Flight Deck To Robot Army

Bother: My audio sensors detected a voice I recognized. It was Mr. Fullerton.

"Good," he said. "We had enough Antoni but one more never hurts."

I was rotated so my sensor units impacted the floor. My cameras only transmitted static for a millisecond after impact. "Bother!" I cried as I righted myself. Ironically, I meant to output that phrase this time.

Mr. Fullerton's corigator muscles pulled the pieces of hair above his eyes down. "Antoni," he groaned. "I've seen this bot around. He's useless and his programming's damaged. Put him in my office. I'll dismantle him for spare parts later."

My circuits barely had time to process the audio. Had he really just used the word dismantle? I didn't want to be taken apart!

I flailed my arms helplessly as the one called Antoni carried me away.

Simeon: I watched Jeanie focus on the screen of her phone. Amazingly, she hadn't slammed into anything or fallen into a canal as she followed the tracking app.

We were headed to the commercial district of Ocean Princess. I gallantly held open the door that led into the office complex.

"Thanks," she mumbled as she walked by me. Well, I was used to her being single minded she'd been that way since we were kids. It didn't phase me.

My brain almost exploded out of my skull as I noticed what door we stopped in front of. "Dude! I said. "It's our boss's office. Why would that goon have taken Bother here?"

Still not taking her eyes off the screen, Jeanie replied. "No idea," she said. "You still have that encryption breaking app on your phone?"

Thanks Jeanie, I thought, I just hope Order officers aren't listening. I silently pulled out my phone and a usb chord. "Keep it down," I said. "Don't just casually mention my hacking tools like that."

I silently thanked the ghost of whomever had solved P versus NP. It made this a lot easier. There was a light hum as the electronic lock disengaged. "We're in," I said.

Jeanie: For once I was glad Simeon was breaking in to somewhere.

It was true that I disliked Bother. My parents had basically forced him on me because they said I needed more friends. Hah! I didn't need more people in my life.

I had Lisa, Nathan and Simeon for support. Why did I need a little fuss pot AI watching me?

Admittedly, Simeon was a little odd and had almost gotten us killed on a few occasions. Lisa was too busy cooking to even hang out any more. Hmm. Maybe my parents had a point.

"We're in," Simeon said. There was no more time for rumination. I followed him into Garry's office.

Bother was nowhere in sight. I heard a faint knocking coming from a locked over desk cabinet. It was a mechanical keyed one. I guess I'd have to work some magic.

I pulled a thin set of rods from my pocket. "What are you doing?" Simeon asked.

"I'm picking the lock," I told him. "It's time to get low tech."

I inserted both tools into the key hole and carefully rotated them. While it wasn't as fast as Simeon's app, my methods worked. The lock clicked open.

Poor Bother was wedged diagonally on the lower shelf. That really made me angry. "What ass hole did this?!" I said.

The lights around Bother's eyes lit up with dark blue light. "Bother.." he said in a tone that sank as it continued. Crap.

"Oh no," I said. "I'm not upset with you. I just hate to see you suffer. Hang on while I get you unstuck."

It was fiddley work getting Bother down onto the desk. I somehow managed. "That's better," I said.

Bother's eyes flashed white and red. He rolled over to Garry's work console. He tapped a few icons and a map with a line popped up.

It looked like it showed a route to a warehouse not far from here.

Simeon gave a low whistle. "I guess Garry didn't password protect his devices," he observed. "Trusted that digital lock on his door a little too much."

"Bother! Bother!" My robot chirped urgently as he gestured to the console. "I think he's telling us there's something important there," I interpreted. "We'd better go check it out."

After a quick peek, we left Garry's office. The lock hummed and re-engaged. I'd taken a photo of the map with my phone.

We weren't too far from the area indicated. I was about to ask Simeon to work his cybermancy again when he stopped me.

"We can't go in the main door," he said. "According to that schematic there's a catwalk that goes into the same area, the entrance is on the right."

It was a good thing that Bother was so light. I had to carry him up a really steep ladder. Once we reached the top, I set Bother on the deck floor.

Simeon did a quick check to make sure we weren't being followed. There was no one around. I didn't see any surveillance drones. That was a relief.

A few seconds later the upper door of the cargo bay slid open. It led to a narrow catwalk. "Okay," I said. "Nobody look down."