Between Friends
By Simon Woodington
Previously: Alia and Roll discuss matters technological and psychological. Why she participated in the design of X's key technologies cannot be answered before Roll has the equivalent of a nervous breakdown and collapses into silence...
Episode Four
"They are weak," determined a min-tenor at the drop of a clenched white fist. "Too weak."
Serges could not believe his audio codec. He glanced up at Forte and then swiftly down, maintaining the appearance of subservience.
"Nightmare was not a trifle Forte," muttered a dark, collected bass. For a moment he regarded the cobra-like design of his superior with a mix of respect and disdain.
"Yet dispatched so easily! What you saw, my confident friend, was but the merest fraction of his true power!" Forte wailed, paced with arms akimbo. "Nightmare had no goal but self preservation."
"Vigor will not be so 'easily' deleted," concluded the angular, crimson and black Reploid, his body patterned after the sleek lines and movements of a panther cat.
"Yes you will, you dullard. All who meet X and Zero are dust and spent fragments of code," Forte snarled darkly. "No might we can muster will conquer them."
Vigor stared in open amazement at the Reploid to whom he had pledged allegiance, doubtful as to the stability of his core processes. Folding his arms, he shook his head and cast his sight over the silver-white clouds and frost bitten, snow layered mountains.
"You have a plan, then."
"When you cannot delete them, send someone else," he affirmed, baring teeth in a feral snarl.
-
She huddled, trembling, in a heap at the feet of Douglas and Alia, who speculated and assessed her condition with speed only available to robots and the best human minds.
"I can find no errors. Her systems report nominal operating parameters. Not a byte out of order," Douglas admitted candidly by way of defeat. Alia stared at the silent female, brooding.
"That does not mean she is well. This is a psychological process, not a mechanical disorder."
"Yes, precisely. She is undamaged. There is nothing I can do, and Lifesaver would only mule on about her beatific structure and systems," Douglas concluded with a wry smirk. Alia rolled her eyes.
"I will summon X, then."
"You mustn't!" he blurted. "Are you sure he is not responsible?"
"X is busy now anyway," she said, not hearing him entirely. "Mustn't? Why not? How else will I learn how to help?"
Douglas shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but if I were her, right now I would need an intimate friend," he issued with a air of compassion. "She has known no comfort in this life."
"Ah..." Alia agreed as Douglas picked up his diagnostic satchel and moved toward the exit with lingering gazes at the pair.
"Good luck. I regret this is all I can do for her."
"Thank you Douglas, I was not sure about her health."
"Don't thank me until she well and happy. I don't want gratitude for her death if that's how this ends," he spoke briskly but sincerely. "Death isn't how I deal."
"You are not a Hunter, Douglas," she bit off with measured reproach.
"No, and I apologize for my unwarranted sarcasm. I meant no disrespect."
"Go on, I forgive you, you silly robot," she grinned. Douglas half-turned before looking back and asking: "How's the Terra?"
"Ruined."
"No! Really?!" he cried, forlorn and heartbroken. "What was lost?"
"The alloy formula. I have no substitute."
"A shame! Such a magnificent armor!" he sighed, disappointed. "Perhaps one day we can compose a superior formula to replace it?"
"Perhaps," she murmured, restraining her expression of distaste. 'Impressive' was more the word. 'Ungainly' and 'boring' where even more accurate descriptors by her estimation. Nonetheless, she saw the dejected mechanic depart with his woe, leaving Alia with hers.
"First things first," Alia decided, thinking aloud while itemizing and testing plethora theorem and viable options. "Are you still processing me...?"
No answer. As anticipated.
"I hope X and Zero are having better luck!"
-
"Petulant, belligerent," Zero growled, irritated more than angry. "A grown whelpling, dressed in his finest battle gear."
"Whats'e mutter'n 'bout d'ya s'ppose, lads?" barked a heavily bearded miner in a nigh ton of mining ride armor.
"Aye chief! Show 'em we're done takin' orders from their like!"
"Aye! Give 'em what for Coil!"
Other voices bellowed from the sidelines in terms not much like endearment. X warily scanned the mob of unshaven miners, whose circular arrangement did not increase his confidence of their potential to be civilized.
'Zero, don't hurt them!' X transmitted privately to his comrade in bemusement.
'I won't. You trust me, don't you?'
'Yes.'
'Then watch.'
Zero reached to his back and snatched the Nightmare Saber from the slim white casing and drew the straight six foot beam in a short arc that no more than flashed in the eyes of the abruptly quiet onlookers.
"Blimey!" yelped the stocky pilot, checking his controls for any indication of damage. "You've got balls, I'll say that! But ain' no light show gonna make me'n me boys turn tail'n run now! I'm gonna suggest ya surrenda, or I'm gonna hafta-wuh?!"
Both of the armors four foot diamond bladed claws dropped into the mud with a sickly squish, sliced as if surgically with a mono filament edge.
"Reconsider your rebellion, friend," Zero said, his tenor ringing through the thick crowd. "I do not kill without reason, and I would not want for you to be the first. Though annoyance does seem a compelling excuse..."
"Rebellion? Methinks you judge to harshly, friend! I'd gladly settle for tea an' a chat... 'ow about you?"
Zero nodded slowly, waving the humming blade slightly as he said:
"Yes, good. Now step out of that over-sized tin suit, and we will do that." 'You see X? There is hope for them yet,' Zero thought sarcastically at X who nursed his silence. Zero watched in mute interest as Coil dispersed the would-be rioters back to their plasteel tents, thanking and assuring them he would 'see it through or die' and 'show the plastic pansies what miners meant to Unity'.
"Come lads, let's go," Coil waved at them, standing near what would have been the camp's bonfire circle. With much amusement and curiosity, X and Zero doggedly nipped Coil's heels as they passed through the makeshift mining town towards his tent. A simple affair with sealed corners, two inch thick plasteel walls and roof, and raised floor with a low-power space heater and cooled food storage unit. Yale saw to it that the miners were well provisioned and supplied.
"Forgive the mess," Coil said, nodding at the pile of idle rollscripts upon his desk. "Dropped th' paperwork since I figured you'd be takin' our demands seriously."
"We do," Zero stated flatly. "We are Hunters, Coil, but not so prone to violence that it is the only method by which we reason."
"Is that the case now? Well, some o' the lads believe a bloody mouth is rational," he chuckled with a faint grin. "Ain't gonna apologize for that earlier business, lads, but I am willin' to go about it like civil men, not civil war. Not what this is now, is it?"
"Not when I last checked," Zero assented.
"Some men aren't happy with peace," X commented bitterly. Silence blew over them like an arctic wind.
"Tell me how things are, Coil. What is all this dissatisfaction about?" Zero submitted roundly as Coil poured boiling water from a kettle into a cup with teabag and milk.
"It's no so obvious, as though we aren't treated well... Zero, was it?" he muttered, dunking the teabag once and flicking it into a nearby waste bin. He plunked down on his plush, high backed seat, cup and saucer in hand, and leaned back, sighing as the chair began to warm gradually.
"As you can plainly see, we've the best you can give us, an' for what we do – mining does have its historical significance among me mates, you know."
Zero nodded comprehension, but drew a blank as to his objective.
"This ain't something you lads can manufacture, but it is a need for me lads, if you get my meanin'," he winked.
"No," Zero said. "I don't."
"Well now, mayhap you don't have such a need among your kind? Built to task, eh? Is that it?" Coil implied, but not unkindly. "Best I should plainspeak then. We need women."
X and Zero stared, puzzled, at each other for an instant.
"You have them. Did you not agree with your families that their safety was of the highest priority?"
Coil gave a hearty attempt at raising an eyebrow.
"Now a man don't think too clear when he's not sure there's going to be a tomorrow. These lads, red blooded boyos who get worked up and run down when they got no woman to labor for. You know that makes a workin' man happy. That 'e comes home to a lovin' wife and hot suppa, so he can say 'I done it for you, wife.' It's a mans' pride, you know. His ego. A good wife fills 'im with fire so's he can do it again tomorrow. He's got no reason to do it otherwise, me lads! None! Besides, the lads 're fightin' something fierce 'cause they ain't got none in months."
"Then perhaps we should..."
"Tut! I know what you'll be sayin' next. Don't be going down that road. I'll give you lads the benefit of the doubt, since you don't know what a woman is to a man. Females are the most delicate creatures, and stronger than men when they do what they do, but power, now never has that been more abused by men than any woman. History says that too, that a family man has got more drive, vitality, and can take better care of 'imself and the lads 'round him. Most times, anyhow."
"I see," Zero acknowledged uncertainly. "You would require permanent housing, and a more environmentally temperate location." Is that why humans are so able to adapt to their varied social and environmental conditions? Because of family?
"Aye!" Coil cried heartily.
"The Unity will accede, Coil. We have much to learn about happiness," Zero said, logging away Coil's words and marking them for further research and study. "We had not anticipated this when the agreement was made."
"Who negotiated the thing?" Coil inquired pointedly.
"Rei-lyn Morrue."
"A woman, well, don't that just mince it? Ah, there's no blame here. Who has done this before, and can say as t' what will happen next?" Coil smiled broadly. "Best we got is to be gracious for the roof over our heads and the food in our stomachs. You're a right good friend, and I'm happy to be peaceful about this with you. A right good pleasure, this is."
"What drove you to violence, Coil?" X asked, discontent wavering in his voice.
"Why, that's plain as me face. My lads. If they'd have wanted talks we'd have done talks, but I knew you lads wouldn't hurt us," he grinned. "You do strange things for the people you care about."