"I wonder, what exactly are these things?" Kate asked, poking some tubular plant-like thing. It shrank away from her touch, and she backed off immediately. "Obviously not the social type." she muttered.
"Quit touching stuff." Jim said from the front. "We don't know what any of this could do."
They walked in silence through the greenery, keeping their eyes open for a hiding place. A few times, Kate could have sworn she heard something, but found nothing when she went to further investigate. Suddenly, Morph and Jim stopped, the latter pulling the gun from his waistband. "Okay, so you heard that one, too." she whispered.
"Shh..." he said, putting a finger to his lips. He looked down into a tangle of plants, keeping totally silent, when a bronze... something jumped out yelling like an idiot. "Yaah!" Jim screamed, falling back as the thing crashed into him.
Kate stood back, wide-eyed. Morph took refuge behind her as she slowly figured out the thing looked like a robot.
"This is fantastic!" it yelled, smacking Jim in the head. "Carbon-based lifeforms come to rescue me at last! I just wanna hug ya and squeeze ya and hold ya close to me!" It hugged Jim tightly, swinging him around.
"Would you let go of me?" he snapped after three failed attempts at prying the thing off him.
"Whoops, sorry. Heh heh..."
"Jim... that... that's-"
"I – I – I've been marooned here for so long..." the robot interrupted, putting its arm around Jim's shoulders. "I mean, solitude's fun and all, don't get me wrong, but after a hundred years, YA GO A LITTLE NUTS!"
Morph turned into the robot, making a cukoo bird pop in and out of its head. Kate grinned, patting the shape-shifter as Jim gave the robot a "not amused" look. It backed off, looking apologetic. "Well, I'm, uh... my name is, uh..."
"Jim," she whispered. "That's a Bio-electronic Navigator."
"Yes!" it cried, pointing at Kate. "B.E.N! That's me! What's your name?"
"Jim." he said flatly, picking his gun up off the ground.
"Pleased to meet ya, Jimmy!"
"It's Jim."
"I'm Kate." she said, extending a hand. B.E.N. shook it wildly, causing her to wince as her wounded arm was jostled violently.
"Look, we're kind of in a hurry." Jim said, taking her by the shoulders and pulling her along. She threw him a grateful glance, holding her arm. "We gotta find a place to hide and there's pirates chasing us-"
"Pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! I don't like them!" B.E.N. exclaimed, gesturing dramatically as he leaned against a rock. "I remember Captain Flint. This guy had such a temper-"
"Wait, wait, wait," said Jim as he and Kate turned around.
"You knew Captain Flint?" she asked, slightly doubtful.
"I think he suffered from mood swings, personally, though I'm not a therapist in any way – you let me know when I'm rambling."
"But that means..." she said, eyes wide.
"You gotta know... about the treasure." Jim finished.
"Treasure..." B.E.N. said uncertainly.
"Well, yeah, Flint's trove, y'know? Loot of a thousand worlds." Jim said as Morph turned into a chest full of gold.
"Well, it's all a little- little- little- fuzzy. Wait. I re-re-remember. I do, I-" B.E.N. seemed to be malfunctioning, the effort of remembering the treasure being too much for him. "Treasure! Lots of treasure! Buried in the centroid- centroid- centroid of the mechanism! And there was this big door, opening and closing and opening and closing! And Captain Flint wanted to make sure nobody could ever get to his treasure, so I helped him- naaaaaaah data inaccessible! Reboot! Reboot! Reboot!"
SLAP
Kate stared at Jim as the now stable robot leaned back. "Did – Did you just slap a robot?" she asked.
"What was I supposed to do?" he asked.
B.E.N. seemed to come back to himself. "And you are...?" he asked them.
"But what about the treasure?" Jim exclaimed.
"I wanna say, 'Larry.'"
"But – but what about the centroid and the mechanism... thing?"
"I – I'm sorry, my memory isn't what it used to be. I've... lost my mind! Ha, lost my mind! You haven't found it, have you?" the robot asked, throwing Jim up against a tree and... patting him down.
"Uh..." he said awkwardly.
"My missing piece," B.E.N. continued, pointing at the back of his head. "Primary memory circuit."
"Look, Ben," Jim said, starting to walk away. "We really need to find a place to hide, so we're gonna be, uh... y'know. Moving on."
The robot looked disappointed. "Oh, uh... yeah. So, uh, I guess, this is goodbye, huh? I'm sorry that I'm so... dysfunctional." he said, going to his knees. "So go ahead. I, uh, I do understand. I do. So... bye bye."
"Oh, Jim," Kate said, grabbing his arm. "C'mon, let's keep him."
"What?" he whispered. "Are you kidding?"
"What? He could be useful. He knows where the treasure is." she pointed out. When he kept giving her his stubborn look, she widened her eyes and stuck out her lip, looking as pitiful as possible.
"Oh, no, not the – urgh..." He sighed, then looked back at B.E.N. "Look, if you're gonna come along, you have to stop talking."
"HUZZAH!" the robot cried, leaping up and immediately jumping into Jim's arms. "Oh, this is fantastic! Me and my best buddy out lookin' for a... a..." He faltered, catching sight of Jim's flat look. "Being quiet," he whispered, zipping his lips.
"And you gotta stop touching me." Jim added.
"Touching and talking," B.E.N. repeated, hopping to the ground. "Two big no-no's."
"Hey, Jim," Kate murmured as the robot went on. "We need to find somewhere soon. We're losing light, Amelia's in bad shape, and this is really getting annoying." She gestured at the bandage just under her shirt sleeve. Blood had soaked through, and at this point the cloth did nothing to help her.
"All right," he said, knowing she wouldn't get very far if they didn't get a proper bandage on her. "I say we start heading this way-"
"Say, listen," said B.E.N, reentering the conversation. "Before we go on this big search, would you mind if we made a quick pit stop at my place? It's... kind of urgent." The robot pulled back some greenery, revealing a tower on a hill.
"Ben," Jim said, laughing slightly out of relief. "I think you just solved my problem."