Chapter Twenty Nine

A Chapter by Jennifer

As Dyan and Marshall were sitting in the bar, the floor rumbled and the lights flickered. Everyone in the bar stopped and looked around. Dyan thought it was a little strange.

Some of the patrons exited to see what was going on. There was a rumble, but nobody went anywhere for safety. Diana Marshall grabbed the ones closest to them and went under the table.

“What’s going on?” one of them asked.

“Feels like an earthquake,” said Dyan.

“What is that?” the two asked in unison.

“It’s got to be something else,” said Marshall taken out of slim cell phone.

One of them pointed at Dyan, “Are you from Earth?”

“Yes,” Dyan nodded and then turned to Marshall, “We need to find Jayna and see what is happening.”

Marshall nodded, “Hey, you two need to hurry home to make sure your family a safe.”

They left their makeshift shelter. The two strangers stood looking confused.

Having no time to explain, Dyan and Marshall left the scene and headed to the headquarters of the robots. Everything was dark except for emergency lights that lit the road. Luckily, the place they needed to be was a few minutes away.

Marshall still had his phone, “Jayna, what is going on? Was there a breach? We are on our way.”

Dyan quickened her pace, “Do you think that anyone opened fire? What was the shaking all about?”

Marshall shook his head and dialed another number, This is agent Marshall. There seems to be a breach. Some of what’s going on.”

Marshall stopped and grabbed Dyan’s arm. He crossed his arms and stood silently. He looked up at the sky.

“Hold off on any further shooting until we get to the bottom of this,” he said. “Find any breaches coming from home.” He hung up the phone. “The robots shot at their space shuttle and the military returned fire.”

“So, we need to find Jayna,” said Dyan.

They hurried to the headquarters. They entered the dark building. He remembered were the main database was from the tour and rushed to the room. Jayna was already searching for the breach. The computers were advanced beyond their wildest imagination.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Dyan.

“Just keep the military busy,” said Jayna to focused on her work.

“As long as they are not shot at again we are fine,” said Marshall. “They are looking for any trace of where the breach may have come from. We’ll need to follow up with them at some point.”

“Noted,” Jayna continue to work. “I put the lasers on standby for any aggression. Can’t guarantee anything since the breach said we were under attack. I think I’m close to finding the culprit.”

“Where is Uno?” asked Dyan.

“He is in the conference area with the other robots,” Jayna answered. “They are on lockdown until I find that her problem.”

“You can do that?” Marshall asked.

“Yes, I was provided authorization by now,” Jayna came across an old screen.

“That looks like a program from an older computer from the 1980s,” said Dyan.

Marshall looked at her, “How do you know that?”

“It was on Dr. Finch’s laptop. Sierra said it was old school when she saw it.” said Dyan

“So, this must be Sir Computer,” Jayna began typing.

“Sir Computer?” Dyan and Marshall said.

“Sir computer was kind of the brain of celestial manifest,” explained Jana. “He was the primary communication system that everyone used.”

“What were the other robots for?” asked Marshall.

“The scientists were to analyze the planet and raise the human samples that were on space shuttle,” Jayna said. “The robots were there to keep everyone safe and help manage clean life on the new planet. The goal was to prevent us from creating another toxic environment.”

“Why didn’t we prevent the crew from going beyond supplies they had?” Marshall asked.

“I believe that it was nearly impossible to provide healthy food and water to the crew,” said Dyan.

“Then we got wrapped up in trying to save ourselves,” said Marshall.

Jayna struggled with signing into Sir Computer. Dyan leaned in and told her to type celestial manifest. She typed it in and the screen began the scroll of numbers and letters.

Jayna: activity map.

Both letters and numbers scrolled on the screen again. Attack earthlings. Enemy broke truce. Celestial manifest update report. Incoming message from Rolph Eisnberg from Texas support.

Jayna: Identify yourself.

They waited for response, but did not receive it. Jayna searched through the database and located the crew profiles from Celestial Manifest.

“He was aboard the shuttle,” Jayna pointed at the screen.

“I thought that he died,” said Dyan.

Suddenly the building shook. The lights flickered and everyone looked around. Marshall began calling on his phone. There is a rhythm of lasers shooting and then silence.

There is a rhythm of booms that followed. Jayna scrambled on the computer to locate where the shooting command came from. Nobody was answering Marshall’s call.

“I don’t want to die here,” said Dyan.

Marshall sighed with frustration and began to send text instead. He sat in a chair and put the phone on the table next to them.

“Are we safe with the robots here?” said Marshall.

Jayna checked another screen, “We’re safe right now. I have them in sleep mode.”

Marshall’s phone chirped. He looked at the message that was sent.

Shuttle two: Cease-fire!

Marshall: It’s not us. A hacker infiltrated the system and is using it to attack.

Shuttle two: Get it under control or there will be consequences.

Marshall: Have you located any breaches yet? We found a message from someone in Texas by the name of Ralph Eisenberg from celestial manifest.

“I’m not sure if they understand who will face the consequences,” said Marshall.

“We need to disable the weapons,” said Dyan.

Jayna hesitated, “We can’t do that. It’s too risky.”

“Leaving them on this too risky,” said Marshall. “Disengage.”

Jayna typed in commands to temporarily disable their weapons. Marshall’s phone chirped again.

Shuttle two: We located Eisenberg’s grandson in Texas and sent the authorities from TIA.

Marshall: What is your status?

Shuttle two: Maintenance check indicated there is no damage. What is your status?

Marshall: Safe. We are doing a virus scan and searching for more breaches.

Shuttle to: Are the robots disabled?

Marshall: Jayna placed everything in lockdown.

Shuttle two: Keep everything in lockdown until Eisenberg’s grandson is in custody, over.

He looked at Jayna, “They’re going to arrest the hacker. Keep this in lockdown. In the meantime look for any further damage or viruses. We don’t want any further incidents.”

“All is clear,” said Jayna.

The room was quiet. Someone broke the silence by knocking on the door. The sound startled them because they didn’t know anyone else was there.

Jayna walked cautiously to the door. It was quiet for another moment. Then they heard someone’s voice.

“In anyone in there? “ a man asked.

“Who is this?” asked Jayna.

“Dr. Hans,” he said. They all sighed with relief and she opened the door. “I saw the shooting and decided to head here.” He pointed out to the exit. “There is a war zone out there. Some of the buildings were struck.”

Marshall told them, “Stay here.”

He left the room in a hurry. Jayna quickly look through the different programs. Dyan hovered over her shoulder to see what she was doing.

Dyan saw her bring up one of the profiles for the robots, “What are you doing?”

“Cinco analyzes data,” said Jayna. “We’ll need some help from him to assess the damage and create a plan to recover.”

“What if they want to retaliate?” asked Dr. Hans.

She looked at him, “Why would they went we struck first?”

“Because the hacker from Earth,” Dyan replied.

Jayna shook her head, “The hacker is being arrested. The worst that will happen is you won’t be welcome here anymore.”

“That’s not going to go very well with president,” said Dyan.

“That and the president is not going to get his property back,” said Marshall.

“What does it look like outside?” Dyan asked.

“Like a war zone,” Hans and Marshall said.