The search for Robot continues!
Shocking
Being the middle sibling is always annoying. Usually, it's to do with parental favoritism or one of her siblings being too smart for their own good. But no. No…
Penny was now suddenly the responsible one and she did not like this. Not even an iota.
"Will, we can't take the chariot to go search for Robot," Penny scoffed, head shaking as her brother gestured emphatically at the screen.
"But the scans show that he's right there!"
The fact that he waited till Judy was locked in the med bay just proved that this was a premeditated rebellion and Penny couldn't decide if she was more proud or annoyed.
"Technically, that just shows that something with the same elemental makeup as Robot is there," Vijay cut in, shrugging his shoulders. His brows furrowed as he squinted at the readings on the screen, "It could be something else. Especially since it's not the same place we tracked his 'bio' signature to last time."
Penny appreciated the fingers quotes around bio. Will did not.
"What else could it be?" Will huffed, bottom lip sticking out.
"Well, if it is him, we can go get him after mom wakes up, or dad gets here," Penny pointed out. It was a very good, very reasonable argument.
She hated it the second it left her mouth.
Will huffed again, "But he could move again. What if he goes outside the range of the jupiters?"
"You're missing a key detail, Will," Penny groaned, arms gesturing wide, "Neither of us can drive the chariot!"
"You did it before!"
Penny snorted, "That was a life or death situation." Rolling her eyes, she pointed down at her foot, "And the cast isn't exactly brake pedal friendly."
"What about you?" Will's gaze turned to Vijay, his arms crossing.
"What?" Vijay's eyes widened slightly, eyes flicking from Will to Penny and then back.
Okay. That was a not-bad idea.
"You're 16 right?" Will pushed, chin jotting forward, "You have a license?"
Vijay cleared his throat, stepping back from the table, "I really don't think that's-"
Penny arched an eyebrow.
"Yes, I have my license."
"If he drives, we could go and get Robot, be back before anyone even knows we're gone," Will nodded, a confident grin spreading across his face.
He'd also said they'd be back from taking Robot to the cave before night fell. Her brother wasn't exactly the best judge of distance or time.
"If we went…" Penny held up a finger, pointing it threateningly as Will started to speak, "…and I'm not agreeing to anything, we'd have to be sure it's Robot before we go."
Will's shoulders sank. He frowned, "But how do we do that? He doesn't exactly show up on a life-sign detector."
"Well~" Vijay squeaked, nose wrinkling. Penny and Will turned to face him. He shrugged, "We *might* be able to scan for electrical sources… and he's a robot, so…"
"He'd show up! And if it's the same spot as the metallic signature, then it's gotta be him!" Will was practically vibrating as he tugged Vijay towards the sensor controls.
Penny leaned over the back of his chair as Vijay started calibrating them. When she spoke, he shivered and Penny couldn't help but smirk, "Why do I think your definition of 'might' is a bit different than mine?"
The sensors beeped and a new map of the region was now overlaid on top of the previous one. Webs of electricity were visible - most of them jupiters, a few chariots over by the cave.
"Humans aren't showing up?" Will squinted at the map, "But our nervous systems should-"
"Not enough," Vijay shook his head, swallowing as he leaned back into Penny's shoulder. "100 watts on average, to pick up that, I'd have to focus the sensors on a smaller area." He pointed to the spot where they'd picked up Robot's signature most recently, "There's something with an electric current here though. Not nearly as much power as a jupiter, but definitely more than a human."
"Can we go then?" Will looked at them, eyes wide and hopeful. He wasn't begging, but he was about two steps from it by Penny's estimation.
She puckered her lips. The terrain was less extreme than an icy mountain descent. Her eyes dropped to the top of Vijay's head.
Ducking close to his ear, she asked, "Think you could drive there?"
With a sigh, he shrugged, "I'm already grounded anyway."
"Yes!" Will cheered, arms rising into the air. Penny rolled her eyes at him.
It took them less time to pack supplies and get to the chariot than it did for Vijay to transfer the sensor data to the chariot. Once they were ready, Vijay plugged in the coordinates and they were off.
"If we get caught, I'm throwing you so far under the bus…" Penny looked over her shoulder at Will, eyes narrowed. He kept smiling.
It was a good thing she liked Robot.
-.-.-
The admittance committee was looking exceptionally balanced with their two betas as Penny sat in front of the mission coordinating team. Five alphas. All of them male. And frowning.
Somewhere, a diversity chair was being ignored. Penny fidgeted in her seat as her mother outlined their strengths and weaknesses.
"Penny has excellent communication skills, and she's a quick study, so I thought having her trained on the communication systems would be the best fit."
"You yourself are on engineer, is that correct?" The alpha at the center chair was wrinkling his nose.
Maureen nodded, "Yes. I was part of the team that designed the Resolute and the Jupiters in fact."
Very subtle. The alpha hummed.
"And your elder daughter, Judy?"
"She's already halfway through an accelerated medical program. She'll be ready for residency and specialization by the time we board." Maureen was smiling, but it was tight. That did not bode well.
The center alpha sighed, leaning backwards. The one next to him spoke up, "I'm sure you can understand our reluctance to place an unmated, underage omega into a position that might be dangerous for her."
"I wasn't aware communications was considered a dangerous specialty," Maureen narrowed her eyes. Penny glanced across the table at Judy. Her eyes were narrowed too, and her jaw clenched.
Almost like they were surprised that her status as an omega was something anyone cared about. If only someone had warned them! Oh wait…
"The job itself, no," the second alpha, the one Penny was guessing they considered to be their diplomatic or tactful one, spoke slowly, eyes flitting from Maureen to Penny and back. He cleared his throat, "The communication team works closely with several others, many of them are predominately staffed by alphas. Not all of them mated."
Penny tried really hard to stifle her giggle. The center alpha, the annoying one, he glared at her, "You find our concern amusing, young lady?"
"The entire mission is predominately alphas," Penny raised a brow, "What's your plan? Put all the omegas on the same team to keep them away from everyone else?"
There was fidgeting from the entire table. Penny smirked. She titled her head to the side.
"What team do you want me assigned to then?"
"Logistics," the tactful alpha offered.
Penny fought back a desire to roll her eyes.
Logistics was one of the larger teams. They handled everything from inventory to stocking. No one touched anything on the Resolute that someone from Logistics didn't handle first. But they worked around the other teams, not with them.
It was the most isolated job they could give her. One that could be done almost entirely from the Jupiter if required. And Penny had an inkling that it would he.
Maureen was nodding, eyes fluttering as she considered it. Penny scowled.
She raised her hand before her mother could agree with them. The whole table looked at her, "The training is all books and simulations right, could I do both?"
"Cross-specialization is encouraged isn't it?" Judy popped in quickly, eyes wide and an eyebrow raised. "Logistics and communication would be a helpful overlap in an emergency situation."
There was a lot of hemming and hawing, but when her training packets hit her inbox the next day, Penny had two tracks to complete.
-.-.-
"Woah…" Vijay blinked down at the remnants of the ship from the ridge where they parked the chariot. It was like seeing an egg dropped in a skillet, the shell split and scattered all around.
"Robot?!" Will cupped his hands around his mouth and started shouting.
Penny was already making her way down to the wreckage, sliding down the ridge rather than searching for a safe trail. Vijay cringed as she jumped from a few feet up on to the hard ground. She caught herself, standing with a quick wince.
"You coming?" she called up to him as Will followed her lead. She quirked her lip up on one side, half smiling.
The fact that he slid down the side of a ridge was not proof that Vijay was swayed by Penny's influence. But it wasn't exactly evidence that he could say 'no' either.
"You remember when I said I prefer indoor adventures?" Vijay huffed as he came to a stop beside her, nose wrinkling at the dust in the area. She arched an eyebrow. "Still true."
Laughing, Penny tugged on his arm to lead him further into the wreckage as Will kept shouting for Robot. It was clear this was debris from a crash. They all had more than enough experience identifying the evidence of that.
"Think this was Robot's ship?" Vijay asked as they picked their way through to the biggest surviving pieces of the hull.
Penny nodded, brow furrowing, "It makes the most sense. Will said he had like memory loss or something when they met, maybe the fall helped him remember?"
"Maybe," Vijay scanned the area as they stepped up to the ruptured shell of what he was guessing was the main compartment. Penny knocked his shoulder.
"I can hear your brain thinking, Dhar, whatcha got?"
Vijay pursed his lips, eyes tracing the circular contraption in the middle of the room as they approached it, "If he'd come back to his ship, don't you think he'd have tried to fix it?"
"You don't think he's here?" Penny arched a brow and Vijay shook his head. She blew out a breath, cringing as she heard Will calling out for Robot again. "Maybe we should let Will come to that conclusion himself?"
She took another step and nearly tripped over an oval-shaped box. Vijay reached out to steady her and Penny reached out to touch the box. That was when the electricity blasted them both backwards, sending them flying as blue jolts zipped around the box visibly.
They landed flat on their backs, unconscious. Which meant neither of them realized Will had stopped calling for Robot.
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