Escape From Paradise
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Eleven – Let Me Touch Your Mind
Jenny's feet gently touched down on terra firma – well, Cluster firma – and Brad, Sheldon and Dot spilled free from her arms, safely onto the steel sidewalk. A huge crowd of robots formed around them, staring in astonishment at the impact crater where the remains of the elevator silently smoldered in ruins. While she reeled her parachute back in, Jenny walked over to the edge of the crater, and cautiously peeked over the edge to look at the crushed Black Mantis robots. "Good riddance to those creeps," she huffed, dusting her hands against each other.
Dot clanked up next to her, nervous and anxious and scared out of her wits. She looked like her radiator cap was going to pop off. "Jenny … you just totally destroyed four Black Mantis robots! Oh my Cog … you can't do that! Th-that's against the law! You're in big trouble!"
Jenny grabbed her friend by the shoulders and spun her around. "Dot, we're all in big trouble. You have to listen to me. Vexus, and her robots, are evil. Look, I know that sounds incredible to you, but it's true! She kidnapped me and my friends, and tried to turn us all into slaves!"
"That's right!" added Brad. "They took us to this whacked-out stockyard place, and ran us through a hideous car wash of horrors! Then these ant robots started fitting us with mind control collars …"
"Collars? You mean health collars?" asked Dot, still confused.
"Health collars? Ha!" sneered Sheldon. "They turned all the kids into a bunch of weird drooling zombie puppets! Just like in 'Revenge of the Undead Freshmen!' Jenny, they –"
Suddenly, they became aware of a loud wailing sound echoing through the urban canyons. A siren – no, multiple sirens – were racing in their direction. Jenny had no doubt that it was more Black Mantis robots, perhaps with the Cluster police force, maybe even the army. She was on Vexus' home turf now; she was outnumbered by millions, maybe even billions of warriors. With a whine of her motors, her wings and boosters unfolded again, and she waved for Brad and Sheldon to grab on.
"Cripes, we gotta get out of here!" she shouted frantically. "Dot, I don't have time to explain. You've got to give Allison a call for me – Drew's probably still with her. Get a warning to him. Tell him that Vexus knows we're loose, and now she's looking for us! You got that? It's really, really important!"
"Wait a minute," asked Brad, "who the heck is Allison?"
"I'll explain later, after we get away from here." She tapped a finger to her rounded chin. "Drew was supposed to meet me back at the hotel room, but it's probably not safe there anymore. We're going to have to find another place to hide out!"
Sheldon wrapped his hands over Jenny's left wing, held on tight … then did a double-take. "Wait a minute ... you and Drew got a hotel room together?!? What the …"
But his voice was drowned out by a blast of rocket exhaust. Jenny's flying circuits were working again, and she shot back into the sky on a double plume of blue exhaust, with the boys hanging onto her wings. They flew into downtown skylane traffic, just as four sleek black hovercars banked around a skyscraper in a high-speed turn. Three of the hovercars poured on the speed, and streaked off in hot pursuit of Jenny. The fourth slowed down, and swooped to a landing just a few feet away from the large crater.
Two Black Mantis robots got out and sauntered over to the edge of the crater, frowning as they surveyed the damage. One of them noticed Dot, looking completely baffled, and overwhelmed by her close call. The tall, lean figure clanked over to the shivering young girl, with a stern look on his face.
"What happened here? You – girl – state your identification!"
"M-m-my name is Dot Matrix," she said, nibbling thin filings from the tips of her fingers. "And those two Black Mantis robots … they shot at me! Shot at me! But I didn't do anything wrong! And the humans started talking … and then Jenny said Vexus was evil … but that doesn't make any sense! None of this makes any sense! How can …"
The Black Mantis robot patted Dot on the head, and gave her a patronizing smile. Then he deployed a curved headband from his arm housing, and before Dot could say another word, he pressed it against her forehead … and the robot girl switched into sleep mode, with a blissful smile on her face.
"There there, child," smirked the insectoid robot. "Everything will make sense in a few minutes."
The skies above Festival Square turned a dark burgundy as the remnants of twilight faded away. Colored strobe lights came to life, and bathed the crowd in swirling kaleidoscopic patterns. A deep bass thumped from the giant stage speakers, energizing the dancers with a pounding beat. Drew was amazed; he half-expected a robot dance to be a bunch of automatons gyrating in perfect sync, like an automobile assembly line. He would never have expected to find exciting music, fun dances, and grand festivals on a planet like Cluster Prime. There were a lot of things on Cluster Prime that he never expected to find.
His pliable nanobot body had proven to be tailor-made for dancing; he wowed Allison with dips, twists, and overhead arcing leaps that left the crowd whooping with enthusiasm. Allison was twisting to the synthesized rhythm, her hair-foil whirling around her face in a halo of violet. She squealed in surprise as Drew grabbed her waist, and flung her into the air like a baton. After a few airborne somersaults, his arms curved out to catch her svelte form, and he gently set her back on her feet to a round of cheers, just as the final beats of the song finished up. Drew took a bow, hamming it up for the crowd; then Allison grabbed him by the hand and they ran off laughing like maniacs.
They stumbled into a small elevator capsule, which whisked them forty stories straight up, to an elevated walkway that weaved around the perimeter of Festival Square. Allison sprinted out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened, waving sarcastically for Drew to hurry up and keep pace with her. They ran a good distance along the walkway, passing copper statues and artificial plants, and the odd robot couple that had stopped to admire the inspirational view below. Finally, Allison came to a stop at a circular balcony, jumping up in down in victory as Drew jogged up beside her.
"Okay, now technically, see, that's what we call cheating," he laughed. "I think you deliberately tripped me back in the elevator."
"What!?!" she gasped, clasping her hand to her chest in mock indignation. "Cheating? What a horrible thing to say! It happens to be true, but it's still a horrible thing to say!"
That corny line was enough to get another round of laughter out of them; the two robots were definitely stuck in "giggle mode". A minute later, Allison managed to regain her voice. "Ha, ha …. I thought … I thought that old woman with the vacuum-tube eyes was going to freak out when your hand went all gooey and turned into a can opener," she gasped. "Her fuses were going off like firecrackers!"
"Oh, yeah?" panted Drew. "Well, you're the one that was stomping on everyone's feet! Tomorrow morning, dozens of poor innocent robots will be heading into auto body shops, all across the city!"
"I told you I was a lousy dancer," she grinned, with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.
She strolled over to the brass railing at the edge of the balcony, and gazed out at the festival lights, enjoying the view of the public square and the forest of skyscrapers that surrounded it. Drew hung back for a moment however, gazing at a different sight; Allison didn't realize that she was being backlit by the last burning sliver of the setting Cluster sun, which surrounded her with a soft, rose-colored aura. Drew gulped hard, and his body shimmered with embarrassing patterns of silver-green. She was the most beautiful, most amazing girl that he'd ever met in his life – human or robot.
He wondered about that for a second; did it even make sense that he should feel that way about a robot? Well, why not? After all, that's what he was himself. And for the first time since the nanobot accident – he didn't feel like he needed to apologize for that.
And that was a fantastic feeling.
"This is why I wanted to come up here, Drew," she said, unaware that he had been watching her. "Sure, it's a nice view of the city … but it's an even better view of the sky." She pointed to the near-black zenith directly overhead, and the colossal planetary ring that dominated the heavens. It shone even more brightly now, still bathed in sunlight even as night fell on the capital city. From the brilliant brass-colored arch, flecks of light could be seen floating away, like glowing embers drifting from a burning log. They were Cluster starships, heading off to unknown destinations, thousands of light-years away.
They stood side by side and admired the ring, and for a few minutes, neither of them said so much as a word. Staring up at the infinite universe had a quieting effect on Drew's mind, and brought him back down from the ecstatic high of spending the day with Allison. But the stars also served to remind him of a cold, stubborn fact. Somewhere up there in that infinite blackness, circling a tiny yellow star in an out-of-the-way part of the galactic arm, was a watery little rock that he called home … along with seven billion human beings who hated his guts.
While Drew gazed at the heavens, Allison stole a sideways glance to watch the ringlight reflect off of his silvery face. She thought it made him look incredibly cute – but it also highlighted a hint of sadness in his eyes. She knew what he was thinking about.
"Can you see your home up there?" she asked, in a hushed voice.
Drew pointed off to the southern part of the sky. "I'm not sure, but I think that's it over there. That little twinkling yellow smudge, just above the tip of that giant antenna. Doesn't look like much from here."
"It's pretty," she smiled – but in her mind, she could only think about how far away it looked.
She rubbed her left arm absent-mindedly, and fidgeted with the seams on its housing. "How long are you going to be staying on Cluster Prime?"
Just as long as it takes to smuggle thirty high school students onto a cargo ship. He'd downloaded the flight schedules for Empire Express, the layout of the starship's cargo hold, even the price sheet and the customs forms for shipping "live cargo" like humans. He'd come up with a plan to hide with the cargo until the ship jumped to hyperspace, when he and Jenny would easily be able to overpower the crew, and hijack the ship to Earth. So they were ready to go, as soon as Jenny found the kids …
"I'm not really sure," he stammered weakly. "Another day, at least. Maybe two."
"Just a day?" she blurted out … then instantly regretted it. She felt stupid for asking; she knew when she met him that he was just visiting from off-world. "I … I'm sorry about that. I know you're just here for the Festival. It's just … I sort of assumed that you'd be here for the whole week." A frown formed on her face, and she started rubbing her arm a bit more forcefully.
He turned his attention back to her, seeing that her mood had saddened considerably. He clasped her hands in his, and swallowed hard as his brain scrambled for something to say. "Ally … Ally, I really had an amazing time with you today. I mean … oh, who am I kidding. Ally, this was the most fun I've ever had in my life! It's definitley been the most fun I've had since I became a … uh …" – oops, almost spilled the beans, there – " … I mean … it's the best day I've had in a long, long time."
"I had a really a fun time with you too," she smiled, softly blushing.
"I mean, Cluster Prime is … is completely unlike anything I ever imagined!" He gestured to the skyline around them, and the glowing outlines of metal skyscrapers silhouetted against the dark purple sky. "You showed me so many amazing places and so many amazing things …" And none of them are as amazing as you, he wanted to say – but he lost his nerve, and his voice trailed off without finishing the sentence.
Allison pulled her hands away and started nervously rubbing her left arm again. She and Drew had been so comfortable with each other all day long – she'd never spent a day like this with a robot boy before. They had laughed an talked about everything, and now all of the sudden, she didn't know what to say …
She looked up and summoned up an almost-sincere smile. "Hey, look, I finally got to go to my first Festival dance! And I didn't even have to get my uncle Univac to take me. Now when school starts again, and that stuck-up little Casseiopia-386 in home room starts bragging about the big dumb robo-jock she's dating, I'll be able to tell her about my whirlwind fling with a shiny, green-striped stud!"
Drew's cheeks glowed with green fire, and Allison broke into a nasty giggle at his expense. He wasn't accustomed to compliments. But it was good to see her smiling again … although something she'd just said stuck in his mind, and didn't seem right. "Ally, you've lived in the city all your life, and you've never gone to this Festival dance before?"
"Well, umm … no," she said uncomfortably. "The … the guys aren't exactly breaking down my door."
"But that doesn't make any sense!" he blurted out. "You're beautiful, Ally!"
His face nearly drained itself of color, such was his horror as he realized just what he'd said. Could you possibly sound any more stupid, you big idiot? But whether Allison thought he sounded stupid or not, the lavender glow on her metallic cheeks only intensified. Apparently she wasn't accustomed to compliments, either. But that just didn't make sense! Any robot guy on this planet would take one look at Allison, and describe her as a beautiful girl. It was perfectly obvious to him.
"That's really sweet of you to say," she said with a smile … an unconvincing smile, which told him that she didn't believe it herself. She rocked gently back and forth on the balls of her feet, and started rubbing her left arm housing again …
She's been doing that on and off, all day, whenever she gets nervous, thought Drew. Why is she rubbing her arm like that? "Ally, is … is there something wrong with your arm?"
Suddenly she grew quiet and ill at ease, and lowered her head, cradling her left arm. Drew grew concerned, not understanding whether or not he'd done something wrong. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Are you hurt? Do you need me to take you to a mechanic? Ally, please tell me." But still he got no response. Was she malfunctioning? Was she angry? What was the big deal with her arm? It looks just fine to me … wait a second. His optical sensors ran a quick scan …
"Your left arm," he said hesitatingly. "It's one-sixteenth of an inch longer than your right one."
Allison's face blushed purple – but now it was the tarnish of shame. Drew couldn't believe it. One lousy sixteenth of an inch? That wasn't much more than the thickness of a dime! It was nothing! How could she be embarrassed about something as minor as that? Ally didn't strike him as the shallow type. Then he thought, maybe … maybe it was different for robots. Robots could easily measure things with an accuracy of millionths of an inch; Jenny did it all the time, and Drew's nanobots routinely measured distances down to the atom. Maybe, for a robot girl, having an arm one-sixteenth of an inch longer than the other … made her feel like a mutant robotic fiddler crab.
She looked up into his face with sad, tired eyes. "When I was two years old, I was in a bad monorail accident. My mom and dad got a few dings and dents, but I was damaged pretty badly. They had to rush me to the emergency room, and the mechanics worked on me for thirty hours straight."
Her pumps heaved with a heavy sigh; it was a difficult memory for her. "They had to install a bunch of new wiring, and new hydraulic pumps, and a new power core. And … " – her head dropped again – "… and they had to replace my whole left arm. It was crushed beyond repair. But they'd stopped making the right kind of spare parts for my model number; the LSN droids were all updated the year after I was built. So … so they took a new arm, and just tried to make it fit onto my old body. And that's the sad, pathetic story of LSN-1482 – the patchwork, junkyard robot."
Drew was stunned speechless; not a feature on his face budged so much as a micrometer. Allison looked at the shock on his face, and interpreted it as revulsion at her horrible misshapen hideousness. Nicely done, 1482, she frowned to herself. No wonder they declared your model line 'obsolete'.
"I guess I must seem pretty silly to you," she said, her servo motors whining softly. "For a robot with a brand new, super-advanced body like yours, it must be hard to understand what it feels like to –"
"You feel like a freak," he said.
She blinked her eyes in surprise. "Excuse me?"
He gulped hard, his voice shaking like leaf. "You came home from the hospital and stared at it for hours, still not believing that it was actually attached to you. Late at night, alone in bed, you kept staring at, disgusted, like it was part of some alien monster that got grafted onto your body – some lab experiment gone horribly wrong. You felt angry, and cheated, and mad at the universe. Everyone told you that it looked fine, that nobody would notice … and you smiled, and said thank you, because you knew they were just trying to be nice. Then once the sympathy was over … then came the jokes, and the pointing, and the staring. You wondered how life could be so unfair. And whether they're kind or cruel, everyone makes you feel like a broken machine that's no good for anything. They make you feel like a freak. And after a while … after a while, you begin to agree with them."
She staggered backwards half a step, grasping the balcony's handrail to steady herself. "How … how could you possibly know that?"
He shuffled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ally … Ally, I wasn't built like this. I had a different body before this one … " – he closed his eyes and sighed heavily, remembering the trip to the hospital, and waking up from surgery to see only one lump under the blanket where there should have been two – "… then a few years ago, I was in a stupid car accident. I was 'heavily damaged', too. They had to cut off my right leg. I got a replacement one, just like you. And believe me … it wasn't as good of a match as your arm is. I understand what it's like to be a patched back together with different parts, Ally. I know how you feel."
She couldn't believe it. Could this be possible? On top of everything else, could he actually understand what it feels like to be broken down … to be laughed at? "But … but then how did you wind up with the nanobots? Was it some kind of secret project …"
"It was an accident," he said, staring at the ground. "That's all. Ally, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nobody wanted to make a silver-green ball of goo. I'm just a freak accident."
"Drew, that's a horrible thing to say!" she blurted out, cupping his cheek with her long, slender fingers. "You're not an accident! When other robots look at you, they see a high-tech, state-of-the-art android … who's strong … and clever … and amazing …" – she gulped hard, and slid her hand to his shoulder – "… and sweet, and funny, and cute … they don't see a patchwork freak, like me!"
He grabbed her hands in his flowing metallic fingers. "Ally, listen to me. Will you stop calling yourself a patchwork freak?!? Nobody looks at you and sees a freak. I sure don't!"
Her eyelids fluttered with a soft whirr of tiny servos. "What do you see, Drew?"
"I … I … I see …" Drew's mouth froze up, as Allison's large, oval eyes pierced him like a pair of white-hot needles. He felt the mysterious buzz-tingle in his circuitry again, just like he'd felt back at Mile High Tower; it was disorienting and fantastic, all at the same time. His mind raced like a runaway train, and his nano-computers flooded with a billion conflicting thoughts and feelings. He drew her close to his chest, his hands shimmering with nervous patterns of silver-green; her face burned violet, and her hands began to tremble as he spoke.
"I see a smile that makes me feel like I've known you forever, and makes me forget what it ever felt like to be alone. I see a pair of beautiful dark eyes, warm and inviting … two infinitely deep tunnels to some fantastic realm where the secrets of the universe are hidden away. When I look into your eyes right now, Ally … I can see the reflection of the moons, and the ring, and the stars shining like diamonds … and … and if I stare long enough … and deep enough … I think I can see my soul reflecting back at me."
The young robots stared deeply into each other's eyes, and the rest of the city blurred away into a featureless fog. The noise of the festival, the chatter of pedestrians; all of it ceased to exist. For a perfect instant in time, each of them was all that existed in the other's universe. Drew squeezed her smooth, metal hands, and felt the electric tingle again; to his amazement, Allison reacted at the same time – as if she felt the same thing. I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe this is happening …
Allison closed her eyes, and tilted her face up to his, receptively. Drew felt a charge of excitement and paralyzing fear that nearly reduced him to a silver puddle. He leaned forward, tilted his head … and suddenly realized that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Holy crap! I don't have lips! Should I grow lips? Wait … she doesn't have lips either! I'm pretty sure you need lips to kiss, don't you? Oh, crap, whatdoIdo whatdoIdo whatdoIdo whatdoIdo …
But mercifully, Allison nudged forward the last half-inch … touching her smooth, curved forehead to his silvery brow, and gently nuzzling …
And the buzz-tingle started again, first in his forehead, then spreading throughout his face. A swarm of electric snowflakes danced around the edges of his mind, teasing and nibbling and caressing the ones and zeroes that flowed along his data pathways. Soft fingers of electromagnetic energy gently weaved into his network circuitry, triggering a mix of random images and sounds and sensor readings that grew into a beautiful spiral of data, an overwhelming sensation which defied his ability to describe. Some of the images and sounds were things he didn't recognize – they looked like scenes that took place on Cluster Prime. He heard soft whispers at the fringes of his consciousness, cooing and giggling sweet-nothings, that filled him with a warm comfort and joyful contentment. Then he realized that the whispers were in Allison's voice. And he began to understand what was happening.
Their very minds were embracing each other; fragments of data and memory from Allison's electronic brain were somehow intermingling with his nano-computers. This was a new, purely robotic sense he never knew he had before, a sense based on the flow of data and electricity, a sense beyond physical touch. This was a robotic kiss … something that humans would never be able to experience. At first it felt like a blast of white heat, streaking through him like a lightning bolt from a summer evening thunderstorm; then the intensity subsided away into a billion tiny bubbles, as if an ocean of floating candles were glowing in his mind. It was more wonderful than anything he'd ever felt before in his life …
Allison pulled back, smiling and flustered, her eyes dancing with happiness. "For a couple of freaks," she smiled coquettishly, "that was kind of nice."
Drew grinned back at her, trembling himself now, and ran his silvery hand along her cheek. Somewhere, in the midst of the algorithms and nano-circuits that made up his android body, he could swear that he heard a heartbeat pounding in the middle of his syrupy chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, her voice-chip purring with an intoxicating sigh. He squeezed her tight and stroked her hair, and just let himself enjoy the buzz-tingle wherever their metal bodies came in contact. Then he gave her a huge smile, his eyes glowing with confidence behind his silver-green bangs. "They say practice makes perfect."
"My synthesizer-keyboard teacher used to say that," she giggled. "Of course, his lessons weren't nearly as fun as this." They leaned forward to touch minds again …
When a shrill electronic tone rang out into the night air, shattering the mood.
"Umm …Drew, I think that might be for you," she laughed, pointing to his eyes – which were softly flashing like Christmas lights.
He blushed green with embarrassment, as he realized that the noise was, indeed, coming from him. Talk about your lousy timing, he groaned to himself. Allison marveled as a rippling wave of silver-green ran down his arm, and his hand stretched and oozed into a compact video screen. His thumb turned into an antenna, and the screen came to life … with the face of a teenage robot girl.
"Jenny! Hey there, how's it going?" Leave it to Jenny, she's probably calling to tease some more …
"Is that Jenny?" giggled Allison, jumping in front of the screen. "Hey there, girl! I hope you and Dot didn't have too much fun at the parade without us …"
"Drew! Allison! Oh, thank Jobs!" Jenny's eyes looked nervous and panicky, and suddenly Drew realized that this wasn't a social call. "I didn't know if I'd be able to raise your frequency here on Cluster! Where are you? Are you guys all right?"
"Yeah, we're just fine," he answered, growing curious and concerned. "Why wouldn't we be? Jenny, what's wrong? Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"Big time," she groaned, rolling her eyes. "Look, I don't want to broadcast a signal much longer – it might be intercepted. I'm sending a set of co-ordinates. You've got to meet me here, right away! And Drew – be careful. Everyone knows we're in town, now. Everyone."
The video screen flashed an image of a city map, then the call disconnected, and Drew felt a shiver run through his nanobots. Jenny said that 'everyone' knows we're in town now. She must mean that Vexus knows we've escaped. Oh, nuts. Maybe Vexus' robots are chasing her right now …
"Well, that was weird," said Allison, scrunching her face into a quizzical pout. "Do you know what that was all about? What did Jenny mean when she said she was in trouble?"
Drew gulped hard, unsure of how much to tell her. "Ally, I hate to do this. I really, really hate to do this. But I've got to go find Jenny. She wouldn't have called me if it wasn't important."
A look of confusion and concern came over Allison's face … then she folded her arms, and her dark eyes steeled themselves with stubborn resolve. "Well, we'd better get going, then. I certainly know the city better than you do. I recognize those map co-ordinates, and I can get us there in five minutes."
"Ally … I don't know if you should come. It might be dangerous …"
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to ditch me already, Drew?"
His hair nearly stood on end. "What!?!? No … of course not!!!"
She wrapped a hand firmly around his arm. "Then we'd better stop standing here wasting time, and go help Jenny, don't you think?"
He shook his head at her sly grin; he'd only known Allison for two days, but he'd already learned that she could be very persistent when she wanted to. He knew he wouldn't be able to talk her out of coming along, and he really didn't want to try, anyway. Hand in hand, and the two young robots sprinted into the night, heading for the far end of the elevated walkway. With the music of the Festival fading further and further into the background, Drew and Allison ran across a small glass-covered skywalk, and headed for the closest monorail station.
Continued in Chapter Twelve / Six Days to Cluster Dawn