by Marcus Sloss
They scattered, the sound of retreating footsteps fading into the night. I was usually a pretty friendly guy, but kids were still frightened of the boss man.
I stepped into the boot. There was a hiss, a shifting of pressure, and a sudden tug forward. I fought against the pull, not sure why, but soon realized I had erred. I bonked my head into the top of the foot. When I finally did start to rise up the tube, my body pinged off the walls. I used my arms and legs to quickly correct my ascent, thankful for the reflexes of a seasoned warrior.
I guess I could check the box ‘getting into the damn robot’. Done. Next time, I made a note to myself, hurry towards the ankle when you hear the hissing noise that is most likely the pressure differential designed to suck you up the access tube. I passed the robot’s hips and kept going upwards until I found myself looking out from the clear bubble that was its head. I guess this location for the command and control pod made sense. I could look in any direction around the circular head and see all around me … assuming I was a night creature. But right now, the area was well lit. I decided to address the issues at hand before trying to get this monstrosity to walk.
“Six for five, I’m back among the living,” I said.
“Five is in the gate, this is Delta six, go,” Bonnet said. Huh, no Bradley.
“Hey Bonnet, I can see you rolling your eyes from here. I received a few alerts. I guess I need to determine priorities between exoskeletons, more Crixxi, and food production units. Are there notes or a report that accompanies these requests?” I asked.
“That is what five is doing. Expect -”
“This is five over,” Jevon cut in.
“Report,” I said.
“We have limited funds. We can afford two of these three: exosuits, food production machines, or additional Crixxi that became available. My recommendation is that we purchase more exosuits and hire Crixxi to fill them. In my opinion, we are solid on food. Norm even told me he expects the first harvest to start coming in over the next five to ten days. Priority should be to get us more warriors and more protection. We can always go raid farms or loot shopping centers, if we have to,” Jevon said.
“Norm recommended this?” I wanted confirmation.
“Affirmative. We need a ton of people to help sort these purchases. Everly is napping in RV1, with Daphne keeping an eye on the auctions for now. We need to clear out this cluster for when ten thousand new arrivals hit our storage bay inside the Xgate,” Jevon groused.
“Roger. I will call Gary and get a team converting the empty longhouses to bunks and bedding for the Crixxi. I am in a big robot. I was going to start tossing excess dirt and stone from the tunnel dig,” I said, wondering how to best go about it.
“Come help move these infantry octosuits. There are thousands of them and they are a pain in the ass to get onto the trailers, Jevon huffed. “It’s grunt work, but necessary. Jevon out.”
I snorted. I figured I wasn’t above passing the night with some menial tasks. Before I clomped off in a super-sized robot, however, I needed to check in with Gary.
‘Got a moment?’ - Cap
My Gpad rang. “I am outside a tunnel on the west side, you need something?” Gary asked, when I answered his call.
“Yeah, wanted to check to see if you need anything from me to convert the empty longhouses over for the -”
Gary cut in, “Everly already sent the specifications, with Perci’s approval. The building teams are already hard at work making the conversion,” Gary said, and paused.
I glanced down and saw that all our tree processing machines were creating boards. Crews walked from the longhouses to piles of supplies to reload their autonailers. Gary was efficient, even when offsite. “The mining is going slower than Draxxar wanted, but I am learning the process so I can assign others to the task as well. We will need dedicated hauling teams before too long to start, though, to start shifting this stone to build the new south wall.”
“Yeah, we have to unload the Xgate first, then store those items, and then I can bring home a whole new workforce. The Mounamine we got can build, by the way, just don't expect them to be sturdy muscle machines like the Crixxi.” He laughed. “Need anything else?”
“Can you hire architects? Like actual builders?” Gary asked hesitantly.
“I can ask, though I doubt Everly will know of any. The only person I can pester has probably already gone home.” I frowned, “Worst I can do is try ... You want designers or actual laborers.”
“We have no shortage of labor. I can build you a house, been doing construction for thirty years.” He sighed, “This castle your wife asked for looks great on paper, but how do I do the plumbing, electrical, and so on? We only need a few architect types to manage the projects,” Gary pleaded.
“Gary, its stacking stones on stones…” I started to say, but regretted the words as soon as they escaped my mouth.
“And something I have never worked in,” he shot back. “This is not making plywood molds and -”
“Gary, that was the wrong thing for me to say—I’m sorry. You are right and I was wrong. I will go try to hire you a master builder. Cap out,” I said, closing the connection.
My Gpad pinged.
‘How is Mary?’ - Jill
I muttered to myself, “How the hell should I know?!”
I pinged Maria. ‘Who is watching the kids?’ - Cap
‘Your daughter is curled up in a king-sized bed with Jasmine. I took over for Serenity when I finished shopping.’ - Maria
I called Jill for a video chat. She peered back at me with bags under her eyes and a zombie like expression. “I am so tired,” she groaned, “I never want to stay in the grand market for that long again. The hours just flew by. How is our little girl?” Jill asked.
“Sleeping. How about I come get you and bring you home? I need to test this thing out, anyways,” I said to Jill who I could see was walking into an RV. I saw her snatch a bag from the floor and yank a blanket from the loft. “Are you going to crash there?”
“I might if you take too long.” She yawned, “I’ll probably sleep while you work. This RV is packed, we got evicted from our longhouse, and I refuse to move to Aspen. Mary would be devastated. Funny, the crazy things parents go through for their children,” Jill muttered, snuggling into the blanket.
I knew she tended to ramble when tired, so I decided to get moving while she talked. I stepped up to the only item in the room near the front of the dome. The pedestal adjusted to my height, a screen lit up and a beam of light burst forth to scan me from head to toe. Umm … What the hell was that? I stood there for a moment, not moving.
“Can you hear me Eric, there was this burst of static all of a sudden,” Jill said and I cursed.
“Jill, babe, I need you to give me a moment. I want to go to the Xgate -”
Thinking about going to Xgate 232 brought up an itinerary on the display. A prompt hit my mind, twisting my senses. A fog clouded my thoughts, momentarily, and then there was clarity. Goldie, my fish avatar, bubbled the air in front of me. I wanted to smack the imaginary tri-tailed goldfish for the smirk it wore between bubbles. I gritted my teeth and struggled to hold my temper in check.
“I extracted from your mind that you wish to commence a trip to the Xgate referred to as 232?” he bubbled.
Without a word, I indicated my approval of the proposed route. A split second later, the torso swiveled and the feet stepped off towards the south. There was a damped whirl as the Goliath’s generators applied force through whatever motors or servos moved this massive contraption. A four-minute timer started counting down. Moment after stepping over the hesco wall, the Goliath deftly dodged the farm fields. A hop, skip, and then a full run. The dampeners were amazing. I should be jostling about inside this empty dome and holding on for dear life as the Goliath sprinted across the landscape, but the floor barely shifted underneath my feet.
“Goliath, how do I control you?” I asked. I heard Jill’s exasperated huff, knowing she was still
on the connection.
Goldie turned his whole body sideways in a tilt. I grunted, unimpressed by the display.
“Slow pace, increase arrival time,” I said.
The timer jumped up to six minutes.
“Spin torso east,” I said. The torso spun around, with the legs still walking west. “Full volley, max distance, fire.”
Teal light streaked out of a dozen ports on the machine. Goliath rocked backwards and then slowed. My display showed that I had depleted the power reserves. They recovered at a steady rate, a blue bar on the display filling back up, with a quickly increasing percentage shown off to the side.
“Hey Jill,” I asked. “Did you see that?”
“You lit up the entire sky … yeah, I think America saw that,” Jill said, voice laced with wonder. “Umm… After my nap, I would like to give it a try, if that’s okay?”
I saw the charge bar indicate full. “Proceed to Xgate 232,”I ordered Goldie, “full sprint.” I lifted my Gpad, so Jill could see both my face and the display. “It seems user friendly and seems to intuit what to squash and what to tiptoe around. Let me figure out the opening code so you can board when I arrive. Oh, and Jill…” I paused to make sure she was paying attention.
“Yeah, Eric.”
“Head straight for the ankle when you enter. Trust me.”
She grinned, “I do, Eric. More than you know.”
I closed the connection and rolled my eyes. That woman had been pining hard for me. In every story, movie or television show, some girl chases the guy or some guy chases the girl and it seems like the world conspires to prevent them from being together. I had four wonderful women I shared my life with. I loved three of them ... my affection for Everly was slowly turning into love. I agreed with Torrez on this one, though, where should I draw the proverbial line in the sand on my … on my … I ruefully acknowledged that what I had was a harem. Maybe that line was with Jill? Maybe not.
Piloting the Goliath had turned out to be fairly mundane. It ran faster than any animal, outpaced most vehicles, could unleash a torrent of deadly fire, and was big enough to squash most beings, but it was nothing if not user friendly.
“Is there a combat mode, Goldie?” I asked, not wanting accidentally to trigger something in the operating system.
“Yes,” Goldie replied, “we are currently in the ‘no harm’ mode. It is recommended you only enter combat mode in emergency situations.”
“So basically,” I asked the fish, “this Goliath will treat all objects as friendly, unless specifically requested otherwise by the operator?”
“Correct, Mr. Yang. You or any other authorized operator will need to authorize lethal force. As the primary owner of this vehicle, I highly recommend you restrict the number of operators who can access lethal responses,” Goldie said. The wise ass fish busted out a smirk. “I would not give, for example, a seven-year-old the ability to kill -”
“Got it,” I snarled, “don’t you fucking lecture me, you overgrown bubble factory, or I will feed you to the Tavers.”
“The Tavers do not -”
“Onix?”
“Yes, Onix would eat fish, though I do not understand where this hostility is coming from. I am not actually a fish,” Goldie said.
“No, you're a mind reading operating system, who digs things out of my brain without properly requesting the information.”
“I have to know things to determine what to avoid destroying,” Goldie informed me.
I glared at the stupid fish for a long moment before scuffing my hands through my hair. “What is the code to get in?” I finally asked.
“You touch the boot, I check to see if you have the appropriate permissions, then allow you access to the pilot station. For instance, Miss Jill is at the boot asking to come up. That is code enough. Miss Lavaun, Nancy, set the opening to ‘do not disturb’ because people kept wanting to learn about me while she was studying my operating system.”
I felt a rush of wind on my neck from the tube behind and to my right. When I’d shot up the tube, despite cracking my head and tumbling around a bit, I didn’t panic, I corrected my sideways ascent and landed firmly on my feet. Jill, on the other hand … It turns out Jill is a screamer, and not in the good way. I covered my ears as her piercing cries drew closer, and then she tumbled out of the tube onto the command deck, her blanket tangled about her head and shoulders.
“You could have warned me,” Jill said, spitting her hair back out of her mouth and pushing it out of her scornful brown eyes. She fixed her ponytail while sorting herself out. “Well!”
I tried to hide my smirk at her dramatic entrance. I went to one knee beside her and kissed her forehead. “Sorry.”
She went to complain, but I held up a finger to her lips before she could work up a full head of steam.
“Goldie, can you handle routine tasks, or must I micromanage all operations?” I queried the system.
“Think or tell me what you want done,” Goldie said. I pictured helping load infantry octosuits onto trailer beds. “Where are you going Master Eric?”
“I am going to sort out this last bit of buying so we can get home and prepare for tomorrow. Is it okay if Jill stays in the command chamber? Does she have to be stay wake?” I asked.
“Technically no, but if I complete all the tasks you assign, I will just remain stationary -”
“Goldie there are three other Goliaths you will be working with, and more than a thousand octosuits left to load onto the trailers. Just do your job,” I said in a stern tone.
“As you command, master.”
Jill cleared her throat, a blush crawling up her neck. “Do you always feel the need to give commands, or is it just a dominance thing with you?”
“Uh… what? No, not this time, actually, the system program reads minds, so maybe it thinks it is being clever,” I said, choosing not to dwell on the issue.
She unhooked her bra and did that thing that women do to take off their bras while still fully clothed and tossed it to the side of the nest she was setting up. “By all that is holy,” she groaned, “I miss small tits. My breasts have never been this big, even when I was nursing Mary. The virum sure loves a Double D. We all have the DD virum totties, as Perci calls them. I just have an odd frame making bras -”
“Try a wrap,” I suggested, “We’re not exactly a modest society. The Crixxi don’t wear underwear and the females have no nipple restraint… Is that even a term, eh... anyhow, they don't care.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, “My point is, Jill, just be yourself. For once, be you. Be happy. Fret not if Bob the builder sees you’re not wearing a bra.” A sly grin crept across me face, “I know I won't complain.”
“Eric,” she groaned, “that grand fucking market sucks out your soul.” She laid down on her blanket. “I do like that you trust me with this awesome machine, and I look forward to some alone time with you.” She paused and looked up at me, “I can’t recall a time when I was alone with someone I wanted to get intimate with while Mary was being watched, but I am too tired to do anything about it. Best if you just hurry along,” Jill yawned. She used her bag as a pillow and folded half of the blanket over her body. “Eric…”
“Yes, Jill?”
“You called me babe,” Jill said with a smile.
“Uhh, well, things happen, Jill. Do you want me to apologize?” I asked, willing to do whatever made her most comfortable.
A soft snore was her only response.
I glanced down and saw that she was out. I snuck in for a soft kiss to her forehead. We hadn’t been intimate, sexually, but we had certainly grown close on an emotional level. I went to the tube and hopped in. The air that had shot me up the tube, controlled my descent on the way down. I figured the Goliath would have had something more sophisticated, like a platform, but I was okay with this. The falling part was kind of fun.
When my feet settled to the matte grey metal of the boot, I stepped out of the robot towards the Xgate. It was time to finish our shopping and f
ocus on preparing Bastion for the next blue season.
CHAPTER 7
The tanks, RVs, a few trucks, and four goliaths provided plenty of illumination around the Xgate. It almost felt like daytime because of the odd shadows cast by the overhead lighting. Even the Xgate’s golden rays lit up the field where the activity around the gates had not slacked off. I had only taken a few steps towards the portal when my Gpad rang.
A video call from Everly and Perci. When I answered, I quickly muted the video, limiting the connection to audio only. I’d caught a glimpse of Everly in the shower and people were working all around me. At some point, I would need to let modesty go. My time in prison and in the military had revealed a harsh truth—people had to get naked and there wasn’t always a private place for them to do so. The Crixxi flat out didn’t care. The females typically went topless, even when not breastfeeding.
“Hey, why did you close down my video? I am sitting on a couch with Felix. Oh,” Perci chuckled evilly, “when did you activate your orb, you sly girl, I love watching the water run down your tight body,” Perci purred. At least she understood why I had closed the video. That Crixxi minx loved teasing me. “I crashed on the couch,” I heard Perci’s chipper voice, “I am up and on my way. Do you want to wait for me?”
The ground shook, the rocks danced, and I wanted to cover my ears. Goliath one had taken a massive step not that far from me. The impact was enough to rattle my teeth. Damn, how much did that thing weigh? Sultry tones broke through my stunned ruminations.
“I am in RV1. I will help our mate,” Everly said. The sound of water in the background ceased. I knew better than to turn that camera back on. When I glanced over at RV1, I glimpsed the Crixxi’s naked form heading for a back room. “Are you still there?” Perci asked.
“Yeah, I just got distracted by a really nice view,” I said in a pleasant tone.
“I love the stars at night,” Everly chimed in, and I smirked.
“Eric, do you want me to manage affairs back at Stronghold Mansion or help you finish shopping,” Perci asked.
