Chapter 11

The pod was sitting at the back of the cave beside the stack of firewood. None of the youngsters could stop themselves from glancing at it constantly as they knew how important to their survival it could be.

They were sitting round the fire, eating one of the turkeys the boys had killed and all of them were letting their imagination wander to what could be produced. Hannah was the first to voice what she was thinking.

"Could we replicate a spaceship?" she asked.

"From what my memories tell me, I think that's very unlikely. The replicator unit is only a small one and can probably only produce small things. But even that would be a godsend. Think about it. We might be able to make some tools, certainly better weapons than the spears we currently have," said Ben.

"It will certainly be able to make food and that would be really useful," added Sarah.

"If my memories are right the replicator unit has a limited supply of raw material to use," said Adam.

"I think that's right, but there should be enough to last quite a while. If we can find the raw materials on this planet, we might even be able to keep topping it up," said Ben.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" squealed Hannah, "we'll be able to make warm clothes and boots!"

"Maybe that's not such a good idea. If we make better weapons we should get better at hunting and that means we would have plenty of skins to make clothing. Why risk using up the replicator's capacity by creating something we can make for ourselves? It would be a good idea to replicate some proper metal needles though," cautioned Adam.

The turkey was almost gone and the discussion was now focusing on the essential things they would make before the replicator ran out of raw material.

"Let's try to be logical," said Sarah. "This planet has plenty of game and lots of raw materials. If the replicator works, our priorities should be the things that help us get the most out of what's around us. That suggests we should make tools first. Tools to help us hunt better so we don't need to use the replicator for food and tools that might help us manufacture more of the raw material to feed the replicator."

None of them could see any fault in what Sarah was suggesting. If the replicator worked and if they could re-programme it, it could run out at any time. They agreed to only use it sparingly and to think long and hard about what to make with it.

"I think the first thing we should try is a truly modern rifle so we can hunt better," said Adam.

"We have to get the thing working first," said Ben.

"Let me do that. I've been going over what my memories contain about the technology involved and I think I'm on top of it," said Thomas.

The youngsters looked at each other. No one else was as confident about taking on the job as Thomas seemed so it was agreed that he should be the one to work on the pod. It was too dark to try to do that right away so they agreed it would have to wait for the morning.

Before settling down for the night there was one more suggestion that had most of the youngsters puzzled.

"I think we should replicate some chocolate biscuits as quickly as possible," said Sarah and then immediately put her hand up to her mouth and her face turned red.

Ben snickered to himself and the other two sets of twins stared at Sarah. She had been the one who had been urging caution and only using the replicator for essentials. It seemed very strange for her to have gone from that to now suggesting it should be used to make biscuits!

"Just ignore me, I don't know why I said that," said Sarah and she shot an angry look at her twin. Ben snickered again.

When Sarah lay down beside Ben she whispered her annoyance at him.

"You made me say that! I look like a complete idiot for suggesting we need chocolate biscuits!"

"I was just proving that the nuggets worked," Ben replied, "but it was funny too!"

Sarah fumed for a few minutes longer, but then the realisation that Ben's claims about the power of the metal seemed to be accurate chased her anger from her mind. If the nuggets could be used to communicate over long distances they would be incredibly useful. She wasn't as comfortable with the idea that Ben could seemingly control people (or more accurately, could control her!) and she vowed to speak to him about that.

David lay curled up under some bushes to avoid the worst of the teeming rain. He was thoroughly miserable. The bleak weather had made it virtually impossible to find any trace of where the twins had gone and he was convinced he would never find them again.

His body was shivering and that stopped him from getting any decent sleep. He had had no luck in finding anything to eat again that day and his hunger was gnawing away at his stomach.

"What did I ever do to deserve this? It's all that slut Hannah's fault, but she's got off scot-free. Well, the others will find out soon enough just how bad she is, she's bound to do something else and then they'll know I'm innocent. Maybe then the twins will let me back into the group?"

The longer he was on his own, the more his subconscious worked to try to convince him that he had done nothing wrong. Without anyone to remind him of what had actually happened, his memory of the attempted rape was becoming extremely distorted.

Despite their resolve to work harder even if the weather was bad, none of the twins wanted to venture too far from the cave the next morning. All of them were excited about the pod and the possibilities it represented.

Ben dragged it close to the mouth of the cave so that Thomas would be able to see what he was doing. They couldn't take it outside completely because the rain was still falling heavily.

"I've been going over what my memories tell me about these things and I think there should be a maintenance override somewhere. That's the key. If I can find that then I can get the pod's own systems to run a diagnostic and identify what needs to be repaired. I should also be able to put in a command code to take control of the programming."

All eyes were on him as he ran his hands over the surface of the pod, looking for a clue as to where the maintenance facility was located. Without warning a small panel on the side clicked open as his hand passed over it and Thomas pulled back in fright.

"Shit! I wasn't expecting that."

The others crowded around him to try to get a look at what was inside the now open panel. A LCD display was visible and a series of buttons.

"Okay, I need to key in the override code that will give me command of everything. There is a standard code for that and it's commonly known - these things don't have to be highly secure. I'll try it now," said Thomas, concentrating on the panel.

He keyed in a six-digit code and the others could see that something flashed up on the LCD screen.

"What's happening?" Elizabeth demanded to know.

"It's accepted the code and it's asking me what I want to do next."

There were two keys with arrows on them - one facing left and one facing right. Thomas seemed to know what he was doing, as he pressed the right arrow key repeatedly to cycle through the options available to him. He stopped on the option to run a diagnostic test and told them that was what he was about to do.

"Okay, I'm going to ask it to test its own systems to find out why it malfunctioned. I've no idea how long that will take."

Thomas sat back on his heels as the pod's programme did its thing. The system test took a few minutes to complete and he leaned forward again to read the message that was now displayed on the LCD.

"Good. It says there's a fault in the deployment programme. If that's what the problem is, then everything else should be in working order. I think I can take full command now and then switch it so that we can open the pod by keying in the command here rather than rely on the faulty programme."

"Make sure you override the programming that deploys the propagation system first. We don't want it to start doing the job it was designed for. Put everything in standby mode if you can and then open it," suggested Ben.

Thomas focused on the LCD and began to use the arrow keys again. After that he keyed in another six digit code and pressed the enter key.

"That's it. Nothing will come on automatically," he said.

"How did you know the code?" asked Sarah.

"I didn't, the system flashed it up when I selected the option to go into standby. Piece of cake really. Okay, I'm going to tell it to open the pod. Is everybody ready?"

The group didn't know what they had to be ready for, but Thomas wasn't waiting for a response anyway. He pressed the enter button once more and a previously invisible seam on the pod's side split, as the lid opened to reveal the contents.

There were four items of interest for them to see now. Thomas seemed to be on a roll and he pointed at each of them as he described what they were.

"That's the lifeform sample. You can see that it's surrounded by a protective field. This unit here is the one that controls the protection and adjusts the size of the field as the lifeform grows.

"Over here is the replicator. You can see that it's connected to that tubing - presumably so that nutrients can be passed intravenously to the lifeform as required."

"That's the replicator? But it's tiny, how is that going to produce anything useful?" asked Elizabeth, her disappointment clear in her voice.

"Only time will tell," answered Thomas. "This is the command centre. You can see that it's connected to the shell of the pod through that port. The command centre can be controlled through the LCD panel I've already used or you can see that it has a similar panel on the unit itself so I can control it from there too."

"I think we need to disconnect the lifeform sample from everything. We're not interested in it and it might be best to isolate it to avoid any accidents," said Adam.

"I'll have to turn off the protection field first then," said Thomas and he pushed the arrow keys on the command unit and then hit enter. The others saw the energy field that had been surrounding the sample disappear and Thomas calmly reached over and removed the sample altogether. "Okay, that's it out. There's nothing for the pod to protect or feed any longer."

"Can you see if there is an option on the command unit that allows you to control the replicator?" asked Sarah.

"Hold on." Thomas started cycling through the options again using the arrow keys. "Okay, here's one that just says replicator." He pressed the enter key and then looked at the LCD display on the command unit.

"Alright, it's giving me another menu of options. There's a choice of 'run CMD programme', 'auto', and 'manual'."

"I guess we want 'manual'," said Ben.

"Okay, I've selected 'manual' and now it's asking me whether I want 'key input', 'voice activated' or 'engineer mode'. Maybe I should go for 'engineer mode' - that's most likely where I can make programme changes," said Thomas.

The others agreed and Thomas proceeded to make the selection.

"Shit. I've got another set of options - they're never ending! This time I've got a choice of 'source materials', 'limits', and 'maintenance'."

"What does 'source materials' give you?" asked Sarah.

Thomas pressed the enter key and then peered at the LCD closely.

"Okay, I think what I'm getting is a read out of the percentage breakdown of the raw material the replicator currently has to work with. Oh shit, there are loads of elements mentioned here. The biggest percentage seems to be carbon, but there are small percentages of a whole host of other things."

"What about oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen?" Sarah asked quickly.

"None of them, why?"

"The body is made up mostly of oxygen and hydrogen - water - so if this was supposed to be an animal propagation system, I would expect to have seen lots of those."

"Maybe the system extracts what it needs from the environment round about it where it can? Woden would probably only 'seed' a planet where the atmosphere is similar to our home planet. If that's the case then there is plenty of water and nitrogen in the air," suggested Ben.

"The next biggest percentage after carbon is calcium," said Thomas.

"That makes sense - calcium would be required for bones, wouldn't it?" asked Sarah.

"How much iron is there?" Ben asked.

"According to this, very little," Thomas answered.

"It looks as if we might have a problem then. We might be able to re-programme the replicator but its source materials are all designed to feed a lifeform so there isn't going to be enough metal to make tools like we hoped," moaned Ben.

"Why don't we try it and see?" suggested Elizabeth.

"Go back to the options and select 'voice activated'," said Ben.

Thomas pressed a few keys and then sat back.

"Okay it's on voice activated mode. What do we do now?" he asked.

I guess we place an order. One pulse rifle coming up if the replicator can do it. Replicator, one pulse rifle please," said Ben.

The twins stared at the small unit expectantly but after a minute or so it was clear that nothing was going to happen.

"Either it's not working or it can't make a rifle," observed Sarah. "Try it with something else, something small that we could eat."

"Replicator, one T-bone steak," ordered Ben.

This time there was barely a pause before a juicy looking T-bone steak appeared below the replicator unit. The twins began to jump up and down with excitement at their success.

"It works, it works!" shrieked Hannah.

Sarah was the first to calm down and she grabbed Thomas by the arm.