At the last moment Mother had incased her child in an escape pod that she had constructed from salvaged parts, she did this to insure the survival of Jon-29 even if she herself was destroyed, her wisdom and her love proved their worth and now Jon and KT stood beside the Komodo ready to begin their journey once more.
“You are injured” KT said, “you must take time to repair yourself, I will command drive and you will ride behind me”.
“My injuries are not terminal” Jon replied, “I will survive, you need rest and I have learned enough to control the beast”.
“Control of a Komodo takes two hands” she responded, then she looked down at Jon severed arm; “until you are fully repaired I will command drive”.
Jon said nothing then looked over at Fixer in the tail-gunner seat tinkering with his metal arm, “No” Jon said, “my right arm is strong and you are the one injured”.
“Incorrect” the girl replied, “I will be in command of the Komodo, and you should….”
Jon-29 lifted his good arm putting an end to the argument, “here are my terms, I will command drive and you will….”
Now it was KT-7’s turn, she put her hand over his lips and looked him in the eyes, “here are my terms” then she kissed him hard and deep, after a time they parted and she smiled at him, “agreed?” she asked.
Jon smiled back, “agreed”.
It was a short time later when the fully loaded war-beast slowly made its way across the landscape heading for a low range of mountains in the distance.
“I still think you are incorrect when you say that human replacements come from females, “Jon said riding behind KT-7, “their bodies are substandard for constructing infants; I will be shown to be without error on this information”.
But KT shook her head as she held the reins, “Negative metal head, my intel is superior”.
“You have information at hand to prove your theory?”
“Affirmative” KT said nodding her head, “as I tried to tell you before construction activity are already underway”.
“Explanation is required”.
But the young girl only laughed, “Explaining female reproduction to you would be….complicated”.
Jon doesn’t reply for a time, “is our vector still on a heading to Lands-End?”
“Affirm” she says.
“And when is arrival period?” Jon asks.
“I don’t have that intel” she replies.
The young man looks at the mountain range ahead of them, “is there a clear passage through those rock formations?”
KT has had enough and she pulls up on the reins and the Komodo comes to a halt, she jumps down from her saddle and looks up at Jon, “you drive!” she yells.
There is a long pause as Jon considers her words, “No” he finally says, “our terms are set and agreed, you are the command driver…for now”.
After a moment KT-7 climbs back in her saddle and they continue forward, Jon puts his right arm around KT-7’s waist and whispers in her ear, “in case you fall”.
Kt-7 seven knew that the changes of her falling off the war-beast were minuscule but the feel of Jon’s strong arm holding her kept her from replying.
Hanging from the command saddle of the Komodo is a carry sack, inside it is the hologram machine containing the old man and all his vast wisdom, he would be needed when they finally reached their destination in the Land of Peace and Plenty, but ahead of them is a long journey filled with dangers undreamed of.
Sitting in his tail-gunner position Fixer has managed to repair Gripper enough so that the mechanical arm is able to speak, “my memory core has been damaged, what recent events am I unaware of?”
The little man just shakes his head, “everything broke, but now all systems are functioning efficiently”.
“Where is my human connection?” the replacement arm asked.
Fixer turned and saw that Jon was busy lip-pressing the neck of KT-7, “he is trying to initiate mating procedures again”.
“Humans are very strange creatures” Gripper commented.
“On that data we can agree” replied the Pig-man.
Entel termination.
Jon-29 Page 9
