A Hero for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

  “You are here for a progress report?” the automedic asked.

  Eva stood tall and nodded. “Yea—yes. For Cadmus. Father Pryde.”

  “Very good. What we have determined is that the physiology of this alien species is quite similar to fellow terrestrial organisms, despite the rearrangement of the internals,” the automedic reported. “We feel that cerebral manipulation will be attainable, though we are not certain that any Tech we devise in the short term will have an all-encompassing effect on the spectrum of beings present at the touchdown site.”

  Eva glanced at the Cærulean. Now that she saw his face, it was clear that the unconscious patient was not Rovender but another Cærulean. She let out a small sigh of relief. “And him?” She pointed to Hailey.

  “As Father Pryde has consented by consultation with his Prime Adviser, similar tests on this corrupted subject will be performed this evening, as scheduled, in his personal medlab. Please tell Father Pryde we are preparing the patient now,” said the automedic. It removed the cap from Hailey’s head and grabbed a laser hair trimmer.

  Mind control? On aliens and humans? A chill shivered down Eva’s spine. Hailey deserved to have wires shoved into his brain after dropping Eva off without telling her the truth. But no one should be made to suffer in Cadmus’s cruel experiments. If only Rovee were here to help me devise a plan. “So this subject is set to be operated on?” she asked aloud.

  “Yes. All corrupted specimens in the ward must be studied and analyzed for treatment. However, Father Pryde was specific about this one’s immediate attention,” replied the automedic as it shaved off Hailey’s brown and blue hair.

  “He is a corrupted specimen?” Eva asked.

  “Yes. As you know, all corrupted specimens of Homo sapiens neo are individuals with a predisposition to free thought due to unmanaged neurochemicals in the brain. Such individuals can be prone to dissension or hostile acts toward authority and need to be treated before they are naturalized into the general populace.”

  “Are there any more specimens like this one?” Eva gestured to the Cærulean.

  “There is one more, brought in yesterday morning by the outsider that we are currently prepping.”

  Rovee!

  The automedic brought up a hologram of Hailey’s brain and superimposed it over Hailey’s shorn head. The robot then made tiny ink markings all around his skull.

  Eva tried to appear nonchalant. “And any other humans?”

  The automedic swabbed Hailey’s head with iodine. “Yes. There are two more that were brought in from the night patrol. They are also genetic corruptions, like this one, but they have been contained. Please report to Father Pryde that our purebred stock in the city will remain intact.”

  Eva went numb down to her fingertips. Eva Eight was right. She swallowed hard and tried to control the shaking that was fast overtaking her. It was like being in the taxidermist’s lab all over again. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused her thoughts.

  Rovee is in the detainment ward. That is where I have to go.

  “Well, I am also here to inform you,” she said in a firm tone, “that Cadmus wants these two here swapped out for the . . . uh . . . two girls.”

  The automedic stopped its surgical preparations. “The two corrupted females?”

  “Yes,” Eva replied. “Down in the detention ward.” Keep calm.

  A warning ping sounded in the room. Holograms of both Eva and her sister were projected onto the far wall. Eva tried not to pay any attention to the images.

  Keep calm. Keep calm.

  The automedic looked up at the holograms, setting down the iodine swab. “We never said that the other two subjects were females. Who exactly did you say you were again?” The robot crawled closer to Eva.

  “V-Van Turner,” Eva said, stepping back. “Cadmus’s new aide.” She nudged closer to the door. The Cærulean patient in the chair began to stir.

  “We are receiving word that we have no record of a new aide by that name in our database.” A fine red beam issued forth from the robot’s face and scanned Eva. “And there is no trace of an identifier, malfunctioning or otherwise, within you. Please provide proper identification immediately.”

  Eva could see the blinking light on the robot’s torso. It was communicating with others.

  “I told you.” Eva was now backed to the door. Behind her back she fumbled for the controls. “I’m Van Turner. I told you the code.”

  “You told us a basic authorization code that few have. However, your behavior is nontypical for a medlab assistant.” The automedic was now almost upon her. “You are one of the fugitives. You are Eva Nine.”

  The automedic lurched forward to snatch Eva, and it would have succeeded, but the Cærulean still bound to the exam chair grabbed on to one of the robot’s many legs. This bought Eva a few precious seconds to dash out of the room. She scrambled across the atrium and into the room with the disassembled boomrod, closing the door behind her.

  Okay. How does this work? With trembling hands she grabbed the components and began fitting them together. Outside, the click of the automedic’s feet could be heard as it scuttled from door to door in search of its quarry. “Please work. Please,” Eva whispered as she plugged the charge cable into the back of the boomrod. “How do I turn this thing on?” She looked at the battery pack. The dials, buttons, and switches were labeled in an alien language.

  The muffled voice of the supply closet could be heard greeting the automedic. The robot was two doors down from Eva.

  “Come on! Come on!” Her mind raced. How did Besteel do it? She squeezed a lever set in the middle of the rod, and the device began to hum.

  The door to the room slid open, and the automedic burst in. “You cannot escape, Eva Nine. Let us treat the corruption within you. Let us remove all violent tendencies. It is for the greater good of your kind.”

  “I don’t need your help.” Eva released the lever and tripped the trigger. The distinct sound of a WOOM erupted from the boomrod, throwing Eva backward. The sonic blast hurled the automedic across the atrium and into the wall, where it collapsed in a heap. An electronic alarm pinged in a steady rhythm. Eva scrambled to her feet and dashed back toward Hailey’s room.

  The other two automedics were drawn out from their lab by the alarm. Eva fired the boomrod and quickly dispatched them.

  “Hailey!” Eva burst into the room. She pulled the aspirator off and lightly slapped his face. “Come on. You need to wake up! Now!”

  “Please, help me,” a soft voice creaked from behind. Eva turned to see the Cærulean struggling with his binds. She hurried over and helped free him from the examination chair. “Thank the stars for you, little one.” The alien patted Eva. He was smaller and less scruffy than Rovender—possibly even younger, though it was hard to tell beneath all the bruising the poor creature had sustained from experimentation. “I knew you were not like the others when I could understand your words. Since my imprisonment I have been unable to communicate with my captors.”

  “I am sorry for that,” Eva said, helping him up. “Can you walk?”

  “I shall try.” Unsteadily the Cærulean stood. “I am Nadeau of the Kitt clan from the village of Faunas. I need to return to my people immediately and warn them of this fate.”

  “I’m Eva Nine.” Eva checked on Hailey. He was still anesthetized. “The Kitt clan?” she wondered aloud. “Do you know—”

  On weak legs, Nadeau tripped and fell, upsetting a tray of equipment. Eva dashed over and helped him up once more.

  “I am afraid . . . my time, my journey, is near its end.” Nadeau huffed as he pulled himself up.

  “No, it’s not.” Eva guided him over to the empty floating gurney. “Get on.”

  As Nadeau climbed onto the second bed, Eva instructed Hailey’s gurney to return him to the detention ward. The gurney floated out of the room and down the hall.

  Eva crawled onto the gurney with Nadeau and repeated the instructions. She pulled a sheet over them and readie
d the boomrod as the gurney drifted out into the atrium.

  The hall leading away from the medlab was now bustling with alarmed robots, patients, and other medical staff. Eva lay perfectly still and peeked out from under the sheet as the gurney joined other hovering gurneys and navigated its way through the mayhem. Cadmus’s aide flanked by two authoritons rushed passed her. “I am told she is in lab C and is armed and dangerous,” the aide told the robots.

  Eva flattened herself next to Nadeau. The Cærulean was so still that his shallow breathing was the only clue indicating that he had not perished. Their gurney hovered next to Hailey’s in a large lift, and the doors slid shut behind them. The elevator then began its descent to the detainment ward. With the trio alone and safe for a moment, Eva reached out and nudged the pilot. “Hailey! Hailey, wake up!”

  The boy groaned while his eyes fluttered open. Using the intravenous pole mounted to the side of his gurney, he pulled himself up. “Where am I?” he said.

  Eva slid out from under her sheet and sidled up next to his gurney, handing him a transcoder. “You were about to have your brain rewired by an evil automedic . . . but you didn’t, thanks to me. Not that you would have done the same.”

  Hailey blinked in astonishment and ran his fingers over his now shaven head. “Eva? What are you doing here?”

  “I’m trying to get us out of here—all of us.”

  “I’m sorry,” the pilot said. “I didn’t know. Cadmus tricked me when I returned with the Bijou. He said—”

  “Whatever. We’ve gotta get out of here.” Eva pulled off her skull cap and began undoing her lab coat. “Now do exactly what I tell you, and hurry!”

  CHAPTER 19: REUNITED

  Reaching its final destination, the lift stopped and its doors parted. The two gurneys floated out, each carrying a patient, and Hailey followed them into the detention ward. He was now dressed in the aide’s lab coat.

  The elevator had delivered them to a back entrance of a round control room, which overlooked the two wings of cell blocks in the detainment ward. Both wings were dark, save for the glow given off by the orderly rows of columnar cells. At the elevator a pair of authoriton guards greeted Hailey, still standing behind the gurneys.

  “I . . . um . . . have a patient transfer request from the medlab,” announced the pilot. “We need the other blue alien that was brought in yesterday.”

  “We have received no record of this request,” one of the authoritons said, remaining steadfast in front of the gurneys. “Please wait while your transfer request is authenticated.” The second authoriton rolled toward the central hub of the control room.

  “Um, wait. We have our transfer clearance here.” Hailey grabbed the intravenous pole of the closest gurney. He pushed down hard on the pole, causing the gurney to flip up onto its side, making a barricade. Eva dropped out from the bottom and blasted the authoriton with the boomrod. Before it toppled back into the second robot, the authoriton sent out a volley of SHOCdarts, which rained down onto the flipped-up bottom of the gurney.

  Nadeau crawled out of his gurney and ducked under for protection. Hailey dodged more SHOCdarts while Eva finished off the authoriton guards.

  “Let’s get to those downed guards!” Hailey pointed to the felled authoritons.

  “Why?” Eva blasted a third authoriton with the boomrod.

  “I have an idea.” Hailey yanked the IV pole off the gurney. Under the cover of the gurney, Eva and Hailey made their way over to the fallen guards. Using the pole, Hailey wrenched one of the arms loose from the destroyed authoritons.

  Eva gasped as Hailey pulled the armor plating from the limb to reveal a pale atrophied human arm within. “Is—is there a person in there?” she asked.

  “Naw. I think it’s just cloned parts,” Hailey replied. “Don’t think about them as people. They’re just robots.” He slipped the armor over his own forearm. “Now the odds are a little more even,” he said as he studied the complex arsenal of wrist weapons. A high-pitched whistle squealed from Hailey’s newfound firearm, and a large, serrated SHOCdart rocketed in Eva’s direction. Eva ducked as the projectile shot over her head. She turned and glared at Hailey.

  “Sorry,” he said with a lopsided grin.

  Eva charged her boomrod and blasted the thick doors of the control room. The transparent ply-steel buckled but did not give. From the wings on both sides, squads of authoritons closed in and took aim at the fugitives. Hailey exhausted the various weapons of the authoriton armor on the attacking robots while Eva recharged the boomrod once more.

  A canister clunked down next to them with a red blinking light. “Take cover!” Hailey shouted, and the canister exploded with an angry swarm of mini-SHOCdarts. Eva released the trigger on the boomrod, and the walls to the control room ruptured under the sonic blast.

  As the dust settled, Eva found Hailey had been immobilized by a slew of buzzing SHOCdarts that had pierced his body. She crawled through the rubble of the control center and pulled herself up to the main console. She began charging the boomrod, keeping it aimed at the console.

  “Halt!” The squadron of authoritons surrounded the blasted opening. “Put your weapon away or we shall—” A bolt of electricity danced over the squad leader’s metallic shell. As his squad fell one by one, Eva could see Nadeau behind them holding the firearm of a fallen authoriton. He had electrocuted the entire squad from behind in one shot.

  “Help Hailey!” Eva pointed at the fallen pilot still twitching on the floor. She fired the boomrod at the console, and it exploded in a shower of sparks, sending Eva ducking for cover.

  As she rose, she could see the effects of the damaged console. Each glowing cell in the ward lost its power. The lights flickered out, rendering the cell walls transparent. Eva hopped down the steps from the control room and ran through the rows of empty cells. In the third row she sprinted by, she discovered a pair of cells, each holding a prisoner.

  The first contained an emaciated Halcyonus who lacked any of his usual brilliant coloration and did not stir at all when Eva tapped the cell wall with the muzzle of the boomrod. The prisoner in the second cell startled Eva because of the creature’s remarkable height. A gawky alien in a flight suit stood on four thin rubbery legs watching Eva’s every move.

  “Get back!” She motioned for the alien to back up, and blasted the base of the cell wall with the boomrod. The smiling alien wriggled out through the hole and patted Eva on the head.

  “Well, aren’t you a little bayrie, come to rescue me! Name’s Huxley, Royal Beamguide Scout for the queenie,” he said. “Don’t bother with that poor fishy.” He pointed to the Halcyonus. “I don’t think he’s with us any longer, if you know what I mean. What’s the best route out of this trap, little one?”

  “I’ve got to find Rovee first.” Eva started down the next row of cells. “Have you seen a Cærulean anywhere?”

  Huxley kept up with Eva, though it seemed as if he’d trip over his own feet at any moment. “Eh? A blue, you say? Here in lockup?”

  “Yes,” Eva said, searching through the empty cells. “He’s my friend. I have to find him.”

  “Well, it’s no use running around in this maze. Let ol’ Huxie have a quick look-see.” Huxley leaped up onto the outer wall of a nearby abandoned cell. With his padded fingertips and rubbery legs, he scaled it in seconds. “Over there’s the little nip!” He pointed. “One row up and several cells down. Can’t miss ’im.”

  Eva dashed off in the direction Huxley had indicated and came to a halt at the cell holding Rovender Kitt.

  “Rovee!” squealed Eva.

  Rovender stood and placed his palm flat on the glass. Around his wrist hung the tattered friendship bracelet Eva had made for him.

  “Back up!” Eva shouted.

  Within moments Rovender was out of his cell. He embraced Eva warmly. “You shouldn’t have risked coming after me. But I am so glad to see you,” he said with a smile.

  “Me too,” replied Eva.

  “Did you molt on y
our birthday?” He tousled her hair. “Your color has changed.”

  “It has . . . but I haven’t,” Eva said.

  “Oh, but you have, Eva. I can see it in your eyes.”

  Eva hugged him once more. The familiar feeling of Rovender’s worn brown jacket pressed against her face.

  “I am happy that you are okay,” he whispered. “I was worried.”

  “You were right to be cautious,” she said, and sniffled. “We shouldn’t have come here.”

  Rovender held on to her. “It’s okay, Eva. You are safe, and that matters most to me.”

  Huxley called from his lookout high on the cell wall, “We best hurry up, little bayrie. There will be reinforcements here very soon.”

  “Come on!” Eva said. “We have to get out of here.”

  With Rovender and Huxley, Eva met with Hailey and Nadeau at the control room. The pilot was still lying on the ground while Nadeau plucked SHOCdarts out of his leg.

  “Nadeau?” Rovender said, clearly stricken by the Cærulean’s deteriorated appearance.

  On shaky legs Nadeau stood and held up both palms in greeting. “Rovender? Rovender Kitt? Is it you?”

  Rovender embraced his fellow tribesman. Eva could see tears well up as he examined the scars, evidence of the horrors his friend had been through. “What . . . what have they done?”

  “I feel no pain when I see you, lost brother of my tribe.” Nadeau looked at him directly. “Just help me home, Rovender. So that I may see our clan once more.”

  “Give me that!” Rovender snatched Eva’s weapon. He charged the boomrod and aimed it at Hailey.

  “What are you doing?” yelled Eva.

  “I am ridding us of this traitor. He tricked us. All of us!”

  “What do you mean?” Eva asked. She watched Hailey crawl under the overturned gurney.

  Rovender kicked the gurney away. “He tricked me into coming here while you were still asleep, in order to separate us and sell us off one at a time. He will never again deliver anyone to their death.”