Chapter 27: Chapter 27 – Escape (1)

Wave unloaded an armful of scavenged parts in front of Ngi, and the collected arms and legs landed a pile of scrap metal. They hit the ground with dull metallic sounds, lamenting the improper treatment, but they had to get in line behind Wave’s own hurting extremities before she would pay any attention to them.

The swarm of drones buzzed in – Wave had captured each of the little guys and coupled them with her lens – and it illuminated the display for Ngi to make his choice.

"This one looks good." The robot nodded its head toward the pile, but Wave couldn’t tell which body part he meant. Tentatively, she raised one arm in the air and wiggled it.

"No, the other one. The one with the tube running into the palm."

"Ah, this one?"

Ngi nodded.

"Why didn’t you say so from the start?"

Wave crawled over to him and slid the arm into the socket under Ngi’s right shoulder plates.

"Wave, that’s the left arm ..."

She frowned and looked at the arm and socket more closely. "You’re kidding me, right?"

Ngi was silent for a moment, then he laughed.

"Stupid tin bucket. If I didn’t need you, I’d be downright tempted to just let you rust away here."

Wave whistled and another drone flew up. A cute little thing with apple green painting, which once belonged to a Tek and had a built-in laser solder. Wave only had to change the battery she’d salvaged from another drone, and it was running again. Probably half the stuff lying around wasn’t broken at all and she could think of at least ten people who would kill her for a chance to dig into a gold mine like this.

The drone emitted high-pitched sounds and the contact points of the wires started steaming. Then tiny black droplets sprayed from an opening next to the laser, sticking to the bare wires and coating them. Wouldn’t be funny if Ngi’s fuses blew out after a circuit short. With the job done, the little drone obediently hovered back, next to her head.

"If they’d known a human would ever end up in this place, I’m sure they wouldn’t have dumped so much useful stuff here," Wave said, proud of her drone’s work.

"They’re not completely stupid, after all. At least they stole my arms and legs so I wouldn’t fix myself or run away."

The chute on the ceiling opened, scrap fell in, and rolled down to the chipper in a rushing avalanche. Fortunately, they were far enough away to be concerned. Somehow, though, even the stuff on the edges had to get there at some point, and she’d rather not find out how.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Wave still held the arm in balance. If she let go, the cables wouldn’t hold it and all the work would be for nothing.

"Have you ever put a shoulder back in place?" the robot asked.

Wave nodded tentatively.

"It’s the same with us robots."

Wave swallowed. She’d dislocated her arm before, too. Just happens in the wilderness and hurts like hell. Hurt even more to fix. She inhaled, and as she exhaled, she jammed the arm into the socket and Ngi screamed like he was being slaughtered. Wave looked at him, aghast, and he fell silent.

"Sorry Wave, you should have seen the look on your face."

"You ..."

"Are you angry? Use that! Because you'll need twice as much strength for the legs. Without machines, I bet it’s like hell."

Thanks to the suit, Wave was able to use a little more strength, otherwise it would have been really hard to put Ngi back together.

Sweat dripped from Wave’s forehead and the Synth suit clung to her body as she finally heaved the second leg into the mount. She had already shortened her suit to her shoulders to cool off a bit. Oil splatters shone on her bare arms, soot and grime-covered other areas. She didn’t even think about the new scrapes that would inevitably occur as she worked with the metal.

The sight of Ngi rising shakily and, after two steps, balancing over the scrap with self-evident sureness, compensated her for the grind. He was now a motley mix of colors, with lots of added trinkets. Test-firing, Ngi started the laser welder, one of the extras she’d given him.

"Hot," she assessed his new appearance. "I wondered, as a robot with a soul, do you actually feel weird walking around with body parts of your scrapped brethren?"

"Yeah, sure, totally weird." He faced the hatch, which opened again, then shrugged his mechanical shoulders. "So actually, same as always."

Wave followed his gaze. Climbing up there was impossible because he couldn’t climb properly. But maybe that wasn’t necessary. She waved her head at him. "Come on, let’s tap the walls."

Wave climbed up robot bodies that formed a slope, higher, toward the outer wall of the room. At least the bodies weren’t people. The thought revived the memory her dream had shown her earlier. Yes, with her adoptive father’s ability, she would have simply cut the walls open and in another reality, another version of her would have destroyed the entire room with just a thought. But that would have been the easy way out, a way – as she now knew – of no return.

A hollow sound echoed through the room as Ngi knocked on the wall. He was already up while she, the true climber, was still stuck in her thoughts.

"Behind that is either another room or endless emptiness," Ngi assessed the sound. "Don’t look at me like that. I would survive in a vacuum. You too?"

"Do you think they shot us into space?"

"Probably not. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn you." With that, he aimed his arm at the wall, and the auxiliary motor – necessary to operate the laser – clattered and started moving. The actual beams were invisible, except for the red dot on the wall that indicated where it would weld or cut. The dot glowed as the laser heated it, and slowly Ngi performed a circular motion, then another with a different radius. When he was done, he kicked the wall and the piece he cut out fell into the space beyond. The shape of the opening ...

"You’re having fun today, aren’t you, Ngi?"

You could walk through that opening, so it counted as an opening. However, you had to stick your arms up in the air at an angle to do so.

"Saw it once in a drawn documentary from the pre-ice age."

Wave groaned. He meant a cartoon in which one of the characters had run straight through the wall with his arms outstretched. She somehow couldn’t understand why Kanter wanted all robots to get emotions when they’d encountered someone like Ngi.

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"Besides, they’ll know we’re coming with peaceful intentions if we hold our hands up."

"Then I’ll let you go ahead, okay?"

Ngi shrugged.

"And please activate the force field, nonetheless."

Crackling, it jumped into action, Ngi climbed through the opening, and Wave followed him. They were greeted by a small group of people in blue jumpsuits and the yellow lettering of the Kanter Group. They were pushing around crates on antigrav transporters. At least they were until they spotted the wildly patched-up Ngi and ran off screaming.

"Well, raising your hands worked great," Wave remarked dryly, coming to stand beside him. "Okay, do you know the way out? It’s not like we can ask anyone now."

"How about we take the -"

A green beam shot toward Ngi, beaded off his force field, and traveled to the antenna they had mounted on his back. Not a drop of energy was to be wasted here.

"Can you tell me where the exi-"

Something slammed into Ngi’s breastplate with a bang, and Wave instinctively took a step back.

"Who still uses projectile wea-"

Another shot hit him. It crackled, and Wave smelled scorched electronics.

"Ngi, we should run!"

Only where to? Wave let her eyes wander around the room. Two exits. Through one, the normal staff had disappeared; through the other, security was just rushing in. Men in tight-fitting Synth suits, just like hers, only in blue and yellow and not particularly attractive on everyone. The security guard who had just shot Ngi looked suspiciously familiar to her.

"That’s one of the men who’d been following me," Wave noted. It was Finn, the guy with the superhero face, only now without the glasses. Those had probably just been camouflage to make him seem friendlier. So was the fact that he and the other one worked for Akimoto.

Wave eyed the bridge that ran along the upper part of the room. They couldn’t get up there. "Come on, we’ll take the other exit."

Ngi crab-stepped toward the other exit and Wave used him for cover. That was okay, he could take a lot after all, even if she remembered him as much bigger and stronger from her childhood.

"Shouldn’t we run, Ngi?"

"Sorry, I guess those legs aren’t compatible with me after all."

Kanter’s security guards continued to cheerfully shoot at him with everything they had but didn’t dare get any closer. Good thing they didn’t know he was a pacifist.

They were already halfway to the exit when a part of Ngi’s chest plate exploded and he started twitching. First on his arms, then his legs started moving in choppy patterns as well.

"Can you go any further?" Wave asked anxiously.

Ngi just went to his knees for an answer. Crap!

"Oh come on Ngi, you’re a combat robot at heart, get back up!"

"Wave, run. I’ll stop them ..."

Ngi’s voice failed, his head sank forward and the next bullet hit him. This son of a bitch was still shooting! Then he yelled orders and the security guards rushed forward. In their blue uniforms, they resembled a huge wave about to crash over her, and there was a roaring in Wave’s ears. The rock she was hunkered behind would offer her protection only until it had rolled over it. Wave’s head pulsed and her vision blurred, like a windowpane pelted with rain.

Meeting Ngi had awakened so much hope in her. He had cheered her up with his wry sense of humor and given her confidence. Wave had believed they would make it out, but there was no escape. She would not be able to flee, not this time, and the security would throw her back into the junkyard or kill her outright once they passed Ngi’s motionless body. Wave held her breath, feeling the tingling on her body, like a thousand tiny drops of water, harbingers of the tide.

Now she was all alone again. There was no one left to stand by her, there was only her and the enemy. Those people who had taken Aki from her, who had been the catalyst for everyone turning their backs on her. The tingling became a pull that was now tugging at her mind.

Wouldn’t it be okay to just give in to that urge? To rid herself of the danger with only a thought? She couldn’t let this wave of evil swallow her up as well.

Something inside her told her it would be perfectly fine, and she gave in. That she had resisted at that moment would have been a lie anyway.

The floor shook and the air shimmered as Wave put her hands to her temples. She imagined the security guards simply disappearing, this hall tearing apart and dissolving into dust that the wind of oblivion would blow away.

The security guards stumbled and jumped aside as a crack split the floor. It was as wide as a hand. A little more, then ...

"Wave!" it echoed from Ngi’s speaker, and she startled. "What are you doing?"

That wasn’t Ngi’s voice. Who ...

"Fearless?" she asked, dazed by what she was about to do. By what a thousand other Waves in a thousand other realities were still doing. No one had interrupted them, they were indeed alone. Wave caught a glimpse of the destruction they were wreaking there, the men plummeting screaming, then the vision dissolved.

"Yeah, that’s me! Look, I’ll turn off the lights, then you run, okay?"

"What about Ngi?"

"The robot? Don’t worry, he’s still alive and I’ll get him out."

The light turned off, Wave took a breath and tried to get rid of the tremor that the exposure to her ability had caused. Then she ran toward the second exit. She felt relief that Fearless had stopped her. There were still people standing by her side, after all, and she was not lost yet.

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