Chapter Four

 

 

Xaia was eating an apple during the testing, and she noted Lihanna standing and sweating, her gaze flicking to the zip line.

Xaia walked over. “So, you are on refuelling tonight?”

Lihanna nodded, the chalky pallor didn’t look great on her.

“Have you been drinking?”

Lihanna got a green look on her face, and she rushed to the edge of the balcony. The sound of her retching caused a number of the Turo clan members to murmur and step away.

Xaia tossed her apple core over the edge of the balcony, and she wandered over to Lihanna. “Little sister, I will take your shift.”

Lihanna retched again before looking up with a grey and sweaty face. “Really?”

“I have done it before, and I am not afraid of heights. Leave me to it and say that you accidentally grabbed an alcoholic beverage, rather than your phobia took over.”

Lihanna whispered, “Ai doesn’t like me.”

“Well, if you look ill when working on him, that would do it. He is sensitive.”

The burn was complete, and the conversation was quiet as they waited to see the train come to Bot City.

When the monorail activated and the cars slid to the loading station, Xaia stepped toward the zipline. A clan elder blocked her path.

“Lihanna is going to do the refuel.”

Xaia nodded. “That is right. That is what the records will show.”

The elder sighed. “I had hoped she would get over it.”

“Honour can’t fight phobias. I will take the moment to work for my sister, and she will get the credit.”

Behind the elder, Xaia could see the first of the refuelers zipping toward their bot. “We are being beaten by the Leving clan right now.”

The elder huffed and stood aside.

Xaia ran up to the line, grabbed the handle and kicked off. She knew she could never make it before the other clans did. She simply had too far to travel.

The wind ruffled her hair and the snug fit of her suit allowed her to glide along the line without getting cool or making a lot of noise. She swung her feet slightly to make the cable bounce, and when she landed on the platform, she gave a slight pirouette, like she always did.

She tiptoed over to the panel and used her print access to begin refuelling. “So, Ai, how has your night been? Looks like we will need a bit of buffing to take out the scorch marks tomorrow.”

She looked over the metal and enamel; her gaze caressed the grounding channels that ran down his outer casing. He was in pretty good shape considering his age.

Xaia looked out over the bot field and saw the tiny figures at the refuelling stations. The army of bots had become half a dozen. It was amazing that they had managed to keep the bots up and running for as long as they had. Xaia loved working on Ai, but getting the right parts was becoming more difficult.

She completed the refuelling procedure, and when the gear was stowed, she turned to grab the line and activate the return motor.

Xaia jumped when the alarm sounded, and her heart pounded in her chest. “Seriously?”

She ran to the pole and slid down to the ground, bouncing lightly as she landed.

The sprint to Ai’s leg made her feel vulnerable. With danger approaching, she kept low and tried to focus on remembering the emergency code. She knew the code for repair access without any hesitation, but the emergency code was different.

Xaia slapped her hand on the access panel and said without confidence. “Access code Turo-Calo-Alpha.”

A secondary screen appeared, and she moved her hand on top of it.

Tiny pinpricks pulled blood from her hand. “Welcome, Xaia. Is something amiss?” Ai’s voice was amused and familiar.

“Apparently, we have been given the call to the city. We need to get you there, Ai.”

“Please. Come aboard.”

The inner door slid open, and she stepped into the lift. The dizzying ride upward was marked with jarring twists around corners and changing from back to front, but when she was finally stationary, she opened the lift and stumbled out and onto the command deck.

“I can’t get moving without you, Xaia. You have repaired the harness and equipment enough times. You know what it does.”

The pilot’s cradle lowered from the ceiling.

She swallowed. “Right. How are your nanite levels?”

“Sufficient for this run but low. I must admit that I am looking forward to the city.”

“Do you know where to go?” Xaia hoisted herself into the cradle and exhaled slowly as the bot’s electronics embraced her.

“I do. May I have a complete connection?”

She paused. “Is it necessary? We are going to get you a proper pilot.”

“It is necessary if you wish to use any of my defense systems.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I know, but it is still a little weird.”

“Understandable, but this is how I was designed to function.”

“Right. Of course, Ai. Consent has been given.”

“Excellent. The connection will be forged in a moment.”

She felt the cool tendrils of metal against the base of her neck a moment before the spikes injected a small amount of nanites into her bloodstream on the way into her brain.

Light, colour, waves of sensation ripped through her as her senses synched with Ai’s. The way he felt the world around him was definitely different than her own perceptions, but it was basic understanding underscored by a mechanical mind based on the imprint of a Terran pilot from the original landing on Hera. No tech had been spared to create the defenders, and every piece of the colony vessels had been mixed with crashed alien tech to make them suitable for human use only.

“You are thinking some very interesting thoughts. I didn’t realize you had my schematic committed to memory. It is quite flattering.”

Xaia was still grappling with the new way of seeing things as her mind synched to his systems.

Her eyes could see the expanse around her and even the distant glow of the city. As she was gazing around her, she heard the discharge of a weapon, and her rear cameras showed her that Myx was moving and firing at something above them. The ground-shaking thud seconds later swivelled her attention forward, and the glow of a bright ball of energy and metal was now in her sights.

“Are we under attack?” Xaia whispered it softly.

“Yes.”

“Shit. Is it Corbyn in Myx?”

“I am checking... That does appear to be the designation of his pilot.”

She could see Myx pivoting and firing with increasing accuracy at incoming targets.

“Are your weapon systems online?”

“They are.”

“How do I use them?”

“Open your mind, and I will explain.”

She exhaled, inhaled, and relaxed with her mind blank. Hundreds of years of information streamed through her brain, the original navigation through the stars to Hera, being placed into storage, being woken and set into the bot body, and then, things got blurry. She saw battles, broken bots, and blood on the decking within the command area.

After that came the rush of the engineers, the next pilot and then more battles and pilots after that.

With the information came the muscle memory of the pilots who had been in the cradle before her. She began to line her body up with Ai’s position, and then she flexed her fingers. She could feel the motion in the metal around her.

“Long-range targeting.”

“Online.”

She lifted her head, and his array moved with her. She saw what Myx was shooting at and raised her arm to fire her own pulse.

The weapon that was in most common use by the bots was a magnetic railgun that propelled a minute speck of radioactive material toward their targets. The hyper-dense material travelled along her targeting line toward her intended destination.

The ball of material shattered into flaming chunks, but it was lower than she had hoped. Her rear cameras showed that the observation stands were clear, and the only remaining visible humans were the ones on the armoured towers.

“Are your coms up?”

“They are.”

“Are the other bots up and running?”

“Myx is the only one currently capable of communication.”

“Put me through to him.”

“You are on coms.”

“This is Xaia-Ai, are you receiving me?”

There was a pause. “Xaia-Ai, this is Corbyn-Myx. Are you ready to run?”

“I have complete function.”

“Good. Can you defend two of the others?”

Xaia smiled. “I can. I will guard Len and Kab.”

“Great. I am going defend Cio and Iff. When we are all mobile, we will run for the city.”

“Good. I will get the boys up on their feet.” Xaia grinned, fired a few more rounds at incoming projectiles, and then, she took her first steps back into the valley to protect two of the bots who had not come to rest on their feet.

The balance of the bot was nowhere near her own. She took careful first steps, sliding her feet slightly above the surface of the valley floor before taking the next step.

“You are doing very well, Xaia. All those dance classes are paying off.”

She blushed. “I am amazed that you remember that with all the engineers who have come and gone since I was a teen.”

“It was very amusing to see you dancing through my systems.”

She adjusted the angle of the cradle and took a more natural step. “It was such fun to be here back then. You were all I had dreamed of.”

“Well, I know you are worried right now, but I am having fun.”

Xaia quirked her lips. “I know. I can feel it.”

“Can you blame me? I was made for this, and it is the first exercise I have gotten in centuries.”

“I don’t blame you, but keep your sensors sharp; we are trying to get all the surviving bots up and running. We can’t afford to—whoa!”

The bright light from ahead of her stunned her for a moment. Ai’s sensors told her what she already knew. There was a fire next to a bot.

Ai’s sensors identified the bot in question as Len, and the fire was coming from the fuelling station next to him. If there was a maintenance person there, she was dead already.

Xaia did what she could. She moved faster.