What we’d gotten after that aborted download became known as Marvin. He was a genius—with gaps. His knowledge and personality weren’t complete. He had set about helping us, however, with translation duties and the like. I’d given him a few robotic pieces to make him self-mobile, and he’d added more of his own design. After we’d returned to Earth, I’d honored my bargain with him, giving him a spacefaring body.
Apparently, keeping my bargain with him had come back to bite me in the ass. I gripped my headset and pressed it into my cheek. I wanted to apply enough pressure to destroy it, but I resisted the temptation.
“Marvin,” I began as calmly as I could, “this is Colonel Riggs. We are monitoring your activities. You have disabled a large number of our mines on Venus. You do not have the authority to do so. You will cease and desist, immediately. In addition, you will begin reactivating the mines you turned off.”
When I’d finished and transmitted the message, Crow let loose with a long, nasty laugh.
“I enjoy a good joke as much as the next bloke, but this is too much, Kyle!” he cackled. “Hoist by your own petard, eh mate? Such a perfect metaphor, only this time it seems the petards are being turned into duds by your pet robot.”
I ignored him with difficulty. Major Sarin, sensing my mood, raised her hand slowly. I gestured impatiently for her to speak.
“I think we can stand down our full alert now, sir,” she said.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Well—because there isn’t any threat. It’s just Marvin, turning off the mines so he could go through the ring. Right?”
I shook my head. “Marvin has the same onboard codes as the rest of us. He doesn’t need to deactivate the mines to go through the ring. He can sail right by the minefield just like any Star Force ship.”
“What’s he doing, then?”
“I have no idea.”
“You’ve got that right!” Crow hooted at me. He walked over to the breakfast tray I’d had wheeled in and served himself some coffee. He continued muttering and chuckling to himself, stuffing croissants into his mouth. “I almost soiled myself when the call came in from Barrera. You lot really should verify your nonsense before you hit the panic button.”
I gave him a dark glance, then returned my attention to the big screen. “Have the mines stopped being deactivated? How many do we have left?”
“Our sensors will take five minutes to update the count of mines, sir,” Sarin said. “I can tell you the orbital field is intact. Eighty-five percent of the mines laid on the surface around the ring, however, have been deactivated.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the horror of the situation sink in. Not for the first time, I wondered if I should have destroyed Marvin upon our return to Earth. I’d felt some form of loyalty toward him, and had treated him like a person. Had that been a mistake? He was a machine, after all. No matter how sophisticated, he was not alive. Perhaps this had always been the error biotics had made in the past when they accidentally created their own replacements. I could imagine working for long decades to craft a human-like intelligence, then feeling attached to it—defending its mistakes exactly as one would a child. But what if this immortal, alien intelligence turned out to be a killer? Or in Marvin’s case, it was just too smart, inquisitive and independent to be trusted in the same universe with the rest of us?
I looked at the digital clock over Crow’s tall, mahogany doors. It wasn’t even five a. m. yet. Much too early for philosophical introspection.
“It does appear I’ve made a mistake,” I said. “We’ll investigate this matter, but if it turns out Marvin is switching off mines without good cause, he’ll have to be destroyed.”
I saw Barrera give a tiny nod of approval. He probably thought I should have disposed of Marvin long ago. Crow shook his head, grinning into a fresh mug of coffee. He was clearly marveling at my stupidity and enjoying the moment. Only Sarin looked upset. She knew Marvin better than the others. She knew how useful he’d been as a translator and technician. He’d taught us how to handle Macro equipment. Without him, we’d never have made it back to Earth.
Sarin had set up a timer. We had just over two minutes left before the next response returned from Marvin. I used the time to think about what Marvin was doing out there. I was baffled.
“What I don’t understand is why he’s doing this,” I said. “He’s a very deliberate entity normally.”
“Maybe he’s curious about the mines,” Sarin said. “He’s always been that way, poking around with new equipment.”
I frowned. “I could see that with a single mine. He might deactivate it, take it apart, poke at it—even set if off experimentally. But to methodically switch off hundreds of them? I just don’t understand it.”
“Times about up,” Barrera said.
I glanced at the clock that measured the roundtrip of a message to Venus and back again. It went negative nine seconds before the response came in. Marvin was considering his reply carefully.
“Colonel Riggs,” Marvin’s voice began, “I’m sorry about any confusion I may have caused. I’m almost finished with my assignment. If you will simply allow me to complete the deactivation of the field, I’ll be on my way and you can turn them all back on again, if you like.”
I bared my teeth at the screen, staring at the yellow glowing oval that was Marvin. Two more mines had vanished since we’d started the conversation. The group around me stepped to the board, huddling around it. Even Crow had lost his sense of humor.
“What the devil is that robot doing?” Crow said. “Sounds to me he’s gone rogue, Kyle. I’m going to order my ships to descend and engage.”
I nodded. “Deploy your ships, Admiral,” I said. “But don’t tell them to fire yet. Give me one more round with Marvin first. This could all be a misunderstanding of some kind. Marvin has been a loose cannon since I put him together, but there’s always been a good reason.”
Crow twisted his lips unhappily. “We should do it now, Kyle. He could slip away through the ring.”
“In that case you can send your two ships after him, if you think it’s worth it.”
Crow grunted unhappily. He stepped aside and relayed his orders to the two small ships. Marvin was essentially a self-guided ship, but I hadn’t built him with any armament. He had sensors, a manipulation arm and an engine, but that was all. Clearly, he was using that arm to deactivate my mines one by one.
I keyed my headset again. “Marvin, this is your last chance. You will stop deactivating mines and begin putting them back. Answer me this: Why are you deactivating them in the first place? You will explain your actions thoroughly with your next transmission, to my satisfaction. If you either refuse to explain or continue deactivating mines, I will have no choice but to destroy you. Please Marvin, for the sake of our friendship, comply.”
Major Sarin fired off the transmission and reset the timer. It was a very long ten minutes. At last, the response came in.
“Colonel Riggs, this is an unnecessary misunderstanding! My motivations are entirely innocent! I should have asked permission, I suppose, but I was afraid you would deny it, on the basis of some technicality. I’ve struck a bargain with the entities on the far side of this ring. They assure me if I deactivate the minefield, they will allow me to explore the star system on their side. Think of the possibilities! You don’t have any cause to worry. They’ve assured me they are only interested in bringing an end to this conflict between themselves and Earth. They say the minefield must be removed so they can bring their fleet through the ring safely and end the war.”