This week has been very empowering for me as a writer. Out of nowhere this story has become both fun and logical again. So, here's another chapter for you all. I can't promise that this rapid updating will continue, but trust that there will be updates at least frequently.
Tuddrussel had never thought Larry had once been shiny.
But there the robot was, gleaming in the artificial light, like he had just been polished. He wasn't so grey; rather, he was a weird silver color that made Tuddrussel feel inadequate.
Larry, it seemed, had always had a talent for making the human feel sub-par.
The robot was reading and walking, surrounded by aides who were all saying things about this and that. Tuddrussel followed the group, marching in their wake like he knew where he was going. As he followed, a few of the aides finished what they had to do and left a hole in the wall of people around Larry. Tuddrussel, pulling out a flat piece of metal that was wirelessly linked to a headset he had stowed in his pocket, marched faster. He came up behind Larry and bumped into him, feeling the little microphone snap into the side of the robot's chest case.
"Sorry, there." He hustled off, putting the bud of the headset into his ear and switching both devices on with a remote.
Larry jumped up, feeling a sharp pain in his side. He panicked before he scanned himself, and as he did so he found six tiny holes in two rows in his chest case. The two rows stood an inch apart, uniform as if they came from a small chip of hardware. Before Larry's eyes they aged, the edges of the holes becoming rounded where they were at first crisp.
He tried to calculate what it could be. The first memory check, a full run-through the likes of which he hadn't done before, showed nothing that would have anything to do with this. He checked again, his Hart insisting that he act human and think that there was some margin for error in the first scan. He checked again and found a memory, one he hadn't had in the first check, of finding a small, flat chip in his side. His hand had reached down and detached it, leaving the six uniform holes.
Larry was startled, awkward, and, admittedly, scared. Seeing the chip from the memory file, he diagnosed that it was one half of the intelligence retrieving equipment that Tuddrussel and all other human Time Cops were issued.
Larry sat down by Otto bedside again, nervous. His hands starting clanging against the insides of his wrists and he had to clench them into fists to make them stop.
He sat up the rest of the night, worrying.
Tuddrussel could have wandered off into some other part of the station, but he opted to stay close to his target. The first chance he got, he ducked into a doorway and waited for the robot the pass. Following along again, this time from a greater distance, he listened to the young Larry's conversations.
"Mr. 3000, the knus won't just listen to the data we give them. They'll continue to defame Earth unless we can bring up solid proof that the ship terrorizing them aren't Earth's."
"No, they are Earth ships," Larry said, his voice strong and confident. Hearing it, Tuddrussel's gut jumped. He almost felt sorry for the robot. "Ambassador Retu has holograms of the ships from news broadcasts on Knull. Every ship has Earth's insignia, and there are several recordings of the attackers returning to the ships."
"Are we even sure they're not fakes?" an aide piped up.
"What reason do the knus have for making fakes?" another aide argued, "They want peace with Earth, they've said so."
"Mr. 3000, you understand Ambassador Retu's demands, correct?"
"I was there when he made them," there was the weird voice again. "He wants the attacks to stop, to be reimbursed for what Knull has lost, and a formal apology from Earth."
"He's not getting those last two," this was a hard, even voice, the kind that reminded Tuddrussel of his father. "We'll see about stopping the attacks, but we're not going to apologize or God-damn pay for something that isn't our fault."
Tuddrussel caught himself smiling. He liked the way this guy thought.
"Admiral, please," Larry again, "we are here to negotiate, not only point out what we did not do."
"3000, I only want you to remember the score."
"I think I am adequate at remembering facts, Elkhart. I am designed to do so."
"Mr. 3000," an aide, "we still need to speak to you about tomorrow morning's meeting."
"I know, Fatima, but I need to charge my battery. Give me half an hour, and then I will be ready for the meeting."
There was the sound of a door sliding open, sliding closed, and then radio silence for half an hour.
Tuddrussel, having expected the silence, occupied with himself with finding out who Admiral Elkhart was. He found a small console, a miniature computer that had basic information, maps, rooms, staff lists, menu schedules, logged into it. He typed in 'Elkhart', found his room and a hologram of the office. Tuddrussel, printing a map to the room and shoving it into one of his big pockets with the other papers Larry had given him, thought about how easy it would be for him to disrupt the whole negotiations by messing with the computers. A late alarm here, a misplaced name there, edited documents that said the opposite of what they meant, fake calls from one side to the other to worsen relations.
Scrap the whole system, he thought, and just do it man to knu. They'd make their demands, Earth would tell them these bandits shouldn't have been authorized by any systems…
Tuddrussel scarped the idea, seeing the pinhole.
He went looking for Elkhart, thinking about what the universe must have been like before computers. He'd have to ask Otto about that.
The Time Cop found the admiral using a map and a print out of his hologram. The image must have been from some time ago, because Elkhart's hair was grey at the sides of his head and his eyes were more wrinkled. Otherwise the hologram had been accurate, with a stiff, serious face, medium build, straight nose and black(ish) hair. Looking at him, Tuddrussel was relieved to see he was fully human. Dealing with semi-humans like Doctor Whatshisface made Tuddrussel feel a little weird.
Elkhart was headed into his rooms and Tuddrussel decided not to bother him, but instead went looking for something to eat.
After a good night hours of sitting in the dark, Larry left stiff and sore in all his joints. He tried to stretch the weakness out, but in the end stooped to just asking the medicbot on ward for some oil. The robot obliged him, but told Larry he would need to accompany the robot into the storage room, to locate the correct type of oil.
They were five minutes away from the infirmary when all Hell broke loose.
There was a noise like nothing Larry could even conceive. Tuddrussel would later say it sounding like a pig being gutted alive, mixed with a heifer dying while trying to give birth. The whole station shook, then glowed red as the alarms went off and the emergency lights flashes. Larry swivled in his sockets, his Hart telling him to run back to Otto, but he felt the weird tri-fingered hand of the medicbot stop him when he tried to run back to weird the noise was the worse.
Tuddrussel, and every other officer onboard who was worth his salt, was up and running. But Tuddrussel, being Tuddrussel, was faster, meaner, and bigger than all the other officers. He plowed through the crowds, shouldering, pushing, shoving, punching, kicking his way back to the infirmary. Why the hell, he wondered, were all these guys headed weird he was?
Larry turned on the medicbot, throwing a fist into the mechanical eye and busting it. He tried to run again but the robot had linked into his systems, and pulled his fusses. He collapsed in the hall, dead to the world.
Tuddrussel was, of course, the first to get through the door to the infirmary. He was the only one, therefore, that saw the semi-human doctor boarded an old Earth starship. All around the ward had been demolished, pieces of curved metal hanging precariously from the ceiling. Between the remains of the ward and the starship, there was a glossy blue light. A temporary air bubble, created by the ship, Buck knew.
He charged after the doctor, knowing full well that he was too late. He didn't care, because Otto's bed was missing and that son of a bitch must have…
Must have…
Must…
Jesus, it was hard to breathe in there.
"…olger! Soldier! Wake up, man!"
The backs of his eyeballs hurt. He felt as sick as he had the morning after he broke his nose that first time. He wanted to roll over and die.
If only this guy would get off him.
"Soldier! Wake up, for God's sake!"
"Christ's sakes, will you fuck off?" Tuddrussel was sure he had said the words, but to anyone around they just sounded like angry, sleepy growls.
"We need to stabilize him, get one of the medical units."
There was more talking, but Tuddrussel was too tired to listen to them blabbing about some guy who couldn't hold himself together. He needed some air.
Feeling a weight on his one arm, he tossed the limp from side to side, freeing it. He began to lift himself off the ground, when more weight fell on him. God damn pushed him!
"I said fuck, the hell, off!" He opened his eyes and saw the two men who had tried to hold him down being thrown on their backs, and the crowds around him gasp. He was up before he felt how much pain he was in. He was walking before any of them could grab him.
They didn't, because they couldn't, stop him. He was moving through them like a hot knife through butter. He thought he had cleared the noisy, nuisance of the crowd when, out of nowhere, there was this old man with black hair in front of him.
Tuddrussel kept plowing right for the medium built geezer, who stood straight and solid in his way. If this guy thought he wouldn't hurt him the son of a bitch had another thing coming.
Elkhart remembered the mad dog his father had to shoot. The look on this giant's face was a human version of the look on the late canine's mug. He held his hand out, straight out with the palm facing the man.
"Stop, soldier, that's an order." His voice wasn't loud, but it crashed through the silence of the hallway. He kept the sound even, not afraid of being bulldozed by this man because, hell, he'd do the same thing if he was is such a state.
But, as he had gambled would happen, the giant stopped. He was slumped over, breathing as hard as the mad dog had been. The big chest labored for air. Elkhart looked at the man's eyes, unblinking and hard.
Tuddrussel, at first, thought it was his father talking to him. But, realizing that his father wouldn't be born for a few more millennia, he remembered what had happened.
"Jesus. They took Otto."
And he fell, again, into unconsciousness.
Holy shit! What could happen next?