The Counterfeit Captain by Henry Vogel

Author:Henry Vogel [Vogel, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Rampant Loon Media, LLC
Published: 2016-04-30T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

Promotion Ceremony

Following the robots escorting the three kids proved no more difficult than following the robots taking the engine from my starfighter to D Section. The robots never looked behind them and the teenagers were too excited to do anything other than speculate about their new home and the old friends they hoped to see again. Within minutes, I pulled out one of the pads and, other than keeping a casual eye on the group in front of me, gave the pad all of my attention.

My first surprise was the pad started up. For centuries, tech companies have bragged that their systems will last for a thousand years, if given proper care. Apparently, they’re right, though it helps that my pad probably stayed in that cabinet, untouched for close to two millennia. Even knowing the units were built to last through unknown generations of interstellar travel, I felt a twinge of admiration for the designers and manufacturers.

It took me a few minutes to puzzle out the interface. Fortunately, it relied on icons rather than written language. I didn’t know what most of those icons meant, but felt sure I could puzzle some of them out. No doubt a team of trained archeologists could translate two thousand year old text, but I was certain I could not.

Based solely on where the pads were stored—in a workshop—I assumed I held a maintenance pad. I wasn’t going to find officer’s logs, bridge controls, or a handy AI override button, but every maintenance pad I’d ever seen had a map of the ship.

As I tapped through menus, sometimes getting so lost in them I had to turn the pad off and then back on again to return to the main menu, the robots turned this way and that, leading the children farther and farther from the only home they’d known for years. After thirty minutes, the kids’ initial excitement subsided. Unaccustomed to walking long distances, they saved their breath for this journey of unknown length.

After forty minutes, I stumbled across a long list of similar-looking items. Hoping they were ancient work orders, I tapped one. The item opened to a display filled with incomprehensible stuff—but in the lower right corner I found my map. It expanded to fill the screen when I tapped it. Even better, I found several of the standard map control icons used on maps today. A friendly green person walked along a hallway, no doubt showing my current location. A big red arrow pointed back the way I’d come, probably telling me the location of the work order lay in the other direction. Ignoring the arrow, I scrolled ahead of the robots’ path, looking for their destination. It didn’t take long to find it.

A large room filled with row after row of symmetrical symbols was just a couple of a hundred meters straight ahead of the robots. Trying to figure out the room’s function, I zoomed in on the map. A few more details emerged, but I still had no idea what the room was for.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.