by Viola Grace
“You can take a number.”
Xaia snickered, and she pulled the packs from the heat, turning off the flames of the warmers.
Corbyn sat at the table, inclined her head in thanks and tore into a pack with her teeth, pulling the meal out piece by piece. It was very obvious that she had been on desert manoeuvres before.
Xaia took her turn in the restroom, and when she came out, everyone was sitting with the exception of Duel and the missing Hima. “Where is Hima?”
Duel grabbed two packs of food and drink. “She twisted her hip getting into Len. I will bring her food to her.”
Xaia frowned. “Is she all right?”
“She managed to get him here in good order. She just can’t run around easily without him.” Duel grinned, saluted as best she could with full hands, and she headed to Hima’s bot, Len.
Xaia watched Len kneel and lift the other engineer into his housing.
Kab didn’t seem to have a problem with it, so Xaia got into her own meal pack.
Everyone around her had their heads down, and they were consuming their meals with intense focus. The chasm was in front of them, and if they weren’t rested and ready, it could go very badly.
Xaia looked over to Nyvett, who was holding up very well for a bureaucrat. “How are you doing with Iff?”
Nyvett smiled a little tiredly. “He is a little heavier than I was expecting. It’s wearing on the legs.”
“Ai is the same. Considering that they can move as long as we are hooked up, it is amazing that it takes us so much effort to get them going.”
Corbyn piped in, “I like to think that it will be easier on the pilots. Mind you, they have been training.”
Nyvett snorted. “Let’s hope. The city isn’t exactly forthcoming on the status of their fighters.”
Corbyn blinked. “You think they won’t be ready?”
Lido was worried. “How will we know?”
Xaia looked to Nyvett and said, “We will find out when we get there. It is only a few hours away.”
Corbyn looked toward the city. “It is going to be a long two hours.”
* * * *
It felt weird to be standing on Len’s palm, but she remained balanced as he lifted her up toward the hatch in his chest.
The dinners were hot against her chest, but she kept them secure as she walked into the command deck of the other bot.
“Hi, Hima.”
Hima waved from the pilot’s cradle. “I am feeling quite a bit better.”
“Good. This should keep you in the right direction.”
Hima looked at the packs. “Stew?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
Duel opened the corner of the pack with her teeth and held it out to Hima. The exchange was quick. “You tell me.”
Duel sat on the deck next to Hima and ate her own meal. It was good, and it was a flavour she hadn’t had since she was a teen.
Hima took a few bites and chuckled. “Bee stew.”
Duel nodded. “You got it. All the protein, vitamins, and acids we need to keep going.”
“And three thousand calories a pack.”
Duel laughed. “That too.” She finished her pack and opened Hima’s drink, handing it up to her and collecting her empty ration bag at the same time.
Duel should have winced at the juice, but it was standard for this kind of mission away from home. She just sucked the fluid in as fast as she could without tasting it.
Hima shuddered. “Yeah, that’s about right.”
“Do you often drink jelly?”
“I sometimes have to help the moms give it to the babies if they aren’t sucking. Not too much, but enough to make them hungry and alert.”
“Right. Do you like working with the babies?”
“I love it. I love being there when they press their messy way into the world. They are so small, so delicate, and have all the potential in the world.”
Duel sighed and leaned her head against the framework around Hima’s cradle. Her vision through her lens told her that everything was still silent in the desert and there was no movement in the skies above.
“It may sound weird, but that would overwhelm me. I like to be with them as they fade or after they pass. I can see their lives, the friends and family that gather around them, and I can see loss in their eyes.”
“You think that’s a good thing?”
“Without loss, we can’t know how sweet life is. If we don’t know there is an end, we can’t fully enjoy the moment.”
Hima was silent for a moment.
“That... is a very good point. I see their little faces and know that they are going to grow and live. I am thinking that in my mind, I know that there is an end to it. It spurs my enthusiasm for life itself.”
“It is a strange realization but knowing that everything ends is going to make me fight like hell to get Kab into a position where a proper pilot can take him over. That is my fight.”
“I am going to fight to get Len to where he can do the most good.”
Duel smiled, and they sat, talking softly about life and death. They learned the particulars of the other’s occupation, and an appreciation of the distraction took over. Anything was better than their current reality.
Chapter Three
Duel was relaxed and rested when Hima said, “Kab is coming for you.”
The steady thud of a bot’s footfalls confirmed it. Len stood up, and Duel clung to the frame around Hima’s cradle. Being untethered inside a moving bot wasn’t fun.
When Len shuddered to a halt, Duel slowly got to her feet. “Can I leave the packages here?”
A slot opened in the console. “Please put the wrappers in the receptacle.”
Duel blinked at Len’s voice. It was funny, but she had imagined that all the bot’s sounded the same. “Right. Of course.”
She stacked the four wrappers and slid them into the slot. “Well, nice talking with you Hima. Glad to see you are feeling better.”
“Thanks for bringing the food. It is helping. I can tell.”
Duel looked back and saw the colour had entered Hima’s cheeks and her fingers and feet were twitching as her nerves came back online. “I think it is doing what it is supposed to. Acting as a restorative. I will see you at the city.”
Duel waved and headed out of the hatch. Kab was standing there with his palm extended to her. “Did you have a nice break?”
Her ear hummed with his voice. The headset brought the sound directly to her. “It was very pleasant. Are you feeling like taking a sprint followed by a leap?”
She stepped onto his palm, and he carried her carefully to his chest, where she stepped back where she was supposed to be.
Once she was inside Kab again, she headed for the cradle. She swung into position with confidence and sat back while she was lashed to the metal.
“What did you eat? I am unfamiliar with the composition, as are the other bots.”
“Bee stew. Well, it is bee larva stew. The highest protein substance that we have in the valley. Our elders credit it with our extreme health and lack of mental deterioration as we age.”
“And the beverage?”
“Royal jelly from the crimson bees. The bees are native to Hera, and they became emergency supplies for us when the city couldn’t get the monorail system ready before the engineers would perish.”
“You still eat them?”
She grinned as the neural connection was linked to her neck again and the headset lifted away from her to nestle in the ceiling again. “Very sparingly. The jelly is given to newborns who are too weak to eat. The stew is fed to teens as they develop, and it is given to invalids who need to recover.”
“You are stronger. Your vitals, your body, you are showing signs of rest and recovery.”
Duel chuckled. “I know. I can feel it. So, how do we get across the chasm?”
“I run and jump, and you hit the bur
ners at the apex of the arc. That will see us over.”
“So, it is a good thing that we refilled all of you.”
“Definitely. Shall we?”
Duel looked at the other bots. No one was moving yet. “Sure. Someone has to go first.”
“Excellent. You run and I will tell you when to jump.”
“Oh. Good.”
Duel braced herself for something very stupid, and she took the first thundering step of her run toward the chasm.
The whirring of his mechanisms was deafening as they approached two hundred kilometres per hour.
They reached the speed just in time for the cameras and scanners to complete their trajectory and tell her when to jump.
The screens went from yellow to green, and she jumped up and out. Her cameras showed her the empty expanse below her, and when Kab hit the burners, it pushed them through the air, and her struggle became in how to keep them upright when they landed.
The thud of Kab’s right foot hitting the ground was swiftly followed by the left, and Duel reached the weird situation of running to a halt.
She turned and looked back to the chasm. It was five hundred metres behind her, and the other bots were visible on the far side.
“Did we just do that?”
“We did, and we did it very well. I didn’t know I had it in me.”
Duel sent the specs of the jump to the others, including Kab’s stationary weight with a passenger.
“Why are you doing that?”
“It helps folks to have a framework to match their actions to. We landed fifty metres off the chasm, so they have a lot of space to work into their jump.”
“Did you want to continue on to the city? We can make it in half an hour at the accelerated rate.”
“No. We are waiting until the rest of the team is here.”
“Fair enough. We need to get out of the way if Iff is on the way. He is going to fly over.”
Duel blinked. “He can fly?”
“He can. He was the main defence for the valley if it ever came to that. We all have flight units, but they are at the city, in storage.”
“Right. Of course, you do. You couldn’t have done the aerial attacks otherwise.”
“Correct. There are other accessories as well.”
“Show me.”
While they waited for the others to make it across, she saw all of the accessories that Kab had in mind. Rocket launchers to plasma blades, they were all waiting at the city.
* * * *
Hima took in the information, and she straightened her shoulders. “Let the others know that we are on our way.”
“They have been notified. We are clear.”
Hima started her run and compared Kab’s stats to Len’s. She was lighter. She went faster and leaped one stride too early. The boosters kicked in and shoved Len the distance across the gap. She landed ten metres from the edge and staggered forward until she stopped.
Len cleared his virtual throat. “That was close.”
Hima was breathing heavily, but they had made it intact. “We made it.”
A voice came through. “Hooray, you made it. Now get out of the way.” Corbyn’s dry tone was evident in the com call.
Hima swiftly moved Len back to safety until they were next to Kab.
She took personal inventory, and to her amazement, the wrap on her left arm had receded, and the outline of her limb was visible under the silver. Her right arm and her legs felt normal again, and the twinges in her back were gone. How much healing was due to the nanites and how much was the rations, she would never know.
* * * *
Corbyn looked around to make sure that everybody had gotten the message, and Myx took those first few steps.
“Are we going to be able to get up to speed?”
He answered her. “We will be close. I can make it, just run as fast as you are able.”
She nodded and took one stride after the other; the feeling was like slogging through honey. She moved faster and faster until the mechanisms around her wheezed and her teeth jolted with every footfall.
The peculiar gallop of the bot sent the landscape blurring beside her. When they reached the edge of the chasm, she leaped and Myx took over.
The tremendous shove of the burners sent them forward, and she skidded to a halt on the far side of the chasm. Her heart was pounding, and her blood rushed in her veins.
The call went out on all coms. “Next.”
She stifled her giggles and went to join the other two.
* * * *
Nyvett heard the creaking, and the vibration of the wings folding out and locking in place was unmistakable.
“We are seriously going to fly there?”
“Of course. I am too heavy to jump.”
“Are we going next?”
“No, we are going last. I want clearance when we take off.”
“That’s good. I don’t want anyone around when you try this.”
Iff laughed. “I have flown before and very extensively.”
“Great. Wonderful.” She frowned. “Can’t wait.”
* * * *
Lido and Cio took up position. She didn’t argue, she didn’t complain, she just ran as fast as she could and pretended that she was at the games as a teenager.
She ran, keeping her eye on the site where she needed to jump, and when she set her foot in that position, she bent her knee and pushed off.
Cio’s burners hesitated for half a second before they kicked off, but the hesitation cost them.
Lido was cursing as she saw the edge of the chasm getting closer, and she knew they weren’t going to make it. She sent out a quick signal to those on the far side and hoped that they got to them before they fell.
Cio slammed into the wall of the chasm. Lido shook in the cradle. “Damn.”
She was holding them with the bot’s upper body on the far side of the chasm, but the rest of Cio’s body was dangling in the darkness.
“Hold tight, Lido. They are coming to help us.”
She grunted. “Trust me. I am not letting go.”
Kab arrived, and Myx was next to him. Duel murmured through the coms. “We have you.”
Lido was grateful that no one was telling her to hold on. She would have had to punch them, and she couldn’t spare the arm.
The other bots hauled away and gradually got Cio over the edge. From there, they dragged him in and helped him to his feet.
Lido spoke on open coms. “Thanks for that. If I could go back and kick my clan’s ass, I would. They neglected Cio. I saw it during Burning Day but never thought it would be an issue.”
“Don’t worry about it. It was bound to happen to one of us.” Corbyn was surprisingly cheerful about it.
“Clear the zone. I am making my jump.” The call came from Xaia.
Lido followed the others and got out of the way.
* * * *
“So, what have we learned?” Ai was amused as she got into position to start her run.
“We have learned that maintenance is key. Now, shall we dance?”
She grinned, and they started their path to takeoff. She pounded his feet as fast and with as long a stride as she could, and when they were in the air, the burners kicked in like clockwork.
Xaia stepped lightly onto the far side of the chasm and jogged to a halt.
She stepped up to the others as quickly as she could.
Iff was about to fly over, and no one knew how that would turn out.
* * * *
Nyvett sighed and did what she was told. She relaxed her grip on the arms, and she let Iff walk them to the edge of the chasm.
“Are you sure that this is right?”
“The closer we are, the shorter the jump. The shorter the jump, the less fuel we use. That is a desired thing.”
Nyvett tried to relax as the roar of the burners started behind her. They were positioned for liftoff, and that was p
recisely what they did.
Keeping her body in a relaxed position, she had to remain passive while he fired the secondary jets that moved them off the ground and over the chasm in a nauseatingly slow transit.
It must have taken all of five seconds before they set down, but Nyvett was covered in sweat. She hated being out of control.
“That was deeply unpleasant.”
Iff chuckled. “I thought it went well. We touched only five percent of my onboard fuel and reached our goal in good time.”
She groaned. “I don’t want to do that again.”
“Perhaps you can use the monorail to get home after you hand me off to a pilot.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I think I might walk around.”
“Good luck. The chasm is five hundred kilometres in either direction.”
Nyvett looked back at the huge gap. “Damn.”
“Indeed. They built it to keep the engineers in the valley. They will be so disappointed that it didn’t work.”
Nyvett blinked at that tidbit, and she felt the wings return to their compact position. So, the city wasn’t a fan of the valley? Too bad the valley was marching right to their door.
Chapter Four
The second half of the run was propelled by the jump across the chasm. Adrenalin was a powerful thing.
Corbyn couldn’t fathom that they had all made it. She had been sure that one of the bots was going down the fissure, and while one nearly had, they were able to pull it away from danger.
Myx was actually humming as they jogged at an easy pace with long strides that took them farther than each previous running stride. The bots had gotten the workout they needed to loosen up.
“Why are you so happy, Myx?”
“Well, I am moving again, so that is great. I also feel that we will find what we need at the city.”
She wrinkled her nose and kept walking.
“So, I know about your status as a guard, but what do you really do?”
Corbyn chuckled. “I do what the description says. I guard.”