Sledgehammer: Robot Empire, #4

By Kevin Partner

United they stand. Divided we fall.
The Three Laws of Robotics have been subverted and the Robot Empire is now united under a new and terrifyingly familiar leader. Can the remnants of the human Galactic Empire stand against massed fleets of the machines? Will the settlers of generational ship Dawn find shelter? Will Arla escape from the mysterious world where ancient battles are fought eternally and dead warriors rise from the grave?

Sledgehammer is the fourth book in the Robot Empire series of galaxy-sized adventures. If you like fast-paced science fiction in the classic mould of Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury and Bear, you'll love Kevin Partner's brand new space adventure.
"Absolutely fantastic. I am so excited to finish the series, and curious about where it is going to go."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trantor Press
• Release date: May 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9781393096566

Kevin Partner

Kevin Partner has been programming computers since 1983 when he bought his first ZX Spectrum and learned BASIC. He's been a professional programmer since the mid 1990s and has been a contributer to PCPro Magazine since 1995. Kevin has an Honours degree in technology and has mastered dozens of programming languages. He is a massive advocate of the Raspberry Pi which he sees as the ideal gateway into programming

Book preview

1

Oracle

She recoiled from the vastness of it and almost broke the connection. Bit by bit she became accustomed to the peculiar sense of being in one place and many at the same time. Her gaze swept across the desert and then through the skin of the Intruder and out into space. No, it was not the Intruder, it was Orbis. The world.

She could see figures moving in the sand, gathering around a temple set in an olive grove. She wondered what they were waiting for and, as she asked the question, she knew the answer. Soon Alexander would rise again, as would all those who’d died in his service. The death of either leader, Alexander or Caesar (who, even now, stood guard at the entrance to the cave of the Oracle) caused a reset to happen. The two armies would disengage and return to their starting positions. The slain leader would rise again, with the memory of another painful death to fuel his vengeance. 

Scout came into view when she shifted her gaze to the landing bay. Arla reached out to touch it with her mind, but the ship was cold and there was no sign of any living intelligence there. There was certainly no way to reactivate Scout and, even if she could wake the robot ship, she risked damaging it as she didn’t know whether her probing would destroy its artificial mind.

Out beyond the skin of Orbis she scanned, roaming ever further as she learned to tolerate the sheer openness of it. She felt exposed and vulnerable as she flitted from point to point in the system as if, at any moment, she might be noticed. 

Then she sensed it and, as she became aware, she realized it had been there all along, shadowing her. It was a dark brooding presence but, as she examined it, she realized it wasn’t a mind, it was a maelstrom of desires, needs and feelings. The chief one right now was hunger. She felt a tug from it, as if it were magnetic, and she swung around until she was looking at the local gate.

You wish to leave this system? she thought.

A wave of pleasure such as she had never experienced before swept over and through her mind. Yes, she wanted nothing more than to go there and all she had to do was wish it. She would go to the gate and then to another system where she would feed, and the hunger would disappear and she would again feel this ecstasy —

Arla!

She snapped back into reality and fell to the floor, before leaping up again and throwing herself at McCall. She rained ineffective blows down on the doctor, feeling as though the light had been turned off and all the pleasure and richness drained from the universe.

Hands gripped her shoulder, hauled her away and held her down as she sobbed. As the dark side of ecstasy drained away, she relaxed, the hands loosened their grip and she pulled herself up so she sat against the damp cave wall.

Are you okay?

She opened her eyes, rubbing to bring them into focus in the gloom. Hal? Oh frak - Indira! Arla flipped over and scrambled across a floor smoothed by the footsteps of centuries to where McCall lay, rubbing her arm.

I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened to me!

McCall gave a rueful smile and shrugged. You were lost. I could see it in your face - it was as if there was no-one home. So, I pulled you back. Too suddenly, it seems, and this was the price I paid.

You’re right, I was lost. It’s like a dream now. I could see the whole of Orbis. That was weird enough, but then I went outside, and I was floating in space. That would have been okay too. I thought I’d become used to it. And then I sensed something else, something primal. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say I knew hunger as I’d never experienced it before and, when I turned to look at the local gate, I knew ecstasy. And then you pulled me out of it. I don’t understand it.

A voice from behind them said, I think I can explain.

Wells! Arla spun around to see the robot sitting up stiffly. But she destroyed you.

Wells gave a grim smile. I anticipated her attack and shut down my systems moments before the radiation hit me. I didn’t have the opportunity to do anything other than set a timer to reactivate myself after several hours. I surmise that she is no longer here.

Gaiana is dead, Arla said.

Long live Gaiana, McCall muttered.

Not funny, doctor.

So, you have, indeed, taken on the mantle of the Oracle’s Keeper, Wells said, arching his eyebrows. That was risky.

Arla shrugged. Not really, I didn’t feel as though I had any choice. That globe is the key to understanding what’s going on here. And anyway, she said sheepishly, it called to me.

What do you mean? Wells said, rising smoothly to his feet and coming across to sit next to her.

I don’t know. It was as if I desperately wanted to touch it without knowing why. Like the feeling you get when coffee is on the brew but multiplied a million times.

McCall, who was regarding the globe from the other side, rubbed her chin thoughtfully. It reminds me of pheromones - almost as if there’s a sexual attraction to it.

I’m not turned on by a big glowing orb, Indira! Arla spat.

Hal, whose eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline, said, I think you hit a nerve there, doc.

Arla sighed. Look, it’s not sexual … well, I won’t deny that when it wanted me to head toward the sun, it felt … nice. A bit like that. Maybe.

It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Wells said. There is clearly some sort of intelligence at work that is attempting to control you through the triggering of base desires.

What do you know about base desires?

Wells smiled. My knowledge is, of course, entirely at second hand.

Arla kicked at the dust and began circling the glowing orb, attempting to plumb its depths with her eyes. Funny thing is, I don’t feel any compulsion to touch it now.

Perhaps the controller has given up for now and plans to make the attempt again. Clearly it wishes to leave the system, presumably to refuel at another. We cannot know what its intentions are until it re-establishes contact with you.

I’m not sure it has intentions, at least no conscious ones. I don’t know how to explain it, but I don’t feel there’s any intelligence in whatever it is. It’s more like an animal urge - at least, that’s how it feels to me.

Like a moth to a flame, McCall muttered.

That’s it exactly.

There was silence for a moment as they each collected their thoughts before Wells spoke. It is impossible to reason with something that has no rational mind.

It’s a cockroach, Hal said. We had them in the mines - the only living things, apart from us, down there.

Arla touched Hal on the arm and was pleased he didn’t withdraw. What do you mean?

He looked at her, sadly. It’s running on instinct. I mean, put a cockroach in a grain store and it’ll work its way through the lot of it, given enough time. This ship moves from system to system, finding what it needs, and the destruction is a by-product. There are thousands of inhabited worlds in the galaxy but, give it time… 

And how do we know this is the only one? Arla said.

Wells shook his head. It almost certainly isn’t.

Look, it doesn’t really matter if this ship is a cockroach, McCall said. Even if it’s not sentient itself, it had a builder. And it’s obvious that whoever they are, they have technology centuries ahead of ours. We have to find a way to disable it or we might as well resign ourselves to a new life as parasites on the back of an insatiable insect munching its way through the galaxy.

Colorful language, doctor, Wells said, but, in essence, accurate.

Arla straightened herself up and looked at each of them in turn. For now, we need to make sure we survive for long enough to achieve that. And we have to find a way out of here. You handle the first - I reckon the second is up to me.

2

Dawn

Bex stared at the tactical display waiting for the bad news. Well?

Nothing so far, McLintock said. I think we’ve lost them.

Lopez, recharging status.

Engineer Second Class Sofia Lopez spun around so fast she was forced to brace herself with her hands. Commander, 83% of target achieved.

How long?

Lopez squirmed under Bex’s interrogative gaze. Approximately an hour, commander?

Are you asking me, or telling me?

An hour, commander.

Bex jumped up and joined Nareshkumar at the Navigation Console. Is the escape route plotted? she said, her voice low enough to keep the conversation private. 

Kumar nodded. The answer is the same as the last time you asked, and the thirteen times before that.

I wouldn’t grow a backbone just yet, Kumar. I’m wound up like a coil and you don’t want to provoke me to unspring in your vicinity.

It was a pretty pathetic threat and she knew it, but it was the best she could do in the circumstances.

Bex was exhausted. They all were. Since she’d instructed Nareshkumar to inject his code into the Nav computer, she’d had not a moment’s rest. The riskiest part had been when they’d fired their engines and headed for the gate. The Robot Empire warships that surrounded them could have attacked then and there, but they hesitated. Perhaps the Three Laws still counted for something or, and