A metal cube speeds straight for planet Dopla. The living spacecraft in orbit see it coming, but do not know what to make of it. Just as it seems about to pass by, it rapidly decelerates and enters orbit. A few of the more adventurous individuals speed ahead to meet it. The cube then unfolds into a rectangle of blinking lights from the corners of which four long cables uncoil.
“Hello. This is the Dopla system. May we assist?” the foremost Doplan radios.
The response is immediate. An arc of electrons travels between two of the cables through the Doplan. The voltage is so great that even the perfect insulator of empty space is not enough to protect. He is killed instantly.
Later, across the galaxy, Darryl hangs up the phone. “We’re going to Dopla.”
“Where’s that?” Nathaniel asks.
“You can read all about it on the way there. We need to hurry. The Doplans are being exterminated by some sort of electrified robot,” Darryl responds.
“Like an electrobot,” Haticat comments.
Dopla is a cold planet of turpentine lakes and frozen turpentine rocks. The thin atmosphere is mostly methane. It is home to the Doplans, white, soft, squishy beings that resemble either trucks, tanks, airplanes, or flying saucers with arms. Most have internal cavities that allow their use as vehicles by smaller organisms. There are also humanoid varieties with hollow heads that give rides to bacteria-like creatures the size of jellybeans.
At last, Nathaniel, Darryl, and their Stuffian crew arrive near Dopla in their asteroid ship. “Look, everyone is over there,” Darryl says.
All the Doplan ships are together on one side of the planet – seven hundred thousand of them in a cloud 100 kilometers across. An eerie bluish glow seems to come from behind them. The hired warriors pull up to the perimeter of the cloud next to a large ship. “We’re here. Where’s the robot?” Nathaniel asks by radio.
The Doplan turns and attacks. Arcs of blue lightning shoot from its stubby graspers. Every instrument lights up. Dials spin out of control. The lights blink in and out. “I’ll reroute the energy around critical systems,” Darryl shouts.
It takes a minute, but eventually Haticat gets control of the thrusters enough to reverse course and pull out of range. They can now see the cause of the blue glow. Every Doplan is linked to its neighbors in a branching pattern by electric arcs. Those on the periphery send arcs to the ground. “I think the electrobot must be at the center of the cloud, controlling the Doplans around it,” Doctor Bill muses.
“Controlling? How?” Nathaniel asks.
“I don’t know, but thinking and movement in biological entities is an electrical phenomenon. Perhaps it is able to transmit will and impulse through electricity,” Doctor Bill says.
“Well, let’s see if we can free them,” Darryl declares. The front of the asteroid splits open and the three big guns extend. Taking over from Haticat, Nathaniel flies the ship into the cloud, trying to find the center. He dodges most arcs. The few that strike are channeled away by the conductive hull and avoid damaging anything important. Soon, they reach the center. There is the electrobot, energy beaming from all four of its cable-like limbs. Upon seeing the mercenaries, it retracts two limbs, the other two forming a new circuit to replace the lost circuits.
“Fascinating. It must rapidly alternate between all possible circuits generated between any two limbs,” Doctor Bill says.
The two free cables shoot towards the asteroid. Darryl fires the big guns, but lasers have little effect. “Switch to bullets!”
“Firing bullets!” Fred shouts. A rapid stream of forty bullets per second pound into the robot’s surface. Bits of metal shrapnel fly in all directions. Several of its blinking lights are obliterated.
Then the grapplers at the end of the cables attach to the outside of the ship and direct electricity exactly where it wants. “The guns have melted! The gun bay door hinges are fused too!” Fred shouts.
“Retreat!” Darryl yells. Nathaniel hits the reverse switch and flies as fast as he can. The cloud of Doplans close in, but he simply rams them out of the way. Eventually, they are free and travel to the other side of the planet.
After some venting and some debate of what to do, Fred begins repairing the weapons systems. Haticat sits by the radio when he hears a faint distress call. “Hello?”
“Running low on air…must help…need to find…”
“Stand by,” Haticat says. He relates his discovery to Darryl and Nathaniel.
“Where are they?” Darryl asks.
Haticat points to the radar screen. “They’re in that dead ship there.”
Nathaniel focuses the telescope on it. “Wow. It’s as black as toast.”
Darryl thinks out loud. “If we bring them on board, they can help us repair. Do it.”
Nathaniel suits up and takes Haticat, Doctor Bill, and Mojo with him onto the Doplan ship. The insides are as white and soft as the outside is supposed to be. He brushes his gloved hand on the wall. It feels exactly like raw dough. They walk the labyrinthine hallways until finding the occupants huddled in the core of the ship. They are humanoid Doplans. Nathaniel opens the canister of methane he brought with him. The Doplans immediately seem to relax. “What happened here?”
The nearest Doplan speaks. “This was the first ship attacked and killed. We then watched helplessly as the robot killed four other ships before taking control of one and using it to control others. We think it was calibrating its voltage. Now it controls the whole planet and the people on it.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Mojo asks of one Doplan lying on the floor, convulsing.
“He seems to be having a permanent seizure. He was the one who tried to fight back by cutting the robot’s cables with a laser, but got zapped.”
“That couldn’t have been normal electricity,” Doctor Bill comments.
Mojo runs his medical instruments over the shaking body. “His body is fine, but his brain shows signs of recent synapse formation of an extreme level. My guess is that he’s been programmed with new habits. I think I can at least anesthetize him so he doesn’t wear himself out.”
“Okay, here’s the deal. We can fit you all on our ship and set aside a methane-filled zone for you, but we badly need repairs, especially our weapons systems,” Nathaniel says.
“That’s no problem. We’d love to help.”
For the next four hours, Nathaniel, Darryl, Haticat, Fred, Doctor Bill, Mojo, and the Doplans repair the weapons and other systems. They also introduce breaks, adapters, and fuses throughout the ship. Wires, pipes, beams, or any channel that could be used to transmit electricity is broken up with materials of different conductivity. Switches are introduced that can connect and disconnect junctions between sections. Even the air in one zone is kept separate from the air in another by airlocks.
Finally, the time comes to engage the enemy. They turn and face the cloud. They slow as they approach, looking for a way in. The ships on the perimeter collect together to block their advance. Nathaniel eventually loses patience and decides to fake right before slipping between the ships to the left as fast as possible.
Several arcs of lightning hit the ship. There is minimal damage. Nathaniel keeps flying, avoiding Doplans like bumper cars. However, they are eventually surrounded and stopped about halfway to the center. About twenty-four ships grab them with their soft, dumpy arms and let loose their electricity. They attempt to establish a current that includes the control room, but it is too isolated. “I can’t get through!” Nathaniel yells.
“We have no choice. We must kill some to rescue others,” Darryl declares. He cuts through the forward Doplans with the lasers, lopping off huge chunks of doughy flesh. Soon, they are free, but only for a moment. Even more ships close in and smother them. The electricity destroys the guns and melts a hole in the hull. One ship tries to squeeze inside.
“The breach is in the Doplan living area,” Haticat reports.
“Suit up and grab some rifles. We’ll fight the ships in person,” Darryl says. The entire team leaves the control room. They put on spacesuits and grab two laser rifles each, before walking down the hall to the first junction. They wait for the two sections of walkway to connect and the doors to open. They step through and close the doors behind them, not waiting for the walkways to detach again.
The team keeps going from section to section until they hear a loud buzzing sound. Nathaniel’s feathers stand upright. “Hop on one leg! Don’t touch the walls at the same time as the floor!” The current passes, but then the lights flicker and the artificial gravity cuts out. The boys bounce between ceiling and floor to complete their journey, still only touching one limb at a time to any surface.
They travel to the next section and the next section. Gravity works there. Then they open a door and find a Doplan opening it from the other side. It is completely enveloped in a cathode aura, being fed from behind by another Doplan, being fed by another.
Mojo is struck and frozen in place by the first bolt. The others fall back and return fire, slicing the Doplan up, but it is quickly replaced by another and another. The crew retreats to the last section, chased all the way. At every junction, one Doplan holds open the door and maintains the connection, feeding electricity to those in front who chase and throw lightning bolts. The boys run while sparks dance around them. Sometimes they manage to send a laser beam in response, but usually miss.
Finally, Haticat holds position in a corner and keeps shooting. He holds back the enemy long enough for Darryl to cut out a beam segment that he can use to wedge between the door and its frame. The door is blocked and the boys escape. Their win is short-lived. Soon, the invaders start to melt through the door. It turns red-hot, then orange. Nathaniel catches his breath and speaks. “Even if we get away, there is no stopping them from establishing a path to the control room and bringing the electricity with them.”
“Electricity…and…methane,” Haticat says. Doctor Bill’s eyes go wide. Nathaniel looks at Darryl. Without further discussion, Darryl logs into the environmental controls and sets the oxygen to maximum.
When the Doplans break through the door, the crew is gone, but the air isn’t. It rushes through the breach and mixes with the methane. The electrical arcs ignite a small explosion that forces the invaders back. The nearby reactants are quickly spent, but additional oxygen and methane continue to flow, ignited by the current again and again.
The boys retreat to another section. That will only slow them down,” Darryl says, facing Nathaniel and opening the next door.
“I know,” Nathaniel says just as a Doplan reaches through the open doorway and grabs Darryl by the neck.
The rest of the boys run. Haticat is caught next, surrounded by an eerie glow. He fires two long snakes of current towards Fred, who is next to succumb. Doctor Bill and Nathaniel escape around a corner and hide in a storeroom. “What do we do? I can’t shoot my friends,” Doctor Bill complains. Then three Doplans enter the storeroom and the boys hush. They walk around every box and tube until seeing the boys. Nathaniel shoots one in the face, causing his head to explode. They run, but Doctor Bill’s short legs can’t keep up. He turns and fires off several laser bursts, but cannot stop the electricity from getting to him. Nathaniel climbs into an air shaft.
He exits the shaft four floors below and makes a run for the control room. All is lost. The mission is a failure. His friends are enslaved. He pulls the secret combination of levers to unlock the control room door. Just as he steps inside, sparks explode from the wall next to him. The Doplans are right behind and closing fast. He slams the door shut and locks it.
On the far wall, he switches on a screen normally left blank. A message appears on it: SELF-DESCRUCT TASK MASTER – STEP 0 OF 5 COMPLETED. He hurries to pull the correct combination of switches that will lock every power source on the ship into a positive feedback loop until the entire craft explodes in a ball of plasma and radiation, destroying everything around it for at least ten kilometers, and causing intense damage far beyond.
Returning to the screen, it now reads: STEP 1 OF 5 COMPLETED. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE TRYING TO BLOW UP THE SHIP. THIS WILL CAUSE IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE AND BE FATAL TO ANY BEINGS ONBOARD. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE?
Nathaniel hits the yes button and an alarm begins to continuously beep in every room on board. It is very annoying. STEP 2 OF 5 COMPLETED. Meanwhile, the door behind him turns red-hot, then orange.
Next, he types in his secret password to override the safety locks. He hurries through the prompts even while the door behind him softens and sags. STEP 3 OF 5 COMPLETED.
There are only two steps left. Two heavy levers on opposite sides of the room must be pulled all the way down – and in the correct order. Nathaniel runs to the left to pull down the first lever. STEP 4 OF 5 COMPLETED.
As he turns to the right, he runs right into the lead Doplan as it pushes the door off its hinges. The world lights up. Nathaniel’s entire body shakes violently and he feels extreme pain in every nerve ending. He collapses. In a few seconds, the pain subsides and he feels only a sharp tingle.
His body starts to move on its own. He slowly reverses all his progress until the screen again reads: STEP 0 OF 5 COMPLETED. Then he watches as his body sits in the pilot seat and begins to set a course. New thoughts pour through his mind. He knows he has joined an army. He knows he is supposed to pick up the last people remaining on Dopla, repair the ship, and join the cloud of Doplan ships as the electrobot leads them to the next planet to conquer.
“No!” Some tiny fragment of Nathaniel’s old personality begins to reassert itself. It is simply wiped aside and overwritten. Thinking is just electricity, and the electrobot is the master of electricity.
“No!” Somehow, erasing Nathaniel’s mind only seems to cause it to pop up somewhere else. His thoughts are wiped aside again.
“No!” The electrobot is frustrated. It will need to use other means of control. It digs deep into Nathaniel’s psyche, parsing the foundational building blocks that make it up, trying to figure out how it works and is able to resist commands. Old memories are dredged up.
“You’re a very bad dinosaur! Go to your room!” Daddy says.
“Stop fighting!” Mama yells.
Nathaniel shrinks back inside himself. When one’s critics are inside one’s mind, the words sting all the more.
“Shut up! You’re a lost chicken!” the Spinosaur bully says.
“Double revenge!” Allison says.
“At last, my three Arbishas are together. My trifold creation is complete. Out of synch with the rest of creation, able to escape all systems of control and conquer everything across the first five dimensions, may one of them fulfil the prophecy of the Grand Radisha,” Daddy says.
What was that? Nathaniel was out of synchronization with the universe? That’s why the electrobot couldn’t erase his mind. His brainwaves were of an inconsistent wavelength. When the electrobot learns this, Nathaniel learns it too. He steps away from the controls, resisting the commands to his muscles out of sheer stubbornness, sending his own commands instead. Then he turns to face the nearest Doplan, still feeding him electricity. Before he knows it, he has control. He can feel everything on the same circuit. He feels Haticat and Darryl and Doctor Bill. He can reach out through the chain of ships all the way to the electrobot itself. “Die!”
“No!” The electrobot too has a mind of its own.
Nathaniel starts mentally dismantling programs, undoing fuses and connections. The other circuits controlling the cloud of ships fail. “Die!”
“You first,” the electrobot replies. The voltage increases. The electricity begins to burn the brains and bodies of everyone on the remaining circuit, but Nathaniel reroutes most of the current through paths of lower resistance.
“As long as I can take you with me,” Nathaniel thinks. The voltage continues to increase more and more and more. Ships burn. Beams melt. Lights flicker. Artificial gravity fluctuates. Sparks fly all around him. A control panel lights on fire. Nathaniel screams – and the electrobot explodes.
Nathaniel rests on the floor when the others come in. He can still feel electrons moving through him. He forms small arcs between his fingers, playing with them. “The robot is dead.”
“How do you know?” Darryl asks.
“I killed it,” Nathaniel says, letting one arc grow big before collapsing.
“How did you do that?” Darryl asks.
“If thinking is electricity, then electricity is thinking, and I thought very hard,” Nathaniel answers.