Jill Titan and the City of Robots

Jill Titan and the City of Robots

Book 2 of the Jill Titan Series

By Rob Summers

Copyright 2018 by Rob Summers

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

No actual persons are represented in this book.

To Noel

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: The Loss of the Ship’s Boat

Chapter 2: Unwelcome in the City of Robots

Chapter 3: Tour of the City

Chapter 4: A Ship Without a Name

Chapter 5: Two Alien Girls

Chapter 6: Jill Explores Area Red

Chapter 7: Dr. Toledo’s Lab

Chapter 8: The Hawk Strikes

Chapter 9: ‘I Will Move the World’

Chapter 10: Visitors to Narlash 4

Chapter 11: The Captain of the Warship

Chapter 12: The Battle with the Spy Ship

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Chapter 1 The Loss of the Ship’s Boat

"This is fighter number Z-2 of the Lytesian warship Ironhull, calling unknown C-class freighter of Merchant States design. Respond!"

The voice that had crackled through Jill Titan’s space helmet earphones was harsh and loud. Her brown eyes opened wide as she piloted a shining ship’s boat through the dark of outer space, trailing after the Free Merchant States supply spaceship Walrus. The eleven-year-old gripped the control handle tighter and sped up while listening intently for the next com transmission.

"This is Captain Harn of the FMS Walrus, responding to Lytesian fighter Z-2. What is your intent, pilot?"

The voice of the fighter pilot was quiet but grim. "Come to a halt, Walrus."

Another voice, on a private frequency, came to Jill on her com. Her father, Professor Jer Titan, was speaking to her from the Walrus.

Jill, you’d better get the ship’s boat caught up with us. Have you been listening to the open frequency? We have a fighter stalking us.

Sure, Dad, I’m listening, and I’m trying to catch up.

Someone had had to test the repairs recently made to the ship’s boat, and Jill had volunteered confidently. She had badly wanted to fly some ship, any ship, with the auto pilot turned off—no AI, or Artificial Intelligence, to do the piloting for her—and though she was far from fully trained in piloting, her father and Captain Harn had reluctantly given her permission. The ship’s boat was, after all, slow and dependable, the AI was available if she needed it, and the Walrus was nearby to help her.

Jill knew that her father was now regretting having given in to her wishes, and not for the first time. Jill’s mother had died seven years ago, and Jer often wished, Jill knew, that Janna was still around to help raise a genius daughter with an appetite for adventure.

Good girl. Jer said. "Now listen, Jilly. We have to have you in here with us in case the Walrus has the chance to go to space speed and get away, which Captain Harn will do if he can. I know it’s only one fighter, but the Walrus is only lightly armed, and there seems to be a Lytesian warship in the area, though we haven’t spotted it yet. For now we’ve been caught flatfooted and couldn’t try space speed even if you were with us. The fighter pilot would see our core heating up and start blasting away before we could escape."

Understood, Dad.

OK, so get close to us but not too close, and we’ll see what happens. We’re not at war with the Lytesians, not yet, so maybe Captain Harn can talk his way out of this.

They signed off from each other, and Jill focused on the far-distant bright dot in space that was the Walrus, moving toward it with all the speed the little ship’s boat could muster. While she did, she listened again to the open, galaxy standard frequency. Captain Harn was telling the fighter pilot that he should leave the Walrus alone since it was no business of the Lytesian fleet what a Merchant States spaceship was doing in Merchant States territory. This was legally correct, but the harsh voiced pilot did not seem to care. He wanted to know the Walrus’ cargo and destination. Harn replied that they carried farm machinery and were headed toward farm planet Zycor 1. Jill knew this was true only so far as the cargo was concerned. Their real destination was top secret.

Why aren’t you in space speed? was the suspicious reply.

We had mechanical problems on a ship’s boat, SB1, said the Captain truthfully. It’s repaired, and we slowed down to give it a test.

That was all the information Captain Harn wanted to give. He was not about to explain that the test pilot was an eleven-year-old.

So where is the ship’s boat?

Aft and coming this way.

All right, I see it. Is it unarmed?

Of course it is, Harn said with some heat, "and the Walrus itself is only lightly armed—just two 90 millimeter rayguns for defense against pirates. We’re at peace with the Lytesian Systems and expect to be treated according to international space law."

I don’t think our Captain Lunders is concerned about anything like that. I’ll just take a scan of your cargo, the fighter pilot said. "Hey, you’re not slowing down! I said come to a halt, and I mean now if you don’t want a fusion torpedo stuck in your hull."

A fusion torpedo, Jill knew, was a type intended to cripple a ship without destroying it, leaving it helpless and ready to be captured. That must not happen! She and her father were on a mission that might bring a measure of safety to all the Free Merchant Systems, now threatened with war. They must not be captured or even delayed.

She had drawn close enough now to see the fighter speeding in an arc around the port side of the supply ship, moving constantly to reduce any possibility of being shot. She saw that the Walrus was at last slowing down, so she slowed down the ship’s boat too in order to keep from overrunning the freighter. Presently, she was close enough to see a hangar door opening on the side of the supply ship. This was her invitation to fly the ship’s boat into the interior of the Walrus.

Come on in, her father was saying to her by com. But Jilly, take it slow. The Lytesian pilot can see you’re just in a ship’s boat, but I think this guy might be a little too willing to shoot at anything that moves.

She could hear worry in his voice. Don’t call me Jilly, Dad; and here I come real slow.

She moved forward at only a slightly higher speed than the Walrus and was soon passing its tail engines.

"Walrus, I told you to stop, to halt! the fighter pilot said. Reduced speed isn’t good enough, captain. You know I can’t scan you while you’re moving."

We only reduced speed because we’re taking on our ship’s boat, Harn said firmly, "and not because of anything you said. Once again, you have no authority over us, whether to halt us or to scan. If your captain has any complaint about the Walrus, let him take it to the Merchant States Regional Trade Authority."

Stop now! the pilot said angrily. That’s a last warning.

Captain Harn did not reply.

Momentarily, Jill saw a gleaming silver-blue object shoot out from the fighter ship and move toward the Walrus at high speed. A moment’s thought told her that this hot tempered Lytesian pilot had indeed fired a fusion torpedo, and that it was probably aimed for the narrow waist of the supply ship that connected the main part of the ship with the power core at the rear. She had heard that that was how ships were crippled without harming either the engines or the crew. It happened that she was piloting the ship’s boat very near to the supply ship’s waist.

Jill, speed up! her father yelled on the com. Get into the hangar quickly! He’s fired on us!

I know, Dad. Just a minute.

Jill was thinking. Though the torpedo was moving tremendously faster than the ship’s boat, the boat was much closer to the Walrus. So there was just time to do something. She pushed a button on her space-suited arm, and her space helmet’s clear face cover shot down into place. She put on a little speed and moved the ship’s boat to the middle of the Walrus’ waist. Though she was presently the only one in the boat, it was big enough to hold ten space-suited passengers and plenty of supplies, so it was big enough.

Jill, what are you doing? her father said. It doesn’t matter, get out of there! We’ll just be captured, that’s all. Don’t do it!

Jill was not at all sure that she wanted to do it. But instead of replying or scooting away from the waist, she was concentrating on making a last thruster adjustment, placing the ship’s boat squarely in front of where she guessed the fusion torpedo was about to hit. Having matched speeds with the Walrus, she tilted the boat slightly, presenting a slanted surface to the torpedo, while hoping that would make a difference. She turned on the AI and instructed it to hold the boat on course and at present speed. She pushed a yellow-lighted button on the dashboard. It turned red. She pushed it again.

A few seconds later the fusion torpedo crashed into and through the ship’s boat, nearly breaking it in half. The mass of the boat seemed to make a difference in the torpedo’s speed and trajectory, for when it had passed through, it hit the waist of the Walrus at a steep angle and careened off into space. The waist showed little damage.

Jill! Jill!

Silence.

Jill!

She turned on her spacesuit com and replied between gulps of breath. Yo, Dad, right here! I’m in an ejection seat that was the pilot’s seat until it blew out of the cockpit. Gosh, you’re getting pretty far away already. I’d try to catch up to you, but the thrusters on this seat aren’t much. Wow, that was close, wasn’t it?

We’re stopping, Jill, because we’ve got damage.

Not that much though, right?

Jer Titan hesitated. OK, yes, I admit it’s light damage because of what you just did. It’s repairable. But don’t ever do that again!

Jill loved her father, and so she did not reply that the same circumstances were unlikely to come