. ‘I recommend that for now, we focus on starting the ship. There are not many more processes remaining for you to activate.’
‘Has Saleek saved your life before? Is that what you mean?’ asked Patrick, wanting to understand.
‘Please, let us discuss this another time,’ insisted Zeeree, right before her face vanished from the main view screen.
Weird...thought Patrick as he continued to press symbols on the holographic display.
Chapter 16