Though his memory core was already filled with service modules, specialized task programming, and decades’ worth of experiences, DD still had the unfortunate capacity to keep holding memory after unpleasant memory. He wished he could erase them all, but the experiences were burned irrevocably into his computer brain.
The Friendly compy had been held hostage for years by the evil Klikiss robots, and now they had taken him below the sky oceans of a hydrogue gas giant called Ptoro. The little compy endured day after day within the alien cityspheres, which were hundreds of times more immense than even the largest hydrogue warglobes.
Continuing their quiet treachery against humans, the Klikiss robots engaged in incomprehensible vibrational discussions with the liquid-crystal beings, a sophisticated and unusual form of communication that was part music, part lyrical visual pattern disruption, part something that was beyond DD’s ability to understand. It was far too complex for him.
When he’d been with the Colicos xeno-archaeology team, DD had known his place, known his duties, but the ancient robots had insisted on “freeing” all competent computerized companions from their servitude. With their unnecessary vendetta, the Klikiss robots meant to exterminate all humans. An alliance with the hydrogues extended their power and abilities far beyond what they could have achieved on their own.
Inside the shimmering walls of the fantastic citysphere, DD stood surrounded by unusual conglomerations of exotic geometric shapes that grew in the extreme high-pressure environment. Sensor perceptions were distorted by the laws of physics pushed to their extremes. Entire structures were fabricated from elements that DD normally knew as gases. Quantum effects took hold. Solid materials moved unpredictably, with strange side effects.
DD wanted to depart from Ptoro and find a place where he could be safe again. When he learned about the group of desperate human captives who were held in special chambers of the citysphere, he asked Sirix for more information. The Klikiss robot pondered the question, then answered in a buzzing signal, “Disorientation and fear make for interesting responses. There is little of value to be learned from human beings, but the hydrogues do not concur with us. That is why they keep test subjects.”
DD felt sad for the helpless prisoners the hydrogues had seized over the past several years. “I would like to see these human captives, Sirix. Would that be possible?”
“There is no purpose to your interacting with the prisoners.”
DD pondered a set of responses and selected an answer that might sway his captor. “If I observe these humans in their most unpleasant condition, full of fear and hopelessness, then I may be convinced of the failings you ascribe to their entire race.”
Sirix twitched his segmented insectlike legs and folded his hemispherical carapace back together. “An acceptable analysis. Follow me.”
The black machine led DD up and down dizzying ramps that defied gravity, until they arrived at a shimmering wall that led to an array of jewel-like pressurized chambers, like faceted soap bubbles clustered together. Hydrogues flowed around them, incomprehensible creatures that could turn into gases or fluids, occasionally taking human shape.
Sirix emitted a series of chiming notes, his sensors and indicator lights glowing. The shimmering film wall became transparent. “You may enter.”
“Is it safe to breach the barrier? Those environment cages appear fragile.”
“Pressurized chambers protect the specimens from the hostile surroundings. The captives are safe, for now. If the hydrogues had wished to kill them, they would have done so without delay.”
Sirix sent a time signal explaining when he would return. DD stepped forward, glad for the opportunity to be away from the oppressive scrutiny of the Klikiss robot. He pressed against the resistance of the protective wall, then passed through. As he readjusted his systems to the new environment, he felt a response akin to great relief at the sensation of being in “normal” air pressure again.
The watery light filled with swirls of unusual colors. His body steamed and crackled as he reached equilibrium with a human-compatible environment. DD swiveled his head to observe the sixteen captives huddled in their self-contained shell of relative safety.
“Good Lord, it’s a compy!” said one of the humans, a coffee-skinned young man who wore the wrinkled uniform of an EDF soldier. Consulting his database, DD determined he was a wing commander.
“Great. Our own compies are betraying us now,” said a second prisoner, a female captive with a pinched face and a bitter expression. An ID tag on the tattered pocket of her gray crewman’s uniform gave her last name as Telton.
“Not necessarily. Maybe he can help us get out of here! We can’t stop looking for opportunities, no matter how crazy,” said the first prisoner.
“Crazy is right.”
“I am here against my will, just as you are,” DD confessed. “The Klikiss robots wish to convert me to their cause. Thus far, they have been unsuccessful.”
“What’s going on? What do the drogues want from us?” said a third prisoner.
“Be careful not to believe anything that compy says,” grumbled the dour female captive. “Could be a trick.”
“Hey, give him a chance, Anjea,” said the black EDF officer. “We’d like you to tell us what you know, compy. I’m Robb Brindle. What’s your name, so we can have a real conversation?”
“My shortened serial number is DD. I would prefer that you call me that.”
Brindle rubbed his hands together. “A friend of mine in the EDF was always close to her compy. I’m sure we can be friends. Right?”
“I would like that, Robb Brindle.”
Brindle’s honey-brown eyes brightened. “We’re pretty out of it here, DD. Several of us have already died, and we haven’t even come close to creating a workable escape plan.”
“We’re stuck in the middle of a gas giant!” Anjea Telton snapped at him. “Do you expect to just walk away?”
“No,” Brindle said, frowning at the other prisoner. “But I expect some cooperation in seizing an opportunity if one presents itself. Like DD here. Hey, pal, can you help us get out of this place?”
“I have no means by which to effect a rescue. My body was modified to withstand the pressures outside, but your organic forms could never survive any attempt to depart. I believe that these environment bubbles are the only safe places for you within a gas-giant core.”
For just a moment, Brindle’s shoulders slumped, but then he straightened himself, as if unwilling to show disappointment in front of the other prisoners. “We figured as much, but we had to ask.”
“I am sorry. If I encounter new possibilities, I will attempt to help.” DD took another step forward. “Perhaps you could each describe how you came to be captives. I am as lacking in information as you say you are. Did the Klikiss robots seize you, or were you each taken in hydrogue attacks?”
“Damned black bug robots are worse than the drogues! They pretended to be our friends.”
“Can’t trust robots.”
“No kidding.”
“But we can trust you, DD, right?” Brindle explained how he had been captured during a diplomatic mission while descending in an environment chamber to the hydrogues. Other captives had been stolen from lifetubes in the battle of Osquivel or kidnapped in ships flying between star systems. One, Charles Gomez, had even been snatched from the forested colony of Boone’s Crossing.
DD assessed all of the stories, seeing few common denominators. “I will ponder your situation. Perhaps I can determine a solution.”
“Why bother? We’re all dead anyway,” said sullen and distraught Gomez. “The drogues already killed five of us in their experiments. It’s only a matter of time.”
“We can’t let ourselves think like that,” Brindle said, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder.
DD looked around at the human prisoners. “You have survived so far. My master Louis Colicos always instructed me to be optimistic, while my other master Margaret Colicos insisted that I be practical. I will try to synthesize both.”
“You do that. And we’ll try to do the same.” Brindle gave him a hopeful smile. “We appreciate whatever you can do, DD. And thanks for visiting us. It’s given me the most hope I’ve had since I got here, especially considering everybody probably thinks I’m already dead.”
DD’s time signal showed that his brief visit was nearly over and Sirix would soon be coming back for him. “Perhaps we can prove them wrong.”