By David C. Daoust
Vincent had witnessed firsthand just how indestructible the body he currently inhabited was, having personally launched the small stunt-bot through the air, smashed it through brick walls, and pummeled it into the asphalt, all in an attempt to get the small bot to leave him be. Now it was his turn to enjoy its qualities. In truth, he was unclear how its skin would react to the bullet fire he had tried to shield from Mari, though he had selflessly thrown himself in their path anyway, and was almost mystified when nothing came of it.
The assault had proven to be a hologram.
Vincent was surprised that he had not recognized it. Most bot eyes were not equipped to read holograms, not in a way that could fool them anyway. No expense was spared on this bot apparently.
The new body was impressive, until he first tried to move the woman from the examination table. The bot was weak! The imposed weaknesses of the body, made him feel as though he was a limp noodle, especially when compared to the digs he was used to.
He managed to wedge himself under the woman and, despite the safety rings that threatened to slip free, rolled her onto the floor. Mari landed with a rather odd thump. He heard her moan as his small girl form followed along behind.
He listened to the raspy voice of the robed leader, it sounded familiar to him, though he could not quite place it. The fuzz had only increased as the small group of soldiers, the ones that had accompanied the Commissar into the room, was each a bot in turn. He knew that they had to be feeling him as well, as was the way of strange bots, though for them, it was only one strange bot, one source of static. To Vincent, it was a roomful!
Vincent did not have much care for what these three humans were saying to one another, a bunch of hogwash about nothing, posturing and threatening action, instead of taking it. He did wonder what device the doctor had triggered. And who exactly had punched through where? He doubted they were going to answer to a small twelve year old girl though, so could not do much more than wonder.
“Major Sims,” the dark haired woman suddenly said sternly as Vincent peeked from behind cover, “How many times do I have to fire you this week?”
The man did not respond, though Vincent could tell by the grimace he was not happy with the situation.
It was then that Vincent’s attention was pulled to Mari, as she began to awaken. She seemed uncomfortable, and held her hand to one ear.
“What?” the woman said loudly, seemingly to no one. “Not so loud! I am awake.”
Vincent did not know who she was talking to, as she groggily rose to her feet. Standing up amongst the standoff, she interrupted the room full of armed soldiers, each with a weapon trained on the woman before the door. The look on Mari’s face as she took in the surroundings was priceless.
“Where the…” Mari said still holding her ear; she seemed to be trying to listen. The dark haired stranger suddenly stood up from his cover as well to try and help the confused woman.
“Ms. Swan…” Dakota said as she approached the woman to try and steady her. “Please, you should not be up and around just yet.”
“Haul… Mrs.” Mari corrected the doctor, still groggy and distracted, “Mrs. Haul… Where is my son? I was unable to find Dr. Sun in time… Why are they pointing guns at that woman?”
“I am Dr. Sun,” Dakota informed, clearly confused by the jumbled information the exhausted woman was ranting.
“They have my son locked in the brig…,” Mari suddenly said, wobbly.
Vincent had no idea how she could know that.
“My goodness…,” still listening, “She’s going to turn off the sun…”
No sooner had the woman made her confusing proclamation about ‘her son’, ‘Dr. Sun’, and ‘the sun being turned off’, than Vincent witnessed a lot of strange things suddenly happen at once.
The first of which, was that all of the Red Faction Soldiers, that had accompanied the Commissar, suddenly collapsed, powerless, notably relieving some of the static that had plagued Vincent since their arrival. The Commissar was suddenly stripped of his protection, leaving only the original medics within the med bay, and ending the standoff.
The second, and truly the strangest, was when the dark haired stranger that had protected the doctor when the assault first started, collapsed as well. The man did not collapse like the soldiers. It was as though he flickered off, the clothing and armor that he wore suddenly dropped to the ground, empty. Leaving only a strange round device, with two lenses where his eyes may be, ‘looked a bit like a legless crab on the heap of clothing left behind.
The look on Dakota’s face when the man suddenly collapsed into nothing was even more priceless than Mari’s but moments before.
Vincent could tell the good doctor was calculating what she had just witnessed. She picked up the device, and turned it over in her hand. Suddenly it shattered from within, and began to fizzle as if it had acid poured all over its circuitry. Dakota dropped it as though it may harm her.
Vincent witnessed as Dakota collected the small hand gun that peaked out of the pile of clothing at her feet.Vincent grabbed up one of the guns, dropped by the bot soldiers when they collapsed, and took cover, unclear as to whether or not he was going to have to defend Mari.
Dr.Sun Stood silently for a moment.
“She turned off the Solar Gate!” Dakota announced quickly, as though she was the first to answer a given riddle, then asked “Who’s she?”
“Noreen,” Mari answered as she leaned heavily on the examination table in front of her, resting her head in her hands, without a care that the name meant absolutely nothing to anyone else in the room.
“Only the Arks have such power,” the Commissar interjected. Indeed the solar gates were a part of the arks’ systems, these gates regulated all power, all energy, and most importantly… all communications.
Dakota then turned to the hologram of the dark haired woman, and pointed, “You’re here…” she said, “You’re in this planet’s system…”
Vincent understood that if this woman was broadcasting from anywhere else in the Onion, she would have lost her signal when the gate was closed.
The dark haired woman then turned to the Commissar.
“Your Monolith is here too!” Suzanne said knowingly, accusing the Commissar of nonsense Vincent didn’t understand, “I should have known, though truly, I had no idea just how many of your kind used them.”
The Commissar could only stand and witness, as the blue-banded soldiers suddenly flooded the room. The medics, bots included, all stood with hands raised high.
The one thing that did interest Vincent, when the men clearly had control of the room, they pulled the hood from the Commissar, revealing no human underneath, only what Vincent recognized as a bot. It was then that Vincent realized this was a bot he knew, a bot he had worked with so many years ago. The only way he could have not recognized him as a bot, was if Vincent was already used to the fuzz of this bot’s presence.
Though the commissar-bot was now vacant, it stood stiff as a statue, the consciousness that had been their moments before, gone… as though his data sphere had been pulled.
<<<Yeah, so, I had a bunch of ideas, and they all happened to be revealed at the same time. I suspect it may have resulted in the most confusing thing ever written, but you know, at least I did that with my life. ty,DD>>>
