Escape From Paradise

A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic

Chapter Ten – Reunion on the Elevator

The two young robots spilled out of the holo-photo booth bursting with immature laughter, and nearly knocked over one of the short, stubby janitor-bots that patrolled Festival Square. He shook his power brush at them and sped off in a huff, leaving the metallic couple collapsed back-to-back against a lamp post, struggling to regain use of their vocal processors. Even amongst the raucous atmosphere of the evening's grand festivities, Drew and Ally were causing a commotion, but most of the festival-going robots simply shook their heads at them, with knowing smile on their faces.

"Why you … I am so gonna get you for that," laughed Drew, shaking a playful fist at her.

"Wait, wait, wait," gasped Ally. "We almost forgot the disks! D'oi! I'll be back in a second!"

Drew watched Ally bounce back towards the booth, grinning a huge grin to nobody in particular, for no reason at all. He looked around him, drinking in the lights, the decorations, and the carnival atmosphere, still unable to believe that he was in a place like this with a somebody like Ally. Then he chuckled at himself – he was acting so stupid, really. What was the big deal? He was just a guy, Ally was just a girl, they were enjoying an evening together, it happens all the time –

No. No, it doesn't happen all the time, not back home. Not to me. Ally twisted her hands with impatience, waiting for the machine to spit out their holo-disks, and grinned at him with a comical expression. She made him laugh. Pure, stupid, fun laughter, not the kind of snide self-deprecating snickers that Drew used to sneak his way through everyday life back in Tremorton. Ally made him laugh. She made him happy. He realized that he had never really known what 'happy' felt like, until today.

"Here you go," she giggled, handing him a thin, metallic disk with a mirrored surface. "One cheesy souvenir, as requested. One for you, and one for me."

"Maybe I'll send the folks back home a nice snow globe," he laughed, storing the holo-disk inside of his body. "I don't think I want anyone else to see this thing."

"Coward," she smirked back – and then she was interrupted by an eruption of sound. A sixty-piece robot band started warming up, adjusting their instruments. Synthesized howls and tones mixed with things Drew recognized, like trumpets and guitars and keyboards. The music had a vaguely haunting, techno feel to it – and the final addition of a strong, synthesized drumbeat was the piece de resistance. The teeming crowd in Festival Square slowly congregated towards the band's grand stage, and a few adventurous automatons started to gyrate their ball-and-socket joints to the infectious rhythm.

Ally's eyes lit up upon hearing the music, and Drew could read the unspoken request on her face as she watched the dancers burn up the square. He gathered his nerve, and nodded towards the crowd. "It … it seems stupid to come all the way down here, and … y'know, not have at least one dance."

She gulped anxiously, trying very unsuccessfully to hide her giddy excitement. "I … I'm not a very good dancer," she stammered. "I'll probably stomp on your feet."

"Don't worry about it," he grinned. "They'll grow back."

Her face broke into the widest smile he'd seen all day. Then her hand clamped around his wrist, and she sprinted off towards the dance area, stretching his arm out an extra two feet as she dragged him along. He chased after her, laughing with wonderful insanity, and vaguely remembered something about cargo ships and escape plans that just didn't seem very important at the moment.

A hand grabbed Sheldon by the scruff of his sweatshirt, and yanked him backwards just as a pair of tranquilizer darts thunked into the door of the hovercar he'd been hiding behind. His gaunt frame spun around to see Brad's frenzied, panicked eyes. "Sheldon, get up! Come on, keep running!"

They ducked, as another pair of darts shattered the car's window. "Which way?" hollered Sheldon.

"Away from anything that looks mechanical!" answered Brad, breaking into a flat-out sprint.

"But everything looks mechanical!" said Sheldon, just as a huge tub-shaped robot lumbered around the hovercar on its four stout legs. Animal Control was painted on its white body in bright red letters, and a single-eyed face zoomed in on his teenage form, with lenses whirring and clicking away. A pair of steel tentacles shot out of its body, right at him …

But Sheldon rolled out of the way and sprang to his feet, running like a maniac into heavy traffic, not more than three steps behind Brad. Thirty-wheeled trucks swerved madly as the runaway humans recklessly scrambled across the busy road, creating an even greater spectacle in the shopping district. Brad zigzagged back and forth between lanes with the dexterity of a star running back. He barely danced out of the way as an oil tanker rammed into a traffic signal, sending a huge aluminum pole crashing to the ground like a falling metal tree. Sheldon just closed his eyes and ran blindly across the last three lanes, narrowly avoiding the fender of a delivery hover-van. Moments later, thanks to a little luck and a lot of foolishness, the boys found themselves safely on the sidewalk.

Or not so safely, because still more Animal Control robots were waiting for them. Another large tub-bot slowly approached them, herding them towards a pair of robots holding onto a large net. As nervous robotic citizens watched, the tub-bot deployed another pair of arms, each holding onto an obedience collar. Brad instinctively clutched at his neck again – he did not want to wind up as a zombie slave. His eyes shot left and right, frantically looking for ideas. There had to be some way to escape –

Three large bronze elevator capsules sat at street level on the side of the building behind them, each seated in a groove which ran all the way up the side of the skyscraper. With a soft ding, the center capsule's doors split open, and a dozen robot shoppers walked out onto the sidewalk –

Brad grinned, and pounced towards the unsuspecting robots. "Booga booga booga!!!"

The robots shrieked in horror, dropped their bags and boxes, and ran off in random directions, despite Animal Control's attempt to calm them down. That allowed Brad and Sheldon to slip inside the elevator capsule and shut the doors. Brad jumped up and mashed the button labeled "150", and moments later, the boys were flattened against the floor as the capsule rocketed towards the heavens with breathtaking acceleration. He grinned as the street-level chaos dropped further and further away –

"All right, Sheldon!" he chuckled. "I think we're home free!"

They were catapulted violently off of the floor, as the elevator shuddered to a teeth-rattling stop. The capsule came to rest between the 105th and 106th floors, and the message "Emergency Override" beeped softly on the control panel. Now it was Sheldon's turn to glare at Brad with a sarcastic look. "'I think we're home free?' Isn't that one of those things you're never supposed to say? Huh?"

"Guilty as charged," gulped Brad, as he watched a boxy white Animal Control van float its way up towards the capsule's huge glass windows. One of the robots in the van leaned out the passenger-side window, pointing a tranquilizer rifle directly at the boys. Brad suddenly realized just how hopeless their situation was – trapped in a small container, over one thousand feet in the air, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. The Animal Control robot squinted into his rifle sights, centered the crosshairs on Brad's chest, and squeezed the trigger. Brad winced, waiting for the impact of the needle-tipped dart …

But instead, he heard only the loud clang of the dart ricocheting off of something metal.

And the sound of Sheldon's nasally voice squealing with glee. "JENNY!"

He opened his eyes, and grinned at one of the most wonderful sights he'd ever seen in his life. Jenny was hovering on the flames of her twin booster jets, a few feet in front the elevator capsule, with a large metallic shield deployed from her left hand – and a confused, terrified robot girl hanging onto her back. The dumbfounded Animal Control robots just stared at each other, unsure of what to do, as the teen heroine deployed a bullhorn from her right arm, and shouted orders at them. "All right, you guys, just put the guns down and back away slowly! I'll handle things from here!"

"JENNY!" shouted Brad, exploding with joy and relief. "Jenny, I can't believe it! I thought I was never going to see you again!"

Jenny hovered over to the glass, nearly overcome with emotion herself. "BRAD! SHELDON! Oh, thank Jobs! I've never been so happy to see anyone before in my life! I was so worried!"

"I knew it!" grinned Sheldon, his fists balled in jubilation. "I knew we'd find you!"

Dot shook her head, and blinked her eyes a few times. "Are those two humans talking to us?"

But Jenny wasn't paying attention to Dot at the moment. Her finger pivoted open to deploy a glass cutter, and she quickly sliced a hole in the ceiling-to-floor windows. Then her arms ratcheted out excitedly, and stretched into a huge loop around Brad and Sheldon, crushing them with a relieved embrace. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, as she was finally reunited with her first, best and dearest friend Brad – and yes, even with dorky Sheldon – and the boys returned the bear-hug, and everyone reassured each other that yes, they were okay, they had missed each other, nobody was seriously hurt, nobody had their brain fried, and they all forgot just how lost and hopeless the search had seemed, only a few minutes earlier.

"I'm so sorry this happened," sniffed Jenny, "it's all my fault … hey, what's with the earring?"

Brad rolled his eyes, tugging at the irritating metal tag that hung from his earlobe. "It's a long story, and I'd love to tell you about it over a cheeseburger and a milkshake. I'm starved."

"Jenny, it was incredible!" babbled Sheldon. "They took us to this creepy lab underneath the queen's palace. Brad was scared, but I was getting a little tired of those Cluster jerks and their attitude …"

Dot was still staring at Brad and Sheldon, totally flabbergasted. "Are those two humans talking to us!?!?"

"Surprise, Dot," smiled Jenny, "humans can talk and think, just like robots do."

"B-b-b-but that's impossible!" stammered Dot. She looked as if she'd just come face to face with Santa-bot, or the Loch Ness Robeast. "Humans are just wild, uncivilized beasts with tiny brains! They don't have real thoughts and feelings, like robots do!"

"Who are you calling a beast?" snarled Brad. "Because the way I see it, it's the robots around here that are a bunch of uncivilized beasts, putting humans in cages and turning us into slaves …"

"Guys! Dot!" shouted Jenny, trying to calm everyone down. "There's a whole bunch of stuff about Cluster Prime that doesn't make any sense at all! The robots aren't all evil Cluster drones – and the humans aren't a bunch of ignorant monkeys! But this isn't the time or the place to talk about it! So what do you say we go somewhere safe, and try to figure out …"

The screech of a high-powered energy weapon ripped through the elevator capsule, filling the air with the pungent stench of ozone, and shattering the remaining windows into a thousand shards of flying glass. Then another blast slammed into Jenny's back, and she violently crashed into the side of the bronze elevator car. Dot's metallic form was flung into the elevator, nearly crushing Brad and Sheldon, who had dropped to the floor when the first hail of energy fire burst through the windows. Electrical discharges crackled through Jenny's wiring, tripping off dozens of circuit breakers – but her systems recovered, and once she was sure that her friends were safe, she turned with a furious scowl on her face …

To see two sleek black hovercars floating thirty feet away, each carrying a pair of jet-black insectoid robots, all glaring at her with arrogant sneers on their faces. One of the robots had deployed a long beam weapon from his forearm, and it sizzled with the after-effect of a powerful electrical discharge. Jenny recognized the cars as the same kind that had nearly knocked her and her friends out of the sky yesterday afternoon. Tank had called them the Black Mantis – Queen Vexus' private guard. More like personal goons, Jenny growled to herself.

The driver leaned out his window, and gave Jenny a cold, dangerous smile. "Ah, XJ-9, what a relief to finally track you down. You know, you've been a very naughty robot, running wild all over the city after Queen Vexus went to such lengths to prepare a lovely room for you at the palace. Disgraceful lack of manners, really. Well, you've had your fun, but now it's time to come with us." Three more weapons deployed and locked on to her, and the driver's eyes glowed a dull, smoky red. "We insist."

"The first shot was just a courtesy tap on the shoulder to get your attention," smirked another robot. "The Black Mantis are not in the habit of being courteous. Resistance is futile, XJ-9."

Jenny flexed her smooth metal knuckles, her face bristling with instant hatred for the Black Mantis. So Vexus had finally realized that she and Drew had escaped – and now her personal royal thugs had tracked her down. A chill ran through her circuits; things had just gotten a whole lot worse. "Stay right there, guys," she shouted, "as soon as I take care of these Mantis jerks, we need to get moving!"

The Black Mantis' electric weapons whined up to full power … but Jenny's arms shot out and latched onto the front bumpers of their hovercars. With a burst of super-strength, she slammed the cars together like a pair of paddles, flattening them into a single crumpled mass of dark metal …

Which exploded outwards in a blizzard of shrapnel. Jenny ducked her face behind her hands, genuinely surprised to see four unscathed Mantis robots burst out of the wreckage, riding hot tongues of rocket exhaust. These robots were a lot tougher than the standard Cluster roach-drone, she realized. This was going to call for the big guns. She cracked open her elbows, and deployed a pair of laser-limbs …

Just as an electrified steel cable flew through the air like a pair of bolos, quickly pinning her arms to her sides. Another electric shock screamed through her body, overloading her servos and shorting out her laser circuits. Jets of smoke shot from her pigtails, and her booster rockets sputtered to a halt. With her rockets off-line, she plummeted towards the cold, hard sidewalk – over a thousand feet below.

Brad lunged forward with concern for his best friend, watching the four Mantis robots pitch over and dive in pursuit of their vanquished prey. The occupants of the elevator had been fortunate to avoid injury from the flying shrapnel; unfortunately, the elevator itself had not been so lucky. A jagged piece of twisted metal had shredded the electro-magnetic motor that propelled the car up and down. For now, the elevator was stuck in place, between the 105th and 106th floors.

The Black Mantis weren't about to let a prize like XJ-9 smash to pieces in the street. They punched their afterburners, racing to catch up with her as she free-fell past the 60th floor. Mantis-18 was the first to get close, and with a series loud growls and clanks, his arms converted into a pair of clamps. He closed them around Jenny's waist – then she pivoted about with a nasty smile, and her left leg flipped open to deploy a savage-looking drill. Before Mantis-18 even knew what was happening, his body shuddered with spasms as the diamond tip shredded a hole through his metallic thorax, puncturing his power core.

Now with her power restored, Jenny easily snapped her arms free of the steel cables – but her flying circuits were still off-line. She deployed a grappling hook from her wrist, and flung it towards the face of the skyscraper as she hurtled past the windows at two hundred miles an hour. The hook snagged on a ledge, and the carbon-fibre rope began to unwind at terrific speed; but she grabbed onto the line with her powerful metal fists, sending up wisps of smoke as she brought herself to a halt, like a mountain climber recovering from a sudden fall.

As the lifeless husk of Mantis-18 shot past to make a spectacular crash on the sidewalk below, Mantis-12, 13, and 19 pulled out of their dives, streaking past Jenny as she deployed a large crank from her abdomen. She furiously wound in the grappling hook's line, like a fisherman reeling in a prize catch, and raised herself back up to the tower's forty-first floor. A large pair of blue suction cups sprang from the bottom of her feet, and she started running up the side of the skyscraper, back towards her friends.

But there were new problems up in the elevator. The damaged magnetic motor fizzled and sputtered, and lost power for a split-second – long enough for it to drop by six nerve-rattling inches. Sheldon dropped to hug the floor, his face white as a sheet, as it fully sunk in that they were trapped in a malfunctioning elevator car, over one hundred stories high. Dot broke out of her fascination with the talking humans, screaming as the car jerked downwards, and the floor buckled underneath her feet …

With the ear-splitting screech of failing metal, two of the four clamps on the elevator failed completely. The capsule lurched down and pivoted outwards, swinging like a loose gate in a hurricane. Sheldon and Dot grabbed onto a metal strut, holding on for dear life as the capsule shuddered and twisted – but Brad fell backwards against a plate glass window, a window that wasn't there anymore. His arms and legs swung wildly, but found nothing to hold onto – and suddenly he felt a blast of wind against his body, and suddenly he was staring at the elevator capsule from below. The weightless sensation, while very cool, confirmed his fears. He was plunging to his death.

Jenny dodged another electric stun-blast from Mantis-19, madly scampering across the face of the skyscraper like a robotic crab … then her auditory sensors picked up a very familiar yell. She looked up to spot a redheaded blur, waving his arms frantically as he streaked towards the ground. Her turbopumps nearly leaped into her throat – she didn't have a moment to lose. As Brad whizzed past, Jenny's arms ratcheted outward, and deployed a giant butterfly net. The teenage boy flew directly into the net, with the force of a cannonball. She had caught Brad, but his momentum yanked her suction-cups free from the skyscraper – and now they were both plunging towards the sidewalk. And the three Black Mantis robots were still there, swinging around to make another attack.

She retracted her arms, and Brad clamored onto her back, asking why she didn't simply use her rocket engines. As an energy bolt singed past their heads, and they shot past the 50th floor like a falling piano, his throat flashed bone-dry upon learning that her rockets were still off-line. She tipped over into a headfirst dive, and stretched her arms downwards. Then her wrists unfolded to deploy a pair of long propeller blades. With a high-pitched roar, the propellers spun up to full speed, and provided a steady blast of thrust that slowed their descent, until they came to a hover two hundred feet above the ground.

Another shaft of sizzling orange electron fire screeched past her right pigtail. She tilted the whirling blades to provide forward thrust, and looped back towards the skies like an ancient prop-driven fighter plane – unfortunately, still without guns. Brad shouted out a frantic warning, and she glanced backwards to see that Mantis-12 had pulled into pursuit, and was closing fast. The Black Mantis robot unfolded both of his arm housings, and a pair of laser cannons deployed, their barrels glowing a bright ruby red. With a high-energy squeal, two blasts of laser fire raced towards Jenny's propellers …

And struck the reflector that she'd deployed from a slot in her chest. The beams bounced off the mirrored surface … and pierced the chassis of Mantis-19, slicing him into three easy pieces. The arrogant smirk faded from his insectoid face, and three inert chunks of black metal tumbled towards the sidewalk, trailing thin spirals of oil. Jenny pulled into a climb, flying back towards the teetering elevator capsule, and flashed Brad a quick, confident smile. Mantis-12 was waiting for them, hovering around the 98th floor. She may not have had lasers at the moment, but there were plenty of other tricks up her metal sleeve. She hadn't used the lawnmower attachment in a while …

But that's when she felt something powerful slam into her back. Brad unleashed a grunt of pain, and a shout of surprise, and Jenny suddenly realized that she'd lost track of the fourth robot, Mantis-13. She spun around to see the arrogant Cluster goon hovering a few feet away, clutching Brad tightly to his chest, with a laser weapon nuzzled to the side of his head. A quick gasp escaped from her throat, then her head sank in dejection, and she retracted the lawnmower blades back into her leg housings.

Mantis-12 drifted down on a pillar of flame, and soon all four them were face-to-face, hovering one thousand feet above street level. The Black Mantis robot smirked at Jenny in her vulnerable state, knowing she wouldn't risk anything so long as her precious pet human was in jeopardy. His left hand converted into a strong metallic clamp, and shot out to close around Jenny's neck, holding her head stationary. "You're really making this much harder then it needs to be, XJ-9," he sneered. "Believe me, this will all seem much better … after you've had a good nap." With a few metallic clicks and snaps, the housing on Mantis-12's right arm opened up, and deployed a flexible arm, with a strip of curved metal at its tip.

Jenny's eyes sprang open in astonishment – that curved metal strip looked familiar. Then she remembered the headband on the bed-platform, back at the hotel. The one that had tried to interface with her brain. It looked just like the headband she was supposed to "back herself up" with!

"What's that thing going to do?" she shouted angrily at Mantis-12.

"Let's just say that when you wake up, you'll see the world in a whole new way," he grinned. "You won't remember any of this unpleasant little scuffle. And your stubborn teenage demeanor … will be made much more agreeable."

A spark of realization flashed in Jenny's mind. "It's not a 'backup' device at all, is it?"

The Black Mantis robot only smirked back, and placed the metal strip firmly against Jenny's smooth forehead. She winced as the headband powered up, and felt herself slipping into sleep mode …

With the shriek of fracturing metal, the last couplings on the elevator car shattered to pieces, and the large bronze capsule fell away from the skyscraper's 105th floor. Jenny, Brad, and the Mantis robots all snapped their heads upwards, to see ten tons of shining, crafted metal hurtling towards them like a bronze meteor. The elevator plowed into them like a runaway bulldozer, and kept rushing towards its date with gravity, ninety-eight floors below.

Mantis-12 and 13 slid through the capsule's open windows, and slammed viciously into the ceiling of the elevator car, stunned by the unexpected impact. Brad spun loose from his captor's grip and wrapped his arms around a broken metal strut, screaming at the top of his lungs. He still didn't manage to out-scream Sheldon and Dot, who were rattling around inside the tumbling capsule like a pair of dice. The skyscraper streaked past them in a blurred palette of dull metallic colors, twisting and spinning along with the rest of the world in a series of nauseating somersaults. Jenny clutched onto the bottom of the elevator car, trying to come up with an idea even as the sidewalk rushed towards them like a giant fist.

As the bronze capsule shot past the 68th floor, Jenny struggled inside the spinning elevator, and shouted for her friends to get ready. Then she glared up at the faces of the Black Mantis robots, and broke off a piece of broken support strut. She slammed the strap of metal against the Mantis' chests, and gave them each a punch to the jaw, to keep them disoriented. Then she secured the strap in place with white-hot rivets, using her converted right hand. The evil robots writhed and struggled, but they were stuck to the capsules' ceiling as if they were welded in place. Now there were only seconds to spare …

Jenny's arms looped around Brad, Sheldon, and Dot, and she pulled them out of the bronze elevator cage at super-speed. Now they were standing on top of the capsule, watching the skyscrapers grow taller and the ground grow closer, as they rocketed past the 38th floor. Sheldon screamed and wrapped his arms around Jenny's neck, slamming his eyes shut. Dot wrapped her own arms around Jenny's waist, nearly crushing Sheldon between them. Brad looked anxiously at Jenny as the wind blasted his copper hair out of his face, but she simply tightened her grip and pushed away from the roof of the elevator …

And launched a tethered bundle of fabric out of the middle of her back, which instantly inflated into a billowing blue-and-white parachute. They clung firmly to each other as the parachute cord snapped with a reassuring jolt, and sighed with relief as they quickly decelerated to a safe descent speed. Then a horrific explosion of noise rang out from the sidewalk below, and Jenny looked down with a mix of dread and satisfaction to see the elevator capsule, with the Mantis robots still trapped inside, crumpled like a bronze soda can at the bottom of a crater twenty feet deep.

Sheldon leaned his head against Jenny's shoulder, looking into her face with large, quivering cow eyes. "I knew you'd come to my rescue, my sweet," he croaked. "I never doubted you for a minute."

Jenny rolled her eyes with disbelief – even now, slowly drifting down over the cityscape of Cluster Prime, Sheldon wouldn't give it a rest. Still, she was relieved that he was safe … and, she smiled to herself, very relieved that Brad was safe. They shared a quick glance, and he gave her his huge, trademark smile, and she briefly wondered if he enjoyed being wrapped up tight in her arms like this. But then a troubling thought occurred to her –

"Brad? Brad, what about all the other kids from the bus? Where did they go?"

The smile on Brad's face instantly disappeared. "Jen – we don't know."

Massive iron gears slowly spun like the workings of a giant clock, turned by a series of colossal drive-shafts, each larger than a train car. Grime, steam, and smoke filled the air and dripped from the walls, filtering out most of the natural light that crept in from a row of narrow windows just below the ceiling. Row upon row of conveyor belts hummed nonstop, their low-level droning punctured every two-point-six seconds by the explosive blast of a steam piston. In perfect computerized harmony, a series of large metal stamp-presses slammed down on each belt, depositing freshly molded pieces for long-range laser rifles. This morning it had been spare parts for Wasp fighters. Last night it had been artillery shells for hover-tanks. Tonight, it would be … whatever the Cluster wanted it to be.

Hundreds upon hundreds of human slaves, snugly fitted with obedience collars, worked together in mindless unison, staring at the conveyor belts with dull, emotionless eyes. Each performed their assigned task under the watchful sensors of the unforgiving supervisor robots. The energy clip snapped onto the bottom of the housing. The barrel aligned with the notch on the stock. The regulator slid into the slot on the circuit board. Set the rifle down for the conveyor to carry off to the next station. The energy clip snapped onto the bottom of the housing. The barrel aligned with the notch on the stock. The regulator slid into the slot on the circuit board …

Miguel, Tamika, Jarvis, Bonnie … all of the students from Tremorton High had been worked to the bone since they'd arrived from the stockyards yesterday afternoon. In that time, they'd only gotten four hours' sleep, and had only eaten one measly bowl of gray protein paste; but nobody was complaining. Pteresa, Stephanie, Jantrice, even Brit and Tiff worked themselves into a sweaty mess, with blistered fingers and aching muscles performing the same repetitive assembly tasks, over and over and over. The energy clip snapped onto the bottom of the housing. The barrel aligned with the notch on the stock …

Chloe grabbed a smooth steel rifle barrel, and lined it up with the notch on the stock, just as her collar instructed her to. That was her task, that was her obligation, as a worthless sack of human meat. Service to her robotic betters. She was lucky to have her worthless life given meaning, by being allowed to serve the great Cluster Empire. Obedience was her life now. Her mind was empty of any other thoughts. There was no purpose in thinking about anything else … no purpose in thinking …

Dear God, somebody please save us!

The energy clip snapped onto the bottom of the housing. The barrel aligned with the notch on the stock. The regulator slid into the slot on the circuit board …

Continued in Chapter Eleven / Six Days to Cluster Dawn