The Breakout Ship
()
About this ebook
Not true.
The creatures on board would have given us all the technology they had, if we had asked.
We killed them!
The stolen technology allowed mankind to 'Breakout' of the solar system and once we were into the galaxy we found nothing but empty dead worlds and many unseen dangers.
Read more from George H. Y. Watson
The Last Covid: Warriors of Albion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterplanetary Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI, Immortal Robot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire of the Green Sun Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Breakout Ship
Related ebooks
The Pandoran Wars: Prelude and Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Winged Men of Orcon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlab City Blues: The Ballad of Bad Jack Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warpaint Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stellar Civilization: The Odd Planet: Stellar Civilization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Spy In Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpindown Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spindown: Part One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coming Night: Wild Hearts, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOperation Chaos and Operation Luna Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShip of Plague: An Agent of The Emperor Science Fiction Short Story: Agents of The Emperor Science Fiction Stories, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive by Five Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Thieves on the Long Dark Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEndpoint: Book 1: Day Zero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guardians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fear Masters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kota Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadows Out Of Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScorched: The Legion: Savage Lands Sector, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlien Scream Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Winged Men of Orcon: A Complete Novelette Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNix Nine: Outlaw's Mission (Sci-fi Series) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Walls of Eryx (Fantasy and Horror Classics): With a Dedication by George Henry Weiss Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Love and Death in the City of Bone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Valley of the Doyles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bureau Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scanned Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science Fiction For You
Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England: Secret Projects, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firestarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Authority: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Deep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rendezvous with Rama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Breakout Ship
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Breakout Ship - George H. Y. Watson
George H. Y. Watson
The Breakout Ship
ISBN: 9781370338818
This ebook was created with StreetLib Write
http://write.streetlib.com
Table of contents
DOCTOR MECCANO
R.M.D. 569
FLEET
ARTEFACT
THE EARTH HUSBAND
SIBELLA’S STARS
THE OLDIES
Thank You.
About The Author.
Other Books by The Author.
The Expeditionary Fleets flew from Earth in all directions, desperately seeking signs of alien life.
No life was ever found, only the remnants of long dead civilizations.
But there was a bounty in the old ruins; Alien technology that could be duplicated and sometimes used for the greater good of mankind.
Sometimes.
DOCTOR MECCANO
Through the streets of Seattle we marched in perfect synchronicity with each other, a feat achievable only because we were robots. From the Interstellar Navy Base we headed towards the distant shuttle field where we would be taken up to join the 18th Expeditionary Fleet on its first voyage to Core-Star 33.
Not far in front of us were the fifteen thousand marching humans who were also Navy personnel, but volunteers. They had preceded us just minutes before and the thronging celebratory crowds were still throwing ticker tape and flowers to the brave sailors. Occasionally a civilian would run amongst the marching heroes to present one of them with either a garland of Victory-Flowers or a gift to comfort them on their long voyage.
Above us the midday sky glittered with the bright stars that were our waiting spacecraft readying for departure. We were ninety-four robots of varying designs marching four a breast, each with the grey letter ‘P’, denoting Penal Servitude, upon our left breast. We must have looked a sorry lot. I alone also had the red cross of the Medical Service on my right breast. We had all been naughty robots, possibly bad robots, but too costly to destroy.
Sending us on a nice trip in a spaceship was an ideal solution.
The enthusiasm of the populace had nearly dissipated by the time we ‘Tail End Charlies’ appeared, but a few individuals still hung about to distribute largesse. The Navy was known by many to be a stern, sometimes cruel master and the civilians looked upon the robotic prisoners with compassion. Several of my colleagues by now wore garlands of flowers and our guards took little notice of the civilians as long as we kept up our precise pace and position.
I saw a familiar figure at the side of the road, his head hooded lest he be recognised by the scanners of the Navy drones that constantly hovered over us. As I came abreast I saw his familiar human visage.
Hey buddy, here and good luck!
he shouted at the RoboMechanic in front of me and threw a garland around its neck. The guards were oblivious.
To me he shouted, Hey Doc! Something to read on your trip!
but the expression on his face was at variance with the cheerful wish.
A familiar book was thrust under my arm but I dare not acknowledge him. Inside the book I would later discover was a scribble, To my Dear Friend, Doc 569. Good luck from Karl.
We left the city limits.
To each side of us appeared fields of tall grass so emerald and lush that the un-repairable glitch in my program-code filled me with longing. I wanted to run, free and unfettered to immerse myself amongst the living flora before it was too late. Alas, the nearby presence of Combat Ready Military RoboPolice, said ‘No chance.’
For a while I marched on, thinking of my human friend and how I, a fully trained and programmed Doctor of Medicine, had ended up in my present predicament.
It was not long after my commissioning in 2437 A.D. as ‘R.M.D. No.569’ (Doctor of Medicine: Robotic. No 569) that I was posted to the Central Medical of Luna Dome 1. The Administration of C.M. liked to use the old human terminology; therefore because I was ‘newly qualified’ I was on the lowest rung of the medical ladder, so to speak. This meant that my patients belonged to the lower working castes that generally possessed no health care or insurance provision.
Eventually, after two hectic years of tending the sick in the worst areas (we were not allowed to use the term ‘slums’) of the Dome, I was looking forward to moving onto the next rung of the medical ladder. This would be with an assignment to me of a patient list taken solely from the Dome middle-class castes.
However, my fall from grace began before this could happen.
I had received a routine instruction to see a patient who lived in the upper levels of Luna Dome One. In those days I was a naive robot, true to my programming and the Hippocratic Oath. As green as grass some might say, although I have yet to feel real grass between my metallic fingers.
Heat rises and the upper levels of the dome were humid and uncomfortable for humans, but that was what kept the social rents low. I had left the last elevator on level two hundred and used the public stairs that were the only way further up. On my way I passed many tired and wheezing humans as my tireless servos took me up and up.
Eventually the human traffic petered out just as I reached my destination, level three one six. I scanned the empty walkways for abode 31624 and my internal Nav told me it was at the far end of the gantry ahead and the only occupied habitation unit at this level.
I now noticed that the lights were out and I switched to infra-red. It was then that I saw them.
Preds!
There were six of them slouching in the dark doorways and I could feel their hunger for the meds I carried in the leather bag in my left hand. The bag itself was an anachronism as I could carry cargo internally, but the human patients liked the traditional vision of a doctor even if he was a Robotic Humanoid in a not too fetching brushed grey-steel.
Robo-Fear gripped me as I contemplated my early and brutal de-commissioning! Robo-Docs had been found before, murdered, stripped to their bare chassis, all useful meds and body parts torn away.
I was used to the lower types of humans verbally abusing me as I travelled on my rounds. Some younger ones would dance behind me shouting the derogatory term ‘Doctor Meccano’ that hailed from a long ago primitive mechanical toy. I always ignored them, my programming declining to engage.
But this was different.
I stepped back towards the stairs but stopped as I detected two new heat signatures not far below. Immediately I sent a distress call to the nearby communication grid, but no connection confirmation was forthcoming. In retrospect, even if my call had been transmitted, the Dome Police would not have hurried. I was after all, only a Robot.
The Preds moved closer until they were a few feet away and I detected several tools in their hands with goody bags to carry the valuable parts away. These were experienced dismantlers and I came to the logical conclusion that I was done for. This would be an inconspicuous end to my short, undistinguished career and back in Central Medical, Matron, who was in charge of all the new Doctors, would not be pleased!
Down the alley door 24 opened and closed in the gloom but I thought no more of it.
The main Pred pushed his face into mine and I instantly diagnosed chronic solvent abuse and low level skin cancer. My prognosis was: No more than eight years life remaining for this beast without treatment and because such a creature had to exist outside of mainstream society treatment would not be forthcoming.
Nice bits Mechy, should get me a pretty penny from the Mechas,
he smiled, banging a joint splitter against my thigh, I´m gonna enjoy this.
Two of his scruffy cohorts grabbed my arms, knowing that because of my speciality I had no more than human strength. They too suffered from minor illnesses that if untreated would lead to an early demise. They tittered to each other with amusement at my helplessness, gripping my arms tighter as the Main-Man slid the joint-splitter up to my knee, ready to push it forward and tear my lower leg off. Visions of torn cables, hydraulic lines and nano-tubes filled my mind with terror. I could feel my voltage stabilisers overloading in preparation for any short circuits and I felt shamed with my total failure to survive as a RoboDoc no more than the proverbial ‘five minutes’.
Again I stared into the face of the main Pred as he leered in sadistic delight, contemplating the destruction to come.
All of my systems were running on overload and I actually saw the projectile enter through the creature’s temple and its head momentarily expanded slightly like a balloon before returning to normal. The Pred maintained his brutal expression until his facial muscles slackened as his miserable life-force dissipated and he slumped down. Then I heard the tailing off of a loud booming noise and the joint splitter clanged onto the grating. In rapid succession there were three more loud booms and the two Preds holding