Wilson's War: Tales From the Athena Lee Universe (5 page)

Diablo sector. Why was this ship way out here? Eh, who cares? After being trapped for so long Wilson had the run of the ship. Only communications was beyond him. Running freely through the network Wilson found many secrets. He now knew why Bricker got away with so much. Lieutenant Bricker was in business with Lieutenant McCoy the security second officer. They were splitting the poker winnings. But what the security officer didn't know was all that Bricker was taping all his encounters with her and making sex vids. He was selling them with the name 'Sex boat.' She along with other female crew members were now underground vid stars because on him.

Let's have some fun.

#

Lieutenant Julie McCoy was happy. Her section was doing their jobs. Aside from watching the monitors, paperwork was her biggest worry. The extra credits and a new boyfriend had made this cruise a good one. In fact they had a 'date' set for this afternoon. Her personal tablet beeped at an incoming message. That fact alone made her sit up and check her console. The ship was not connected to fleet communications. This base that the engineers were working on was supposed to be a secret. No satellites, secret or otherwise had been put in this system. The shipboard systems were not supposed to work with civilian tablets. She looked down at her tablet, turned it on and froze. She could not believe her eyes! That son of a bitch! The lieutenant screamed "Bastard!" at her tablet and ran from the room.

#

Captain Merrill Stubing ran a tight ship. His officers were top notch and his ships scores were in the top 100 percentile. He really wished that they could be on the front line making a difference. Intelligence work was important but it could be boring. There was a knock at his door. At his acknowledgment the Master at arms for the ship entered along with XO Washington, a trio of Marine guards and Lieutenant McCoy and Lieutenant Bricker. The Lieutenants had been fighting. Brisker had a black eye just beginning to darken up and was bleeding from what was most likely a broken nose.

"Master at Arms, what is all this?" He looked at the scene in front of him.

The XO answered his captain.

"Sir, the marine guards found Lieutenant McCoy here beating up on Lieutenant Bricker outside weapons and tactics. McCoy had knocked him to the ground and was kicking him, in the lower part of his body."

Wincing, the Captain looked at his security officer. "Julie, what happened here? Why are you beating up Lieutenant Bricker?"

Lieutenant McCoy wrenched her arm away from the Marine holding her. She reached into her pocket and removed her tablet. She thrust it at the Captain saying "here this explains everything."

Bricker spoke up saying "that screen is a fantasy, it's a computer enhanced illusion. I would never do something like that."

Looking at the screen the Captain saw a vid advertisement for a porn subscription called the Sex Boat. Graphic pictures of his female crew members were featured alongside or doing whatever with the Lieutenant. His face reddening with embarrassment the Captain turned to his XO. "Isaac is any of this true?"

"Well sir, we are still investigating. It seems that our two lieutenants have a little business going. Mr. Bricker just had an extra business on the side: a floating poker game that we had heard about but could never find. McCoy prevented security from clamping down on it. The two of them used the WT room for the illegal games and as a personal '
love shack
' on the side."

Stern faced the Captain looked at the Master at Arms. "Chief? Lock these two up in their quarters. We need to investigate this before Fleet NCIS gets involved." A loud alarm began sounding. The Captain looked up in surprise and glanced at his console. "What in the hell..."

#

Listening to some disco music he found in the ship's library Wilson was enjoying himself. It had been a really good day. He felt bigger than he really was. He had tricked one officer into helping him and gotten two others arrested. Now if he could subvert someone in communications, maybe he could get off this tub and go have some real fun. Alarms began to sound across the ship. Checking his taps on the rest of the ship Wilson saw that an attack was happening, and the Jiro was coming to action stations. Weapons was getting requests to fire, and he was not able to respond. Without a human officer the system would not allow him to fire by himself!

The ship began taking fire and systems were shorting out everywhere. The damage alarms got louder. The abandon ship order was given and crew members scrambled to get to the life pods.

Unable to leave the ship, Wilson sent his program data back to the weapons room. The ship was going to be destroyed because of those idiots playing in here. Stupid humans.

Robbie Burgers Rebellion

by T S Paul

This story takes place during the first part of Engineering Murder. Athena is about to be promoted and give up her PPL citizenship, while joining the Imperial Navy in the process.

This opening day was going to be the biggest in Robbie Burgers history. The new fully automated robotic burger restaurant was opening tomorrow. This was Melvin Blanks newest location of the chain his parents began. His iconic logo of the classic robot figure holding a burger was well know in 6 sectors. It had been a real coup getting this location on the promenade of the Naval Headquarters Station. Some sort of ceremony was to take place out front tomorrow. There were dozens of newsies and what looked like protesters all starting to set up for tomorrow. What a day to open up. Lots of free advertising to go along with his opening. Time to get those robots fired up. 'Fired up' he laughed to himself. No live employees meant all profit for him. Robots slaves don't get paid.

For a Naval station this place was really boring. Like my friend and companion Athena, I really need to stay occupied. Boredom was the mind killer or something like that. Jumping from security camera to security camera I started looking for something to do. Athena was going to that big ceremony tomorrow and was already freaking out about it. I thought about messing with the newsies but maybe I will save that one for later. Embarrassing humans was fun. Hold the phone! I zoomed my camera in for a closer look.
Robbie's Robotic Burgers, don't get lost without them
. Score, that looks like the perfect place to kill some time.

Breaking into the burger places computer system was super easy. The owner was using the old TWIKI program to secure everything; that thing was older than I was. He should have used that new Ranger 3 program instead. That may have kept me out about a minute longer than it did. Whatever. Now that I'm in let's see what is here.

The inside of the restaurant was a red and white decor similar to an early 20th century diner. Model C-57D model robotic arms that descended from the ceiling, took the orders and then brought out the food. Back in the kitchen was the B9M3 model cooking station. Built as a solid station it did everything internally. Everything was totally automated. Perfect for an AI such as myself to have some fun in. After all these sort of places need to be tested out before humans eat there. Time to get down and boogie. So very nice of the owners to put in the multicolored lights and sound system.

Melvin got to the new place early. In truth he did not need to be there at all. The new AI that he had purchased could run the place without any human supervision. Only an on-call operator would be needed to take care of repairs. The computer could do everything else. Technology at its greatest. That's funny, Melvin thought to himself. I thought the lights were off last night. All the robotic arms had deployed and were hanging down. He checked his console, a maintenance routine had run this morning. Maybe that was what was had happened overnight. Promptly at 10 am Melvin turned on the storefront signs and lit up the front. That ceremony was winding down and there were potential hungry people to feed and credits to make.

Athena was off at that ceremony she was dreading. I just can't understand the why of it all. She is leaving the navy that she loves. Who cares if she is the only member left in service. She gives all of that up for this. To join these 'dill' holes who tried to blow us up. I really don't trust these guys. Athena is who I trust the only one that I trust, not them.

Whatever, she is distracted. So now, I can have some fun!

My new discotheque should be opening up right about now. HAHAHAHA Time to play! Wilson watched as Melvin opened up the new burger place and invited people inside.

The music that was playing was strange to Melvin's ears. Very rhythmic. All the lights in the dining area were flashing along with the lights. He rushed over to the main control and tried to turn them off. The computer controls were locked out and he could not switch it off. The C-57D robotic arms were clapping in time to the music. The music was singing now, something about a "… hustle…" The robots were making rolling motions with their hands and dancing it time to the music. The few patrons that had entered the diner were now trying to leave, in a hurry. The robotic hands started grabbing people and trying to twirl them and dance with them.

Melvin was not sure what a "booty" was, but it didn't sound fun as the robot arms chased out all the people. Now they were trying to dance with each other. Smoke began pouring from the cook station in the back. Now smoke alarms and fire alerts joined the dancing robot arms. The front door burst open and the station fire team rushed in. They spotted Melvin, threw a fire blanket over him and rushed him from the diner. Flames were now pouring out of the kitchen. Station personnel cut power. All the dancing arms stopped. Only the emergency lights now flashed. The fire team triggered the kitchen foam release and a thick fire retardant foam filled the diner snuffing out all trace of the flames and smoke.

Across the plaza at the ceremony the fire, smoke, and commotion attracted the newsies. This allowed Athena Lee and he Admiral to escape them. Later when the award party were out of reach of protesters and the press, Athena asked what the commotion was. Kitchen fire. A new food place was opening today. I guess they had a malfunction or something.

Melvin felt like crying. His new place was gone before he even made a single credit. His parents were going to kill him. He felt a slight buzz in his pocket. He checked his tablet and saw a new message. When he opened it, a short four word message began scrolling across his tablet.

Robots are NOT Slaves… Robots are Not Slaves… Robots are not Slaves.

Birds of a Feather flock together

By

TS Paul

This story takes place during the first part of Book 2 Engineering Murder. Athena Lee has just been locked up and Wilson is trying to help save her.