Chapter 13 City Where the Sun Don't Set
We were greeted with gunfire the second we came off the ship. "You were told, Captain, by my Commander, that this was not the Groundbreaker." came a Corporal's shout. I saw his name tag on my HUD was Corporal Lee Scottson. He was deploying automechanicals to defend his position.
"We have to get past them, or there will be no way to save Phin!" I yelled to Paisley.
"I getcha Cap'n!" she called to me. She had one hand on the side of her pistol, firing into the ranks.
I pulled out Thor. "There's one thing you don't know!" I called to Corporal Lee, "I have a heavily modded weapon made just for your stupid machines." Phineas must've calculated UDL would deploy a command of automechanicals. To demonstrate Thor's capabilities I fired on a few of the combat drones and they instantly crashed into oblivion.
"Shit!" the Corporal yelled. "What kind of weapon is that?!"
"It's a Science Weapon!" Paisley laughed maniacally as I took out more than half of his squad of drones and automechanicals.
That's when a bunch more soldiers came up out of nowhere. Uutari was putting up a huge fight. Well so were we, and SAM was leading the pack. He sprayed a few soldiers with firehose power water and they all fell on their asses like bowling pins. Soaking wet bowling pins. "I'll c-clean up this mess, and th-that one!" his audio stuttered but the point was still made.
"Somebody put that automech out of commission!" yelled Corporal Lee.
"Will do, Corporal! Boy, I hope I get a promotion, or at least a pay raise for this." A soldier with a shock cannon came up and pointed it directly at SAM. SAM wasn't paying enough attention as the cannon was reared up on him.
I yelled, "No!" but it was much too late. The blue shock burst surged from the cannon and right onto SAM. He stopped in his tracks. Then he vibrated for a split second as electricity flowed all around him, frying a lot of his systems. Then he collapsed in a steaming heap. I shot at the UDL flank that had dropped my SAM unit, screaming as I ran toward him. "SAM, Laws no!" I went into a slide on my knees as I approached him and then I was above him.
"SAM, I'm sorry I couldn't save you…" I sniffled, trying to hold back my tears. I was in the middle of a battlefield, I shouldn't cry.
"Cap'n, we gotta go now!" Paisley was behind me, shooting at more soldiers. I didn't even look up.
"Do not be apologe-eh-tic. You cannot help me now." SAM said slowly, his audio chips failing.
Snot was beginning to build up in my nose and I let a tear fall, "You mean so much to me, SAM. You were just starting to come into your personality! I can't just turn you off."
He reached out and touched my face softly, "You must leave me now, the Uuuu…Deee..Ell...forces are going to overtake you if you do not…transferring files…systems failing…I do not want you to die." then he lowered his arm.
I knew I was crying at that point, and I didn't care who saw me. "Cap'n!" Paisley yelled and I glanced at my shoulder at her.
"They'll destroy you!" I said, and stared at the lasers going off all around and the bullets flying. I turned my attention back on my fallen companion.
"Then deactivate me and take my drive. I promise you, I will be okay…" his voice trailed off as his lights flickered and nearly went out permanently.
"I haven't even been able to install that acid steeper I planned on. I have no idea what's going on with that…" I stared down at him and I knew he was almost fully shut down. "Goodbye for now, SAM." I reached out and flipped the switch. Then I took the mind drive, no way was I losing this baby. All of SAMs memories would be on it if it was salvageable. I was a scrapper, and I thought it entirely possible. "I'm not losing you today, buddy." I whispered and pocketed this chip. Then I hopped up and ran toward the Second Star. "Paisley!" I yelled to her.
"I got him Cap!" Paisley grabbed hold of the downed SAM and began dragging him toward the ship. I was on the boarding ramp by that point and I had to cover for her or she'd get shot. I fired out on the UDL men and they turned their attention to me. I ducked and just barely missed getting my face vaporized by a plasma beam.
"Hurry!" I called.
"He's fucking heavy! Jeez, lose some weight, will ya SAM?"
"Hurry, hurry, oh please hurry!" Phineas was behind me. "Here, take this pistol," he shoved something into my grasp. The Shrink Ray!
"You're trusting me with this?" I had wide eyes.
"Of course I do, now go out there and show them who's boss while we help Paisley get SAM on board."
I pointed the gun at a few of the officers and when they went miniature they all screamed. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. "Not so tough now, are ya guys?" I said, stomping up to them. If I wanted to, I could crush them beneath my boot. They were a little taller than action figures.
"Damnit, fall back, men, fall back!" Corporal Lee Scottson wasn't so tough now, was he.
We advanced on the UDL squadron and they fell back into their ship. That's when we met with Phineas and Walt on the boarding ramp to the Second Star. "ADA," I said into my datapad, "Take off and meet us back at Phin's lab."
"Will do, Captain."
Paisley held off any remaining UDL forces and up the boarding ramp we went. "Time to hit it Walt!" Phineas yelled.
In the cabin bay I saw a strange looking pod. The insides were frosted over and the glass was covered in ice. "Is that a cryostasis chamber?" I asked.
"Yes, that is what they look like."
"Guys! UDL is hailing us. I can't stop the transmission." Walt called. Phin ducked into one of the cabins to hide.
"You are under direct violation of UDL clause A.14 of Title 47 of the fleet command paragraph B 35 contract." said Uutari. "If you do not cease this action we will be forced to shoot your petty ship out of the sky, so to speak."
"So to speak, right." I rolled my eyes.
Walt's face grew red with rage, "Do. Not. Call. Her. PETTY!" he lowered the boarding ramp, and I wondered what the fuck he was thinking. Then as we flew past the UDL gunship, still docked, the legs of the Second Star and the boarding ramp smashed right into the gunship, completely destroying it. I heard Uutari yelling just before the transmission cut out. We made it out of the docking bay just as the doors closed behind us. We were that close! "She is not petty," Walt huffed. Phin came out of his hidey hole.
"It's okay, babe, just breath," Paisley put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed his back there.
"That was great thinking, using the boarding ramp as a battery ram." Phin beamed at us, "Excellent crew you got here, Alex Hawthorne."
I blushed, "Why, thank you!"
Then my spirits dropped. "It's not a total victory. They killed SAM." I stared at the robot lying in his heap in the entryway. I sighed and said, "I think I can still fix him."
"That's the right attitude!" Phin encouraged me.
"Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself, Cap'n." Paisley grinned cheekily at me.
"Thanks." I gave my crew a smile, "Good job everyone. You all did very well."
"Aren't those two sentences a little redundant?" Walt turned his head to look at me for a brief second.
"Maybe, but I'm giving you all high praise, so don't take it for granted."
"I appreciate it, Captain." Walt nodded.
"It was no problem at all. Okay, maybe a little problem when you had me covering for you for a good five minutes. That's a long time on the battlefield mister!" Paisley said.
"We have arrived at Phin's secret lab." Walt said.
"Oh good! Can someone help me move the cryo pod?" Phin asked.
"I will," said Walt.
"Paisley, help me bring SAM back to the Unreliable?" I asked her.
"Of course!" she nodded vigorously.
Once all was said and done we reconvened in the dining area of Phin's lab. He and Paisley went off to do some cooking and Walt and I were left on our own for a good hour. I stared at him as he wrote something down on a pad of paper. "You don't use a datapad?"
"Datapads are not really my style. I enjoy hand writing things. Helps practice my handwriting, something you should never give up. Makes things more personal."
"If you don't write things in a datapad, how do you let the Board know the job you did?"
"Oh, I edit it as I transfer it to a computer document, when I type it on my personal computer. But I'm technically still retired, so I don't know if they will care. I don't even know if I can tell them half the stuff we've done anyway. That ship we got docked next to yours? Exploded! Quite the story for my grandkids, if I had any."
"You just like to write huh?"
"Yep."
"I like to write too, but I edit as I go. Because I just type it up straight away…you get it."
"Yeah."
"Do you even want kids?" I asked him.
"Of course I do. But I've made some mistakes in life that have led to me not having any. Maybe I have a second chance, thanks to you."
I took it as his way of showing gratitude, "Don't mention it."
"Paisley is a good girl, I hope I don't fuck up again."
"She's also a little young for you, but maybe she's just into older men!"
"I don't take kindly to being called old." but he knew I was just teasing and he smiled it off. We were getting somewhere! "What are you gonna do about poor SAM?"
"I'm probably going to order some replacement parts, retrieve his acid steeper from wherever the hell it ended up, and then repair him. I haven't checked his memory banks or mind drive, but I'm hoping it's all salvageable."
"Knowing you, it surely would be."
"Thank you!"
Paisley and Phin entered the room, "Dinner…is served!" Paisley added a little flair to her words as she put a lidded dish down. Phin brought out some plates.
"We made casserole!" Phin smiled. "Some leftovers from last night in the fridge, a celebration for tonight."
"Yeah, Phin's been talking my ear off about how he's planning on using the little amount of dime ethyl sulfoxy or whatever to wake up the man sleeping in the pod."
"It's dimethyl sulfoxide, Paisley." Phin corrected her.
"Oh whatever! I didn't understand half the crap you said to me anyway." she was only joking around but Phin didn't pick up on that right away.
As I served myself I told him, "She's fucking with you, doc."
"Ohhh!" his eyes lit up in recognition as he scooped some casserole for himself.
Little boy Blue was at my feet and he was panting. I snuck him some casserole and he gobbled it up in no time flat. "Good boy!" I pet his head.
"Are you feeding that dog?" Walt stared at me as he plopped some food onto his own plate.
"He deserves some of our victory casserole too! He's just as much a part of this."
"You never really told us the story of how you got him." Paisley said.
"Yes, do tell," Phin nodded at us.
"This lady severed her marriage contract and I had to retrieve Blue from her dumbass husband."
"What made him a dumbass?"
"He was your typical white dad, thinking the world revolved around him when it clearly didn't!" I snarled a little, angry just thinking about him.
"Whoa, easy there tiger!" Paisley giggled behind her hands.
"Where's that music you mentioned? I like some good tunes," said Walt.
"I don't know if you'd like what I have to play, but I do have to say, I managed to find some new tapes before UDL caught on that we had boarded." Phin looked devilish, proud of himself for stealing more Earth music. "I think it's in another language, though."
"That's fine!" Paisley nodded.
The song that played was fast paced as it started,
"Kawashita yakusoku wasurenai yo
Me o toji tashikameru
Oshiyoseta yami, furiharatte susumu yo,
Itsu ni nattara nakushita mirai o
Watashi koko de mata miru koto dekiru no?"1
Something about it sounded a little ominous as the piano in the background played on. I liked the fast paced beat but that piano gave me chills up my spine. "Is there an English version?" I asked. I was curious as to what the woman that was singing was singing about. Paisley was wiggling in her seat, dancing along to the music. It was good she liked it.
"This is so illegal and I so love it!" she squealed. "I totally wanna know what the lyrics are too."
"There's no English version, not that I could find anyway, but there was this…" Phin got up again to look for something and he left the room. When he came back he was holding a large datapad, one meant for storing large packets of information and not one of the small ones meant for sending and receiving data. He scrolled through it. "Ah yes, here it is…something about not forgetting the promises they made, she'll close her eyes and ascertain it. She shakes off the darkness closing in on her and advancing."
"That sounds so pretty, no wonder it's in another language. Whatever the language, it's beautiful." Paisley commented.
"Agreed!" Walt and I both said at the same time.
"Jinx," I finger gunned him and we all laughed.
1 Connect by ClariS