“Yes.”
I looked at him, startled. Was that anger I sensed in him? I didn’t think he was capable of that emotion.
“Asked me to do what?” I asked.
“To cheat. To change the parameters of our arrangement at the final moment.”
“No, she didn’t ask for that,” I said. “She doesn’t even know about our arrangement.”
One of the cameras tilted closer. “She wants to disassemble me, you know.”
I shook my head bemusedly. What was I supposed to do with Marvin? He could be telling the truth. Ning might have easily been lost in the mad scramble to evacuate Jolly Rodger. The nametag could be easily explained as well. Perhaps Ning was working on Sandra when the ship was hit. Maybe she was injured and fell into the medical pod, to be consumed by the microbes.
“Let’s talk about Sandra then,” I said. “She’s not like everyone else who went through the microbial baths. She is stronger, faster, and has gained better senses. Why is that?”
“Superior base-materials, longer period of exposure, and superior workmanship.”
“Superior base-materials-meaning Ning.”
“The closer the match and the fresher the base-materials-” he began.
“Yeah, I got it,” I said. “I don’t understand what you mean about superior workmanship, however.”
“Microbial generations are very short. They mutate and learn at a highly accelerated rate. Those that worked on her had already worked on two other humans.”
“Ah,” I said, nodding. “The dirty motor oil stuff. Those microbes were experts after having worked on Kwon and Carlson? You think they learned that fast?”
“Yes.”
“But I still don’t know why she came out so differently than the others.”
“I would surmise they performed experiments, taking their own initiative.”
I looked at him harshly. “I would find that more likely if they were ordered to do so,” I said.
Marvin’s cameras studied me, but made no comment. “Is this interview at an end?” he asked finally.
“I suppose it is.”
“Have you found my actions and responses satisfactory?”
I knew he was asking for me to uphold my part of the bargain, but I wanted to know more while I had him in a compliant mood.
“Did you kill Ning, Marvin?” I asked him.
“No,” he said. “But I might have put her body into the medical pod to be repaired. And she might have been used by the microbials as raw materials. Accidentally.”
“You might have?”
“Yes-if such an admission does not negatively influence your decision to fulfill your commitments.”
I snorted and shook my head, staring at him. Marvin quietly awaited my decision. I wasn’t completely sure what had happened between Ning, Marvin and Sandra. If Marvin’s story was the truth, it explained a lot. I tended to believe he had taken unsavory action, but that he was not a murderer. He was more of a mad scientist.
In the end, I decided to help him. I guess after he had saved the lives of several of my crewmembers, it hard to say ‘no’. A promise was a promise. Even if it was made to a robot…at least, that was the way I saw it.
“Okay Marvin,” I said. “I promised. We’ll build you some new parts as soon as I heal up. But you can’t continue to experiment upon humans the way you do machines.”
“Agreed,” he said. “How will we proceed?”
“Come back in three days,” I told him. “I need to recuperate.”
The days passed quickly, and before I knew it I was working out with barrels of nanites at the base where we still kept most of our factories. I set Marvin’s brainbox up in the heart of a Nano ship that looked eerily like Alamo. As I built his new body, I had to wonder if I was making some kind of far-reaching error. I hoped not.
I hooked up the manipulator arm and gave him a single engine. There was no repair unit onboard-no factory he could use to duplicate his mind or other parts. There was no armament, either. He had power, sensors, an engine and an arm. That was it.
How much trouble could he get into with that?