Mac's Lab

By Rom Knight

The planet Arch 3 is inhabited by robots and governed by a Super Administrator, Ram Netstrike. Arch 3 has many laws to have the planet operating and to keep the peace among machines. A brilliant young nextgen, Mac Connect dared to defy the rules and get away with them. This includes his parents' directions. With his trusty friend, Andru Mos, they use their creativity to invent ambitious gadgets deem illegal by the Arch 3 System.

In one of his prohibited space explorations, he made a discovery that will change the course of the history of machines. This will lead to his greatest invention yet and it will become both a burden and a blessing in disguise. To Netstrike, the creation is a biological weapon that is more powerful than the worst computer virus. Can Mac’s creation doom or save the planet?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rom Knight
• Release date: Apr 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311307033

Rom Knight

Rom Gallamoza is an engineer by day, a jack-of-all-trades, a dad and married with children by night. As a fan of science fiction and adventure stories, he had always dreamt of writing one of his own. After a few decades of writing attempts, he finally completed his first short novel for young adults, Mac’s Lab. If he’s not being a dad, you can find him cooking, fixing things, helping with homework, dabbling with computer software, developing apps, or writing the next story.

Book preview

Chapter One

Mac’s lighted round eyes peered through the ship’s canopy. A faint reflection of himself appeared on the glass like a ghost looking back at him. The image was that of a dull gray spherical head. There were three triangular ornaments on top of his head that sloped low on his forehead and went up higher to the back of his head. There was a line on his face almost stretching ear to ear that only produced sounds. It only moved and illuminated slightly when emotions were involved. At the moment, his mouth was perfectly straight as he focused through the window, ignoring whatever apparition was staring at him.

He was a typical elementary nextgen, but ahead of his years. He was only on his fourth level of school. Advancing him to the next level of education would have resulted in disorder within the Nextgen School System. Instead, the System made arrangements to allow gifted machines to learn outside the System, which is akin to playing hooky legally.

His friend Andru, another gifted nextgen like him was different in appearance. His face was not as rounded as Mac’s. The head ornament was a flat triangular piece of metal, slightly raised. A pointed corner faced the middle of his forehead. He had a bigger mouth to go with his big smile. The eyes were round, but bigger, watching Mac keenly, trying to determine what is processing in that rounded head of his.

My mother said that the anomaly used to be in that direction near that other super-sized planet, Mac said. Unfortunately, this is as far as we go before we get into trouble. You know? 

Yes, the time limit. If only we were space miners. Andru said.  

They do not possess A.I. They are servants.

Right, Andru thought about getting around the problem for a moment but decided against it. Did we have to travel all the way here? We broke the rules just by leaving the planet. I thought we can see the same thing with the Giant Space Telescope back home.

It is not the same as being here and seeing things up close with your own eyes. Just let me collect some data I need for tweaking the ship. I want to make it go longer distances and fly at faster speeds. You do not have to come with me next time.

Well, you know me better, Andru said, satisfied with the answer, but before you do your measurements, let us make one more pass around that moon.

Andru gazed through the left side of the spacecraft’s window. There it is. I knew I saw something shiny.

Mac turned the craft around to see for himself. Yes, I see it too. He prepared the descent to the moon officially designated as Arch 4.3 and later landed this ship near a pile of metallic debris.

The standard machines do not possess the same capabilities as the space miners. Mac developed and tested an exosuit that would help him and Andru survive the extreme temperatures and radiation of space. Its flexible qualities allowed it to move with Mac and Andru’s solid shapes and angles of their mechanical bodies.

The craft opened up to allow Mac and Andru to egress. They stepped on the alien moon’s dusty surface and walked towards the crash site as fast as their machine driven bodies could take them.

There is not much left. Andru said.

Mac said nothing. He continued to scan the twisted mess of metals and parts. There are no signs of biologicals.

It may not have been a ship.

Mac thought about for a minute. I think the craft was not transporting biologicals. This one may have been collecting planetary data and transmitting them somewhere. It was also delivering a message. See that disk.

The silver one?

There are two of them. That one is not broken. Mac added. The one broken may have been used to protect the second one.

Alright, but the second one is really scratched up, especially in the middle.

Yes.

Lots of great parts to scavenge. Our ship is big enough to bring most of it back.

I am only taking the disk. There could be information here more valuable than the other junk and I will be the first to discover alien secrets.

No. I am going to figure it out first.

Sure, Andru.

Chapter Two

The speed of Mac’s spacecraft can cover hundreds of millions of miles in an hour. The trip between Arch 3 and Arch 4’s moons was relatively fast considering the incredible distances between the planets beyond Arch 3.

 As Mac got closer to the light gray planet, he started to realize the reason for its color even after making several space trips. The majority of Arch 3 is built on glass, metal, and concrete-like material. The buildings that covered most of the planet were flat. Rarely were there edifices over two stories. However, almost every structure has dark solar panels on their tops. On Arch 3, the two primary sources of power came from the star, Arch Zero and from the surface winds.

Through the ship’s window, he was able to make out the shape of the spaceport with all its white runways crossing one another.

Mac pressed a button and spoke, I am almost there. Please pick us up.

I will be there, replied a voice in the pilot compartment.

Cam was a late middle nextgen in the eighth level of school and acted more like a mature machine ready for the next stage of his operating life. He walked out of his home station, acting as if looking for something. His neighbor Axe, another middle nextgen noticed and stepped outside to investigate. He had a vague idea why Cam was looking upward.

How are he and that other nextgen able to see the GST without your parents?

Our mother works as a control administrator for Space Technology Facility and our dad is a maintenance manager for STF.

The information gave Axe a long pause. In a way he was jealous.

Yes. I understand. Why have you not gone up there?

Well, here is the thing, Cam said. Axe felt a long story coming. There is no way I am going to ride one of those multipurpose or mining ships. They are too slow and bulky. I ordered a kit for a rocket racer and was going to build it myself. The engine compartment was delivered, but it was too heavy to move around. Mac took notice and wanted to help. So he built this large lift servant to help me carry and move the engine and other heavy components.

Good for him.

It worked for a short time.

Oh.

The thing collapsed and took my engine and the rest of the ship with it. I was so mad.

I can imagine.

He wanted to fix it, but I told him to leave me alone and to not to touch any of my things from now on.

I think I would have done something else.

I hate him, but he is still my sibling. And he is also more intelligent than most machines on Arch 3.

I see why he does not do normal things. What else does he do?

Not much else. He only likes to create… Cam noticed a craft descending for a landing at the spaceport. I think I see him. Got to go and bring him back to our home station. Catch you later, Axe.

Yes, Later.

Chapter Three

The Space Technology campus consisted of many plebian rectangular white buildings. At the center stood the massive Space Technology Facility or STF, which was shaped like a circle. Inside the light blue colored building was a great plaza for the machines to gather and socialize during breaks or other social events but those things rarely happened. The citizens that were working there were busy as bees.

 The normal cycle of activities was cut short suddenly as a big loud voice bellowed overhead through the STF’s public announcement system. Gently shut down all activities. All workers must report to the gathering area immediately.

 He is here. Super Administrator Ram Netstrike has arrived.

 Sera Connect formulated a response but did not verbalize. Great. Now we are going to be behind schedule even more.

 You are not energized? Her co-worker, Rosi said.

 We can always use a break from all our demanding actions. Sera said dishonestly. Maybe he will have a solution to make the Giant Space Telescope see better.

 Yes, he will.

You could not tell that I was lying? Sera voiced in her head. Your secondary senses have not developed.

 A mass of similarly formed metallic bodies moved out of the building and collected at the open area nearby. The only distinct features were on their heads. Each citizen has unique ornaments. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to tell them apart. A towering figure stood at the middle on a platform that made his two times size even taller. He had the trapezoidal shapes typical of all super administrators, but only larger. The top part of the body is larger and gets slightly smaller towards the bottom. The head is similar but more compressed. There were two lighted eyes on a long curved, but rectangular piece. An unlighted divider in the middle of the eye section made it look like a third eye. Triangular earpieces bulged straight out with short antenna sticking upwards. A long black mouthpiece highlighted the bottom of his face. He is Ram Netstrike.

 Below him, were support administrators comparable in design except they were one and a half times the size of the average citizens. The support administrators’ heads have features and ornaments that varied wildly to determine specific functions. Also surrounding him were senior administrators and managers of the STF. Sera was not invited.

 Ram turned his head, three hundred and sixty degrees to scan the workforce of STF.

 "Workers of the Space Technology Facility, it is an honor to be in your presence. Thank you all for your services. I would also like to thank STF Director, Vern Brown for hosting my staff and me for this occasion. I would like to apologize in advance for taking you away from the important work that you do.

 With improvements on the GST, we will be able to identify planets that are suitable for colonization. We are not there yet and for the time being we will explore the planets in our own Arch 0 star system.

 As you know, Arch 3 is running low on resources. Gathering resources from planets and other solar bodies in this star system cannot keep pace with our consumption. We also do not have the technology to travel faster than light to visit outer systems; presently, it will take us many thousands of solar cycles before our explorers discover a planet that we can colonize for our future generations.

 Extracting resources from other planets virtually expend the same amount of energy and materials we put in. Some of the resources we require are in very cold planets. What supplies were able to produce are only good enough to sustain our normal operating lives.

 As you know, if we do not get the elements we need to grow and maintain our world, I am afraid Arch 3 will eventually go into a hyper sleep state."

 Among the large crowd, the sounds of concern and surprise filled the air simultaneously.

 Sera softly said to Rosi, Interesting way of saying our planet is doomed.

 He is not saying that at all, Rosi quietly fired back. Ram is a conservationist. He is looking out for our survival.

 Never mind me. Sera pretended to act if corrected.

 Please calm your alarm state. Ram Netstrike continued. I have a plan to maintain our society forever if you follow my directives.

Chapter Four

On the mass commute home, Sera was anxious to be with her unit.

 After a fixed amount of working hours, all workers were allowed to go to their home station and rest their weary components, especially their over clocked processors. For even machines degrade over time, especially with long operating hours.

 She thought that the Netstrike speech started off well, but later became long winded. The information that was presented was really nothing new. The delivery was different because it was via voice and face to face. She appreciated that the Super Administrator showed that he cared for the workers, including local administrators like her. But the timing of the speech was very inconvenient for her. She had to find time to make up work on the next day since overtime was not allowed, mainly for energy conservation. Normal work time was already taxing to her central processor.

 It took eighteen point two minutes to walk from the mass train to her home station. Today, it took nineteen point five minutes. She noticed the dirt and stain on the white two story building, its roof slightly angled to capture solar energy during the day. After a momentary pause, she entered.

 "So how was