By David C. Daoust
Colin was a bit too distracted by the severed robot-hands, still attached to his upper arms, to really pay attention to what the nurse was saying. In fact, even if he had been paying attention, the cryptic garble that she had spouted upon their arrival, probably would not have made much sense to him to begin with. He did manage to decipher that there was a plan underway.
Luckily, Gordon seemed to be able to follow what she was saying, despite the slight slur and strong smell of whiskey, both of which spoke of this ‘steadiness’ Deloris mentioned.
Even with the machine-arms now severed from his captor, he found them locked in place. It seemed to him, that the damn things should just fall free… they did not want to play along with this idea however. They were closed tight, still digging into his arms. Arms, that he was sure, were bruised black and blue.
He thought maybe he could get the gizmo to release if he could get a look at what was going on with the damaged end… but they were at such an unusual angle that he simply could not manage it. Contorting himself around painfully, the other end of the severed arm was just out of reach!
Colin sighed.
The sigh, luckily, called the attention of Gordon, who, still mid-conversation with Deloris, immediately came over to try and help him with the problem. Considering Gordon Hitch had started his career off with advanced robotics, Colin was fairly confident he was in good hands; no pun intended.
The solid-light engineer handed him the flask, with a wink and a smile, as he went to work on the arms.
Colin accepted the flask slyly, his own swig bringing a disappointed look from Deloris, that was immediately followed by an eyeroll as Colin offered her the flask.
“Great, that’s great,” Deloris griped as she took a step forward, “we’re all going to be drunk…” she accepted the flask and took a drink herself, before she added sarcastically, “That’s sure to help us free Halfhul!”
“Free Halfhul?” Colin asked as though the question itself embodied ever so much bewilderment. He felt a bit loose as Gordon managed to free him from the first arm; not totally sure if it was from being freed from that iron grip, or the whiskey soaking in… “What exactly is going on?”
“You have not figured it out?” Deloris asked, somewhat surprised, “I figured they took you captive because you knew too much.”
“Really, I just saw too much…” Colin quipped.
“It’s probably my fault. I should have found a way to clue you in,” Deloris confessed as she handed the flask back over to Colin, “But I didn’t want to tip them off before Hitch could set off his device.”
“Well, I had my guesses,” Colin stated as he took another drink. He wasn’t sure what kind of whiskey was in the flask, but it was doing its work- fast.
“We have narrowly a bit more than our own guesses,” Hitch announced. And with a dramatic twist, managed to free Colin’s other arm. The severed robot-hand fell to the ground with a thunk. No sooner had he beamed triumphantly at his own handy work than he helped himself to the flask… and another drink.
“I don’t even know where to begin! Hulfhul’s been invaded- Your father, replaced by a bot…” Deloris then speculated, “Goodness only knows where he is. I’m sorry, but he could be dead!” With this, she snatched the flask back from Hitch, and took a much longer pull.
“All perpetrated by the Red Faction” Colin pressed his guess into the mix as she handed the flask over to him, “All so they could use this facility to build their ‘Assault-bots’? But the Red Faction runs every other Crucible in the system… why do they need ours?”
“Well, those are still operational— they are using them to mine resources, as intended,” Hitch put forward as he once again retrieved the flask, took a drink and speculated some himself, “But, really, who’s to say they are not using them all to build a massive army. More massive than we’ve already witnessed!”
“So, the Red Faction… well, they’re all bots?” Colin guessed aloud, as he accepted and drank from the flask, “Or, some of them are bots…?”
It was good whiskey.
“We’re not sure,” Deloris shrugged as the flask made its way back to her.
“It’s hard to imagine- bots running the Red Faction,” Colin posed, glassy-eyed. “Almost comical… What was that about a device?”
“Well Hitch here, managed to rig a shield that would block incoming signals,” Deloris volunteered the information.
“Signals from…?” Colin pressed for elaboration.
“Their tech—” Hitch was quick to answer, then explain further, “they are broadcasting from servers. They call them ‘Monoliths’. They plug their data-spheres into this device, and they are able to control bot-forms from afar. It really is quite impressive. I remember back in University these ideas were only theoretical. I guess they finally figured it out.”
“They take advantage of the solar-gates to broadcast all over the solar system,” Deloris put forth, clueing him into a larger idea, “The wormholes making any form of delay- nonexistent. Sound familiar?”
This was the same principle behind Colin’s ability to project himself to holo-mechs throughout the Onion. Colin absorbed the information, tossing it around in his mind, before asking, “You managed to block them with a shield? Then how is this ‘Overseer’ still operational?”
“Exactly the problem!” Hitch announced as though Colin won a prize, “His monolith must be here, somewhere on the station! ‘Only thing that could explain it. We had not planned for that, initially. I only planned to block incoming signals, the ones within are a whole ‘nother ball of wax… I didn’t really let it stop me though, I started sectioning off the station, to get an idea of where it may be located… with another shield I tried to corner him within a smaller and smaller section. I can only make it so small though. And really, that was when I discovered you were captured… The Shield keeps him from coming up here… but it also means the monolith, is down there- with him. And all those extra assault-bots.”
“As long as the Overseer is, down there, within the shield, he could find a way to tip off those without what we’re doing- we might get stopped right out of the gate,” Deloris, probably a bit too bubbly to be expressing such ideas, said, “We need to get him more than just corralled in the basement… we need to shut him down.”
“Just one of these assault-bots, is more than we can handle. And really, the one we trapped could have worked its way free… he only needed the will to smash through. Those traps are really only going to slow him down. We got lucky to boot, I doubt he will let us sit back and shoot another ball at him. Plus, I only have a couple left,” he said with a glance at the strange lance-like weapon he’d set off to the side, “While he has access to an entire factory floor full of assault-bots.”
“Ultimately, we have to find that monolith…” Colin put forth, a little bit of a slur appearing in his words, “disable it, best we can.”
“He is not going to just let us,” Deloris responded, “We have to find a way to combat him. To keep him busy, while we find the Monolith.”
“So, listen, a human body can’t take on an assault-bot…” Hitch informed, “upgraded or no.”
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me,” Colin’s bruised arms were there to attest.
“The hounds though, they did pretty good.” Hitch explained, “They can’t really be harmed, but they are not smart enough to understand what needs to be done…”
“You want to put me in a holo-mech?” Colin guessed, nodding the whole way through, before answering his own question, “I’m in.”
“I like where your heads at,” Hitch complemented, though his expression quickly fell as he realized he’d just received an empty flask.
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