Two For Two (Unfinished)

A Robot and and ordinary woman are the last two conscious beings in the Universe. Their fight to survive is followed in this short Story

Element 60934 was alive. Well as alive as a robot could be. He realised at once that something was amiss, Firstly there was a human leg floating about three feet from his face. His relatively small processing unit told him that this was not standard procedure aboard the Cerberus.  

The Cerberus was  humanity’s last hope, a mission to finally colonise Mars. The 100 year preparation of the planet had been successful in providing a microbial ecosystem, vital for plant life, and an atmosphere, which had been created via the gradual introduction of biological entities to generate the required biosign gases such as Methane, Oxygen and Carbon-Dioxide. But they had a deadline and that deadline was two weeks after their launch. Every astronaut aboard the Cerberus would be saying goodbye to everything and everyone they know and love on earth, and then they would have to watch it die in their rear-view mirror.

Element 60934 was a mid-grade human/AI cross designed to have the intellectual capacity and problem solving of a human as well as providing empathy and other psychological services, without actually feeling said emotions. This kind of design was excellent for long distance space travel.

He grabbed a metal support strut and oriented himself. He was in the galley, he could recall his patrol passing through moments before an emergency system restart had occurred in his brain rendering him unconscious. Such a restart is incredibly risky and only performed under immense physical stress to the body. The leg however was so far unexplained, he grabbed it and put it into a waste materials hatch in the wall. The lack of gravity meant that the cerberus must have come out of its centrifugal spin, this only happened if a hull breach occurred. (his brain had to process pieces of information individually as his AI unit was in emergency power mode)

The first appropriate course of action was to locate any possible injured naturalite crew and to assist them. Propelling himself along the walls of the galley and into a corridor he rounded a corner to find little droplets of blood were floating in the air like red marbles. This was dangerous to any electronics but there was nothing Element 60934 could do about them and his priority was elsewhere. The ship was still pressurized and the electronics were still functional but something was disastrously wrong. Not one of  the ship’s 145 naturalite crew were at their stations or even visible.

A naturalite is a completely unmodified human being, always descended from two unmodified parents (these parents however do not require to be descended from unmodified parents but usually are). Modifications include computerised implants to aid or abet specific cerebral functions such as motor control or emotional responses or genetic modifications to heighten awareness and muscle strength.

Element 60934’s modifications allowed him to have a heightened awareness and lowered emotional response, useful in any Element travelling in space. His heightened awareness also made for a very effective navigator as he could read multiple sources of information incredibly fast.

He made his way on a sweep of the ship checking for injured crew, the concentration of blood droplets was getting higher and higher as he made his way towards the outer ring of the ship. The Cerberus was constructed as a set of three rings all connected by three main corridors that ran the diameter of the largest ring. This design meant that the ship could spin while in space to produce artificial gravity.

He reached the outer ring and what he found would have traumatised even the most hardy of astronauts. What he deduced was that some form of malfunction had caused the ship’s spin to accelerate dramatically. Fortunately, for Element 60934, this acceleration had been stopped by the Cerberus’s course correction systems. However the damage had been done, every single crew member (give or take) was part of the red mess he saw in front of him coating the floors of the outer ring. They had been flung  into the floor. Across the upper rings parts of people who had become lodged in machinery or other obstacles had simply been pulled off by the force. This sight invoked very little reaction in Element 60934 due to his modifications. He processed what he saw and then continued on.

His mid-grade modifications were simply not adequate to deal with the situation and especially not whilst in emergency power mode (only overridable by a naturalite) he continued searching for survivors not realising his futility. He approached the medi-bay, just another room to check, he checked the bay’s computer system, it read. Oxygen level 20%, Pressure 14.7 PSI, Hypersleep pod 1: Vacant, 2: Vacant, 3: Occupied and stable, 4:Vacant. He turned away from the screen as he processed the information; pod 3 it was occupied and stable. He pushed himself towards pod 3 and hit the door release. Inside in a deep coma was Crew Surgeon Lacey Thomas Muller. Element 60934 grabbed and adrenaline shot from a nearby medical cabinet and injected Lacey with it. She opened her eyes and sat up suddenly taking deep breaths.

“Crew Surgeon Lacey Thomas Muller, I am Element 60934 of the Cerberus colonisation vessel at your service. It appears you are the only survivor of a massive rotational anomaly. In accordance with the emergency chain of command procedures you are now Captain of this vessel. May I request that you deactivate emergency power mode which is slowing my processor.”

Lacey was a seasoned astronaut but it took her a minute to take all of this in. She deactivated his emergency power mode and floated out of her Pod.

“ Ok, ok we have to get to the bridge  we’ll be able to send out a distress signal from there,” she said stumbling over her words

“Let’s get moving then,” replied Element 60934.

The two of them made their way down a corridor towards the bridge.

“Are you absolutely sure that I am the soul survivor?” Lacey asked with a slight wobble in her voice.

“It appears so.”

“What happened to the crew?” Lacey was starting to panic a little at the idea of all of her friends and colleagues being dead.

“They were killed when the ship’s centrifugal spin suddenly accelerated causing them to be crushed by the forces,” he explained, not a drop of remorse in his voice.

“Oh my god…” Lacey said in a small quiet voice.

“ I recommend for your mental stability that you avoid the outer ring of the ship.” he said as if he was reading off a checklist.

“Element?” Lacey asked

“Yes ma’am?”

“May I call you Ell?”

“Of course”

Chapter 2

The pair made their way to the bridge. One terrible thought wouldn't leave Lacey’s mind. She may be the last Human alive and as far as she knew the last living thing in the universe. All life on earth was dead, which was the fault of human kind, but there would be no one there to greet her on Mars either. This only mattered if they reached Mars which at this point seemed unlikely. But there was no turning back and certainly not if they didn't get to the bridge.

“One thing at a time, that's how to get through this.” Lacey told herself concentrating on the blatant hopelessness of her attempts to survive wouldn't help  her to do so,so there was no use concentrating on them.

They rounded the corner into what should have been the bridge. Instead they were faced with a solid steel blast door. These doors were designed to close automatically should the air pressure in one of the ship’s  compartments drop below 10 psi. This could only mean one thing, there had been a hull breach. The words of Lacey’s trainer echoed in her head; “When you are up there there will be no emergency services, you will not be able to pick up the phone and call for help and even if you could we can't come get you so u Gotta put your big boy pants on and fix whatever's going bad. YOU HEAR ME?”

Author's Note

This is an unfinished Version completely open to suggestions and comments

Reviews

[Soulcatchers]

Great story. Really engaging. It has peaked my interest. It has me curious to know what may have really caused everyone to be killed. Was it a Monster, a creature that was locked up and got out? Did someone disrupt the centrifugal spin on purpose? My only suggestion to you would be to proofread and fix your errors and spellcheck. But keep going can't wait to see what coming up next

[Some Guy]

Thank you so much