MotherShip Read Online Free Page A

looked down as he shuffled his feet.
    “I have told you before, young Kyle. We are searching for home.” Mother's voice answered with electronic precision.
    “Why is it taking so long? I want to go home now.” Kyle's face froze into a stern, glaring visage as he crossed his small arms, demanding the right answer.
    “We must evade the T'kaan ships, young Kyle. We are still at war. You know that.”
    Kyle's faced dropped. “Oh, I forgot.” He sighed deeply and began shuffling back down the corridor to find Jaric and Becky. He had almost left the range of Mother's optic and entered the range of the next when he stopped. He turned. “When we defeat the T'kaan, then can we go home?”
    “I will contemplate that scenario, young Kyle.”
    Again his countenance fell into the image of deepest despair.
    “My first analysis suggests that going home is a high probability after the T'kaan are destroyed,” Mother said after six milliseconds.
    “Cool!” Kyle shouted gleefully as he turned and ran toward the library to find his playmates and to share this great news.
    Mother pondered her answer a moment, as well as the activity of the children.
    The children were either in the library or in their bedrooms these days with one or more of the Fixers.
    The Fixers were small robots designed to repair Mother internally, working as her independent and autonomous hands in case her own internal repair capabilities were damaged. There were seven Fixers in all, but Mother specifically assigned Fixer3 to Becky, Fixer4 to Jaric and Fixer5 to Kyle during their sleep periods which seemed to comfort the children and aided them to sleep better. Otherwise, the children interacted with all seven robots.
    Each Fixer was painted a different primary color, but each had the same tube-like frame equipped with four robotic arms and a small head. Two arms were located high on their small metallic shoulders and could telescope out far enough to open the maintenance panels on the ceilings. One telescoping arm had been designed with a human-size hand equipped with telescoping fingers that could bend around tight spaces so as to be able to grip and perform work. In contrast, the other arm had been designed with plug-ins at its extremity that allowed various tools to be connected to it. These upper arms were designed for delicate repairs.
    The lower pair of arms were thicker and stronger, located midway on the body, and were equipped to perform heavier work with larger tools. These arms could also telescope outward, though only half the distance of the upper arms. Once again, the left one had human-like fingers with the exception that these were not extensible and were over three times the size of a normal man's fingers. The other hand, like its upper counterpart, had plug-ins to allow connection with heavy-duty power tools.
    All of the Fixers had two large optics attached to the top of their tiny heads via supple cables that stretched as far as their upper arms and enabled them to monitor up-close the work of their fully extended appendages. Below the lower pair of arms, each metallic body spread out into four flexible legs tipped with twin motorized wheels that enabled the Fixers to travel quickly and efficiently in any direction.
    With their tube bodies being only four feet tall, the children seemed drawn to the robots almost as if they viewed the Fixers themselves as other children. The Fixer's simplistic speech programming and brightly colored metallic bodies added to this impression, reinforcing the seeming child-like persona.
    Many times, Mother would find the children playing hide-and-seek and other childish games with one or more of the Fixers. One of their favorites was a game that Becky had named ‘The Silly Dance.’
    In this pretend game, the children would gather all the Fixers together in the library. Becky would order them to form a circle in the center of the room and then ask Mother for music. Sometimes Mother would play a graceful waltz, at