Rise of the Machines: Book 1: Once Awakened

by Briana Ervin

  Scaln clambered up onto 433, perching on his hull between the shoulders, and the mech casually walked out the door, expecting us to follow.

  Should we? I asked.

  “Suuuure,” Cyrii said suspiciously. I kept my turrets up just in case, and followed behind the mech.

  433 continued down the hall I had rushed through earlier. I looked at the sign above each door to try and understand the layout of the ship, but many of the symbols were foreign. Scaln stopped the gold mech at one of these doors. Similar to the other doors, it was a thick piece of metal, its joining pieces slanted slightly so each half was a triangle. As extra security, the door had two slots – one above and one below – that both had bars running through them. It was labeled with two concentric circles with a half-triangle above them; a symbol I recognized from earlier.

  Scaln ran down onto 433's arm, which he raised so the Xinschi-uual was level with the door's keypad. I wasn't sure if they wanted to keep the codes from me, but if so, they failed; I watched the keypad strokes very carefully, recording it into a short file that could be referenced later.

  “Good idea,” Cyrii praised. I beamed happily.

  The door opened, revealing to us a room that was huge for Cyrii, but a bit small for me. It didn't have the same harsh, sterile architecture as the hallway, but still had a weird, hexagonal design, with softer white walls and a number of lights in the ceiling, only half of which were turned on. Built into the right wall was a long bunk with a rounded edge, which also had its own light, and in the center was a plain table with three stools which looked pretty uncomfortable. The far wall had a long sheet of textured metal running across it.

  I ignored 433's gesture to go in, peeking inside with caution. I didn't see anything else worth noting, aside from the walls having a healthy amount of seams; possibly hidden panels?

  “It's all we have, for now. It's enough to house you and your friend, who we accidentally picked up on the way. I've already sent Clide to go get her,” Scaln said.

  “Alesia,” Cyrii remembered quietly.

  “We have resources to maintain 433, so don't worry about 767,” he went on, “she'll be fine. Just make yourselves at home. If you need anything, you can ask our on-board intelligence.”

  I went in quietly, searching for Theta's speaker: there, above the table. A disc popped down from the ceiling just a little bit. I understood why it was there, but I was still uncomfortable that we didn't have complete privacy.

  The door abruptly shut behind us and I jumped, whipping around. Neither Scaln nor his weird Superiority model were there.

  “Great. We're locked in,” Cyrii muttered.

  At least they're also locked out, I said hopefully.

  “It doesn't work that way.”

  I let out a discontented hum and turned back to the room, studying its design and guessing what the different panels were. My operator didn't feel comfortable leaving me yet, so she let me walk around aimlessly, flashing my scanner over things, while she slumped back in her seat. I didn't discover anything interesting; none of the supposed panels responded to tapping nor had any visible buttons, the materials of the place were either unremarkable or foreign, the atmosphere was fine, the cot was bare, and the table had nothing on it. The door had the same keypad on this side as it did on the other, but this time it was completely dark and unresponsive; apparently they learned from when I brute-forced the combination in the repair room. Theta was also dead silent the entire time.

  I finally resigned to standing in the corner near the cot, sitting back on my pistons, staring at the shiny table. The first time I had looked at it I had caught myself by surprise and scanned my own reflection. I hadn't seen myself before... the typical mech build, but bulkier on the shoulders with visible launchers, red dots around my face, and a glaring V-shaped blast shield that I already knew about. My hull was some combination of dark umber-brown and orange with the faintest blue tint in the light, and my eye was red with a bright cyan iris. Two points rose up past my shoulders like small ears, which I spent a good minute feeling myself over, trying to find what they were. I was also surprised with how beat-up I was, for a mech that was practically fresh off the production line. I felt a lot better than I looked.

  Hey Cyrii... I said, wanting to ask her if she picked my colors. ...Cyrii?

  No response. Did she fall back asleep? I guess if you hit your head hard enough... I realized, but I cut off the thought, not wanting to think of Cyrii as having serious brain damage. I rolled my head to see if she was even still there, and she was, mumbling something as she slumped down the side of the chair. Definitely asleep, I decided.

  After idling for a few more minutes, staring at myself and trying not to fidget, the door to our room opened with an abrupt shunk. I looked up, expecting to see Alesia since our captor mentioned waking her up, but was wary to see a familiar, narrow blue face, his engineering uniform covered by a glossy black cape.

  “You settle in well, yes?” Clide sounded uncertain, and didn't dare to step in. I watched him, just as conflicted about being friends with him. “You good?”

  “Well enough,” I answered tersely. He looked at the ground, contemplating something. A moment passed where nothing could be heard except the gentle hum of an unseen heater.

  “Scaln say you can visit friend,” he finally said, “but she still frozen. Thawing now, but, slow.” He made a strange gesture in reference to “thawing”. “You want see?”

  I was unsure of what to say. The hypertension I had told me it was a trap, but previous experience judged it as safe. I didn't have Cyrii to help me make a decision.

  I looked back down at the reflective table. Worse-case scenario, I end up in a fight, and I was built to do that. So I decided to go, wordlessly sitting up and walking over to him. He was unnerved by the approach, but when I stopped in front of him, doing nothing, he hesitantly stepped back let me pass.

  I let Clide take the lead as he took me back through the spaceship, the silence still tight between us. We didn't encounter any other aliens on the way, and all of the doors remained closed. He stopped me before a door labeled with a symbol similar to our room's and input the code; he made sure I couldn't peek around him to see what the code was. He allowed me to enter first.

  It was the room of pods I woke up in. It looked much shorter now that I was looking down it, with only seven pods down each side. Like before, most of them were empty, with only a few of them with lighter colors indicating something within.

  “Why do you have these?” I questioned Clide. He looked up from letting the door close, not too surprised.

  “Ship for research. Not important,” he dismissed.

  “Research?”

  “Study animals. Come from distant solar system. No design for machines.”

  Evidently, I thought, realizing how small the pods were. No wonder I had felt cramped! “Then why pick my friend and I up?” I asked.

  “Scaln say so.” Clide shrugged, looking... disappointed?

  “What does Scaln want with us?” I added.

  “Say eventually. Not now.”

  “Did you not want this?”

  His face lit up with surprise, and he looked at me curiously. “Why say?”

  “You don't look happy about it.”

  “Eh, just worker. Little importance.”

  I was too curious to take “no” for an answer. This was interesting! What did he know that I didn't? Was it anything that might contradict Scaln? Would it explain why we were being treated so well? Considering I'm a giant war machine, this IR – which I was certain was who's ship we were on – sure was being cautiously optimistic; it would make more sense for them to only wake Cyrii and keep her locked up.

  I referenced my database really quick, wondering if there were other factors of the war that I had missed since Cyrii and I were mere pawns, while I walked down the hallway in search of Alesia. Clide walked beside me, and readily pointed her pod out: the only filled one before several long scratches and a bu
rnt mark on the floor, where I had fought with 433. I stopped and looked at the pod, glancing at my reference. I saw that we had intergalactic allies known as the Apex Powers, but there was nothing on who they were nor anything on the IR or its tactics. The document was no more descriptive than “the organization that builds the drones they fight us with”, and didn't even have a proper name until I edited it myself. There was nothing explaining why my comrade and I were captured instead of destroyed...

  Clide opened Alesia's pod by interfacing with what I at first dismissed as a section of wall, but popped up some cryptic purple holograms when bumped. A couple of swipes and the pod hissed, before opening up the same way mine had.

  I stared at the mech within, which was frozen solid to the sides of the pod. Standing more comfortably upright, as she was almost half my size, with a smooth, dark indigo hull and a softer, rounded blastshield that was closed tight. The reserves behind her shoulders were bulky, but there were no visible weapons, unless one counted the cannon-like extension on her right arm and the pointed rod on the left. Her lack of response proved that she was powered down.

  I was surprised by the amount of ice on her still; didn't Clide say she was thawing out? Did the pod need to be closed for that?

  “Why isn't she awake?” I asked the engineer. He clicked his tongue.

  “No order yet. Stay sleep.”

  “Why?”

  “No can say.”

  “That's not an answer,” I argued, turning to look at him, feeling Cyrii shift in her seat as I did so. He looked at me obstinately.

  “Is answer. No can say.”

  “Then why did I break out so fast?”

  What an expressive creature; Clide's face quickly switched back to puzzlement and he shrugged again, palms open like he needed to show he had nothing in them. “No can say. Was frozen. Now not. Maybe bad pod.”

  I looked between him and the powered-down Alesia. “Does she have her pilot with her?”

  “Yes. Frozen in.” He tapped her hull, and I half-expected her to react, but of course she didn't.

  “Not in a cell?”

  “No cell here. Only stasis pod.”

  I blinked slowly at him, more comfortable with the idea of trusting his word but still questioning how wise it would be. I rolled my head to the side to see how deep of a sleep Cyrii was in; this time she didn't even mumble when she slid. Presumably, Scaln would want to talk to us when she's awake, and was giving us time to rest beforehand. Letting me see Alesia must also be another tactic to gain our trust.

  I carefully formulated my next words to see if they would work, and spoke them slowly: “If Scaln wants our trust, then my friend should be woken up straight away.”

  Clide, surprisingly, didn't look opposed to the idea, but again looked defeated.

  “Can't do. Just worker; no order, no do.”

  “Why are you sad about it?”

  Now that I had asked again, he gave it up more easily: “No like war. Expensive. Destructive. Many problems. But, work in war. Need to be worker.”

  I stared at the blue alien in fascination. I was on an IR ship... and our Enemy is the IR... but first Scaln, a Xinschi-uual, says the IR is not the enemy, and now this engineer says he doesn't like the war either?

  I felt like this would make more sense if I actually knew what the war was about... but I also had a feeling that, if I asked, he would just tell me to wait for Scaln to tell me. So I decided to ask instead, “How long will it take for her to thaw?”

  Clide's only response was a strange gesture that implied “eventually” or “who knows”. I looked back at Alesia, a bit concerned about what that meant. I also realized that Scaln wanted to talk to Cyrii and I, but made no mention about Alesia... so why kidnap her too?

  Hm...

  Unprompted, Clide swiped the hologram again, and her pod abruptly shut in my face. I blinked, taken aback.

  “Scaln say no visit for long. Lose cold, kick on stasis pod. Freeze her longer,” he explained.

  “Oh,” I said quietly, while the hologram disappeared. Scaln guided my gaze toward the door, and grudgingly, I let Alesia be, walking away from her. I allowed Clide to escort me back to the room we were given. I shouldn't worry about the Support model, right? She was unscathed, shut down, and frozen solid, and surely – if the IR wants our trust – they would let her out once she's awake no matter how stuck her mech might be. She'll be fine, right?

  ----------

  I didn't convince myself very well. I had resigned to standing in the corner of the room, locked in again, this time staring at the door as I waited for Cyrii to wake. I was so occupied with this strange situation, mulling over the possibilities in my mind, that what impatience I had was suppressed. It almost felt better to trust my own conclusions than to wait and see whatever Scaln offered to us, because I had no idea if he was lying, or what he was really up to, or what these other people thought or wanted. Heck, for all I knew, this was one big simulation! It didn't make sense as to why I would be in a simulation, but I knew that new mechs were subject to preliminary testing before release. Maybe I was damaged so badly after that battle that something important had to be replaced, and now they're testing it out? These simulations were awfully convincing though... but then again, they wouldn't be very effective if I knew they were simulations...

  An hour and a half later, Cyrii woke up from her nap. She mumbled a complaint at first, and when I asked her what it was she just said “Nothing, just living thing business...” She then pushed herself upright in her seat and we made smalltalk out of her diminishing headache.

  It wasn't long afterward that the door opened again, and this time 433 came through.

  I cut off my internal chatter immediately, tensing up while I eyed the unknown Superiority model. He looked as bored as usual, and perched on his head – albeit rather tiredly – was Scaln, staring down at his clasped paws. He looked like he was about to break some really bad news.

  Cyrii had quieted as well. I could tell she was staring intensely at my screens by her grumbling comment: “Oh, it's the impostor.”

  I didn't say anything. Scaln continued to hesitate, and Cyrii's impatience rose faster than his confidence, her paw swiftly moving over my comm button.

  “What do you want?” she demanded rudely. Scaln just looked at us, mouth pressed into a thin a line.

  “Well... I was going to ask if you were fine. It sounds like a 'no',” he presumed, and Cyrii scoffed through my speaker. “So I'll cut to it: I need to tell you why you're here. We're a bit pressed for time.”

  Finally! It took long enough, I said.

  “You're telling me. I even slept through most of it,” she muttered. “All right, spit it out.”

  433 twitched defensively, resulting in me doing the same. “Not here,” Scaln said, recognizing the building tension. “It's best if I show you what I need. 433, the bridge?” he added the last part quieter to the mech, who grudgingly broke eye contact with me, then let out a sigh, waving us forward. “Don't worry, it's in space,” the Xinschi-uual added. I stood up straighter, watching them leave.

  Cyrii? I prompted. She growled but withdrew from my controls.

  “You're the one with the guns,” she said. That made me curious; an opportunity to run amok and destroy everything? That's certainly what the Empire taught us to do... but no, that would risk both Cyrii's and Alesia's lives. So I entertained Scaln's offer, exiting the room at a brisk pace to join up with him.

  433 had continued down the hall, all the way to the end where a large door was. I came up to him in time to glimpse the door's code, which seemed to be similar to our room's. When the door opened, I expected to see an area that was just as cramped as the other rooms, but was surprised to see it was wide, spacious, and oval in shape, with a massive window taking up the far wall. The center of the room had a circular pedestal that projected a three-dimensional map of solar systems, as well as tooltips containing data about them. The floor closest to the window dropped a bit to maximize
the window's viewing area, and computers and control panels lined the other walls. There were two standing control panels on either side of the pedestal, and one in front on the lower floor, but no seats, tables, or other furniture anywhere.

  I found myself lingering the most on the window, as it was dim in the room. It showed a black place littered with so many brightly-glowing dots, each of a different size, that it was mesmerizing! A haze of color swept through them like pink clouds, huge and poofy, with strands of green blending in with the blackness behind them. I could see red points arching in from the sides of the window, denoting the craft's wings.

  Outer space! We were in space!

  Whooaa... I murmured in awe. Cyrii was silent. 433 entered in behind me, and moved to the side.

  “Thck, Eintah, the lights are coming on,” Scaln warned loudly. I perked up and looked around, wondering who he was talking to. When the lights brightened up on cue – sadly, diminishing the beauty of space outside the window – I could see them: a tall, bipedal arachnid to my left, and a shorter sylvan biped to the right at one of the control panels. There was also a fully-armored biped standing by another door to the right, indistinct in shape.

  “What the...?” Cyrii whispered. I looked around at the foreign creatures. Only the arachnid was familiar, as her armor matched that of the spidery one's who was at the infirmary. She had covered her eyes at first because of the lights, but straightened up, quickly looking at me with four, unblinking eyes. The unarmored carapace was bright orange and her head was triangular, with two mandibles on the bottom that had some kind of binding apparatus on them. The sylvan one had looked up as well – neck gills, delicate, furry, translucent wings and fins that changed colors in the light – and swiveled its large ears toward us. It was the most wide-eyed.