Interrogative 01: Tiago and the Masterless Read Online Free Page B

limits, he thought. He called up the plans for the maker unit. He couldn't simply instruct it to build another of itself. That wouldn't work. The maker units were designed as a backup for creating small parts or missing parts. The controlling, totalitarian government of his world had insisted on hobbling the makers to prevent everything Tiago was using them for presently. The maker didn't have any gallium or arsenic in ship's stores. Without those raw materials, he could build a 'brainless' maker – most of the maker's brains were in a virtual machine within the ship's computer, just as the sims were, but some of the functions were run locally – but not a complete unit. He looked at running both makers off of the one set of brains. It looked possible, especially since he was the only one issuing requests. A full crew and a full load of colonists would bring the current design to the breaking point without careful management.
    Tiago looked at the design. It was an easy build, for the most part. The only tweak – a big tweak, granted – was the construction of the remote manager which would allow the brainy maker to control the brainless one. He'd still have to mod the original maker to hook up that side of the remote… he pulled up the code and began planning. He made a mental note to ask the natives – assuming they found natives – about resources like gallium. There was room to spare in the ship's hold.
    Maybe, he thought, I stole the ship before they could load up all the raw materials. The missing elements were used by many of the systems. It made no sense to intentionally limit the ability of the colony ship to repair itself. He could have chosen to disassemble some of the existing equipment, there certainly was a lot of it, but he wasn't sure what he would need. Besides, there were several safeguards built into the maker to stop that. The code referenced what it called auto-cannibalism protocols; the rules regarding when a maker could and couldn't deconstruct existing equipment. It looked like overriding that would require either a few hundred hours of recoding or – more simply – he could blow a hole in the hull of the ship that spanned three or more decks. Damage that big seemed to trigger a series of overrides on the protocol.
    There were still a lot of details to work out before he could even start building the second maker unit, but Tiago felt like he had a clear idea of how to proceed. He made some notes, saved his working session, and laid back for a nap.
    * * *
    "Don't tell me that you don't have blood on your hands. I killed them to further our cause," Quintrell screamed.

 
    Chapter Three: Making New Friends
    Captain's Log: Ship's Day 613.
    My nap turned into a full sleep. I feel more alive and alert than I have in months. My body still hurts from the gym, but I'm coping with the pain. Today I start developing the external-facing maker unit. I wonder how Audra will feel about having a multiple-body experience. I'm not comfortable using any other sim. I haven't scrubbed the propaganda from the others.
     
    Tiago showered, dressed, and headed for the gym. He took a much more abbreviated workout this time. He detoured to the galley and had his standard food order number four, substituting coffee for the usual nutrient drink. Caffeine was a rare addition to his diet. He was in a very good mood. That ended abruptly when he stepped off the lift and onto the bridge.
    Audra was collapsed at her station. Had she ever been alive, he would have thought her dead. A lifetime of reflexes made him put his back to the wall and scan for an assailant. There was none. He was the only living thing on the bridge. Cautiously, he left the comfort of the wall and approached the body. What now, he thought? It's not like I can check for a pulse.
    He touched her shoulder and she sat up, as if nothing had ever been wrong.
    "Were you asleep?" he asked, at a loss for a better question.
    "This body has a MTBSF of just over two