Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [42]
The silver berets hustled Swendsen toward the military transport. "Soldier compies have gone crazy across the EDF. King Peter has ordered the factory shut down before anything goes wrong there." The Engineering Specialist was still thinking of questions as the transport's door slammed.
The immense manufacturing facility was the largest center of its kind, designed for assembling everyday compies such as the Friendly, Listener, Analytical, and Governess models. Since the hydrogue war, most lines had been retooled to produce sophisticated Soldier compies. Preoccupied with the derelict, Swendsen hadn't even visited the facility in days, but the automated lines hummed along with perfect efficiency. He was quite proud of that.
"Oh, perhaps some small flaw crept into the base programming modules. I'll take a few representative specimens and deconstruct what went wrong." He smiled at the hard-eyed silver berets, but received no response. "I have good people I can put to work on it. I'll reassign them from the derelict."
Just that morning his team had uncovered key clues about how the hydrogue engines worked, but he would have to take care of this mess at the factory before he could get back to the interesting work. King Peter had always been a little paranoid about Soldier-model compies.
When the fast transport skidded to an abrupt landing, four batwing hatches swung upward, two on each side of the vehicle. Alert commandos burst out with dizzying speed; Swendsen joined them with much less grace. Three other transports clustered in a delivery zone outside the manufacturing center. A large tent dome had been erected as a command post.
The escort hustled Swendsen into the tent dome to a table where the operation commander, a sergeant whose engraved nametag gave his last name as Paxton, pored over factory blueprints projected on a flat filmscreen. He looked up at the Engineering Specialist, unimpressed. "You must be the civilian responsible for this facility. We need your assistance."
"Of course, Mr. Sergeant, I mean, Sergeant Paxton. That's why I'm here."
Paxton pointed to the diagram, where crosshatches marked off half the building. "We have no recon in these areas. Can't get a response from any workers inside." He scrolled down with his finger, found the numbers he was looking for. "According to records, a hundred and twenty-eight humans are stationed inside."
"Hmm, that sounds about right. We wanted someone there to monitor the lines and issue daily reports. There's still some prejudice against complete automation." Swendsen smiled and shrugged.
"The King ordered us to neutralize these Soldier compies. You've heard what they've done aboard our EDF ships?"
The engineer forced a nervous laugh. "Yes, about that--there must be some mistake. I'm sure the reports were exaggerated."
"According to our intel, Dr. Swendsen, a rebellion flared up simultaneously on all ten grids. Soldier compies have already taken over numerous capital ships. Entire crews were killed, tens of thousands of good EDF soldiers." Paxton looked at Swendsen, his eyes locking on the engineer. "My team and I intend to get inside that facility and shut down all operations before the same thing happens here."
"Of course, of course. This really is very troubling. I can grant you the authority to--"
Paxton gave him a withering look. "King Peter issued our orders. We don't need authority from you--just your assistance."
"Well . . . you can have that, too."
Paxton indicated sections of the blueprint. "These wings here and here are component warehouses. Interior surveillance cameras show only shelves of parts waiting for assembly. No activity."
"Correct. We subcontract some of the work. Components are fabricated in satellite facilities and brought here for final assembly."
The sergeant drew his finger down the diagram; two more silver berets bent closer to see, adjusting an overhead light to eliminate their shadows. "These areas here seem to be the most secure."
"Cold clean-room chambers for module imprinting," Swendsen said.
"We already signaled