By David C. Daoust
Ratchet had not seen hide nor hair of Craiden, Vincent, or his Aunt Mari. With all that had happened after the drone raid, no one had the chance to sit down and discuss it. It’s been one hit after the next; tensions between the two civilizations, Sadie’s beating, and Ratchet’s arrest and subsequent arraignment– Pulling everyone together to check on them, just didn’t happen.
Apparently, Ratchet had left Margo’s Data-sphere rolling around in the bottom of the Junk-bot after he broke his hand. Dicey came across it and ‘plugged it into the hole’. Her words.
Dicey and Margo became fast friends.
Ratchet was too preoccupied with all the problems to realize that no one had actually talked to Margo, and Harper… Ratchet grimaced. He didn’t know what she was doing, sure didn’t help.
It took Ratchet a bit longer than he felt was necessary to pry the whole story out of Margo, but he was pretty sure he’d gleaned all of what she knew about his missing family members.
‘Last Margo saw of his aunt, she was unconscious. Margo said Vincent did it! He doubted this, there had to be more to it. Some sort of confusion involved; Vincent would never intentionally harm Mari. Margo insisted Vincent threw a concrete laden street light at their tank, and then smashed it so hard it flipped the tank on its side- which was why Margo had pulled his Data-sphere to begin with.
Ratchet had a hard time believing Margo took on Vincent and won; he guessed her ‘real form’ was a bit more formidable then he’d previously envisioned. Her friend Colin, apparently, loaded her within the Mining-bot Form, all to right the tank and rush them all to the Red Faction base…
When pressed about the Red Faction’s involvement, Margo said Red Soldiers show’d up to help them. He didn’t believe the Reds would help anyone. The good news- the missing Haul’s weren’t buried under the rubble. But if Red Faction had them, why weren’t they mentioned in court? Or at all- anywhere? And how’d Mari end up in the tundra?
Ironing what the bot had told him was rough enough, but trying to guess what happened in-between was futile.
Ratchet also had to figure out what Hamlin knew. While the information gleaned from the fiery little bot was a bit more cohesive than the junk-bot, Hamlin really didn’t know much at all. In fact, Ratchet was pretty sure Hamlin learned more from the conversation than he did. Left Ratchet feeling like maybe he’d been out maneuvered. The ‘Aspirant’ seemed honest enough, if a bit smarter than his visage portrayed.
Now, they were trying to get the Sandcrawler moving, or rather, back to getting the Sandcrawler moving. Wresting back control from the Battle Drone, which now lay dormant in the middle of the vehicles bridge, was proving as futile as Ratchet trying to figure out the in-between stuff…
Hugo was still at the terminal itself, his frustration showed; there was enough data in there to keep anyone busy for days. Hamlin had managed to remove the back off the terminal itself, exposed wiring was hanging down around the Aspirant as he tinkered within. He had his head tucked up into it, made a comment about not needing a light that Ratchet could only puzzle over.
Ratchet, himself, had a power drill in his hand, trying to decide where exactly he could start to dismantle the Battle Drone. It was proving to be a very well built machine. Maybe there were special tools involved?
Ratchet was considering a jaunt back down to the hold- maybe find out if the Blue’s had a plasma cutter stowed away somewhere.
Mrs. Lauren got her husband to move Harper into her bed some time ago. The girls both followed along, as the surprisingly strong old man gently carried the young teen out, across his arms. The old woman had mentioned making food, so when the smell of stew wafted in from the kitchen, Ratchet’s stomach rumbled.
He glanced back at Hugo, whose gaze met his.
Suddenly Grace raced back into the bridge.
“Dinner!” she said it quick, turned and left again.
“I think we should eat,” Hugo said with a smile and a hand on his rather rotund stomach, “A break might do us some good.”
“You guys go ahead,” Hamlin’s voice could be heard coming from within the terminal. “I’ll keep at it.”
Ratchet let it be. He knew Hamlin didn’t need food, and still, Ratchet found the Aspirant honest. He didn’t have much of a qualm leaving him working on the dead vehicle alone. They were all at a loss to begin with.
Ratchet and the old Jin made their way from the bridge, discussing only briefly their failures to regain control of the ‘crawler, not only the ability to drive it, but also to send some form of communication from it.
The metal grating, that was the floor, rang out with their footfalls as they made the short walk from the bridge, down a short flight of stair and into the common areas that held the kitchen. The floors changed to polished tile, and furnishings became much homier. They entered a hall which leads through to the separate chambers that made up the living quarters, and turned off into the kitchen; all on the upper floors of the massive Sandcrawler.
Margo was off to the side, as Dicey was trying to pry a heart shaped toy up off the floor; she wasn’t having much luck.
“Just stop pulling down and I’ll carry you,” Dicey scolded.
Ratchet wasn’t sure what was going on over there. He grabbed two of the empty bowls set out on the counter, silently handed one back to Hugo and then politely offered to let the retired troubadour go first as Ratchet’s attention was pulled back to the small girl’s actions.
“STOP PULLING!” Dicey said again.
Ratchet was surprised when the toy responded:
“I don’t know how,” and then sighed morosely.
“Just don’t think about it,” Margo coached, “you’ll just know how it works.”
Ratchet did not find this bit of advice very true to life as he grabbed up the ladle and filled the bowl with stew. Maybe bots had a little bit of a different experience, with such things.
Mrs. Lauren smiled at him, which was almost surprising. Previously, she had been very cold to him, as had most of Grady. He wasn’t sure what had changed. Maybe the whole Battle Drone experience… maybe he didn’t seem as guilty as everyone else had surmised. Or maybe he shouldn’t trust the food… the thought only lasted a second, but it was enough of a pause for him realize that the thought was ridiculous.
He took his first bite and Mrs. Lauren left him to it.
It was good. It was pretty standard First Wave food, but it seemed like he hadn’t eaten in days. So it was extra delicious.
Ratchet found a spot at the table. Mr. Lauren was seated with a bowl of his own in front of him, Grace was across from him. Mrs. Lauren called for Dicey to come eat.
The small girl finally stopped pulling at the heart as she explained to her friends, “I have to go eat.”
She left Margo hovering over the strange toy on the ground, as Mrs. Lauren served the small girl a bowl of stew. Hugo took a seat, and Mrs. Lauren followed behind once everyone else was seated and eating.
“I put some aside for Harper when she wakes,” Mrs. Lauren said, “She’ll probably be pretty hungry… so you know… don’t eat it all up on her.”
“This is good,” Hugo rumbled.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Lauren answered.
Ratchet’s mind was tumbling thoughts around as he sat there eating, as it had the whole time he was actually working on the problem. At some point he just stopped thinking, shoveling food into his mouth taking priority. The idea hit Ratchet moments after he finished his first bowl: they had the software… and they had the hardware. What did they need the Hub for?
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