Between A Rock and A Hard Place
"Hey, Mr. Bittenborough. Ya see 'em yet?"
"Ma'am, just call me Davy..."
Lola jaunted next to explorerbot Davy Bittenborough on his high perch, a sprightly distinctiveness in her movements.
"And…? Whaddya see?"
Adjusting his binoculars, Davy squinted, sighing when he couldn't focus the lens properly. "I'm afraid I can't make heads or tails of what I'm seeing, ma'am."
"Lemme see that thing." With a swipe of her hand, Lola snatched the binoculars out of his clamps and brought them up to her photoreceptors, turning the knobs to focus it. Davy sat there, his hands clenching repeatedly before processing what just happened.
"Oh, Ma'am, please be careful with those, they are very expensive!" he said, grabbing at his precious binoculars like they were some kind of toy. Lola acted likewise, leaning away from his grabby hands; not that she really needed to because she was a good head taller than him. For a Steambot, she was quite tall; in fact, she was the tallest out of everyone in the colony. The only one who came close to competing with her was the crabby trader, Barnacle Jones. Needless to say, she took her height to her advantage often, intimidating bots out of making bad choices or just to playfully torture someone, like she was doing now.
Suddenly the lens started to focus, and she gasped, stopping her fiddling with the toggles. The fog cleared up and finally, she saw two tiny bots, one copper brown and the other bright red and turquoise; the former sitting atop a grassy, slow-moving rock, the latter attached to it by a rope and pulling it along. Lola tossed the binoculars aside in excitement, making Davy lunge for them as they floated along, headed straight for the rocky ground.
Not seeming to notice his distress she leaped down from the high point and said in a booming voice, "They's comin', so y'all better start tuggin'!"
Lola's call was heard loud and clear, as the handful of bots in the area scurried to where the rope was pinned to the ground with a stake, fetching what they could of it and started pulling, helping the process move along.
Lola practically bounded down there, her pointed feet digging into the dirt at the edge of the rock to stop herself from drifting off the edge. After struggling to regain her balance she righted herself and looked out, clamps set above her eyes to shield them from the brightness of The Core. Off in the distance, she could make out the two colored speckles that were the two 'bots she saw in the binoculars a minute ago. Waving, she hollered, "Hey, Rusty, Dorothy!"
A tiny brown limb waved back, a mutual merit in the action.
Dorothy was lost in a world of music.
Reeling and twirling in zero gravity, she kicked her legs along to the beat of the melody, optics closed in arrant enjoyment, imagining what it would be like to hear the original singer belt the song out in person, their voice fresh and dazzling as they sang the brightest notes and difficult bravuras.
She saw a high stage, the unknown form of the artist nothing more than a black, lanky figure. She danced and bounced along with the automatons in the crowd, singing the tune with all the gusto she possessed.
Little did she know that her bliss-induced daydream was leaking into reality, her friend on his resting place listening to her enthusiastic, slightly off-key singing with a goofy grin teasing his faceplates. Nothing gladdened him more to see his best friend just… be herself. Happy, stubborn, and silly. As it should be.
That moment the Earth exploded, and Dorothy broke down… his heart ached at the sight. Rusty's disappearance had reduced her to this shaking, emotional wreck, that even when he was found alive she couldn't hold in the tears. Sure, Fen being the next one to go missing and even the Earth being destroyed might have been the cause of her meltdown that specific time, but, he couldn't help but feel as if he played a part in her emotional boundaries breaking…
Frowning, Rusty shook his head. He hated seeing Dot upset, true, but for all he knew she had probably bottled up all her emotions during her journey. It wasn't healthy to keep them in. If anything she was doing better than before she found him. She was happy now… that's all that mattered.
Rusty turned around and lay on his belly, elbows in the grass and his hands cradling his head. He allowed the smile torturing him to finally show itself, watching Dorothy fumble around like a clumsy ballet dancer. She tended to do a lot of goofy things when it was just the two of them, but today she was content to act in a silly way around some of the other 'bots—in the form of bouncing around and trying to juggle a few pebbles. Rusty wasn't sure if she was especially happy today or just hyperactive, but it didn't retract any of his love for her regardless.
His smile widened, his eyes closing to form two happy, glowing half-moons. Rusty could sit there all day and watch her, reveling in her joy...
The Steambots had been working at the ropes for about five minutes, though it felt like ten to some. Who knew working in zero-gravity could be so strenuous?
The scientist from El Machino, Professor Sherman, conveniently timed her arrival just as Rusty and Dot approached enough to become clearly visible. She bobbled across the rock to near where the other 'bots were pulling the rope, right next to Lola. She wasn't friends with the barbot from Tumbleton, but she wasn't quite an acquaintance either. All she could say was, Lola was certainly an interesting character, that cared immensely for everyone.
Making friends wasn't Sherman's forté, anyway. She was all about numbers and physics and chemistry. Right now, she decided, was a perfect time for her to put her skills to use. She knew she could pinpoint the moment when both Dorothy and the other 'bots would need to stop pulling, as the weight of the rock would push itself the rest of the way. For all her brains the way things moved in zero-gravity baffled her, but she was determined to find out how the universe worked, and this was no different.
Her gears turning – quite literally – Professor Sherman looked at the rock Dorothy was tugging, then at the stake the rope was attached to, and back again, a finger tapping her chin thoughtfully. A few lookovers were all she needed to estimate the distance between the rock and the stake, the speed at which Dorothy was pulling the rock, and the safest point Dorothy should stop pulling at. She would reach it in about a minute… The other robots should stop pulling, but Sherman decided to ask Lola if she could tell them instead. She had a knack for grabbing peoples' attention since she was so outspoken and lively and… big. Much bigger than the other 'bots.
Lola nodded at Sherman's request, not hesitating to shout a "Hey! Y'all can stop now!" prompting the 'bots working at the rope to stop, some of them flopping to the ground, tired.
The two fembots looked back at Rusty and Dot. They were definitely getting close now, dangerously close, in fact. Dorothy should've had the right mind to get out of the way by now… was she not paying attention?
"Miss McCrank," yelled the professor, "You should really move out of the way!"
Dorothy didn't move. "Did she not hear me…?" Sherman scratched her head, looking to Lola for guidance.
"Dorothy, Doll, ya gotta move, before ya get squished flat!" Lola cried, a barely detectable panic leaking into her voice. Her face drooped into an anxious frown, arms crossing. A tiny hand patted her hip in a desperate manner, drawing her attention back to Professor Sherman, who looked beyond freaked out.
"She's got her music plugged in, she's not hearing us."
A wave of steam came out of Lola from many varied spots, suddenly realizing the gravity of the situation. Dorothy was going to get wedged between the two rocks, and they couldn't do anything about it, except for—
"Rusty! Cowbot, can you hear me?"
Rusty was drawn from his wandering thoughts by Lola's booming voice, photoreceptors widening to the size of saucers. He blinked and stood up, suddenly noticing how close they were to the other asteroid. Other bots were scrambling out of his direct line of sight, looks of utter terror on their faces, few of them yelling out Dorothy's name. Rusty peeked over the edge—
"DOT, MOVE!"
His "breathing" became quick and laden with fright as he tore down the front of the rock, yelling out his friend's name in hopes he could bring her out of her reverie. "No no no no, Dorothy, snap out of it!" The words tumbled out of his mouth all at once as his right hand started to shapeshift, a cone-shaped piece of metal emerging from within his arm, his hand deforming, clamps retiring into his wrist. With a burst of steam from his pipe and newly revealed drill he dug into the knots he and Dorothy had tied earlier, knowing he wouldn't have enough time to untie the knots, but perhaps enough to drill through them.
"No, Rusty, get out of the way!"
Rusty was too scared to be able to identify the voice calling out to him or to even listen. "No, Dot's 'n trouble—"
"Watch out!"
The next few seconds felt like hours to Rusty. The rock collided into the larger asteroid with a violent rumble, sending him flying—but not before seeing Dot's eyes, full of shock. Her pained scream was distinct to Rusty amid the collision.
"Dot!"
Dust erupted from the collision point, getting into his mouth. A pair of thick, firm arms caught him before he could connect with the ground, and he started coughing, trying to get the dust out of his pipes. Rusty was given a hard whack between his shoulders, and he sputtered, dirt trickling out of his mouth with a little water. He looked up at his rescuer – who turned out to be Lola – with an expression that spelled out pure horror.
"Oh, coggarn it!" someone cursed, bringing Rusty to his senses. He scrambled to his feet, hissing as he put his weight on his burnt one. But he could care less about his foot right now, Dot was in danger. In a flash he was at the crevice between the two boulders, his eyes glowing into the murky darkness below.
"Dot?!" Rusty screamed, receiving no answer. He squinted, barely able to make out a dark form amidst the dust. He tried fanning it away; anything to help him catch sight of his friend as soon as possible. "Dot!"
Rusty repeatedly shrieked out her name, his desperation boiling down to a panic attack when his empty results remained unchanged. Is she… no, she can't be… He clenched the dirt beneath him with an iron grip, steam shot out of his pipe like water from a hose, and his throat was starting to sting from his dying cries.
He sensed a presence beside him, that had tried to provide a little solace in the form of a hand on his back, but Rusty barely felt it; neither did he turn to look at them. If his friend was going to become visible, or if she was going to answer him within the next moment, Rusty was not going to miss it.
The minutes in which the dirt cleared up seemed like ages, his voice giving way into nothing more than hoarse croaks and his body becoming achy from his stiff, shivery composure. The second he finally saw his friend's face amidst the cavernous fissure, however, the world around him faded into a gray blur.
She wasn't moving, and her eyes were sealed shut.
They traversed the highway of light with excellent speed, putting their fear and diffidence behind them. No longer did they need to think about that horrible place; they were going to be free.
There was a noise. A deafening screech that reignited their fear, slowing them. Their eyes darted about frantically, seeing something sparkling in the far distance behind them. They jumped and willed themselves to move, fear turning into adrenaline.
It was absolutely no contest. Within seconds the sparks bounced off the walls and materialized in front of them, colliding in on each other, buzzing, whining, and manifesting into something. They screeched to a halt before they could ram into the sparks, and then slowly started to back away, nervous. Swiftly, the sparks constructed a luminescent wall with an incomplete opacity, words written in an incomprehensible language on the corners. Though despite the walls being slightly transparent, and they themself not being completely corporal, they knew they couldn't traverse through the walls as they did through the black nubs. Something about this wall seemed eerily familiar; like it was made specifically for them.
Something else was encroaching on them from the horizon behind them, and while it sent them into a panic, they knew that they were trapped and ultimately, there was nothing they could do except wait and see what would happen.
The something that was approaching them was, in fact, two somethings; that were not unlike them in terms of size. They were both a glowing neon blue and had a gray circle in the middle of them. The faceless creatures stopped uncomfortably close to them. One of them made a shrill, ghastly noise and paused for a long time after as if it was expecting them to answer to it. Not understanding it, they shivered a bit, liking neither the look nor the behavior of these things.
Suddenly the other one shrieked; an ungodly, terrifying sound that broke them right then and there and made them scream—and allowed them to hear their own voice for the very first time. The similarity was more than uncanny; it was the same sound and pitch as that of the creatures before them. The revelation raised some questions in their mind that they could certainly do without.
The shrieking thing trilled again and revealed their true self; something that would scar their mind forever: a face with eyes that pierced straight through them, and a jaw that bore toothy sets of razor-sharp fangs; armed and ready to inflict torturous pain. They cried and rolled out of the way of the beast's bite, then took the chance to run away from the two things, whimpering all the way. The two monsters didn't let up, chasing after them and chomping their maws. Before they knew it they had exited the lightways and were back in that horrible place, doing tumbles in the air, getting overwhelmed by their bright, noisy environment once again.
As they let out an earsplitting scream that was sure to cause harm to their vocal organ, they stumbled right into something, slipping right into it like a hot knife through butter. Instantly they were blinded and deafened from their preceding surroundings, sent into dark, empty-looking place. While their current location was a welcome change, swapping from location to location so rapidly was disorienting and they were left with their head spinning, vertigo making their vision swim.
This place… though dark it was, didn't feel claustrophobic, as if the darkness was closing in on them; rather, it held an air of familiarity and made them feel different in an intangible way… In fact, it almost felt cozy, as if they could fall asleep in it.
Bzt.
Sighing, their eyes drooped, their fight-or-flight disposition melting away.
Bzt.
They spread out their body a bit, snuggling into the darkness.
Bzt.
Their eyes opened fully, just noticing the repetitive, pricking sensation in their back. They were about to question it when—
BZZZZZ—
Their environment changed once again, and they swerved around dizzily. They felt different, an odd kind of different. They felt sluggish and awkward but at the same time stronger and… more dominant, they could say. They clumsily staggered around before connecting with a chrome pillar of sorts, and as they righted themself and gazed into the reflective surface, they finally saw their appearance… well, their new appearance.
Their figure was… odd, to say the least. What appeared to be their head was a rectangular piece of some hard material which had two curved antennae protruding from the top. The hard casing housed a black, LED screen, with two squarish blue things on it, glowing. They blinked an eye, and one of the blue squares disappeared. So those are my eyes, they thought. They looked downwards, to look at their torso. Their chest was wide and thick, appearing to be made out of some kind of alloy. It was held up by a spindly, flexible black wire, which connected to their waist: a metallic, bowl-shaped structure held up by two thin legs; the thighs consisting of oblong, sturdy plastic and the lower legs a skinny bar of red steel, their feet consisting of nothing put the pointed tip of the bars. Their arms were made up of metal tubes and circular elbows, thick red wires connecting the joints. For their hands, they had sharp, crimson claws, two on each hand. They tried to wiggle their newly acquired appendages, the sensation alien to them.
They weren't sure how to feel about their new look. It was all hunched over and odd, wires and tubing all over the place. But at the same time, they felt… stronger? More confident? All this change was happening so quickly and drastically; to say that they were disoriented was a large understatement.
The sound of movement reminded them that they were still in that frightening place, however, and they turned around, shaking; both fear and insecurity about their new body's mobility dissuading them from running away. In front of them was a creature with a near identical build to them, the only difference being that this thing's eyes were red.
"WE HAVE DETECTED AN ANOMALY IN YOUR SYSTEM THAT HAS LED TO A TEMPORARY LOSS IN ABOUT 98 PERCENT OF YOUR MEMORY. WE HAVE GIVEN YOU A PROTOTYPE SHELL IN WHICH YOU WILL CARRY OUT YOUR NEW DUTIES. PLEASE COME THIS WAY."
Its voice was low and monotone. It rang in their auditors, making them even more uncomfortable than they already were. They had so many questions; who were they, what are they doing here, and why can they suddenly understand what the creature was saying?
...They decided to start out with an easy question. "Where are we?" they asked, noticing that their voice had changed from its previous high pitch. It was now pretty similar to that of the creature's before them, if not identical.
"WE CANNOT SAY FOR CERTAIN; AS WE ARE STILL REWIRING OUR SATELLITE SYSTEMS. WHEN IT IS FULLY FUNCTIONING, WE WILL BE ABLE TO DETERMINE OUR PRECISE COORDINATES."
"Okay..." This creature seemed to know what it was talking about it, although the fact that it kept using the word "we," as if there were more of these things, unsettled them slightly. Despite this, they didn't see any reason not to follow. They didn't know their way around this strange place, and if what the creature said about having "duties" was true, then it would be wise to follow…
They leaned forward a bit, hesitantly lifting a leg. Swaying, they put their arms out for balance, moving the leg forward and taking their first step. They repeated the process, swaying less and less each time as they found their balance.
As they followed the creature they finally started paying attention to their surroundings, now realizing that it wasn't all that bad as they initially made it out to be. The floors were made of darkened steel and the walls of scrappy chunks of grayish metal, countless tubes and wires running everywhere in a dizzying mess. It was well-lit, fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling bathing the room; red and blue lights attached to wires and tubes blinking at a steady pace. Otherwise it was pretty empty; in fact, the only mobile things in the room were themself and the odd creature. But if the creature's words were anything to go by they were bound to stumble upon more strange things.
There was still one question nagging them, however.
"Wh-bzz-who are you?"
The two of them stopped by a sliding door, the creature turning to look at them. "YOU DO NOT REMEMBER, REBEL? WE ARE VECTRON, AND SO ARE YOU. WE WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW THAT, ALTHOUGH WE NOW HAVE TROUBLE CONNECTING YOU TO OUR NETWORK. WE MAY HAVE TO REWORK OUR ENTIRE SYSTEM, BUT YOU WILL BE A PART OF US AND OUR ULTERIOR PROGRAMS."
Something sparked within them right then and there, that kindled this inexplicable, yet somewhat familiar resentment towards this creature. It did not know who they were. They were not "Vectron," and they were not part of whatever grand scheme they were plotting.
They are Fen.
"Sir, don't go down there!" Professor Sherman said, her warning falling on deaf auditors. She scampered over to Rusty and Lola, the latter stopping Rusty from crawling into the crack by clinging to the back of his bandanna. Her efforts were mighty, and he put up quite a fight, his hand that wasn't currently shapeshifted into a mining tool groping for purchase beneath him. Making his hand go back to normal was the least of his worries right now; Dorothy needed him now.
The professor was easily able to interpret Rusty's motives, but at the moment she knew they were not at all a good idea. The sides of both rocks had cracked and weakened from the collision, making the inside of the crevice very unstable. "Rusty, listen to me!" Sherman yelled, and this time he actually obeyed, surprising her—as did his look of poor, desolate hope. It struck her wordless. She didn't know Rusty much, if not at all, but she knew what genuine worry looked like. Rusty was, out of everybody, the most panicked about the ongoing situation, and if Sherman didn't know better she would have said it wasn't because Dorothy was in danger—because it was. These two Steambots cared so much for each other, down to the point where they were willing to risk their lives for each other. In all her years, Sherman had never witnessed a bond so close and flawless…
Their friendship touched her, but that didn't stop her from putting safety first and foremost on top of her agenda. "The rock down there has become very loose. Any severe upset and it will all fall apart and collapse; something that, if Miss McCrank is still alive, is the last thing she needs right now," she explained, after taking a minute to regain her composure.
In his panic Rusty had a hard time processing her words, much less hearing them, but he heard enough to get a general idea of what she was trying to communicate. He allowed Lola to maneuver him down to the ground beside her, and as if he had no control over his movements, he fell limp on his back, steam hissing out near his eyes. He made a raspy-sounding whimper, raising his hand to his neck and pulling his red bandanna over his jaw, his adrenaline breaking down into fear.
"Rusty, oh, darlin'..." Lola cooed, raising him into a sitting position, draping an arm around his side. She could easily see the panic attack brewing in his eyes, so she was quick to whisper comforting words to him. "Shh… It'll be all right, we're gonna work as hard as we can to rescue her… Right, Professor?"
Sherman flinched at Lola's sudden shift to look at her. The professor quickly realized what Lola was trying to get at, however, and nodded, skittering back to the crevice and looking down into the darkness within. Sherman didn't have an ounce of knowledge as to how to comfort someone, but if she could use her skills as a way to brighten someone's emotional state, saving a life in the process—why, she wouldn't ask for anything else. The notion itself was satisfying enough.
She immediately went into analysis mode, scrutinizing every little crack and pebble that she could see in the crevice, occasionally hopping to the other side to get a better perspective. The opening itself was slim; too slim for Dorothy to be simply hoisted out. That and the minerbot was wedged between the rocks, so pulling her out was impossible to do, at least not without causing her major damage and – if she was still alive – pain. Somehow, they would have to push the two rocks apart… Sherman brainstormed ideas, possibilities, outcomes, anything that could possibly help with the situation. Tools, chemicals and pure horsepower were all considered, but in the end, she could only see negative outcomes.
She sighed, rubbing her temples. The main problem was the structural stability of the rocks' sides… if only there was a way to eliminate that problem—that is, without making any debris fall onto Dorothy. All of the ideas and stress was weighing down on her, giving her a headache. Sherman glanced over to where Rusty sat, huddling into Lola. He looked very upset, on the verge of a meltdown. She couldn't blame him though; if the life of a close friend of hers was on the line she would react in a similar way.
Lola was sorting through her own similar thoughts, looking down at Rusty sympathetically. Dorothy was such a sweet 'bot, so kind and helpful to everyone. Lola had known her for a very long time, longer than Rusty had, in fact. When the two met each other, however, Lola noticed a visible change in Dot's eyes; it was as if she was searching for something all her life and had finally found it. Turns out, Rusty felt the same exact way. They both felt lonely, so they could relate to each other. The rest, well… it was history. Their friendship bloomed into something beautiful, something that never merited turbulence such as this.
Steambots all over were mingling with each other, conversing in quiet murmurs about the situation. Some were asking if the 'bot that got caught between the two rocks was all right, while others were speculating just how something like this could even happen. All these negative ideas and thoughts were proving to be all but detrimental to Rusty, whose quivering was intensifying with each passing moment. She would have moved him a while ago but increasing the distance between him and Dot would only serve to make him worse… She decided she would distract him instead, attempt to take his mind off the situation. That was when she noticed his foot; a quarter of it was stained black, a tiny notch on the corner of it.
"Rusty, how did that happen?" she asked, her head slightly motioning to it.
Rusty eyed his foot before finally retrieving his drill and trading it for his hand, using it to clutch his foot as he curled into Lola a little more. "...I-I burned it. On Dot's jetpack..."
Lola wasn't sure if he was up to talking much, so she only gave him an acknowledging nod, waiting to see if he would continue.
"Sh-she tol' me that she found it after escapin' V-Vectron… said it was a m-miracle, too, 'cause she was badly injured, and wouldn't 'ave been able to get out of the mines otherwise."
"I see," Lola said when Rusty paused. He was in the mood to talk; that was good, in a way. So she let him talk; she let his mind wander. Away from the current crisis, away from the chance that he should emotionally break down…
Sherman paced around the fissure, practically radiating with dissatisfaction. She was so disappointed with herself, she's solved problems harder than this. Her thoughts were a big jumbled mess, like someone had taken boxes of puzzle pieces and mixed them together. All the ideas and possibilities overlapped and blended, and try as she might she couldn't wrap her head around them…
C'mon, Sherman, you're better than this! You're one of the first Steambots to build a rocket. If you can do revolutionary things like that, surely you can figure out how to push apart two damn rocks.
Her gears were grinding with an audible click-clack as her pacing quickened, and she balled her clamps into fists and rubbed them against her temples, as if she could summon an idea with the action alone. Steam jutted out her pipe as she stomped her foot on the ground, letting out an angry, stress-ridden yell. Why was this so hard to figure out?!
Hearing a distant groan, she perked up, turned on her heel and looked around curiously for the source of the noise. The groan was followed by a hiss of pain, which Sherman accurately traced to the crevice.
Her breathing becoming a bit flighty, she leaned forward over the crack, using a lamp a fellow 'bot had provided her to illuminate the darkness within. A single eye flinched and closed, hiding away from the light, another hiss of pain reverberating from down below.
"...M-Miss McCrank?"
The only answer Sherman received was a quiet whimper, but that was all she needed. Dorothy was alive—and Rusty was the first person to whom she should deliver the news. His engine was probably rattling in his chassis without any knowledge of his friend's well-being.
A/N: That was probably an odd place to end at, but this was getting too long. Hey, at least Dot's all right! ...Right?
