The Search For WondLa

by DiTerlizzi, Tony

  Muthr brought the sputtering Goldfish back to a waiting Otto on dry land. She exited, carrying a limp Rovender. “Eva, dear, are you well? Please tell me how you are doing?” Muthr asked as she laid Rovender flat on the hood of the hovercraft.

  “I’ll be okay, I think,” Eva said between gasping breaths. She was sitting up in the shade next to Otto. “But I’ve got a massive headache,” she added.

  “We have to help Mr. Kitt, Eva, and we need to hurry,” Muthr said. She held the Omnipod in one hand while she scanned his body with a red laser. “His physiology is entirely different from yours, so I need you to tell me anything he may have said about how he functions internally.”

  “He never said anything,” Eva said between gasps. “But I did create a file for him on IMA.”

  Muthr opened up his eyelids, revealing dilated pupils. She probed his mouth with two mechanized fingers. “Eva, dear, I need you over here immediately,” she said, her voice calm as she opened a small compartment panel above her wheel casing. While one hand searched for a pulse on Rovender’s thick wrists, another pulled out a corrugated tube and placed it into his mouth.

  “What—what are you doing?” Eva asked as she stumbled over to Muthr. As her stupor faded, Eva realized the grave situation. The IMA program was rendering a translucent three-dimensional hologram of Rovender over the Omnipod’s central eye. Muthr studied the flickering charts on the Omnipod.

  “We are attempting to resuscitate Mr. Kitt by blowing controlled bursts of air into his lungs,” Muthr said, and tilted his head back. “I will supply the air by using one of my internal cooling fans. To do this, I need you to hold his opercula, or gill covers, shut so that the air will travel down into his lungs. The covers are located underneath his chin, here. Hurry, dear, my hands are full.”

  Eva looked down. With Rovender’s head tilted back, a pair of ruby slits were revealed, just under his jawline. They had been hidden by his beard of barbels. Eva placed her palms firmly over the gill covers to close them. She swallowed down the iciness of dread that began to coil into her stomach.

  Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die.

  Muthr blew puffs of air into Rovender’s mouth in two one-second bursts. Eva watched his stomach rise and fall. Rise and fall. Muthr studied the Omnipod and repeated the process.

  “Please don’t die, Rovee,” Eva whispered.

  “I am doing all that I can, Eva,” Muthr said as she blew the air in again. “He has many organs that are indescribable by the Omnipod. Therefore, I cannot risk cardiopulmonary resuscitation.”

  “Please, Rovee.” Eva tried to keep the chill from overtaking her shaking hands. She kept them firm on the lanky creature’s neck. “Please.”

  She felt a lurch …

  … and a cough …

  … and Rovender Kitt blinked his indigo eyes.

  Muthr pulled the tube from his mouth and returned it underneath her metallic shell. In her cheerful movie-star voice, she said, “Mr. Kitt, welcome back. You gave us quite a scare.”

  CHAPTER 37: SIGNAL

  The campsite that night was the familiar submerged entryway into an underground Sanctuary. With the door long gone, the stairway leading down was packed full of desert sand. Even so, the lone covered entrance provided some shelter against the chilly windswept desert plain and the preponderance of hunting sand-snipers clicking outside in the night.

  “Definitely tomorrow,” Rovender said as he looked at the beamguide map. “If we get an early start, we should be there by midday.” He tucked the guide in with the other items packed in his large rucksack.

  “We have made good progress, despite this afternoon’s setback,” Muthr said as she looked over at Eva in the lantern light.

  Eva was placing all of the contents from her satchel out to dry, as the bag had gotten soaked in the skirmish at the oasis. She glanced outside at Otto, who was sleeping soundly next to the Goldfish.

  “I believe we shall have plenty of fuel to get us to our destination as well,” Muthr continued. “Once there, we can locate a water source that does not contain such malevolent plant life.”

  Rovender chuckled, then rubbed his swollen neck. “Yes, let us hope so.” He saw the reflection of his lanterns dance and flicker in Muthr’s large orbs. “Mother Robot, it is no secret that I am not one who is fond of machines. To be truthful, there have been instances when I have even questioned your upbringing of Eva with such mechanisms as the Omnipod, and even your Sanctuary.”

  Muthr nodded. “Well, I think we have all seen that these machines, myself included, do not have all the answers. I do not believe anyone does, Mr. Kitt.”

  “You are right,” Rovender replied. “I am also the first to say when I am wrong about something, and I am wrong in judging the makeup of one such as you. Please accept my sincerest apologies for such small-minded notions.”

  “There is no need for an apology, Mr. Kitt,” Muthr said. “You have taught Eva and me many things about this world that could not be contained in a program or simulation. It is I who should be apologetic for ever doubting you.”

  “Fair enough,” Rovender said with a grin. “Fair enough.”

  The two sat quietly for a moment, huddled in the abandoned Sanctuary entryway. Eva savored the reconciliation. With her back still turned to them, neither could see her face beaming with pleasure as she traced her fingers over the damp image on the WondLa.

  “I think I am really getting the hang of this,” Eva said the next morning as she piloted the Goldfish over dark rippled dunes.

  “You are doing very well,” Muthr replied. “Make sure you adjust the roll a little when we get over this open, flat area ahead. The wind can get quite gusty.”

  “Why didn’t we practice driving hovercraft back home?” Eva said as she focused on the instruments projected on the windshield.

  “I am not sure,” Muthr said. “We had information on hovercrafts in the Sanctuary’s virtual library, but I was not aware of any exercises that would instruct you on how to operate one.”

  Eva rubbed her finger splint with her free finger as she gripped the yoke, thinking. Her healing palm itched. “I really like exploring a lot. I feel so active, so excited, so alive while I am doing it, you know?”

  “I do have a sense of understanding what you’re saying. You certainly are a most adventurous spirit, Eva.” Muthr looked over at her.

  “Do you miss being in the Sanctuary?” Eva glanced at Muthr, then back to the landscape in front of her.

  “I miss having access to anything and everything when I need it and, by extension, when you need it,” the robot replied. “I am designed to be in control of my environment. Out here, it appears the environment is trying to control me.”

  Eva was quiet for a bit as she thought about this.

  Muthr continued, “But I suppose that is the very nature of survival—living and existing despite the odds.”

  “Yeah,” Eva said. Living despite the odds.

  “Though, I must confess, I do miss our holo-shows. I enjoyed watching them with you.”

  “Really?” Eva looked over at Muthr, a smile growing on her face. “What shows?”

  “I actually enjoyed Beeboo and Company,” Muthr replied. “Watching some of the episodes with you was quite entertaining.”

  Eva laughed out loud. “Really? You were entertained?”

  “Actually, I was more entertained watching you. Especially when you were younger,” Muthr said. “After the show was over, you would pretend that you were one of the characters. How you adored that Beeboo.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Eva asked.

  “I am not sure. I suppose I was simply so busy making sure you were content,” Muthr replied.

  “Hey, maybe if we find the other humans, they’ll have some of the old episodes,” Eva said, smiling. “You and I can watch them again.”

  “I would like that very much.” With her silicone lips Muthr smiled back.

  “Ho! Eva!” Rovender
called out as he stood atop Otto’s back. “Hold up!”

  Eva slowed the Goldfish and circled it back over the crescent dunes of black sand and gravel. The hovercraft’s metallic flecked paint sparkled through its dusty coating in the late-morning sun as it came to rest alongside the water bear. Rovender slid down and sat on Otto’s great head. He placed the crystal beamguide on the flat hood of the Goldfish, and the prism relief map projected out from it.

  “Well,” Rovender said as he studied the landmarks. “We are almost there. It’s just over this large dune up ahead.”

  “Let us see if we can pick up any clues,” Muthr said, and pulled out the Omnipod. She spoke to the device, “This is Muthr zero-six. Initiate LifeScan. Please sweep the area for any other detectable life-forms.”

  “Initiating LifeScan,” the Omnipod replied. Eva watched the familiar radar hologram of the terrain before them. Muthr extended the radar’s range, revealing their final destination. There certainly were all sorts of structures present—as well as a lot of glowing life-forms. Large glowing life-forms.

  “A first sweep shows that there are approximately two hundred and forty-seven large life-forms aboveground and in the area indicated,” the Omnipod reported. “They are elephantine in size and, based on recent images acquired through Identicapture, are likely giant tardigrades.”

  Otto let out a long, low hoot.

  “That’s Otto’s herd,” Eva added. “They’ve been here waiting for him to rejoin them.”

  “Really?” Muthr asked.

  “He told them where we were going,” Eva said, patting Otto; he started purring. “I guess they knew where the ruins were. Apparently there’s a lot of food for them there.”

  “You never cease to astonish me, Otto.” Rovender climbed back up to his saddle and shooed away several turnfins that had taken his spot in his absence. “All right, Eva Nine. Lead the way!”

  It took some time for the group to scale the windward slope of the largest linear sand dune that they had yet encountered in the boundless wasteland. Loose ebony grains blew about as the hovercraft rose higher and higher at a steep angle toward the summit. Eva parked the Goldfish at the crest and hopped out. Her friends soon joined her, staring in awe at the monumental sight that was now revealed to them.

  In a vast valley that stretched across the entire horizon, hundreds—perhaps thousands—of spires, walls, and hunks of architectural rubble, stood half-submerged in the dark drifts of desert sand.

  Extraordinary lichens, the largest and most colorful Eva had yet seen, grew from the old remnants of bridges, towers, and other edifices of this lost civilization. Countless turnfins circled and roosted among the ruins, while in the distance a great herd of water bears grazed around the structures.

  “Oeeah!” Rovender whistled from high atop Otto’s back. He peered into his spyglass. “This is quite a find, Eva Nine. A place unlike any I have ever seen!”

  The hot wind tousled Eva’s brown-blond bangs. She stared, speechless, as she tried to comprehend the utter enormity of the site. Muthr’s motor whined as the robot neared. Eva whispered, “This was once ours, wasn’t it? We had colonized Orbona, hadn’t we?”

  “It certainly seems that way, does it not?” Muthr replied.

  They both gazed out at the remains reaching up toward the sky—as if the remains themselves were trying to escape from the sands of time that slowly consumed them.

  “The folly of humankind is that it believes it is impervious to decay,” Muthr said.

  The Omnipod chirped as the lights on it began flashing in a flurry of patterns.

  “What is it?” Eva pried her eyes away from the landscape before her. “What’s going on?”

  “I have never seen the Omnipod act like this,” Muthr said, reading the slew of information displayed on the screen. “Let us get closer.”

  With Eva driving the Goldfish, Muthr navigated the group down the large slope of the dune toward the ruins. As they approached, Eva realized that the corroded spires were gigantic, towering high above them into the afternoon sky. Hordes of turnfins swooped around them and flitted about among the spires. Their chattering had risen to quite a din as the explorers had traveled down the sandy pathways.

  Eva felt a tickle in the back of her brain. She glanced back at Otto and Rovender.

  “What is it?” Muthr watched Eva.

  “It’s Otto.” Eva closed her eyes for second, trying to get a better read on him. “He’s uneasy for some reason. Something is bothering him. . . . It could just be all of these birds.”

  “And I am sure he is anxious to reunite with his herd,” Muthr said.

  “You’re probably right. I bet he can’t hear their song with all of this racket.” She focused on driving, still not quite at ease. Eva guided the craft under the remnants of a magnificent steel archway. “So, what’s the Omnipod say?”

  Muthr continued to read the charts displayed by the device. “Well, according to this, there may actually be some sort of computer system online here.”

  Eva’s eyes went large. “Are you serious?”

  “I would say it is improbable, but judging from what we are seeing, it appears to be so,” Muthr said as Eva brought the Goldfish around the crumbling remains of a building. She continued, “The signal is weak. It is coming from an underground source.”

  “A Sanctuary!” Eva’s pulse quickened.

  “I will not be able to tell for sure until we investigate,” Muthr said, studying the location of the signal.

  Eva picked at the skin around her thumbnail while she held the steering yoke tightly. As they journeyed past the remnants of a still-standing tower, she looked over at the Omnipod. “Does it . . . Does it detect any others like me? Any humans?”

  “At this point, no,” Muthr said, her eyes still on the device. “But that does not mean we will not find any sort of clues here.” They approached a pair of similarly shaped lichen-encrusted rocks, and Muthr said, “Stop here, Eva! This is the place.”

  “Rovee!” Eva shouted as she parked the Goldfish. “Over here!”

  “We are on our way,” Rovender shouted back as he and Otto rounded the path to join them.

  “According to this,” Muthr said as she exited the vehicle with the Omnipod, “there is a faint signal coming from directly below us. Though the Omnipod is not very accurate at detecting subterranean elements.”

  Eva stepped out of the Goldfish onto a wide, flat half-submerged rock. “Hey, Rovee, is it okay to walk around? Are there any sand-snipers here?”

  “Not here, Eva,” Rovender replied, and hopped off of Otto. He stared up at the ancient monuments that surrounded them. “Fortunately for us, they prefer open areas.”

  “Look!” Eva brushed the sand away from the rock she was standing on. “These are steps.”

  “Yes,” Rovender said. “Steps leading down . . . someplace.”

  She sprinted across the half-buried step to Otto and put the palm of her hand on his forehead.

  Are you okay? she thought to him.

  Safe. You. Me.

  Are we safe?

  Noise. Hurt.

  It’s the sound of the birds, right? she said to him silently. They are pretty noisy.

  Hurt. Noise.

  Eva looked around and noted that there were not many turnfins in this open area. Even though she was desperate to explore, she stayed near Otto. The water bear shuffled over to one of the nondescript rocks jutting up out of the sand and pulled off a large clump of enormous lichen.

  “Eva,” Muthr said, peeling back one of the wide gray leaves. “Can you ask Otto to remove all of this lichen?”

  “Sure.” Eva walked over to the stone formation that was jutting up from the top of the steps. The other formation, almost identical in size and shape, was many meters away. They were like large newel posts on the top of a wide stone staircase.

  Otto grabbed the lichen with his short, sharp beak and sheared off the growth. As he munched it up with relish, Eva recognized the aged, pitted rock u
nderneath.

  It was a sculpture.

  A sculpture of a lion.

  CHAPTER 38: RUINS

  Both of these sculptures are of lions,” Muthr said, scrolling through endless data on the Omnipod. “I am sure it means something, but it may take us some time to determine what exactly that is.”

  “It would probably be best to dig down to where these steps lead and take a look around,” Rovender observed. “I am sure more clues will present themselves.”

  “A fine idea, Mr. Kitt,” Muthr said, and looked up from the Omnipod. “For the moment I do not detect any large life-forms in the area, and you are positive that no sand-sniper will attack in this vicinity?”

  “I am sure.” Rovender tapped the stone steps with his walking stick. “Besides, there are not many creatures that I know of that would inhabit an ancient place where spirits likely still remain.”

  Muthr returned her attention to the display on the Omnipod. “Look here. It seems as if there may actually be a cave, or a chamber, that we could explore. But it is considerably far below the surface. This is going to take some time to excavate.”

  “I bet Otto could do it,” Eva said.

  “Really?” Muthr looked at him.

  “Let me ask.” Eva closed her eyes and stroked Otto’s side.

  “Yes. He said he’ll do it before he rejoins his herd.” Eva scratched the giant water bear’s chin. “Just show him where you want him to dig.”

  Eva, Muthr, and Rovender sat under the fragment of a great archway that shadowed them from the late-day sun. In their makeshift camp, they watched Otto tunnel down into the sand. His movements reminded Eva of the recorded holograms she had seen of burrowing badgers. The giant water bear dug into the earth with his front claws, and passed the dirt backward to his back legs, where he would kick it far from the giant hole.

  A cascading flume of sand now sprinkled down on Eva from Otto’s most recent kick. She stood and shook the sand off her. “If it’s okay with you, Muthr, maybe Rovee and I can look around while Otto digs this tunnel,” she said. “Perhaps we can find more clues.”