When Gaige had been working on 'Project DT', she'd hardly ever stopped for anything. She'd decide to work for five more minutes before bed, wake up to find she'd fallen asleep in a pile of bolts, brush her face off, and keep going. More than once her father had practically had to drag her away from her workbench so she would eat something. Ironically enough, her science fair project made her miss a few days of school long before it got her expelled. Gaige had been having fun and terrifying times on Pandora to be sure, but nothing had quite matched the rush of mechanical creation she'd experienced building Deathtrap.
Working on this android, even with a metaphorical sword to her throat, was the closest she'd come to recapturing that feeling. It wasn't exactly the same, though. She kept hitting snags, moments when she'd lose the flow and be dragged out of her rush. Part of it was the fact she was a prisoner, as much as Gaige tried to ignore it. Most of it was the sheer complexity of the project.
The android was even more elaborate than her first glance had indicated. The designs were beautifully laid out and intricately woven together. She'd be examining a minor motor circuit in a finger and find herself sidetracked into tracing the pathway all the way back to the brain; the whole thing just flowed together so easily.
It also wasn't nearly as finished as it looked. The outer plating was in place, but much of the interior still had to be assembled and installed. Gaige was enthralled by the android, but she wasn't entirely sure how to start trying to build it. She looked up at One. He was standing in a corner watching her, arms crossed and unmoving. "I need the schematics. There's no way I can do anything without them."
One merely shook his head no.
"Come on!" Gaige insisted. "I'm completely in the dark here! Whoever built this thing-" She changed tack quickly. "Whoever designed you two had years more experience than me. I need to catch up on their plans before I can make any progress."
"You've already shown off your skill With each of your robot's kills. Plans are not needed To make this one completed. All that you lack is the will," One rejected flatly.
"This is waaaaay different than when I built Deathtrap," Gaige insisted. "That was my project. I knew how I wanted to end up, even if I didn't know every step when I started. But this..." she motioned to the android. "You're asking me to write the end of Romeo & Juliet when all I know is Beowulf!" Gaige reconsidered. "Actually, reverse that; this android is too cool to be a stupid love story. But the point stands!"
One gave an irritated sigh. "I don't trust you with my computer; Who knows what all you would do there. Printing those files Would take paper for miles-"
"You've left me no room to maneuver," Gaige interrupted dryly, crossing her arms. "Look, I have to learn this android all the way, from first bolt to last circuit. I could do it by tearing it apart-"
One dropped his hand to his sword warningly.
"-but neither of us wants that, and it'd take too long for your patience, I'm sure." Gaige tossed her hands up. "I need the plans, or I'll never finish this. It's your call."
There was a long paused as -she assumed- One considered his options. Finally, he nodded and headed for the door. "Wait." The door slid shut.
Gaige acted fast. While examining the tool bench, she'd noticed several drawers that looked like ones usually meant for electrical component storage. It hadn't seemed wise to open it during her earlier search, but now that One wasn't watching...
Aha! The first drawer she'd pulled open confirmed her hunch: it was full of capacitors of varying sizes. The second was resistors; the third, rolls of solder.
The last of the materials she needed to finish her arm repairs.
Gaige pushed the drawer shut and hurried back to where she'd been standing when One left. A split second later, the door opened and her captor walked back in, holding a small device. He tossed it to her and resumed staring without a word.
"Thanks so much for your cooperation and sunny personality," Gaige said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. She examined the device. It didn't look like much; just a small rectangle a few inches long. "What's this? Lipstick?"
A strange sound made Gaige look over at One. It wasn't until a :] symbol flashed onto his faceplate that she realized he was laughing at her. "You've been using old tech for so long It's a wonder your mind isn't gone. Just tap the end twice Then wait for the lights."
Gaige did so. A blue light started to blink on one end of the rectangle, and then a hologram flashed into the air, three feet long and a foot wide. Projected into the air were the schematics.
"Well done! You've just turned it on." One laughed again.
Gaige tried to ignore him and started going over the diagrams in the air. She realized quickly that she could control the image with a few basic hand movements. "Nice toy. Puts everything planetside to shame, that's for sure. Must've cost you a bundle." She looked at him through the hologram. "Is that why you were designed to be an assassin? Your creator sends you and Zero out, then collects the payment?"
"Silence." One's voice caught her off guard. It was a hiss, full of hatred and bitterness.
Huh. That's interesting. "It's a smart move," Gaige said blithely, testing her luck. "Zero's pretty good at killing, and I know firsthand that you can fight. Your boss must have a client list a mile lo-"
"SHUT UP!" One's blade lashed out, the blade stabbing through the holographic display and halting barely a half inch from Gaige's face. "My father had no wish to slay others! He thought we should help one another! But Zero," the hate in his voice amplified, "chose killing instead, To add to the dead... So now I must slay my own brother."
Gaige backed up slowly, moving away from the sword. "Let me... let me get this straight. Zero wasn't built an assassin? Neither of you were?"
One shook his head, and lowered his sword. His grip on the hilt was very tight. "Zero was built as a doctor. A healer, not meant for this slaughter! But to father's dismay He threw that away Becoming instead a great monster."
Gaige sat down on the wall-mounted workbench, trying to get her head around this revelation about her friend. "Zero was supposed to be a doctor? He's never shown any interest in medicine." She looked at One, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Zero came to Pandora looking for a challenge. Is that what happened? Being a doctor wasn't challenging enough for him?"
One nodded. "With healing he became dejected. But killing the rich and protected? Now there was a test That held his interest, So his focus to that he directed."
"And you?" Gaige asked. "You said you had to kill Zero. Why? Because he didn't want to do what your designer wanted?"
He didn't reply, and just pointed to the holographic schematics.
"Fine, fine, back to work," she groused. "Let's see what we've got here..."
The plans were a huge help. Gaige finally had the sheet music to the symphony of robotic design laid out in front of her, and that let her make great strides. With a few hours of study, she was ready to start working on the android's incomplete left arm.
"Your builder was an absolute genius," Gaige commented, walking back to the workbench. "Aside from all the tricks you'd expect from an android, this one has a holomorphic subsystem. It'll be able to look like anything it wants. With the right application of forcefields, its body won't even feel like metal." She rummaged around the drawers, looking for the right tools. "What's the logic on that, One? It's grade-A spy stuff. Not much use in the public sector."
"I don't always know Father's goal," One admitted, "But my trust in him was total. Do as he wished And make your work swift." He gazed down at the still figure. "I would see my brother made whole."
"He'll be something to see, that's for sure," Gaige said. "I think these designs are ten or twenty years beyond the public sector. Probably at least that much in front of any military out there, too." Gaige picked up a soldering iron and a roll of the flexible metal with it. "So why did you think I could finish his work? Deathtrap was that impressive? I mean, he's fantastic, of course," she went on, setting up clamps on the table, "but he's nowhere near your sophistication." She turned around. "So why me?"
One shrugged. "Call it a moment of whimsy. My reasons are really quite flimsy. But you're the first that I've found This whole galaxy 'round That may prove yet a... Da Vinci."
Gaige cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "That was a pretty tortured rhyme. Almost got yourself stuck, huh?" With a loud click, she removed the android's left arm and brought it over to the workbench. She clamped it into place and began examining the circuit pathways. "Well, I'm pretty sure I can handle the physical part of things. It's the programming that I'm not sure of. Deathtrap's AI is mostly combat oriented, and even without sentience he has some flaws. I might be able to work out personality subroutines eventually, but who knows how long that would take."
"Just finish your work on the body," One ordered. "I don't want his frame to be shoddy. When it comes to the mind, I think that you'll find I've already arranged for a copy."
Gaige paused in mid-reach for a welding torch. "What does that mean?"
One might have answered, but he never got the chance. A familiar voice crackled through the ship's intercom. [You two ready to go?]
Gaige's head whipped toward the speaker the voice had come from, eyes wide in recognition. "That's Maya!"
A second voice answered, equally recognizable. [Yeah, Krieg's getting him now. I just wish Moxxi had been able to think up something else.]
"Axton!"
[Just have to make due. You'll need him in Opportunity. Sal and I are headed for Tundra Express right now.]
[Right. Good-]
The transmission abruptly cut off. Gaige saw One take his hand off a wall switch she assumed controlled the intercom. She glared at him. "What did you do, tap my ECHO unit to spy on us?"
He didn't answer.
"It won't do you any good," Gaige said fiercely. "They ignored my message, which means they're coming after you. And if this is your ship we're in right now, they will find it." She grinned savagely. "Now you're the one being hunted. And we're good at that. It's in our name and everything."
One pulled his sword. "Their searching will fail to matter. My engine's trail is scattered. Return to your task; Twice, I won't ask. And pay you no mind to their chatter."
"Oh, I'll keep going," she said coldly. "But now it's a race to see if I can finish before they get here. If I do, great. If not..." she shrugged nonchalantly. "It just means I can work on this without you standing over my shoulder, since they'll have killed you." Gaige tried hard not to look at him and decided to twist the verbal knife a little more. "I wonder if Zero will know how to program this android."
Gaige expected another outburst from One, possibly even a physical blow this time. What she got was almost more chilling: total, icy silence. For thirty seconds, she kept her mouth shut and eyes glued on the arm in front of her. Then, she heard him walk across the room, open the door, and leave. The door slid shut and beeped as it locked.
She risked a quick glance to make sure she was alone, then darted over to the airlock window. She had to know one thing...
Sky. More importantly, blue sky. We're not in orbit, then. Gaige took an even faster look at the door controls and saw they were fairly simple, and for a split second considered making a run for it. Then she glanced at the android, and the idea faded. No. But now is the time to take care of the other thing...
Gaige scurried back to the work bench and laid her own arm on it. Keeping as still as possible, she started the repairs on the digistruct circuits in her forearm. One wasn't going to let the others do anything to try and track his ship now, she was sure of that. Maybe he'd just fly to a new location, or maybe he'd do something else. Whatever it was, Gaige would be alone for however long it took One to set his reaction in motion. Any progress she could make on her arm would be critical to her eventual escape.
She just hoped her friends were up to taking on whatever One threw at them.
One stalked out of the workshop, fury and determination swirling in his mind. He made certain the room was locked down, then headed for the cockpit.
The family deserter programming his unawakened brother. The idea made him sick. There was no chance he would allow that. His brother the traitor wouldn't even be allowed near this ship, One would make certain of that.
One hadn't expected anyone on this planet to even think of tracking the engine trail, much less actually have the ability to do it. Clearly, he'd underestimated the locals. Fortunately, he still had the upper hand. Their local ECHO system was so primitive, he hadn't even needed to tap into the girl's unit the way she'd thought; the ship could intercept any transmissions made over the planetary network with ease. He would always hear whatever plans they discussed over their network.
Although, One had to admit, he hadn't expected those transmissions to be piped over the ship's intercom that way. He'd have to correct the oversight. It wouldn't do for the girl to hear her friends' deaths broadcast throughout the ship.
One opened the door to the cockpit and headed for the main pilot's seat. There were three other chairs as well, each dedicated to other systems. Under ideal conditions, the ship was meant for a crew of four, but it was far from necessary. Maybe one day he'd have a full crew, but for now, running a small ship like this alone was a simple task.
If the girl could successfully complete his brother, maybe she'd even be the one to give him that crew. Worth considering, despite the difficulties it would entail.
A matter for later, though. One accessed his flight records, checking to see if his entry vector had taken him over either of the areas mentioned in transmission. He started with the area they'd called Opportunity. One checked his maps, and was pleased to see that would be a dead end. His engine trail went nowhere near that city.
Still, there was something to be gained. It was technologically advanced, with digistruct pillars everywhere. And, since the Terminus experiment proved he had the ability to hack digistruct pillars at will...
He was broke into the mainframe in a few minutes, and made an unpleasant discovery. There wasn't a great deal of power left in the city's batteries. Less, even, than had been in the Terminus' reserves.
If he'd been human, One would've frowned. He had wanted to send in the biggest units in the city's digistruct arsenal, but that was infeasible. There just wasn't enough power left to make sufficient numbers of those units to stop the Vault Hunters. The best he could do was set the system to make as much trouble as it could for the team headed there.
His work with Opportunity complete, One turned his focus to the area referred to as "Tundra Express." Fairly far north, a lot of ice and snow...
His fist clenched. He had made a course change there, and the ion signature was still largely intact. If they could get a scan on it, it could narrow their search. It might not get the girl's friends all the way to his location, but it would get them closer than he liked.
Moving the ship wasn't an option. Powering up the engines would give off a huge amount of energy, probably enough for the floating scrapheap he'd abducted the girl from to detect. Once that happened, One had no doubt that all of her friends would come to her rescue. He was good, but not skilled enough to take on all the remaining Vault Hunters alone, especially when one of them was his brother.
One briefly considered destroying their city and her friends with the ship's guns, but dismissed the idea. If he did that, she would know her friends were dead, instead of being able to hold out hope of rescue. He'd lose even her reluctant cooperation, and she'd probably make a suicidal attack, just to spite him.
Unacceptable. Two years of searching across six galaxies, and she was the first one that had been able to even read his father's schematics. He couldn't risk it, couldn't risk being the last of his father's creations.
Of course, there was another option, one that wasn't available for such a sterile environment as Opportunity.
One entered a few commands, and a wall compartment slid open. It held a rack of six vials, one empty, five containing a thick, sluggish purple liquid. He pressed a few more buttons, and one of the vials began to drain slowly.
Each vial was connected to a small, flexible tube. That, in turn, split and connected to six small robots, each about the size of a bumblebee. Once the liquid had been evenly distributed between them, One pressed another button and launched the machines into the planet's atmosphere.
He repeated the process until all six vials were empty. In a few minutes, all thirty bots would reach this 'Tundra Express' and begin scanning the local lifeforms. When they found suitable targets, the liquid would be dispersed as gas. Anything that inhaled it would begin to mutate and become violently aggressive.
One leaned back, satisfied. There was the off chance the girl's friends might breathe the gas, which would be a supreme irony. More than likely, however, the machines would home in on the larger animal populations, and that would be enough for his purposes.
After all, if one vial of substance had created a bullymong that almost killed six Vault Hunters, surely five vial's worth of mutations would be enough to kill two of them.
[Eagle-eyed readers may note familial similarities between Zero and One relating to their sense of humor.]
[In addition to my usual thanks for reading, I'd like to throw some heartfelt appreciation out to everyone that has followed, favorited, reviewed, or just plain read this since I started, this past week especially. Rest assured, whatever happens after the end, this story will be completed on schedule.]
[Tune in next week for some action dedicated to all the Krieg fans. See you then!]