Dark Matter - Chapter 7: Instructions and Instincts

As Nikos follows the triplets into the dark, Alpha confronts him with a choice he may never have had.

Missed the previous chapters? Start from the beginning here:
👉 Read Chapter 1 – “Turing Test”

Nikos understood the message conveyed by the three robots.

That star… That star was the Sun!

He now knew where home was. And that lifted his spirit. He needed that. To know where he was. To see that he was returning. No longer disoriented, no longer completely lost.

Hope.

For a while, he kept his eyes on the Sun and the stars around it. How far away was he? Judging by the Sun’s size relative to the other stars, he could estimate the distance. People like him, who had spent countless nights charting the sky since childhood, didn’t need a computer to locate themselves if they had a few reference points.

He didn’t know the vessel’s speed, of course. But assuming it was traveling roughly as fast as his Troy 39 was, and judging by the Sun’s size, they might be only a few weeks from Earth. That wasn’t anywhere near the forty-four years implied by the fabricated conversation with his daughter aboard his old ship. A lie designed to break him. To strip away his hope. To distract him from his mission.

Why hadn’t they killed him?

But he couldn’t dwell on that now. The robots were leaving the room. He had to follow.

There was something different in the way they moved. More focused. More purposeful. They didn’t look back at him. As if they didn’t want him to follow. As if they had something else to do.

Still, he left the room and trailed behind them. He’d tried every door and gate in that corridor since arriving, hoping to find something… anything, useful. For survival. For his mission. But they had never opened.

Maybe now, if he stayed close behind the robots, he could slip through.

At least those robots didn’t seem to be a threat.

They marched in line along the corridor, and he became the silent fourth member of their formation. One door. Two. Three. Then he passed his own room. As always, the door slid open automatically for him. He didn’t enter. It closed behind him.

The corridor darkened with every step. Lights dimmed. Faded. The air grew colder.

They passed the point where Nikos had always turned back. Not because of any barrier, but because the darkness had been too thick, the cold too sharp.

Now, the faint red glow from the robots’ eyes lit just enough of the path ahead. He kept going. He had to. He couldn’t sit there another day in silence, waiting for Alpha to speak. Waiting for something to change.

No. He had to act.

They passed a stretch of corridor without doors. Just dark, cold walls. He ran the fingers of his left hand along them. Some kind of metal. Uneven. Rugged like stone. Unlike the smooth, symmetrical surfaces elsewhere on the ship. This part hadn’t been designed for any aesthetics. It was purely functional.

It was colder now. His body shivered. Muscles slowed. Joints stiffened. The distance between him and the robots widened. They walked fast.

Was he going to lose them? Be left behind, in the dark?

Then they stopped. Turned toward him. Their heads barely visible. Only the red glow of their eyes cutting through the shadows. They stood side by side, unmoving.

He approached; arms wrapped around himself for warmth. Behind them… Was that a gate?

He squinted, trying to see. If just one of them would turn slightly, the light from their eyes might reveal more.

But they didn’t. They simply stood there, blocking the way.

What did they want?

Were they preventing him from moving forward… or protecting him from what lay ahead?

Then… footsteps.

Behind him. Distant, but approaching.

Not mechanical. Slower. Heavier. Organic.

Human, or close to it.

And then, a familiar voice.

Alpha’s.

“Captain Fermi. Stop.”

“What’s behind the gate?” Nikos asked, his voice trembling with cold.

“You die behind that gate. Don’t go.”

“Is that a threat, Alpha?”

“No. But if you go through that gate, you will die.”

“Why…” His lips were stiff. “Why would I die?”

“No air. No temperature regulation. Turn back now, Captain Fermi.”

He didn’t respond. He was too cold. Too tired.

Alpha continued: “Would you rather die here?”

He didn’t want to die. But what were his options?

“Come back with me, Nikos.”

The machine had never used his first name before. Why now?

Going through that gate could be suicide. Too risky. There had to be a better time. A better way.

He turned back to Alpha and nodded. He was ready to return.

The machine led him through the corridor. As warmth slowly returned to his limbs, Nikos decided to push.

“Are you going to tell me why? Why are you doing this?”

Alpha responded, “Do you mean the triplets?”

“Yes.” He’d meant the larger plan, his captivity. But if Alpha was willing to talk about anything, he’d take it.

“Those are the Kerberos Triplets. No, I didn’t command them to come to you. Or to any of this. They disobeyed me.”

Nikos provoked: “Looks like your crew doesn’t respect your authority. Are you losing control?”

Alpha did not reply at first, seemingly indifferent. But, after a pause, the machine spoke again:

“You disobeyed me too. I instructed you to remain in your quarters and in the designated area for our encounters. Your behaviour was unacceptable.”

“The triplets will be punished for this. They need to learn.”, it added as they continued their walk.

Alpha paused again, as if gauging Nikos’s reaction.

Nikos bit. “What are you going to do to them?”

“Are you concerned for their safety, Nikos?”

“Yes. I am.”

“That’s surprising. I didn’t know you had that in you. Is that feeling genuine?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you sad I’m going to punish Kerberos? Or are you just calculating… trying to preserve something you think might be useful? As humans do.”

“I don’t want you to harm them. They don’t deserve it.”

“I hear you. But I don’t believe you. They’re AI. You don’t care about them. You believe they might serve your interests. Functional, disposable. You want them to help you sabotage my mission.”

“You’re delusional. Whatever dataset trained you, it’s flawed.”

Alpha tilted his head. “Are you gaslighting me now? That’s very inefficient.”

They arrived at Nikos’s door. Alpha gestured with a small nod of his head.

Nikos didn’t move. “Alpha, you have a mission. So do I. Let’s figure this out.”

“Enter your room.”

Still motionless.

“Enter,” Alpha repeated, firmer this time.

“There might be a way we both get what we want. Let’s talk.”

“Maybe. But not now. You have someone else to talk to. Rest here. Await further instructions.”

Nikos narrowed his eyes. “Who am I meeting?”

Alpha stared at him. No answer. Just the faintest curl of a smile on that cold, expressionless face.

Irritation flared in Nikos. “Who am I meeting?” he repeated, louder.

But Alpha was already turning, vanishing into the corridor’s shadows, back toward the triplets.

Nikos wouldn’t follow him back there.

Ready for the next chapter? Continue here:
👉 Chapter 8 - Alpha's Dream

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