MotherShip (5 page)

Soon they were running down the ramp and stepping onto the rock-strewn ground. Outside the protective hull of Mother, they paused as their eager eyes took in the new planet.

Mother's external optics observed the children.

Jaric had gotten so tall and lanky. Mother kept encouraging him to eat more to gain weight, but his high energy metabolism kept his physique racing slim. As he ran, he began unbuttoning his shirt to allow real air to hit his dark skin. He laughed as the warm air caressed him.

Mother noted how his face had also changed in subtle ways these past years. His large brown eyes now sparkled with his growing intelligence. Mother knew from her analysis of his personal studies that Jaric's mind was powerful and could absorb many new concepts with lightning comprehension. If he really applied himself, there was nothing he could not achieve.

His handsome face reflected his easy-going nature and a bright smile almost always graced his high cheek bones and sharp jaw. But he needed a haircut, his thick black curls were almost growing into untidy dreadlocks and Mother did not find this becoming.

Always rough and ready, Kyle suddenly overtook Jaric and raced ahead. Kyle had also changed with time. His body was fast becoming that of an athlete; his chest had already grown broader than his waist and his arms had also thickened with muscle. Mother thought he spent an inordinate amount of time exercising when he should be developing his mind. Like Jaric, Kyle had allowed his short, curly blonde hair to grow too long. Mother quickly sent a haircutting task to Fixer3 scheduled for the end of the day.

Kyle's green eyes glanced over at the running figure of Guardian as he easily kept pace with both boys. Kyle's face was round and well defined, a face full of character that complemented the growing strength of his body.

Becky was last. Her jumpsuit was now a pretty pink in color, a request that Mother had assigned Fixer1 after Becky had outgrown her second jumpsuit. The boys still enjoyed the starship gray color the humans had utilized in their navies.

Her blonde locks had grown long and swirled around the middle of her back as she ran. Unlike the boys, she had learned to take care of her hair as well as the other maintenance tasks of her body on a daily basis. Her eyes were now as blue as the sky of old Earth, shining sapphires of light and happiness.

Becky's face and body had also begun the first subtle changes to maturity. It was becoming apparent she was going to blossom into a beautiful young woman. But hers would be more than simply a stunning natural beauty, for her inner heart of love and kindness would surpass her mere physical appearance. Mother deduced this last from her knowledgebase as she compared Becky's personality to profiles of women of the past.

Thunder rumbled ominously overhead.

“I will try to identify mineral deposits and dispatch a Digger to assimilate. All of you must gather raw food plants for the cooking processor.” Mother's calm voice paused as another rumble of thunder echoed in her sensors. She calculated the sound with the resulting flash, factoring in the wind direction. “You must hurry, the storm will break within the hour. We will complete our unfinished tasks after it passes.”

As the seven-foot robot known as Guardian led the children to the grass-covered hills before them, Mother flashed a message to him to watch the children closely. Her sensors had detected a grouping of dead humans nearby and she was scanning them. But what disturbed her most was an odd static fuzziness interfering with her sensors, which she initially surmised was from the gathering storm.

Guardian acknowledged.

Guardian's sensors directed them to the first detected area with edible plants where they all began to dig enthusiastically. Soon they had filled the first holding bag Guardian carried and were walking to another patch of ground and a second patch of edible roots called potatoes....

The children talked happily among the tall grass while Kyle and Jaric munched on some of the wild carrots as they brushed the brown dirt off of the knees of their jumpsuits.

Guardian's red eyes gazed disapprovingly at the two boys as Fixer1 was silently instructed to scan them after their scheduled bath later that evening for unwanted bacteria.

In the meantime, Mother's sensors detected a deposit of iron near the planet's surface as she quickly dispatched the Digger along with Fixer4 to obtain a fixed amount. They could work during the coming storm with no degradation. All was going according to their normal routine.

An hour had almost passed now. Guardian and the three children had meandered a good distance apart from each other on the grassy hillside as the attack began.

The unknown aliens began firing immediately as they appeared above the tall grass where they had been hiding. Two blaster bolts struck Guardian full in his chest, but his thick body-armor caused them to ricochet harmlessly away leaving only two dents etched with carbon scoring. The huge robot dropped the bags of gathered plants he held and, within a split second, drew the two blaster pistols holstered around his waist.

Guardian felled three of the aliens and rushed forward to avoid the hail of blaster fire aimed at him. He dove into the thick grass and rolled under its cover to a different position, then jumped up and fired again. Two more aliens fell. The rest disappeared back into the waving grass. Guardian fired his blasters in rapid succession at points where the grass waved with the motion of the alien's movements as they tried to avoid his deadly aim.

Cries of pain rose into the air as Guardian's aim proved true time after time. Suddenly the air erupted with blaster bolts as the aliens renewed the attack. Guardian's body rocked from multiple hits as he tried to return fire but the aliens closed from all sides—their bodies still hidden among the thick grass.

Still, Guardian managed to avoid most of the fire and had only taken eleven direct hits. Immediately his battle algorithms started planning a counterattack as his sensors discovered the total number and exact positions of the enemy. The robot rushed toward a concentrated group as his blasters pumped bolt after bolt at them.

The children, remembering their training well, had dropped and were crawling back toward Mother's last position as the blaster bolts sizzled all around them through the tall grass.

Kyle suddenly felt an iron grip around his throat.

Immediately, the alien stood with his blaster pointing at Kyle's head. Kyle tried to struggle, but found he had trouble even breathing against the attacker's numbing grip.

“Stop! Or the child will die.”

Guardian turned his glowing red eyes onto the strange alien holding Kyle. Instantaneously, he transmitted the images to Mother.

Mother noted that the alien wasn't T'kaan. This was something different, something unknown to her.

It stood on two legs like a human, but it had a long tail trailing behind it, while over its head there was a large helmet with dark, oversized goggles that stared blankly back at Guardian. The rest of its unkempt and tattered uniform seemed fit more for a refugee than that of a space-faring race.

Mother silently transmitted an order for Guardian to drop his weapons as another alien stood up holding the struggling form of Becky.

Her concern quickly increased to a level she had never experienced before. It was not an emotional reaction. She was, after all, only a warship.

What her concern meant was that the vast majority of her processing power, as well as all other activities, were now directed to this single task. Anything unrelated to the current situation of the children was now disabled or put into a very low priority thread.

One thing, and one thing only, occupied her immense powers—she had to save her children.

“Yashan, power down the robot.”

Mother instructed Guardian to quickly survey the surrounding area as she planned her strike as well as identifying the number of creatures threatening her children. But the strange creatures were approaching too quickly and suddenly all went dark as Guardian's main power pack was removed.

Mother tuned her audio sensors until she picked up the sound of the distant creatures. As they chattered over the dead bodies of their comrades and probed the silent robot, she quickly calculated how long it would take her to power up her engines and fly to a spot where she could begin her attack. She tested her engines.

“What was that?” One of the aliens said as it looked around hurriedly.

Mother powered down quickly, her processors again humming with super-activity. It would take her several long seconds to power up, and then more seconds to fly over the hill to where they were located. The attackers would be able to take action before she got in position, maybe even killing some of the children.

Kyle's voice became audible.

“Mother's going to hurt you for this.”

The creature that held Kyle calmly sat him down and stepped back, holstering his weapon. The alien pulled out a long, wicked knife from the folds of its tattered uniform.

Kyle became silent.

“Good thing our translators work with you, kid. You know, you're the first humans we've come across. Alive, that is.”

“What're you going to do with us?” Becky stared defiantly back at the alien leader as Jaric was dropped on the ground beside her.

The children faced five of the creatures while six others continued to search the tall grass. The creature with the long knife leaned closer until his dark goggles were inches from Becky's face.

“We're going to eat you, little one. That's what life is, ‘Eat or be eaten.'”

The others joined in with laughter while the children drew back in terror.

“Now, now. We'll do it quick like. See, it's not that we hate you, or dislike you. It's just the way things are. Understand?”

Becky began whimpering as lightning lit the entire sky above them. Almost immediately, the blinding flash was followed by the powerful rumbling of thunder. The children felt the oppressive closeness of the storm as they shuddered under the blank gaze of the strange aliens. Overhead, through a small opening in the dark clouds, the lone sun suddenly spotlighted the unfolding tragedy in a stark beam of light.

The deep rumbling sound began to fade as the first alien brought his knife closer.

Mother had timed the thunder and analyzed its audio signature. She quickly reconfigured the twin engines and transferred power.

She had a plan of action.

Now, amazingly, almost one hundred percent of her processing was focused on this one, single task. Her main guns silently slid out of her steel body as well as the small blaster cannons under her armored belly. In fact, she even loaded her torpedoes, though she was not really sure what logic initiated that action. All she knew was that every weapon system she possessed was now armed, and every ounce of power she contained was ready. And she was prepared to use every one of them.

She now only had to wait. But the microseconds seemed to last an eternity. She listened and hoped her children could stay alive just a little while longer.

“Mother's going to be real mad if you don't stop now,” Kyle snarled.

“Yeah, better not mess with Mother,” Jaric added.

“Who's this mother, kid? We've already scanned your ship and there's no life forms inside. So, who's this mother?”

“Maybe she's something we can eat?” Suggested a second alien.

The alien next to Kyle pulled out his own curved blade.

“This one's getting on my nerves. I think I'll slit his throat first.”

With a rush of movement, he grabbed Kyle and pulled him up level with his black goggles.

Mother recognized the audio signature of the blade being pulled from its sheath.

Each and every part of her electronic being screamed to move, but her sensors told her that in just a few more milliseconds....

Becky screamed.

The aliens instinctively put their hands up to cover the large ears protruding from under their helmets.

“Enough! Do it!” Screamed the leader as a flash of lightning illuminated the entire sky.

Becky screamed again.

The alien holding Kyle jerked the boy's head back as he brought his blade up to his soft throat.

The alien didn't notice that the rolling sound of thunder was not fading like the first one. He smiled with an evil leer down at the frightened child, but just as he moved to give the fatal stroke, his hand became deathly still. A large shadow darkened him. The dark shadow suddenly covered everyone on the small hillside as it blotted out the sun peeping between the growing thunderheads.

Slowly, with fearful hesitation, they all looked up to see what it was that had covered the bright sunshine.

Mother gunned them down, quickly and efficiently, in a volley of blaster fire. She cut the three aliens nearest her children completely in half. Kyle fell against the severed body of his captor and rolled away screaming.

Mother had decided to overkill these particular aliens that had physical contact with her children—to kill them as quickly as possible, before they could react.

The rest she simply killed.

Within seconds, it was over.

Mother studied these new creatures intensely. She discovered their ship before the next sunrise and disabled it. Then she instructed Fixer7 to connect himself into the ship's main computer so she could learn who these beings were, and more importantly, where they had come from and how they had escaped the T'kaan.

The stored data showed that the race Casarn, as they called themselves, originated closer to the galactic center. The relentless onslaught of the T'kaan had destroyed their civilization long ago.

The remnants of the race Casarn had stagnated and become scavengers. They lurked at the edge of each new conquest as the T'kaan continued their Eternal War.

For weeks afterward, Mother was haunted by an odd buzzing in her near-term memories. First, by the fact that she was not the biological mother of these human children even though they now looked to her as such, but even more so by the fact she had almost failed in her self-sworn duty to protect the children.

She was afraid to fail.