ch6. [ inter-unit ]

Confused, they both looked at the Inter-unit in silence. Somehow the unit had received a distress transmission. The odd part was that their internal transceivers did not. According to design, their transceivers should operate at almost any frequency address, especially on the distress channels. Putting that aside, what most confused the Robot about the transmission was the terminology used within it, especially the part about orbital navigation.

Back when he was a student, he remembered reading about ancient forms of space travel. He most fondly remembered the stories about how robots would land on planets. He understood that the ancients didn’t have many choices; their energy sources were so crude. However, the idea of them landing surrounded by big airbags, bouncing all over the place, made him laugh every time. In the university databases he researched, they spoke of orbital navigation. Back then, they mostly relied on gravity to propel their crafts. Because of this, they used planetary orbits as one of their primary navigation methods. For the distress transmission to use the term, 'orbital-trajectory', was most peculiar. It was a technical term from ancient history.

“What was that?”, asked his brother, approaching the Inter-unit. “I’m not sure”, answered the Robot, just as perplexed. His brother toggled the inter-unit’s switch on and off, wondering if the signal would play again. Only silence came through. He removed it from within the wall and inspected it. Nothing seemed to be malfunctioning in it. All circuits looked correct. “Perhaps we should call the managers to see what they think. After all, it was a distress signal”, said the Robot, a bit concerned. “Don’t be crazy”, said his brother, reinserting the inter-unit into the wall. “I’m sure it was just some sort of new virus, or some idiots idea of a game. I’m tired. Let’s just shut off,” continued his brother as he turned off the illumination in the room.

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