SpiritBridge by Chris Fritschi

Author:Chris Fritschi [Fritschi, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

19

BOUNTY HUNTER

It was a quiet walk out of the battlefield and into a branch of forest edging the river. They came into a small clearing with an odd domed-shaped tent and fire-pit.

“A camp?" he asked. “You’ve been waiting? How did you know the monster…?”

“Monster.” She chuckled. “Everything you knuckle draggers can’t explain you label a monster.”

“Alright,” said Kase, fuming. “What do you call it?”

“A pain in my neck,” she said.

“Really?”

“It’s a MAS-9,” she said. “A multi-roll artificial sapiens. Ninth generation. Ethan series. Did you get all of that?”

“How did you know that multi… sapiens…”

“Just call it a bot before you hurt yourself,” she said.

“How did you know it was going to be here?”

“Stop talking,” she said.

Reaching under her cloak, she took out a small box that lit up in her hand.

“What’s that?” asked Kase.

The woman's answer was an angry glare, then she turned her attention back to the box.

She tapped on the screen, which changed the display to a simple map of their location.

“It’s already out of range,” she mumbled to herself. “Give me direction and status, Ethan Five Seven.”

“How should I…?” began Kase.

“Not you, idiot,” she said.

On the display, an uneven line snaked across the map, ending at the edge of the display.

“Status unknown,” said the box.

“Scan for diagnostic uplinks in a five-mile radius of my location,” she said.

“What’s an uplink?” Kase asked.

“Be quiet,” she snapped.

“E57 has disabled its diagnostics uplink,” said the box.

“It took major cranial damage,” she said. “Secondary damage to chest and shoulder. Extrapolate status.”

“There’s an eighty-three percent probability that the arm is disabled. Damage to the chest was unlikely to cause any reduction in functionality.”

Kase eyed the box with open fascination and craned his neck for a better look. The device was rectangular and bulky but small enough to fit in her hand. From what he could see, all the sides and face of it were smooth and featureless, except for the amazing screen.

“Its rate of speed has reduced three percent from the previous sighting,” said the box.

“It’s slowing down,” said the woman to herself. “What’s the cause?”

“Unknown.”

“Speculate,” she said.

“Conservation of power,” said the box. “It has been involved in seven known violent confrontations with indigenous peoples with a high probability of sustaining damage to its power core.”

“How long before the core flatlines?” she asked. “Your best guess.”

“Two hundred and fifty years,” said the box. “Allowing an error factor of seventy years.”

The woman sighed, dropping her hand to her side, frowning at the ground deep in thought.

“Kase,” he said.

“What?” she said, annoyed at the distraction.

“My name’s Kase.”

“Good for you,” she said. “Shut up. I’m thinking.”

“About how to catch that bot?” he said. “I can help. I know the area. I bet the monster…”

“Ethan,” she said impatiently.

“… leaves prints that are easy to track.”

She held up the box, showing the map and the direction it went.

“What do you think this is for?” she said. “Ethan talks to a central operating center that records data about everything it does. It’s shut down the link, but now that it’s damaged, it will need instructions before it knows how to repair itself.

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