The robotic supply ship Herve slipped into its berth. Under the coordinated direction of the vessel and Olympia’s AI, its precisely positioned receptor sockets connected to the docking clamps. As it was pulled into the station, the external doors closed behind it.
As Herve’s reactor powered down, the loading bay began its pressurization cycle. The scanner harness lowered from the ceiling, and its hull and interior were probed with thermal and X-ray scans. An empty hold with no bio signatures was confirmed and the customs manifest approved. Herve was cleared to load the supplies it came to collect on behalf of the asteroid mining company that owned it.
The fact that the scan did not detect the form that now stirred aboard the ship was due to a simple logic flaw; there was no point in scanning a ship’s engine section, because nothing should be able to survive near the reactor core. No stowaway could withstand the intense temperature and radiation, especially on a poorly shielded automated vessel. No stowaways were expected within such a deadly environment.
It was the perfect place to hide.
The interior hull of Herve’s engine compartment swelled and bubbled as a thin membrane, only a few molecules thick, separated from the wall. The semitransparent substance oozed down the walls and coalesced on the deck. Neither fluid, nor solid, the material rapidly built itself taller one molecule at a time until it formed a crude column a little over two metres tall.
Like a figure emerging from a lump of clay, a humanoid shape resolved. Androgynous, with no distinguishing facial features, it strode through the cramped vessel’s corridors and into Herve’s empty hold. There the golem stood, motionless, its eyeless face fixed on the opened hatchway.
Presently, a dull hum filled the confined space as a parade of wheeled robots approached. Each was burdened with a pallet, piled high with precisely packed and secured cargo.
When the lead vehicle entered, the being followed it to its predefined location in the hold. Careful to avoid its camera, the creature waited until the machine had transferred its load onto the restraining racks. Kneeling, it pressed a mitten-shaped paw against the machine’s programming interface. Slowly, fingers resolved, splitting cleanly away from each other, and deftly entered a sequence into the keypad. The buzz of the robot’s electric motor abruptly halted, along with all movement.
The task accomplished, the featureless figure slipped into the shadows behind the vehicle and out of sight of the open hatchway. When the other robots departed, silence descended on the cargo hold once more.
Several minutes passed before steps echoed outside the ship. The maintenance worker peered through the opening and muttered to himself when he spied the inactive machine inside. Raising his head, his eyes took on an absent appearance as he accessed his cortical implant to confirm the incident report to the dispatcher. That formality completed, he stepped aboard Herve and approached the troublesome robot. Kneeling before the interface to examine it, he exposed his unprotected back.
Something sprang from the darkness and seized him around his throat. With a swift, practiced motion, it violently twisted the man’s head and snapped his neck.
Standing over the dying worker, the thing studied his victim’s features. The blank mask that should have been a face morphed. A nose became prominent, with a bulbous tip. A heavy brow grew above resolving brown eyes. The golem’s height and build changed to match those of the corpse on the floor.
Mere seconds after the process began, a naked replica of the man stared down at his lifeless self. With no hesitation, he stripped the body of its clothing and dragged it into a corner near the secured boxes and crates.
The golem pressed its hand to the body’s forehead. Passing like a ghostly claw through the skull, the fingers sought out the dead man’s cortical implant. Moments later, having absorbed the uniquely coded information of the CI, the replicant stuffed the remains securely behind the piled crates.
Dressed in coveralls, something that appeared like the maintenance worker reactivated the robot and followed it out of the cargo hold and aboard Olympia.
