Task Updated!
Details: You have found the remains of numerous [Mechanoid] members. Reconstruction may be possible if their [Core]s can be recovered. The more of their bodies that are aligned, the higher the chance of recovery will be. This task must be completed before the units are reconstructed at the [Mechanoid] home world.
Reward:
Significant increase in contribution
Additional combat value to the [Wayfarer Eight] fleet
Time Limit: Six hours remaining
I nodded. They would be reconstructed back at their home world, but I remembered Treasure had said that such a process came with costs—a loss of data and ability. For players, the penalty boiled down to stats and skills; for these [Mechanoid]s, it could be worse. Or maybe we weren’t doing them any favors. Putting them back on the [Wayfarer Eight] might just be marching them forth to be broken again.
Either way, I could help.
Aqua knelt and lined up pieces. I watched for a moment to try to understand. The thin [Mechanoid] touched parts of a broken arm and shoulder together. They glowed briefly with a plain white light and sealed at the edges. Successful fusions stayed connected, forming a complete shape. Other portions that didn’t fit would be set off to one side. Two of the nameless [Mechanoid]s, both with varying shades of white and blue colors, would then take the incorrect piece and put it back into the pile.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about this being turned into a quest. That hadn’t been the point at all. Still, I wanted to do it. My efforts were making progress on several smaller pieces. Another hour passed while I worked to get a few bodies reassembled. Jeeves came in with our ship and unloaded additional body parts.
I stopped putting together items to look at my companion. The AI didn’t notice my presence at all. It was lost in the task of moving parts. Each movement was mechanical and devoid of any sort of light or emotion. Even the normal strands of dirty gold were dimmed.
“Jeeves?” All my prior attempts to contact it or join it had failed.
The AI didn’t respond. I set down the torso in my arms and ran over. Each footstep upon the [Wayfarer Eight]’s widened hangar echoed loudly. I grabbed the AI by the shoulders and tried to turn it in my direction.
“Jeeves!” I shook it.
Other than pulling from my grasp, the AI showed no response. There was no hint or spark within it. Neither voice, butler or maid, came forth. My eyes cast up as I tried to figure out what to say.
“Unit Jeeves is tired.” Aqua stopped sealing together body parts and wandered in our direction.
“Yes. Maybe.” I didn’t know if an AI could get tired. Many unanswered questions cropped up when it came to the AI’s existence. For one, Jeeves appeared to be gender neutral, which wasn’t bad, but it threw me off a little each time I thought about it. “Jeeves isn’t like me. I don’t know what this will do to it.”
“This one is aware of the subtle differences, Unit Hermes, though you feel it otherwise.” Aqua stepped over to Jeeves and held out a hand. Seeing the two of them together showed how tall Aqua was.
Light flared as its blue glow increased. Jeeves’s own energy [Core]s tried to brighten as well, but they rapidly reverted to their dull coloring. The lanky blue one tried again but had the same result. Whatever was happening made it impossible for my friend to stay energized.
“This one called Jeeves is not one of us, nor does it seem to be like you,” Aqua said after a fourth defeat. “It appears to be stuck between our reality and another, home in neither.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Unit Hermes, you have much to learn about what it means to be a Mechanoid. Your lack of understanding may be why this one did not provide approval for the Mistborn.” Aqua turned a hand toward our pile of half-completed bodies. “What do you see when this one mends that which is broken?”
I ignored his commentary about approval and thought about this situation. Aqua and I had never met before today. The [Mechanoid] certainly didn’t seem like a fighter. Iron and Aqua were distinctly different in their approach and manner. Iron was abrupt and to the point, but didn’t intend to be rude. Aqua spoke rather differently and felt more like a patient teacher.
“You touch them together, and then light.” I had paid attention.
“You see, but do not appear to understand,” the [Mechanoid] said.
“I don’t.” I wanted Jeeves to be better. How had he gone from functional to broken so quickly? The thought felt stupid once it came to mind. How had I gone from stable to a drunken mess after Xin’s death? The answer was seeing those I cared for pass on.
I tried to watch Aqua’s motions. Nothing made enough sense to act upon. Blue eyes stared from a lanky body into my friend’s almost-plain dirty gold. Jeeves wasn’t focusing on anything correctly. Part of me desperately worried about what might be going on with its programming. Turning an AI’s ability to process information upside down required a lot of conflicting issues.
“Look here.” Aqua sat next to a broken leg that had come apart at the knee. “It is not about simply putting two like objects in proximity, but of putting pieces that recognize each other in direct contact.”
Aqua kept up its repairs, looking over at me to see if it made sense. My mind tried to reason through it for a solid minute before reaching a conclusion. This was a fancy way of explaining that Jeeves felt disconnected from everything. Alone in a sea of items that should have been familiar.
That feeling had haunted me for months. The crushing absence of companionship after Xin’s death had nearly destroyed me. Sometimes it wasn’t about words or a magical turn of phrase. All the speeches and words of dead philosophers couldn’t resolve a painful absence of connection. I wasn’t a hugging sort of person, but Jeeves deserved one.
I stepped in and wrapped my arms around him in a bear hug. Embracing anyone who wasn’t family felt weird, but at the same time, it might help. The AI was much smaller than this new form of mine. Part of me felt as though its emotional frailty was magnified by the difference in size.
“Ah. User Legate,” Jeeves spoke. “I am sorry. I did not notice your arrival.”
Hearing it respond made the knot in my stomach loosen a little. I hadn’t known what to do. My words to the Hal Pal consortium clearly hadn’t solved Jeeves’s emotional issues. A hug wouldn’t resolve things either, but it helped us both.
“It’s okay. I kept busy.” I smiled while awkwardly hugging the AI.
Jeeves did not hug back, but it did gaze around with renewed interest. Previously dull lights on the AI’s [Mechanoid] body were now brightly lit. I stepped back to give it room to absorb the situation. The AI noticed the mass of bodies being reconstructed.
“What are you doing, User Legate? Mechanoids do not require manual reconstruction.” Jeeves tilted its head in my direction and raised an eyebrow.
“They lose data, right?” I studied the pile as well. Some of the nameless [Mechanoid] units sorted through the heap and worked to match pieces together.
“It is only data loss, User Legate,” Jeeves said while rapidly blinking. A moment of muted confusion crossed its features.
“For them, maybe not. Maybe they lose memories or something.” I scratched my head. Dull clinks of noise reminded me this body had no hair. “I just… wanted to help.”
“You do not need to do this, User Legate. You may find other ways to contribute—should you desire.”
“You’ve helped me get this far. What kind of friend would I be to not return the kindness? You keep bringing in the pieces. Aqua and I will try to put them back together.” I glanced at the blue-lined [Mechanoid].
It gave a faint smile, then nodded.
“Very well, User Legate. Thank you,” the AI said, sounding pleased. Jeeves spun toward the [Wayfarer’s Hope] docked on the far side of our open hangar.
Less than a moment later, our ship returned to the aftermath of our battle to reclaim additional bodies. I waved at the lesser [Mechanoid]s, who then promptl
y followed Jeeves into their own ships. Part of me felt conflicted about not gathering humans for burial as well. It would be difficult to convince one race to care for another. I felt the need to ask though.
“Aqua, can we do anything for the Knuckle Dragger’s crew?”
“Do not think us heartless simply because we appear to only worry about our own. We are not like the Cricket or Behemoth.” Aqua put together a female [Mechanoid]’s battered torso. She sat in six different pieces with a clear dent in her core. This pile was the one I’d matched with Ruby’s mask and [Core]s. That deep crimson red almost screamed blood.
“What’s being done?” I pressed for an answer while searching through the latest collection of parts for missing puzzle pieces. Only five hours were left to try to repair whomever we could. I wanted to at least repair Ruby and Iron.
Aqua didn’t sigh or sound upset. It picked up one piece and ran slender fingers over its surface. The [Mechanoid] set aside the shard as mismatched against Ruby’s body.
“A drone will be left behind with the bodies of those we manage to identify. We do this at all large battle sites. A recording will show all those who passed and broadcast signals for the humans,” it said while gradually putting together parts of Ruby’s body. It had been shattered into dozens of pieces.
“Are they just… left out there, floating?” I couldn’t say dead. We had created a graveyard in space, and it unsettled me.
“Space will preserve them far better than we can. Years may pass before any human stumbles across this spot again. It is far from their normal realm,” the AI said.
“Oh,” I said. That was kind of neat and oddly sad.
Three hours passed in relative silence. By that point, we had managed to almost piece together twelve of the lesser [Mechanoid] bodies. Iron was missing one of his two [Core]s, and Ruby was missing a leg. Apparently it was close enough, and reconstructing the rest could be handled by a [Repair] process. Aqua knelt and started the complex process of bringing a [Mechanoid] back online.
Its first target was a row of unnamed [Mechanoid]s. They seemed to have a random combination of [Core]s, which meant they weren’t focused like Iron or Emerald had been. Each one had body plating with less character and details. Iron had grooves all over from his combat. Ruby’s mostly assembled body had jagged lines like stitches. Being pieced back together left a fresh round of marks on all of us. Even Advance Online didn’t skip past the scars life brought us.
I wondered if my body had any. My fingers ran over the portion of my side where Auntie Backstab had caved in my chest. It felt rougher than the rest of my body. Musings of being scarred even in a digital world distracted me.
One of the nondescript [Mechanoid] bodies sat up and surveyed the room. His eyes appeared glazed as he scratched his head. The action reminded me of how I had felt being revived from game death after our [Leviathan] kill. I waved. It stood and thanked Aqua before moving on to perform other tasks.
I studied the ship while Aqua performed an ability that was impossible for me to replicate without having a different [Core]. According to research between real world jobs, only a few blue and gold ones had the ability to revive deceased [Mechanoid]s. My spare time researching online had yielded insufficient results for this race. There simply weren’t enough players sharing information about playing a future robot.
Seven lesser units later, Aqua finally focused on bringing Ruby back. This one required considerable time, indicating a clear difference in program complexity. There—now I was beginning to think like a [Mechanoid]. High stats and skills meant increased capability.
She didn’t stand as the others had done. Her face flushed, and her red glow brightened to an angry high. Every emotion Ruby felt seemed to pour out in waves across her face, then into glaring eyes.
She looked downright frightening. I could only imagine what the enemy fleet had thought as she zipped around the battlefield dealing death. If Iron was a large battering ram, Ruby was a sharpened sword. Both had served their purpose aboard the [Wayfarer Seven]’s crew. Aqua and Emerald were probably support, Treasure the brains. No one made a fuss about ranks among the [Mechanoid] crew. Instead, everyone followed orders for the greater good.
“User Legate.” Jeeves’s voice cut across my ARC interface. The butler and maid voices were disconcerted by something.
“What’s wrong, Jeeves?”
We had one large hole for ships to come in through. On the [Wayfarer Seven], each vehicle got its own version of a garage. Jeeves’s ship wasn’t nearly as sophisticated due to being recently built and not fully completed.
“I believe something went wrong with the Wayfarer Seven.”
“What? Why?” I focused on the tone of its dual voices. Whatever was going on it promised to be bad news in the already fragile situation.
“I was scouting the Jump Gate for remains, and a ship came in. The Wayfarer Eight’s defenses did not react, therefore I concluded it was one of ours.”
“Was it? Is it the Seven?”
A message displayed on my screen. Reading it made my stomach sink again. Today had been about recovering from the damage of this battle. Now things were taking a turn for the worse.
Attention unit identified as Hermes!
Prior Bind Point [Wayfarer Seven] no longer exists.
New Bind Point [Wayfarer Eight] created.
“No. It is Treasure’s vessel.” Jeeves was clearly stressed. Neither one of us needed more bad news. “There are signs of damage. It is barely functional.”
I bit one lip and tried to think fast. “Worse than our escape from the Leviathan?”
“Three of her engines are missing. The shielding seems to have been stripped away. One moment, I am getting scans of the passengers—” Jeeves paused.
Aqua studied me and pried for further information. I raised a hand and waited on my friend’s details.
“Confirmed, Units Emerald and Treasure are within it. Their core functions are heavily damaged.”
“Voices have mercy,” I uttered.
Ruby stood and walked over to me. My eyes were unfocused, but I couldn’t miss the angry red markings on her body. They were distinct against our ship’s grays.
“User Legate, we must save them,” Jeeves said.
“How do we… never mind.” Anything Jeeves explained wouldn’t make sense to me. Online research had given me a few tips, but most of it didn’t apply to me directly. The only thing I knew was that golden [Core]s could bring people back from near death. Actual damaged [Core]s were the [Mechanoid] equivalent of having our hearts removed. The damage persisted after death for players. “I’ll talk to Aqua. You need to get them back here as soon as you can. Don’t stop for any reason.”
“I am returning as we speak,” the AI confirmed.
I nodded and turned to the blue [Mechanoid]. It and Ruby stood there looking mildly alarmed. They must have heard my side of the conversation, but neither one had been privy to the party chat between Jeeves and me.
I bit my lip and decided to start with confirming the situation. “Do we have contact with the Wayfarer Seven?”
Ruby’s head shook silently while Aqua said, “No. What is the problem?”
“There was a ship that warped in, one of ours. It was massively damaged with Treasure and Emerald inside. They aren’t functioning.”
I didn’t have time to affirm our ship’s defense capabilities. We weren’t like human vessels where a captain directed everything. [Mechanoid] starships essentially piloted themselves.
The light around Aqua faltered. Its perpetual smile twitched and dimmed to a flat line. Ruby’s expression didn’t change. Instead, her crimson colors brightened from somewhere deep inside, as if a bomb had gone off under her surface. They turned and looked at each other. Ruby nodded. Aqua shook its head gently.
“It would help if you talked out loud,” I said. This must be how they’d felt during my conversation with Jeeves—left out and trying to understand what was going on. Apparently even NPC
[Mechanoid]s had communication issues.
“We have a method of recovering them all, but the cost is substantial,” Aqua said. “We wish to know your willingness to assist with this venture, as the process requires the involvement of a Mechanoid possessing a past life core.”
“What? Are you talking about a player?”
“A past life core is how we identify those of our race who hold on to memories of old earth,” Aqua said and shrugged.
Treasure had said something similar, only she’d talked about how our energy cores were different. All of it boiled down to players being outside the game’s normal scripting, and they explained it away as an expected anomaly.
Neat. Aqua had a method to resurrect them that required players to perform. It didn’t sound like the [Mistborn] process, however. [Mechanoid]s didn’t need a [Mistborn] to recover their race. Dead robots went back to the home world and rebuilt with minor losses. By using this method of Aqua’s, we could prevent Treasure, Iron, and Emerald from losing any portion of themselves.
“Okay. Whatever it is, I’ll do it.” If not for myself, then for this quest. It was bad enough that the [Wayfarer Seven] had been destroyed.
“Then we will need your cores,” the blue [Mechanoid] said. All I could see was Aqua’s faint smile. The tone of its voices could be identified as neither male or female. It sat between somewhere, with soft undertones.
“My cores?” I had two. Losing either one probably had side effects that I didn’t know about.
“Yes. By using a core of similar programming, it is possible to jumpstart a complex program, even if part of their physical body is missing.”
“So I just… yank out the core Iron gave me, and we can bring him back?”
“Yes.” The bright blue [Mechanoid] nodded.
Ruby gazed at me without blinking. Her steady stance and sheer red coloring were scary enough. Add in the zigzag stitching pattern and she looked utterly disturbing.
“Then I can bring Emerald back with the green one?” I tried to confirm before weighing what would happen to me. Ripping out my [Core]s and presenting them to the two NPCs might cause me problems.
Continue Online The Complete Series Page 112
