The Machine
Ruby felt her senses focus sharply as they cautiously approached the rear airlock through the sample-processing lab on deck two.
"What's it doing?" Tec asked from behind her, trying to get a look at the tricorder's display.
"It's stationary. Positioned over the hatch," Ruby said after stowing the device in her vest.
It's trapped us like rats, she thought adjusting the tricorder.
"Maybe it will just stay there until we get back," Tec said hopefully.
"How will we restock the elemental bins without the SAV?" Ruby asked rhetorically.
"Good point," Tec replied as she activated the lock's decompression cycle, opening the outer hatch.
They watched through the vehicle bay's interior port as the machine entered the bay then squatted next to SAV7.
Ruby looked at Tec, only to receive a shrug of his shoulders.
After closing the airlock's outer hatch, they anxiously waited for complete pressurization and the signal the interior hatch was safe to open.
"Spindly appendages," Tec commented looking at the mech's triad symmetry.
"What kind is it?" Ruby pondered staring at the stationary machine.
"There're countless varieties in all the affected fractimes," Tec replied calmly.
"It looks primitive," Ruby added. "Think it's a real berserker?"
"I hope not," Tec replied with a shudder as the airlock signaled its pressurization was complete.
"Ready?" Ruby asked still staring at the ancient and pitted machine. She noted several obvious repairs with newer sections of its external armor, contrasting an overall dull, o'cher tint.
She cautiously opened the hatch but the mech remained stationary.
"Ow!" she said touching her left temple with a minor appendage. "It's broadcasting machine code at an extraordinary rate."
"What's it saying?" Tec whispered.
"My processor is lagging," Ruby whispered back. "It's been awhile," she added as the mech suddenly lifted itself off the deck on three long articulated legs.
"Shit," Tec muttered.
"It has determined Vera is a company asset," Ruby said.
"Is that good?" Tec asked.
"It knows we are defenseless and represent negligible risk," she said.
"That's good," he affirmed.
"It thinks you're goodlife."
"Is that good? It sounds good."
"Somehow I don’t think so," she replied. "Something about resources."
"Fuck," Tec muttered.
"It wants to interface with Vera's computer," she added as the mech ambled out of the bay and into the sample-processing lab.
As it paused to peer down the ship's ladder leading to deck three's sample storage, Tec bumped into Ruby nearly sending her into one of the machine's thin, rear limbs.
"Watch out," she whispered sternly as the mech resumed its march past the ladder and into the workshop
"Sorry," he muttered following them through a portside hatch into auxiliary control.
The mech silently extended a bundle of glowing filaments into a ship's interface port then coupled a mid-section limb with a nearby power dock.
Ruby still felt nervous as Tec wrapped an arm around her. They observed the mech for several minutes.
"Still receiving code?" he asked.
"Not since the sample lab," she replied shakily as the mech withdrew its connections with Vera.
"You okay?" Tec asked.
"I'm not sure," she replied. "My enigmatic subroutine is nearly overwhelming me at the moment."
Two optical sensors set into mechs pitted outer armor suddenly focused on Ruby. "Robotic ultra-binary interfaced neurology, contact required," it said in a clunky metallic voice.
"It's learning fast," Ruby said. "It's okay; I am a senroid," she added bravely, while looking up at Tec then extending her main appendage towards the mech.
Wrapping a bundle of filaments around her appendage, the mech said in perfect Confederation Basic, "Goodlife AI and carbon-based unit are superfluous," then pierced Tec through his left chest with a forelimb.
Ruby tried to scream as the machine withdrew its bloody, makeshift weapon and Tec's lifeless body fell to the deck, but the mech's link left her powerless.