Chapter 6
Somewhere over the Great Forest
7:28 PM
Kyros leaned back as much as he could in the uncomfortable SWATbot pod seat and kicked his feet up on the console. "Did we really have to go back to the arcology and install the stuff now?" he asked anonymously.
"We had to get the kidney, didn't we?" Seltic asked in response from behind him. "I suppose while we're there we can throw the part in and call it done."
"I hope it goes that fast," Kaplain added as he steered the ship slightly to remain behind the Royal Army's drop ship.
Seltic sighed and tried to picture the pumps in his mind, which were now unfortunately in the ship ahead of them and impossible to study. "Yeah, I know. If they still work after that job removing them, then we'll probably run into problems interfacing them with the pipes at the arcology. At least we should have enough that if we put them in series with each other they might make up for the lack of strength."
"Maybe it'll be enough anyway," Maya replied lethargically from her seat. She yawned and went on, "I'm very tired right now, I hope we can finish our job here quickly."
Stanley leaned forward in his seat and said, "Well, whatever we do let's just do it right. I like these people alright, but I'm ready to be back in Armadi for more than twelve hours at a time."
"We all are," Kyros said. "Any idea at all how long the repairs will take?"
"Not a clue," Kaplain answered from beside him. "Could be an hour, could be eight, it all just depends."
Kyros groaned. "Okay, just don't waste too much time doing a perfect job. Remember, we're all tired, but we've also got time working against us."
"I know, I know." Kaplain looked at the automatic mapping tool in the console to his right and said, "We're about fifteen minutes off from the arcology now. I'd say given that everything goes half right, we could be back in Armadi by eleven tonight. Worst case scenario is one or two tomorrow morning."
Maya caught herself as she began to nod off and said, "We'd probably best give Sissera a call when we get there, and when we leave. She probably needs to get started as soon as we can possibly get back."
Seltic looked down and said, "Yeah... I just hope she's up to it. I hate to doubt her, but this is a major ordeal to do without the right tools..."
"She's very worried about it too," Maya said. "I hate to ask even more from the army... but... they might be Tantalus' only hope. If nothing else, Sissera could do the surgery at the arcology." She wiped her eyes and stared down into the deck plating below and sighed. "I'll ask the major about it as soon as I get the chance. If he agrees, we might need to go pick her and Tantalus up immediately."
"We'll see. We need to at least get the thing installed first, then we can ask about that," Kyros added as he slumped against the side of the ship and closed his eyes.
Sergeant Morgan tensed slightly as she anticipated the ship setting down on the launch pad. She grunted involuntarily as the jarring touch down shot through the ship, and took a moment to let things settle. With a quick and practiced flick at the harness lock, she raised her crash restraint and slowly stood alongside her squad mates. She stretched slightly to alleviate the aches of sitting nearly perfectly still for half an hour and for carrying one of the unbelievably heavy water pumps to the ship.
She glanced over to the corporal and offered a hand to help him up. "You alright?" she asked customarily as she noticed the massive burn on the shoulder of his environmental cloak.
He smirked and moved his arm around to test its movement. "Fine. I could barely tell they hit me."
She removed her chest armor and dropped it lazily into her seat atop her already removed helmet and mask. "Make sure you get checked out anyway. Might need some antibiotics or something."
"I'll go with private Vidal." He removed his armor as well, peeling the burnt coat from his shoulder with a grimace and snarl of pain. The fur had been burnt away as well, revealing singed and blistered skin beneath. "Maybe it's worse than I thought."
"I mean it Sam, make sure you get that checked out." She glanced over to the injured rabbit standing across from them and noted the similar burns across his chest through his shirt. "Vidal, report straight to the medical ward with the corporal here. I'll send the debriefing to you later."
The rabbit nodded and weakly replied, "Yes, sir."
She waited for the two to exit the ship through the recently lowered loading ramp, and began making her way outside. As she exited the ship, she turned to the remaining soldiers inside and said, "Alright, make sure these parts make it to the basement where they're needed. I'll scrounge up the maintenance teams and send them down there as soon as I can."
Before she could even place a hoof on the pavement below, she made out the familiar faces of their assistants piling out of their own ship. She had questioned their usefulness beforehand, but now that they had found the pumps on their own, she was very thankful that they had come with them. She understood then that they were in a desperate situation, but only now did she realize how much they were really willing to go through to help their friend.
"Good work," she addressed to them as they drew near. "We'll have teams installing the pumps as soon as possible. With any luck, that's all that we'll need."
"You need us to help, right?" the green tenrec among them asked cautiously.
"If you could, it would really be appreciated," she replied. "Naturally we'd like to get things going as soon as we possibly can, so if you can speed things up it would be even better."
"Where do we go?" the deer asked.
She pointed back to the soldiers unloading one of the pumps and answered, "Just follow them. They'll take the parts to the basement, once the tech teams arrive they'll show you what needs to be done."
The elderly mink among them, Maya, she believed, looked at both of them and shooed them on without a word. As the two trotted off after the working soldiers, she said, "Okay, they'll do whatever they can. Should I talk to the major again about getting the kidney?"
She stared back for a moment, unaware of any specific details that had been arranged. "I suppose, come on, I'll walk you there. I have to give him a report of the situation anyway." She looked up to the other three standing about and said, "Feel free to make yourselves at home for the moment. The cafeteria and rec facilities are open all day."
She motioned for Maya to join her at her side and started off toward the arcology's side entrance again. From the corner of her eye, she could make out Maya wringing her hands nervously and apparently trying to work up the nerve to say something.
"Sergeant... I..." she began, losing her thoughts mid sentence.
"You can just call me Carrie, if you'd like. I'm not your commanding officer," the sergeant replied with a chuckle. "What do need?"
Maya was silent for a moment more as she thought. Finally, she said, "We-we're concerned that our surgeon won't be able to do the surgery herself back home. I hate to ask for more help from you all... but do you think it would be too much to ask for for us to use your surgical ward?"
Carrie sighed and looked down as she fiddled with the door controls and swiped her access card. "I don't think the major would mind, but again, it's not my call. Believe me, we want to help you as much as we can, but there's a lot to think about when it comes to that. Quarantine, use of supplies, time in the facility, and so on, you see."
Maya frowned and nodded in understanding as she followed after her into the dark hallway. As before the two made their way through a large cavernous room filled with civilians conversing among themselves, and ultimately to the elevator that led to the major's quarters.
"The major might be a bit busy with administration right now," Carrie said as they reached the top floor of the arcology. "I'll see if he has time to speak with us right now."
Like the time before, she stepped over to an intercom next to the large wooden doors and pressed a button. "Major, do you have a moment?"
"Come in, come in. I'm actually a bit bored right now," the raven's voice returned through the aged and worn speaker.
As the lock on the door clanged open, the sergeant slid it open and led Maya inside. She saluted her superior officer and said, "Major, Ms. Morceaux would like to speak with you a minute."
"At ease," he answered, waving them over to his desk. "First, how did the mission go? I hear you found several replacement parts."
"I'll have the details in the report here tomorrow morning, but yes, we did find three replacement parts. One of the techs with Ms. Morceaux here believes that we'll need to use at least two of them right now to keep up with demand."
"As long as it works, that's all I care about," he replied eagerly. He turned his attention to Maya and asked, "So, what is it that you wanted to speak about?"
Maya looked away as she tried to collect her thoughts, and said, "We really appreciate you giving us the kidney as we needed... but I think we may have another problem..."
He raised an eyebrow and said, "Go on."
"Our... surgeon... is concerned that she won't be able to do the surgery alone with the facilities we have. The kidney is a big help, but without the right tools and space to work, she doesn't think she can pull it off."
He smiled as much as his beak would allow and asked, "So you think our surgical ward would be a better place?"
She nodded sheepishly and said, "I really hate to ask it of you in addition to all you've given us so far, but it would be a tremendous help."
He nodded and leaned back in his seat. "I don't see why not. We can certainly spare it for a day or so, it's not like much happens around here, and there's space for twenty patients if need be. As soon as we find out how things are going with the water delivery system, I'll let you know when the ward will be available. We've got a few things scheduled I believe, but if necessary they can be pushed back."
Maya smiled broadly and said, "You'll let us use it then? Oh, thank you so much, you just don't know how much this means to us."
"Don't worry about it... I know you're going through hard times right now, and you'd do the same for us if we were in your position."
"Absolutely," she replied. "I'll tell my people to get the water pumps fixed as quickly as they can."
He chuckled and looked over to the sergeant. "See to it that things get started soon. I'm going to go speak with our head surgeon."
Seltic watched as Kaplain helped guide a pipe into position as two of the technicians hefted it into place. He had neglected to offer to help move it personally, physical labor never having been his strong suit. Kaplain was notably stronger than himself, but Seltic was beginning to feel guilty letting him do it all alone given that he could easily aggravate the persisting pains and joint problems he suffered.
He stepped over to the large pipe and offered a small nudge to help it into place, trying not to get in the way of the bison doing most of the work. "That do it?"
Kaplain quickly studied the joint and replied, "Yeah, just need to get the bolts set on the seal." He looked over to the techs and directed the one with the air drill over to the seal. "That should do it for getting this pump set up at least, let's just hope that it can handle it alone."
Seltic waited for the unbelievably noisy drill to force the bolts down and lock the pipes into place with a force impossible to achieve by hand. After having been down here standing about aimlessly for nearly half an hour, he was ready to do something meaningful. With the pump secured into place, he would now at least be able to test the computer system and find out if the pump really would work.
He checked the connections running from his computer and the pump for unwanted condensation that would short it out, and sat on a crate close by. He initiated a few diagnostic programs he had copied from the arcology's main computer system, and watched as data filled the screen. Beyond belief, the computer reported line-by-line that all things were set up correctly and ready for operation.
"Well, looks like things are good to go. The pump is reporting no problems, so if someone wants to turn it on we can find out."
A beaver standing silently among the small team of techs placed a key into the pump and turned it, followed by pressing a few buttons. After a brief moment of silence, a chime sounded followed by the unmistakable rumbling of pressure building up in the pipes around them. Water was audibly flowing through the pump, and for a moment Seltic thought that it might actually work.
As if fate heard his thoughts and recognized the challenge, a deafening warning blared from the pump several times followed by a sudden silencing of the water flow and a small red light glowing in the dark room, reflecting through the dark lighting off of dozens of pipes around it.
Seltic groaned and stared at the warning now displayed on his computer. "Everything is hooked up right... the pump just can't handle the water pressure."
The lead tech sighed and turned to one of his subordinates. "Go get the other pumps. Looks like we're gonna have to hook them all up." He looked at Seltic and said, "Let's just go ahead and hook up all three, just to be sure. I'd hate to hook another up and it still not be enough."
Seltic nodded and shut the screen on his computer. "Yeah, we don't have a huge amount of time to waste."
Kaplain stood and stretched. "At least this isn't taking too long as it is. I was worried that this was going to take hours and hours."
"Yeah, these pumps seemed almost made for this place." Seltic looked down at the computer and decided perhaps it was best not to tempt fate further with positive thoughts. Things always seemed to turn out better if you didn't expect much in the first place.
At the far end of the cavernous and sparsely populated recreational room, Kyros could make out Maya and a black feathered bird of some sort approaching. He studied the raven for a moment before noticing the rank chevrons sewn onto his sleeves, and recognized him as the major that the soldiers had referred to several times. By Maya's obviously relieved expression, he assumed that the major had agreed to allow them to use the arcology's hospital.
He smiled briefly at the civilian chinchilla speaking with him and said, "Excuse me, but I need to go speak with the major."
The chinchilla stumbled over his words for a moment as he realized Kyros was leaving, prompting a tired sigh from the echidna. He didn't mind being around strangers, but now wasn't the time to be standing around aimlessly. A handful of the soldiers, now including Sergeant Morgan, were beginning to crowd around as well, possibly expecting an important announcement of some sort.
"Good news, I take it?" he asked nonchalantly as he drew close to Maya.
"Absolutely," she replied instantly, smiling and making a small gesture toward the major. "They've agreed to allow us to use the surgical ward, and we were just in contact with Sissera. She says that Tantalus is stable for the moment and will probably be fine to move here."
The news elated his mood slightly. Perhaps what they'd been working for all this time would finally pay off. "That's good, are we leaving now to get them?"
"We're waiting for the next air traffic control window to open up," Major Simmin answered. "It should be ready in five minutes or so. Ms. Morceaux here has agreed that your techs will stay with us to keep working on the water system while you're away."
Kyros doubted that Kaplain or Seltic had been asked to agree with them, but in all likelihood they would have no problem with it. As he nodded and thought, the groan of a poorly maintained metal door swinging open echoed through the room. He looked over to see Kaplain trotting into the room with an optimistic smile plastered on his face.
"Perhaps it won't be necessary," Major Simmin muttered to himself.
Kaplain clomped over to them, smoothing water-soaked fur back along his arms and hands. "We've almost got things working now," he said between quiet pants. He drew in a deep breath and continued, "We had to hook all of the pumps up to get enough pressure, but Seltic is finishing things now. He said he's just got a little fine tuning to do on the computers."
The raven let out a sigh of relief and shook his hand without any warning. "Thank you very much, you don't know how much of a problem this has been for us." He looked over to Maya and said, "Trust me, it's completely worth it for us to help you out for this."
Maya smiled and looked away. "No, we can't thank you enough. Tantalus' life depends on this."
Kyros nodded and looked down, a nervous smirk on his face. "Yeah, but it's not over yet. We've got to hope that Sissera can pull off the surgery. She didn't sound very confident."
"Then why not let me do it instead?" an aged female voice said from his side.
Kyros began to look up, expecting to find the head surgeon or someone related standing at the side entrance, but his eyes caught sight of Kaplain and Maya's faces. He instantly recognized the shock and fright in their expressions, and snapped his head over to examine the source of their fear. A cold rift ran down his entire body.
Without a thought he snatched his weapon up and aimed at the woman standing in the doorway, holding an innocuous box. Instead of the fur or scales he expected, only pale skin was exposed under her white doctor uniform. Kyros felt an inexplicable fear and anger began to well up in him as he examined her features, and memories of Robotnik and the aftermath of the Great War began to come back to him. There, standing completely obliviously, was an old overlander woman.
Instantly the sound of a dozen weapons being unslung or removed from their holsters met his ears, and he looked around to find the soldiers now pointing rifles and pistols in his direction.
"Drop it, slowly," Sergeant Morgan said dryly, rifle leveled at his head.
Kyros blinked and stared for a few moments, stunned. "Wh-what?"
She stepped forward, weapon still aimed squarely at his head. "Put it down, now."
He knew from her tone that she wasn't joking around, and he slowly lowered his weapon. She removed the rifle from his feeble grip and stepped back. With a wave of her hand, the other soldiers, including the major, lowered their own weapons.
"Sorry, I seem to have that effect on new comers," the overlander woman said after a moment through a strange accent he didn't recognize. She stepped into the room and offered the box to Maya, saying, "This is the kidney you asked for. I see that you don't trust me, so I'll leave it to you to decide what to do with it."
All three stood speechless. Maya gawked for a moment before finally regaining her composure enough to reach for the box. "Th-thank you," she stammered with difficulty.
Major Simmin holstered his pistol and frowned at Kyros. "I suppose I should have warned you first that our head surgeon, Dr. Valtorta, was an overlander."
"You think?" Kyros snapped, momentarily losing track of the fact that he was addressing the leader of the army and holder of Tantalus' salvation.
Major Simmin nodded solemnly and said, "Sorry, it hadn't crossed my mind. Believe me, she's the best there is. She's been with us the entire time, and she's saved more lives than I can count."
Kyros stared at Maya, hoping for a cue on what to say next. As if she understood his plight, she said, "I see... I-I'm sorry for our reaction... it's just been so long since I've seen an overlander outside of Robotropolis."
Dr. Valtorta smiled and lowered her glasses to get a better look at them. "Trust me, I hate Robotnik just as much as you do. He killed my entire family and would have killed me too if he knew I was in Mobian territory."
The major nervously checked a watch in his pocket and said, "Yes, well I believe your flight window will be ready soon, now that things have been resolved so quickly. I can see that things are a bit uncomfortable at the moment, so perhaps we should continue this conversation later after we've all had time to calm down." He tapped the box in Maya's hands and said, "I'll leave it to you to think about what you want to do. I'll leave the option open for you to let Dr. Valtorta do the operation here, if she's willing."
"Of course," the woman replied.
"Alright then, just think about it. The flight control tower is open at the moment so if you want to leave, now is the best time."
Kyros sat silently in the copilot's seat of the SWATbot pod, staring off through the plastic wind shield in front of him. He was completely taken back by the events just minutes before. Never in a thousand years had he expected to meet another overlander after Robotnik had supposedly killed them all, and especially not now and not at the arcology. His body still felt slightly numb from the experience, and his thoughts continued to cross and distort one another as he tried to come to grips with it. He had no idea how the army had found her or decided to trust her, but he knew enough about overlanders to make up his own mind about her.
Behind him, Maya shifted in her seat and let out a weary sigh. She sat the box holding the cybernetic kidney in front of her and leaned forward, propping her chin up on her hands.
"I don't know what to do..." she trailed off, speaking to no one in particular. "The... doctor... might be Tantalus' only hope... but I don't know if I trust her with him."
Kyros blinked as the words snapped him out of his daze. "I don't trust her at all," he muttered. "I don't care what the others think, she's an overlander and that's all that matters to me."
Kaplain grunted from the back seat and slumped against the plastic interior of the craft. "Me neither, I don't think I could ever trust an overlander again."
"Come on now, Robotnik doesn't speak for all of them," Seltic said from the pilot's seat. "They can't all be bad, and she's been with them for how many years now?"
"Doesn't matter what Robotnik did. He doesn't speak for them all, but they speak for themselves," Kaplain replied, staring off through the wall. "Overlander hunters killed my nephew. Just for the fun of it. It's hard to forgive a species that can spawn monsters like that."
Kyros frowned as he began to recall the reports of overlanders hunting and killing some Mobians that strayed off alone. It was one of the biggest reasons that the Mobians declared war against them. Even if the hunters had continued, it would have made a huge difference if the overlander government had tried to stop it. All of the overlanders he had ever known were criminally selfish or bloodthirsty. And the doctor at the arcology had to have it in her too, deep down somewhere, she was an overlander.
"It's hard to trust her... I know," Maya said. "But it's just this one thing, what good would it do her to kill Tantalus?" No one replied. "I think we need to leave it up to Sissera on what to do. She's the one who has to do the surgery."
"Yeah," Seltic replied after an awkward pause. "Whatever the decision, it'll be over this time tomorrow. I just want to do whatever is best for..." he trailed off.
Kyros sat in silence for several seconds before picking up where he left off. "Tantalus?" At Seltic's continued silence, he looked up to see him staring intently at the forest ahead of them. "What? You see a buzzbomber or something?"
The tenrec shook his head and pointed through the window. "What in the world is that? Is that where we blew up the storage tanks?"
Kyros jumped forward in his seat and looked to where Seltic was pointing. The obliterated and scattered remains of several containers and robots laid strewn about a mysterious gray soot. The sand on the shore had all but turned black, and the trees and plant life had begun to wilt and shift to a soft gray color. An ominous thin film of gray covered the water lapping at the beach, devoid of the usual foam. "What happened?"
Seltic shrugged and continued to stare out over the scene. He began to maneuver the ship around to find a landing spot, prompting Kyros to ask, "Is it safe to land? What is all of that stuff?"
"I don't know, but there's only one way to find out. It looks like ash, so it's probably safe."
"It's not chemicals from the containers?"
"I don't know, but it's doubtful," Seltic replied as he drew the ship to a stop. "Normal stuff would have reacted or disappeared by now, maybe it's just ash from fires."
"I don't like this," Kyros said. "We got any air filters or something?"
Seltic looked back to the others as he began to set the ship down and asked, "Kaplain, can you check the equipment container and see what we've got?"
"What on Mobius happened to this place?" Stanley asked as he trudged through a centimeter of loose ash toward the previous foundation of one of the containers, his voice muffled and distorted by the face mask he wore. Both SWATbot pods had managed to set down relatively uneventfully on the mysteriously corrupted beach, and by now everyone was scrambling to figure out what was going on.
Kyros cut a glance to Seltic and said, "Ask him, not me."
Seltic ran his finger through a patch of the ash and said, "It's not normal ash, whatever it is. It's almost like graphite... maybe Robotnik was storing some here to make diamond with later?"
"You sure that's what it is?" Kyros asked as he kicked a destroyed robot over.
"No, no way to be sure without a chemist and lab to check it in. It doesn't appear to be floating around though, so it's probably safe to breath the air." He stepped over to a wilted tree and tried to wipe the substance off of a curling leaf. A thin layer swept off, revealing gray stained material below. "The plants seem to have absorbed it though, however that could be."
Stanley stepped over the ruined remains of a roboticized hyena and asked, "Think we should bring some if it back with us?"
"No... it's probably best to just leave it as is for the moment. We don't have any way of checking it out, and if it is some kind of poison or something I'd rather not risk contaminating Armadi with it." He surveyed the landscape for a moment and continued, "We can come back and check it out later after we've taken care of Tantalus."
Kyros closely observed the demolished robotic zebra near him and said, "Well, at least we took the place out, whatever Robotnik was planning." He traced his vision across several destroyed robots and began to recall the fight from before. Eventually his eyes settled on a trench-like path partially covered by the soot, leading over to a grounded SWATbot pod sitting halfway in the ocean. "Wait a sec, what happened over there?"
Stanley looked up and headed over to the shallow trench, noticing claw marks in the ground around it as he drew closer. "Looks like one of the bots dragged themselves over to the pod." He glanced at Kyros and said, "I thought we made sure we got them all."
"We did. Maybe one got back up after we left." He glanced at the open hatch of the pod and went on, "Maybe we should find out if he radioed Robotnik. If he did, Robotnik might be in the area looking for us."
Seltic trotted over to pod, pausing intermittently as his boots sank into particularly deep mounds of sand and ash. "Maybe it's still working..." he said to himself, staring into the hold of the ship.
Kyros drew his rifle and walked up behind him. "Yeah, let me check it out first. If it's still working it might want to try and kill us again, you know?"
He tossed a chunk of debris inside, hoping to draw any inhabitant's attention with the noise and commotion. After a long silence, he slowly slipped his way inside, keeping his weapon aimed at the two front seats. A destroyed SWATbot laid limp over the console, bits and pieces scattered around as it was smashed apart in the crash. In the copilot's seat, a distinctly non-SWATbot robot similarly laid silently and limply against the console.
He nudged its shoulder with his gun, ready to finish it off it awoke and began attacking them. He recognized the small meerkat from before, and fought to keep from shooting its head off now after it destroyed his favorite rifle. The machine was slumped against the console, and its face looked as if it were a normal person who had simply fallen asleep.
"Yeah, there's a bot in here," he called outside, a slight hint of displeasure in his voice. "It must not have been completely destroyed in the fight, because I remember shooting it before. It must have crawled back in here to radio Robotropolis."
Seltic clambered inside and eagerly took up position beside Kyros. He prodded the ravaged robot and grinned like a child with a new toy. "Great. If he managed to drag himself over here, maybe he's still functional."
Kyros raised an eyebrow in anticipation of his next statement. "So...?"
"Let's take him back to Armadi! I might be able to fix him up like Kaplain. If he didn't overcome the mind control on his own, maybe I can with the neural overrider."
Kyros wanted to protest over the sake of time and inconvenience, but knew that it was probably best to just let Seltic do what he wanted to save time. The robot was probably beyond recovery anyway, and Seltic might be able to scrap it for parts if needed. "Alright, fine, let's just grab it and go. I'm sure Maya is getting anxious."
Without a further word, Seltic eagerly hopped into the front of the ship and began tugging at the robot.
The familiar sound of the SWATbot pod approaching convinced Sissera that it was probably time to leave Tantalus to the computers' automated monitors and head outside. Maya had radioed half an hour before hand and told her that they were on the way with the kidney, and once more the thought of the impending surgery weighed heavily on her mind. She crossed her arms as she waited anxiously for the ships to approach and land, unable to see them through the foggy midnight sky. A faint engine flare winking through the clouds caught her eye, and clearly marked it as the pod Seltic had modified to work on poor quality fuels.
Marcus was long ago in bed, a fact she was mildly thankful for. It was hard enough to convince herself that Tantalus would make it through this, but trying to keep tabs on him and keep his spirits up was very taxing. She cringed and shut her eyes at muffled warning beep from a computer inside, the same that she had heard hundreds of times over the past few days. There was nothing she could do about the infection right now, but she dared not turn the warnings off in case something else went wrong.
As the ships finally drew close and began to lose altitude, she started to ponder over another comment Maya had made. The army had agreed to allow them to use their surgical facilities, but Maya had something serious to discuss before she agreed to it. The thought was quite unsettling, as Sissera had made it clear before that it would be a thousand times better than what she had here. Coupled with the fact that Maya was just as desperate to help him as she was herself, things must have been very serious indeed.
She blinked a few times and cleared her mind as the ship entered the garage and shut off, the pulsing hum of the engines shifting to a faint echoing rumble before dieing completely. Things were unusually calm this time, with no one seeming to be in an extreme hurry to exit the pod. She yawned and rubbed her eyes as she continued along. Perhaps the others were as tired as she was.
Seltic and Kaplain were exiting their pod as she finally reached the hangar door, dragging much to her surprise what appeared to be a trashed robot. She opened her mouth to question the scene, but was cut off as Maya hopped down from the ship's deck and began approaching her with a large, plain looking box.
"Well, we've got it," the old mink said, offering the box to her. "I didn't look inside, but I hope it's the right thing."
The text on the side of carton confirmed that it was a cybernetic kidney, intended for use in young overlanders or adult Mobians. "Good," she said, unease creeping into her voice. She took the box and looked Maya in the face, saying, "You had something to talk about first?"
Maya nodded and nervously scratched her arm. "Let's walk back to the infirmary."
Sissera silently followed by her side as she started off to the dimly lit building across the center of the town. Maya was clearly worried about something.
She looked over to Sissera and said, "The good news is that the army agreed to let us use their hospital if we wanted." She hesitated for a moment and wrung her hands before continuing, "And... their head surgeon has agreed to do the surgery for us."
Sissera felt as if the entire world has been lifted from her shoulders. "That's excellent news... they would be so much better qualified to do this than me."
Maya nodded and looked away. "Maybe, but there is a problem." As they reached the door, she said, "The head surgeon is... an overlander."
Sissera instantly halted reaching for the door. Worry began to return at an alarming rate. "What?"
"Their surgeon... Dr. Valtorta... is an overlander. She agreed to do the surgery, but... I don't think I need to say why I wanted to speak with you first."
Sissera stared blankly back for a few seconds. Maya certainly had no need to elaborate more. There was no way she would trust Tantalus' health to an overlander, not after all they had done. "No... please don't tell me that. How? Where did she..."
"I know, I can't believe it either." Maya turned away and sighed. "Kyros lost his wits for a second and even pointed a gun at her, so now I really don't know if we should trust her." She looked in through the window at Tantalus and continued, "That's why I wanted to leave it up to you what to do. I know you don't feel confident doing this yourself, and I hate to put you in this position... but it's just a decision I can't make myself." Maya squinted and rubbed her chest, saying, "This is almost too much for me to take as it is."
Sissera thought over the possibilities, running dozens of scenarios through her mind. She hated to give Tantalus over to an overlander, but the thought of doing the surgery herself was still unsettling. "I... don't know. I just don't know."
Maya nodded and took a step away from the door. "You don't have to make up your mind this instant, but the sooner the better. I'll be in my house. Just come let me know when you've decided, I don't think I'll be going to bed any time soon."
Sissera watched her slowly walk off, and she let the racing thoughts mingle with themselves in her mind again. She was terrified to give Tantalus over to the overlander and let her kill him, but at the same time she was trembling at the thought of doing it herself. Maya was right though, whatever was going to be done had to be done very soon.
In a way, Kyros couldn't believe that Seltic was already hooking the trashed robot up in his workshop. But in another way, he knew from the moment Seltic laid eyes on it that he would start working on him immediately. He had considered trying to catch a little sleep, but the possibility of Sissera deciding to let the overlander do the surgery meant that he would probably be up again in an hour or less anyway. At least this way he wouldn't be bored.
Kaplain watched intently from the other side of the room, staring at the lethargic expression fixed on the meerkat's face. He was also excited about the possibility of another roboticized Mobian being revived by Seltic and deroboticized, but Kyros knew that they had only had a chance to deroboticize Kaplain due to a fluke and it wasn't likely that they would have a shot at getting that close to the roboticizer on their own terms again.
"As far as I can tell, his... brain... isn't damaged," Seltic muttered half to himself as he finished analyzing every scuff and rent on the small robot's metal skin. "It looks like his legs are trashed though, and he took a shot close to his generator. He must have shut down from power failure."
Kyros vaguely recalled the machine babbling something about its radiator being damaged, but at the expense of getting Seltic to ramble on aimlessly for half an hour, he decided to stay quiet. He was skeptical that it was even possible to start it up again, but if Seltic did manage to perform some technological necromancy, he was more concerned that it might go berserk and start shooting again.
"Did you disable its weapons?" he asked as Seltic began to rummage through a pile of cables on the floor.
"Didn't find any," he replied. "There's no laser cannons in his arms, so I figure he's just a worker bot that didn't get armed for some reason."
Kyros let out a nervous chuckle and walked over to the robot. "Oh, he's armed alright. His eyes have lasers in them."
Seltic stood with a handful of cables of various colors and size. He studied the robot's half shut eyes and said, "Oh... okay. I'll just be ready with the power switch then."
As Seltic began to peel back flexible pieces of shredded rubber from the meerkat's midsection, Kyros removed his pistol from its holster and flicked the safety. "Yeah, you'd best be. If it starts shooting at me again, I'm not gonna ask any questions before I shut him down for good."
"Alright. We don't need to get killed over this, that's for sure." Seltic motioned for Kaplain to hand him a neural overrider and connected a large cluster of heavy cables to something inside of the robot. He took the neural overrider and found a good place to stick it on its temple, and said, "I'll just try and start him like normal to begin with. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll be like Kaplain was."
Kyros watched nervously as Seltic walked over to his computer and began fiddling with it. Sissera's description of how Kaplain had behaved right before nearly self-destructing didn't match how the meerkat behaved at all. He had a very strong suspicion that it was going to put up a fight.
Seltic stood erect from his computer and said, "Alright, I'm about to try giving him some power. If he starts freaking out and shooting, I'll shut him off as fast as I can." Seltic thrust his weight into a large breaker to force it open, and with a faint hum energy began to flow into the robot.
Just as Kaplain had after being given power, the meerkat's limp body stiffened as best its ruined joints would allow. Its eyes slid open slowly, and with a monotone and unnatural voice it said, "Power failure detected. Some control hardware damage has been detected, it may be unsafe to continue booting. Should I recover my operating system?"
"Yes," Seltic replied, unsure at this point precisely how he had managed to coax Kaplain back to life.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't understand you. Please try again."
Seltic groaned and turned to his computer to find a similar prompt. He fed the requisite response back to the robot, and looked back to see if anything had changed.
"Understood. Rebooting into normal mode. Please be advised that hardware damage may impair mental function."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kaplain asked, intently studying the process.
"I don't know," Seltic replied, shaking his head. "You didn't say that when I restarted you."
"Maybe he's too badly damaged to work," Kyros added. "Although I only shot him in the legs and belly."
Between them, the meerkat's stiff posture slackened as its power died and cycled. The sound of damaged and sand choked mechanics grinding filled the room as it shifted on the table. Its eyes opened, and faint whirring motors focused the lenses as it began to study its environment.
"Master Snively? Have you come for me?"
Kyros' eyes grew wide and he pointed his pistol at it. Clearly it was still under mind control. "Alright, shut him off!"
Seltic raised his hand in Kyros' direction and said, "Wait a second, he doesn't seem to know where he is..."
"Lord Robotnik, is that you? Forgive me, my processor network is damaged and I'm having difficulty understanding you." The robot tried to prop itself up, slipping and clambering back onto the table as its elbow collapsed. "My damage is severe, I am unable to determine where I am."
Seltic leaned down to look at it more closely. "You're not in Robotropolis. Who are you? Can you understand me?"
The meerkat paused and looked Seltic in the face. "I don't understand... completely... I am servitor F1ROC11, on liaison from Sahria."
Kyros took a cautious step closer, keeping his weapon trained squarely on its head. "Okay Seltic, you've had your fun, turn him off before he goes nuts."
The meerkat blinked in confusion and looked over to Kyros, squinting as an organic creature might to help focus its vision. "Master... who is this?"
"Uh... it's-" Seltic began before the meerkat's eyes snapped open and it scrambled in an attempt to get to its feet.
"Intruder detected! Echidna alert priority two, all units attack at once!" it shouted, falling back over the table away from Kyros.
Kyros swore audibly as his aim was spoiled, and he raced around the side to get a clear shot again. The meerkat clambered away from him, repeatedly attempting to fire its badly damaged eye lasers at the three. Every attempt failed in a harmless crackle and flicker as damaged power lines in its eyes shorted, and in desperation it backed against the far wall and tried again to pull itself to its feet.
"Hold him still, let me try the neural overrider!" Seltic shouted amongst the chaos as he scurried over to his computer.
"Are you insane? Shut it off!" Kyros shouted, taking aim. He prepared to fire moments before Kaplain moved between them and grabbed hold of the robot. It shrieked in anger and fear as it tried to wrench itself free, but its weakened body only jerked harmlessly in Kaplain's grip. There was no way he would get a shot now, so he simply gave in and sprinted over, throwing his own weight into the grapple to ensure that it would stay put.
"Alright, got it!" Seltic called over to them from his computer. He hurried over to the power breaker and prepared to force it off if the neural overrider failed. "Any second now..."
The meerkat glared at Kyros and snarled. "Release me!" it shouted between hopeless attempts to wrestle its way free. It tried again and again to fire the destroyed cannons in its eyes, only filling the room with harmless flashes of red light.
Suddenly, its struggling ended. It stared aimlessly off into the distance, mouth slightly agape. Its eyes tracked around the room for a few seconds before it said, "Wh-what? Where am I?"
Without a word, Kyros and Kaplain released their grips and let the meerkat slide down the wall to the ground. It blinked and rubbed its eyes and said, "I-I can barely see or hear... what's going on?"
Seltic trotted over, a massive smile plastered on his face. "It worked!"
It looked in his general direction, confusion still evident in its features. "Huh? What worked?" It tried to stand but slumped back against the wall. "What..." it trailed off, its expression changing again to apparent pain. It grabbed at its temple where Seltic had placed the neural overrider and scowled, groaning in pain. "What's going on? My head hurts so bad..."
Its scowl worsened and the groaning turned to a shriek as it clawed at the small device. It placed both hands against the sides of its head and screamed in pain, spasming and collapsing forward. The foul smell of burnt out electronics instantly began filling the room, and it twitched briefly before going limp again.
Everyone stared down at the scene. "I think you killed it..." Kyros said after what seemed an eternal silence.
"No... please don't say that..." Seltic mumbled to himself. He flipped it over to find its expression fixated in pain and fear. "The overrider couldn't do that... I-I don't understand..."
He hopped up and cycled the power feeding to the robot, hoping that it would be like a typical computer and work again after rebooting. The burning electronics told him there was no hope, but he forced himself to try anyway.
The robot slackened and did as before. It stared up into the ceiling and began blurting out random errors and warnings. "Error, memory management unit not responding to interrupts. Processors along interrupt vector line seventeen not responding. Error, CRC check failed on memory units one through eighty-four. Data bus watchdog timer..."
"What's all that mean?" Kyros asked, looking over to Seltic.
Seltic ignored the request and power cycled the robot again.
"Malfunction. Data ROM checksum invalid count of seventeen thousand ninety-seven exceeds threshold. Unable to continue boot."
"No, no, no... come on..." Seltic mumbled to himself as he continued to cycle the robot.
"Malfunction. Data ROM checksum invalid count of nineteen thousand two hundred nine exceeds- Malfunction Data ROM- Malfunction-"
Seltic switched the robot off and slumped back into the chair at his computer. "I-I think I killed him..."
"The overrider?" Kyros asked innocently, taking a closer look at the tormented final expression of the meerkat.
"I don't know... I... I'd have to look at the electronics... I just don't know how..."
Kaplain crouched beside the mechanical meerkat and turned him over. "Do you think you can fix it? I mean, if you fixed me..."
Seltic frowned and stared at the robot's face. "I doubt it. I can't repair damaged integrated circuits or anything like that... only replace them. Even if I could find the parts his memory would be erased. He'd be brain dead..."
Kaplain sighed and closed the robot's eyes and shut its mouth gently. "Sorry... we tried" he whispered to it quietly.
April 15, 3236
I'm so confused right now. We managed to get the things we need to help Tantalus, and I was hoping that the hard part of it all would be over. But, just when things started looking up, we find that the army has been hiding an overlander at their arcology, and she is their surgeon.
We'd hoped to let them do the surgery instead of Sissera, since she was so terribly worried about it, but I don't think any of us trust the overlander. She might be Tantalus' only hope, but... I just don't know what to do. I can't make the decision myself, and I've left it to Sissera to decide.
Whatever she decides to do, we've done all we can for Tantalus, and I won't fault her no matter what her decision is. I just hope that we won't have to worry about Tantalus for much longer. The storage tanks we encountered a few days ago turned up to be holding something strange, but Seltic doesn't know what it is. I get the feeling that things will be picking up soon, and I can only hope
Maya trailed off mid-sentence as she typed away at her journal. She rubbed her chest hard and let out a pained sigh. The stress of this all must really be getting to her, she couldn't remember the last time she had headaches and chest pains like this. She saved her work on the computer and decided to finish it later when she had some answers. She wasn't doing much other than just reiterating the same ideas that had bounced around in her head for days now, and typing it didn't seem to be doing anything but making her even more antsy.
She looked over to her bed and suddenly felt an overpowering surge of exhaustion hit her. She drew in a deep breath and thought about the lack of sleep that they had all suffered in the past days as they frantically ran back and forth to try to save Tantalus' life. If she wasn't waiting for Sissera to decide on how to proceed, she would certainly be in her bed right now.
There wasn't any point in thinking about it, and if she kept on she would end up asleep before she knew it. She brightened the lighting in the hallway and began walking toward the staircase, trying to think about something else. There was the meerkat Seltic had brought back, and it offered a few logistical problems. If he managed to fix it and snap it out of the mind control like he did Kaplain, that would be another mouth to feed and another person to shelter. She groaned at the lack of positive thoughts and started down the stairs.
A startled gasp left her lips as she lost her footing on the first step and caught herself on the rail. She took a few moments to catch her wits and her now exhausted breath. If she didn't get some rest soon she was going to lose her mind. She cautiously made her way down the rest of the stairs, astonished at the amount of energy it took out of her. She paused at the base of the stairs and propped herself against the wall, panting in exhaustion.
As another stab of pain rippled through her chest and her pulse spiked, a sobering realization struck her. It had been quite some time before she'd had an opportunity to have it checked...
She blinked to focus her suddenly blurred vision and tried to calm herself. Maybe she was overreacting, it was just nerves. She shuffled over to the nearest chair and plopped herself into it as her legs began to feel like jelly beneath her. No, something was definitely wrong.
She breathed deeply a few more times, completely unable to catch her breath now. Another crippling strike of pain wracked her body, twisting her face into a contorted scowl. The overly tight and warm feeling spread to her back... She reached over to a nearby corner and managed to pull herself to her feet, but in this state she knew she would never make it to Sissera alone.
As if someone heard her plight, her front door lock clicked and the door slid open, revealing Sissera. The tenrec hurried inside and made for the stairs, completely missing Maya at first.
As she caught notice of the mink, she said, "Oh, I thought you were upstairs. I think that.." Her words trailed off as she studied her more closely. She turned her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Are... you alright?"
Maya shook her head and continued to heave in an attempt to stifle the feeling of being unable to breathe. "I-I think I might be having a heart attack..." she replied, disbelief covering her face.
Sissera gasped and covered her mouth. She raced over and tried to help her up, saying, "Can you walk?"
"I don't know... I feel so tired..."
Sissera set her back into the seat and placed her palms against her temples. "No... not now...." She mumbled something to herself and turned to face Maya. "I'll go get help, just... just stay right there."
"Should I leave you two?" Vladimir asked bluntly as he watched Sissera begin placing monitoring studs under Maya's shirt.
Sissera stared blankly through him for a moment and said, "Y-yeah, go tell the others what happened." She waited for the badger to nod and stride out of the building before returning to her work.
"How do you feel now?"
Maya's breathing had more or less returned to normal, and her expression was certainly less alarmed. "Not good by any stretch, but much better than just a minute ago," she answered, fatigue and fear still edging in her voice.
"Do you have a family history of heart disease? Weren't you genetically vaccinated against it?" Sissera questioned, adjusting some readouts on a small computer.
Maya shook her head. "It does run in my family, and they didn't have things like the vaccinations back then." She rubbed her chest and said, "But I don't think that's the problem... I had a pacemaker installed... something about some medication I took throwing my heart beat off."
Sissera's expression turned more grim, but she tried her best to hide her concern. "A pacemaker... how long ago?"
Maya thought silently and rubbed her aching arm. "Twenty five years ago or so, I don't know for sure."
A frown crossed Sissera's face as she studied the hectic readings on the EKG attached to Maya. "The battery might have died. I don't know how long they last."
Maya tried to catch a glance at the flickering display, but couldn't get a good look. "How bad is it?"
"Bad... just... just bad," Sissera replied in a half groan. "Your heart is still pumping, but it's erratic. The pacemaker might be making it worse right now... I just don't know." She watched Maya's face turn grim and looked away. "Whatever is wrong with it... it needs to be fixed right now. Not tomorrow, or the next day."
"Can you..." Maya began to ask before Sissera's grave expression answered her question.
Sissera took her hand and softly said, "I don't have what we would need to fix it, and I absolutely can't do it here. It just isn't possible."
Maya wiped her nose and eyes and muttered, "Then I'm – I'm going to..."
Sissera squeezed her hand and hugged her softly. "Of course not, I'm not going to let that happen to you. As soon as the others get back, we're going to take you and Tantalus to the arcology. I'm not going to let something silly like an overlander keep you two from getting better."
Maya nodded while still embracing her and said, "Thank you dear... you all mean the world to me."