Klunk

by Bill Bowler

Table of Contents, parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

part 3

II — Incident on board the Seeker

I woke up to the sound of an alarm bell ringing. It was like waking from anesthesia in the middle of an operation, like coming out of a fog and crashing into a brick wall, coming out of a gentle twilight state into the glare of a waking nightmare which was reality.

The top of the pod had opened. I opened my eyes and took my first breath. The bright light was painful and blinding. My lungs ached and a wave of nausea turned my stomach. I tried to sit up, but my head was spinning and I grabbed on to the sides of the pod to keep from fainting.

“Let me help you, sir.” Robby held me steady as I clambered out of the pod and looked around.

At the next pod, Andrea was disconnecting the transfusion and rehydration tubes.

Captain Pierson sat up and opened his eyes. “Hello, Andrea.” His voice sounded like a croak. He tried to rise from the pod, but he was too weak.

“Let me help you, Captain.”

Andrea took him under the armpits, lifted him from the pod and helped him stand. He swayed on bent knees for a moment, then straightened up.

“Are you all right, sir?”

“Thank you, Andrea. I’m fine.”

The stims were taking effect. I was feeling better. too. Pierson glanced over in my direction.

“Hello, Rector. How are you feeling?”

“Can’t complain, Captain.” But I was shivering. The cryo room was chilly, and we were standing there naked.

Pierson said, “Let’s get dressed.”

He opened his locker and put on his uniform. I put on my robes.

“Andrea, you and Robby functioning at full capacity?”

“Yes, sir,” said Andrea.

“No problems, sir,” said Robby.

“Status of ship’s systems?”

“All systems operational, sir,” said Robby. “Internal video is experiencing malfunction. Three cameras are out. Nothing major.”

“All right. What’s our current location?”

“We are approaching the periphery of the Alphane system, sir,” said Robby, in navigator mode.

“Excellent. Let’s help the others.”

One by one, Klunk, Dearborn Wappinger, Tanya Esperanza, and the other pilgrims thawed out and resumed waking consciousness. Thank God, everyone was safe and sound, but we were all groggy. We had been in cryostasis for three years relative time. There was some kissing and hugging, some jokes, some complaints.

Dearborn slapped me on the back. “Nice to see you, Rector. Did you sleep well?”

“Quite well, thank you. The Shepherd has watched over his flock.”

“I hope He’s watched over the Market,” said Dearborn. “I haven’t checked our endowment balance in quite a while. I’m afraid to look.”

Tanya Esperanza gave me a big hug. “I dreamt strange dreams, Egon. I was in a beautiful green garden with giant, swaying trees, huge bushes of colorful flowers; there was a stream and an ocean beach with big waves. It was lovely.”

Dearborn laughed. “A little preview of our new home on Alphane 3?”

Andrea helped Caspar from his pod and held him while he got dressed.

Robby reported to Captain Pierson, “Message from Earth, Captain. Received during cryo and stored for retrieval. It’s addressed to you, Mr. Klunk, care of Rector Mobius. I have it up on screen.”

“It’s from Colonel Bagrath,” said Caspar. He read out loud:

Termination of Andrew led to severe reprisals. Red Blood Brigade designated as illegal domestic terrorist organization and banned. Android government forces attacked HQ. Militia outnumbered and outgunned. Heavy casualties. Had to fall back and regroup. Militia leadership currently in hard shelters on moon. Moon station power draining. Commencing final evacuation. This will be last communication. May God have mercy on our souls.

“Final evacuation to where?” asked Tanya, wondering out loud.

“They don’t say,” said Caspar.

“I know where I’d go,” I said. I didn’t have to dot the i. They could connect the dots.

“Robby,” said Captain Pierson, “see if you can contact the colonists on Alphane 3, let them know we’re coming.”

Robby plugged into the com console and started transmitting. All I longed for in this life now, I think all any of us wanted, was to reach our new home, to rest and refresh our bodies and spirits in the loving embrace of that holy place made by God to welcome humankind. It seemed as though our hopes and prayers were about to be realized.

We sped past the outer planets towards Alphane 3. Robby was transmitting around the clock, but we had been unable to make contact with the colony. We grew anxious at first, then alarmed. Why no answer? Had something happened to them? It was in this atmosphere of anxiety and growing fear that Andr34 disappeared.

Captain Pierson called an emergency meeting and informed us all that Andrea had been off line for 48 hours and could not be located. The last footage we had of her showed her exiting the android storeroom and then, from another angle, passing by an alcove near Caspar’s quarters where a universal trash converter was located. The video blanked out after that.

Captain Pierson ordered us to search the entire ship. We searched our own cabins, the storeroom, bridge, engine room, cryo room, infirmary, conference room, gym, everywhere. There was no trace of Andrea.

Morale was sinking, but we had to carry on no matter what. Andrea would turn up, I was sure. And we had to make preparations for our arrival on Alphane 3. There was much to do. This was no time for hand-wringing and second thoughts. I tried to set an example. I gave as much encouragement as I could to Dearborn, Tanya, and the others, and went to Klunk’s quarters to discuss certain arrangements.

In the short time I had known him, I had come to rely on Caspar’s judgment. One of the first orders of business would be to scout a location to build our new temple. It was going to be a magnificent structure. Caspar had also wanted to talk about keeping Alphane 3 human-only, ensuring that laws were in place to prohibit mechanical labor in human format so that no android population, however small, might take root and spread, “infect” was his word.

I knocked at the door to Klunk’s cabin.

“Come in.”

Klunk was pale, his hands were trembling. He hung his head and avoided eye contact.

“Caspar, are you feeling unwell?”

“Mind your own business, Egon.”

“You don’t look well.”

“I get migraines from the artificial gravity.”

“They can give you something for that. No need to suffer.”

“I don’t want anything. I just want to get away from this android-infested junk heap and surround myself with humans for a change. Only humans.”

“I know how you feel, Caspar. That time is fast approaching. Captain Pierson hopes to make contact with the colonists soon.”

“What’s taking so long? What’s the problem?”

“I’m afraid we don’t know. It could be some compatibility issue with their equipment or some signal interference in subspace.”

Klunk muttered something under his breath. I continued, “I’ve come to talk about plans for our arrival. The new Temple. The exclusion laws.”

Klunk was staring out his portal at the black, star-filled firmament. Something on the floor, under his bunk, sparkled and caught my eye. I bent over to pick it up. It was a tiny transparent disc, like a contact lens. Its delicate craftsmanship was remarkable, though whether it was ornamental or functional, I could not guess. It could have been a piece of jewelry or a machine part.

“This is just not a good time, Rector,” said Caspar, his back to me. “Can we talk some other time?”

“Of course, Caspar. I completely understand. We’re all worried, but we have to stay focused. We have to stay positive. There’s so much at stake.” I turned to go and, apparently, as I have no recollection of doing it, I must have unconsciously slipped the little disc into my pocket. I discovered it only later, back in my own cabin, when I emptied my pockets, changing into my evening vestments.

The search for Andr34 continued. She could not simply have vanished into thin air. Captain Pierson interviewed everyone on board, but no one had seen her. Dearborn Wappinger thought she might have had a battery leak, run out of power and collapsed somewhere on the ship. But if that were the case, we should have found her by now. Tanya wondered if she might have accidentally somehow gotten into the disposal system and been accidentally ejected into space, but that seemed highly unlikely. Robby, impassive as always, stated there was no record of her departure from the vessel by any means, and no indication of her current presence on board.

I stopped by Klunk’s cabin the next day to see if he were feeling better and to return the transparent little disc. His door was ajar.

“Caspar, are you there?”

I peered in and saw him from hunched over his desk, his head cradled in his hands. On the desktop beside him was a pile of electronic parts and plastic pieces. I felt in my pocket for the little disc.

“Caspar, it’s me, Egon.”

He looked up at me with a strange look on his face.

“Caspar! What’s wrong?”

“I have a splitting headache,” he said. “Can we talk later?”

“Certainly.”

I took the transparent disc from my pocket and handed it to him. “I found this on the floor by your bunk, Caspar.”

“It’s hers.”

“Whose?”

He gestured at the pile of components. “It’s Android 34, what’s left of her, it.”

He picked up a small white sphere from the pile on the table and fitted the tiny disc into a groove. It was a lens for one of her eyes!

“It was an accident,” said Klunk. “I swear I meant her no harm. I never meant to damage her. She, it, whatever, came here, to my cabin in that slinky uniform, looking like the sexiest, most beautiful woman I ever saw in my life. She seemed almost human. Almost. Close enough. As turned on as I was, I knew it was mechanical, not human, and it was wrong and it drove me nuts. I wanted to touch her again. And I did. Forgive me, Rector! She was so passive.

“I started shouting at her, calling her names, and she just stood there looking at me with those big eyes, not moving, saying nothing, like she was some kind of saint. I needed a reaction, a sign of life. Anything. I lost it. I shoved her down to the floor, hard, and she just lay there. No resistance.

“I got one of my migraines. A pounding head and flashes of light. I grabbed her by the shoulders and started to shake her and shook her and shook her, and her head flew back and I heard something in her neck crack. A horrible sound, like a bone breaking.

“I let go of her and she dropped back to the floor completely limp. The goddamn eyes were open, but empty. You know what I mean, Rector? I didn’t want any trouble with Pierson. I don’t trust him. I had to think fast and began to disassemble her, it. I vaporized the head in the compactor in the hall outside. I kept these electronics. Memory modules, chips. I don’t know why. I still have some of the structural pieces here in this closet.”

“Caspar, the Lord forgives you, but the truth will come out. They’re still looking for her. They’ll search your room again. They’ll find the pieces. You can’t keep this secret!”

“Yes, I can, Rector. And my confession to you is confidential. You are bound by your oath.”

“Caspar, you have broken a piece of sentient machinery. Your rage was wrong in God’s eyes, but you have harmed no one but yourself. You need not be so fearful about the consequences. People will understand.”

“Pierson’s a nutjob when it comes to droids. He has two for a crew. Had. He’s got one now. I don’t want any trouble.”

Things may seem bad, but they can always get worse. I heard a pelting sound, like hail against a window.

“Listen!” I said. Caspar and I stopped speaking, and we perked our ears. “What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Something small and hard, lots of them, were striking the hull. I looked out Caspar’s portal and saw a mass of small flying objects, looking for all the world like a swarm of locusts. Then there was a loud bang. The ship shuddered and the lights went out. It was pitch black for an instant before the alarm rang and the emergency lights began flashing red.

Klunk and I ran out into the corridor. A group of frightened pilgrims ran past, shouting and jostling each other. Klunk paused a moment and went the other direction. I followed him.

We ran past the compactor unit, turned at the juncture, and headed towards the nose of the ship, towards the bridge. We came to a smoke-filled section of corridor. I heard the pelting sound and then there was another loud bang. The smoke was sucked out through a hole in the hull the size of a baseball. Everything not bolted down was being vacuumed out into space.

I felt myself pulled forward and thought the end had come. Caspar, my guardian angel, pushed me back towards the wall. I managed to grab hold of the railing. He grabbed a handle on the wall. The force of the wind lifted us off our feet. We held on for dear life, but Caspar’s handle pulled loose and tore a section of sheet metal from the wall.

The wind caught the sheet metal like a sail and Caspar flew down the corridor, accelerating towards the hole at high speed. It was over in an instant. I watched in horror as he slammed into the wall. The sheet metal covered the hole like a patch and plugged the breach. The patch held, the wind died, but Caspar’s inert body slid down to the floor. He lay still, sprawled in a heap on the floor in a pool of blood. Every bone in his body was broken.

Proceed to part 4...

Copyright © 2021 by Bill Bowler