A/N – Holy smoke, another very long chapter. Hope it's worth it. Please review!
Countdown to Mindshatter
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Thirteen – Just Beneath the Surface
Even from a distance, the Royal Palace Complex was awe-inspiring, intimidating, and overwhelming. A square mile of land had been flattened, paved with steel plating, enclosed by a tall iron fence, and guarded with sentry towers. Behind the fence, tens of thousands of roach-drones marched and drilled in precise military formations. And beyond them, the Iron Pyramid soared into the sky like a black mountain; its crisscrossing trusses of gunmetal gray loomed a thousand feet into the air, with tall steel obelisks encircling the palace like a giant ring of teeth. Atop the apex of the dark pyramid sat a immense copper-colored dome that glinted in the crimson sun, topped with sleek jeweled spires that rose up to pierce the clouds. From base to tip, Vexus' palace was almost half a mile tall. It could have contained the entire population of Wyoming within its walls. For Pete's sake, it was visible from space.
And somewhere inside of it, Drew moaned to himself, as he gazed out of the window, is a beautiful, lonely robot girl who's fighting for her life. Please, please let this work.
The hover-taxi cruised to a smooth landing in an area busy with everyday traffic, two blocks away from the wide boulevard that encircled the palace grounds. Drew and the Silver Shell climbed out of the cab, and wandered along a sidewalk filled with ordinary Cluster citizens who were innocently going about their daily routines. Drew glanced left and right, making sure that nobody was paying any attention to them. They slipped around the corner of the Recharge Bistro, and ducked into an alleyway …
With a gurgling schwerrrp, he liquefied his body, and flowed over the surface of the Silver Shell's chassis like a nanobot exo-skin. He made a few changes in the Shell's color and appearance, his colors grew darker, the lines of his form more angular. Fortunately, the Silver Shell was just the right size to make this little deception work. Then the unlikely duo checked their reflection in a nearby window, gathered their collective nerve, and started walking towards the palace gates.
Jenny meandered down the school's last intact corridor, kicking up clouds of plaster dust and fragments of drywall as she slumped towards her locker. Two more classes out of the way, two more classrooms in need of total reconstruction – and two more teachers in need of extended vacations. By now, everyone in the school with a shred of common sense was avoiding Jenny like the black plague. The Z-Pack power spikes that raged through her circuits were growing worse with every passing minute. She had tried to shut off her superhero mode hours ago, but that still hadn't kept a few random outbursts of super-strength from leveling the north wall of the gym. Fat lot of good a superhero is, who can't even run in superhero mode, she moped to herself. Just one more thing that I messed up at ...
"Jenny! Hold up! I've got something to show you!" Brad came running down in the hall in hot pursuit of her, waving a video disc over his head.
Jenny rolled her eyes to herself; it seemed like Brad had been two steps behind her all afternoon – bugging her with an endless series of very transparent attempts to 'cheer her up'. Yeah, like that'll accomplish anything. Why should I bother cheering up? I'm just a machine, after all. He was really starting to get on her nerves, in a way she thought that only Sheldon was capable of. She just wanted to be alone right now, in her final hours as a teenage robot. Bzzt. Fzzap. Neural Net Malfunction. Logic Error. The rest of the school had clued in to the truth – she was a malfunctioning weapon, a broken contraption, a faulty gizmo that wasn't worth wasting time on.
She managed to ignore him until she got to her locker, when Brad pulled up in front of her, mildly out of breath. "All right, I swore I would never touch this thing without protective gloves, but since you're gonna save the Earth today it's kind of a special occasion, so I rented, just for you …" – he held out the video like it was a stinky diaper – "… that new Ian McCulley chick flick, '28 Things I Hate About You'. After you smoke the Cluster fleet, we can watch it over on one of your big-screen monitors!"
Jenny took the video from his hands, casually glanced at Ian's super-cute face on the case cover … and tossed it over her shoulder. "Well, seeing as how the Cluster fleet is probably going to blow me into a million tiny pieces of glowing shrapnel by tonight … picking out a movie to watch is pretty much a waste of time. Now, Brad, if you don't mind, I'm going to the library for study period, so I can finish writing my last will and testament. Bzzt. Error. Neural Net at 30 percent. Besides, the library is the only room in the school I haven't completely trashed yet, and I though I'd go for the clean sweep."
"Aarrgghh, that's it!" Brad shouted, throwing his hands up in disgust. He'd finally exhausted his reservoir of optimism and positive attitude, with nothing to show for it. "Jenny, I've tried everything I can think of to pull you out of this stupid gloomy mood of yours all day, but nothing I do or say does any good! What the heck is going on with you?"
"So my moods are messed up now, too. Well, what do you expect from last year's model?" Jenny started to dial in the combination for her locker door – then she stopped. "Oh, who am I kidding," she moaned, "we both know I'm going to screw up, and rip this door off its hinges. Might as well just do it and save us both some time." And before Brad could utter a single syllable, she peeled the locker door off like the cover of a sardine tin, and flung it down the hallway. "Hey, I've already destroyed ninety percent of the school today. What's one more locker door?"
Brad was growing frustrated and afraid for her, all at the same time. Her entire body was bathed in an eerie pallor; the life and energy of the girl he knew as Jenny Wakeman, the girl next door, was nowhere to be seen in her face. Her eyes flickered like an old light bulb whose filament was about to short out. He was afraid to think such a thought, but he began to wonder if Jenny was hoping to get destroyed by the Cluster fleet. "Jen, you've got to stop acting like this. You're starting to freak everyone out!"
"Robot girl freaks people out?" she groaned, as she pulled her knapsack from the remains of her locker. "Since when is that news? I've been freaking people out since the day I was turned on."
"Darn it, that's not what I mean!" grimaced Brad. "Come on, Jenny! Snap out of it! Would you get it into that hard head of yours that …"
She caught him off guard with a surprising barrage of repressed anger and bitterness. "No, why don't you get it into your head, Brad? I finally clued in – so now that makes you the only person who doesn't get it. I'm a machine, Brad. I'm a device. I'm a contraption, a defense system … I'm a weapon. I'm a bucket of bolts that's been deluding herself into thinking she's a normal teenage girl. Well, guess what, Brad? I'm not a normal teenage girl. I'm a robot. I'm a robot, Brad, and an obsolete one at that."
The color drained from Brad's face. "Jen, you … you can't really mean that …"
Instead of calming down, Jenny's rant escalated to higher degrees of bitterness and angst, and fresh sparks of electricity leapt from the tips of her pigtails. "Mom tells me at least three times a day – I was built for one purpose, to defend the planet Earth. Now I'm not powerful enough to do that anymore. I'm a machine that can't do the job it's supposed to do. And what happens to machines that can't do their job anymore? They get tossed away. They get hauled off to the junkyard."
Brad wasn't the type of guy who normally found himself speechless. But he couldn't speak now.
Jenny wallowed deeper into her murky swamp of despair as she rummaged in her backpack for her History notebook. "You and Tuck replaced your old video games. Your folks traded in your old Turbo Wagon. People get rid of their old laptops and stereos and television sets. Mom tossed away the old Quantum Gigulator, and after today, she'll do the same thing to me! I'll wind up collecting cobwebs in the basement next to my sisters, and in a few weeks XJ-10 will be zipping around saving the world, and nobody will even care that I was ever here. Why would they? After all … I'm just a stupid machine …"
"… hey, wait a second. How did this get in here?" Jenny pulled a soggy, crumpled box out of the bottom of her backpack. It was wrapped up in a bright red ribbon. It looked like some sort – present.
A dozen upgraded roach-drones stood at rigid attention behind the main palace gates. Each one was a member of Vexus' elite Royal Guard: their green and gold chassis were polished to a jeweled finish, they received the best in care and maintenance, and they got free paint and wax jobs twice a month. They were symbols of the queen's power and splendor, and as such, they had to look good for the crowd of robotic citizens who came to admire them. They stood at vigilant alert, even though the only shooting they expected to see today was from tourists and their holographic cameras.
Then the lead drone noticed a change in the crowd's demeanor. The citizens were already buzzing with excitement from Vexus' stirring departure speech, and their celebration would grow larger still after her declaration of victory via hyperwave. But they seemed to be getting wound up a little earlier than expected. Hundreds of sensors turned towards someone in the back of the crowd …
A large figure strolled arrogantly forward, with a snarl on his face and a sneer in his eye. Robots pointed with excited recognition, and parted before the olive-and-green colossus as he strutted up to the main gate. The imposing robot acknowledged the crowd with a wave of his claw, and a flash of his wide, gap-toothed smile. Then he thrust his horn-antenna upwards, cutting an even more daunting silhouette.
"Well, drone, are you going to stand there all day," he growled, "or are you going to let me in?"
The lead drone's neck servos whirred frantically with a double-take, stunned by who he saw standing before him. He clanked nervously up to the palace gates, fretfully rubbing his four claws together as he deactivated the electromagnetic locks. "Ah … of course, sir, of course … although … Sir, I don't understand … my programming instructs me that you were with the fleet, en route to …"
"Do I look like I'm with the fleet?" boomed the mighty warrior, with menace in his eyes. He clenched a melodramatic fist to his chest, shamelessly playing to the crowd. "Now make way for the greatest warrior in all the Cluster Empire! Make way for the Lord of the Outer Rings, the Mayor of Moonrobia, the Capo of the Crab Nebula … the Destroyer of Worlds! Make way … for Smytus!"
Jenny ripped the box open, while arching a suspicious eyebrow at Brad with a tired creak. He insisted that he didn't know anything about the mystery gift – but Jenny rolled her eyes again, assuming that this was just another cornball stunt, to try and cheer her up. Knowing Brad, she had half expected the box to contain two tickets to a monster truck pull, or the latest version of "Space Godzilla Hunter 3000."
But instead, to her surprise, it held … a necklace.
A plain but elegant curved band, with a smooth steel surface infused by just a hint of aqua coloring that matched her own. In its center was a large blue oval … that wasn't actually a jewel, but a patch of polished metal that shone as brightly as any jewel. Jenny took the metal band in her hands, and turned it over to watch it glisten in the overhead lights. As much as she felt like making a snide remark in her current state of mind, she had to admit that it was … pretty. She glanced up with a sarcastic smirk. "Well, I wasn't expecting something like this. Uh … wow. Thanks. When Vexus whoops my butt this afternoon, at least I can … heh-heh … be a well-dressed slave." A tiny part of her mind suddenly felt very confused. I never expected Brad to give me something like jewelry …
Brad was plenty confused himself – he'd never seen the weird "necklace" before in his life. But what he did know was that Jenny had just come closer to laughing than she had any time all day. For the time being, he decided to just roll with it. "Yeah, well … uh … I thought you might like it. I mean, you're always pressing your face against the windows of those foo-foo stores at the mall …"
Jenny slipped the band around her neck, and looked into the mirror at the back of her locker. "Huh, it doesn't sit right. It's not curved the right way … I don't think it'll fit around my neck."
Oh, great. Wouldn't you know, the one thing that has half a chance of cheering her up is busted. Brad stopped wondering about the mystery present's origin, and gave it a closer examination … the curve of the metal wouldn't fit around any girl's neck, human or robotic. Then what could it be for … "Hey, wait a second! I don't think … I mean, that's not supposed to be a necklace."
Brad took the curved band from around Jenny's neck – then startled her by lifting it up, and setting it on top of her head like a tiara. It fit perfectly, actually securing itself in place with tiny hidden magnets. The metal band traced and arc from one pigtail-bolt to the other, dropping the strange blue oval to rest in the middle of Jenny's forehead, just above her eyes.
"There you go, Jen … fits like a glove." He gulped awkwardly. "Wow, it, uh … looks nice on you." The small burst of satisfaction Brad felt at correctly guessing the nature of the gift was abruptly pushed aside by a strange feeling of unease, standing so close to Jenny like this. He thought he felt a slight tingle of heat in his cheeks. Now's not the time, he thought, chastising himself.
Jenny looked at herself in the mirror again, and felt something rough and ragged surge upwards from her vocal processor … and to her amazement, it was an involuntary giggle. "Th-thanks," she stammered, still not sure what to make of the unexpected gift. It looked and felt as if it had been custom-made, created just for her. Custom-made? That must have been expensive! "B-Brad, you didn't have to do this," she said, as the corner of her mouth creaked into the makings of a smile …
Suddenly, electronics embedded inside the headband came to life, and Jenny felt an odd, tingling sensation run through her surface wiring – the oddest sensation she'd ever experienced in her entire robot life. A wave of soft, pulsing energy washed over her frontal processing nodes; it felt strangely relaxing, yet rejuvenating at the same time, as if her mind was waking up for the first time that day. Teasing fingers of electricity danced through her neural nets, like a massage of bubbles. Jenny's eyes snapped open with the softest of gasps, and the bluish oval on the headband started to glow faintly. She dropped her textbooks and pencils, and stumbled clumsily backwards into her trashed locker. For she was overwhelmed by the wonderful buzz-tingle that rippled through her electronic mind …
Brad had no idea as to what was happening, and with all the warnings that Mrs. Wakeman had given him about Jenny's deteriorating mental state, he feared for the worst. "Jen? Jen, what's wrong? Can you hear me?" That headband doohickey was doing something weird to Jenny's brain! Brad lunged forward to pull it off of her head …
And stepped right on top of one of the dropped pencils. He lost his balance and spilled into the lockers, crashing into the otherwise distracted robot girl. His arms shot out to support himself, just in time to keep from face-planting into the locker doors … but he nearly head-butted Jenny instead.
All of the sudden he felt something cool against his forehead … Jenny's metallic headband …
Jenny was vaguely aware that Brad's head had bashed into hers …
Then there was a blinding flash of light, and the lockers, the hallway, the entire school … disappeared.
Sheldon twisted the control sticks to make the Silver Shell – aka "Smytus" – wave to his adoring public one more time. Then he brought the synth-o-voice microphone down to his mouth, and spoke with a quivering, nasally voice. "Um, yes, thank you, thank you … now if you'll excuse me, I have pressing business inside the palace. Because that's where a loved and respected Cluster warrior like me belongs on a day like today … uh … inside the palace … doing palace stuff … Cluster warrior here …"
"For criminy's sake, Sheldon," hissed Drew's voice. He'd stretched a pencil-thin tendril of nanobots inside the Shell's chest, and morphed it into a silver-green speaker panel. "You look like Smytus, you sound like Smytus, now all you've got to do is act like Smytus. He's got an ego the size of a small asteroid! Just blow off the guards, and strut into the palace like you own the place …"
"Okay, okay, stop making me nervous! "Smytus" breezed past the confused roach-drones, and started walking towards the palace doors …
"Commander, wait!" cried the lead drone guard. "You didn't scan in! It's standard procedure!"
Scan in? Oh, just swell, gulped Sheldon. "Um … get out of my way, drone! I don't have time for this nonsense! I'm on an important mission for Queen Vexus. Do you want me to explain to her that I was late for my mission, all because of you?"
But the royal guard scurried in front of "Smytus", holding up a scanning device in his claws. "Commander, you know that we're under orders – directly from the Queen – to scan every single robot who comes into the palace. You do not wish to disobey a direct order issued by the queen, do you?"
"Ah … that is … " Sheldon clamped his hands over the microphone, dripping flop sweat onto the floor of the Shell's cockpit. "Drew, what am I supposed to do? What's he supposed to scan?"
"Ah … uh … gaaah … I got no idea!" Sheldon could hear the flop sweat in Drew's voice, too.
"Oh yeah, this was a brilliant plan!" sneered Sheldon, in a mocking tone of voice. "Let's walk right in the front door! Right where all the guards are! Pure genius!"
"Would you shut up!" Drew hissed back. "Look, maybe I can fake something …"
But before Drew could do anything, the drone raised his scanning device to "Smytus'" right claw, and swiped a thin violet beam over the nanobot-disguised fingers. Drew and Sheldon could only sit in aching silence and ponder their fate. In a matter of seconds, they would be exposed as frauds – and ten thousand roach-drones would be on top of them like junkyard dogs on a T-Bone steak. No matter what the scanner had been looking for, Drew knew that they were going to fail the security check.
As soon as the scan results came back over the ClusterNet.
Jenny floated through a rainbow-colored cloud of sparkling lights, and felt the tickling, caressing buzz-tingle flow away from her forehead, and spread throughout her entire face. Swirling vortices of ones and zeros danced around her body like a playful autumn breeze, then dove deep into the valleys of her electronic mind, and spread warmth through her innermost memory core. Her Mood-O-Tron bounced madly back and forth between Terror and Pleasure; for it felt absolutely magical, but she worried that it signaled the final breakdown of her robotic brain. But as glowing electronic snowflakes bounced off of her cheeks like dandelion seeds, she decided to simply close her eyes, and soar through the wispy colored clouds. If this was what a malfunction felt like, then she didn't want to be repaired. A silent squeal escaped from her lips, and her mind spun wonderfully out of control …
Muffled sounds coalesced into familiar voices, and streams of data flowed into a chaotic maelstrom of color and light. Then the surreal storm dissipated – and Jenny found herself floating in front of a strange portal, like a viewport into another universe. It was almost like watching a movie, except she could see, and hear, and even feel everything that was happening … almost as if it was actually happening to her! And if that wasn't bizarre enough, in the middle of the floating portal, she saw … herself, sulking on the edge of her bed
Too weird, she thought, still in a state of wondrous shock … but now she was too fascinated to be scared. Gradually she recognized other details in the picture. Boy band posters on the wall, trouble monitors hanging from the ceiling … sure enough, she was looking into her own bedroom, but from a strange and unfamiliar perspective. Almost as if she was outside the house, crawling in through the window …
"Hi, Jenny! My name's Brad!" said a friendly, excited voice. "Wow, a real live robot!"
The "Jenny" in the floating movie leapt to her feet with a grin on her face. "A real live teenager!"
A familiar conversation played out, as Jenny watched herself pointing and giggling, and suddenly she realized what she was looking at – it was the very first time that Brad had crawled through the window to see her! Back when her mother had kept her a virtual prisoner in her own house, and she wanted nothing more than to get out and hang with other teens, and have real friends of her own – then Brad had come into her life, and ever since, he'd been the best friend a robot girl could ever hope for. But she couldn't see Brad anywhere in the picture at all …
Then Brad's voice echoed from the portal once again – "Wow, I can't believe that grouchy old Doctor Wakeman has a super-cool daughter like Jenny! This is gonna be so awesome! She's fun, she's a superhero, and … heh-heh … gee … she's kind of cute, too." Jenny's pigtails nearly shot off her head in surprise. What was that? Brad never said that when we first met!
Jenny slapped her hands over her mouth with a gasp. As amazing as it seemed – she was watching Brad's own memory of their first meeting!
Then the picture dissolved into a floating swirl of color, before quickly re-forming into yet another one of Brad's memories. This time Jenny recognized the scene immediately … there she was, walking out of the garage just across from Mezmer's, with her shiny, glistening new red paint job. Twinkles of sunlight danced from the tips of her flame-painted pigtails, and the triple coating of wax made her chassis shine like it was made of rubies. Then to Jenny's bewilderment, she started feeling awkward, and nervous, and she could even feel sweat trickling down her forehead and under her armpits … she was feeling everything that Brad was feeling in this memory!
"Uh … Jenny … I don't know what to say," stammered Brad, as his throat shrank up and flashed bone-dry. "You look …"
"You look great, Jenny!" blurted Tuck, who was standing by Brad's feet.
"Stupid big-mouthed runt," Brad snarled to himself, feeling mad for being so clumsy with his words. "She doesn't look great. She looks … amazing. Yikes, Jenny … you look beautiful. Dangit, Brad, you idiot, why didn't you tell her that? What's the matter with you?"
Jenny felt a warm glow flash in her metal cheeks. Gosh, I … I never knew he thought I was … She began to feel guilty, and wondered whether she had any right to be watching this. But she couldn't tear herself away from the floating portal, as more familiar memories flashed by in a blur. Brad and Jenny flirting at Mezmer's, when Jenny was wearing her exo-skin … Brad and Jenny alone in the alleyway, when she'd gone through her embarrassing robotic 'puberty' … then another image fazed into existence …
Brad was standing in the hallway right here at Tremorton High, talking to a cute blonde … Chloe, the girl who'd been flirting with him for over a month. And even though Chloe had warmed up to Jenny in the last few days, and had written a nice story about her in the school paper … to Jenny's surprise, she felt an unexpected emotion when she looked at the pretty freshman and her long, wavy hair. And it was one of her own emotions this time. It was jealousy.
"Brad, I need to know now," pouted Chloe, looking up at Brad through her long eyelashes. "It's less than a week until Junior Prom, and if you're going to take me, I need time to start planning!" She twirled a lock of her wavy hair in her fingers, and rocked her shoulders back and forth seductively. Jenny shocked herself by grabbing a nearby block of glowing data, and crushing it into bits …
"Look, Chloe, you're a nice girl and all, but … I …" Brad stammered and stuttered, and his heart began to race, and it seemed like his brain was going to melt down and flow out of his ears. "Maybe you should just go to the prom with somebody else. I … I'm not even sure if I want to go …"
"Not even sure if you want to go?" True to the saying, hell had no fury like a woman scorned. "What-ever, loser. Look, I don't know why I'm wasting my time with you, anyway. I can get a date for the prom like that. Brad, you used to be such a cool guy, but the more time you spend hanging around with Jenny, the more your brain turns to mush. While you figure out what you want, I'll be over at the basketball team practice. I'm pretty sure those boys are a little more interested in girls than machines."
Chloe stormed away, and Jenny fought the urge to blast the portal with a laser-limb … then the voice of Brad's memories echoed once more, shaking with nervousness and anxiety. "But Jenny's not a machine! She's a girl who just – y'know – happens to be a robot. She's just an ordinary teenage girl. Well … gulp … no, that's not true. If you knew Jenny like I know her … you'd know that there's nothing ordinary about her at all. She's not a machine, she's my friend … the best friend I've ever had …"
A chill ran up Jenny's spine, and her cheeks flashed a brilliant indigo, as Brad's feelings poured out of the memory like a waterfall. "No, that's not true either," Brad groaned to himself, as he shuffled down the hallway, all alone. "You big dummy, Brad … you think of her as more than just a best friend. But you'll never tell her, because you're too scared … you'll never tell her …"
A magnificent warmth flowed through Jenny's circuits as she hovered in the surreal kaleidoscope of color, unable to think, or move, or speak a single word …
Then the picture grew foggy, and dissolved into a swarm of fireflies that sped off into a billion directions at once. The warm eddies of data and memory receded, like a wave pulling away from the beach after high tide … then a glaring light washed away the remains of the dream world. Jenny blinked her eyes furiously as the hallway lights returned, and clasped a hand to the side of her head, feeling the soft electric hum of the metal headband. She was back in school, pressed up awkwardly against the shattered row of lockers in the corridor. Because Brad was practically laying right on top of her, with a look of stunned bewilderment on his face … and a faraway smile in his eyes.
Sheldon gnawed on his fingernails as he watched the royal drone-guards conversing, on the Shell's internal video monitors. This was it – they were sunk. Drew's plan was essentially a huge bluff; they had hoped that disguising the Silver Shell as Smytus would allow them to simply stroll in the palace's front door. Well, they'd gotten inside the gate. And maybe another twenty feet beyond that. He saw the lead drone run out of the guard house, waving his claws excitedly, with a look on panic on his insectoid face. "Looks like he's pretty worked up about something," he whimpered …
"All right, better arm your weapons," gulped Drew's shaking voice. "Uh … we'll, uh … we'll blast these guards, then you hit the rockets and we'll try to make a break for it …"
A squad of royal drones rushed to surround "Smytus", and brought themselves to full alertness. Sheldon slipped the cover off the master weapons safety, wiped his hands on his pant legs, and brought a targeting reticle up on the Shell's center screen …
Then the lead drone snapped his smartest salute, with a look of terror in his eyes. "A thousand apologies, oh great Commander Smytus! Please, please, do not be angry with us! We were not aware of your secret assignment until we got the data back with the scan results! Please, understand … we were just doing our job! Don't destroy me … I have a wife and three appliances to feed!"
Sheldon arched a confused eyebrow. "Uh – wha? Secret assignment?"
The lead drone guard clapped two of his claws together. "These drones will provide you with a royal escort on your way to the Central Communications Node. They'll get you there without further inconvenience. Once again, I am most sorry, Commander! Most, most sorry indeed!"
Sheldon wasn't quite sure what had just happened; the Cluster robots that should have been cutting him to ribbons, were marching ahead of him to open the palace's front doors instead. "I don't know what you did, Drew," he grinned, "but you must be better at this shape-shifting stuff than you thought!"
"It wasn't me," whispered Drew's voice, with barely contained excitement. "Think, Sheldon … not only does the Cluster computer network give us security clearance, but it arranges a guided tour through the palace, directly to the room where Ally is being held? I wouldn't even know how to set up something like that. But I know who could! Sheldon, I think we're getting some inside help."
Brad jumped back as if his shoes had just caught on fire, and slapped a hand to his forehead in panic. He looked as if he was having a sharp headache … but at the same time, his cheeks were burning with a crimson glow, and he was trying to wipe the world's biggest, dopiest grin from his face. "Whoa … uh … wow, that was something else." His eyes spun around in their sockets for a moment, until he managed to get his wits about him – and he saw that Jenny was staring at him with an expression to match his own. "Jenny," he blurted awkwardly, "what the heck was that?"
Jenny gingerly touched the headband, and a nervous giggle escaped from her voice box. The darkness in her face had been washed away, replaced with a pale blue flash of girlish embarrassment. "I … I'm not sure," she said. "The headband did something after you put it on my head, but … I'm not sure …"
He straightened out his shirt tails, suddenly finding the need to do something with his nervous hands, then started to scratch the back of his head. Jenny started to suspect that Brad had just experienced something as extraordinary as she hid. She'd never known Brad to be this much at a loss for words before. Finally, clumsy words spilled out of his mouth. "Uh, Jen … um … this is gonna sound kinda freaky … did you happen to see a bunch of … stuff … like, in your head …"
"… you mean you saw them too?" she asked. "Like a whole bunch of images?"
He nodded an anxious yes. "What just happened?"
Jenny tucked one leg behind the other, suddenly unable to look Brad in the eyes. The blue color on her cheeks began to intensify, despite her best efforts to stop it. "This is … this is going to sound nuts, Brad … but … gulp … I think we just kissed."
"Kissed?" Brad suddenly found himself breathing a little heavily. The idea seemed totally ridiculous, but the way it had felt … "Uh … not exactly the way I remember seeing it done in the movies."
Jenny clasped her hands behind her back, still unable to look her longtime friend in the eyes. Two minutes ago, she had been a walking harbinger of gloom … and now she couldn't wipe the silly smile off her face. "Brad, did you … did you really mean what you said … I mean, what you thought … when you said that I wasn't really a machine … did you really mean what you thought after that?"
Brad tugged nervously at his collar. "Well, I … well, I guess that I …"
A loud buzz-buzz-buzz rang through the hallway, and Jenny's chest plate sprang open with a quick clank, deploying her familiar emergency monitor. The picture sprang to life, and her mother's face appeared on the tube, clutching her hair in a fit of frenzy. "XJ-9! Where are you? For Euclid's sake, do you have any idea what time it is?" Mrs. Wakeman waved her wristwatch excitedly, and spoke with a hint of mania in her voice. "You must get to the Starship Camp as soon as possible! I have something important to show you, as soon as you get here. This is extremely urgent – time is of the essence! It's a matter of life and death – specifically, yours! No time to chat, working like gangbusters, emergency project, get to the camp, everyone's waiting, ta-ta, sweetie!"
And just as quickly as the monitor had unfolded, it snapped back into its compact form, and retracted into her chest. Jenny shrugged her shoulders, and gave Brad a smile. "That's my mom for you. What's a girl gonna do? Looks like I've got to fly." She stood up taller and straighter than she had all day, and deployed her booster wings and rocket motors. No diagnostic warnings were flashing in her internal vision. The Z-Pack felt lighter than it had before. The only sensor readings which were still above normal came from the temperature sensors in her cheeks. "I could give you a lift over, Brad," she said with a nervous chuckle, "if, umm … you're not worried that I'll screw up, that is …"
Before she could even finish the sentence, Brad eagerly hopped onto one of her booster-wings, mindful not to touch the foul Z-Pack he was so suspicious of … but he did rest a reassuring hand on her metal shoulder. "How many times do I have to say it? I'll always believe in you, Jen."
Motors ignited, filling the hallway with billowing clouds of pale blue exhaust. She didn't even need to punch a hole in the ceiling; most of it was missing, anyway. With a blast of acceleration, Jenny and Brad screamed into the sky, and arced in the direction of the Starship Camp.
Continued in Chapter Fourteen / Ten Minutes to Cluster Dawn
