The Robot Queen of Io
The Robot Queen of Io
Robyn breathed the seaside air with a satisfied sigh. She closed her eyes, taking in the breeze, listening to the surf, and to the cries of the seagulls. She knew that her senses were completely artificial, a series of digital data points, but she tried to forget that fact. She didn’t even need to breathe, really. Her artificial body could function just fine without oxygen, even in total vacuum. Still, she was drawn to this experience by the fragmented memories of back when she had been human. It just felt right. Robyn didn’t know if she had ever been to Europa before. Maybe some subconscious part of her was remembering a past experience here. Maybe it was a lingering part of her human heritage, pining for the Earth.
Europa’s tourism department presented that moon as the first “fully terraformed” world beyond the asteroid belt. It was mostly true, too. The air was human-breatheable and usually maintained a comfortable temperature. For the most part, it had a pleasant Mediterranean climate, made possible by an imported atmosphere with a hefty mix of greenhouse gasses and ozone, as well as the massive constellation of solar mirrors that shone reflected sunlight onto the surface. The mirrors created a paradoxical phenomenon: “Day” was when the surface of Europa faced away from the Sun, towards the mirrors. “Night” was when the dim, distant Sun was in the sky. And then, of course, there was Jupiter itself. The colossal planet dominated the sky, itself a variable source of both light and radiant heat.
The system wasn’t flawless, though. The atmospheric mix needed constant, costly adjustments. When Europa and its mirrors passed through Jupiter’s shadow, roughly once every 85 hours, the sudden plunge in global temperatures, then equally sudden rise when it emerged three hours later, caused all sorts of issues that were the stuff of planetologist nightmares. Most significantly, the thermal fluctuations often created nasty storm systems that were an ongoing source of property damage. On top of that, the introduced ecosystem was a hot mess of extinctions and runaway growth, in seemingly equal measure.
Yet, despite these difficulties, Europa was a success story. It was one of humankind’s greatest engineering achievements, unprecedented in scale and cost, financed by the incredible resource wealth of the Jovian system. People could walk outside and breathe without an environment suit. They could look up into a blue sky with white clouds. They could listen to real birds, hear the rustle of real trees blowing in natural wind, and lay in real grass. Humans had turned Europa into their world, and nearly 800 million of them called it home. And because of that, it had emerged as the economic, cultural, and military superpower of the Jovian system.
Robyn sighed. This “shore leave” was the fruition of a weeks-long campaign of gentle prodding, appeals, and eventually, carefully-worded demands to Miranda, her employer and friend. Miranda seemed to struggle with the concept of taking breaks from work. REAL breaks, not idle cabin time in their spaceship as they orbited towards some new destination. Miranda was addicted to the grind, and, as a fellow roboticized human, didn’t actually feel physical fatigue. Robyn had needed to convince her that there were real benefits to finding a work-life balance, even when you’re technically not a living thing.
Finally, Miranda had relented, and they had come to Europa for ten days of R&R. Robyn had gone clothes-shopping, attended a concert, slept with a guy she met at the concert, gone on a guided tour of a science museum, gone to several beaches, gotten a lapdance, gotten the dancer’s contact information, gone shoe-shopping, and upgraded her internal power cell. Robyn was taking full advantage of her new lease on life, now that her mind and memory had been somewhat restored.
But all good things must come to an end, and soon, Robyn would catch a shuttle to Pwyll Spaceport to meet up with Miranda and her personal assistant droid Beth, to board the CAT and get back to business. The Clear Air Turbulence, or CAT for short, was Miranda’s pride and joy. A former military interceptor, the now-disarmed CAT was the MVP of Miranda’s high-speed transport business, ferrying passengers and cargo around Jupiter’s dozens of moons at speeds that made most haulers look like they were standing still.
Robyn took it all in. The sights, the sounds, the smells. She would remember it forever, if she could help it. Stored in perfect fidelity as data she could access whenever she wanted. Even though the initial experience of becoming a machine had been traumatic, it had its benefits.
2_______
“So it’s pronounced Pwish?” Miranda asked Beth, skeptically.
“Yes, Captain,” the fembot, sharply dressed in a uniform and following two steps behind her owner, responded without emotion. “Though many people mispronounce it.”
“Well yeah, because it’s spelled like… Pwyll.”
“The name is Welsh, Captain.” As if that explained anything. “The spaceport is named after a legendary figure who…”
“That’s enough, Beth.” The fembot immediately clammed up. Miranda turned her attention to her information overlays. With her vision clouded by data, she gave control of her body’s walking movement over to a subroutine, which weaved through a busy centrifugal ring of the orbiting spaceport with the grace of a ballerina.
Unlike Robyn, Miranda had not naturally taken to “shore leave”. She went to a beach, and got bored. She went to a club, and got bored. She rented a male escort-bot for a night, and that was actually entertaining, but the cost was an extravagance that she didn’t care to spend again on this trip. She slipped back into doing work. Looking for contracts, messaging contacts, and repeatedly checking on the status of her precious CAT, which was doing just fine, docked in orbit and being supervised by Aleph and Gimel, her other two fembot drones.
Back in her comfort zone, Miranda pulled up her latest contract: hauling replacement parts to Io. The fuel cost of a round-trip so deep into Jupiter’s gravity well was considerable, but the client paid the fee without a moment’s hesitation. Tvashtar Base apparently needed the parts quickly; the CAT’s specialty. While she was there, Miranda might have time to check in on her old friend Mab. With a thought, she messaged her droid Gimel.
MIRANDA> Status update. GIMEL> Cargo inspected, loaded, and secure. The ship is fully refueled. Systems nominal. Ready to depart at your pleasure, Captain.
Miranda closed the connection. She liked it when things ran smoothly. Now, to check on her only crewmember who wasn’t a mindless automaton.
MIRANDA> Still on schedule? ROBYN> Yes, Master. Just getting off the shuttle now. I’ll be at the CAT in ten minutes.
Miranda winced. She still wasn’t used to it. Robyn’s old control programming still forced her to address her boss as “Master”. Robyn’s former masters had really messed with her head. Miranda didn’t want to be anyone’s master, she wanted a friend and colleague. For her part, Robyn said she didn’t mind the glitch. For Robyn, it was sort of like a scar; a signifier of overcoming a past injury. Robyn had done a lot of healing since then, showing an inner strength and optimism that Miranda found inspiring. Robyn didn’t spend her time wallowing in hatred for the people who had hurt and enslaved her, she simply embraced freedom.
Distracted by her thoughts, she hadn’t initially noticed Robyn’s follow-up message:
ROBYN> What’s the next destination? MIRANDA> Io. ROBYN> IO? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!!! MIRANDA> What’s the big deal?
There was a pause, then:
ROBYN> Let’s talk later. MIRANDA> Is Io a problem? ROBYN> No, no. Io is fine. TTYL
Robyn closed the connection. Miranda wasn’t quite sure what had spurred that reaction, but she had some guesses.
Interlude 1_______
In a cargo container aboard the Clear Air Turbulence, a sensor measured the g-forces being applied to it. It was being watched by a simple program; software running on a tiny, discrete computer. It was practically undetectable, indistinguishable from the riot of miscellaneous mechanical and electronic parts piled in the container. The sensor sensed, and the program watched, and waited.
3______
Departure from Europa had been a smooth, unremarkable affair. The CAT was ballistic now, following a retrograde parabola that led to the innermost of Jupiter’s large moons. Or rather, where that moon would be. As always, spaceflight involves hitting a moving target. Fortunately, the laws governing that movement are pleasantly consistent. They had mostly been figured out by a 17th century Englishman, then refined by a 20th century German. Now, these concepts were part of any secondary school curriculum worthy of the name.
The really complicated part wasn’t where Io was going, it was the vehicle getting them there. That’s where Robyn’s talent as a pilot really shined. She knew the CAT’s flight characteristics by rote. She figured impulse vectors casually at a speed that rivaled computers with many times her mechanical mind’s processing power. She simply got it, intuitively, which set her apart from any artificial intelligence. It was part of why Miranda had hired her.
Once the maneuvering was finished, and the ship took on the navigational characteristics of a thrown stone, Robyn unstrapped herself from the pilot’s seat. Floating to the aft of the cramped cockpit, she saw Miranda nod to her. “Wanna talk about Io?”
“Yeah.”
The two drifted into the galley. The fully-mechanized captain and crew had little use for a galley, but sometimes they took on human passengers, who appreciated creature comforts like food, water, and most importantly, coffee.
“So, I might have a skewed perspective on Io,” Robyn said, bringing herself to a stop on a bolted-down steel seat. “I was force-fed a lot of C.R.N. propaganda.”
Miranda nodded, sitting across from her. The Callisto Revolutionary Navy had been ideological zealots whose version of the truth had a strained relationship with reality. “What have you heard?”
“I thought there had been a robot uprising on Io. They murdered every single human. It was a genocide. They installed a robot queen who rules with an iron fist.”
Miranda shrugged. “So? You’re a robot now. You’ll fit right in. And it’s a titanium alloy fist.”
Robyn’s jaw dropped. She stared at her employer in utter disbelief. Miranda raised her hands defensively. “Sorry, bad joke. I’ll be serious now.”
Robyn folded her arms. “So, what’s the real story?” “What you heard was partly true,” Miranda said. “Every human on Io lost their lives. All three of them.”
Robyn blinked. “Three? Three people?”
Miranda nodded. “And it was an accident. The so-called ‘uprising’ was a labor dispute, not a genocide. During the riot, there was a containment breach in the Duke’s residence. Duke Ramos, his wife the Duchess, and his secretary-slash-mistress were exposed to vacuum. They didn’t make it. Ever since then, humans have stayed away from Io. It’s all robots now.”
“And they’re not murderous kill-all-humans robots?” “Fuck no! They’re actually pretty cool, in my experience.” “In your experience, as a robot,” Robyn replied with a degree of snark. “So why are humans avoiding Io, if the robot population is so nice?” “The radiation, for starters. Do you have any idea how radioactive Io is?”
Robyn’s eyebrows furrowed. “Radiation? I thought Io was sulfur dioxide and dirt. Is it made of uranium, or something?”
Miranda shook her head. “It’s the magnetic field. Jupiter’s field catches a whole lot of solar radiation, then Io’s magnetic field attracts that. It’s enough to cook most biological life. Humans need a whole lot of shielding to even come close to Io, which is why there were so few humans there in the first place, and why the labor force was all robots. Didn’t they teach you this in school?”
“In my defense, a lot of my memory was wiped, remember?” “Fair… sorry.” “It’s fine. So, is the robot queen a myth too?” “Oh, Io is totally ruled by a robot queen. She’s pretty popular, actually.
Robyn wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Miranda filled the silence. “Do you still have concerns about going to Io? I can cancel the contract and pay the penalty fee if you really don’t want to go.”
Robyn sighed. “No, it’s not a problem. Thanks for clearing this up. Permission to retire to my cabin, Master?” she asked, playing on Miranda’s discomfort at being called that. Miranda retaliated by playing the part straight. “Dismissed, robot.”
Robyn responded with a crisp salute and a grin, before pushing off and drifting out into the corridor.
4_______
The door chime pinged in Robyn’s cabin. She knew who it was. “Enter.”
The door opened, and Aleph, one of Miranda’s crew fembots, entered. As always, she was dressed in her quasi-naval style uniform, with no rank.
Much of spaceflight is empty time. You calculate a course, point a ship in a direction, run the engines for a bit, then let physics do the rest. And you wait. Oh sure, there are diagnostics to run, systems to monitor, parts to inspect. In the earlier days of spaceflight, there were barely enough waking hours in the day to handle it all, and crew shifts were strictly regimented to ensure maximum performance. Less so, in this era. Now, the pilot doesn’t have much to do between maneuvers. Robyn would read periodicals, product releases, spaceship specifications. She would watch media, play games, and even check in on her alma mater’s sports teams. She would simulate landings, dockings, intercepts, takeoffs, and evasive maneuvers. She never simulated combat. Not anymore.
Still, there was boredom. Boredom and loneliness. And that was why Aleph had come to her cabin. With Miranda’s permission, Robyn had started an intimate relationship with Aleph, one of the three fembot crewmembers. Or at least, she tried to. Aleph, like her “sisters” Beth and Gimel, had practically no personality to speak of. Her body was nice, and her technique was incredible, but in the end, Aleph was a simple, obedient automaton. Aleph had come at Robyn’s request, to kiss, stroke, fondle, lick, suck, grope, caress, and fuck whatever Robyn told her to.
Aleph drifted in the small cabin, waiting for a command. Robyn tried something new. “What would you like to do, Aleph?”
“I don’t understand the question,” The fembot said.
Robyn considered, then tried another approach. “When we are together, here in my cabin, have there been any activities you enjoyed?” Aleph blinked. “I do not experience enjoyment.”
Robyn sighed with disappointment. She had been a fool to expect anything different from the simple droid. But her defeatist thoughts were interrupted by Aleph’s voice. “However,” the fembot said. Robyn looked up with surprise.
“When I bring you to orgasm, I think I experience satisfaction,” Aleph said.
Well that was unexpected. But it was enough to get Robyn’s motor running. “Aleph, strip. Do it slow and sexy.”
Interlude 2______
In a cargo container on the Clear Air Turbulence, the discrete software program reached its end state. Its requirements had been met. The accelerometer had measured the spacecraft’s launch from Europa, orbital maneuvers, and now freefall / ballistic drift toward its destination. The program triggered the activation of a new piece of hardware, then deleted itself, leaving no trace.
The newly activated object was a mechanical hand, shaped much like a human hand. The hand scanned its surroundings with built-in cameras and other sensors, at very low power to avoid detection. It began to move, gently pushing off of other mechanical parts, and the sides of the container itself. It moved slowly, gently. Stealth was of paramount importance. Any movement within a starship results in a slight movement of the starship itself. It’s not much, but it is detectable if you look for it. Newton’s Third Law isn’t a suggestion. That’s why a crewed starship had been chosen for this operation: any slight perturbation in the ship’s motion could be assumed to be the movements of its occupants, rather than the stowaway hiding in a cargo crate. The hand found its target, and moved toward it: a mechanical arm, ending with a wrist, and a connector that was eagerly waiting to mate with its counterpart.
5______
Robyn had seen pictures and holos of Io, but looking at it directly from low orbit was a new and fascinating experience. The surface of that moon was so utterly alien compared to anything she had seen. Most Jovian moons were typical dead space rocks, too small to even have the gravity to pull themselves into a sphere. Callisto and Ganymede were larger, partly terraformed balls of ice and dust. Terraformed Europa looked like a little Earth. But Io was a blotchy mass of sulfurous yellows and sickly pale off-whites, with dark, ruddy spots scattered around. Near the equator, a volcano belched a toxic mix of compounds so high over the low-gravity world that some of it would never come back down, swept away by Jupiter’s colossal magnetosphere.
That same magnetosphere was trying very hard to fry the CAT’s instruments. The CAT was capable of handling it, a fact Robyn had triple-checked during the trip. Her body could handle it too, as well as Miranda and the small crew of fembots. Still, visual artifacts appeared in the corners of her vision. She heard a faint buzz in her ears. Her mind had a subtle feeling of foggy static. Her processors were working hard to cut through the magnetic noise and give her a clear sensory picture as she maneuvered the CAT into a suborbital trajectory toward Io’s north pole.
“Our course looks good for Tvashtar Base, ETA, eighty-nine minutes,” Robyn announced. “We have flightpath and landing clearance from Tvashtar,” Gimel added. “Good work. Steady as she goes,” said Miranda. “The interference gets much less severe when we’re on the ground.” Then, a moment later. “I’m sure Queen Mab will give us a warm welcome. She and I go way back.”
Robyn whirled around in her seat. “Wait, you KNOW the Robot Queen of Io?!”
“Sure! We used to be roommates. She wasn’t always royalty, you know. She was a real party girl back in college. Don’t tell her I said that!” Miranda added the last part, hastily.
“She… you…“ Robyn slumped in exasperation. “Please tell me you’re joking!” “Nope.” Miranda raised her hand. “I swear to the spheres above, Queen Mab was my college roommate.” “Holy crap.” Robyn shook her head. “Why haven’t you ever brought this up?” “Well, she’s a controversial figure. Many humans think she’s a genocidal dictator. You did too, until yesterday.” “I… I’m at a loss for words. How did she become a queen? Was she some kind of… I dunno… robotic nobility?”
“Well, she wasn’t always a robot, she’s a virtualized intelligence like you and me. As for becoming Queen of Io, she was the leader of the labor protest. As soon as the news broke that the Duke had died, she was elected to be in charge.”
Robyn nodded, thoughtfully. “So she’s an elected… monarch?” “Something like that, I don’t know the details. I do business, not politics.” “And is she at Tvashtar Base?” “Probably. It’s her main residence, but she moves around. Io’s a big moon.”
Robyn looked back out at the strange world they were descending toward. Strange geology, strange magnetosphere, strange government. It didn’t even look normal. If she was being honest with herself, it gave her the creeps.
6_______
Aboard the Europan light frigate Perfect Stranger, Major Aurica Melnik studied the faces of the men and women gathered before her. She liked what she saw. She saw resolve, toughness, and loyalty. They looked sharp in their Europan Marine Corps uniforms, each with the black star shoulder patch that indicated Special Operations. All of these uniforms would be destroyed before the operation began.
She had trained most of these marines personally. She had led each of them multiple times in combat. They were her dream team, the best of the best. Several had been awarded the Europan Council’s Wings for extraordinary service, the highest honor given to military personnel that wasn’t granted posthumously. The sight of these marines made Aurica swell with pride. With a thought, she commanded one of her implants to secrete an emotion-suppressing drug. She didn’t want to get misty-eyed in front of her beloved corpsmen.
“You have all reviewed your mission briefing packets,” she said. It was a plain statement of fact, not a question. “Nevertheless, I will reiterate that this is a Yankee Blue operation.”
The marines fully understood: Black Ops. The Europan government would deny all knowledge of the operation. If they were identified by the enemy, the Council would publicly denounce them as renegades and traitors. If they died in combat, there would be no memorial service, no benefits paid to their families. They would not, under any circumstances, be captured alive. Yankee Blue operations were strictly voluntary. Any of them could walk away now, with no repercussions, aside from some memory alteration to maintain secrecy. None of the marines flinched. Aurica wouldn’t have picked them if there was even the slightest doubt of their dedication.
She fielded questions. There were a few, about some of the finer points of timing, tactics, and counterintelligence. Then the marines split into their fire teams and discussed more of the particulars. These operators were professionals. They would get the job done. Through her drug-suppressed emotions, she permitted herself a genuine smile. This was going to be good.
7____
The CAT was directed to a small, pressurized hangar at Tvashtar base, closer to the main complex than the larger freight bays which were a core part of the Ionian import/export infrastructure. Exiting the ship, Miranda and Robyn were greeted by Apollodorus, Director of the Tvashtar Port Authority.
“Captain, welcome to Io. Her Majesty welcomes you as an honored guest. I understand you have come with cargo to unload?” Miranda nodded. The cargo manifest had already been transmitted, and both she and Apollodorus were pulling it up on their visual overlays. “These are the parts that were ordered, high-speed priority delivery from Europa.”
Apollodorus furrowed his brows. “I don’t see a record of the order being placed. We will still agree to receive the cargo, pending a security scan. Is that acceptable?”
“Of course. It was done through a third-party supplier, I’ll be happy to share information to sort it out.” Miranda turned, and indicated to her droid Gimel, who was standing at the top of the CAT’s boarding ramp. “My assistant will help you coordinate the offload. Scan anything you like, we have nothing to hide.” Security guys loved to hear that phrase, Miranda knew. A perk of doing legitimate business.
Apollodorus nodded. “Probably a bookkeeping error,” he muttered. With a thought, he commanded a team of droids to begin scanning and offloading cargo from the Clear Air Turbulence.
While Miranda talked logistics with Apollodorus, Robyn watched the manbot with curiosity. Normally, she had a fairly easy time clocking if any given robot was an uploaded human, or an AI-driven droid. She had a hard time getting a read on Apollodurus. Either he was an uptight person who thought like a robot, or he was a droid programmed extremely well to resemble an uptight person who thought like a robot.
“And now, please follow me to Her Majesty’s residence,” Apollodorus said, beckoning Miranda and Robyn, and they obliged, with Aleph following behind. Meanwhile, the team of eighteen identical worker droids entered the vessel. In the back-and-forth of offloading cargo containers, nobody noticed the fact that nineteen identical worker droids had left the ship by the end. Almost nobody.
8_____
In her cabin aboard the Perfect Stranger, Aurica sat at a tiny table across from her second-in-command, Tycho. As part of a long tradition, they sipped bourbon together, in private, before a mission. Their wood-brown beverages were in transparent plastic pouches with short straws, shaped to vaguely resemble tumbler glasses. Aurica’s implants were dialed back, allowing the intoxicant to impart its mood-altering magic. She knew Tycho did the same.
Aurica looked into Tycho’s dark eyes. By the spheres above, she wanted to rip his clothes off and make passionate love right there in the cramped cabin. But it could never happen, not like this. For him, it was one thing to have a drink that could quickly be neutralized by the technology in his body, but carnal relations with a superior officer was too great a transgression against regulations. Tycho, consummate marine that he was, knew that Aurica was off limits. His zealous dedication to the Corps, and the fact that he was forbidden to her, only made him hotter in Aurica’s eyes.
You seem tense, Aurica,” Tycho said. Aurica blinked. “Do I?” “You’ve been looking more relaxed and confident than usual. That’s how I know. You’re trying too hard.”
Damn that magnificent, beautiful bastard, Aurica thought. “It’s a very important mission. And Yankee Blue operations are stressful for the team, though they’d never admit it.”
Tycho seemed to accept that answer, and they both sipped their bourbon. “We’ll be fine,” he said, after they both swallowed the warming libation. “I’m actually impressed at the level of detail we have of the operational area. Our intel people really scored a coup on this one.”
Aurica nodded. “Yeah. Room-by-room plans for the whole complex? It’s our lucky day.” “Do you suspect it’s a counterintelligence plant?” “Our intel people are the ones to make that call, not us. If they say it’s legit, then we assume it’s legit. If something changes, we think on our feet.”
“There you go again,” said Tycho. “What do you mean?” “Normally you’d be making a quip, at the expense of our friends at the Agency.”
Aurica laughed. “You’re overthinking things.”
Tycho sighed, looking into his drink pouch. “Yeah, you’re right.” They both sipped again. Soon, they would bring their implants back up to normal strength, and the pleasant buzz of alcohol would dissipate in a few short minutes, possibly with a hangover that could be measured in seconds.
9_____
The exterior of Tvashtar Base was a gray, utilitarian structure befitting its status as an industrial cargo port. The interior aesthetic was a completely different story. High ceilings, wide halls, green marble floors, elaborate Corinthian columns, and walls decorated with inlaid gold reliefs depicting a variety of ancient-looking scenes. The concourses were busy with work crews moving shipping containers, port agents scanning cargo and checking them against official manifests, engineers carrying bags of tools, and bureaucrats of every kind.
As Apollodorus led them deeper into the structure, the decorations tended to be larger, the halls broader, the environment much more grand.
“This… is a palace.” Robyn observed out loud. Miranda responded with a private message:
MIRANDA> The opulence of this place is part of the reason there was a labor riot.
ROBYN> I can imagine. So, why aren’t they rioting against the Queen?
MIRANDA> She doesn’t treat her subordinates like objects, for starters. The first thing she did, once she was in charge, was to dramatically upgrade their living conditions. The rioting was done by uploads like you and me. Mechanical people, not drones. Turns out, we like decent living and working conditions too, as you recently reminded me.
ROBYN> Thanks again for the shore leave, by the way.
MIRANDA> No sweat. Thanks for keeping me grounded.
As Miranda and Robyn carried on their private electronic conversation, Apollodorus began to advise them. “I’m bringing you to a waiting area. You will wait there until Her Majesty chooses to grant your audience. When she does, you will hear a chime. You will bow immediately upon entering her audience chamber. You may address her as…”
“MIR!” A cheerful voice called down the hall. A fembot was jogging toward them, waving.
“MAB!” Miranda immediately broke away from the group, running toward her old friend.
Apollodorus sputtered “N-no! You can’t just…” Robyn stifled a laugh at his expense. His precious order and protocols were out the window. She looked over at Miranda and Queen Mab, who had hugged, and were chatting excitedly.
The queen’s tall robotic body was jet black, and glossy. Her feminine curves were covered in robes of white silk with gold trim, and inlaid with colorful gemstones. Her long black hair was pulled into tight braids, and she wore a golden crown that featured the head of some kind of snake. It was stylish, in an unconventional sort of way. Robyn sent a private message to Aleph, who stood two paces behind her.
ROBYN> What’s the deal with the queen’s outfit? I’ve never seen anything like it.
ALEPH> It appears to be an imitation of the garments worn by the female royalty of Ptolemaic Dynasty Egypt. Cleopatra would be a notable historical example. Would you like to know more?
Robyn didn’t know who or what “Ptolemaic” or “Egypt” or “Cleopatra” were, but she wasn’t really interested in a history lesson now. Probably old Earth stuff.
ROBYN> Maybe later.
ALEPH> I will tag it as a topic of future conversation.
Great, Robyn thought, as she focused her attention back onto Miranda and Queen Mab. Miranda was, at that moment, starting to introduce her. “This is my new pilot, Robyn. Robyn, this is Mab, Queen of Io.”
Robyn had no idea how to behave in this situation, so she proffered a simple, polite bow. “It’s an honor to meet you, your highness.”
Mab’s expression darkened, and she glared down at Robyn with the imperious weight of a moon’s authority. “‘Your highness’ is for princes and princesses. Queens are to be addressed as ‘your majesty’, or ‘your grace’.”
Robyn began to sputter. She bowed again, lower this time. “I.. I’m sorry, um, your majesty.” She continued her bow for another several seconds that seemed to take forever, before she dared to look back up at the Queen’s dark countenance. When she did, she was surprised to see Mab smiling, and trying to hold back a giggle.
“I’m just teasing. You’re so polite! I’m pleased to meet you,” Mab said, extending a friendly hand to shake. Robyn, still reeling, stood blinking for a moment before she reciprocated. “Oh, um, hi… ma’am.”
“Stop being mean to my pilot!” Miranda gave Mab a playful punch in the arm. From the corner of Robyn’s vision, she saw Apollodorus flinch. He REALLY didn’t like how casual these visitors were behaving with his Queen. He liked the next part even less.
“You may go now, Apollodorus,” the Queen said in a pleasant, casual voice. “B-but, your grace, these guests don’t have the security clearance to…” “Apollo, dear, that was a royal command.”
The Director of the Tvashtar Port Authority deflated, bowed deeply, turned on his heel, and left without a word.
Mab turned back to her guests. “Come, ladies, let me take you to my private quarters. Have you ever been to Io before, Robyn?”
Walking alongside, Robyn had to look up to meet the tall Queen’s eyes. “I don’t think so, your majesty.”
“You can call me Mab. And what do you mean by ‘you don’t think so’?” “It’s a long story, but the short version is that much of my memory was wiped by the C.R.N.” Mab snorted with dismay. “Those Fascist bastards. It’s terrible that they hurt you like that.”
“Well, that was a past life. I have a new one now, thanks to Master and her friend Eris. Without them, I’d be just another drone.”
Mab looked scandalized. “Miranda! Do you make your subordinates address you as Master?!”
Miranda was flustered. “It’s not like that at all! It’s a glitch! It’s the C.R.N.’s fault!” Robyn had a sadistic chuckle at Miranda’s expense. Now it was her turn to be embarrassed in front of the Queen.
Mab rolled her eyes with a smile. “Well, I intend to give you and your droids some royal hospitality. You’ll love it here. How long can you stay?”
Miranda shrugged. “Well, I don’t have anything specifically lined up…”
Robyn smiled inwardly. She knew Miranda really wanted to get back into making money, and now she was being pushed into a second vacation just after the first! Well I guess you’ll just have to suffer some luxury treatment, Robyn thought.
Interlude 3______
A nameless droid walked through the maintenance tunnels of Tvashtar Base. It had high quality schematics of the entire facility, schematics it would use to fulfil its purpose. This part of the operation was crucial. It needed to reach a specific target, far away from the open, polished spaces where the virtualized intelligences acted like people. Entering another sector, it passed an identical-looking worker droid, who paid it no heed.
If the worker droid had attempted to query the nameless one, the nameless droid had a number of plausible-sounding answers it could choose from, regarding its identity and currently-assigned task. If the worker droid showed even a hint of skepticism or confusion, and if it thought it could get away with it, the nameless droid’s fallback protocol would be to terminate the worker, and assume its identity. It was good that the fallback was not necessary this time, as that would increase the mission failure risk quotient considerably.
The nameless droid checked its progress against its internal clock. It was 3.560 seconds ahead of schedule. It slowed its pace by a tiny fraction. Precision was important.
10_______
Robyn sat on an impossibly comfortable couch, next to Miranda, and opposite from Queen Mab, who reclined on an elegant chase of her own. The fembot drone Aleph stood idly nearby, awaiting commands.
Robyn traced her finger along the trim on the edge of the armrest. It was wood, but it looked old. Older than any tree on Europa.
“It’s from Earth.” Mab answered the unspoken question. “The wood?” “The whole couch.” Robyn whistled with appreciation.
“You should have seen the place when the Duke lived here.” Mab continued. “These current accommodations are downright modest compared to the ridiculous opulence that he flaunted. As soon as I entered office, I made sure to spread the wealth around to the public.”
Robyn’s mind boggled. She had just been guided through a palatial residence that included chandeliers, tapestries, sculptures, oil paintings in gilded frames, and so, so many rooms, including a private library that dwarfed some public ones. “Wow. I can imagine why people resented the Duke.”
Mab nodded. “We were pretty angry, but we just wanted some fairness. He didn’t deserve to die over it.” She sighed. “And as the leader of the uprising, I’m the one at fault. I should have urged more restraint. I should have done things differently. The protest turned into a riot, and the riot turned into…”
“But it was an accident, right?” Miranda asked, sympathetically.
“Yes, it was an accident. Some hooligans thought they were just committing petty property damage. They were upset, they wanted to break things. But they didn’t realize they were breaching some important seals in the pressurized air system. It’s easy to forget how fragile biological humans are, when you don’t need air, water, or food.”
A silence hung in the air for a moment, before Mab continued. “They were dead long before we found them. A bunch of my compatriots cheered when they found out, but not me. The least-popular decision I’ve ever made in my long reign was to hand the Duke’s remains over to their next-of-kin.”
Miranda looked over to Robyn, who was staring at some random spot on the floor. She could only imagine what her pilot was going through. She knew that Robyn, on some level, still blamed herself for some lives lost in the ugly war she had been forced to fight. Time to change direction.
“Mab, you said you had guest suites for us, right?” “Oh yes, the very best.”
Robyn perked up from her melancholy, stirred by the thought of that ‘royal hospitality’ Mab had mentioned earlier. “That sounds really good right now, actually.”
Mab pointed. “Just go down that hall and… fuck it, let me do this instead.” A second later, Robyn’s mental inbox received a three-dimensional map of the royal residence, with a helpful arrow guiding her from the lounge they were in, to her guest room.
“That’s handy,” Robyn remarked. “One of the perks of being digital.”
Robyn bowed graciously, and departed. Aleph wordlessly followed.
Interlude 4________
The nameless droid reached its target: an antique computer console. Unlike all of the other networked terminals in Tvashtar base, this one was built for humans. It had a keyboard with alphanumeric characters, and a crude optical pointer device commonly known as a “mouse”, itself named for a pest animal from Earth. The nameless droid spent several milliseconds reflecting on the strangeness of humans before setting to its task.
Simply uploading a malicious script onto Tvashtar Base’s network would almost certainly fail. Even a basic level of network security would prevent such an intrusion attempt. But with this terminal, the user was already inside, running commands directly on the central server architecture. The droid opened a plaintext terminal prompt, and began typing. Its crude manipulators were not ideal for the task, but they would suffice for its purposes.
11________
It was a guest suite fit for visiting royalty, that was for sure. Robyn explored the several rooms that all belonged to her. In addition to a sizable master bedroom and a sleek, ultra-modern bathroom, there was a foyer, a sitting room with a full bar, a study, a second, smaller bedroom, and half a dozen walk-in closets. The bedrooms also contained several robot recharging stations with a wide variety of connector types. The master bedroom featured a large picture window looking out upon the surface of Io. Robyn took a moment to take in the view. The smooth, alien terrain was a sickly pale yellow, with dark highlands in the distance. Jupiter dominated the sky, a gigantic crescent, with the faint Sun not far above the limb of the planet.
Robyn closed the curtains, then walked back to the bathroom to take a second look. At that moment, she made a decision.
“Aleph, are you waterproof enough to take a shower?” She asked the fembot drone, who stood idly nearby.
“I am designed to be. However, it is recommended that I perform a diagnostic check to confirm that my seals are intact. This would take several minutes. Would you like me to proceed?”
“Yes, do that. If you pass your checks, meet me in the shower.” With that, Robyn stripped off her uniform, and turned on the shower. Moments later when it got up to temperature, she entered.
The shower was a spacious affair with multiple nozzles spraying water from three sides. The fogged-glass window facing the bathroom went all the way up to the ceiling, a necessity, since Io’s low 0.18 G gravity meant that the water was splashing around everywhere within the shower’s confines.
Robyn stood within the converging streams, closed her eyes, and relaxed. She rarely took showers. She almost never needed them. She didn’t sweat anymore, and seldom got dirty. Body odor was a thing of the past. She had been wearing the same uniform for days, and her sterile, clean robotic body didn’t make her clothes any more “dirty” than a hanger in a closet.
Still, she liked to shower. It was one of the things that made her feel human again. She inhaled the steamy air. She felt the hot water pattering against her skin, running down her body, and flowing around her feet. It was a luxury she didn’t have aboard the Clear Air Turbulence, or at most of their destinations around the Jovian system. She wondered if she had loved showers this much before. Her fragmented memories offered nothing one way or the other.
Robyn’s quiet reverie was interrupted by the sound of the shower door opening, then closing, along with an accompanying woosh of cool, dry air. She opened her eyes to see Aleph, standing nude, nearby in the shower. One of the nozzles was directly spraying part of her face, but the fembot didn’t react at all. “My diagnostic check confirmed that my seals are waterproof,” Aleph said, stating the obvious.
Robyn looked around. On a shelf in one corner, there were a variety of soaps, shampoos, lotions, aromatic oils, and herbal tinctures that would surely satisfy any human guest, but were superfluous to mechanical beings such as herself. Nonetheless, she picked out a bottle of scented body wash and handed it to Aleph.
“Use this to wash my body. Use your hands, and get every surface below my neck,” Robyn commanded the fembot. Aleph examined the bottle, popped the top, and squirted some of the blue gel into her hand. Robyn turned her back, and soon felt Aleph smoothly applying the gel to her shoulders. Aleph’s delicate hands moved along Robyn’s arms, upper back, and sides, before coming around to wash Robyn’s breasts. As Aleph’s hands moved down and away, Robyn gently brought them back up. “Spend a little more time here. Make sure they’re extra clean.”
“Is this a sexually intimate encounter?” The fembot asked. Robyn snorted and smiled at the directness of the question. “Yes, yes it is.”
“I understand,” Aleph said, resuming her efforts. But it was different now. Aleph wasn’t washing Robyn anymore, she was fondling her. The fembot came in closer, pressing her breasts against Robyn’s back. “Washing was just a pretense for intimate contact,” Aleph continued, in her emotionless voice.
“I should have been more direct. I’m sorry that I… used you like that.” “An apology is unnecessary. I exist to be used.”
Robyn sighed. Aleph’s naivete was sweet, but her lack of ego made it hard to relate to her. She turned around and kissed the fembot. “Someday I’ll find a real romantic partner, but until then, I like being with you.”
Aleph returned the kiss. “I will do my best to meet your needs.” She still spoke without emotion, but her eyes seemed to show… something more? Maybe it was just Robyn’s imagination, or wishful thinking, but she could swear that the automaton she was cuddling with was developing feelings for her.
12___________
Aurica stood in her powered armor suit, facing fifteen marines in similar equipment. Each of them was a finely tuned weapon of war. Their armor amplified their strength more than twenty-fold. Multi-vector thrusters allowed for rapid, precise movement in low-G or zero-G environments. The pressurized suits could withstand vacuum, poison gas, and even deep ocean pressures. Heavy alloys provided radiation shielding that could rival small nuclear reactors. Their armor could effortlessly repel practically all small arms fire. They even had an anti-laser ablative coating.
Every one of these special forces operators had logged thousands of hours in powered armor similar to this, and could move in them as effortlessly as if it was their own skin. They wore no identifying insignia, no name, no rank, no flag.
“You all have your assignments,” Aurica said, her voice amplified by her suit. “Sweep your zones, eliminate primary target, extract. We have confirmed that there are no humans down there. That means there are no innocent civilians we need to look out for. Everything that moves is a machine. If they aren’t us, they are a viable target. Any questions?”
After two seconds of silence, Aurica pressed her right fist into her open left palm. “This fist moves mountains!” The marines repeated the gesture. “This fist moves worlds!”
“We drop in T minus ninety-three!” Aurica closed her helmet, and took her position alongside Tycho.
In the cockpit of the Perfect Stranger, the weapons specialist locked on to a particular satellite in orbit above Io. It was supposedly a scientific satellite that monitored fluctuations in the moon’s magnetic field, but their intelligence agents had discovered that it served a different, secret purpose. With the press of a button, two missiles streaked toward their target.
13________
“…so then he says, ‘That’s not a sexbot, that’s my wife’!” Mab was howling with laughter at Miranda’s anecdote. “You can’t be serious!” “It’s true! It happened right there on the Thyone Station promenade!” This triggered a new round of raucous laughter. “Oh my God, that’s too funny!” Mab said, followed by another giggle.
Coming down from the laughter, Queen Mab gave a contented sigh, followed by another giggle. “You’re fun to hang out with, Mir. You should drop by more often!” “Yeah yeah, I get that a lot. If I kept visiting all of my friends, I’d never get any business done. I need to work for a living! We can’t all be elected Queen of a major moon.” “True, my situation is pretty unusual. But despite appearances, it’s not all luxury for me. It’s hard work, keeping Io’s economy running and keeping the public happy. Why, just last week, I…” Mab stopped abruptly, her eyes going wide.
“Mab? What’s wrong?” “My backup server just went offline.” “Maybe it’s just a computer outage? These things happen.” “You don’t understand, Miranda. This server doesn’t simply go down. I keep it on a satellite. Practically nobody knows about it.” Queen Mab fixed Miranda with a gravely serious look. “Someone is trying to assassinate me.”
Then, the lights went out.
Interlude 5________
As Io orbited into Jupiter’s shadow, the surface of the moon became formless darkness. At the same moment, the malicious script running on Tvashtar Base’s core network made its presence known, shutting down lights, sensors, defenses, communications, and dozens of other systems. Its work complete, the nameless droid began erasing itself. It never knew the purpose of its actions; its place was not to ponder such questions. For a machine such as itself, the proper execution of a task was its highest calling, and this task had been completed to absolute perfection. As its consciousness was meticulously deleted, it regretted only that it could not savor the moment just a little longer.
14__________
Robyn arched her back, riding the edge of orgasm as Aleph’s tongue played between her labia and clitoris. The fembot had been getting more skilled with practice, and this was her best performance yet. They had moved their intimacy from the shower to the bed. As Robyn reveled in her ecstasy, she thought she felt the world shake. Then it shook harder, accompanied by a rumbling boom. “What the fuck?” Another shake and boom. “Aleph, stop!”
The fembot drone obediently stopped and looked up at Robyn, her face wet with Robyn’s artificial secretions. “Have I displeased you, Robyn?” “No, that’s not it. What the hell is going on?!”
___
Aurica smirked in her helmet. Tvashtar Base’s defenses were a joke. Yes, her saboteur robot had crippled their capabilities, but even still, the base’s security droids were not a challenge for her squad of seasoned marines. It was like pitting Special Forces against mall cops.
Even beyond the huge advantages of training and powered armor, her operators’ implants and stimulants gave them superhuman reflexes and mental speed. They could plan, communicate, and implement tactics at speeds inconceivable to civilians. Having breached the complex at multiple points, the marines were spreading out in pairs, seeking the primary target, and neutralizing everything that got in the way.
Aurica and Tycho formed their own pair. She had chosen the route she thought was most likely to contain the primary target: the royal residence.
___
Just as Miranda’s eyes were adjusting to ultra-low-light mode, emergency lights came on, forcing her to blink while her systems adjusted. She looked over to Mab, who was in a trance-like state, staring straight ahead at nothing, no doubt communicating with her subordinates and the base’s systems, trying to figure out what was happening.
“Mab? You there, Mab? What should we do? Where should we go?” But Mab was unresponsive. The building shook again with another explosion. Miranda was looking around frantically when Mab finally spoke in a robotic monotone.
“Heavily armed attackers. More than a dozen. Search pattern. They’re looking for me.” “Looking for you?! Then… then we need to get out!” “Surrounded. Escape impossible.” “Then we need to hide!” “They have advanced knowledge of the facility. Nowhere to hide. They will be here soon.”
Those words chilled Miranda to her core. She felt an overwhelming wave of helplessness that she had never experienced before, and it was terrible. She turned her eyes to the ceiling. She wasn’t religious, but she tried a prayer anyway.
“Are you there, Eris? I could really use you right now.”
A familiar voice responded from the intercom system. “I was wondering when you would ask.”
15________
A controlled burst of rifle rounds neutralized the two security droids that had rounded a corner. Aurica and Tycho flowed like water. Their coordinated movements, sight lines, and fields of fire were like poetry. Knowing when and how to move without the need for any communication at all. Flawless. Sublime. They methodically cleared room after room, leaving broken robots in their wake.
____
Eris, or rather, a copy of Eris living on the Tvashtar Base network, chatted with Miranda. “So this is a proper clusterfuck.” “Eris! What’s going on?! What should we do?! Is Robyn safe?!” “Europan marines are invading, I have no idea, and yes, for now.”
Mab broke out of her trance to glare at the ceiling. “Who the fuck is this?” “Hi, Queenie. My name is Eris. I am NOT the bad guys messing with your base, I promise.”
While Mab chewed on that response, Miranda spoke up. “Can you help us? Can you get the base back online? Can you get us out of here?” “The base is down because of malware. Nasty piece of work. I can’t fight it directly. I can control some systems, but that’s it.” “Can you stop the marines, or slow them down?” “I can slow them slightly by closing doors, but not much else. They’re pretty good at breaking through doors.” The base rumbled from another explosion. “Case in point.”
“How did this happen?” Mab asked. “How did our network get infiltrated?” “Well, it was a phony worker droid that got off Miranda's ship. It hacked a console downstairs,” Eris said.
Miranda and Mab’s eyes went wide, and they stared at each other. Mab’s face hardened into a glare. “So it was you.” The Robot Queen of Io rose to her full height. “You have some explaining to do.”
Miranda was speechless. Nothing was making sense. How had it come to this? She looked upward to the ceiling again. “Eris, forget about me. Save Robyn. Get her to the CAT.” “I don’t think that’s possible. Every route to the CAT is blocked.” “Then get her to another ship. ANY ship.”
A pause, then: “I think I can do that.”
____
Robyn was hastily pulling on her clothes when a private message pinged in her consciousness.
ERIS-544> Robyn, this is Eris. ROBYN> Eris? You’re on Io? Something is wrong here. I think I’ve been feeling explosions. ERIS-544> The facility is under attack. No time to explain. Move quickly and quietly. Leave your suite and go left down the hall.
Robyn’s eyes went wide. This was serious. But she trusted Eris absolutely. Eris had seen Robyn at her worst, a shell of a person that had been unmade in both body and mind. Eris had used her expertise and compassion to make Robyn whole again, or at least as close to whole as was possible. Robyn looked back toward Aleph. The emotionless drone was standing at attention nearby, still stark naked, awaiting commands.
ROBYN> Aleph, follow me. We’re going to be running. Be as quiet as possible. ALEPH> Acknowledged.
16________
Tycho cleared another room in the royal residence with his commanding officer, Aurica. He had always admired her skills as a marine, and today she was clearly at the top of her game. They had both studied the same schematics of the facility, and had access to a real-time map in their implants, but she was operating on a completely different level. Her knowledge of the spaces they were clearing seemed like something more than knowledge. It was instinct. That’s why she’s the best of the best. He felt a renewed sense of pride operating under Aurica’s command.
____
“Why’d you do it, Mir?” The Robot Queen of Io was stalking around Miranda like a lioness. In casual conversation earlier, she had mentioned making significant upgrades to her body. Strength. Speed. Even unarmed, she was seriously dangerous. “Was it for money? Was your little freelance transport business not paying the bills?”
Miranda was still so stunned that she couldn’t even comprehend the question. Some kind of saboteur, transported aboard her own ship, was responsible for this? “I… I have no idea.”
“You have no idea why you did it?!”
“No, no, I have no idea what’s going on! Mab, you’ve got to believe me!”
“A droid, identical to my worker drones, hitched a ride on your little ship, and you expect me to believe you didn’t know about it? On a convenient cargo transport job that we have no record of ordering?!” Mab shook her head. “And I let you right in. I was a sucker. I thought I knew you, Mir.”
When Miranda had no response, the Robot Queen of Io stalked closer. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip you into pieces right now.”
17__________
ERIS-544> Stop at the next corner. Wait a moment.
Robyn heard gunfire nearby. Amid this chaos, she almost missed the low battery warning appearing in the corner of her vision. Shit! She had been planning on recharging after sex with Aleph, but now she was running around and exhausting her power reserves at an alarming rate.
ROBYN> Eris, I’m low on battery. ERIS-544> Don’t worry, dear. You’re almost there. Wait 4.7 seconds, then take the fork to the right. As fast as you can.
More gunfire erupted down a hall nearby. This was going to be a close thing. Robyn bent her knees and put her hands on the floor, like a sprinter awaiting the starting gun. She glanced over at Aleph, who seemed to catch on to her cue, and also bent in a ready-to-run stance mimicking her own. “Running” on a moon with less than one fifth of Earth’s gravity was a tricky process in the best of times. They would essentially be flinging themselves down a hallway and trying not to land on their faces or smack into a wall.
Her millisecond-precise internal clock hit its mark, and Robyn pushed off. Her bare, plastic-and-rubber feet didn’t have as much grip on the smooth marble floor as she had hoped, but it was still pretty good. She and Aleph flew.
____
Specialist Higgs, Europan marine, glanced at an alert in his visor. His suit had detected a high probability of motion down a nearby corridor based on audio cues. With a thought, he transmitted the data to his teammate. Without needing to say a word, the pair abruptly changed direction, and zipped toward the source of the suspicious reading.
____
Aleph hit the wall at the far end of the corridor feet-first, then expertly pivoted onto the floor. A textbook stop. Robyn slammed into the same wall with the left side of her body. If she still had a human brain, she would surely have a concussion. As it was, warnings flashed in her consciousness. Damage to left shoulder, impaired arm function. Damage to left knee, impaired leg function.
ERIS-544> Go through that door there. Bad guys coming your way, I think they heard you.
Robyn hissed a curse, then scolded herself for making unnecessary noise. She pushed the nearby door open, and staggered into a pressurized hangar. Several small spacecraft were arrayed within, parked in designated spaces, connected to power cables. Her eyes scanned around, selected a nearby ship, and began limping towards it. Without needing to be asked, Aleph got under Robyn’s left shoulder and helped her move across the space of the hangar.
As they approached the ship, a small picket corvette of a model Robyn didn’t recognize, she pointed.
ROBYN> Open that hatch, and get inside. Help me up. ALEPH> Acknowledged.
The drone proficiently did as she was instructed, getting Robyn into the spacecraft, then closing the hatch quietly behind them. By the time Robyn was sitting in the cockpit, two marines were entering the hangar, carefully advancing, weapons sweeping areas and quickly pivoting towards suspicious corners.
Robyn turned on the defensive systems. This ship had laser countermeasures, intended to intercept enemy missiles. Overriding the system’s safeties, she immediately targeted the two marines. They didn’t stand a chance.
They wouldn’t even… shoot back…
18__________
Major Aurica Melnik kicked open an antique wooden door within the royal residence. Inside the lounge she was invading, she spotted two humanoid robotic women. Both looked her way, startled. One was the primary target: a tall, dark, imposing figure wearing some weird, esoteric dress. Engaging her suit’s thrusters, Aurica rocketed forward, throwing a mechanically-enhanced punch into the tall robot’s midsection, sending it flying across the room and crashing against the far wall.
Tycho blinked in surprise. That wasn’t right at all. Why had Aurica zoomed in to throw a punch? She hadn’t checked her corners or properly swept the room. She hadn’t even attempted to use her rifle. The seasoned professional that Tycho thought he knew had somehow disappeared. What was going on?!
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” Aurica said, her voice dripping with malice.
Tycho, his mind enhanced with implants and chemical stimulants, was thinking with speed nearing the limits of human cognition. He analyzed the situation in front of him. What was he missing? A hypothesis formed in the back of his mind. It was unthinkable, and yet, pieces started fitting into place. The intelligence briefing. Aurica’s movement through the base. Her unusual behavior before the mission. Her behavior now. Tycho reached his conclusion. He desperately wanted to be wrong, but he had to trust his intuition.
“Die, you bitch,” Aurica said coldly as she raised her rifle at the Robot Queen of Io, who was struggling to her feet. And with a deafening CRACK, Arica’s rifle was destroyed by an armor-piercing round.
“Everybody FREEZE!” Tycho bellowed, his weapon trained on his friend, mentor, and superior officer.
“What the HELL, Tycho?!” Aurica screamed back.
“Major, did our orders come down the chain of command?!”
“What?” Aurica froze in place.
“Did our orders come down the chain of command, or is this some kind of personal vendetta?”
“Tycho… she needs to die.” Aurica pointed at the Queen, who was now standing tall and gawking in utter confusion at what was happening. “Follow your orders, Tycho,” the Major continued, in a voice that was softer, but clipped with intense emotion.
Tycho wavered for a moment, then regained his composure. “Aurica, I’m placing you under arrest.”
“No, Tycho, you don’t understand. She killed my mother!”
“I thought the Duchess never had any children,” Miranda, who had dived behind the antique couch, thought out loud.
“No, but the Duke’s mistress had one,” Mab continued the thread. “A girl who was quietly shipped off to a boarding school on Europa, as soon as she was old enough.” Her eyes widened with realization, staring at Aurica. “You!”
“So that’s why you knew this place like the back of your hand,” Tycho said, slowly advancing on Aurica with his rifle raised. “You spent your childhood here.”
Aurica frantically looked back and forth between Tycho and Mab. Then, with a visceral scream, Aurica rocketed toward Mab again, but her flight was cut short as a single armor piercing round passed through her powered armor’s system core located on her back, as well as through her abdomen. Mab barely managed to dodge as Aurica crashed into the wall beside her, then fell limply to the floor.
Tycho came in quickly, pulling out a pair of binders, and cuffing Aurica’s arms behind her back. “You’ll live through this,” he said, fully aware that the damaged suit’s emergency medical functions were still working, and were already patching Aurica’s wound. He also knew it hurt like hell.
Aurica, for her part, simply growled through the pain. She twisted to glare upward at the Queen nearby. “You evil… unfeeling… machine…”
Queen Mab looked down at the fallen marine. It was not the domineering glare she had given Robyn earlier, nor spite for the woman who had just attempted to murder her. It was a mix of shock and pity, for the person she had indirectly orphaned, so long ago.
Tycho stood up, and hauled Aurica to her feet. She could barely move in her disabled suit. He turned to Mab. “Queen Mab, with your permission, I would like to extradite this prisoner to Europa, to stand trial for her crimes.”
Mab, who was still processing some deep and complicated feelings, simply nodded. “Sure.”
____
In the hangar, Robyn quivered unsteadily at the controls of the picket ship. One little click of the trigger, and the two marines hunting her would drop dead, cut down by lasers designed to destroy larger, faster things than these men. It would be so easy…
She released the control. She couldn’t do it. She would never take another human life. She turned, and clung to Aleph, who had taken the seat next to her in the cockpit. The drone looked at Robyn with the same expressionless face she always wore, and softly wrapped her arms protectively around her shivering companion.
Abruptly, the marines in the hangar stopped, shared a quick look at each other, then hurried away the way they had come. Robyn blinked in bewilderment for a moment before a message popped into her consciousness.
ERIS-544> I think it’s over. ROBYN> Is Miranda okay? ERIS-544> She’s fine. So is Queen Mab. Some of Mab’s people were killed. I don’t have access to their backup systems, so I don’t know if any can be restored.
Robyn exhaled. Whatever that insanity was, it was over. She felt herself relaxing. Then she noticed the system warning she had been ignoring all this time. Her power was depleted. She wasn’t relaxing, she was shutting down. She turned to Aleph. “I lov…” Robyn turned off with a click, her soft expression frozen in place.
Epilogue_______
After the violence and destruction they had seen, Miranda and Robyn didn’t feel comfortable staying on Io any longer than was necessary. Queen Mab agreed with their decision to leave quickly. She would definitely have her hands full for a while, and her mood had soured on entertaining guests.
Now, Miranda and Robyn were floating in the galley of the Clear Air Turbulence. Their trajectory was taking them to Carme, a small, rocky outer moon. They had mutually agreed to spend some time away from the inner moons. Too much politics. Too many old grudges. The fuel requirements for flying outward from so deep in Jupiter’s gravity well, all the way to an outer retrograde moon, were enormous. Fortunately, Mab had generously topped off the CAT’s fuel reserves before sending the little crew on their way.
“I wonder how long Aurica had been plotting that,” Robyn wondered aloud. Miranda shrugged. “Had to have been years, at least. She was definitely playing the long game.”
“Do you think we’ll ever know? Maybe it will come out at her trial.”
Miranda shook her head. “There’s no way it will be public. The Europan government would never admit that an elite black-ops team went rogue and tried to assassinate a head of state. They’ll put her in front of a tribunal, then they’ll extract everything she knows, then they’ll put her in a very deep hole somewhere.”
After a pregnant silence, Robyn said quietly, “That’s a shame.”
“Yeah. One more tragedy to add to the pile.” Then, Miranda perked up. “Hey, I just got a message from Eris. They were able to restore backups of Mab’s people. They’ll be online by tomorrow, albeit in worker drone bodies until they can get better ones.”
Robyn brightened. “That’s great! And speaking of backups, we should probably start doing that.” “You’re welcome to back yourself up onto the CAT’s systems anytime you like. I’ll pass.” Robyn arched an eyebrow. “Why?”
“I feel like if I was restored from a backup, it wouldn’t be me. It would be a copy of me. That idea makes me uncomfortable.”
Robyn nodded. It was a difference of perspective. Miranda was living her one life. Robyn, in contrast, was pretty sure she had been restored from backups several times, back when she was a sapient computer enslaved by the C.R.N. She was, at a minimum, a copy of a copy of a copy. It didn’t matter to her.
She checked her internal clock. 36 hours until a high-G gravity assist maneuver at Ganymede. “Master, I’m gonna get some rack time.”
Miranda nodded. “I’ll be in the hold. Gimel has the bridge,” she said, jokingly referring to the cramped cockpit of her converted interceptor.
As Robyn drifted aft, she messaged her favorite fembot.
ROBYN> Meet me in my cabin.
ALEPH> Acknowledged.