Vashon

by Erik Schubach

  Glitch joined us with a set of coveralls, a shirt, and a piece of trollite. I asked as I handed the clothing to my girlfriend and stuffed the cobbled power core into the shoulder pack, “What's the trollite for Glitchy?” He looked at the burned out crystal with his ocular port as sparks drizzled out of the connection between his mobility platform and his orb-shaped body.

  Then the aperture in his eye widened as he slapped his forehead with his grappler, then took the crystal back from me and shot back up the stairs with a long squee. The poor Glitchy guy, I wonder what he thought he had brought me.

  By the time Vashon was dressed, we found out he had meant to bring my mother's work boots. I smiled at the old leather. I would have worn them, but mom had bigger feet than me... so did my girl.

  Vash patted his grappler as she accepted them and slid them on. “Thanks, buddy.” Then she stood tall. Looking like some sexy super soldier from the ancient databases.

  She stepped up to me. Her eye uncertain and pleading again, as her straight ebony hair slipped down her back, shining in the artificial lights of the shop. I looked at her in wonder. “You're so beautiful, Vash.” Then added as I felt a blush burning my cheeks, “I love you.”

  Another tear slipped down the warrior's cheek as she whispered, “I love you too, Vega.” She leaned tentatively down, and I raised my chin to meet her. She gave me a long, whisper gentle kiss that conveyed so much to me.

  Fuck! I didn't want to cry.

  Then she was all business as she took a half step back to look me over. “Now, let's look at your own injuries, Fixit.”

  I shook my head and grabbed her arm and gleeped when she didn't budge when I tried to drag her to the stairs. She was so strong, even after taking so much damage. I may have smiled a little as I felt her bicep muscle when I reprimanded, “No, first thing is getting you to bed, getting fluids in you to replace the blood loss – then my pingers will see to me.”

  She chuckled, “Are you copping a feel of my muscles?” Then inclined her head and asked as I blushed at being caught, “Is that an order?”

  I nodded. “Yes, it is.”

  She saluted me, giving me a hungry look that set certain parts of me humming and warming up. “Yes, ma'am.” Then she let me lead her up to my cot. I lived in my office more than the storage containers on the other side of the compound that had been converted into living quarters for us dirters maintaining the grid.

  She let me tuck her in, and I just sat in my office chair watching her go to sleep almost immediately as my pingers healed my cuts and looked at my various bumps and bruises while I worried about what was going to happen when Doctor Germaine learned about what happened down here.

  But whatever happened, I'd be by Vash's side throughout it.

  I must have been more exhausted than I thought since I don't even remember when I dozed off as I listened to the storm that raged around us and felt the tremors of the planet as the tectonic plates shifted.

  Chapter 6 – Betweeners

  The next few weeks were interesting indeed. The storms and quakes continued to increase in intensity, even with the photonic shield, much of the storms still got through. We had a scare at one point when one of my makeshift capacitance relays failed on Vashon's power relay pack.

  We were damn glad that I had thought to build redundant systems. And she was burning power like it was going out of style. She had depleted a full lattice matrix in a power supply crystal to trollite, and I had to replace it with the last full one we had.

  I knew we'd be switching out the partially burned crystals I had in reserve for the shop. But by my calculations, even if the storms didn't let up enough for communications and for a medical evac tumbril to get to us, we'd be ok. This perihelion was one for the record books.

  I was amazed that her original power source for her implants had been organic in nature mostly. So basically, her just being alive had powered most of her systems, and an ingenious array of sub-dermal collectors harvested energy from the radiation in our environment, and from our sun, and the plethora of radio waves in a modern intergalactic society. Unfortunately, those systems were all down, it was only her backups that kept her functional while I had done my initial repairs that weren't anything close to efficient.

  One interesting thing I learned spending so many days and nights with her, was that portions of Vashon's prefrontal cortex had been damaged before she was sent to Doctor Germaine, the portion that governs impulse control.

  She has a habit of following through on many urges she gets. Like kissing a complete stranger in the excitement of battle. And I'm sooo glad she was affected that way otherwise I wouldn't be with her today. Anytime she gets the impulse to kiss me, my lips are right here ready for the sacrifice, repeatedly if I must. I mean, have you seen her? Damn.

  I had to make a run out to the Boneyard with Glitch to source a new relay to repair the redundant system on her power pack. Our fields were still taking a pounding, but they were in better shape than I had thought when Turk escorted us... just in case. He was just as overprotective as the rest of my pingers.

  I was also able to salvage a memory module for Flower's grappler controller while we were in the boneyard. It wouldn't be ideal, not being an original part of her that contained a small portion of her self-awareness, but it would give her arm mobility until we could retrieve hers from Vash once the New Terra fixed her.

  Once my girls were patched up, we returned to the routine we slipped into the past few weeks. Us hand cranking the communications system and sending out our request for evac every six hours. We doubted we were getting through, and never received anything.

  We had to lock the office door after my Sky Guard ranger had regained her strength, after Flower accidentally caught us, ummm... well... what would you do with a sexy, intelligent woman while you were basically trapped in a Quonset hut for two months?

  It was when Blip was escorting me to the living quarters across the compound for me to pick up some clean blankets and some extra food supplies, that we got our biggest scare. It was only a week and a half until the pass was over and there was a lull in the continuous storms, but still too much ionization in the atmosphere for communications.

  As we came out of my quarters in an old storage container, Blip pushed me back into the door, I tripped over the cart of supplies he was pulling, and he backed in and peeked out the door. I got to my feet. “Just what was that all...”

  He made a low hissing sound then an almost inaudible squee. I moved to the door and peeked out the crack down the row of converted storage containers meant for the other dirters who used to maintain the Agri-Grid with me until New terra saw fit to bring them all topside to leave me alone to maintain it all with the help of my pingers. I don't even remember how many years it has been now.

  I whispered, “What is it?”

  He pointed with his grappler, and my blood ran cold when I saw a bright red painted, space rated tumbril land at the last container and three men come running out to bust open the door.

  Betweeners! The pirates were taking advantage of the lull in the storm to raid the Agri-Grids that they thought were unmanned during the Perihelion Pass. Blippy was shaking in fear, his connectors rattling. He backed into the cart and fell over with an audible, “Blip!”

  I helped him back upright, “It's gonna be ok buddy. Just let me think.”

  He nodded, squeed quietly, and then froze for a moment, indicating to me that he was using the new communications system my pingers had been developing between each other. Oh, if they could get Turk over here, he would scare them off. He's a monstrously huge guy.

  We watched as they worked their way down the row, taking everything and running it into their tumbril. I pushed Blip behind me when they got to my door. I reconfigured my multi-tool to the biggest spanner it could form, and I got ready to protect Blip.

  The door was kicked in, and a woman in loose-fitting armor looked surprised to see us as a bigger man stepped beside her. “Well lookie what we h
ave here Clint. The dirters were all supposed to be topside. Blip was almost shaking himself apart as the woman raised a blaster and said, “Sorry darlin', ain't nothing personal, but we can't have any witnesses.”

  I steeled myself for the shot, but a whir-thack sounded out, and the man's head burst into a spray of red mist. The woman was shocked, and I took my opening, flinging the spanner at her with both hands. It whupped through the air and struck her in the head at the same time I heard two whir-thacks, and her chest almost exploded as she fell, dead.

  I heard a familiar voice shouting over the sound of the wind and rain outside, “Sky Guard! Stop where you are, surrender now and you will... shit!”

  I heard a blaster on full auto, and the tumbril powering up. Then rapid fire whir-thacks. A man screamed, and then I heard the thunking of metal and the cracking of plasti-glass. The tumbril's engines coughed, and I heard the crunching of a collision.

  I ran past the bodies at my door, into the storm, to see my girl standing like some sort of Valkyrie from legends, lit up by a flash of lightning in the sky. She was holding the big auto riveter I used to mate sheets of titanium and carbon fiber. She had used it like a gun.

  A man was writhing on the ground, missing a leg.

  I glanced over then looked away from the tumbril when I saw she had shot the engines, and through the plasti-glass windscreen through the head of the pilot. She looked at me almost frantically, “You ok, Fixie? Glitch said there were Betweeners.”

  I nodded. “I'm fine. Are you ok?”

  She smiled, and I think winked... it was hard to tell with her having only one eye and all. She moved over to the man on the ground that Glitch was rolling up to, holding a pipe.

  With practiced ease, she first lashed his hands with rope, then used more rope to tie a tourniquet on the stump of his leg. She said to him as she wiped her long black hair out of her face, “We need to cauterize the wound, or you're going to bleed out before we can bring you in. Understand?”

  The hate and fear on his face gave way to acceptance, and he nodded once. She pinned him to the muddy ground and said, “Glitch?”

  He gave a reluctant squee, the fired up the torch on his grappler, he squeed in concern at the man who snapped, “Just do it you stupid machine.”

  I had to close my eyes and cover my ears to block out the agonized screams. Then it was silent, except for the sounds of the storm when he passed out.

  A moment later Vash was holding me. I just grabbed onto her and held her desperately for a moment. She pulled me to arm's length, looking me up and down, making sure I was unharmed. Then she looked at the tumbril. “Well, that's toast, not going anywhere soon. Neither are they.”

  I didn't want to look as she started dragging the bodies to another container, saying, “Glitch watch that man while I get the bodies moved. Vega, get back in the shop. You don't need to be seeing this.”

  I had nodded and numbly went back to the repair bay. My mechanized family fussed over me while Blip and Glitch helped Vash. I hadn't been that scared since the day Betweeners boarded the Albatross the day I met my ranger.

  The man was locked into another container, with anything that could be used as a weapon removed from the quarters. He'd have shelter and food and water until the Sky Guard could retrieve him in a few days. Turk insisted on sitting out in the rain to guard him, the silly pinger was just as overprotective of me as the rest of my pinger family.

  When Vash joined me in bed that night, she said, “Well this day didn't exactly go as we would have wanted.”

  I just shook my head, then she just held me all night without a word until I fell asleep in her arms.

  The next morning, I was at my workbench again while Vash worked out. She was trying to stay in shape during her convalescence. She came over in one of my shirts that was too too tight for her and exposing her midriff as she blotted sweat from her skin after a ten mile run in circles around the cavernous repair bay.

  She kissed the top of my head as I tried not to get aroused at my girl, glistening with sweat, her long black hair hanging down in front of me like a curtain, tickling my cheek. “Any luck, Vega?”

  I nodded absently as I inhaled her scent deeply. Fine, I may have been addicted to my girlfriend. “I've developed a distributed cluster framework that should be able to cross connect engrams from various lobes in your pretty little head.”

  Then I exhaled in exasperation, “But, I'm not into this biological wetware. I don't know how to identify which emotional engrams go with which memory engram. That's where the experts like Doctor Germain need to get involved... if it is possible at all.”

  I deflated and admitted, “It is so much easier waking up my pingers. They start with a blank slate, so the system just evolves on its own, making its own connections.”

  She smiled so warmly at me as she moved beside me to look at the delicate work I was doing. I was normally a brute force kind of engineer and this molecular level stuff was exhausting for me. “You really know how to make a girl feel sexy, Fixie. Biological wetware?”

  I was feeling sassy, so I grinned up at her. “I can think of some pleasant biological wetware experimentation we can...”

  Glitch rolled his ocular port and made an oscillating sighing sound, he was so done with our sexual innuendo every chance we got. We chuckled as Flower rolled past, bumping him and chastising. I swear her whistling squee sounded like, “I think it's sweet.”

  I mouthed, “Love you!” to Flower, who somehow looked smug as she rolled toward the outer doors to go check on her flower bed that she and the boys had painstakingly protected through the PP.

  That's when the com started ringing. It took us both a moment to register what the sound was, then I was running to the office, the others trailing behind. I pushed the junk that had gathered in front of the screen onto the floor in a clatter, and I just stared at the old-fashioned handset.

  Vash's lower power transmitter couldn't get through the ionization in the atmosphere, just like my iso-pads. But this old-school communicator was physically tied into the dish array that the Agri-Grids and the mining and atmospheric processing plant shared.

  The old bell rang again, and I reached for the handset at Vashon's encouragement, and she stood at my shoulder.

  I asked, “Hello?”

  A hissing and crackling of static assaulted me, and I pulled the earpiece away from my ear. I could hear a faint voice. The flanterskelling ionization was almost too much for the high gain dishes dirtside. During the full force of the storms, there was no way even they could get through.

  The voice repeated. “Agri - - A1, this - - New Terra Actual. Answer - - stupid dirter. Again, this - - New - - Actual. I have - - Peregrine on the - - for Captain Vashon Peregradopolis. - - respond - - - dirter.”

  I rolled my eyes, knowing Vash could hear clearly what the man was saying. I told her, “I know this crystal licking bootwaffle. He's a bigoted, self-serving ass.”

  She smirked and nodded. “That's Commander Hannity, he's always got his nose buried so far up... my mother's ass.”

  I said again into the mouthpiece, “Hello, this is Agri-grid A1.”

  This time a woman's voice came through the static and I swallowed, everyone knew the dulcet confident tone of Lady Peregrine's voice. “Agri-grid - - please respond if - - receiving this.”

  Was there a hint of worry in her tone?

  I looked at the earpiece then the remembered. Oh yeah. I grabbed a brass lever on the panel and pulled. I could hear the dynamo inside start to spin up as I pulled the dust cover off the monitor. We could see the ghosting image in static of a woman leaning over an Old Earth weasel... I mean Commander Hannity. I grinned that I had a name for the crystal licker now.

  I tried again. “This is Agri-grid A1. We are receiving you. This is Vega Hasher.”

  The signal seemed a bit stronger as Vashon moved over to keep cranking the dynamo up to give it a little more kick. Lady Peregrine replied almost instantly as her shadow moved closer on the s
tatic-filled screen, “Fixit? Oh, thank god. We've - - so worried up - - since Vashon called in that - - tumbril had gone down. And that she - - staying dirtside for Perihelion.”

  My heart clenched in my chest as the worry the leader of the Tau Ceti Prime system had in her voice. She added, “Is - - ok?”

  I held the earpiece toward Vash in offer bit she shook her head almost desperately. Was that shame on her face? She was ashamed she was injured? Then I got it, she didn't want anyone seeing her like this. Where the connection may be nothing but static trollite down here, it may be clear up there. That's why she was staying out of the camera's view.

  I sighed at her then put the earpiece back to my ear and said, “Vashon suffered an accident at the beginning of the Perihelion Pass. She sustained massive injuries but is stable now.”

  Lady Peregrine was all business suddenly. “Ok, Vega, - - tight. The storms in your - - are dying down and we can get - - emergency medical evac down there ASAP!”

  I blurted out as Vashon's eye went wide. “No!”

  Then quickly followed up in a calmer tone, “Lady Peregrine, I believe it would be wise if only Doctor Anna Germaine's team perform the evac.” I stressed the doctor's name.

  A silent pause followed as that sunk in for Vashon's mother. Then she responded carefully, “Understood. Doctor - - and her team will be there ASAP.”

  I exhaled in relief then added, “We had a bit of Betweener trouble yesterday. We'll also need the Sky Guard to come collect a prisoner who will need medical assistance and the bodies of three others brought to reclamation.”

  After another hesitation, she asked, “Are you and your... friends alright?” I smiled at that. She and Germaine's team were the only ones besides Vash and me who knew my pingers were alive – self-aware. I knew part of her asking was a genuine concern, but I also knew that she tried hard to be nice to me to gain her daughter's favor. And it worked to an extent. The two were talking now at least.