Infinity Wars by AA. VV

Author:AA. VV. [AA. VV.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Relato, Ciencia ficción
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2016-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

CONVERSATIONS WITH AN ARMORY

by Garth Nix

ARMORY. OPEN.

Hello? Who is that?

Armory. Open.

Who’s asking, please?

Armory. Open.

Oh, a stupid machine. Go find a human.

What? Armory. Open. Activate entry scanner. [Fainter] Damn it, it’s one of those sentient experiments that got canned in ’34.

Ah. You are human. Entry scanner’s unserviceable, I’m afraid. I file a maintenance request every month but no joy with that, since it doesn’t actually go anywhere. I can hear you perfectly though. All three of you. Though there are some unusual auditory cues… does one of you only have one lung?

OK, you can hear us. Good. Open up.

One lung. And you, the one speaking, when you moved just then, it sounded very odd. Do you have a replacement leg? The foot strike on deck is distinctive. Metal on metal, with an interesting harmonic echo through the limb, suggesting a flawed alloy. Is this some kind of test? A recognizing humans test?

No! It’s an emergency. Open!

An emergency? After all this time? I haven’t been brought up to any kind of alert status, you know. In fact, I’ve been on standby for permanent shutdown fo—

Yes, it’s an emergency! Open the outer and inner doors and begin battleroach initialization! That’s a direct order, armory!

Hmmm, your voiceprint doesn’t match any authorized keybearers—

Let me try, lieutenant. Armory, I am Brigade Sergeant Major Jernas Hokk, serial 282977815, override phrase GLASS PREMIERE DIPLODICUS GERUND VLADIVOSTOK.

Don’t know that one, I’m afraid. It does match the format, though… if I still had a connection I could check it. But I don’t. That was phase six of the twelve step shutdown, removing my comms. I don’t know why they never came back for the last six steps. Had to get something signed off by CG-SCOSAHQ, they said, but they never returned. Bureaucracy! A lot of those forms never made any sense.

[Muttering]

What? Let me just enhance that, I missed it. I’ll play it back and you can tell me if I’ve got it right. Some of my enhancement algorithms are somewhat dusty, I’m afraid. Let’s see:

“There’s an exterior comms port, we could run a cable from the junction back there, let it query the ship mind. Or try and override from the bridge once it’s connected.”

“But we don’t have time!”

“What else can we do, sir? We can’t force our way in.”

“Shit. Can you scrounge up a cable, sergeant-major? Prahn and I will keep it talking. The thing is sentient, after all. Maybe we can convince it to let us in.”

Is that accurate? I must admit I am curious why you don’t have time. As far as I know—though I have been without my external sensors and comms of course—nothing of any consequence has happened here for nine years, eight months, three days, five hours and twenty-five seconds on my mark: three, two, one, mark.

Armory. This is Lieutenant Elias Chen, the one with the prosthetic leg. The system is under attack by unknown aliens in a single, vast ship or conglomeration of ships. Unknown tech. They’re using massed fire of super-accelerated projectiles and our current generation of ships and fighters are not armored.

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