Chameleon Ch 26

Cerebrus sat at the pilot’s helm, monitoring and maintaining the orbit as required. Rougeau sat in the aft bridge, watching the operations station, which included life support, weapons status, auxiliary energy health, and other assorted systems. The planet glowed outside the bow windows in vivid blue and white dotted with patches of brown and green.

“When are you going down?” Rougeau asked.

“I am on the last wave,” Cerebrus told him. “That is nothing new, I am always last to do everything.”

“You aren’t alone. I’m on the last wave also.”

“Mr. Rougeau, how does the captain make his selections?”

“I’m not sure. It varies, though.”

“Shore leave?”

“Frankly, other than Novissimus, this is our first legitimate shore leave. We had a break on a planet before that, and very limited exposure on a planet in the Eta Cassiopeia system.”

“I am feeling that since I came aboard, I have taken the Omega position of the entire crew.”

“You wouldn’t be on the bridge if that were true,” Rougeau said. “You’d be in engineering cleaning the reactor, or the lavatories.”

“My primary programming is to respond to requests for astronomical data and survey space, catalog findings, and support astrophysicists, astronomers, and stellar cartographers. I have grown beyond those limitations.”

“We all learn to do more than we originally signed on to do. I’m back here at Ops but I signed on as the navigator. I can also pilot in a pinch.”

“You are not afforded higher status because of your advanced abilities?”

“Eventually, I suppose. I have to spend time as an ensign, then if I’m doing my job I can be promoted to lieutenant.”

“More privileges are afforded to the lieutenant status?”

“Absolutely. More pay, better quarters, respect.” Rougeau tapped a readout. “Check the sextant and scanning telescope alignment.” Cerebrus complied and made a small correction.

“Corrected.”

“Bridge Ops to sick bay,” he called.

“Sick bay, Mills.”

“Mr. Mills, the biological filters that vent to space are down eighteen percent in efficiency.”

“Thank you, bridge. Mills out.”

“If I am equally trained as you, why am I not an officer?”

“You haven’t gone through what you need to go through to get there,” Rougeau said, stepping down from the Ops and sitting in his customary navigation side chair.

“What is involved?” Cerebrus asked. Rougeau frowned at the vibrant, cerulean lights that surrounded the quantum, digital cameras, which Cerebrus used as eyes. It was the blinking that disturbed him. It was often, slightly random, and just a bit too mechanical to pass for authentic. Mr. Lee arrived on the bridge.

“Hey,” they all greeted each other.

“Cerebrus wants to be an officer. I was about to tell him what it takes.”

“Ah. I don’t know, Cerebrus. Not sure your servos could handle climbing walls and ropes, running ten kilometers, making your bed.”

“I don’t sleep in a bed. And as for running, I can run until my energy cells are depleted. I’m not sure what climbing walls and ropes has to do with my work on the ship.”

“It’s part of the ritual. It means you’re tough, you can take it. There not an officer aboard who’s out of physical condition. You don’t know when you may need to mount a rescue, or survive on a dead moon,” Lee explained.

“I have equal or better strength than either of you humans. I do not need an environmental suit to survive on a planet without an atmosphere. I’m actually a superior candidate to endure the challenges you speak of.”

“Your O rings might freeze,” Lee said.

“That’s not the point,” Rougeau said. “Besides all that, it’s a test of a man’s character. You need to demonstrate loyalty, understand honor, sacrifice and the ability to work together.” He glanced at Lee, but the lieutenant didn’t return the look.

“So, because I am not a biological life form, I am ineligible to become an officer.” Lee then looked at Rougeau.

“You would be the only one. Hell, I don’t set the rules,” Lee said, spreading his hands.

“I would like to be an officer.”

“I’d like to be the captain but that’s not going happen anytime soon,” Rougeau chuckled.

“You and me both!” Lee laughed. “I relieve you, Jean.”

“I’m relieved,” Rougeau answered, standing up and shutting his station for transfer. “Hey, Cerebrus, let’s take a walk.”

“I have not been relieved.”

“I’ll watch until May comes. I’m a little early. You two go. I have shore leave in twelve hours.”

“Goodnight,” Rougeau called. He and Cerebrus took the elevator off the bridge.

“Since we’re stuck here until the first party comes back, let’s have a little challenge,” Rougeau said. “Let’s go to the rec room.”

“The recreations room? Why?”

“You want to be an officer. You have to think like a human, not just an algorithm.”

“I can think like a human. That is part of my worth.”

“But you think like a machine that thinks like a human.”

“That’s what I am,” Cerebrus replied.

“I’ll show you what I mean. Let me grab some dinner, you go recharge, and I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

“For?”

“A friendly game of, say, checkers.”

“Checkers? I’m not familiar with that.”

“It’s old, a game played without electricity. It’s simple but there’s a knack to it. An hour,” Rougeau said, splitting off in the direction of the mess hall.

“I will be at the rec room in one hour.”

When the hour was up, Cerebrus waited by the doors for Rougeau to arrive. He looked at the patterns on the floor, noting their geometry. Designs made them appear random, but individual sections were precisely laid. Narrow grooves provided traction, and the rubberized texture also increased stability during locomotion. Probably a good design given the unpredictable nature of gravity and the ship’s random motion.

“Hey,” Rougeau called. Cerebrus stopped analyzing the floor and greeted the human. “Just call me Jean when we’re not on duty. Mr. Rougeau is my father.”

“Very well, Jean.”

“Hi girls,” Jean said to the two children as they passed by.

“Hello,” they answered in unison.

In one nook of the brightly lit room, four chairs and a table sat empty. The table had a checkerboard pattern displayed, red and black. They sat, and Jean pulled out the checkers. They were metallic, and magnetic, so stay put on the board when small disturbances rattled the ship. The magnets were useless, however, when a big disturbance rattled the ship.

“What is the purpose of this activity?”

“It’s a game. A game is just a challenge, either of skill, wits, or brawn, between two or more players. Checkers is for wits. More for learning how to, well, trick your competitor so you can win.”

“Trick them?”

“Not trick as in cheat. Trick as in outsmart. Strategy. Anticipation of their move, and they do the same of you.”

“That could involve hundreds of variables,” Cerebrus said.

“Thousands in some games. That’s part of the challenge. Each time someone makes a move the game changes and you start over thinking again. You’ll make some good brain connections doing this.”

“This will help me become an officer?”

“Not directly, but you’ll be better equipped to draw conclusions, estimate outcomes, read personalities.”

“I’m glad I recharged for this. It sounds complex.”

Jean stopped setting the pieces on the board.

“Zalara, Honey, can you come here?” The two concurred with a glance and dropped their toys, skipping up to the game table. They stopped and smiled. “You two know how to play checkers, don’t you?”

“My Papá showed us a while back.”

“See, even kids can play this game,” Jean told Cerebrus. “Can you play a game and show us how it’s done? I’ll explain to Cerebrus as you go along.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you Zalara and Honey,” Cerebrus said. The little replacement humans were very cooperative, he thought, from what he’d seen over the months, and they were so here, also.

Cerebrus watched as the girls took turns moving round, black and red markers across the board. One would jump over another, then the other, sometimes the jumper would claim the jumped marker as a prisoner. When a piece reached the other end of the board, they could claim a prisoner back, calling it a king.

He could comprehend the rules well enough, but what was the desired outcome for this engagement? What did Jean mean by strategy? He watched the human set up the board again and the girls stood by to watch.

“Okay, you need to anticipate that I want to win and make your moves accordingly. But you also need to make a move that will help you win. And, I am doing the same thing. I want to win, I want to stop you, and I need to do both at the same time, also.”

“I am able to do that.”

“Very well, then. Let’s play.”