Chapter 18: James and The Droids

James stopped in his place without moving a muscle, as in front of him appeared a huge group of people. They were healthy individuals, wearing a strange uniform which seemed military, and were all pointing their guns towards him. their number was over 100, and he was alone.

He had a spear gun, which seemed very advanced than the version they were holding right now, but he knew if he tried to reach his gun he would be dead long before he could even point it towards them.

"Say the identification code, please."

One of these men and women said that in a strange accent with some metallic echo with it. James' mind suddenly worked fast, as he guessed already who they were. The issue now lied in this code thing, which he didn't know.

"I…I was just passing by here and I have a friend who is very sick, so I thought I might come here and look for help from the medical unit of this cruiser. Is the medical unit still functioning?"

"Say the identification code, please, or we will shoot you down."

James sighed, these humanoid AI remnants were really hard to deal with. He remembered many old records describing their stubborn nature, as they never bypassed their programming, which was frustrating to normal humans sometimes.

Humanoids, or droids as some preferred to call them, weren't unique for the human race, as there were many other races out in the universe who had similar technology, but different shapes.

James squeezed his minds trying to remember anything useful, while doing that the humanoid spoke once again:

"Say the identification code, please, or we will shoot you down. You count to ten, if you don't provide the secret code of the republic of Rojedia, we will shoot you down."

It hit James suddenly as he didn't imagine this damaged war cruise belonged to one of the three major battling forces in the old war between the Ravners.

It made sense to him now, as this war was over a couple of millennia ago, which consisted of the model of these humanoids. The only weird thing, though, was the model of this space cruiser, which was only a couple of centuries old.

James didn't have time to think about this right now, as his mind started to retrieve all the information he read about this long gone republic. The old war ended and the striving empires and republics vanished.

Their descendant empires and republics were also lost in time, so there were many old secrets about this war and each of its fighting sides. James' mind started to search desperately about any code to fail.

"6…5…4…"

The countdown was nearing the zero point, where he would be shot dead here. James clenched his fists, he didn't run from that shitty planet to be killed in the middle of nowhere like this.

He would prefer to fight and get killed rather than get slaughtered like a sheep. When his mind reached there, he suddenly felt some old echo, an echo which came from an old memory of his.

"2..1…"

"Wait… wait, I know it," James rushed to say.

"Then say it now or we will shoot you."

"We shall rise and fight tyranny instead of waiting calmly to be killed like sheep."

These words weren't a code he read somewhere, they were famous words said by the last leader of that old republic. James didn't have any time to consider if these were the right words or not, so he just spoke them spontaneously without any delay.

"That's the code of our supreme leader. Rejoice everyone, our new supreme leader has arrived."

Suddenly the situation changed upside down, instead of being threatened with death, James found himself the focus of respect and veneration from everyone.

He didn't know what he had to say, as once these words were said from this humanoid, more voices repeated the words by those who stood beside him.

James was about to ask for them to stop repeating these words, as they looked very funny, but he was silenced at once when he saw more of them emerging from the distance and these words started to be repeated over and over again like a magic spell, which turned in time to be more like a religious chants.

'What is going on?'

James kept asking himself this even when these strange mix of droids led him deep into the ship. Everywhere he went, signs of negligence, damage, and the passage of times were evident, which made him wonder why these droids didn't work together to repair all this.

After half an hour of walking, he reached a very vast place that he felt it had no end at all. The grayish color of dust was the main thing he saw there, mixed with some different colors which came from more droids standing there.

James wanted to ask questions, but these droids kept repeating the same words over and over again neglecting his questions, which made him very frustrated, but he couldn't do anything.

"This way, supreme leader, you can address your people from here."

The humanoid who talked with James at the beginning said that followed by the complete silence of every droid here. James looked in doubt towards it, as he said:

"I want first to understand everything, what is this supreme leader all about?"

The humanoid looked towards James strangely as he said:

"Didn't the supreme leader tell you everything?"

James felt danger, so his mind worked fast as he put on a reasonable answer to this tricky question.

"The supreme leader died a long time ago, but he left his will and inheritance with it. I found this inheritance which led me here, but I don't know anything else. So, can anyone here brief me about what is going on?"

The humanoid exchanged looks with the other droids, who nodded their heads, so he said:

"You have the supreme leader code, so you are his heir. It's normal for us not to feel the passage of time, as we only can feel the passage of our energy only. I will take you to a place where you can understand everything, but first you need to say some words to the folks here."

James knew if he continued to argue with this humanoid he wouldn't reach a result at the end, these droids were really stubborn creatures, or machines.

So, he took a deep breath as he calmed his mind and accepted this small thing to do. He needed to understand everything fast, so he could assess if he had gotten himself a treasure or a bomb.