Chapter Six

     It has been several years since they were launched off into their mission. Andrew was one of the only people left on the shuttle assigned to a robot. He was on the mission because he believed that he could bring something to the mission that nobody else could.

     He created a program that allowed robots to receive and send messages. When the government sent him the celestial manifest assignment and he hastily took them up on the offer. The shuttle would need to have communication.

     He built Sir Droid. Sir Droid was a robot with a messenger system that could communicate with more than one human. The other robots could receive and send messages, but for safety reasons they could only communicate with the people that they were assigned to. Sir Droid could communicate with anyone who needed to send the shuttle a message.

     There was a risk that was overlooked. Andrew did not see a problem coming and wish that he did. When he found the risks, it was too late.

     By the time he found that there was a problem, they were thousands of miles away. He was working on a computer while Sir Droid sat next to him. Andrew heard a low buzzing sound and female voice saying, “Intrusion detected.” The sound was so low that no person on board would have heard it. Sir Droid sat still as though nothing was happening.

     “Sir Droid?” Andrew asked.

    “Yes?” Droid responded.

     Andrew looked at him with suspicion. He looked into the robots eyes that had a blue glow. Andrew saw a red light flicker in the robot’s pupils. He plugged the cable into a USB port in robots back.

     “What’s going on?” Droid asked.

     “That’s exactly my question,” Andrew said. “I’m supposed to be the one asking questions.”

     “You didn’t ask me a question,” said Droid.

     “Right,” Andrew began looking through droid’s files on the computer. “Sir Droid, security check. I want all activity for the past 48 hours.”

     The monitor went blank. A wall of zeros scrolled down the screen. Andrew felt alarmed at the spectacle.

      “This is unacceptable,” he said. “What is this?”

     The zeros stopped and vanished.

     “It’s an internal message,” said Droid. “It’s encrypted.”

      “Can you scan it for a virus?” He asked.

     The circle spun on the monitor. No virus detected. He told Droid to open the message.

     Message: Launching mission to stop celestial manifest.

     Andrew felt a little bit of panic, “Hold on, how old is that message? Are there more encrypted messages?”

     Sir Droid’s eyes flickered, “Three years old.”

     “This is why our messages have been distorted for the past couple of years?” Andrew asked.

     At some point, messages from the government became difficult to understand. He sent a message in response indicating that there was a problem. Nobody responded to the messages.

     “Were my messages received?” He asked “You’re not responding.”

     He opened a chat room on the computer.

     Andrew: Sir Droid, were my messages received?

     Sir Droid: No, they were intercepted.

     Andrew: Who intercepted the messages?

     Sir Droid: The government.

     Andrew: No, the messages were for the government.

     Sir Droid: The new government.

    Andrew: There is a new government? Is there a person here right now?

     Sir Droid: There was a reform.

     Andrew sighed, “This is nonsense. Sir Droid, I heard the intrusion warning. Who else is there?”

     “The people of the earth must stay and suffer the consequences of pollution,” said Droid.

     Andrew began looking through his discs, “Who is there?”

     “Earth,” the robot answered.

     “Whoever is there is going to be facing some serious penalties,” he said. He found a disk and slipped it into the computer.

    Sir Droid smiled, “You don’t want to do that. You will lose all communication.”

     “I suspect this already happened,” Andrew touched the override options that appeared on the screen.

     Sir Droid’s eyes flickered and he nodded off as he shut down. Andrew opened another program to open files in the robot. He searched for any unfamiliar files.

     Rolph peeked into the room, “I was working on messages and the email system shutdown.”

     “I’m sorry,” Andrew apologized. “I think we have a problem. When is the last time you received a message?”

     He thought for a moment, “I don’t recall receiving very many. I just send reports.”

     Andrew found a new folder marked, “Save For Later.” He looked inside and saw thousands of messages from the government.

     Government: Where are you? Please report your status.

     Andrew pointed at the monitor, “Someone had intercepted the messages and placed them into a folder.”

     Rolph leaned in, “How is this possible? We would’ve noticed since some of the robots communicate with someone on earth.”

     “I don’t know,” Andrew moved the file into quarantine. “Sir Droid provides more access. It may have provided an opportunity for the wrong people to be involved.”

     “Let’s talk to Uno and see when he last spoke with Eli,” said Rolph.