Sweat formed on his forehead as he looked up at the night sky. The stars were bright, but not as bright as they had been earlier, outshone by the Sasugan home world as it rose in slivered dome above the cityscape. The rotation would put it in full view in a matter of hours.
But Joey could only appreciate the view in small doses. He still wasn’t entirely sure what they were up to, which made inventing a story to tell Stephen that much easier. He had said something about exploring the neighborhood — in only a short time they were pretty far from anything that could be considered “the neighborhood.”
“This way, I think,” Isellia said, as she stopped and peered around the corner at an intersection. “Wait, no, it’s — no this is it. Come on.” Isellia waved the two forward, and was off, walking so fast that Joey could barely keep up.
“Um, so, where’re we going?” Joey asked after running a few steps to keep up. He looked back at the robot, which was right behind him, its pace appearing unchanged. The robot, of course, could speed up without any change in posture or stride. It simply sped up each movement in its stride.
“Direction: West.” The robot replied. “Zoning change in several meters. Light industrial.”
“I wasn’t asking you, robot.”
Isellia stopped in her tracks and was silent. Joey watched her, silent.
“Isellia,” Joey said tentatively after a few moments.
“Joey,” she said finally, not turning around. “You like me, right?”
The question took Joey off guard. He took a quick intake of air, and his heart started racing, his face turning bright red.
“Malfunction detected—”
“Shut up, robot!” Joey shouted, turning to the robot.
“I mean, we’re crew members now,” Isellia said. “We gotta be able to count on each other.”
Joey turned from shaking his fist at the robot and regarded her seriously. “Um, yeah. Of course.”
She turned around and stood right in front him, her face inches from his. Joey’s eyes were as wide as they could possibly open, and his jaw went slack as he stared into her bright eyes.
“You’re a part of my crew now. We help each other out. We stick together.”
She moved her face a little closer. Joey started to back up, but she stopped him by grabbing his arm. He didn’t dare move.
“I may only get one more chance. You think I want to work on a cargo ship forever? I want to win, Joey.”
Joey stared at her, not understanding what she meant.
“You… want to win?” Joey couldn’t stand her face this close to his, it was too much for him. But he didn’t dare look away. “You mean, an XR race?”
She stared at him, her face close enough for her bangs to brush Joey’s cheek. Whatever this was all about, it was too much for Joey to take.
Finally Isellia let him go, turning back toward the street. “Look, Porter doesn’t know everything, okay. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
The robot looked up. “Unknown variables = danger. Illustration: Unidentified obstacles in space...“
“Alright already, bolt-brain,” Isellia said, making a dismissive gesture. “Listen, you in or out?”
“But I still don’t understand what we’re doing?” Joey wanted to agree, but something about the situation gave him a bad feeling.
“We’re going to acquire a flux cooling coil.”
“‘Acquire?’”
“Yes. Don’t ask questions.”
“You mean steal, don’t you…” Joey looked at his feet.
“What did I just say?” Isellia walked up to Joey, putting her hand on his shoulder. She was about a head taller than him, and he looked up into her eyes as she came to him. “You trust me, don’t you.”
Joey looked at his feet again. She had saved his life, hadn’t she? The others were out of sight as soon as the firing had started.
“Yes,” he said, not looking up.
“Good. Crew members need to trust each other. Like I trust you won’t ever activate the landing gear when I’m working on it. Ever.” She looked up pointedly as she said this, laying in the final clip of guilt to ensure his compliance. Joey nodded, feeling a lump in his throat.
Instantly, the serious look on Isellia’s face dissolved into the excitement of a teenage girl.
“That’s what I thought. Ok, Let’s go!”
***
“The key to a good lock pick,” Isellia said, eyes narrowed in concentration as she threaded a small, thin piece of metal into the large padlock that secured the fence gate, “is to get just the right size.”
It was clear that she had done this before, Joey thought, though she was yet far from a pro. Joey wondered exactly how much experience she’d had at this, and why. Would this be something he would need to learn?
“Assistance required?” the robot asked. “An ROU blast would be more efficient.”
Isellia waved him away. “Are you nuts? We don't want anyone to know we were here. We need to put the lock back when we’re done. Besides, the lock isn’t the problem. Keep your input plug into that data jack so you can disable the alarm.”
Isellia fumbled with the lock some more, turning it over. “I think I’m close.”
Joey looked out at the long row of fence that seemed to house mountains of something — in the dark he couldn’t quite tell what. He felt a bit like a third wheel, since he seemed to as of yet have no role in the caper. He looked around nervously, expecting Sasugan authorities to walk around the corner at any moment. The alley was dark, and on the other side were all blank buildings, industrial and featureless.
“Robot only contains metal and plastic parts. No organic material.”
Isellia stopped picking, looking at the robot with derision. “What?”
“Robot does not = nuts.”
Isellia, realizing what the robot was talking about, rolled her eyes as she continued her work. “O-kaaay... There!”
The lock dropped off the door, and Isellia quickly slammed her feet together, catching it between her feet to keep it from hitting the ground and making any noise. The robot stood motionless, its data jack in the side panel, while its LED flashed to indicate it was working. The light went out after a few moments, it pulled out the jack and turned toward them.
“Let’s go,” she said, taking the cue from the bot.
But something caught the corner of Joey’s eye, and he boldly lunged for Isellia, grabbing her around her waist. “Wait!” he shouted in a whisper.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Isellia yelled, stopping and shoving him to the ground. Joey tried to stammer a response but the fall took his wind.
“Laser sensor,” robot said, pointing. “’Detection would = imminent.’”
The anger dropped from Isellia’s face as she noticed the tiny beam. “Hey, sure enough. I knew I brought you along for something.” She turned to Joey grinning.
“Thanks,” he grunted, picking himself up off the alley floor.
“Can you disable it?” Isellia asked in a faux pleading tone.
“Affirmative,” the robot responded. The robot stood doing nothing as Isellia’s expression grew from hopeful to impatient.
“Well?” She finally yelled.
“Robot, please disable the device,” Joey said.
“Understood.” The robot got down next to the box producing the almost invisible laser, and within seconds the laser was gone.
“You have to be careful what you say. It only understands your words literally,” Joey explained.
“Yeah, well, it is literally irritating the snot out of me. Come on,” Isellia said.
Just as Joey passed between the gate, he thought he noticed a small figure in the far end of the alley, small and pale. As he looked closer, it was gone.
***
The blue-green Sasugan planet edged its way farther in the sky now, its dome a backdrop against the piles and piles of scrap metal, hulls of old, rusting ships, and the occasional new ship whi
ch had turned out to be a lemon for some unfortunate owner or the shipyard it was returned to. The lights were out on the Sasugan station, despite the fact that it always basically night on the station, even during the "day,” and only the light from the planet illuminated the junkyard in harsh shadows that juxtaposed with the station’s cityscape shining in the distance.
Joey, however, had been a little too concerned about what it was he was doing, to appreciate the scene. While he could appreciate the novelty of all he saw, the nag of his self-preservation instinct kept telling him to run the entire distance back to their host family’s house, and never mention this to anyone again. Then again, he wasn’t entirely confident he could find his way back on the unfamiliar streets, and being lost on the station, alone, unnerved him more than anything.
Joey, of course, was no stranger to junkyards — the colony had its own, comprised of discarded parts from Company C ships and factories, many of its discardings just as wasteful as this site seemed to be. From many afternoons spent salvaging while his mother toiled in the factories, Joey had a pretty good idea how to navigate a junkyard, how to test his steps to ensure solid footing, and had a sharp eye for the useful. The yard, which was only a yard in name alone, since the actual ground was buried under yards of metal, contained much that Joey didn't recognize.
“Aha!” Isellia whisper-shouted, pointing beyond their position. A ship similar to Isellia’s, minus its wings and cockpit window, was buried nose-first in a mountain of junk.
“It’s almost like yours,” Joey said, recognizing the shape.
“Watch your mouth,” Isellia snapped at him, still in a whisper that didn’t diminish the sharpness of her tone. “Don’t insult my ship by comparing it to that junk heap!”
"Sorry!" Joey said, putting up his hands.
Isellia’s grimace disappeared in an instant as she turned toward the “junk-heap.” “Now, let’s go shopping,” she said, nearly skipping through the rubble.
“Shopping = Paying for items?” Robot asked.
“No, she—” Joey began, unsure how to finish. “Nevermind.” The robot stood silently blinking.
Joey and the robot sat under the moonlight as Isellia dug under the rusting ship for the cooling coils, asking for various tools by a single name from a small toolbox she brought; no “please,” or “would you mind,” or “if it’s not too much trouble.” That wasn’t her way, and anyway it didn't bother Joey. In a matter of minutes, she emerged from under the ship victoriously, holding the coils in her arms with a smile beaming on her face.
“Wow, I can’t believe how easy that was!” She said, examining the coils. “They’re in mint condish! And this is high-end too! I can’t believe someone would... oh.” Isellia dropped the coiling coils on the junkyard floor. Her excitement disappeared from her face.
“What’s wrong?” Joey asked, somewhat frightened by her expression.
“It’s junk. Look underneath.”
Joey picked up the coils, examining their smooth, chrome surface. This was indeed a quality part, though he soon saw what Isellia did: hairline cracks in one of the tubes. “It’s no good like that,” Isellia said.
Joey handed the part back to her and couldn’t suppress the smile at knowing he could be helpful. “I can fix it.”
Isellia’s eyebrow raised. “Huh? You can fix it? How?” She eyed him suspiciously. Hairline cracks in cooling coils always meant they were ready for the scrapheap — they were too dangerous to use in that condition.
“I fixed stuff like this all the time. Mr. Twitters and I built everything out of junk.” He walked over to the robot. “Just look at robot’s battery door.” Isellia leaned in really close, peering at what would amount to the robot’s stomach if it were human. She looked at Joey. “Where?”
Joey pointed triumphantly. “There was a hairline crack right down the middle. Robot was holding its battery in with its hand when I met him. I fixed other stuff on him too…”
Isellia looked back at the robot’s battery door, then back at Joey. Her expression recharged her excitement, and she beamed at Joey. She suddenly grabbed hold of him in a hug, squeezing him so hard he could hardly breathe. He felt a hot flush of embarrassment wash through his whole body, to be so close to her, to smell her scent, which was decidedly feminine. He felt her softer side pressed against him, something he was far from ready to experience.
“I knew I brought you along for something,” she said, then shoved him away as quickly as she embraced him. “Well, they won’t miss it. It was junk anyway, right? Okay, now we can get out of here.” Suddenly her grin dropped into a frown and her eyebrows furrowed. “Just as soon as we find out...” she said in a long, drawn-out fashion as she walked toward where a small spacecraft’s nose stuck out of the rubble. She reached behind and pulled out someone — the small, pale girl Joey had noticed in the distance earlier.
Isellia shoved her in the middle of the party. “...who this is,” Isellia said, finally finishing her sentence, which came out far less dramatic than she intended it. “And why she’s following us!”
***
Joey recognized the pale, young girl from the docking bay — the one who ran up to Fina while she talked with Porter. She sat between them all, staring down between her feet, hugging her knees and shaking with fear.
Isellia glared at her, unmoved by her condition, pacing cross-armed like an inquisitor. She stopped, bending down so that her face was inches from the young girl’s, causing her to recoil even more. Compared side-by-side like that, Joey guessed she was closer to his age than Isellia’s. She continued shivering but didn’t dare look up at Isellia.
“Who the heck are you?” Isellia asked, involuntarily tapping her foot.
“Isellia, you’re scaring her,” Joey whispered, empathizing with the poor girl, who clearly wasn’t any kind of threat. Sometimes Isellia scared him, too.
The girl looked up at Isellia briefly, as though she would answer, then resumed her defensive posture.
“Robot, translate.”
The robot translated into flawless, emotionless Sasugan. It’s speech was technically perfect, more so than any Sasugan could manage, but far more lifeless.
She looked at the robot like she might answer it, then turned to Isellia. “I… am… Ayuuk,” she said shakily in Common, without any translation. Her pronunciation was flawless, and she might have sounded human if not for her lack of confidence. Maybe more like Stephen.
Joey and Isellia looked at each other in surprise. “She speaks Common like us,” Joey said.
“Well, thank you for pointing out the obvious, professor!” Isellia snapped sarcastically. The robot began translating this into Sasugan as well.
“You can stop translating, metal head!” Isellia shouted. The robot stopped mid-sentence.
“Alright, you,” Isellia said, resuming her interrogation of the diminutive Sasugan. “Why are you following us?”
She looked to be on the verge of speaking, pausing to find the right translation. “D-D-Dangerous,” she finally muttered.
“Yeah, it’s going to be if you don’t tell us more about—”
Joey cut her off. “No, I think she’s trying to warn us about something.”
Isellia cocked her head. “Warn us? Warn us about what?”
Ayuuk struggled with her next words, stuttering for what seemed an eternity to the rest of the party. Before she could finish, a large crash of metal on metal, like a ship’s hull being twisted like a rag, roared in the distance. Everyone looked around, startled, as more and more crashes, each one sounding closer, reached their ears. Finally, a huge mechanical foot comprised of metal yet moving organically, crashed into the mound of junk they had been hiding behind. The leg was followed by a face like a tyrannosaurus rex, with saw-like metal teeth and a rusted snout that looked like it was once a small ship’s fuselage. It surveyed the party with eyes like floodlights, little lasers seared out of its eyes, scanning the junk plateau.
Isellia caught the flux coils she ne
arly dropped, but couldn’t catch her dropping jaw. “Oh,” was all she could utter.
***
A ferocious metallic roar reverberated through the junkyard, vibrating the metal scraps beneath their feet and lifting the hair on Isellia, Joey and Ayuuk's neck as they scrambled over the piles of metal and plastic that littered the junkyard’s floor. Joey’s heart pounded in his chest; he’d never seen anything quite so terrifying in his life. The beast was impossibly big, yet its rusted metal chassis moved with the fluidity of a skeleton brought to life. His mind couldn’t comprehend how this could actually exist in reality, and he didn’t exactly have time to sort it out while scrambling over junk piles, cutting his hands on stray electrical wires and sharp metal cooling fins, to avoid the chomping saw blades that were the beast’s teeth. The beast’s teeth were the only part that wasn’t covered in rust; they shone like a polished sword, the blue-green dome of the planet reflecting in the corner of each one.
The metal junkbeast's huge hind legs crushed poly-aluminum and space-grade glass under its weight in the very spot Joey had been sitting moments ago. It stopped roaring and paused for a moment, surveying its prey as the three desperately tried to distance themselves from the beast.
Then Joey started to slow as something occurred to him.
“Hurry up, you wanna get eaten?” Isellia shrieked back at him, incredulous that he would consider slowing.
“Robot,” he said, looking back. The others had run, but the robot stood its ground, ROU drawn and trained on the metal monster.
“Huh?” Isellia asked, and she started to slow too, staring back at the robot. “What’s that metal-brain doing?” Only Ayuuk continued to run at full speed.
The beast, however, paid no mind to the robot, as if it couldn’t see it at all; instead, it stared ahead at the party, seeming ready to pounce in the direction of its laser beam eyes.
Robot Awareness: Special Edition Page 7
