Chapter Five

The robots are on a new mission

    Uno’s memory was fragmented. Most robots did not have a fragmented memory due to the fact that they were running whether they were on or not. Uno found himself in different places or doing different tasks without knowing how he got there.

    The quest that he was on now was like some changed the channels on a television. On one channel he was caring for human infants. On the new channel he was launched off into space in a space shuttle. Somehow he knew how to fly the shuttle and he had all of the data about the mission he was on.

    Uno placed the space shuttle into autopilot. It was time to check the cargo. Gjetta was already next to the cargo checking the stats and vitals.

    “Did you find anywhere safe to land?” Gjetta rubbed the back of her neck.

    “We are millions of miles away from habitable planets,” he told her.

    She leaned toward him, “Is that all?”

    “Perhaps, more; I can check the data,” he said.

    “Really? Leave it to the government to leave me with the comedian robot,” she grumbled.

    “What do you mean?” asked Uno.

    “Please don’t check, Uno,” she said “I really don’t know how far away home is and I know we have been out here for a long time. We have yet to find anything close to inhabitable.”

    They launched years ago with the crew of 50 robots and 50 humans. Since the trip started, humans have passed and a couple robots broke down. There were five humans left and still enough robots to carry on with their mission with the fragile cargo.

    They could create more humans with the cargo they had, but per the US government orders the must wait until they land on a new planet. They didn’t want babies born in space. If being in space was harmful to humans after so long it could potentially be a risk to a young human.

    Something had to be done, but they were already so far away. If they returned home, the remaining humans would be dead by the time they reached earth. The current government did not have a change of plans. What if the rest of the humans were dead by the time they found a planet? Obviously, nobody thought about it.

    The primary concern was what the robots would do without human supervision. They didn’t know how long the mission would be so humans had to come maintain robots and tend to the cargo. They did not know if the robots could take care of the humans if they created them on their own.

    If everything broke down before reaching and inhabitable planet, all efforts and money were wasted. Human civilization was doomed. They spent all that they have left to send this space shuttle off.

    Earth had a very had very little water, air, and food left. People were dying from starvation and dehydration. People were having difficulty reproducing due to genetic disorders that were created by pollution.

    They spent so much money on locating people who could produce healthy offspring and creating equipment to create human babies. They spent money on a space program and enough supplies to last for as long as some 70 years.

    Or so they thought. There is enough fuel to last 100 years and the food was only enough to last 20 years. It was nearly impossible to have anything edible or safe since Earth’s resources were polluted. Anything that was left to eat was full of carcinogens.

    As the crew practically wandered through space, people on board were dying for various reasons. Some people were sick from the eating the food and drinking the water. A couple of them committed suicide. Some died of natural causes.

    The surviving humans began to wonder if they had if they could head back, but they never heard back when they asked. They went further and further into space. They attempted to remain calm even though they were uncertain of their death.

    Uno watched the computer for a planet to land on. He screened each planet and it became more and more hopeless for the humans on board. Too many noxious gases, not enough sources, and potentially hazardous material fell from the sky is all that Uno found at every planet he came across.

    “Maybe we should look at the mini planets or moons,” said Gjetta.

    Rolf walked into the lab, “Are you bothering that robot again?”

    “I just want to stop while we still have enough supplies,” said Gjetta.

    “So, we have a reserve,” He said.

    Gjetta perked up, “There’s a reserve?”

    Rolf nodded, “Only for the new people.”

    “Why did they send us then?” Gjetta shouted. “Lives were lost on this pointless mission!”

    “You know why we are here,” said Rolph. “We are here to maintain the robots and take care of the cargo.”

    “Yeah, while some of these are functioning well without us,” she said. “The robots overpopulate us on the ship. Does not make you feel just a little bit concerned? God, Uno is at least connected to someone on earth. How many of these robots are connected from earth?”

    “What do you mean?” he asked.

    “There are more robots than humans in here,” she said.

    “Eli is on earth,” Uno mentioned.

    Rolf shook his head, “Gjetta, we’re here to terminate the robots should some hacker event arise. We also don’t know if robot can fulfill all of the needs of humans.”

    “Oh, and humans can do a good job at raising children,” Gjetta muttered.

    Uno returned to the control panel of the ship. He understood how to raise a human being. He knew that they had everything on the ship to create humans. Humans were to be kept healthy and provided food and water. What else could what else could possibly be required?

    Yellow light flickered from the corner of his eye. It was an incoming message. A message floated up from the bottom of the right corner.

    Final warning: government funds are being cut to support those on earth. Remaining funds are needed to maintain the water supply. Urgent request to…

    The message vanished as soon as it arrived. Uno looked at Cinco who looked on as they traveled through space. Uno sent a message to the rest of the robots.

    Uno: What does the rest of the message say?

    All robots answered data unknown. All robots answered except for one replied. Sir Droid did not reply. Sir Droid was the primary messenger for the entire ship. The one on the ship who was responsible for Sir Droid was Andrew.

Reviews

[wtp]

I am wondering about the significance of Uno's fragmented memory. I am unsure how he differs from other robots, or if the other robots on the space ship share his design & programming.

The implications of shutting down funding isn't entirely clear here. The spaceship is too far away to be resupplied, and all the humans would be dead before they could return home.

In the third sentence from the end, you introduce Cinco. I was guessing that Cinco is essentially robot number five, in line with Uno being first, but then you introduce Sir Droid and his human Andrew which makes things less clear.

Sir Droid's failure to reply after the truncated message is a nice segue to the next mystery.

[Jennifer]

Thank-you! I am trying to imply what is going on in a robots "mind" when a person turns him off and then turns him on in a different place with new knowledge/programs.