War-Bot: DroidMesh Trilogy, #3 by Billy DeCarlo

Author:Billy DeCarlo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction robot android utopia sci-fi Artificial intelligence ai clones romance love Colonizat
Publisher: Wild Lake Press, Inc
Published: 2018-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

23 Hugo is Dead

THE FAMILY RECONVENED at the dining pod for breakfast, all somewhat bleary-eyed. Harley noticed Susan and Isaac glancing upward at the dome.

“Where’s Shane?” Isaac asked.

“Still sleeping,” Susan answered. “He didn’t get all his beauty rest last night with all the excitement.”

Isaac got up and walked to the dome wall. “Hugo wasn’t on my dome this morning. Do you think he’s still out there, Da? I don’t want you going out unless we know where he is.”

Harley got up. “Well, let’s have a look.” He walked to the service pod with Susan and Isaac. They saw Hugo, still standing outside, his finger on the intercom button. His head was tilted at a severe angle, lying on his shoulder.

“Hugo is dead,” Isaac said. “How sad. I feel bad for him, Da. Can we bring him in and rejuvenate him?”

“Don’t be dramatic, son. You know he’s just run-down,” Harley said.

Susan moved closer to examine the android, placing her hand on her chin in a pensive pose. Harley knew her wheels were turning and motioned to Isaac to be silent.

“We could use him,” she said. “What if we bring him in and strip him down like you did with Tim and built him back up clean?”

Harley thought about the idea. “Well, Tim was a BrainMesh test android. He was already stripped down to a shell firmware, without any of the patches Betsy applied. We can’t change Hugo’s firmware without her crypto key. Our friend out there has already been compromised.”

“It would be good to examine him...see what’s damaged and whether it’s fixable,” Susan said.

Harley considered it for a moment. “Excellent idea, Susan. I’ll gear up and drag him in here.”

“We better tie him up,” Isaac said. “What if he comes alive? I’ve seen zombies do that in the old sci-fi movies!”

They laughed at the idea while they finished up their meal.

“I better turn the intercom back on,” Harley said. He got up and pressed the sensor. The complex announced that there had been several missed calls. He checked the list.

“Ms. Tillis has been trying to reach us. I’m going to hit the callback and see if she’s available.”

Moments later, the leader’s pixelated image appeared.

“Sorry,” Susan said. “We’ve had a rough night—a visit from a zombie android cleaner shook us all up.”

“Heavens,” the leader said. “Are you all alright?”

“Yes,” Harley said. “I shut down the maintenance portal, and he ran out of power while standing outside. Why were you trying to reach us?”

Ms. Tillis took a moment to collect herself. “I’m sure you’re aware that the domes are gathering silt. The population is getting warnings about their power supplies. They’re becoming scared. Like you’ve seen, the cleaners that do show up are scaring them half to death.”

“We need to make more helmets and do it ourselves,” Harley said. “I need a way to get more of the methyl compound, get back to my home lab, and build more suits. How many suits do you think we need?”

Ms. Tillis did some quick math on her tablet.

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