Battleship Raider Paul Tomlinson (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📖

The robot disappeared into the cargo lifter’s cockpit.

“What now?” I asked him when he came out.

“You will remove my restraint and I will remove your anklet,” he said.

“If I take that thing off, how do I know you won’t try to kill me?”

“I no longer perceive you to be a threat – to me or to the Celestia.”

I thought about that and glanced over to where the body of the rat-faced pirate lay.

“I’m in,” I said, “if you give me your word as a robot that you won’t kill me.”

“I promise not to kill you – for the duration of our truce.” The blank expression on his face didn’t reassure me.

“And you have to take my anklet off first,” I said.

The robot made no response.

“Consider it a sign of good faith,” I said.

He was silent a moment longer, then nodded. Huge metal hands reached for the anklet but I pulled it away out of reach.

“These things explode if you try and tamper with them,” I said.

“Not if you do it correctly.” The robot reached for it again and this time I let him. Thick fingers easily tore the metal cuff in two. He tossed it away. It was good to feel free again.

“Kneel down and keep an eye out for the pirates,” I said. He did as I asked and I reached for the restraining device embedded in his chest. “How do I get this thing off?”

“Twist it a quarter turn to the left, pull, and then twist it around to the right.”

I wrapped by hand around the device and tried to turn it. It didn’t move. Not even a tiny amount. I tried again. Nothing. I used both hands, trying to use my whole body weight to twist it. Still nothing.

“I’m sorry, partner,” I said. “There must be a knack to this.” I scrubbed my palms on my jeans to dry them.

“Try harder,” the robot said.

I wrapped my hands around it again and tried jiggling it left and right to loosen it. No joy.

“Maybe if I gave it a tap with a hammer,” I said. I turned to look for the toolbox.

The robot reached up and turned the delimiter easily, pulling it out of his chest. I watched this with my mouth open.

“Wait,” I said. “You could have taken that off yourself – at any time?”

The robot nodded.

“Then why did you...” I pointed towards the broken anklet.

“A sign of good faith. Partner.”

“You didn’t just hide the Navigator, did you?” I asked.

“I am the Navigator.”

It took a moment for that to sink in – even though it did explain everything that I had seen the robot do. “But what does that mean?” I asked. “An artificial sentience wandering around in the body of a military robot?”

“It means that humans are now obsolete! A new machine empire begins here!” The robot’s voice boomed out like a military dictator.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“No,” said the robot. “You watch too many bad movies. Our guns are hidden under some broad palm leaves between the roots of that tree over there.” He pointed towards a tree on the far edge of the clearing.

“Why did they hide them there?” I asked.

“They didn’t.”

“You’ve been busy.”

“One of us had to come up with a plan.”

“I had a plan.”

“You did?”

“No,” I admitted. “But I would have come up with one. Given time.”

“Time is running out. The pirates will be on their way back having discovered our ruse.”

“What is that sound?” I asked. I could hear a rapid bleeping. I looked around. It was coming from the discarded anklet. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“I wouldn’t stand too close to it,” the robot said.

Smoke was seeping out of the anklet now and the bleeping had become a steady tone. I moved away from it as quickly as I could.

The explosion sent debris twenty feet in the air and left behind a small smoking crater.

“You said it wouldn’t explode.”

“I said they didn’t explode if you know how to take them off properly,” the robot said. “I didn’t say that I knew how.”

“That thing could have killed us!”

“I would not have been damaged by the blast. The explosion may have attracted the attention of the others.”

“You think?”

“Someone is coming,” the robot said.

Our weapons were on the other side of the clearing and we didn’t have time to reach them. All we could do was hide in the undergrowth on the edge of the clearing and wait to see what happened next.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

They sent the big bald guy, Dante, to investigate the explosion. He came down the Celestia’s ramp with a pistol in his hand. I don’t think he was normally allowed to have a weapon. He kept striking ridiculous movie gunman poses, pointing the pistol and making kapow! noises. He looked around the clearing. Not seeing me or the robot he strode towards the cargo lifter adopting a sort of bow-legged swagger that made it look like he’d just dumped a big load in his underpants. He stopped to examine the scorched earth and mini crater that marked the site of the explosion. Tendrils of smoke still spiralled upwards and standing over them made the big man sneeze. There was nothing there to suggest that my anklet had been the cause of the blast. The big pirate turned and looked towards the doorway into the cargo lifter’s hold.

“You in there!” he called. “What’s going on? We heard an explosion.”

Receiving no reply, he hesitated, sensing that danger might lie ahead. He tiptoed towards the cargo lifter, edging to the right so that he wasn’t in direct line of sight of the doorway. Reaching the ship, he flattened his back against the outer hull. He held the pistol in both hands, barrel pointing upwards just in front of his face. He was looking nervous now. With a quick darting movement, he looked around the edge of the open hatch and then ducked back out again. Having performed this move, which he had seen hundreds of times