The Lifeboat by Keith Fenwick

Author:Keith Fenwick [Fenwick, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Keith Fenwick
Published: 2016-04-17T22:00:00+00:00

Six

It took the MPU an unusually long time to respond. Bruce was left with the unsettling impression its response, or more correctly lack of response, was remarkably similar to what he would have expected from a human being asked a question they were uncomfortable answering or were simply trying to evade. Or a Skidian for that matter – especially one who had been surprised beyond their ability to comprehend. Or maybe one who was just being bloody-minded and difficult, which was another common, human-like Skidian trait.

Bruce felt his blood pressure rise as he sought an explanation for the scene before him and the implications this development entailed. As he did so he conjured up a vision of the MPU standing beside him, absolutely speechless. The answer, when it came, did not really surprise him in the least.

I don’t know, the MPU finally admitted. I programmed the service modules to build sufficient infrastructure to produce fuel for the rockets. But I didn’t commission this, this complex. There is something going on here I don’t understand.

“You don’t say. So if it wasn’t you, then who was it?”

The MPU failed to venture a response, staying stubbornly silent.

Then, without warning, icons flashed brightly in his field of vision then one by one blinked once or twice as though some kind of computer reboot was underway, then faded from view again.

“Now what?” Bruce muttered to himself. He had just got used to the icons, in the same way someone eventually gets used to floaters in their eye, and their sudden disappearance was particularly disconcerting. “What the fuck is going on?” he blurted out loud.

Ngaio gave him an odd look and was suddenly less assured of herself and started to fear for her own safety as it occurred to her Bruce was now concerned about the situation. Something was not going to plan here.

Bruce felt the first hint of real panic begin to surge through his veins. Was the MPU broken? If it was, what did that mean for his immediate future? Things could get a bit grim if they were stuck on a malfunctioning spaceship tethered to a rogue asteroid that had suddenly sprouted an industrial suburb on its surface. Even worse, what might happen if they did get back to Earth and he found himself exposed, without the protection of the MPU? This was starting to look like a typically Skidian shambles. Everything would seem to be going along okay then there would be an almighty cock-up nobody had seen coming and before you knew it, most of the population would be wiped out by an industrial accident.

He checked the main controls, which he didn’t really understood. Myfair’s tuition and basic flight training had been pretty minimalist to say the least. After all, if you had an internal wireless connection to a supercomputer at your beck and call, the manual controls were a bit of an irrelevant redundancy – until you needed them. Until the supercomputer had a fit and decided it was not going to play any longer or the connection to the cloud died.

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