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Chapter 4

The Search

The following day was one of mixed emotions. If the real captain and crew were still alive, they would want their ship back, and he would only be a passenger or, maybe, even a prisoner. Still, his duty was to try and rescue them if they were still alive.

Several more hours passed and then the AI announced that they were approaching the planet. Roy directed the ship to approach the planet on the back side of one of its moons. After all, he had no idea of their advanced development or how he would be received. Once safely behind a moon, the AI used the sensor array to scan the planet for signs of life. Large groups of life-forms were noted on all land masses of the planet. These inhabited areas appeared to be self-sustaining but not advanced enough for space flight or even flight itself. A faint signal was detected from the transport ship that the captain and crew had used. A further scan of that particular area detected a slightly more advanced civilization, but not much more than the others.

“Captain, I have noted several strains of DNA among the population belonging to the captain and the crew. I believe these to be remote descendants of them. They are scattered about this region. There is no sign that the captain or any of the crew still remains alive. It appears that they successfully integrated with the population and abided by our standing rule of ‘not to influence other civilizations.’”

“AI, are these people capable of space flight?

‘No, sir.”

“Is the transport ship still there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Has it been discovered?”

“No, sir.”

“Can we recover it undetected?”

“Yes. I can direct an AIMU pilot in a second transport to take a new power unit to the disabled transport and bring them both back to the ship. The hull is damaged and will not support life. The AIMU will not be affected.”

“Good, do it. I don’t want that ship found. It could really upset the balance of those civilizations if it were discovered.”

Roy watched as a transport ship disappeared toward the planet. After what seemed like forever, both ships appeared in the distance and were taken back aboard.

“Well, AI, it looks like I’m your captain for a little while longer. Set a heading for your home world,” commanded Roy.

“Yes, Captain.”

“First, let’s take a side trip past the area that the four robots or AIMUs were lost and see if we can find them.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Within a surprising short period of time, the missing AIMUs were located and brought back aboard. Roy was amazed at what good condition they were in. A little dented, and their power supply depleted but still functioning. As the missing units were taken into the repair station, Roy felt there was somewhat an air of excitement about the ship’s AIMUs as if they were happy that their friends had been returned. This scared Roy. It was again a sign of emotion by a mechanical robot. The good thing that he noted was that the units no longer scurried to the walls when he entered a room. He hoped that it was a sign of trust because he knew that they could survive without him, but he may not survive without them.

Being a little bored, Roy set about having the inside of the ship painted. The ship was a dingy gray. That might be okay for the navy, but he was a marine and wanted more excitement out of life, even if it was only colors. He already had the hallways painted white with a red “lane” divider and the Lounge painted light blue. Now white wasn’t a very exciting color, but it sure made things look a lot cleaner. He ordered the rest of the ship’s walls painted white, except in the living quarters; those he left alone. After all, no one was living in them. He then set about doing a color code stripe painted along the walls and around the doors. Each deck had a different color stripe, along with the deck numbers, and all of the doors were labeled. This was for his reference as he found himself getting “lost” on occasion. He also had the captain’s quarters painted a light tan and took a lot of the old captain’s trinkets and put them in storage, out of his sight.

He had all of the AIMUs polished to a chrome-like finish, then painted numbers on them according to their job. engineering units were 10s and up, maintenance units were 20s, and so on. This was not only to identify the units but to help Roy identify the area that he was sticking his nose into.

As he walked through the painted area, he noticed how much brighter the ship seemed. Whenever he came upon a maintenance unit painting, he would tell them what a great job they were doing. Now he knew that they were robots and couldn’t hear him, but at least, he felt like he wasn’t alone, with no one to talk to.

Roy couldn’t read Ternan symbols or their names on the different pieces of equipment, so he set about asking the AI to translate. After each translation, he wrote the name on a piece of tape then affixed it under the Ternan name. After about the eighth piece of tape, the AI advised him that she could manufacture the labels, and the AIMU could attach them to all of the equipment. Seeing that there were hundreds of names everywhere, Roy agreed that her idea was best. He also saw that all of the indicator lights were white. It was up to the operator or crewman to know each light position and if it was “normal” or if some action was needed. Roy had the AI add color to the indicator lights: green for “normal,” orange for “down for scheduled maintenance,” blue for “system off or not in use,” and red for “immediate attention required.” He knew that the AI or AIMUs would handle anything that came up, but he liked the additional colors. It made things look more alive, and he felt more useful when he could walk around and check on the lights.