He took my robot

Playing chess in a submarine and waiting for your friends.

He took my robot

“F**k I’m annoyed!” Mike yelled at Steely Dan in the middle of their chess game. 

“Those idiots knew they had to get the money to Moscow for us!” They both knew that without Jay and Don buying more, they wouldn’t have enough fuel cells in the submarine to make it to the next trading zone.

“F**k sake...” Mike continued, quietly now but unable to focus on the game. He was programming Steely Dan to be able to play chess, testing his newest code was hard enough on the move like this, but the distraction of anticipation made it impossible.

“I bet Jay’s just up there making up more bullshit war stories for the ladies. They eat it up. Was Jay in the war, Steely Dan?”

A deep, flat robotic voice whirred back “...No, he never served.”

“Great, good memory.” Mike grinned a little, then sank back in silence furrowing his brow. To carry on without cells meant surfacing for a solar charge at the best case. If that went fine, it’d take a whole day to charge enough for next port...if it didn’t they’d be captured. Jay and Dan were only a little late, a day or two, but they couldn’t necessarily risk them not returning, left to die in the darkest depths.

What would capture mean? The sub had no weapons, and S.D hadn’t been tested in battle yet. “When did my life become a fucked up cartoon?” Mike wondered aloud.

“When you accepted the assignment sir.”

“Yeah yeah..”

It was hard to even tell where they were. Somewhere around Europe, where the ban on developing military tech was at its strictest. For designing an AI capable of contemplating complex war and fighting within it..Mike figured he'd be skinned alive. That being said, was dying deep in the depths any better?

Mike slammed a huge measure of vodka, and spinning round in his chair, marched over to the control panels. 

“We just can’t wait..they knew the deal.”

There was just enough power to make it to the surface. Mike mashed on some incomprehensible dials and levers, the sub whirred to life and vertigo kicked in as it slurred silently through the many leagues to the surface.

An hour later, a small pod with two large painted drums, fresh fuel cells, scanned the dark depths with weak headlights.

“Are you sure we left them here?” Jay turned to Don in panicked confusion.

“Checking co-ordinates...100%. Yes, here.”

“Where...you don’t think he..” Jay trailed off. “F**k, that twitchy c**t actually left us! We were only a day late if that! He took my robot!”