The Venusian Androids

By Dale Bains

The mid twenty first century saw Earth succumb to a phenomenon that can only be described as Venus fever. An amazing discovery on that far distant planet had had the effect of unleashing a frantic race to be the first to get to Venus, to be the very first in establishing the presence of intelligent beings on the planets surface and to be the first to exploit the natural resources of the world many described as Earths sister planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491881217

Book preview

Contents

Chapter 1   The Venusian Diamond

Chapter 2   The Aphrodite Colony

Chapter 3   The Super Laser Project

Chapter 4   The Androids

Chapter 5   Mine Accident

Chapter 6   The Controller

Chapter 7   The Venera

Chapter 8   Dave Grant

Chapter 9   The Android Maintenance Department

Chapter 10   The Fury Of Kurt Dosa

Chapter 11   Strange Stirrings

Chapter 12   Altered Behaviour

Chapter 13   The Interrogation Of Android Jack

Chapter 14   Stirrings Of Discontent

Chapter 15   Jacks Case

Chapter 16   The Transformation Spreads

Chapter 17   Kane And Kara

Chapter 18   The Rebellion Erupts

Chapter 19   The Blossoming Of Love

Chapter 20   The Androids Confer

Chapter 21   The Android Communique

Chapter 22   Escalation

Chapter 23   The Android Declaration Of Independence

Chapter 24   The Wrath Of Androtech

Chapter 25   The Battle Approaches

Chapter 26   The Battle Commences

Chapter 27   Change Of Heart

CHAPTER 1

The Venusian Diamond

T he mid twenty first century saw Earth succumb to a phenomenon that can only be described as Venus fever. An amazing discovery on that far distant planet had had the effect of unleashing a frantic race to be the first to get to Venus, to be the very first in establishing the presence of intelligent beings on the planet’s surface and to be the first to exploit the natural resources of the world many described as Earth’s sister planet.

Satellite surveys had long ago indicated the presence of colossal quantities of much needed minerals. This had excited the imaginations and whetted the appetites of large corporations and governmental agencies when they realized the immense bonanza that existed there. Many of these minerals were ones that were already familiar on Earth. Precious commodities such as gold, silver, cobalt, copper, platinum and uranium. These in themselves were worth having as they represented vast practically unlimited wealth. Nevertheless it was not these that was causing the mass hysteria. The frenzy arose from the discovery of something so magnificent that it made all the planet’s other combined mineral wealth seem almost worthless in comparison.

The discovery that aroused the greatest interest was something that had been stumbled upon quite by accident. It’s unexpected delivery to Earth in a small sample of soil collected from the Venusian surface by an exploratory probe caused an overnight sensation that never truly waned. It fired the imagination of the Earthlings like nothing else before. It was a discovery of breath stopping proportions that dazzled the human mind both with it’s dazzlingly beautiful alien beauty and it’s sheer power to open up new dimensions of thought through it utter newness in the annals of human history. For truly, it was human kinds first contact with a genuinely alien mineral gemstone: The Venusian Diamond.

At first it was thought to be nothing more than an exceptionally beautiful gemstone but it soon proved that it was very much more than what met the eye. Its hardness and lustrousness exceeded that of its Earth counterpart five thousand fold: This was due in large part to the immeasurably higher heat and pressure that went into its formation. The luminous glow of the alien diamond made its Earth counterpart look like a dull and lifeless pebble. However, it was quite another special quality that it possessed that truly set it apart and fueled the manic craving for its acquisition amongst human kind.

Unlike the Earth diamond the Venusian diamond possessed an unique quality that set it apart from and way above above its Earth counterpart. Indeed it was this very same unique quality that made the people of Earth lose all sense and reason in their manic quest to be the first to lay their hands upon it.

The Venusian diamond possessed an internal energy source imbued with miraculous, some even went as far as to say magical, properties.This energy showed itself as an intense blue light which sparkled within the core of each diamond. This mysterious internal energy made the jewel extremely radioactive and lethal to all forms of organic life.Paradoxically, the gemstones utterly mesmerizing beauty made it even more alluring and whoever set their eyes upon it had a difficult time reminding themselves that its’ beauty was accompanied by an awesome lethality. When it was first discovered several people, so overcome by the excitement and wonder of beholding a genuinely alien gemstone at such close quarters, were killed when they unwittingly held it in their hands. The sheer beauty of the extra terrestrial gemstone was enough to mesmerize them. This cost them their lives. The radiation emanating from the diamond was sufficient to burn them to a crisp. The sheer intensity of the radiation emitting from the diamond caused the atoms of the body to heat up beyond the point of tolerance. To the horrified onlookers it appeared as if the hapless victims were being consumed by an invisible fire that emanated from a source within their bodies. After these initial mishaps the diamonds were stored in specially designed protective laboratories, and they could only be handled by highly trained people dressed in appropriate protective clothing.

From a scientific point of view the most intriguing factor about the diamonds radiation was its frequency. It occupied a position on the Electromagnetic Spectrum that was previously unknown to science. The radiation that it emitted had an even shorter wavelength than that of gamma radiation. Owing to it’s extremely short wavelength it possessed penetrative powers that exceeded the most powerful X-rays. Yet despite its enormous penetrating power it still displayed qualities found in longer wavelength forms of radiation such as radio waves and visible light. This made it very hard to classify and was thus given an unique classification of its own: The Venusian Diamond Frequency or V-rays. One could say it was on the electromagnetic spectrum but not of it.

Nevertheless as the diamond possessed so many wonderful powers the scientists were not too concerned with finding it it’s proper place on the Electromagnetic Spectrum. They were happy enough simply studying and exploring it’s miraculous properties. The fact that it possessed characteristics of both short and long wavelength electro magnetic radiation only made it more versatile in it’s possible applications… Intensive study of this newly discovered alien gemstone revealed a startling and staggering fact. The energy of the diamond was self perpetuating. In effect, this meant that the diamond could potentially be a source of unlimited power to fuel the homes and industries of Earth. This alone made it priceless.

The prospect of deriving unlimited energy from the diamond greatly increased the level of interest shown in it.The scientists and politicians were fascinated and saw unlimited possibilities for it’s use if only they could gain access to it in a commercially viable manner. Not surprisingly therefore the major corporations on Earth were determined to be the first to gain access to this invaluable commodity and thus be able to harness the unique radioactivity of the Venusian gem for their own purposes. Therein lay the major problem.

There was one primary and all too obvious obstacle in the way of realizing that dream. Apart from the tiny amount on Earth the bulk of the alien diamonds were still deep underground on their home planet: Venus. The major and seemingly insurmountable problem was actually gaining access to Venus itself. No human could possibly survive on the witheringly hot and arid surface of Venus.The only diamonds to have reached Earth were those few specimens, most likely to have been ejected to the planetary surface in some ancient Venusian volcanic eruption, that had been accidentally scooped up by a foraging vessel sent to the planet and thus alerting mankind to their presence on that far world.

These foragers were small automated craft which descended to the planet and scooped up small quantities of Venusian soil for scientific research before taking off again. Furthermore these craft could only remain on the surface for a short period of three hours before the sheer corrosiveness of the Venusian environment rendered them useless. Indeed it was a case of sheer and extreme luck that one of these foragers had even managed to scoop up a few diamonds in the first place. In addition if the craft stayed on the Venusian surface too long it would begin to fold and become compressed due to the awfully crushing atmospheric pressure on Venus. Thus these small craft were programmed to automatically lift off after a specific time period, and this did not allow for more thorough exploration.

The main bulk of the diamonds lay deep underground and to obtain them meant that a full scale mining operation had to be established upon Venus. That meant vast quantities of sophisticated technology and building materials had to be shipped out to Venus and then somehow transferred to the surface in the form of a fully operational mining colony.Therein lay another major problem. To do that required an overseeing intelligence actually on Venus itself. That would ordinarily mean a human presence but the planetary conditions made that impossible.

The average Venusian daytime temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit would incinerate any human who stepped foot on the planet.This extremely high temperature level was kept pretty much constant around the whole planet by the thick, dense and opaque planetary atmosphere which prevented heat from escaping from the surface. Thus making the planet a gigantic greenhouse which loved to absorb heat but was loath to release it back into space Even if it was possible to design clothing that could withstand such an extreme of heat there were several other atmospheric factors to consider as well.

The atmosphere was composed predominantly off carbon dioxide and concentrated sulfuric acid. That made it not only impossible for humans to breath but it was also extremely corrosive. Yet even these two glaringly obvious impediments were not the major atmospheric condition to take into account when planning a permanent presence of the planet surface. No, the major consideration was the horrendous atmospheric pressure that weighed down upon the surface of the planet.The volume of gas in the atmosphere was so great that the combined mass acted like an oppressive blanket. A hideous covering that was determined to hide it’s property from all external eyes as well as to keep what it covered eternally suppressed. The atmospheric pressure on Venus is ninety times greater than that on Earth and would definitely crush any astronaut within seconds. If a human could get to the surface he would be subjected to a crushing downward pressure equal to being pressed under a twenty ton weight. Even more terrifying was the fact that the dense clouds of the thick all pervasive, ever present and totally opaque Venusian atmosphere were made out of concentrated drops of sulfuric acid. Very different indeed from the gentle water carrying clouds of Earth. If all that was not enough the violent electrical storms that ripped through the atmosphere were a fearsome sight indeed. Adding to this already daunting list of challenges that Venus presented were the innumerable volcanoes and volcanic vents on the surface which always seemed to be in a state of permanent activity. Thus Venus clearly was not an appealing environment to work in for any human being and effectively rendered the possibility of establishing a human presence on the planet a complete and total non starter.

The closest humans had come physically to Venus was through the establishment of an orbiting space station. Called the Venera it orbited the planet at a distance of half a million miles and was continually manned by a small crew of astronauts. It main function was to monitor and study Venus from a safe distance and it represented the very closest that humans could physically approach Venus.

Since it was obvious that humans could not live and work on Venus, and remote control machines were of extremely limited value, it was generally agreed that robots were the only answer. The solution lay in developing robots that could survive under Venusian conditions. For an effective mining colony to be established on Venus using robots, and operating without direct human supervision, they had to be robots that could imitate human capability to an astonishingly high degree. These robots had to have the power to make self generated decisions and carry out the necessary actions to ensure an orderly mining operation. These robots had to be possessed of a technical sophistication and performance capability hitherto unknown in the domain of Artificial Intelligence. The degree and sheer complexity of the mental programming that needed to be developed to ensure that was phenomenal and many doubted that it could even be done.

This compelling exigency forced many of the major Earth corporations to invest heavily in further robot research and development. They worked frantically to be the first to come up with a viable solution to the challenges posed by the Venusian environment. Primitive androids were already in existence on Earth. They were off a very basic type which were involved in simple tasks such as butler roles for rich people, acting as chauffeurs and working as security personnel. To develop an android that could effectively work on Venus in the required manner would require a massive technological leap.

Eventually it was the Androtech Corporation that one day announced to the world that it had, after ten years of research and development costing millions of dollars, solved the problem. The VS900 Android was the Androtech solution. Virtually identical to humans in appearance and behaviour it was still nothing except an extremely advanced robot. The carbonized aluminum steel alloy from which it’s skeleton was constructed could withstand atmospheric pressures of up to two hundred times that of Earth. The artificial skin and android internal organs were made out of a specially developed chemical compound that combined the heat resisting ability of ceramics with the corrosion resistance power of a titanium oxide alloy. Within the metallic chassis were many miles of super copper wiring which carried electrical and electronic forces to all parts of the android anatomy. Every centimeter of their internal structure was crammed full of silicon and gallium arsenide electronic microcircuitry. As a consequence of all this ultra sophisticated and advanced technology the VS900 androids were eminently suited to the harsh alien environment they were specifically created for. They were designed to withstand all the hostile environmental forces that awaited them on Venus: The extreme heat, the abundant corrosive elements and the crushing atmospheric pressure that existed on Venus. It was proclaimed by all as a startling technological leap forward. Yet the most stunning feature of the android was the new brain that was developed for the VS900 in the Androtech laboratories.

The hybridized silicon-carbon supercomputer that served as the android brain marked the pinnacle of android engineering. It was purely this special feature that made the whole Venusian project feasible. The android brain was capable of processing data and sensory impressions from the external environment at a staggering speed. External impressions and sensations from the environment were able to be instantaneously interpreted and linked to any number of specific behaviour and reflex modes. Indeed, when compared to humans purely in terms of physical strength and in terms of the ability to interpret environmental data and influences and then immediately link the data to appropriate physical responses the VS009 far exceeded humans.

When they were first exposed to public spotlight people were aghast as to how much like human beings they were. Their degree of mental and logical sophistication was so great they were able to weigh up the pros and cons of any possible human argument and offer any number of possible solutions. They were set many difficult and complex tasks, such as solving complex mathematical or engineering problems, and they excelled. In fact, they looked and acted so much like human beings they were even given human names when they rolled off the production lines and became activated.

Each android was given an individual identity which stemmed from the personality of the deceased human which provided the prototypical mold for each android. This was accomplished by transfusing carbon atoms from the brain of the deceased humans into the memory and behaviour nodes of the android silicon brain. This process had the effect of giving each android a distinct personality but it was in effect a superficial veneer. The likeness to their human prototype that each android possessed was an illusion and not a reality. It was an illusion that simulated a few of the superficial character traits and external mannerisms the human had when alive but nothing more.The Androtech engineers had implanted these contrived human characteristics into the robots in an attempt to impart to each model an individual character and thus in the process attempt to endear them to the general public. The reasoning being that a group of androids which seemed to possess human characteristics and a diversity of personality types would be easier to present to the public. This approach worked for the masses did show these robots much affection and were stunned by their sophistication. Exactly two hundred and fifty VS900 androids were created: From these two hundred and fifty models thirty were designated as control or administrative androids and consequently given augmented programming. The remainder were designated as mining androids destined for the diamond mines on Venus.

Two crucial factors set the androids apart from humans. Firstly, despite their fantastic ability to mimic human capabilities they had no will of their own or any power of independent thought. Their behaviour was regulated by the behaviour control programs in their electronic brains. Thus the VS900 model exhibited an amazingly complex and intricate animation that was virtually human but was still none the less an artificially contrived behaviour control system that simply reacted to external stimuli. Furthermore the routines and subroutines programmed into the android brain by the Androtech engineers were nothing short of genius. There were nearly three million behaviour subroutines incorporated into the android brain, and these were designed to allow them to physically and mentally respond in the designated manner to any condition, situation and eventuality that might arise on Venus. Thus the VS900 was sophisticated enough to give the impression that nothing separated it from human kind but that was all it was, a superficial appearance. In essence they were simply puppets dancing to the tune of their human designers. It was impossible for them to act in any way contrary to their Androtech designed and regulated mental programming. Thus they acted in precisely the way Androtech wanted.

Secondly they possessed no emotions. Emotion is a peculiarly human attribute. The ability to generate genuine human emotion in artificial mechanisms was still beyond the limits of even the most advanced robot engineers. It simply could not be done. Android consciousness was simply a sterile mental continuum which saw things purely in absolute terms of right or wrong, black or white, possible or impossible and attainable or unattainable. The overriding directive that controlled everything the VS900 did was the one Androtech burned into their brain circuitry:

I have only one single reason to exist: To perform the corporations bidding. Nothing else matters.

CHAPTER 2

The Aphrodite Colony

A phrodite was established as a colony from where the androids could mine the Venusian diamonds. The first task of the newly created androids was to construct this colony, which was to be their new home. The specially reinforced Venusian environment resistant building materials were transported from Earth to the orbiting space station Venera. From there the androids shuttled the materials and equipment to Venus on the specially modified fleet of space shuttles that were designated for android use. It took a full two years for the colony to be constructed but when finished it was a marvelous site to behold.Even more incredible was the fact that it had been built not by humans but by robots created by humans to serve human needs. Aphrodite truly was a testament to the technological wonder of the androids and the human genius of their human masters who created them.

The largest deposit of Venusian diamonds was located in the northern continent of Ishtar Terra, due south of the Maxwell Mountains. This determined the location of the site. The gigantic mountain range loomed in the far distance over the sprawling mile long complex. The mines were located at the extreme western end at the perimeter of the colony. The two most prominent structures were the oval shaped buildings that served to house the androids. The larger white building housed the mining androids. The slightly smaller gray structure housed the administrative androids. Around these two central buildings lay other fabrications such as the square peripheral buildings that held all the equipment and supplies necessary to maintain the mining operation at full efficiency. All the buildings in the sprawling complex were connected by large cavernous transparent tunnels. These included the Spare Parts Building, the Diamond Storage Building, the Android Maintenance Department, the Android Education and Information Department and the Mining Android Recreation Centre. The heavily fortified structures that housed the armory and the communications center were linked to the administrative androids’ quarters. No mining android was allowed to get close to these buildings. The space shuttle bay was situated at the eastern perimeter of the site. From there each month a fleet of shuttles would take off to unload it’s precious cargo of diamonds at the Venera. Whilst onboard the Venera the diamonds were stored in a specifically built reinforced lead compartment. The lead served to shield the rest of the space station from the deadly effects of the diamond’s radioactivity. The precious gemstones underwent an elaborate processing procedure whilst in the lead compartment. After they had been processed they were loaded upon another separate fleet of shuttles, which had been specially modified and were also clad in a protective lead coating. These particular transport shuttles were manned exclusively by Androtech human employees and were designed for the sole purpose of shuttling the processed diamonds between Earth