Interlude 2

The mob was getting closer and she was totally lost. She had no idea which way to run.

Everything in her life had been fine until the courier ship from Arzawa III had arrived bringing word of the invasion. Initially there had only been people standing around talking when they should have been at work, then rioting and looting. At first it had been localized and it seemed that the Home Guard would be able to contain the problem but then the word got out that a High Guard ship carrying a nova bomb had arrived on scene. Rumors had started spreading faster than news. The High Guard was going to drop a nova bomb into the sun and the entire solar system was going to be destroyed, the High Guard was planning to use the nova bomb on Arzawa III; the resultant explosion would destroy Arzawa III but the resultant rain of asteroids would destroy Arzawa II. The city exploded in an orgy of rioting and looting. What the rioters and the looters couldn't smash or steal they had set afire. It seemed that half the city was afire. The smoke was so thick it made dimmed the sun making noon look like late evening. The Home Guard had been overwhelmed, some had fled, others had died trying to stop the rioters and some had even discarded their uniforms and joined in the destruction.

There was an alley off to her left, she ran into it. Why did they want to hurt her? She was nothing but an android working as a receptionist at a buckycable manufacturing plant. All she did was answer the com lines, greet people and look pretty. It was rare when she even left the factory; it was her home as well as her place of employment.

Mr. Tomatsu, one of the plant foremen, had told her and all the other bots to stay inside the plant until the trouble blew over. She liked Mr. Tomatsu; he always looked at her and the other androids when he talked to them, called them by their names instead of 'you' or 'bot' and always said 'please' and 'thank you'. She had even taken some of the money she had been saving up for her emancipation fee to have some modifications made to her torso so she could show him just how much she liked him. She hadn't yet worked up the nerve to approach him but she was planning to. He was single and good looking and if she could get him to like her enough maybe he would be willing to take her as a contract mate. Things should have gotten better after the rioters had burned everything that could be burned and stolen everything worth stealing but instead things got worse much worse. Someone in the High Guard had sent word down to what was left of the Home Guard to beware of rogue AI's. Apparently one or more AI's was leading the invasion of Arzawa III. Of course the word leaked out from the Home Guard and the rioters now had a new target.

By all the Gods in all the heavens NO! The alley was a dead end; she was going to have to retrace her steps.

Mr. Tomatsu had stayed in the factory with them. He had told them that as far as he was concerned that as long as they worked for him, he was not going to abandon them. All electric power had been lost days ago so the air conditioning system was off. The smoke from the fires and gotten even thicker and the wind had changed direction bringing the smoke into the plant. Of course the smoke didn't bother her or any of the other AIs but it did bother Mr. Tomatsu quite a bit. She had just left the main floor of the factory, heading to the infirmary to look for something she could fashion into a filter so Mr. Tomatsu would not be coughing so much, when the mob broke into the plant. There were dozens of them, some armed with wrecking bars, others with mauls and some even had those horrid electric dart guns, the type that could overload a bots circuitry paralyzing it but still allowing its pain circuits to function. From her vantage point in the doorway to the plant floor, she could see Mr. Tomatsu talking to them, apparently trying to persuade them that the frightened androids were not a threat nor were they planning any sort of revolt, when one of the members of the mob struck him down. Too frightened to move she watched as some of her fellow bots leapt to his defense. They were actually able to do some damage before they were brought down by the dart guns. There was another exit from the factory near where she was, when the mob moved in on her friends with their wrecking bars she ran to the exit, and into another small segment of the mob. The mob was even more surprised than she was and she was able to get past them before they were able to raise the hue and cry and begin the pursuit. Since her awakening she had never strayed more than a few blocks from the factory in no time at all she was totally lost

The mob was getting closer and she had nowhere to run.