Thirty nine & forty, 14 July
Pero and Zandy, Shadrack and Mishack
Dronikus, a novel set on a burning planet called Earth.
Leaving Shangdu
Chapter 39
‘Say when, Uncle Zola,’ shouted Zandy. She and Pero had 10 dronikus specially made for children, called dronikids, lined up along a bench on the lawn in the gardens. Zola and Arno were on the far side of the lawn. Between them were two trees, both tall and thin as streetlight poles, standing a few metres apart.
‘Almost ready kids,’ Zola shouted in reply. He and Arno tweaked and tightened the gimbals and lasers on the metal grid-like structure that stood facing the two trees. Each gimbal had its own channel in which it could move at random in any of the three axes. From the small, portable terminal Zola turned on the lasers and tested the gyro mechanisms. Even though it was daytime the lasers could be seen sweeping the space between the two trees.
‘Kids, don’t forget: between the trees and not too low, nor too high. Ok?’
‘OK,’ they replied in unison.
‘Alright. Stand by. Go!’
Pero and Zandy sent their dronikids into flight. They did a circle, lined up in a formation, and headed into the gap between the two trees – and into the barrage of laser beams. The first one went through without a hitch. ‘Yay!’ shouted the kids.
‘Aw damn!’ shouted Zola. Likewise the second and the third. But the fourth dronikids swerved out of control. It flew upwards into the branches of a tree and came crashing to the ground.
‘Yay!’ they all shouted.
Arno ran to retrieve the fallen dronikids. A few of the others also landed on the ground while most made it through. The last one flew straight past Zola and dropped into the lily pond. Again Arno went to retrieve it, simply splashing into the water, disturbing the peace of the cruising ducks.
After a few more runs with a few more successes, they gathered round Zola’s laser-battery, the kids marvelling at it, proud to have been part of making it. Arno went off to get refreshments.
‘Why did it only work on a few?’ asked Zandy.
‘We were lucky that we got those few. You see, the dronikus emits laser pulses many thousands of times a second and measures the time it takes the light of each pulse to bounce-back. In this way it is able to calculate it position and velocity. We have to sneak in our laser beams to interfere with the bounce-back and confuse the receptors so that it loses its bearings. And not only that. Our lasers also have to match the frequencies of the laser that the dronikus emits and these are programmed to be random. It’s just chance that these worked today. On the higher models of dronikus this random function is even more sophisticated and so these lasers, just throwing up a barrage like this, wouldn’t be enough to stop them getting through. It’ll take a genius to crack the algorithm.’
‘Why do the lasers move like this, Uncle?’ asked Zandy, referring to the gyroscopic movement along the three axes.
‘It’s to vary the angles of the light to further confuse the readings of the bounce-back signal between the dronikus with the aim of messing-up their formations.’
‘That’s why it’s called a confusinator? Brilliant, Uncle Zola!’ said Zandy.
‘It still needs a bit of work,’ said Zola.
She looked at him and then with a probing tone in her voice, showing an understanding beyond her years, she asked, ‘Why are you doing this, Uncle? It’s not just to entertain Pero and me, is it?’
‘Oh, I’m playing a game,’ replied Zola. ‘Experimenting, taking on the challenge to see who is boss, the dronikus or me.’ They laughed but he could see that she was not fully satisfied by this response. ‘Ok. More seriously, I think that something like this could help communities defend themselves.’
‘A new invention for Pandoke?’ she asked.
‘Maybe.’ He saw Arno returning, bringing drinks. ‘Anyway, that’s a longer discussion, which we can maybe take up later.’
They laid out a picnic blanket and relaxed in the shade of the trees.
‘Do you know Panduan?’ Zola asked, springing the question on them.
The two looked at each other, not sure of how to answer. Zandy said: ‘We’re not allowed to talk about her.’
‘That’s ok, no worries,’ said Zola.
‘She’s smarter than both Zandy and me put together,’ said Pero.
‘Quiet, Pero. We promised,’ said Zandy.
‘That’s fine. Say no more,’ said Zola. ‘Hey, have you seen how the dronikus can swarm?’
‘Yeah, it’s awesome,’ said Pero.
‘We saw it at a big show the company had at the stadium. Hundreds of dronikus all flying and swirling in the skies,’ said Zandy.
‘It’s like… like smoke in the sky,’ said Pero.
‘Do you know what a starling is?’ asked Zola.
The kids shook their heads but before Zola could even explain, Pero has referred to his Eyeto: ‘It’s a bird – “Starlings are small to medium-sized birds”.’
‘Yep, it’s a bird that used to exist in many parts of the world, and in certain areas they used to…’
‘Wow! Look at this!’ Pero interrupted Zola again. He expanded his Eyeto screen and held it so that the others could see. On it were video images of flocking starlings.
‘That’s magic!’ said Zandy, ‘that’s even more awesome than the dronikus.’
‘Yowza!’ said Pero.
‘It’s called “murmuration”,’ said Zola, ‘a murmuration of starlings.’
Chapter 40
In the early hours of the morning Zola was awakened by Arno. ‘Very sorry sir.’
‘What’s up, Arno?’ said Zola.
‘Very, very sorry, sir but there is a rator at the door and it insists on talking to you.’
‘Oh?’
‘It says it is extremely urgent, sir. It says its name is Mishack.’
‘Mishack?’ Zola rose quickly from the bed, ‘let it in Arno.’ He went to his terminal while Arno went to open the door for Mishack. As Arno returned it stopped midway and began to fold itself down into its sleep position. Mishack came up to Zola who sat at the terminal, still naked. It passed Zola a scrap of paper. It read: ‘Last dusty car to leave in 40.’
‘That’s not long.’
‘It’s less now,’ said Mishack.
Zola worked the terminal, waking his rator – previously known as Arno, working for Enrike, now known as Shadrack, working for Zola. He dispatched Arno to the server’s digital archives there to reside in perpetuity.
He dressed in Meriti’s cast-off clothing, threw more into a bag and, following the two rators, left the room.
‘Less than 24 minutes,’ said Mishack.
They moved warily along the corridors. Mishack said, ‘she has blind-spotted all the cameras. We should watch out for dronikus. We’ve got 2.5 minutes to get to the basement.’
As they came to a stairwell, Mishack stopped on the landing and listened. It turned to Shadrack and some communication passed between them. At astonishing speed, the two rators lifted Zola and carried him down the many flights of steps, stopping at each landing, timing their movement to avoid patrolling dronikus, arriving finally in the deep underground passageways, where they put Zola back on his own two feet.
‘We do apologise. There was no time to alert you to what had to be done,’ said Mishack.
Moving fast but with caution, they made a detour to Zola’s workshop where they collected the bags of lasers, gimbals, metalwork tools, and some of the rails. They doubled back up the passage to the door marked ‘Transport’ and went in. They stopped.
‘Well?’ said Zola, looking at the rators, which failed to respond, both waiting for instructions from Zola. He looked back at the scrap of paper. ‘OK, let me see. “Last dusty car to leave in 40”.’ He turned and ran into the cavernous transport hub, followed by the rators. On seeing the line of old, dust-covered black sedans, Zola paused. ‘I’ll find her. You two go check to see if we’ve been followed or seen. Shadrack, you go back to the passage, see if there is any action there. Mishack, check all around this place for dronikus or rators.’
Zola moved along the line of cars until, peering through the dust into the window of the last one in the line, he saw Nur, in the luxurious leather back seat, frantic on her Eyeto. He opened the door gently so as not to alarm her.
‘Nice car, but not sure it’ll be much good as a getaway.’
She ignored him. ‘Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!’ she exclaimed with increasing ferocity. ‘Fuck!’
‘What’s happened?’
‘Shit! They’re onto it. Rators went to my quarters, ransacked the place, then went to your room. It’s that Petros fucking Jordaan. He’s the worst bastard, that one. Head of security, Enrike and him have an ongoing love affair. Bastard! He grabbed me once…’
‘Hey, slow down Nur. Yes, I know Petros, but just relax. How much time have we got?’
Nur stopped and looked at Zola. ‘Okay, yeah, sorry. Look there’s still a good chance they won’t have activated the shutdown. If that is the case that door will open in 5 minutes.’ She pointed to the entrance/exit tunnel, at the end of which heavy steel roller doors could just be made out.
‘And if they do activate it?’
‘Everything in the whole of Shangdu will shut down – except the rators and dronikus. That door will close and won’t open again.’
Both the rators returned, reporting that neither had seen dronikus or rator in the area. Nur got out of the old car. ‘Ok, when the door opens Abednigo will enter. Move quickly into it. You two into the hold section.’
‘Will those rusty old doors even open?’
‘Mishack worked on the locks and motors earlier. So, we’re in with a chance,’ said Nur. ‘We’ll have to move fast… that is, if the door opens.’
The evening rains poured down on an unremarkable side street in a dilapidated, poorly lit area of the old city. A row of drab red-brick buildings formed a facade behind which was the back end of Shangdu. Set in the centre of one of the buildings were double roller doors – rusted and looking like they hadn’t been opened in years – on which a faded sign in large letters read: ‘Fire Exit, do not block’.
A long black official-looking luxury vehicle pulled up in the street outside the fire exit. Behind it came six other identical vehicles, which all stopped a short distance away.
‘Come on!’ said Nur to the door. On cue one of the doors began to move, creaking and whining and grinding, metal on metal. ‘Yes! Ok, get ready Zola, rators.’
As the door opened, the first car in the line, Abednigo, rolled into the tunnel, and spun around in the turning space. The rators leapt into the hold with the lasers, rails, and tool bags. Nur and Zola threw themselves into the seating area, just as a loud alarm sounded and the roller door began to close.
‘Shit! Drive Abednigo!’
Abednigo sprang forward but it was clear that it would not make it before the door closed. It stopped.
‘Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!’ screamed Nur.
Zola jumped from the car, shouting above the loud ringing of the alarm: ‘Come, Shadrack! Mishak!’ He pointed. The two rators took a short run up and threw themselves at the door; it hardly moved. ‘Again! again!’ The rators threw themselves at the door repeatedly and after many hits the metal began to buckle. ‘Again!’ At the door’s frame, along the line where it was bulging under the rators impacts, the metal was beginning to shear. ‘Here, Shadrack.’ He directed the rators to grab the metal and tear it horizontally. It came apart under the rators’ strength. They tore the horizontal section and bent it down to the ground, opening enough space for Abednigo to pass. They leapt into the car; it went through, into the street and the pouring rain.
Dronikus is a novel published in 2023, now being serialised here on Substack. You can read a chapter every week for free.
Liking what you’re reading? Don’t want to wait to see what happens next? You can read the full book now by purchasing a digital or print copy of Dronikus from:
AndAlso Books (print edition)
Amazon (epub), Smashwords (epub), Apple Books (epub), Barnes&Noble (epub)
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