Read Interrogative 01: Tiago and the Masterless for Free Online

remote trigger with the shields up. Perfectly safe," Tiago said.
    "You didn't put the shields back up," Audra said.
    "Interrogative. Transfer command to bridge. Interrogative. Shields up," Tiago said.
    He and Six-six-four sat and stared at each other for a long moment. The ship could survive that sort of damage; cargo bays are designed to handle transport accidents involving weapons. Still, no one wants to blow a hole in their ship. Finally, she broke the silence.
    "Why did you bring the missiles on board?" Audra asked.
    "They have chips for brains. We can salvage raw materials not present in the ship's stores. This attack on the Interrogative was very convenient," Tiago said.
    "That's why you didn't want me targeting the guidance," Six-six-four said. "I still can't think like a human."
    "I'm just glad they stopped attacking. Interrogative. Any other signs of response from the planet or the moons? Interrogative. Any sign of reaction from anywhere within short sensor range?" Tiago asked.
    "Nearest moon is scanning us from fifteen minutes latitude, three point two five minutes longitude," the computer said.
    "What did you say to them?" Six-six-four asked.
    "What?" Tiago replied.
    "The transmission. You sent something and they stopped sending missiles. What did you say?" Audra clarified.
    "I only had the words they had in their transmissions. I simply said that we weren't a threat," Tiago said. "Technically, I said, this bug does not eat of these crops."
    Audra's expression went blank. She could not process this. Too many new logic leaps. Tiago tried not to be alarmed. If she was going to get flaky, it was better that it happened now. Earlier there'd been combat, later there might be first contact. He left her to her paralysis. Instead, he turned his attention to the technology the increasingly-less-theoretical natives were using.
    The radio was at least level C-Six, the missiles and scanner appeared to be C7 or C8. He scanned for artificial satellites and found none. That was inconsistent to his mind. He scanned the visible part of the planet for urban areas. None. Large energy processing and distribution facilities. None. Aesthetic elements like gardens of non-edible plants, or elaborate, non-utilitarian, architecture. None.
    He began to wonder if the old saying 'lights on but nobody's home' applied to this world. Still, even if he was encountering the automatics-only remnants of a dead civilization, he'd expect signs of cites, even ruined ones. This was something else. At least it wasn't shooting at him anymore.
    "Interrogative. How many non-terrestrial civilizations has Earth found?" Tiago asked.
    "There are no records matching that query," the computer replied.
    "Interrogative. Was that search restricted by any protocols?" Tiago asked.
    "A list of relevant protocols is being pushed to your currently open workspace," the computer said.
    As he looked over the list, trying to make sense of the cryptic names of the protocols – those that had names instead of numbers – Audra spoke.
    "How long was I out?" she said.
    "Well under an hour," Tiago said.
    "I thought you weren't going to deconstruct me again," Six-six-four said sullenly.
    "I didn't. You had some sort of episode," Tiago said. "I'm guessing you auto-rebooted."
    Audra turned back toward her station. She knew there was a hole in her memory. The workspace open before her wasn't as she expected it. Something must have corrupted on shutdown. She did a diff between the expected and actual state of the workspace. She rebooted again. Tiago's back was to her as he studied his own station. As she came back on-line, she noticed that the open workspace before her wasn't as expected. . She did a diff. She rebooted again.
    Tiago spotted it by the twelfth reboot. He had turned to ask her something and saw that she was down again. As he got up and walked over to her, the thirteenth and fourteenth reboots happened. The cycle was getting faster.
    "Interrogative. Suspend processing on