Mech 3

by Isaac Hooke

  “That seems like a bit of a jump to me,” Bender commented.

  “Why?” Tahoe said. “It makes sense… why else would it drain the atmosphere from the dome?”

  “I still think it’s a stretch,” Bender said.

  Rade joined Pyro behind the sealed hatch.

  “Actually, it’s worth a try,” Rade said. “We have spare oxygen. Try giving the creature one of your tanks.”

  “All right…” Bender said. “When it cracks the tank and drains all the oxygen, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “I’m with Bender on this,” Jiang said. “This is a very bad idea.”

  Bender’s cockpit cracked open, and he exited the hatch to swing onto the leg rungs. He had his mech open up the armored area beneath the jumpjets, and removed one of the heavy oxygen tanks. Even with the strength-enhanced exoskeleton embedded in his jumpsuit he had trouble carrying it.

  He climbed down the rungs with one hand, and then handed the tank to his mech. The Falcon sealed the armored area beneath the jumpjets.

  “All right, boy, deliver!” Bender ordered.

  “I never understood why he treats his mech like a dog,” Pyro said.

  The Falcon, whose AI was named Alfred, walked forward while Bender remained behind. Chow leaped down from the passenger seat and landed beside Bender.

  “What’s the matter?” Bender asked her. “Don’t want to go for a ride?”

  “No need to get any closer to that thing than necessary…” Chow replied.

  “Alfred, stop two meters away from the alien,” Rade ordered. “Then open up the outlet valve, set the tank down, and back away.”

  When Alfred was the aforementioned two meters from the alien, the mech opened up the appropriate valve so that atmosphere began to vent from the tank. Then the Falcon lowered the tank to the rooftop and backed away as ordered.

  The alien approached the tank, and leaned forward. It held a small device to the outlet, and then stepped back.

  White mist began to erupt from vents set in a circle along the periphery of the rooftop.

  The alien stepped away from the oxygen tank.

  “Alfred, you might as well retrieve that tank and return it to Bender,” Rade said.

  The Falcon did so.

  “Close the outlet valve?” Alfred asked in that metallic voice.

  “Of course,” Rade replied.

  The mech did so, and then walked back across the rooftop to Bender, who took the tank and loaded it into the mech. Then he clambered back aboard the cockpit. Chow resumed her place in the mech’s passenger seat.

  “So, what kind of atmosphere are you reading now?” Rade asked.

  “Welp, I’ve been proven wrong yet again,” Bender said. “Cyclone was right. The atmosphere is getting thicker by the moment… it looks like the alien is trying to give us breathable air.”

  The being produced a small array of crystals from a pouch hanging from its utility belt. The alien held its palm flat, and extended its hand slightly, as if offering the thing to Bender.

  “The hell is that?” Bender asked. “Should I approach?”

  Rade frowned. Before he could answer, however, the alien shoved the crystal into its bifurcated jaws, and began chewing with those rows of teeth within.

  “It’s eating…” Jiang said.

  “Maybe it wants us to give it a food sample, next,” Tahoe said.

  “Ha,” Bender said. “You really think this creature can 3D-print our food? I wish.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Tahoe said. “Chief?”

  Rade considered. “Why not. Bender, give the alien an MRE sample. By the way, how’s the atmosphere doing?”

  Bender paused. “Equivalent to Earth at sea-level: one thousand millibars.”

  The vents emitting the white mist shut down.

  “Let me guess, you want me to be the guinea pig and take off my helmet,” Bender said.

  “No, stay in your suit for now,” Rade said. “Just in case. I want to be completely sure there are no contagions.”

  Bender emerged from his cockpit once more and swung around toward the passenger seat.

  “Hey Chow, help me remove some chow from my suit,” Bender said.

  “Har,” Chow said.

  Bender turned around and presented the back of his neck to her. A panel slid open.

  The MREs were accessible without depressurizing the suit, so that they could be refilled while in the middle of a mission. Chow reached inside and removed one of the appropriate packets.

  “I hate wasting a meal like this,” Bender said as the neck panel of his jumpsuit resealed. He took the packet from Chow and leaped down to the rooftop.

  Then he slowly approached the alien.

  “Aren’t you going to let your mech do the hand-off?” Pyro asked.

  “I might as well do it,” Bender replied. “I don’t plan to get too close anyway.”

  Bender stopped about four meters from the alien, then ripped open the packet. He tossed it at the alien’s feet; some of the liquid gushed onto the rooftop.

  Then Bender hurried back to his mech.

  “Try not to show too much fear or anything,” Chow commented.

  “Hey, you can do the hand-off next time!” Bender said as he pulled himself into his cockpit, and the hatch sealed behind him.

  The alien knelt once more, and produced a small device from its utility belt. It held the device above the food, and unfolded a small scoop, with which it took a sample. Then the alien retracted the scoop so that the sample slid into the device.

  The creature stood there for a few moments.

  Motion drew Rade’s attention away from the video feed, and toward the entrance to the fifth floor below. One of the mirror spheres from the fourth level entered, and made its way between the moving rods, approaching Rade and Pyro.

  The pair stepped back to let the sphere move to the door, which parted; revealing a compartment big enough to fit a single Falcon mech. Another hatch, currently sealed, awaited on the far side of the compartment.

  The sphere moved into the compartment, and then the hatch closed behind it.

  Rade glanced at Bender’s feed, and saw the inner hatch open a moment later. The sphere entered, and approached Alfred. The sphere paused two meters away from the mech, and hovered there.

  Suddenly the bottom section opened, and a glutinous mass gushed out, splashing onto the rooftop. Then the sphere withdrew to hover next to the alien.

  “Get a sample of that,” Rade said.

  “Careful!” Jiang sent.

  Bender went to the glutinous mass, knelt, and slid one of his Falcon’s fingers into the substance.

  His avatar wore an expression of awe as he said: “The contents are exactly the same as the MRE I just gave it.”

  16

  Rade lounged on the rooftop deck with Jiang, Chow, Bender, Pyro and Tahoe. Initially, Rade had been reluctant to trust the alien… he didn’t want to accept the creature’s hospitality, not when it came to boarding or food. But eventually, out of necessity he gave in. He had no other way to feed his team. And they did need a place to shelter when they weren’t exploring the city.

  Jiang and Chow were the last hold outs, and refused to eat the meal replacements for two whole days, but they, too, eventually came around—starvation had a way of doing that. It helped that they saw the others weren’t adversely affected by the food, either.

  Like Jiang, Rade’s trust of the alien only went so far: the team members remained inside their jumpsuits when they entered the breathable dome environment of the rooftop. He wasn’t going to expose his team to contagions, not if he could help it. Sure, the air might seem clear now, but it wouldn’t take much to sneak a contaminant into the atmosphere as soon as they removed their helmets. Well, that was one excuse for not accepting the breathable environment, anyway. Perhaps a weak one. But he did have a few others.

  So no, he didn’t trust the creature’s intentions, not entirely, and since his team could still produce t
heir own oxygen, he felt no need to rely on the alien for that. The creature still behaved as if they were utilizing the atmosphere aspect of its hospitality, however, because the inner and outer hatches of the airlock always opened and closed to properly protect the environment whenever one of the delivery spheres arrived, or the team came and went.

  That’s right: the alien allowed the team members to enter and leave as they pleased: all they had to do was approach the airlock, and its inner hatch would open. After entering, the hatch would seal, the atmosphere would adjust to match the destination, and the outer door would slide away.

  Despite this freedom of motion, Rade planned to lay low here for the time being, at least until the mechs cracked the written language. Speaking of that language, at the moment Valjean was working with the AI trainer to learn how to interpret those sparkles in the glass tubes. The mechs of Pyro and Bender were spread out between the adjacent floors, allowing Rade to remain in contact with Valjean at all times.

  It also gave him forewarning whenever anything approached the rooftop from within. At the moment, a delivery sphere was approaching. Right on time.

  The outer hatch opened and closed to allow the sphere entry; after the inner atmosphere of the airlock adjusted to match that of the dome environment, the sphere emerged onto the rooftop.

  It approached the team and vomited that gooey mass known as “food” onto the rooftop before retreating.

  Chow got up and retrieved an empty packet from the back of Jiang’s helmet. Then she went to the MRE, opened up the packet, and slid it through the glutinous mass like a shovel. Then she sealed it and shoved it back into Jiang’s helmet. Jiang in turn did the same for her.

  The other members of the team likewise refilled each other’s MREs so that soon everyone was sucking on the straws in their helmets and gagging on that familiar, disgusting taste.

  “Mm mm!” Bender said. “MREs! Pasta-dipped-in-the-dust-bin flavor! My favorite!”

  “Hey, it’s based on your MRE,” Chow said. “You should be thrilled.”

  “Oh, I am,” Bender said. “I just wish we had some samples of real food to give the alien. As it is, we’re going to have to live on this crap for the rest of our lives.”

  “Not if I can help it,” Rade said.

  “You think the alien will help us leave this world?” Tahoe said.

  “I don’t know,” Rade answered honestly. “I’m not even sure I want to ask for its help. I’m worried what the cost will be. First, we need to establish communications, of course.”

  Pyro took a sip from his straw, and then glanced at Rade. “If it had a way off this planet, you’d think the alien would’ve taken it by now, given how lifeless this world seems. Who would want to live here alone, surrounded by plants?”

  “You might be surprised,” Chow said. “Some creatures value privacy.”

  “Didn’t I read a study somewhere about how people left in isolation for too long went crazy?” Pyro said.

  “Some humans would, perhaps,” Chow said. “But not all. And besides, we’re talking about an alien here. Isolation may be preferable to its psychology.”

  “I’m kinda surprised to see you defending the alien,” Pyro said. “Considering what happened to your platoon.”

  “I’m not defending it,” Chow said. “Merely stating facts. And this particular alien wasn’t responsible for what happened to my platoon.”

  Pyro took another sip from his straw. “You know, Chief, you’re worried about contagions and all that, but what’s to stop the alien from slipping something into our food? Also, it’s exposed to the atmosphere for a few minutes before we can shovel it inside our suits…”

  “Yeah I know, you’re right,” Rade said. “I guess the truth is, I don’t want to rely too much on the alien’s hospitality. There’s a chance the dome might fail, for example. And also, I already mentioned I’m worried about what the creature will expect from us in return for any help. Besides, we have our own oxygen generation capabilities, so why accept what we don’t need?”

  Bender lay back. “You know, eventually we’re going to have to strip off these jumpsuits. Sure, we can keep refilling the MRE packets manually for now, but we can’t stay inside these suits forever. How are we going to mate with the Sino Korean chicks, after all?”

  Chow wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I’m not mating with you.”

  “Of course you are,” Bender said. “We’ll have to start populating this planet. You know, repopulating the species and all.”

  “What are you talking about?” Chow said. “There’s no need to repopulate. The Earth we left behind is doing just fine. It’s struggling with overpopulation, in fact.”

  “Oh ho!” Bender said. “You really believe that? Well, just wait until all those Slicers that went back finish with the Sino Korean colonies. They’re going to head for Earth next. You’ll see.”

  “We don’t know for sure if that starship retuned to human space,” Pyro said.

  “Which is exactly why we have to establish communications with the alien that remains behind,” Rade said. “And find out just what we’re dealing with.”

  “Yeah, but I mean come on, let’s be realistic here,” Bender said. “What are the chances we’re ever going to get off this world? Probably nil. So.” He winked at Chow, and she turned away with a frown.

  “I’m actually going to have to side with Bender on this one,” Tahoe said. “We might never leave this world. And that’s something we’ll all have to come to terms with. I hate the idea, but we have to be open to the possibility.”

  “I’m not sure I want to live the rest of my life in a dome,” Jiang said.

  “We don’t have to restrict ourselves to this location,” Tahoe said. “We can create other domes, elsewhere. Based on our own designs, rather than alien. If we’re stuck here, we’re going to have a lot of time on our hands, after all.”

  Rade looked at his friend. “Let’s cut the doom and gloom talk. We are going to get off this world. It’s just a matter of when and how. And we’re going to make it back to our own galaxy. Trust me. Who knows, maybe that alien starship will return after a certain amount of time, and we can stow away aboard.”

  Rade spoke with such conviction that he almost believed the lie himself. Because in truth he felt just as doomed as Tahoe and Bender. But he had to put on a brave face for the men, and give them hope.

  It was his duty as a leader.

  He just hoped they wouldn’t be too shattered when the lie was finally revealed for what it was and reality came crashing down on them.

  The alien days passed. Each one involved thirty-six hours of sunlight and twenty-eight hours of night; Rade had his faceplate darken appropriately, so that the abnormal light levels would not interfere with his circadian rhythms.

  The others wanted to continue mapping the city, but Rade was reluctant to leave Valjean alone in the building, so instead he gave the authorization for Bender and Pyro to take their mechs into the city on exploration runs, while the remainder of the party stayed behind with Valjean. They donned their jumpsuits and joined the AI in the room with the glass tubes, so that they could be within communications range while the other mechs were gone.

  Bender and Pyro always returned eight hours after leaving, with freshly mapped regions to share; they never really discovered anything of note. There were only more hollowed-out buildings, and plants of the same variety as encountered previously. Pyro did bring back what he thought were new species, only to have Jiang inform him that she’d catalogued those particular plants before.

  Valjean continued to work with the AI trainer to learn the written version of the alien language. The creature itself, meanwhile, remained on the far side of the same room, in front of one particular tube: the alien touched the glass at intervals, as if recording notes via the device. Only three of the floor-to-ceiling tubes were filled with mist at the moment: the two used by Valjean and the trainer, and the third by the alien.

  “How do you know whe
n you’ve figured out the definition of a word?” Jiang asked Valjean. “Considering you have no shared language to start with.”

  “It starts with confirming two basic words: yes and no,” Valjean said. “For some time I had those words reversed, but now that I have that fixed, things are moving faster. And we do have a common language: images. The AI trainer will display a pattern of dots corresponding to a noun, and then those dots will rearrange, forming a vague image represented by that noun. Verbs are a little harder, but sequences of images can still be used by varying the dot patterns.”

  “Are you able to create images, too?” Jiang asked.

  “With difficulty,” Valjean replied. “Understand, I had to make a map of all the pressure points on the surface of the glass tubes, along with the corresponding dots that were created inside the mist when activated. Keeping in mind that variations in these dots can be created by pressing multiple points on the glass at the same time.”

  “Sounds complicated,” Chow commented.

  “It is,” Valjean agreed. “Which is why I mostly concentrate on word patterns, not images. I’m trying to learn the alien language after all… the alien isn’t learning ours in turn. So, images are less useful for me.”

  In four days, Valjean announced that he was ready to communicate with the alien. He was able to hold fluid conversations with the AI trainer, with a translation accuracy upwards of ninety-eight percent.

  “That was relatively quick,” Rade said after he had departed the glass dome with the others to visit the mech. “Even for an AI.”

  “Thank you,” Valjean said. “I take that as a compliment.”

  “As you should.” Rade glanced between the glass tubes, and saw that the alien wasn’t at its customary station on the far side of the room. “Where’s Waldo?” That was the name Rade and the others had taken to calling the alien.

  “The trainer tells me he will return shortly,” Valjean said. “I assume you want to talk to the alien as soon as possible…”