Wanted

by Terry Compton

Josh's knees felt weak when the images returned. He started to panic when Cherry didn't appear in them. Then the android stepped into view. Josh shouted, "What just happened? Are you alright?"

  "I'm fine. I lost all contact with you when that big sucker hit the shield. It must have been sucking energy like crazy because I thought the power unit was going to blow. I cut the cable."

  "If you cut the cable, how did the shields get bigger and stronger?"

  "I don't know. Hold on a minute. I want to check something."

  The sensor followed Cherry as he went to a different wall. He said, "Oh, no. I hope there aren't any self-destruct mechanisms still working on here. This ship now has a full load of power."

  Josh yelled, "What! How can – I know – from the Nagini. Remember? Naca is full now, too. Your shield must be set to automatically collect energy. When you cut the cable, it let all the energy from that big snake go straight to your ship's power source."

  "That must be why the beast made so much noise. It knocked me out for a few seconds."

  "It knocked me off my feet. I can only imagine what it must have been like being in the mouth of that thing. What are you going to do now? Can you get back to Naca?"

  "I can get back. All I have to do is shut down some of the shield. I'll check to see if I can do the same as we do on Naca and only allow certain things to pass through. Right now, I've got to get into that computer to see if there is a self-destruct."

  As Cherry walked to another wall to find a computer access, Josh checked the remote detector to see what the bigger Nagini were doing. Five energy sources lay on the same asteroid. Working the sensor at the entrance to the city, he saw blackness. He flew it in until he saw the dead monster. Smaller Nagini were still picking pieces off of the carcass. Turning around, he flew back out and then set it to monitor the entrance.

  Cherry called, "Josh, I got into the computer. I didn't find a self-destruct. Bad news though. The AI portion of the computer is missing. Without it, I can't access a lot of the data base."

  "Can we use Naca's AI and computer to plot course and fly?"

  "I don't know without some more checking. It's a thought though. I did find six shield generators if they're still where the inventory says they are. I'm going to check now. There's nothing more I can do in here for now."

  The sensor followed the android as he made his way to the rear of the spaceship. The bright lights in the ship made it much easier to see details they had missed before. Cherry didn't waste time looking around though. He quickly marched to the storage area.

  When he opened the door, he saw the six generators and a grav-sled. Loading two of the generators on it, he pushed them to the rear airlock. Cycling the door, he made his way to Naca. A few minutes later, he walked into the cockpit.

  Lemmy sat up as he walked in. Cherry strode directly to her and picked her up. She dangled two feet off the deck. Letting out a squeak, she tried to sink down in the spacesuit. Cherry's grip didn't let that happen.

  He said, "Little fur ball, you messed with the wrong person when you screwed up my translator. I think I'll cut off one arm of this suit. If your arm happens to be there, too bad. It won't matter much when I throw you out of the shield toward that city entrance."

  Lemmy let out a pitiful wail. Josh started to move, but Cherry said, "Shut up. The only reason I don't is because you have some idea what's in that repair depot. You said you could straighten my arm with the equipment in there, so let's go."

  The wail became more loud and pathetic. Cherry shook the suit and the wail stopped. Lemmy's eyes didn't shrink any in size though. When the android turned with Lemmy still in his clutches, Josh asked, "What are you going to do now?"

  "We're going to fix my arm."

  "Wait and I'll get my spacesuit on. I can come with you."

  Cherry glared at him, "No. I still have my blaster. The little vermin is going to fix my arm or I'll blow her arm off. You need to stay here to monitor things. If she gets my arm fixed, we'll round up some of the equipment needed to repair that ship."

  "Take a grav-cycle. It can tow that sled and it'll be much faster."

  "Good idea. Let's go, little one."

  Running his right arm through one of the electrical wires holding the suit up, Cherry strode down the passageway. Several times, the spacesuit slapped the walls. In the rear of Naca, Cherry wrestled the grav-cycle out the airlock. After hooking it to the grav-sled, he set a shield generator to cover everything.

  He set Lemmy down on the sled and set the second generator to make a shield over her. Fiddling with the controls, he made sure she couldn't get out. Going back in the ship, he slid the last power unit outside along with three lights. Once they sat on the sled, he secured everything. Cherry said, "Better hang on and set your comm to my frequency. I want to get in there and get my arm fixed."

  Lemmy just huddled on the sled. Cherry eased out of the spaceships' shields then blasted for the repair depot. He asked, "Where are the tools to fix my arm?"

  "About midway to the back on the right side. There's a machine shop."

  "Anything up higher?"

  "I don't know. I never had light to see." Her tremulous voice screamed tears and terror, but Cherry ignored it.

  Flying the cycle higher, he picked up speed. He tried to keep an eye to the sides to see if they would have company. The shield generators were set to collect any energy, so he didn't think they would have too much trouble with the Nagini. When the radar showed they had reached halfway, he slowed and dropped down. Moving closer to the wall, he looked for a machine shop.

  The opening to the shop appeared in the lights of the cycle. Cherry moved as close to the door as possible. Climbing off, he grabbed a portable light from the cycle. Inside the shop, he saw dozens of machines. To the right, he saw the machine Lemmy had described.

  Going back to the cycle, he expanded the shield to completely block the door. Then he took the power unit close to the machine. After he had lights on, he went back to get Lemmy. When he picked up the little Ezrawe, she whimpered, "I don't want to go in there. The Nagini —"

  "Are locked out. See that shield? They can't get past that. Now, get to work on that machine. I want my arm fixed."

  Lemmy dropped from his grasp to the floor. She looked at the shop press, then at the door. Slowly, she backed around the machine so she could keep an eye on the door. After a few minutes of testing the machine and getting the tools she needed, she relaxed a little.

  She said, "OK, I think it's as ready as it ever will be. If you feel anything in that arm, this is going to hurt."

  "I've shut off the pain receptors. What do I do?"

  "Put your arm between the uprights. Now twist a smidge. OK, can you hold that?"

  "Yes."

  Lemmy started pumping. The rod connected to the hydraulic ram on the top came down to the piece of angle iron she'd found. The metal sat on top of Cherry's arm. The pressure from the ram pushed down. The first inch moved easily, then movement stopped. Lemmy pumped but the handle became harder and harder to move.

  She said, "I can't move it any more. I'm hanging off the handle and it won't move."

  "Get something for leverage."

  "I don't think it will do any good. What's your arm made of anyway? This press isn't big enough."

  "Well, let me out. Is there another one?"

  Lemmy looked around, then pointed. "There's one, but it needs power. It's much bigger and will put out much more pressure."

  "We can jury-rig something from the power unit. You get started on that. I'll find something to test on before I stick my arm in there."

  While Lemmy hooked up the machine and ran it a few times, Cherry found some bent pipes. Carrying them back to the press, he handed one to Lemmy. She put it in and moved a lever. The ram lowered and pressed down on the pipe. Inching the lever down, the pipe soon straightened out.

  Cherry handed
her another one and she put it in. This pipe had bends in two directions. Lemmy turned and twisted it until she decided it would have to do. The ram crept down again. As she put a little more pressure on, a bang came from the machine. The pipe flew out of the press and hit another machine across the room. It ricocheted around the room for several seconds.

  Cherry said, "That doesn't look good. What happened?"

  "It had too many bends. I couldn't keep all the pressure going in one direction."

  "My arm's bent about the same. I don't want it trying to fly across the room."

  "I'll have to make something to keep it straight. Go get that pipe."

  Lemmy and Cherry tried several different pipes for the next thirty minutes before they were ready to try his arm again. When he stuck his arm in the contraption they had made, his skin paled. Lemmy noticed, "Are you alright? Your skin looks lighter and those stars underneath are a different color."

  "I'm fine. I just don't like this. I want you to know I can shoot equally well with my left hand. You mess this up and I'm going to blow your right leg off."

  "Why are you so angry?"

  "I'm not. Androids don't have feelings."

  "You could have fooled me."

  Cherry's lips compressed into a thin line, "Let's get this over with. We have other work to do."

  The tiny stars under his skin blinked rapidly and turned a sickly green. His skin faded to a pale blue as Lemmy inched the lever down. The press ram dropped and moved the curve in his arm, straightening it little by little. Lemmy's fingers quivered with nervousness as she moved the lever.

  At last, the arm appeared to be straight. Cherry tensed as Lemmy kept the lever moving. He grunted, "What are you doing? It's straight."

  "I know but it'll spring back. I need to go just a little more. There. Now to release the pressure."

  Cherry saw the ram move back to the top. He wiggled his hand for the first time in days. Lemmy said, "Take it out and let's take a look."

  When he pulled it out, they both could see the slight bend. Cherry rotated his arm in different directions as he moved his hand around. At one point, the hand stuck until he nudged it with his left hand.

  Picking up one of their test pipes, he gave it a squeeze with the right hand. The end of the pipe buckled. Lemmy said, "I didn't do that. I have no control over your settings."

  "Relax, fur bag. I just want to see if I'd lost any power in that hand. It's down eight percent but acceptable."

  "Is that all you want to do? I can straighten it a little more."

  "No, let's stop now. It's usable and I don't care about pretty. Ugh, I just switched on the feeling. It aches now."

  "Is that bad?"

  "It's just a sign that it needs more adjustment, but I'll wait until I can get to an android repair depot."

  Lemmy let out her pent up breath. Cherry said, "Let's get the tools you need and get back to the ship. I want to start repairing as soon as possible."

  They wandered around in the shop with Lemmy choosing and Cherry doing the heavy lifting. Soon they had the grav-sled loaded and secured. Lemmy looked at it, "There's no place for me."

  "You get to be a cycle mama. Climb on behind me and hold on."

  Cherry didn't do anything crazy with all the equipment on the sled, but Lemmy still held onto him for dear life.

  By the time they had the sled unloaded, Cherry declared, "That's enough for the day. We'll start fresh tomorrow."

  He led the way into Naca. Finding Josh asleep in the cockpit, he checked the healer unit. His face drew into a scowl. Lemmy stood to the side watching. She whispered, "What is it?"

  "He's losing calcium from his bones. He needs gravity."

  "I'll get the other ship going so we can have it. I like him."

  "Meaning you don't like me?"

  Lemmy remained silent. Cherry quietly led the way to the galley. They fixed some food and ate in silence. When they finished, Lemmy cleaned up. She said, "I'm tired."

  She walked out of the galley and went to the room Josh had given her as quarters. Cherry sat there thinking for a few more minutes then went to check on Josh again. As he walked in, Josh's eyes opened. He said, "I must have dozed off. I started thinking again and developed one of my headaches. It was a doozy."

  "Josh, you've got to give your body time to heal."

  "Yeah, but we need to get off this rock. When we get to flying in space, I can rest. I did come to one conclusion."

  "Oh, what's that?"

  Josh sat up, "We need to find out where we're at. Then we need to get back to our solar system."

  "What good will that do us if we're five hundred years in the past?"

  "Well, that's where the headache came in. I haven't really decided that yet, but there must be some way back if we got here in the first place."

  "Maybe. It may be beyond our technology. I don't really want to go through another nuclear blast to try. What if it shoves us five hundred or five thousand more years in the past?"

  Josh laughed, "Shove us far enough back and we might meet these Alcantarans. They'd be able to help us get to our own time."

  "Josh, we have to be extremely careful. Being five hundred years in the past could cause catastrophic changes."

  "You mean like me never being born or the man who invented your brand of androids not being born?"

  "Yes, exactly. Anything we do here could disrupt the future – our present time."

  "Well, if I come across a pirate that needs killing, I'll still do it. Those vermin don't deserve to live in any time."

  "That may be, but you need to think before you act. What if one of them changes or fathers one of the leaders of a planet?"

  Josh groaned and held his head in his hands, "Now you're making my head hurt again. Let's just take it a day at a time. How's the arm?"

  "Still a little crooked but I can use my hand now. It catches once in awhile."

  "At least that will make the work go faster. How'd Lemmy do?"

  Cherry pointed at his arm, "She did this. We had to try two different machines and she knew how to work both of them."

  Josh frowned, "What do we do with her when we leave here? We can't take her to the future, but I don't want to leave her here by herself again."

  "Let's get that old bird flying before we worry about that. As many things as are missing, we may need her for some time after we get to flying. We may need to get to the real world to buy parts."

  "Speaking of which. You need to let me know what you need right away. I can use the sensor to check out the repair depot. If I spot something, I can take the cycle and sled to pick them up. That way, I'll feel like I'm helping some."

  "I can tell you something right now. We need those computer parts and some of the flight controls for the cockpit. I'll call in a list to Naca as we find them. I don't know how many parts you'll find in there but anything will help."

  "I thought of something. When I checked things out in there, I stayed close to the floor. I remember the roof was over a mile high. With that much room, do you think the people who ran this stacked the spaceships in there? Could there be more storerooms up high?"

  "Good questions for you to answer tomorrow. Are you hungry?"

  "Yeah, a little."

  "I'll go get you something. You need to rest your legs and pelvis. Heal as much as you can because in a few days we're going to get gravity in that old ship and move in there."

  "Ugggh, that sounds painful. Go get me something to eat and I'll deal with that when it comes."

  Chapter 12