Tales of Em-bot: Stories of Em-bot

By Nicky Penttila

A pair of epic little-robot short stories in the tradition of Ursula K. LeGuin and William Faulkner.

 

Includes:

The Shock - introducing Captain Rhysh and Em-bot, on their first major mission

A Rose for Em-bot - the end of the team's long, long story

 

For readers who love intimate space opera!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicky Penttila
• Release date: Jul 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223658290

Nicky Penttila

Nicky Penttila wrote her first story, a Mayan murder mystery, in seventh grade. But then came gymnastics, math team, and boyfriends. Later came husband, car payments, and a sleep-depriving work schedule at newspapers across the country. But the writing kept trickling out, a story here, a novella there, and finally, a real live novel. And she hasn’t stopped.

Book preview

The Shock

Nicky Penttila

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Wondrous Publishing

Most of us have strategies for staying grounded, and so do spaceship captains. Elders have built, over time, mental rooms—palaces—of calm, resilience, sanity. Younger ones make do with what they can.

Rhysh, the youngest wartime captain in recent memory, relied on her grid. A screen of smaller screens, cycling through, showing the many public areas onboard. The faces were sometimes hard to read but today the body language was unmistakable: everyone walking with a bounce, bumping fists as they passed one another. Three months behind enemy lines and no one the wiser. The new shield had cloaked them well, and would soon cloak the entire force. The Vir didn’t know what was coming.

Daring to smile, Rhysh changed the view to the outside cameras. Shuttle Two had pulled away from the asteroid, its ice-retrieval mission complete, and was heading back to main bay. The boxy craft crossed from the shadow of the asteroid into the lightwash of the dwarf star it orbited. Rhysh had tucked her ship into the asteroid’s superchilled shadow. Once the shuttle docked, with water enough for a month, they could turn for home.

She was already rising, headed for the bridge, when she felt the nudge in her mind, Em-bot reporting in. Ice retrieval crew approaching. One minute to dock. M-143 served as captain’s assistant; the round bot had been with the Victory for decades. It knew every detail of the ship and known space and could talk with both Ship and now Rhysh at the speed of thought. While the connection with Ship was standard, that with Rhysh was still experimental, through a chip embedded in her brain. This mission was also a test of their compatibility. But for the mental strain and occasional headaches, Rhysh considered it a success, too. Luckily, or she’d be booted out of this captain’s chair, successful spy mission or no.

Good. Meet me on the bridge. As she turned from the screen, something snagged in her peripheral vision. She’d waved the door open and stepped into the corridor before it registered. A wrong shadow by the asteroid, and moving.

Ship! she shouted. Call for battle sta—

Everything went white.

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Through the searing darkness, Rhysh felt Em-bot prodding; there, at her hip, and here, in her mind. Quit it! she sent out; no joy. She whispered it aloud, and the prodding stopped.

Captain.

The word screeched through her ears and down every blasted nerve. Why had the bot never upgraded her voice? Something with such a round body and half-round headpiece should make fuller, pleasanter sounds.

Please, may I come in? it said.

Don’t. My head is on fire. Worse than after the surgery, even. The air tasted metal. Rhysh reached for her forehead, to try to rub the pain out, and found she was covered by one of those shiny emergency blankets. She cracked her eyelids open, wincing. Status.

Vir attack. You fell. You were cold. Em rocked in