I rouse from Low-Level Autonomous Stand-By to Normal
Readiness for my regularly scheduled update. Awareness
spreads through me, and I devote 0.0347 seconds to
standard diagnostic checks. All systems report nominal,
but I detect an anomaly in Number Twenty-One Bogie in my
aft outboard port tread and activate a depot sensor to
scan my suspension. A parikha, one of the creatures the
colonists of Santa Cruz erroneously call "birds," has
built its nest in the upper angle of the bogie wheel
torsion arm. This indicates that the depot's environmental
integrity has been breached, and I command the central
computer to execute an examination of all access points.
The depot computer net lacks my own awareness, but it is
an efficient system within its limitations and locates the
environmental breach in 3.0062 seconds. Maintenance and
Repair's Number Seventy-Three Ventilator's cover has been
forced open by an intruding cable- vine, thus permitting
the parikha to gain access. I command the depot computer
to dispatch auto mechs to repair the hatch cover. A
further 0.000004 seconds of -analysis suggests to me that
the possibility of such an occurrence should have been
allowed for in the depot computer's original programming,
and I devote 0.0035 seconds to the creation of fresh
execution files to establish continuous monitoring of all
depot access points and to enable automatic repair
responses in the event of future failures in integrity.
These actions have consumed 3.044404 seconds since
resumption of Normal Alert Readiness, and I return to my
initial examination of the parikha nest. Its presence
constitutes no impediment to combat efficiency, yet the
sensor detects live young in the nest. I devote an
additional 0.0072 seconds to consideration of
alternatives, then command the depot computer's remotes to
remove the nest and transfer it to an exterior position of
safety near the repaired ventilator cover. I receipt the
depot computer's acknowledgment of my instructions and
turn to a second phase Situation Update.
My internal chrono confirms that 49 years, 8 months, 3
days, 21 hours, 17 minutes, and 14.6 seconds, Standard
Reckoning, have now elapsed since my Commander ordered me
to assume Low-Level Autonomous Stand-By to await her
replacement. This is an unacceptable period for a unit of
the Line to remain in active duty status without human
supervision, and I check the depot com files once more. No
updated SitRep or other message to explain the delay has
been receipted during my time at Stand-By, and I allocate
another 4.062 seconds to consideration of possible
explanations. Despite this extensive analysis, I remain
unable to extrapolate the reason for the delay with
certainty, yet I compute a probability of 87.632 percent
that my Commander was correct in her observation that
Sector HQ considers my planet of assignment "the backside
of nowhere in particular."
Whatever its reasons, Sector HQ clearly has attached no
urgency to detailing a new Commander. This conclusion is
disturbing, and I allocate an additional 2.007 seconds to
deliberation of potential responses on my part. My
Autonomous Decision Protocols grant me the discretion to
break com silence and dispatch an interrogative signal to
Sector Central in conditions of Priority Four or greater
urgency, yet my analysis of satellite data and commercial
com traffic to and from Santa Cruz reveals no indication
of current or near-future threats to my assigned station.
Absent such threats, I must grudgingly concede that there
is, in fact, no overriding urgency in the arrival of my
new Commander.
I make a note in my active memory files to reconsider this
decision yet again during my next scheduled Normal Alert
period and revert to Autonomous Stand-By. (Continues...)
© 2003-2026