In engineering space, the banks of equipment blink steadily. “Come on, sit over there.” Bennie points to a spot on one of the small workbenches.
“Very well,” the bot says, sitting down on the slightly-too-small bench. Its small secondary arms twitch slightly, fidgeting.
Bennie starts getting things ready. “So you know where you used to work, but don’t recall why you were in the crate or what led to your being in the crate? Or how you got off your ship?”
“I am afraid that is correct. I do not. The last thing I remember…. The last thing I remember is… The last thing…” The bot tilts its head. “I do not know the last thing I remember. There is apparently a large segment of corrupted memory blocks. The corruption is near the encrypted blocks. That is interesting.”
Bennie reaches out to access the front panel on Gabe’s torso. “You’re telling me!”
Gabe’s head tilts. “Telling you what?”
Bennie shakes his head. “Well, you obviously have a secret. Those are always exciting, but it sure looks like you’re connected to whatever Maxim and Zephyr found out about the Peacekeepers and their plans to mess everything up in the sector so they can make more money and take over. Grolacking Krebnacks, I hate Peacekeepers.” He jumps up and down. “So! Exciting!”
“Why do you hate the Peacekeepers? They serve a noble purpose, dedicating most of their population to helping keep order in the galaxy.” Gabe looks down at Bennie, who is now attaching data cables to the open access panel on its chest. The terminal on the bench next to Gabe begins displaying diagnostic data.
“That’s what they want you to think. The reality is they’re bullies who’ve tricked the sector into thinking they’re this wonderful organization that keeps everyone safe. Except they extort those that don’t pay up directly, and they stomp all over everyone’s privacy with no consideration whatsoever. They keep technology for themselves, so they always have an advantage. Plus they do the bidding of the Tarsi first, above all else.” Bennie walks over to the terminal, still talking. “They’ve destroyed entire colonies and not paid for it. They fake crimes so that they can kidnap people to feed their war machine. There are even rumors that the war with the Confederacy of Trib was started by the Peacekeepers, to demonstrate their value before that last tax increase the Tarsi rolled out. Now, from what Zephyr and Maxim say, they’re doing it again—or at least trying. Krebnacks.”
“I had no idea. The engineers I worked with seemed so nice.” Gabe turns to look at Bennie, his optic sensors spinning to focus on the small hacker. “Are you and the crew going to stop them?”
Bennie looks up. “Beats me. I just met these drennogs—well, the two Peacekeeper ones at least. I've known Wil since he got the Ghost. He doesn’t seem to want to get involved, and I can’t blame him. You don’t last long out here fighting fights that aren’t yours. It’s the fastest way to suck vacuum. Or blaster barrel? Whichever is worse.”
“Both sound like bad things.”
Bennie looks at his terminal. “Okay, let’s see if I can’t help you get your memories back, and maybe see what that doodad on your shoulder is.” He watches the data scrolling by for a moment, frowning. “What the..?”
Gabe turns its head. “What did you find?”
“Someone dug around in your data banks and encrypted a day or so’s worth of data. Immensely poorly, I might add. They botched it up real good. Like, they just took a chunk of memory and encrypted it in place, not bothering to copy it to another location or anything. No wonder you’re having trouble.”
“Can you effect the needed repairs?”
Bennie looks over at Gabe. “I won’t take offense at that, since we just met.”
“Thank you. I think.” Gabe turns and stares at nothing.
Bennie continues to work for a few minutes, whistling a tune that’s presumably popular on Brailack. “There we go!” He looks over at Gabe. “I need to put you in sleep mode so that I can access the data. I think that’s what they did wrong in the first place, messing with your memories while you were online. When I wake you up, everything should be integrated properly.”
“Very well,” Gabe says. “Entering power save mode.” His optic sensors go dark and his head droops forward.
“This is some grolacked dren right here,” Bennie says to himself. He reached for the comms panel on the wall. “Hey everyone, get down here.” He gets back to work, furiously tapping commands into the console with one hand, while touching various parts of Gabe’s insides with a probe.
A few minutes later, Wil, Zephyr, and Maxim enter the engineering space. “What’s up?” Zephyr asks. “You figure out its memory issues?”
“Sure did,” Bennie nods. “I just decrypted them and am re-integrating them into his main databank. Once he boots up, he’ll have full access to whatever it was they wanted to block out.” Bennie looks up from his console. “Ready?”