Chapter 7: Sojourn

I depressed the thumb switch upwards causing Habu to lift off the deck and watched downward on the canopy interior’s full viewscreen surface image as the Nautilus grew smaller below. At around four hundred meters I stopped our climb and pushed the side-stick controller forward causing Habu’s lift fans to swivel to the rear. The boat quickly shrank behind us as we flew out over the water. I circled around to see how the boat looked from this altitude and found it appeared like a floundering fat dark whale if you ignored the fact that it was five times larger.

I scanned around and in visible light the horizon faded away after only a few kilometers due to the morning haze and fog. The weather would be overcast all day so this would be a great day to get experience using the aircraft. Off to the southwest a few kilometers I could just make out the faint shoreline of Barbuda. I’d never been there ‘back when’ nor had I even heard of the place. I’d since learned from Naomi that it was a mostly flat island located in the extreme eastern end of the string of Caribbean islands. Its southern neighbor was Antigua which had been the more commonly known and visited island.

I circled Nautilus once more before heading southwest towards the island. It felt good to be out doing something. Although it had only been five days since our last nighttime surfacing, I had started to feel restless as the solitary and confined lifestyle aboard the vessel had gotten to me. Each day had been the same. I would wake up around 07:00 and enjoy breakfast and coffee while getting an update on our location and progress. I would then help with any maintenance items for an hour or two.

Mid-morning I’d spend an hour exercising. Noon would bring a simple lunch. I’d spend the afternoon doing yoga or Pilates. Finally, I’d have a long shower and then have a large supper before settling down for an evening of reading. Last night Naomi had reminded me that we would be passing by the island of Barbuda and suggested that if the weather cooperated that we could practice my scouting. The A.I. has assured me that the island had seen no activity in the nine centuries since the fall of the planet. In fact, the island had been mostly empty before the fall of the planet with most of its residents having been displaced by a hurricane to its more popular neighboring island to the south.

We’d decided that if the weather was clear I’d do a predawn survey of the island using Habu. I’d have had to get up at 03:30 and be back to the boat by 05:30. But, with the overcast weather conditions, I’d gotten to sleep in until my normal wake-up time. It was now a bit after 08:00 and I was flying over the breakers off the island. The patch of land was around 160 square kilometers and had a length of almost twenty kilometers by a bit less than ten in width. The highest point was less than forty meters, so I took Habu down low.

I found the surface was covered with sandy and grassy areas along with scrub and low trees. I turned and flew over the island towards the west. This end had a series of coves and protected shallow areas which looked like it would be a good place for diving. I had Naomi switch the view to thermal and found no large animals or hot points visible. The island had been swept with countless hurricanes since humans had last resided there and I saw nothing resembling ruins remaining.

I had Naomi guide me over to where the former town of Cardington had been located. I spent ten minutes sweeping the area at treetop level before I found a bare patch of exposed and eroded concrete large enough to set Habu down onto. I landed and if there were any critters in the growths nearby, they were scurrying for cover with the sand and noise I sent spraying out in all directions. The side hatch opened when the fans had slowed, and I got out to stretch my legs.

As I stood there waiting, Naomi rotated the seat compartment forward until the front access door aligned with the forward fuselage’s lower storage compartment. The access door opened and Ohmu pulled itself out and into the pilot’s compartment. It stepped out to join me next to the aircraft as the hatch closed on the pilot compartment.

“Where shall we survey first, Joan?” it asked.

“We’ll just wander around a bit,” I replied.

It was good to get out of the submarine and do a bit of hiking. Towards the northwest was the former location of the island’s harbor with its concrete boat wharf. Nearby should have been two large masonry government buildings. We headed that way to see what remained. When I reached the shoreline in that area I found a few heavily eroded concrete structures, but these were just mostly rubble now.

The water looked warm and inviting and I wished I had brought my snorkel gear. Oh well. Maybe when we got to the island off the Brazilian coast in a few weeks I’d get a chance to enjoy the sun and surf again. I took a drink from my canteen and noticed a brighter area in the overcast sky. The cloud cover might be thinning. Ohmu was poking around the boulders of the old wharf area looking for crabs and other creepy crawlies. The sun was still hidden with the overcast sky covering our surface activities.

I looked at my watch and saw that we were due for almost two hours of no-satellite coverage shortly so even if the skies miraculously cleared up we were still safe. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided we had enough time to risk it.

“I’m going for a quick swim Ohmu.”

“Acknowledged, Joan. I will fly Habu over to this concrete rubble area on remote. Also, wear your socks to protect your feet from any sharp debris or dangerous sea life.”

That sounded like a good idea and I quickly stripped down to just my socks. I left the clothing under a rock to protect it from Habu’s down blast when it came to land and headed down to the water’s edge. The water temperature was perfect at around 27 degrees, so I waded in. After I was deep enough, I began to swim up and down the shore keeping the old wharf area in sight. I soon saw the black shape of Habu as it came slowly down into the clear rubble area.

I swam laps up and down the harbor for twenty minutes before Naomi interrupted me.

—I suggest we return to the submersible soon, Joan.—

It was cool to be able to hear her while I was in the water. I wondered if she could understand me if I attempted to subvocalize while swimming and tried to tell her one more lap.

—I read ‘one more lap’ Joan. Ohmu is waiting by the shore with your clothing.—

I finished my swim and used the shirt to wipe my wet body down before dressing in the rest of the clothing. Ohmu got back into her compartment and I got strapped into the pilot’s seat. I wanted to see how fast Habu could get us back to Nautilus, so I told Naomi to fly us back as fast as was safe.

WOW! I could not breathe for a few seconds as she quickly spun up the lift fans and vaulted us airborne. The seat rotated backwards quickly as the aircraft tilted forwards and continued to accelerate quickly at only fifty meters altitude. As we passed a few hundred kilometers per hour the aircraft began to return to a more normal orientation. We continued to speed up, eventually reaching almost six hundred kilometers per hour. Of course, at that speed we were already approaching the boat, so I again felt heavy as the aircraft tipped backwards and decelerated at over three gravities.

In less than a minute we were sitting on the deck. The hangar hull had not even reached full deployment, so we had to wait a few minutes before the retraction arms latched onto us and brought us down into the hanger. Soon the hull was back in the lower horizontal position and our day trip to the island was over.

That night, after a late shower I again felt the urge and masturbated. This time I used the wall screen at the foot of my bunk to help. I had learned a while back that Picket had monitored my Internet use ‘back when’ we had been neighbors during the time he had had me under surveillance. I told Naomi to just play some of the random pornographic videos I had liked watching back then. It helped and I reached climax much faster than without the visual aid.

I was laying there afterward just relaxing when Naomi spoke up, breaking the cardinal rule.

“Joan. I have observed from the data archives that many human females use a mechanical aid to...”

Oh, HELL no!

“Stop!” I yelled, interrupting her question. “If I need a vibrator or dildo, I’ll ask for one. Until then, do NOT mention it.”

The A.I. was either butt hurt or embarrassed because it did not say another word and just dimmed the lights.

The next week passed in much the same manner as the last. Naomi and I began to discuss our next port of call. This was to be the island of Fernando de Noronha which was located off the eastern coast of Brazil. It was 2,160 nautical miles or about 4,000 kilometers from Barbuda. This would take a little over nine days of travel time including our bi-weekly near-surface maneuvers and course changes needed for Naomi to tap into the enemy’s communications and data net.

When we got closer to the island, our plan was to wake up a few of the bio-drones. These would be used to do the initial reconnaissance when we arrived. There were two reasons for that. The first was that we needed the practice working with the living drones and the second was that Naomi was unclear of the current A.I. presence on the island.

She explained that all past A.I. operations in South America had been run directly through the master A.I. in space. This was a legacy of the rogue activities which had once been active there. The result was that there was less direct communication between the A.I. presences operating on that continent and the others elsewhere around the world. Therefore, she lacked direct and up-to-date information.

So, we were going to be treating this as a hostile situation and would be conducting the initial surveillance with full stealth and guile. We discussed which of the bio-drones to activate and decided upon the seagull and the otter. The seagull would be sent to do a full aerial survey while we were still a few kilometers off the coast of the island. After the bird had returned and we had a chance to review the data, I’d take the otter in close with the mini-sub.

Later in the afternoon I went up to the starboard sponson and assisted Ohmu with preparing the seagull and otter for revival from bio-suspension. Both small crèches which contained them began to open their lids. I peeked inside and cringed a bit when I saw their small bodies covered in umbilicals, catheters, and other medical instruments. I was reminded of that old movie ‘The Matrix’. A strong chemical odor arose from the opened crèche also. I shook my head when I realized that this was what I probably looked like when I was in deep bio-suspension.

“How come they have hair and feathers?” I asked.

Naomi chose to respond though Ohmu and the unit turned to face me before answering.

“The preservation method used on these bio-drones is not the full bio-suspension process you have gone through in your extended periods of storage. This limited form of hibernation allows the specimens to retain their natural body coverings. The downside is that their cellular structure does continue to age and therefore the method is not suitable for long-term storage of the drones.”

Huh. I guess that made sense. The two creatures just continued to lie there.

Ohmu continued, “The avian will revive to the level of movement in forty-two minutes. The mammal will take twenty minutes longer.”

I continued to watch as Ohmu and the crèche machinery continued the revival process. Catheters were removed, injections given and umbilical’s detached. Ohmu then attached a small band around each animal’s neck.

“Why the collars?” I asked.

“The bands are short-range electronic transmission devices and will allow the drones access to Nautilus’s data net while on board. The devices relay signals to and from the bio-ware augments in their brain. Having a removable external data repeater allows the drones to perform their missions without any detectable electromagnetic emissions.”

Soon, both animals were awake and functional. They were indeed merely unfeeling drones as they both got themselves to their feet and hopped out of the crèches and stood on the work surface immobile and waiting in a very unnatural manner. Their only movement was just breathing as Naomi interfaced with their brain augments. A few minutes later they began full range of motion exercises and I started chuckling.

“They look like they are both practicing Tai Chi or something,” I said as the bird and otter continued to slowly move and sway.

“The bio-drones must exercise in such a manner to fully stimulate their body’s nervous and muscular systems,” Ohmu explained.

I decided to name them and quickly came up with Otto and Jonathan. Ohmu never questioned which name was for which animal but I guess Otto for Otter was pretty basic logic.

We finished up the prep for the bio-drones by setting out a single food dish for them to share. Its contents were a milky looking gruel. When I asked Ohmu about it, the black unit said that all the bio-drones had been designed with a very rudimentary digestive system to save space and weight. They only needed this hydration and nourishment fluid to survive. In fact, that was the only thing they could consume or drink so no slipping them treats.

When I asked where they would shit or piss Ohmu simply caused a small opening to appear in the work surface. The A.I. explained that the recess led to a tiny reduction machine under the counter. I realized that the toilet up in my head probably had the same mechanism below so I would never have to worry about clogged pipes. Still, looking at the metal work surface the drones would be eliminating on, I was glad it had a lip and a nearby spray hose for washing away any spillage or misses.

With our animal chores done, we left the sponson. I frowned when I saw we also left the two bio-drones standing there in the dark. Both were continuing to do their slow and steady exercises so I realized they would be OK. Supper that night was creamy chowder. When I saw the bowl and its milky gruel looking contents, I quickly glanced at Ohmu and caught the brief small flicker of an illuminated smile appear on its face. OK, I admit the damned soup was good, so I did not make an issue of the joke. I did spend more than a few minutes pondering just how smart the artificial intelligence was becoming though to play such a subtle joke on me.

I was jolted from a very deep sleep by the shrill sound of a blaring ‘dive’ alarm. The lights in my berth came on and I jumped up rubbing my eyes. What the fuck was going on? Ohmu came into my berth carrying an illuminated trident. What the hell?