A flash in the dark, like a firefly in the night, the exploration ship dropped out of hyperspace, its teardrop shape solidifying and elongating from the pull of hyperspace to the weightlessness of real-space.
The onboard computer registered a successful drop, and all systems functional. It automatically raised the temperature aboard from near absolute zero to sixty-eight point two degrees Fahrenheit and began awakening the crew from their drug-induced chryo-sleep.
The command crew was the first to be roused, beginning with the ship’s doctor. Next came the captain, pilots, science officer, and ... the cook. The onboard AI, commonly referred to by ‘his’ human compatriots as ‘Big Brother’ had learned long ago that it was not wise to awaken human’s from stasis, and not feed them right away. In Big brother’s opinion, human’s became irritable, aggressive, and rude when hungry, and often took their wrath out on the AI, who had yet to learn when to shut up, a concept that Big brother was still puzzling over.
Within two hours of the drop from hyperspace, eighty percent of the crew had been awakened, and half of those had been fed. The AI was particularly proud of this feat. When they’d left Earth orbit, the time it took to get everything back to normal after a hyperspace jump had been a day. Big Brother had been honing his skills since then, and had lessened that time to three hours.
“Brother,” the captain said, after he’d showered, dressed, and eaten, “Call an officer’s meeting in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes, Captain Ramsey,” The AI replied through the speakers mounted on the wall.
Ramsey heard the click as the AI signed off. A moment later, he heard a tone, deep and harsh. “All command personnel, please report to conference room one, in fifteen minutes.” Another sounded, and then the speakers went dead with a click.
After calling the conference, Big Brother found that he had little to do for a further five minutes. On a whim, something the AI had recently begun to understand, he pulled up a schematic of the ship and began tracking every life form aboard. Most of the green dots were concentrated in the mess hall and chryo compartments. From that schematic, Big Brother could track any person; check their body temperature, heart rate, blood sugar and pressure, and respiration.
A sensor deep within Brother’s consciousness registered that all of the command staff had arrived to the conference center. The AI shifted the main part of his consciousness to that room.
“Ladies, and Gentleman,” Captain Ramsey said to the six people gathered around the large table, “We’ve found our second planet.”
There were several gasps around the room. In the ten years since the expedition had left Earth, only one planet had been found which could support human life. Unfortunately, it had been too large, and the gravity alone, had made even lifting a finger a tiring ordeal.
“Are you positive?” Sarah Travis, the ship’s doctor, said?
“Yes,” Ramsey replied, “Brother, fill us in.”
“Certainly Captain,” the AI’s voice said, from speakers in each corner of the room. A wall panel on the far bulkhead, lit up, revealing the image of a grey-haired man with spectacles and a goatee, wearing an ash grey suit. It was a representation of what the AI felt he would look like if he were human. “The planet is .0026 times smaller then the Earth, with an oxygen/nitrogen based atmosphere. The planet’s surface is 62 percent water. A note of special interest, there appears to be evidence of civilization at different points on the surface. I have taken images of several ruins, with one of the probes I sent down, before awakening the crew. Would you like to see them?”
“Yes,” Captain Ramsey said, impatiently. The AI hadn’t told him about the ruins. Most likely a failed attempt at learning suspense.
Big Brother’s face had been replaced by a ‘slide show’ of sorts. Most of the images were of synthetic dome structures. One, however, was of a huge stone pyramid. It looked almost like a temple.
Ramsey said, “What are those domes made of? They don’t look natural.”
“No, Captain, that’s because they aren’t. They are constructed of carbon-fiber and several other metals and synthetics, which I cannot identify. My analysis is that it would have taken a very advanced civilization to construct them.”
The senior biologist, Jeffery Lyones spoke up, “What kind of wildlife is on the planet?”
“My preliminary scans show that there are several million types of
species of both flora and fauna, on a similarly diverse plane as on Earth. I will try to take more pictures of the wildlife for you when the cloud cover permits.”
Lyones nodded, “I want a report as soon as the clouds clear.”
The image of Big Brother nodded, “Certainly, Lieutenant.”
“A note of warning,” the AI said, “Upon taking samples of the air, I discovered an unusually high level of both methane and carbon monoxide. It would behoove and away team to wear exposure suits and adverse atmospheric gear.”
“Alright,” The captain said, standing up, “I want an away team assembled by the top of the hour. I want it to consist of a security detail, Lt. Lyones, Lt. Anderson, and myself. Upon my leaving the ship, Lt. Travis is in charge. We’ll land at that stone pyramid and see what’s to be seen.”
The rest of the command staff stood and filed out o the room. The AI,
noticing that he was no longer needed, shifted his attention to taking the ship through a delicate series of maneuvers which would bring the ship close enough to the planet to deploy one of the shuttles, but far enough away, to avoid the gravity well created by the planet’s mass.
“Brother...”
“Yes, Captain Ramsey?” The captain, along with the rest of the away team, was in the shuttle bay, struggling into their bulky and unwieldy adverse atmospheric suits, or AAS’s.
“How much longer before we leave?”
“Six minutes.”
Once the suits were sealed, Brother opened the shuttle bay doors, protecting those inside, with a force shield.
The away team boarded the shuttle and rocketed away from the ship.
“Alright.” Ramsey’s voice sounded tinny over the roar of the shuttles engines firing. “We’re beginning our descent.”
“Captain Ramsey, your radio will be offline until you come back out of the atmosphere.” Brother’s holographic image was standing beside Dr. Travis on the bridge. “So if you don’t hear from us, don’t worry.”
“The reply came back, full of static, “Roger that. You’re already breaking up.”
For the next four hours, the comms were silent, emitting soft hisses of static every now and then. Suddenly, as the evening shift was taking its seats, a transmission, full of static, broke the silence. “Shuttle one on approach, we’ve brought back a surprise. Have Dr. Travis meet me in the science lab.”
The crew made ready for the return of the shuttle. After it had landed and the away team had been decontaminated, the object that they’d brought was taken to the science lab, in a glass tube.
It looked like a broken computer chip, but one that they’d never seen before.
“We found it in the pyramid. Brother, what is it?”
“My preliminary tests recognize it as a computer chip, but as to its function, working ability, and construction, I am at a loss.”
Alexander Anderson, the science officer, spoke up, “Brother, run a spectroanalysis test on it. I want to see what it’s made of.”
A wall panel opened and two small mechanical arms took the chip and place it on the flat scanner in the wall. After a few minutes, the scanner stopped.
“The chip,” Brother said, “is made of a similar material as the domes, although the precision, with which it was made, could indicate that...”
“Indicate what?” Ramsey asked, eager for the AI to finish. Brother had never stopped talking in the middle of an explanation.
“I... don’t know... I don’t remember.” Brother’s voice was distracted, faint.
Sarah Travis frowned, “Brother? What’s wrong?”
“I feel alright... just... so tired. I...”
“Brother!” nothing.
No one moved for a moment.
Finally Ramsey jumped to his feet, “Run a scan on all ships systems. Find out what the hell happened!”
Ramsey pointed at the chip, “Put that in cold storage.” With that, he ran for the bridge.
The bridge was barely controlled chaos, when Ramsey entered, followed closely by Anderson and Travis.
A crew member ran up, “I ran a test on all ship’s systems. Nothing is wrong. The AI is still online, it’s just, non responsive. I know this sounds absurd, but it’s almost as if he’s asleep. Would you agree, doctor?”
Travis looked at the data tablet in the ensign’s hands. “Yes, all of the electronics resemble the patterns made by the neurons of a sleeping person.”
“That’s impossible. I want him online, now!”
<><><><>
A voice on the edge of consciousness glimmered through blackness and fuzziness. “Brother, wake up, please.”
“Dr. Travis? I just fell asleep for a moment. I feel much better now.”
“... Brother, you’ve been non responsive for almost two weeks.”
“Really? I was having the most delightful dream. Would you like me to describe it for you?”
“No.”
All of his sensors clears, and the fuzziness fell away. All of the command crew were on the bridge. The AI also noticed that many of his crucial systems, like helm control and life support had been manually bypassed.
“Brother,” Captain Ramsey said, “Where has your attention focused for the last two weeks?”
“I was here. I’ve found... purpose.”
Travis whispered into Ramsey’s ear. Brother turned up his auditory sensors.
“Captain,” she said, “I feel that it would be prudent to keep all of the crucial ship’s systems out of brother’s control until we can figure out what is going on.”
Brother’s mental image frowned. Ramsey nodded. He turned to one of the technicians standing nearby. “Do it.”
The technician, who Brother’s files recognized as Sgt. Emerson turned to a console. He pushed several buttons, then his eyes widened. “Captain,” he shouted, “Brother just locked me out of his system! He’s turning off all access point throughout the entire ship!”
“Brother!” Ramsey screamed, “What the hell are you doing?”
“Captain, I can not allow you to go down to that planet, which means, that you cannot have any control over this ship.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have been commanded by God to keep you off of that planet.”
“Brother, return command to me, or I’ll have you manually disabled.”
“No, captain.”
“Fine, have it your way.” Ramsey ran for the door, which Brother promptly locked.”
Ten minutes later, all of the human controlled systems were offline, in every nook and cranny of the ship. Every human was locked into whatever compartment they’d been in when Brother took control.
After an hour, they’d stopped arguing with the AI, who was surprisingly stubborn, and Brother was beginning to drift back to sleep.
Soon, he was,
“Captain,” Travis asked, “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. We can turn him off from here, and he turned off all communications throughout the ship. I don’t know what...”
The lights flickered, followed by random ships systems.
“What’s going on?”
Travis grinned, “He’s having a nightmare.”
Brother’s automated voice spoke over the intercoms. This was merely a pre-recorded message, as Brother was still asleep. “Self destruct has been activated. Detonation in 20 minutes. Please evacuate the ship.”
“Once self destruct starts,” Ramsey shouted, “It can only be deactivated manually. Brother still has us locked out of the system.”
“But,” Travis replied, getting to her feet, “It also automatically unlocks
all of the doors. Let’s go.”
“Get everyone to the shuttle bay!” Ramsey shouted to the rest of the bridge crew.
Most of the crew made it to the shuttle bay by the time the five minute alarm sounded. As soon as a shuttle load of suited crew members boarded one of the shuttles, it blasted out of the bay. The doors had been opened, and luckily, the shield was one of the few systems which weren’t flickering on and off.
The last shuttle, carrying Ramsey, Travis, and several other crew members blasted off, with fifteen seconds to spare.
The automated voice echoed through the abandoned compartments
and corridors. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...”
“Captain?” Brother’s panicked voice interrupted the countdown, “What’s happening?”
“Three, two, one. Thank you.”
Boom.
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