A 3-Hour Tour

Posted on Fri 31st Mar, 2023 @ 3:55am by

1,444 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Neither Yours Nor Mine
Location: Secret Base/?????
Timeline: MD 3, 0600

Podkayne wandered down the corridor from her chosen quarters toward the hanger. "And a left, 20 meters, and a right ..." she mumbled aloud, "and here we are. Now to see if I can just walk in, or ...." She stumbled to a verbal stop as the entrance to the hanger snicked open in front of her. Against the left bulkhead, she saw the head 'bot with whom she had spoken as they disembarked.

Walking in his direction, she couldn't keep her eyes from jumping object to object around her. Nomad was already stripped down and a crew of maintenance bots were removing parts from the engine exit and carrying them to a large tub of liquid ... apparently warm liquid, judging by the steam that spiraled upward from it's surface.

"And that's just what I wanted to see," she said, with satisfaction.

"What would that be, Miss?" Gordy responded, turning toward her and away from the console in front of him.

"Someone competent taking care of the ship," she answered him, watching the 'bots and noting that they did seem sure of what they were doing. "They are competent, correct?"

"If you are speaking of the ability to do something successfully or efficiently, then yes," Gordy said as he looked back towards his console.

"Is there anything I can assist with, Madame Podkayne?" he asked.

"Madame?" she laughed. "I'm coming up in the world! But, no. I wanted to come see the ship, find out what the schedule for maintenance is, perhaps check out the pilot's console myself. If you've no objections. I like to keep track of my own maintenance, unless that's against your rules." She observed him as he finished whatever it was he was doing. Of course, he was a lower level AI, and didn't have emotion chips.

Podkayne was thinking in terms of 'he' because of the name, but that could be from anything, even a series of letters in front of his ID tag. No doubt he didn't think it was rude to keep her waiting for an answer, and maybe he recognized her as having robotic origins, too. For a moment, she was tempted to wander off on paths of robot etiquette protocols, but she recalled herself to the present and waited patiently.

"Captain Perry has you listed as the vessel's pilot in the ship's manifest. That alone grants you unfettered access. If you would like to schedule certain maintenance for the vessel, please let me know." Again, Gordy turned from his console and looked towards Podkayne. He scanned her numerous times, not being able to find her model. Gordy then rolled himself over to Podkayne on his base wheel and positioned himself right in front of her.

"Madame Podkayne, if I may ask, what type of mechanism are you?" Gordy asked as his head tilted with curiosity.

"Ah, so you can tell I'm not biological, but you aren't certain exactly what I am? That makes sense," she nodded. Advanced or not, this place was off the beaten path.

"I'm what's known as a humaniform. It's a more human-appearing and acting intelligence, but still artificial. We don't carry ID tags that are discernible, but we are unique individuals, with many biological abilities. For instance, I can eat and drink, but if I don't, I won't die as a human does. I don't know how advanced your data files are, but do you have references to humaniforms?" Podkayne was curious about what was known about her type of 'mechanism', had Gordy called it?

Gordy took a moment to access all partitions of his extensive memory banks and again gave a head tilt when the information he was looking for was found.

"Ahh yes. I am familiar with Humaniforms, but I have not encountered one personally." Gordy grew more curious about Podkayne as his knowledge of her grew. "I think the master of the house has encountered a handful of them during her many adventures into the void. Do you require any maintenance yourself?"

"No, not at this time. Isabella's brother did a good once over before we left 109." She looked around the hanger again. "I'm possessed with curiosity, whether a chip we haven't located or developed on my own, I don't know, but your area is quite fascinating to me. When we aren't here, what do you do all day? You don't shut down, do you? I would think you'd need to be aware of the outside world, even as isolated as it is here. There are villagers, I believe someone mentioned? Do any of them work here?" Podkayne was possessed with questions, her curiosity working overtime.

Gordy stopped his current activity and rolled over to a Vulcan console with a large screen. Pushing a panel on the console, the screen came to life with a topographical view of the surrounding area.

"My duties go beyond caring for the masters' primary vehicle and other vehicles she may find need of. I also care for the service bots you see working in the hangar bay, along with those in the house." Gordy pointed at the map that came to life. "Since you mentioned the villagers, yes, some of them come to the residence to conduct business for the winery, or their individual businesses. The master got the winery up and going to help sponsor all her many projects."

Gordy then switched the map display to a full map of the residence. "The residence also serves as a shelter in case of enemy attack. There is one bunker underneath the main house, along with a multitude of tunnels that lead out to various points of interest on this region of the planet." Gordy looked over to Podkayne. "There are times when I think the master is paranoid."

The humaniform smiled, having wondered the same thing. "Is it paranoia if the threat is real?" she asked rhetorically. This place had a much larger scope than Podkayne had suspected. The job she thought would be a lark, a holiday from the base, might turn out to be much more than she'd expected. More complicated, more adventure, more secrets. She hoped she was up to the task, but instantly dismissed the doubts that wanted to crowd her mind.

"Are the villagers welcome to use the bunkers, too? Or are there other facilities for them?" she asked the bot.

What passed for a puzzled look on Gordy's face flashed as the bot looked at Podkayne with curiosity. "The shelters were made specifically for the villagers, Podkayne. In the event of an enemy attack, or some type of atmospheric disturbance, the shelters could be activated at a moment's notice. It took ages for the repair bots to make the final design specifications that the master desired. Many of the bots perished during the construction."

Gordy rolled over to another station in the hangar that had crates of wine boxes on them. "I manage the master's wine deliveries off world and am the face of the company per se, along with the house computer which handles a lot of other logistics."

Podkayne was about to comment on the villagers again when she heard the snick of the door to the hanger opening and turned to see who was entering. Dang, and I felt like I was getting somewhere! she thought.

McCord entered the meeting area, noticing with satisfaction that she was there before Isabella. Relaxing slightly, she saw Podkayne and several bots working, including the one Perry had called Gordy.

"Podkayne!" she greeted the pilot. "I suppose you are either an early riser, or never sleep."

"Sometimes one, sometimes the other," the humaniform replied. "But you're here at what I've heard humans call 'an ungodly hour', though I'm not entirely sure to what god they are referring. It seems as good as any other hour," she shrugged.

"Too literal, girl, too literal. Think 'a ridiculously early hour' or 'an unreasonable hour' and you'll be fine. We humans have a tendency to think in terms of idioms, uh, group sof words, a saying, a phrase like 'ungodly hour', something that has a symbolic rather than literal meaning, something that is accepted in common usage. Or at least accepted by those of us with a common background. and you are way over explaining something she could look up in any small database.

"Oh ... well I guess that makes sense, now. Anyway, where is our fearless leader?" Podkayne responded.

"Fearless is right," Gordy muttered loudly enough for the two women to hear him.

Both of them laughed as the sound of the doors came again. "I think the answer is on it's way in," McCord said.

... To be Continued ....

 

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