by Foxx Ballard
Synth-E-Uh put her claw-hands where her hips would have been. “What do you take me for? Of course not! You don’t have to broadcast to capture what is said, they have no way to detect that I’m listening, and although most of their communications are encrypted, for some reason a number of them are now on an open Search and Rescue channel and they’re talking about taking us in alive, all of us.”
“Well, off we go then!” Jack immediately started towards the cave entrance, but Synth-E-Uh and Lais both grabbed an arm and held tight, causing his treads to spin in place.
“This doesn’t change anything, Jack,” Lais assured. “They would still put us on that robot-prison world, they’re just making an effort to not destroy us for resisting, for some reason.” And then she changed the subject and let go of Jack’s arm when his treads stopped spinning.
“How do you know Angel and Rusty are alive?”
Synth-E-Uh put Jack down. She had been lifting him up slightly, but she didn’t fully release her grip. “They found ‘a Valkyrie and a Goblin dancing around a signal fire’ a distance to the south.”
Lais’s hope soared. Angel and Rusty were alive! But they were heading in the wrong direction. Now how the hell were they going to get out of this cave to head south?
Part IV: Discovery
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Rusty: Signal fire, Coast-line, Unknown land mass
There was a dull roar in the sky causing Angel and Rusty to look up. The smoke from the fire had briefly blown into Rusty’s eyes, so he had to blink several times before he could see clearly, but when his blurred vision finally became clear, he saw two lines of white smoke, high up in the sky, heading southward.
“More droppod?” he asked, but even as Angel answered “no” he didn’t think so either. They didn’t appear to be dropping in altitude.
They stood idly, watching the strange objects, and noted when they veered together in this direction.
Rusty stood with his mouth agape. A glance at Angel showed she was just as surprised. Here was technology where there wasn’t supposed to be any. They were jets. Triangular fighters, more specifically, and they were getting closer.
“Think we need hide?”
“I think they’ve already seen us. We could always run into the forest if needed, let’s see…”
As the fighters approached, they slowed, the heated jet-wash blowing across Rusty and Angel. And the fire. Rusty noted a few small coals and sparks had blown into the grass, so he jumped up and down on them to keep them from catching fire.
At the same time, Angel started jumping up and down and clapping her hands.
“What happening?” Rusty called out over the roaring of the two fighters that were just hovering and staring at them.
They’re chasing Lais! And Synth-E-Uh and Jack! They haven’t found them yet, but they’re on land somewhere north of us, I suspect, or at least that’s where they last saw them.
Rusty threw his arms in the air and cheered, still jumping and stamping out the little coals, but having more fun with it. He wished he had the ability to read minds. It would make life a lot easier.
A voice in Earth Common shouted over a loudspeaker from one of the jets. “Have you seen a humanoid with two droids pass by here?!”
Angel and Rusty looked at each other with broad grins and then at the fighters, both shaking their heads.
With a blast and a roar, the two fighters took off, heading back up to a higher altitude to continue their search.
“You think they notice? Maybe read your mind too?” Rusty asked, remembering the information he had gleaned while she had been in his mind. The sparks were out, so he stopped his jumping about and walked up to her so he didn’t have to yell over the fire.
“Oh, not everyone’s as quick as you,” Angel responded, pinching his cheek. “The pilot was a human. They rarely notice, unless I do a deep dive.”
Rusty allowed himself to smile again. “We head north?”
“We head north!” Angel pointed playfully up the coastline with her chin in the air, and then she giggled and grabbed his hand, dragging him in that direction.
“Wait! Put out fire first. Take time to burn down before safe.”
Angel looked at him slyly.
“So we have some time then?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Captain Leucantis: WOLF Carrier Nemesis, Orbit, Incarcerata IV
“Dammit!” Captain Leucantis hit the arm of her captain’s chair. “Where the hell are they?!”
“Pardon, Captain,” came a soothing feminine voice over the speakers.
Captain Leucantis sighed. She already knew what the Nemesis carrier AI was going to say.
“Please refrain from damaging the ship’s systems. Further damage will result in—”
“Yes, I know. Fines, fines, fines. I’m fine with fines.” Just to be safe, though, she turned down the Adrenaline Simulation Protocol by half with a timer set for one hour to give herself some time to relax. This search was getting her all wound up. It was probably a good idea to take it easy for a bit.
She glanced at Advisor Filick, who was curled up on his chair with his nose tucked under his tail. He was contentedly purr-snoring. At least she didn’t have to worry about him bothering her. She still needed a distraction, though. Something to get her mind off this search… Of course! Troop deployment! Screw getting her mind off the search! She would just make the search go faster!
“Commander, what do we need to do to deploy troops to assist with the search? There are too many places to hide from fighters, but if we did a ground sweep with troops…”
Commander Gabriel had taken the perfect thinker pose, leaning forward in his chair with an elbow on his knee and his strong chin on his fist. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, which annoyed her that he wasn’t giving her the appropriate attention, but she didn’t want to get on his bad side. She needed his acceptance if they were going to put boots on the ground.
“I agree with you, Captain—”
Well, here was a first. She said nothing and waited for him to continue.
“—that a contingency of troops would assist in the search, but—”
Ah, here was the but. This would be what she would have to overcome.
“—I would not suggest deploying troops on this world. Incarcerata IV, as a prison world, is under strict statutes of quarantine. Anything that lands, is just simply not permitted back into orbit again, aside from the dropships and the attending cryo-droids, and that process is closely monitored and recorded. By us, of course.”
Cryo-droids! Of course! They had monitoring sensors that would be excellent for the detection of life… or non-life. They weren’t specifically designed for the task, but they could be used to capture something and return it to the dropship.
“Thank you for your input, Commander.”
“Of course, Captain. If I may, have you decided on a course of action? Are we ceasing the search?”
She smiled. “No, we will be deploying one thousand of the ship’s atmospheric auto-drones. We’ll send them down in a dropship, along with the ship’s contingent of cryo-droids to return the three after they are found.” She knew the drones were meant to be used on a new planet, but this new power source was worth the use of resources.
Commander Gabriel lifted his chin from his fist and opened his mouth as if about to speak. Captain Leucantis waited a moment, but nothing came out.
“Do you have anything to add, Commander?”
“No. I will submit the order,” he said, closing his mouth and sitting up in his chair so he could authorize the commands when he was ready. “Do you have any idea how the cryo-droids will subdue the three?” His hand stayed poised over the chair arm, but slowly lowered to his side at her sudden indecision.
“You’re right, I hadn’t considered how they would bring them back. Get the Science Team and the Tactical Advisor in here, we need to plan how we are going to capture them safely once we find them.”
&nbs
p; “Right away, Captain,” Commander Gabriel replied, pressing the ship’s comm button. “Science Team and Tactical to the bridge.”
The Commander went back to his thinker pose and Captain Leucantis stopped to admire him for a second before lowering the voltage on her pleasure center again. Damned timers.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Lais: Cave, Rocky Mountains, Southeast Farrun
It was still dark in the cave, aside from Jack’s glowing monitors. His face emoji was neutral, his chest displaying a swimming fish screensaver.
A constant drip, drip, drip from the back of the cave reminded Lais of the passage of time. It was only of passing interest though, as none of them needed water, and the three of them were affected little by time. They could feasibly sit here for years if they wanted to, but their friends couldn’t…
She ran through her orbital map of the planet in her head, the one she had received from Chang while she was still in Connor’s implants.
“I think I’ve determined where we are. I’ve found the cave we’re currently in on the southeastern coast of Farrun. At least we’re not on a smaller island that would be quicker to search. Speaking of searching, I haven’t heard a fighter pass close by here for nearly an hour. Do you think they’ve passed us by and we can risk heading south?”
Synth-E-Uh rolled toward the cave mouth a short distance in order to get a better look, but still stayed out of the crescent of light on the floor.
“I don’t see or hear anything. I know we could stay here for an indefinite length of time, but now that I know Rusty is alive, I feel obligated to get back to his company and assist him in any way that I can. He does own this body after all…”
As soon as Synth-E-Uh said it, it was like a switch had been thrown and Jack went shooting out of the cave mouth. “For Master Rusty!” his fading yell announced as he was already putting some distance between them.
Lais and Synth-E-Uh looked at each other. There was nothing to be said. Lais jumped onto Synth-E-Uh, grabbing onto the rail on the front of her chassis, and the combat-droid took off after Jack. While Synth-E-Uh focused on the chase, Lais scanned the skies for fighters. Thankfully, at this particular moment, there didn’t appear to be any.
Jack was cruising so fast over the plains, Synth-E-Uh was having difficulty closing the distance between them. At least he was heading in the right direction. His tracks were spitting up dust and debris that was pattering off of Lais’s clothing and skin and making tink, tink, tink sounds off of Synth-E-Uh’s hardened plate.
When he reached the forest, he zipped between the trees with more agility than Lais had thought he possessed, so they lost sight of him occasionally and they were definitely losing ground now. Synth-E-Uh’s larger frame just couldn’t cut the corners like Jack could.
Lais was about to call out to him when they rounded a tree, and he had disappeared. He just wasn’t there. She didn’t need to say anything. Synth-E-Uh was already slowing and after several feet, she stopped altogether.
And then a thin robotic hand shot up from a hidden hole in the ground. Synth-E-Uh crept forward to find that Jack had fallen into a large fovea plant. The poor plant’s tentacles were desperately trying to lift him out, likely because it had determined he was inedible, but he was too heavy for it.
Jack turned to face them and looked up out of the mossy hole. When he saw them, his emoji became a bright smile.
“I’m so glad to see you! Could you give me a hand, please?”
Lais looked at Synth-E-Uh. “What do you think? Should we leave him in there?”
Synth-E-Uh looked up and tapped her chin like she was thinking. “Hmm, there are benefits…” Synth-E-Uh’s face couldn’t show expression, but Lais was sure she was smiling.
After a few seconds, Jack started to become desperate, and put on a scared emoji. “You wouldn’t leave me behind… Who would take care of Master Rusty’s affairs?” Jack started to try to pull himself up by his spindly arms, but the ground around the plant was soft and didn’t provide any purchase. He was only spinning his treads, causing the plant distress as it redoubled its futile efforts to get him out.
“For the plant then…” Lais said, winking as she grasped one of Synth-E-Uh’s hand claws and leaned out over the pit to pick up Jack by one of his thin arms. She had little difficulty lifting him straight up and out, and the plant’s thin tendrils were happily pushing him with what little assistance they could offer. His lower chassis was dripping with the yellow fluid but seemed none the worse for wear. In fact, he seemed rather shiny now, like he’d had a deep clean.
Jack gave them both a hug. Lais hugged him back. It was a gesture she was used to, but she was a little surprised when Synth-E-Uh reciprocated it as well.
“I didn’t spend nearly a thousand years taking care of you on the trip here just to let you die.”
Jack’s emoji changed into a smiling face with one tear. “You care!”
Synth-E-Uh let go of the hug. “And if you push your luck, I’ll push you right back in there! Now can we continue on? But a little slower this time, it’s hard for me to maneuver through the trees.”
“Roger, Synth-E-Uh.” He gave her a salute and, with one quick check behind him to make sure they were following, Jack continued on through the forest, giving a wide berth around the fovea plant.
#
They stuck to the trees as much as they could and still made decent time, faster than when they were traveling under the water. It had been a couple hours since the cave, and Lais was starting to worry that they would pass right by Angel and Rusty, so called out regularly for them, as they traveled. They exited the trees briefly into a small meadow full of white flowers that snapped their petals shut as soon as they were within a few paces of them.
“Stop for a sec, I think I hear something,” she urged Synth-E-Uh.
As soon as they stopped, and Jack had halted beside them, it was apparent that the dull roaring sound she had heard was coming from above, and it was getting louder. It was the boxy shape of a dropship falling straight down, leaving a trail of white smoke behind it. It looked like it was going to land somewhere a few hundred paces ahead.
A powerful blast of fire emitted from beneath the craft, slowing its descent, and then it disappeared out of sight behind the trees in front of them.
“Dammit,” Lais growled through gritted teeth. “What are the odds that’s just another group of criminals being dropped in our area by coincidence…”
“Zero point three one percent,” Jack offered.
“It was rhetorical, Jack,” Synth-E-Uh responded. “What are we going to do? It’s probably troops to track us on the ground now. If we defend ourselves, we would likely just get nuked from orbit.”
Lais sighed and shook her head. The patrols weren’t giving up as she’d hoped. “I guess we go back the way we came. Run and hide again.” What else could they do?
“They over here!” came a yell from beside them, which caused Synth-E-Uh to wind up her Gatling barrels and turn hard in that direction. Lais was just pulling Buck off of her back when she looked down to see Rusty’s wide, pointed-toothed grin. He didn’t take notice of all the hardware pointed at him and then Angel passed into view,weaving her way through the trees behind him.
Now she knew what it meant when someone’s heart soared. They were okay. Before she knew it, she was jumping off of Synth-E-Uh and giving each of them a hug.
“We thought we’d lost you!”
Tears started to well in her eyes as she held onto Angel’s hands for an extra moment; shock, relief, hope, and loss all flooded her at the same time.
Lais let Angel’s hands go, though she didn’t want to, and ignored the apologetic look that Angel was giving her. There was nothing to apologize for.
“Master Rusty!” Jack shouted, grabbing the Goblin and giving him a hug up to his chest monitor. “I’m so glad to see you! I didn’t think I’d be able to sell anything ever again!”
Rusty managed to squirm free from the droi
d’s embrace. “If me die, you in charge of selling, Jack. Deal?”
“Deal!” Jack managed excitedly, his emoji showing a smiling face with tears.
“Here, I think this is yours,” Lais said as she handed Buck to Rusty.
Rusty looked surprised, but pleased. “Thank you.”
“She couldn’t even hit the planet,” Buck whispered, loud enough for all to hear.
“Me sure she try harder next time,” Rusty assured with a smile, as he slung Buck over his shoulder.
A dull buzzing interrupted them, coming from the direction the dropship had landed.
“Shit shit shit! Drones!” Lais shouted, jumping back onto Synth-E-Uh, and was joined by Rusty. Angel took off into the air.
Synth-E-Uh spun her treads, leaving ruts in the dirt, and shot through the trees at a breakneck pace. Lais noticed that Rusty had to keep adjusting his hand positions on her grill to keep from getting them slapped by branches with the sharp leaves. Lais held onto the cow-catcher as well, but ignored the cuts that tore away the skin on her knuckles. It would grow back. She just turned off the local pain sensors in the skin there to prevent the damage from becoming annoying.
Lais rose above the rail and risked leaning out around Synth-E-Uh briefly to see if she could see any drones, ignoring the branches that slapped across her back. The silk-covered leather would remain undamaged. All she could see was Jack speeding along behind them, waving his arms in the air with a sad emoji on his face.
Lais squinted and listened. Yes, she was sure of it. Through all the crashing through the trees and revving engines, Jack was playing “Flight of the Bumblebee”. That explained the cartoon bumblebees on his chest monitor.
As soon as Lais sat back down and looked forward, they were jumping out of the forest onto a section of plains, a cloud of dust spitting up behind them. Despite their speed, several small military drones buzzed past them and then hovered ahead, keeping pace. She was sure each of them must have had a weapon built into them, but they weren’t using them, just flying escort. Angel was keeping up with them as well, but she looked like she was starting to tire from the breakneck pace.