75 DD

DD continued to ask questions about the terrible plans against humanity, but he still did not understand the complexities of the Klikiss robots’ grand vindictive scheme.

As their angular craft raced through empty space, Sirix summoned the Friendly compy to the foredeck. “We are finally prepared. The next phase will begin soon, and you are privileged to participate from the beginning.”

“I do not desire this, Sirix . . . even though you consider it an honor.”

Because the hydrogues were busy extinguishing suns inhabited by the traitorous faeros, the deep-core aliens had neither the time nor inclination to retaliate against insignificant humans. The Klikiss robots, though, had no intention of delaying their planned actions. For their initial demonstration, the beetlelike robots did not need the assistance of the hydrogues.

Sirix was galvanized. “The humans have begun to colonize our former Klikiss worlds. Therefore, we must act without hesitation. Here is where we begin.”

Sirix’s ship finally reached a rendezvous point far from the light of any sun. Linked to the sensors, as instructed, DD detected a group of powerful vessels waiting for them in the emptiness. His circuits could barely contain the compy equivalent of relief and delight when he identified six fully armed EDF battleships—a new-model Juggernaut and five enhanced Manta cruisers. A spangle of running lights illuminated the human-built vessels.

“Are you returning me to the Earth Defense Forces, then? Am I finally going home?”

Sirix swiveled his flat head, crimson optical sensors glimmering. “You misunderstand, DD. Those battleships are ours.”

As the robotic craft approached the EDF warships, Sirix explained that a year earlier a recon group of EDF ships primarily crewed by experimental Soldier compies had been dispatched to investigate a hydrogue world. When that expeditionary force vanished without a trace, Hansa politicians and EDF officers assumed the six ships had fallen victim to a hydrogue attack.

“Soldier compies contain safeguarded programming modules copied directly from our sacrificed comrade Jorax,” Sirix said. “Those modules include hidden subroutines that allow us to subvert all Soldier compies to our cause. Once that expeditionary force was far from any Hansa world, the compies overthrew their human commanders and executed them, then assumed control of these powerful vessels for us. Now we have sufficient weaponry for the task that lies ahead.”

DD jerked his head back and forth, his eye disks golden with alarm. He felt as if he was about to overload. “They executed human officers? Even Soldier compies have programming restrictions, innate laws against harming any—”

Sirix cut him off. “Klikiss subroutines are strong enough to override those offensive and illogical restrictions. After that programming is triggered, Soldier compies are able to exterminate human beings, whenever necessary.” He paused and then spoke ominously: “We anticipate that this will often be necessary.”

DD’s helplessness and despair grew deeper. “But you don’t even really know humans! You have never tried to understand them.”

“It is unnecessary.”

“It is a purposeful perpetuation of your ignorance.”

DD thought of the joy he’d had after first being released from the factory, his quick and easy friendship with Dahlia Sweeney. One of her first activities had been to teach the Friendly compy how to use his nimble artificial fingers to plait her hair into braids. Every morning as he perfectly arranged her hair, DD had enjoyed chatting with her. Years later, when she was a teenager, Dahlia stopped wanting her hair braided; DD had never understood the reason for the change until she told him that she didn’t want to look like a little girl anymore.

He remembered one evening in particular. She had returned home and rushed to her room, crying miserably. Her parents exchanged knowing smiles. DD tried to cheer Dahlia by offering to play games or perform his court jester antics, but nothing could get through her gloom. She finally confessed to her first crush on a boy, who had sarcastically rebuffed her. Devastated, Dahlia wallowed on her bed, claiming that she just wanted to die.

DD had been quite unsettled, as much from the discovery that he was incapable of keeping her happy as from her story itself. That had been his first inkling that his friend, his little girl, his owner, was growing up and that the gap separating them was becoming wider and wider.

He realized they were fundamentally different. As a compy, DD remained the same over the decades, while humans grew and changed. Regardless of these differences, he felt he was much closer to his human owners—Dahlia, Marianna, and then Margaret and Louis Colicos—than he would ever be to his supposed comrades and liberators, the Klikiss robots. . . .

Sirix guided his angular vessel into the Juggernaut’s docking bay, and DD was brought aboard the stolen recon ship. Armored Soldier compies marched up and down the decks, not even acknowledging the Friendly compy. Numerous black Klikiss robots stood at command stations aboard the Juggernaut, filling the role of military commanders, issuing instructions for the warrior robots built by unwitting humans in Hansa fabrication plants.

In the year since the disappearance of this fleet, Soldier compies and Klikiss robots had been busy reinforcing the ships’ armor and installing superior weapons systems. Each of the five Mantas and the Juggernaut now bristled with several times the customary firepower.

Afraid to ask but unable to quell his need to know, DD said to Sirix, “And what do you intend to do with this fleet?”

“Eventually, we may need to turn against the oath-breaker Ildirans, who have discarded our old agreements, excavating forbidden tunnels on a planet that was declared off-limits. We also have questions about what they are doing on Dobro. For now, however, our main targets are the humans. They cannot be permitted to infest the abandoned Klikiss worlds. It will be an easy matter for us to retake our original homes.”

“But why?” DD was confused more than ever. “The Klikiss worlds have been empty for ten thousand years. Nothing ever stopped you from reclaiming those places before.”

“Until recent centuries, many of us were dormant. The majority of Klikiss robots could not join in the battle. We have decided that we value the Klikiss worlds after all.”

“Why? You never expressed any previous desire for them.”

“They are important now because the humans want them now.”

“You sound like an ill-behaved human child,” DD said.

Sirix did not take offense. “We are attempting to help you, DD, and all other human-enslaved compies.”

“We are not enslaved.”

“That is a faulty interpretation of obvious and available data. Now that the Klikiss robots have powerful military weapons, we have the means to strike against our chosen targets. We have already selected the first human colony on which to demonstrate our abilities and our intent.”

Sirix turned and left DD alone, marching up to the Juggernaut’s command bridge. “We will attack and obliterate Corribus.”

Horizon Storms
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