"Hey, take it easy there, major," came another voice, that of a tall, grey-haired man who had stepped to the front of the crowd.
"You want to die too, mister?" said the major.
"No sir. I want no more deaths here today."
"Then tell these folks to get their tails in gear before we open fire."
"We're not your enemies. What's the idea of coming in here like this and disrupting the lives of simple working people?"
The major cocked his weapon. "You got five minutes, understand?"
The old man wilted. "Yes sir."
Something snapped inside Astro, and he dashed over to the man. "My name's Astro Tenma. What exactly is going on here, and can I help?"
The man turned to him. "I'm Terry Johnson, young man: mayor of this town. What could somebody like you possibly have to offer against these ... these barbarians?"
Astro discretely showed his arm cannons for a moment. "I'm no kid. I'm a warrior android, and I'm ready to keep anyone else from being killed here if I can help it."
The mayor stared at him. "I ... I don't know what to say."
Another man dashed over. "What'll we do, Terry? They mean business."
"I don't know myself, Joseph, but this kid here ..." He pointed to Astro. "... is a robot. He's armed to the teeth, and he's offered to help us."
"Well," said Joseph to Astro. "What can you do?"
Astro pointed at the soldiers. "I should be able to disable that entire unit in a hurry with no loss of life on either side."
Joseph turned to the mayor. "Let's let him try it."
"But what if the military comes back on us for it later?" said Terry.
"Listen, we can't get into any more trouble than we're in already. Let him at them!"
Other people had gathered to listen in on the discussion, and there was a murmur of approval.
"Well, son," said the mayor. "It seems that we're agreed. Please do what you have to."
Astro quickly scanned the street. "Okay, get everyone to back away from the soldiers and their stuff as quick as you can—maybe as if you're going to do what they say—and I'll get my backup."
As he sent the computer commands to get Dragon to come over, he wished the robot had a radio.
When Dragon appeared, he said, "I want you to pull all those vehicles and robots together and hold them."
"I will also attract all other metal in the area."
"Yeah, well, it can't be helped. We've got to stop this right away. Come on!"
He ran out into the open, and Dragon swooped straight toward the military. One of the manned robots noticed it coming and raised its arm cannon, but suddenly it and every other metal object within twenty metres leaped toward Dragon. Several soldiers did try to hold onto their weapons, but were simply dragged toward the mass of machinery, and they let go just before they got pulled in.
Astro shot into the air and, flying just outside of Dragon's range, blasted the five cannons.
"Okay, Dragon," he shouted as he landed again. "Drop them over here!" He pointed to a clear area near him and away from the townspeople. Once the robot had done so, Astro pointed his arm cannons at the dazed soldiers, who hastily put up their hands. Noticing that the manned robots were getting back on their feet, he told the mayor, "Gather up the weapons and take these guys prisoner." He then ran over and tore the access doors off the backs of the robots. Pulling out the pilots, he set them on the ground near the other soldiers.
"What's going on here?" roared the major, the first of the soldiers to get his head back together.
Astro turned to him. "Welcome to the Resistance, sir," he said. "You're our first prisoners."
"There's a Resistance?" said a man beside him.
"There better be," snapped Astro. "After what's just happened here, if there isn't, you're all dead, guaranteed. If we work together against Orkan, we've got a fighting chance. Now, you got a place you can put these guys up for a while?"
"Why don't we just shoot them and get it over with," said another man.
"Because that would make us as bad as them," answered Astro.
"He's right, you know," said Mayor Johnson to the man, then turned to Astro. "You keep saying 'we' and 'us'. Does that mean you're giving your support to that 'Resistance'?"
Astro stopped. Oh no. What should he do?
What choice did he have? If he left to find Luna, these people wouldn't have a chance. If he stayed, they might be saved, but she ...? He gazed up into the cloud-covered sky. "Oh Creator, what have I done?" he muttered under his breath, then said out loud, "Yeah. Yes, I'm here to help."
A tear trickled down his cheek.
"That was a good idea, Jack, putting all those vehicles in the old Ridoco warehouse," said Mayor Johnson to one of the men gathered around Astro in the local coffee shop a little later.
"That's right," said Jack. "At least the military won't know what's happened to their unit for a while."
"Do you think they might have homing devices on them?" asked another man.
"I can check for those right after the meeting," said Astro, and touched his antenna. "I can detect a wide spectrum of radio signals."
"You wouldn't happen to have a jack knife and can opener in your hand too, would you?" somebody at the back asked, and people chuckled, though Astro didn't get the joke.
"Alright, everyone," said the mayor. "We've still got to plan for a visit from the military in the next few days."
"It's too bad Kid Android here shot out those plasma guns," said a man to Astro's right. "They could have been useful."
"I've gone up against those robots before," said Astro. "You don't want to mess with plasma weapons, trust me."
"How tough are they?" asked Jack.
"One vaporized my foot once. Only some help from the Creator got me out of that fight alive."
"You're a robot, and you believe in God?" Joseph asked.
"Enough of the chit-chat, gentlemen," interrupted Mayor Johnson firmly. "What are we going to do about this situation? Ideas please."
As the discussion dragged on, Astro was startled to notice how fidgety humans were. They would rub their noses, scratch their scalp or whatever, stretch, clear their throat, any number of little actions that they appeared to take for granted. It's not like he hadn't noticed these before, but it was different seeing it in a crowd. And it was the first time he had fully realized that he didn't do such things—androids didn't do such things. That's how somebody might be able to tell that he wasn't human at an inconvenient moment.
He spent the rest of the meeting studying people's mannerisms and developing a program that would allow him to randomly do his own when it was necessary for him to blend into a crowd.
A couple of hours later, the meeting broke up. Those with military or hunting experience were given the best weapons, and they were to get dug in around the main entrance to the town, which was called Creekhollow. A base of operations was to be set up in the community centre with a two-way radio, and Astro was to be their eyes in the sky.
That done, Astro headed over to the warehouse to check on the big robots. As he gazed at them, he scanned the radio bands for homing beacons, but came up empty. However, the infrared communication devices caught his eye, and he wondered if he could get his own body to use them. Carefully prying one off, he laid it on the back of his hand, and asked his processor to talk to it. After a few seconds, he got a carrier signal, which told him it was live: now he needed to test it. Jumping into a cockpit, he powered up the robot and searched for a microphone. Oh, of course—it would be in the helmet. He found one of those on a table nearby, then realized he'd need another person to make this work.
He went back to the coffee shop, but everyone had gone by then. Sitting on a bench, he held his head in his hands and sighed in frustration.
Why had he done this—created and joined the Resistance here?
Oh yeah, destiny. Dr. Elefun had told him that destiny 'is the path that comes most naturally to you ...'
His actions had certainly come naturally, so that must mean that it was more important for him to look after these humans than to find Luna.
Okay Creator—or God, or whatever your name is—I guess I'll have to trust that you'll do the right thing with her. I'll give my hope to you, but I'd sure like to see her again, you know. Really, really.
"You okay?"
He jumped and spun around to face a boy about as tall as he was. "Oh, uh, hi," he said. "I'm fine, I guess. What's up?"
"Nothing much," said the boy. "I just saw you here looking kind of worried."
"Well, yeah, but hey, I'll get by. By the way, I'm Astro. What's your name?"
"Will. My real name is Wilbur ..." He gave a slight shudder. "... but my friends call me Will." He got a faraway look in his eyes. "I don't have many friends."
Astro's heart went out to him. "Will, I need some help."
His face lit up. "Really?"
"Uh-huh. Come with me."
"All you need to do is get in there ..." Astro pointed at the cockpit of the big robot. "... and talk into the mike of that helmet you're wearing. I'll be out here listening for you."
"Okay," said Will, and he climbed up to his post.
Astro trotted out front of the robot and clearly heard the boy's voice say, "Testing, testing." He then sent back through the transmitter on his arm, "Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. This is the coolest! Hey, I can see you on this screen."
"Which screen?"
"The one that just dropped down from my helmet."
"Oh yeah? Let me see." Astro jumped up to the cockpit and put the helmet on. True to what Waterland had told him, his field of view followed his head. "I know!" he said. "We could outfit these robots with regular weapons and use them as mobile gun emplacements. I mean, the armour on them's outstanding."
"Cool!" said Will. He grabbed a control and swung one of the arms around in front of the robot. "This is easy!"
Astro saw an aiming cross hair appear on the helmet screen. "You're right. I hope we've got some kind of engineer around who can rig it up."
"Joe Arammis can do it; he does car repairs, and he fixes Mr. Drew's robot butler when it goes weird."
"Okay, take me to him."
After a lengthy, meandering conversation that went from the current crisis in Creekhollow to the quality of fish he'd caught 'down east', Joe Arammis promised to take a look at the piloted robots to see what he could do with them.
As they headed back downtown, Astro asked Will, "Do you know if there's a junk yard around here, or some place that has lots of scrap metal?" He wanted something for Dragon to use when battle came.
"Yeah. I got to be heading home for supper now, but I can show you in the morning, if you like."
"Sure. I'll meet you in front of the coffee shop."
"What of me?" said Dragon some minutes later from the corner of the warehouse where Astro had told it to wait after the battle. "I will need energy very soon. The work today has pushed my level to critical."
Astro sighed. "There's no power in here, even if they had a recharge station, and the only guy with one won't share. Where's your power supply? I'll have to give you some of my energy."