Half an hour later he got a power warning signal. Apparently, the bulk of the batteries were situated in the lower body. A warning was displayed when there was one hour of power left, based on current usage. Just what he needed! At least the maintenance shaft was directly ahead of him. He hadn’t found any sign of humans or robots. But the surface here had also been stripped off. He could tell by looking at the maintenance hatch, which stood a meter higher off the ground than it should be. Great. He’d never be able to reach the console to enter his code and open the hatch. Then he noticed that it wasn’t even necessary, because the hatch stood open. As he had already suspected, someone had been here and hadn’t closed the hatch when they left.
When they left? Had they left? His lower body had disappeared, so he wasn’t alone. Maybe someone had been expecting him? Zhenyi had waved at the camera quite provocatively. Come and get me, she’d seemed to be saying. And he’d allowed himself to be provoked. But what was the point of all this? He still couldn’t imagine a motive, but there must be one. No one would go to such lengths without a reason.
Kepler had arrived at the maintenance shaft. There was no one out here, and his adversary certainly didn’t have magical abilities. If someone had lured him here, then he or she would be waiting for him in the shaft. But that could be a trick, too. He had absolutely no idea how it might work. Sure, the hatch could be set to close after he jumped inside, but wouldn’t it be much easier to destroy him like they had the autonomous units? Why would anyone want to trap him in the shaft?
It was no use. He couldn’t leave, so he may as well find out what was going on. There was just one problem. He had to get his upper body into the opening that was a meter and a half above him, using only his arms. Could he do it? Yes—he’d almost managed the jump onto the shuttle platform, which was two meters off the ground.
Kepler positioned himself directly in front of the hatch. Then he gave himself a mighty shove upward with his arms. He was flying! His upper body somersaulted, then he tumbled, crashing into the edge of the hatch. Luckily his robot body didn’t have any pain sensors. He fell backward. He planned to fall down to the hatch that led to the interior, then work his way up from the bottom. He passed the first side passage. Something grabbed at him. Two hands dragged him into the dark passageway. He didn’t struggle. He was finally going to meet the offender in person.
A helmet appeared in front of his face. He recognized the person inside the helmet at once, because he loved her. Her lips formed a sentence. He couldn’t hear, but his sensors translated.
“I’m sorry,” said Zhenyi.
Suddenly the battery warning illuminated. The bar shortened rapidly. It went from yellow, to red, to dark red. Someone was robbing him of all his power. There was a torturous whistling sound. Then he lost consciousness.
Cycle HW 6.3, Gigadyson
Johannes, what have you done now? The first thing Zhenyi noticed upon waking up in the control station was that a robot was missing from the opposite wall. If only the butler had said something sooner! Now she was two days behind him, 48 hours in which any number of things could have happened. She didn’t want anything to happen to Kepler. Since she’d been in his company again, she felt more stable. He was definitely good for her. Hopefully he hadn’t gotten himself into too much trouble!
Why hadn’t he told her what he was up to? She didn’t have an answer to this question, or maybe she did, but didn’t want to believe it because it hurt. And the butler hadn’t wanted to tell her where Kepler was going. She’d actually had to threaten him with a forced analysis, and she had been close to following through with it.
And then he had revealed the coordinates to her after all—with the proviso that he had to keep all other related details secret from her. Fine, that was something she could work with. She could cope with situations where she didn’t have all the information.
Zhenyi unclipped herself from the bracket. Fortunately, she already knew this robot model, so she wouldn’t need long to get accustomed to it. The way out was to her left. With her left hand she braced herself against the inevitable pressure equalization, pressed the fingers of her right hand into the six openings, and the door opened. The station only had one shuttle, so she was expecting to have to recall it first. But when she arrived at the hangar at the side of the station, it was already waiting for her.
That wasn’t a good sign. If Kepler had flown to the surface with it, the shuttle should have waited for him there. Unless he sent it back. Or unless it had established that it wouldn’t be needed anymore because its user no longer existed. But that could have been misinterpreted. The shuttle only had a very limited AI, so there was still hope. At least this way she wouldn’t lose any time. Zhenyi jumped onto it, secured herself with the line, and started the thruster.
There was nothing. Zhenyi surveyed the area in all wavelengths, but it was completely empty. She had almost hoped Kepler would be standing and waving from the surface, happy to see her because he had accidentally sent the shuttle back to the control station. Just to be sure, she flew over the area twice and checked it with all the active sensors. And she didn’t find a crumb, not even dust. Even if Kepler’s robot had been torn to pieces by an explosion there should be remnants of it. There really was nothing here.
But there was another maintenance shaft. She now put all her hopes in that. Maybe Kepler’s power had run out? She checked the shuttle records. It had landed significantly further away last time. If Kepler had thoroughly searched this entire area on the surface first, and then checked out the shaft after that, then maybe his power hadn’t been sufficient to get back to the shuttle?
What had Kepler even wanted down there? Hopefully she’d soon be able to ask him. But wouldn’t the shuttle have observed something? Zhenyi searched through its memory. Ha! There were actually recordings from the surface. They showed an empty honeycomb section. But the shuttle only stored the last 24 hours and Kepler’s visit down there was already two days ago. The shuttle must have waited for him for 24 hours, then returned to the station. It would only do that if it was no longer receiving any signs of life from its user.
But that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Kepler couldn’t be dead! The shaft blocked radio transmissions, more so the deeper you went. That time Kepler had problems on the interior of the Gigadyson, they hadn’t heard his calls. Maybe he’d followed the thieves into the interior. That would be just like him.
Zhenyi gave the shuttle the command to land right next to the maintenance shaft. There was no danger out there at the moment. The shuttle had barely set down before she released her safety line and rushed to the entrance to the maintenance shaft. Now she saw what hadn’t been recognizable from above—the hatch was sitting much higher than usual. Someone must have removed the surface of the entire section here. What was that supposed to achieve?
She pushed those thoughts out of her mind till later. Kepler was the priority right now. He must be under the hatch, waiting to be rescued. At least she hoped so! She imagined his dead body bumping into her as soon as she opened the hatch. She didn’t want that, but she couldn’t get the image out of her head. And it wouldn’t actually happen like that—she’d be greeted by robot scrap.
She entered the code, pausing after each key. But there were only eight digits. The last was an upper-case L. L stood for Love, she noted. Zhenyi took a deep breath and the hatch opened. She cautiously lit up the shaft. It was empty. That was lucky. Or not. Because now she still didn’t know what had happened to Kepler. Would she have preferred to find his remains? At least then she’d be sure. The uncertainty was driving her crazy. If someone had killed him, she’d devote all her energy to finding the culprit. She thought about how they’d sat together in the blooming bush, submerging themselves in the world of the Herbae. It was a much nicer world. They should have stayed there.
Time to move. She brought her thoughts back to reality and hauled herself into the shaft. The robot’s sensors provided her with a 360-degree view, although s
he could hardly process the resulting image. Humans weren’t designed to be able to see simultaneously in all directions. She selected the 180 degrees that lay in front of her. The confusing sphere shrank to a flat canvas.
“Johannes!” she called out over the radio.
He should actually be able to hear her now. The deeper she went, the less likely it was that he’d be out of radio range. Zhenyi turned into the first side passage. She couldn’t go too far in, because she’d lose sight of the shaft. To be safe, she kept turning around. If something happened in the shaft, she couldn’t afford to miss it.
There was nothing on this side. The passage was completely empty. She crossed the shaft and checked the other side. About ten meters in, her flashlight beam fell on something unfamiliar. She approached it cautiously. The object was resting on the floor. The infrared sensor revealed that it was as cold as its surroundings. It appeared to be two columns, about a meter high, standing close together and connected across at the top. Then Zhenyi recognized what it was—legs—the lower body of a robot. She looked down at herself. What? The lower body was from the same model as her own. There had only been one robot missing at the station. So this must be part of its body.
Shit, it had to be Johannes. Zhenyi lifted up the pair of legs. They were undamaged. Who had done this to her best friend and lover? They must have removed his lower body without resistance, because there was no damage to be seen. The module had been disconnected correctly from the upper body. Had Kepler already been unconscious? Or had he agreed to this? Had someone threatened him?
She’d find out. And she’d punish those who were responsible. She activated 360-degree vision, but assigned the semi-circle at her back to the robot’s limited AI, with the instruction to warn her if anything approached. She was clearly not alone. There was no reason to stash Kepler’s legs here. Was it a decoy, perhaps? Possibly the criminals had guessed someone would follow him. They probably also knew who that might be. The decoy was for her. Maybe they were also hoping she’d get so worked up over it that she’d get careless. But she wouldn’t do them that favor. Quite the opposite. No one would be able to sneak up on her. The sensors in her robot body didn’t tire. She was safe on all sides.
Zhenyi put Kepler’s lower body back down. No, it wasn’t his body. It was just a piece of metal that he didn’t need for survival. As long as the robot’s primary memory storage wasn’t destroyed, she could still rescue Kepler. That gave her an idea. There wasn’t just one centralized memory. So that the legs could fulfill their function, the lower body had its own memory. It must have recorded what the lower limbs had been doing. Zhenyi called up the schematics of the robot type. Unfortunately there was no connection she could use to read out the memory.
But wait a moment—she was in an identical body. So she just needed to attach her upper body to Kepler’s lower body, and she should have access to the memories in his legs. Zhenyi checked her surroundings in all directions. She was alone in the passageway. She stood directly in front of the legs and then disconnected her upper body. Putting her arms on her hips, she heaved her own upper body onto Kepler’s hips.
Done! She quickly reconnected the spinal cable and tested her legs. They were fully functional. Now she had access to their movement data. She closed her eyes to help her concentrate better. This was weird! At first Zhenyi thought it was an error. The right leg had repeatedly moved, but not the left. What had Kepler been trying to achieve with that? Had he lost his mind? It looked as though he’d stood for hours on the same spot, repeatedly stamping his right foot. Maybe there was no mysterious attacker after all, and Kepler had just gone crazy and done this to himself.
But that didn’t ring true. He’d always been the sensible one. Still waters run deep, the saying went. But Kepler had always been a long way from insanity. On the contrary—few people were as sensible and thoughtful as he was. Sometimes that irritated her, but she had always been able to rely on him. He must have done this for a reason. Whatever it was, she’d ask him herself. But she now knew that she only had to look for the upper body.
Zhenyi turned around. Her own legs were standing in front of her. She would have preferred to command them to follow her, but the lower body didn’t have the necessary sensors. Without help, it could only walk in a straight line. If she found Kepler’s upper body, she’d have to bring it here. That would be funny, she thought. It would undoubtedly foster a more mutual understanding. Zhenyi suddenly noticed she felt much more optimistic, as Kepler always was. Could that be because she was walking around with his lower body? No, she was just imagining it.
She started moving forward, back along the passage, then let herself sink into the shaft. The two side passages in the middle were completely empty.
“Johannes? Answer me!”
No answer. If Kepler was still alive and if his radio was working, then he must be in the interior of the sphere. Otherwise he’d hear her. Still, she checked the lower side passages just in case. She found no trace of him there either.
So, the interior of the sphere. When she reached the hatch, Zhenyi paused. If Kepler really was a decoy for her, then the moment would soon come when she was supposed to bite the bait. The enemy could be hiding directly behind the hatch. The level of radiation in the interior of the Gigadyson was so high that none of her sensors would be able to detect any meaningful signals. She wouldn’t know what was hiding behind the hatch until it slid to the side. Would she find a deranged Kepler, or an attacker attempting to destroy her? She had to be prepared for anything.
Her robot body was more utilitarian than her biological husk. She didn’t need to breathe, she could react more quickly and see a lot more. But the enemy could also have planned for that. A radiation flash could destroy her electronics. The robot was protected, but only against normal cosmic radiation levels. If the enemy were to destroy all her circuits, her consciousness would dissolve.
She had to be careful not to swallow the bait. Zhenyi hesitated. She could still withdraw. Wasn’t it Kepler’s own fault for going on such a dangerous journey alone? But wasn’t it also she who had dragged him into every dangerous situation with her? It was down to her that he’d gone in search of her in the first place. If she’d left him alone, who knew how things would have turned out? They certainly wouldn’t have found themselves here. No, Kepler would open the hatch if he thought she might be trapped behind it. She had no alternative. It was just infuriating to know that she might be falling into the trap of an unknown enemy.
The lights on the hatch told her there was no danger beyond it, at least in terms of radiation. Zhenyi entered the code. The hatch slowly slid to the side. It became incredibly bright as radiation in all wavelengths burst into the shaft. She had to reduce the sensitivity of her sensors. Then a net fell across her face. She hadn’t seen the attacker. They had used the moment that the quasar at the center of the Gigadyson had dazzled her. That was smart. But Zhenyi wasn’t stupid either. Before she knew it, the net had closed around her. They would have calculated it precisely to withstand the robot’s maximum strength. She had to conserve her energy. They clearly didn’t want her dead. So, at some point there would be an opportunity to free herself. She just needed to wait.
The power warning light flashed on. Something was sucking her power away, rapidly. It was impossible, yet it was happening. The bar had been green a moment ago, now it was deep red. Then it was empty. The world went dark. Good night, Johannes, was her last thought.
Unknown cycle 0.0, unknown location
“Zhenyi? What are you doing here?”
Kepler tried to hug his girlfriend, but something was stopping him. He looked first to his right, then to his left. His arms appeared to be fastened to the wall and he couldn’t move his legs either. He was still in his robot body. The room was also completely unfamiliar to him. They were clearly no longer on the Gigadyson, definitely not in the control station, and certainly not in Zhenyi’s base on K2-288b.
Zhenyi was standing calmly in front of Kep
ler, scrutinizing him. She didn’t seem to be happy to see him. Her expression was more one of curiosity, but also a certain skepticism.
“Come on, tell me. Where are we and how did we get here? How long was I out for?”
So many questions, and he kept thinking of more, because now he was starting to remember the last few hours. Why did you attack me? he could have asked. And how are you involved in the manipulation of the Gigadyson? But Zhenyi didn’t look like she was going to provide him with any answers.
“I understand you don’t trust me for some reason,” he said. “But can’t you at least let me down from the wall? And it would be great if I could get my body back.”
He looked down now, at his legs. They wouldn’t move, but at least he had them back. Hadn’t his lower body been stolen? Now it was clear who the thief must have been. But what was her motive?
“You’ll have to do without your body for a while longer,” said Zhenyi.
He recognized her voice again. The person in front of him was obviously Zhenyi, the woman he loved. But the sentence made her sound inflexible, as though there was some fundamental obstacle. Well, they weren’t in Zhenyi’s base, nor were they on their way to it. And there was no hint of love in her gaze. What had they done to her? And who or what had done it to her?
“I don’t care what you think of me, but you do owe me an explanation, don’t you think?”
Zhenyi shook her head.
“You can’t just leave me hanging here on the wall!”
“I certainly can. The question is whether I want to,” she corrected him.
Yes, that sounded like her. That was the Zhenyi he knew well. She just seemed to have forgotten what existed between them.
“At least you’re talking to me,” he said. “That’s a good start.”
The Death of the Universe: Ghost Kingdom: Hard Science Fiction (Big Rip Book 2) Page 13