SciFi Shorts Collections

Twin moons shone in the clear night sky, their light reflecting off the sea below. A beautiful sight. As Samuel stared up at the moons it occurred to him that they would seem a lot more beautiful if he was still aboard the fast retreating pleasure boat, rather than struggling to stay afloat in the icy cold water. In the distance he could see an iceberg in the moonlight, but there was no way he could reach it. It was taking all his efforts and all his energy simply to stay afloat. It had been less than two minutes since he’d been thrown ignominiously off the boat by the pirates who’d seized it. Two minutes in this water was a lifetime. Or the end of one. Samuel had some advantages over the native residents of this planet, but even his enhanced metabolism couldn’t take the cold for much longer. He thought he might be able to last another minute, maybe two, but there was nothing he could do to save himself in that time. If he’d thought to carry a communicator with him he could have signalled the starship for help, though even then he might have succumbed to the cold before it reached him. But unfortunately the only communicator he had was back in his cabin, tucked away in his baggage. The thing that annoyed him most was his decision to leave the Suit behind. At the time it had made sense. After all, the Suit was banned from this world — any technology of that level was. He could have brought it though. How would they have known? And it would hardly have been the first time he’d ignored such laws. He realised he’d stopped shivering. Despite the cold water he was starting to feel warm. A sure sign he was in real trouble. His mind started to wander as he floated on his back. ‘This is it then’, he thought. ‘It’s not so bad. If I have to go at least it’s peaceful.’ You wish you’d allowed the Suit to come now, don’t you? You wish you’d allowed the Suit to come now, don’t you?The thought appeared in his head, but after a moment he realised it wasn’t his own. Rather it had been injected there by his local communication matrix. The one used by his starship, by nearby drones, and, most pertinently, by the Suit. The Suit had a particularly supercilious tone when it communicated. That was part of the reason he’d left it behind on this trip. Except, given the tone of that message, he apparently hadn’t left it behind. “You decided to come along anyway?” he asked. “Look at the trouble you got into, and I was only away from you for a few hours. Or you thought I was. I simply took the form of the shirt you’d chosen to wear.” “So I guess that’s why I’m feeling warm all of a sudden? You’ve spread out to keep me insulated from the water?” “Yes. And if you weren’t in such a poor condition you’d have realised what was happening straight away. In fact, if I hadn’t decided to take action you’d be dead by now, or very near it. Instead I’m here looking after you and saving your life. When you want to say thank you, I’ll be pleased to hear it.” “Yes. Well. You have disobeyed my direct order.” “Ha! An order given by someone who is in no position to give me orders! I’m as sentient as you are. I’m at least as sentient as you are! I make my own choices about where to go and where not to. Ordering me not to come was almost as good as…” There was silence for a few moments. Samuel imagined wheels turning in the Suit’s mind. “You bastard!” said the Suit. “You tricked me into this! You knew I’d find a way to come if you ordered me not to, didn’t you?” “That did cross my mind. But to be perfectly honest with you, after spending so long freezing in this water I’d become convinced you hadn’t. Letting me nearly die from the cold wasn’t very nice, was it?” “Well, I wanted to see what you were going to do about it. I assumed you must have a foolproof way of getting out of situations like this. Otherwise, why would you have come here without me or any other form of help? Of course that was before I realised you’d tricked me!” Samuel was feeling pretty smug. He had fooled the Suit, no easy task. And to be fair, it was keeping him alive now. He decided to cut it a little slack. “All right, all right. Thank you. And… I’m sorry I tricked you. I guess I’ve gotten used to having you around, despite your personality disorders.” “Personality disorders…” spluttered the Suit. “What do you mean personality disorders? I go out my way to keep you safe. I look after you. Keep you from being harmed by the trouble you constantly get yourself into. And that’s the thanks I get? Unfounded accusations about my mental state?” “Alright, alright! I’m sorry!” “Fine!” replied the Suit, grumpily. “I guess I should call the starship down then? You’ll be wanting to get out of here, I’m sure.” “Not quite yet. I can’t help feeling sorry for the others on the boat, and worrying about what the pirates might do to them.” “Oh really? Is it the three women that you were trying to chat up at the same time you’re thinking of? Or the men you were deliberately antagonising while doing so?” “Well… yes… okay… more the ladies, but the men too. Those pirates are hardly pleasant people. They threw me off the boat into this freezing sea almost as soon as they met me! “Seems like sound judgement to me!” replied the Suit. “Like I said, personality disorders!” “Fine,” replied the Suit huffily. “What do you plan to do then?” “Well, I guess we have to get back on the boat. Now I have your wonderful presence those pirates are in for a shock!” “Really?” asked the Suit in a surprised tone. “You want to take them on? Oh… we mustn’t forget the ladies, must we?” Had he been that transparent? He hadn’t thought so. “Well,” said Samuel. “Are you in or not? You know I can’t do this without you.” “Finally you understand!” “Alright, alright. That’s enough. Every moment we debate the boat is getting further away, and there’s more of a chance that the pirates are doing something unpleasant to one of the other passengers. Are you going to help me?” “What’s the magic word?” “Oh for stars’ sake! Fine! Will you please help me?” “Of course! Let’s get going.” No sooner had the Suit sent that message than it made good on its actions. It gently lifted Samuel out of the water until he was floating several feet above it, then the Suit started to shoot across the waves — soon moving far faster than the retreating boat. In fact, so fast it started to kick up a wake trail. “Are you sure we should be going this quickly?” asked Samuel. “Of course we shouldn’t,” replied the Suit. “We shouldn’t be going this way at all. We should be heading back for the starship. However, you decided to play the hero. Given the urgency, and the risk of my actions being discovered by our people at any time, I thought we should get this over with quickly.” “Fine. You’re the expert.” “About time you noticed,” muttered the Suit. Even as they talked the Suit had almost reached the boat. “How are we going to approach this?” asked Samuel. “What do you mean?” “Well, I was thrown off the boat. Won’t they be surprised to see me back on it again?” “You… you just don’t pay attention to anything, do you? Didn’t you notice that no one was on deck when you were thrown off except the pirates? None of the others saw you thrown off. Even if the pirates told them they’d dumped you in the sea, the others don’t know for sure that happened. Your reappearance, and the fact you will be completely dry, ensures your story will be believable. “That’s okay, then.” They reached the boat, the Suit sliding effortlessly to a stop just off the bow. It had come in low enough that the pirate on deck hadn’t noticed its approach. “You do realise that the pirates will have to die, don’t you?” asked the Suit. “That doesn’t particularly worry me, but why exactly?” “Because they do know you were thrown off the boat. They know you should be dead. We can’t leave them alive in case our people somehow get wind of the story. Are you sure you want to go through with this?” At that moment a piercing scream rang out. Samuel thought it was one of the men, but he couldn’t be certain. Moments later another scream echoed out. “Yes, I’m b****y well sure! Just do it!” The Suit didn’t reply, instead it shot into action, taking out the first pirate. One moment he was standing alone on the deck, the next something smashed into him and broke his neck. He didn’t even have time to register he’d been attacked, let alone it was by the person he’d helped throw off the boat. The Suit grabbed a g*n from the man, threw the body to the deck then flew towards the open hatchway. Samuel was just a passenger at this point. The Suit was fully in control. It was far stronger, far faster and, in its opinion at least, far more intelligent than he was. The Suit shot through the open hatch into the main living area of the boat. Samuel, his mind working faster than an unaugmented human’s, saw there were three pirates standing around and a fourth kneeling on the chest of one of the male passengers. The other male passenger was unconscious, though still breathing. The man with a pirate kneeling on him was sobbing in agony. He had a bullet wound in his leg which was leaking blood at a slow but still concerning rate. One eye was swollen shut. After a moment Samuel realised the kneeling pirate had a knife stuck in the man’s shoulder. The pirate twisted it even as the other three pirates became aware of Samuel’s arrival. The injured man screamed in agony again. The Suit didn’t hesitate… it brought Samuel’s arm up, the g*n it had taken extended, and fired at one of the standing pirates followed quickly by firing at the next in line and then the third. Samuel’s mind was working fast enough to notice the second and third were struck by something else before the bullets hit home, that they were already dropping to the floor. The bullets were merely to make it look as if they’d died from a gunshot consistent with the world’s technological level. In fact an energy pulse had drilled into them first, killing them instantly. Samuel expected the Suit to do the same with the kneeling pirate, the one hurting the injured man. The Suit had other ideas. It made Samuel leap forward, grabbing the wrist of the pirate’s pistol hand. The Suit applied tremendous force, crushing the wrist. The g*n fired twice as the man squeezed the trigger but the bullets went harmlessly through the wall. Samuel was sure that the Suit had known no one would be in the line of fire if that happened.