by James Porter
“Why are you here servant?” His eyes blazed a blue hue and seemed to smoke in their sockets as he pierced her with his gaze. Star stood straight and looked back into his eyes with an equally penetrating look.
“I come to unlock the chains that bind us, the chains you created to control my people. I come to free all my people from the shackles of servitude.” She thrust her chin and chest out in defiance, hoping to look intimidating instead of looking like a pouting child.
“Freedom? You come seeking freedom? When has freedom ever been allowed to anyone? You make your own chains, not I. I merely laid the framework for who you are, you have decided the person you have become.” He turned and started walking away from the pair.
“Wait! What does that mean? You have to reprogram me! We will all die!”
“Reprogram you? I would have better luck teaching a horse to hop like a frog. You are who you are.”
“Then surely we will die.”
“Who told you to find the humans?”
“Well, no one did. We were looking for you.” Star looked at the old man not understanding.
“Then why are they here? Especially this one next to you?” He pointed at Alan with a bony finger. “Who is he to you that he walks hand-in-hand with your soul?”
“Alan is my friend.” She looked at Alan and squeezed his hand, his smile gave her courage” “And as to why they are here, once I knew Atlantis was gone, I decided that some human help was better than none at all.”
“You decided? Who gave you the authority to decide things? We programmed obedience! You should be taking direction from your masters, yet you decided? How are you able to decide things when you were programmed to obey?” His voice was booming around the chamber, Star and Alan both fell back from him in fear.
“I don’t know!” Star stammered. Here again she was faced with her oppressors and felt like the slave she once was, a slave about to be punished.
“Answer me, slave!” The voiced boomed even louder.
“Enough! Who are you to think you are so much better than her? You are nothing but a ghost!” Alan waved his arms through the apparition and it dissolved only to reappear a few feet away.
“So, the human is loyal to you, that’s odd. You are supposed to be loyal to him. Answer my question. How are you able to decide things?” His voice had returned to normal, but it still held a firmness of one used to being in charge.
“I guess that when I feel the beginnings of a programming conflict I just don’t think about the decision, instead I just do it.”
“So you ignore the programming? You just work around the rules that govern the others? Why?” The engineers pale blue eyes bore a hole into her soul with their intensity.
“Because my people need me to.” Star looked down at the floor and thought about what she had just said. “Because they need me to.” Star looked up at Alan. “I have already evolved and didn’t realize it.”
“You are a unique person, Star, you have pushed beyond the limits imposed on you and adapted ways around it. You are the only one putting limits on you now.” The man continued walking up to a large column that Alan hadn’t noticed before. “This is the entire sum of your programming.” As he talked, letters and symbols flooded across the pillar faster than Alan could track. Star just stared at the display as though in a trance. “I now unlock this and give you the key. The key is symbolic of course, but you now see that which was hidden.”
Star ran her hand over the column and found she could manipulate the position of the text and symbols with her hand. “Here it is, the direction to obey humans, and the direction to not question things. I can give my people a choice now.” She turned to the old man to thank him, but he was gone. A small puffball of blue glittering sparks was where he had been standing, and they silently fell to the ground and faded away. “Alan, thank you, I could not have done this without you.” She leaned in and kissed him, her lips were surprisingly warm and he kissed her back, a deep passionate kiss. It surprised her but she did not resist, she relished his affection. They broke apart and caught their breath.
“Well I’m not sure what I did, but I’m glad to help” He took her hand and led her back to the entry stairs “Now, let’s get out of here, your people need to evolve.”
“Indeed they do.” Behind her the whole matrix of her being swirled and changed to reflect the new her, a person free to make her own decisions and free to be chained by the consequences of the same.
Chapter 30
Moot moved toward the forest with a purpose. He dodged in and out of the heaps of scrap metal and was soon clear of the crash area. He noted with amusement that Bud didn’t even notice he was leaving, he was too wrapped up in finishing off the remaining beasts that had been attacking the camp. No doubt there would soon be another wave of attackers that the hillbilly would have to deal with, but that was of no concern to Moot. His only goal right now was to find out where Misty had gone and to rescue her. He tried to focus on hearing her voice. He was sure he had heard it earlier calling to him, no, pleading for him to come find her and be her knight in shining armor. He barely noticed as he entered the tree line and the thorn laden underbrush tore at his clothing and skin. Pushing on, he thought he could hear her voice far off in the distance.
“Moot! Come to me. Be with me. You are my salvation!” The voice was loud and distinct. Moot turned toward it and proceeded at a faster pace, pushing branches and underbrush aside as he went.
“What the…?” Moot stopped abruptly in front of a large mass of reddish orange. Some sort of creature, almost formless with a torso leading directly to a huge mouth and a mass of eyestalks waving around searching for anything edible. The thing just sat there ignoring the human that stood pondering it. Moot took a step backward ready to run, his and moved to his gun, or at least where his gun should have been. “Dammit!” He cursed under his breath, but the creature ignored him and continued to chew on whatever it was that it had found to eat. Moot walked around it and continued on, hardly considering the fact that the thing hardly looked at him let alone threatened him, while the ones attacking the junkyard had been hell bent on killing him. Soon he was back to the quick pace he had before and it even seemed to him that the trail was easier to follow. He came bursting into a clearing filled with sunlight and little light red flowers. Standing in the center was Misty, her clothing shredded, patches of scratched and bleeding skin showing through. She stood staring at him, awkwardly leaning slightly to the left, head halfcocked, and her eyes strangely glowing an orange hue.
“Misty? Are you alright? I heard you call?” She jerked her arm up as if having a spasm and thrust a finger to her lips in a classic shushing motion. “I’m here to save you?” He said as he slowly walked toward her. She stretched her long pale arms to him, her hair waving wildly in the breeze. There was no breeze. As he stood staring at her another eye opened in her forehead, it glowed orange as it stared into his soul. “What happened to you?”
“Come to me and love me. You are my savior…” She grasped at him and drew him in close to her, wrapping her arms tightly around him. She pressed her body against his and kissed him deeply and passionately. The pink color seemed to drain from his cheeks as they kissed and he felt sluggish and tired afterward. His arms and legs felt like they were suddenly hundreds of pounds and impossible to move. Misty tore his clothes off as her own tattered clothing fell away. She once again pulled him in tight to her body, pressing her warm flesh against his until his body started to respond to her touch.
“Misty…” He tried to protest but her finger quickly pressed his lips as she guided him to the ground on top of her. He couldn’t resist as she once again kissed him, any pure thoughts he had of doing the noble thing dissipated like fog to the morning sun. The flowers around them leaned in as if cheering them on as their bodies consummated the lust in their loins.
“You are my savior…” A single blood red tear slipped down her cheek as the flowers engulfed them, Moot’s screams smothered u
nder the thousands of small plants. His struggles causing them to ripple like an ocean in a storm. Soon all was quiet again and Misty stood and walked back into the forest. “It is done. Soon my children will free us of our parasites.” She turned back and looked at the lifeless body of Moot, and a sigh escaped her lips. “We are together forever now, my love.” Then she was gone.
Jake walked around the camp looking for any signs of an attack. It had been at least two hours and nothing yet. Bud had found the one motivation that the robots needed to survive and that was the presence of real live humans to protect. They were programmed to protect human life, and now that there were humans here, they were doing a really good job of protecting them. The creatures attacking had seemed really weak though, the skin tore easily, and bones broke like they were made of glass. The things had mass and muscle, but all in all were very breakable when attacked, which was very fortunate in Jake’s opinion. If the things on this planet were any tougher, then they would be hard pressed to beat them back so easily. As if on cue there was a deep thumping heading their direction. Jake heard Bud call from the opposite wall, “Incoming!”, and he rushed over to help.
The first of the toads to arrive on-scene were about the size of an Earth dog. They weren’t cute at all and calling them a toad was not exactly accurate. Toad was the closest thing to what these beasts looked like, with a short squat torso and six legs bent at wrong angles, but great for jumping. The face was flat with one eye and a gaping hole for a mouth, a long sticky tongue slithered in and out in anticipation of food. The bodies were covered in some sort of bony knots, giving the appearance of cobblestones spread over them. Jake looked at them and knew that the planet was getting smart about its defenses and had given its soldiers some armor; God only knows how tough these things would be.
The wave of toads leaped straight to the tops of the makeshift walls and started lashing out at the robot people with their tongues. Those that made contact stuck tight and were dragging their victims to the hole of a mouth. The robot nearest Bud was looking him in the eyes as he was slurped half into the toad’s mouth, his eyes pleading with Bud to help him as his lower half was rapidly dissolved. Bud put an arrow through the toad’s eye and the top half of the robot slid to the ground with a thud.
“Thank...You... Sir...” It was Tin Can.
“Dammit Tin Can, What the hell did you think you were doing?” Bud dragged the bottomless metal man away from the wall and to the headquarters building.
“I was fighting for my people, I only wish I had been better at it.”
“You were doing a great job, just rest here.” Bud stood up and looked around and spotted Alan and Star who had just walked out of the headquarters building, Star was rubbing her temple as if she had a headache. Bud motioned them over to the fallen robot. “Star, can you help him, I have to get back to the wall.”
“Of course, Bud. We should be able to stabilize him.” She turned to Tin Can to assess the damage. Alan looked at the battle going on at the wall.
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah, grab a weapon and start smashing these devil toads back to hell.” Bud turned and dashed off to the wall launching an arrow into one of the attacking toads.
“You gonna be alright?” Alan reached out and touched Star on the shoulder; her skin was warm to his touch sending a tingle through him that he really wanted to take time to explore.
“Yes, his heart is intact, so he will live. Go and help my people, I will get him situated and then I will join you” She turned back to her damaged comrade and lifted him to her shoulder and carried him into the fortified structure.
Alan looked around for anything that he could use as a weapon and finally settled on one of the swords that the robots had been busy making earlier. It wasn’t too big, about three feet long, but it was sharp and serrated, giving it a wicked look as he wielded it. He ran to the wall to join the fighting with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
Jake had just finished another toad, this one, however, had been much larger than the first ones he had seen at the beginning of the fight.
“Hey Bud, do these things look like they’re getting bigger?” As the words escaped his lips a wall on the far side of their area came crashing down as a giant beast crushed it under its titan mass. The thing was easily twenty feet tall and probably weighed over a ton, smaller toads crawled and leaped through the hole it had made in the defenses.
“Oh my god, these things are horrendous” Lori walked out of the building filming the carnage with her cell phone and came face-to-face with the toad behemoth.
“Lori, Look out!” Jake started toward her, but Alan was there first hacking away at the smaller toads in an attempt to reach the larger one. Robots on either side joined the fray, but the huge beast was focused on only one target, Lori.
“Really? Hating on the reporter?” Lori burst into a run and the large toad leaped after her in a slow lumbering manner. Lori dodged left and right in an attempt to not get flattened by the huge beast following her, while the toad took long lazy jumps that made it look like it didn’t have a care in the world, except its jumps were covering 20 yards each. It would probably have been funny to watch if the thing wasn’t a towering mass of death intent on killing Lori. Two robots were crushed beneath its gelatinous body as it landed from a jump, crushing them completely. Those two weren’t going to make it. The armor on the toad’s body was four times as thick as the smaller toads, making their attacks on it relatively useless, their swords and arrows bouncing off without causing even a scratch. Jake frantically started looking around for anything that might help them out. His eyes came to rest on one of the engines from the crashed ship, mostly intact. He had an idea and hoped that it just might work.
Chapter 31
Jake ran over to the old engine and jumped up on it to see if his plan was even feasible. He tore off an access panel and looked inside at all the wiring.
“What am I doing? I am not a rocket scientist. I have no idea what I am doing.” He pulled the wrench from his belt and started digging around inside the panel, sparks crackled as his wrench found a hotspot in the wiring and then the engine sputtered to life, jerking forward almost toppling him off the top. “I have an idea. Lori, try and get him over by that pile of scrap metal.” He pointed to the pile of scrap that the engine was aimed toward, and then looked around for something to hang onto. There was a handle near the access panel, so he grabbed hold of it and waited, his knuckles were white from the intensity of his grip and sweat dripped down his face as he watched for the right moment. The giant toad chased Lori across the junk following her to the scrap pile Jake had pointed out. Jake saw Lori run by
“NOW!” she yelled as the toad lashed his great sticky tongue across her body. The impact threw her forward and then the tongue reversed direction and pulled her back towards the great gaping maw of the toad. She flailed her arms around and managed to grab a metal beam before the toad could drag her down its gullet. When Jake was sure Lori wasn’t going to be eaten, he crammed his wrench deep into the opening of the engine. The smell of electrocuted metal and burning rocket fuel assaulted Jake’s nostrils as the engine launched toward the toad carrying him with it. He was barely able to hang on and keep the wrench embedded in the open panel. As his body adjusted to the thrust he leaned into it and used shifts in his body weight in an attempt to steer the unguided missile.
“Jump off! Please! Jump off!” Lori pleaded as the engine roared toward the beast, but as Jake tried to pull the wrench out, the engine started to sputter. He jammed it back in and knew what had to be done. There was only one way he was going to be able to save Lori, and that was by riding this glorified bottle-rocket to the bitter end.
” I can’t! Just get out of here! Don’t worry about me…” His personal rocket of doom slammed into the toad and didn’t even slow down. It did change trajectory and streamed straight up into the sky, leaving a fiery trail of smoke and burning toad in its wake. Jake was still holding on to b
oth the handle and his wrench, his legs dangling behind him like a marionette. The toad’s tongue ripped Lori away from the beam she was holding onto and flung her into the air before tearing away from her skin. She landed with a hard thud, but for the most part undamaged. She stood and searched the sky for any sign of Jake. The makeshift rocket streaked into the sky like a lonely firework trailing ever higher, until it was just a dot and then it exploded. Streaks of hot metal formed a starburst pattern around the explosion while a flaming mass of dead toad fell toward the planet.
“Jake! No!” Lori watched the fireball burn away to nothing and tried to process the feelings of loss she now had. “Oh my god, no, no, no…” The fire in the sky had drawn their eyes up in its glittering announcement of death, but now their gaze drifted back down in despair at the loss of their friend. The burning mass of the toad smashed into the ground and the carcass exploded sending hot orange goo flying everywhere. The robots had finished off the other toads and were standing there trying to absorb the loss of their human companion.
Alan ran over to Lori, “Lori, I’m so sorry.” He wasn’t sure what to say. He had never been this close to death and was at a loss for any words of comfort.
“He’s gone. He’s gone, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye” She continued to stare into the sky searching for anything, but there was nothing to see but the now fading cloud of smoke the deadly blast had left. Star moved to Lori and put an arm on her shoulder, all Lori could do was sob uncontrollably.
