Chapter X – The Last Survivor

Proto Dome was a bit smaller than the other three domes – that they could tell just from looking at the outside. It was the remains of what appeared a great battle, looking as if a great beast had torn little pieces off here and there and thrown it all back together again.

Lucca hopped off the bike and was instantly to the door, motioning for Nadia to get Chrono out of the seat.

"No," he said. "I can do it." He took a long time getting out, and fell to his face on the ground, but he did do it himself.

The only light in Proto Dome was the light from outside. All other lights were "malfunctioning," though Chrono spotted a few that had been forcibly shattered. The air also hung thick with some kind of fog. With the fog there came a stench, musty and thick, which brought Chrono to coughing a few times. Lucca shushed him.

Somewhere in the building was a gate – Lucca had brought that up earlier and continued to reinforce it, though more for herself than the others. But they didn't have much to explore. "I thought it would be here," Lucca said to herself, her arms folded across her chest. "That machine told us there was a gate here, right? So where haven't we looked?"

"What about behind this door?" Nadia asked, pointing to the wall beside her. She stood under the frame of a huge metal door. In the center was a big wheel. Other than that, there was nothing on it.

"Chrono, could you…" Lucca began, but stopped herself. "Never mind. I'll see if I can open it." She crossed to the door and twisted the wheel to the right with all her might. Nothing moved. "Okay, I guess it goes the other way." She tried again, this time to the left. At first, nothing happened, but then a great creak! – rose from below them. Lucca gritted her teeth and tried again. Now the wheel rotated one inch, accompanied by more creaking. "Oh!" she gasped, "I need to give my arms a rest. What about you, Chrono? Can you try it?"

Chrono didn't say anything but nudged Lucca aside. Even though he was already fatigued, he managed to get the wheel turned another inch or so. Then he switched with Nadia, who couldn't move the wheel at all. They kept switching off until finally they heard a click from behind the door. "Okay," Lucca panted. "That's all. It won't go anymore." She leaned against the door, then frowned. She leaned harder. Then she pushed, then kicked (getting stares from her friends). "Maybe," she said, "I'm going to have to pull it." She ignored Nadia's giggles.

No matter how hard she pulled, the door still wouldn't budge. "Hey, Lucca," Nadia raised a finger. "Did you, um, see this over here? I think it's in the way."

Lucca groaned. "Let me see that." She kicked the door again. "It's locked. These here are bolts."

"Can't we just take them off?"

"No…" Lucca said after a long time looking at them. "They're operated mechanically."

"Pardon?"

"We have to turn the power on to open this door."

"That's not good."

"No. It's not."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lucca took a step back to survey the door again, and almost tripped over something on the floor. "What?" She looked at her feet.

Funny. In the dim light, it almost looked like a lump of metal, debris. In the low lighting, it was no wonder they had all easily missed it. Now, they could see it was a machine of some kind. Humanoid. Lucca bent down and rapped on it. Metallic.

"So… what is it?" Nadia asked.

Lucca shushed her. "Some kind of metal man. Kind of like the machines at Arris. But different."

"Is it alive?"

"Don't be ridiculous. No machines are really alive. Not like people anyway." Lucca rolled her eyes. "It's off, if that's what you mean. I think I can get it running again."

Chrono sat down next to the machine. "What for, exactly?"

Lucca just looked at him.

"Um, aren't we trying to get through that door?"

"Oh, yes," she sighed. "But it's locked, and we can't get in now. Perhaps…" she squinted, an idea coming to her head. "He might know how to open the door. And he might know other things, too. See, I bet he was just knocked out after this place," she motioned to the crumbling ceiling, "after this place was destroyed. So he's got to know whatever he was supposed to know before… you know? Never mind, you don't. Just trust me."

"But…" Nadia sat down with her friends. "What if it's like those things at Arris, and it attacks us?"

"I'll think of something," Lucca said.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chrono grasped his leg. It was starting to hurt again. He scooted away from Lucca and leaned against one of the broken computer consoles. The pills. He pulled up the little bottle and poured another one into his hand. Wow. These little things really work. Just one little thing takes away the pain for hours… how would it work if I took two instead?

"You okay, Chrono?" It was Nadia. She was still over by the machine, but she was looking at him – the way his mother would look at him when he was bedridden with fever. For some reason that made him uncomfortable. "You look awful."

Thanks a lot. He held up the pill bottle for her to see.

"Ah." Nadia scratched her head. "I'm going to try the door again," she announced to no one in particular.

Chrono leaned his head back and threw the two pills in. It wasn't much harder to swallow than just one.

Crack! – all three of them jumped as a spark flew into the air. "Sorry about that," Lucca smirked. She went right back to work. "Say," she said aloud, "Do you feel that? It's like there's someone else in the room with us. Or something? Do you feel that? Hovering over this machine?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Another spark brought their attention to the thing on the floor. Crack! – Lucca jumped up and took two steps back. "What is it?" Nadia asked, but Lucca shushed her. Crack! – another spark – crack! – and another.

Slowly, methodically, the thing rose from the ground. In the dim light, Chrono could barely make out its shape. But it was definitely humanoid, now that he saw it standing up. It was taller and wider than he had expected. Also, it had no facial features – just two greenish-blue lights near the top of the "head." Those must have been eyes… an improvement from the cycloptic machines at Arris. Other than the eyes, there was nothing else on the head that Chrono could see. And on the machine's back, there was a large rod, shaped almost like a rolled up sleeping bag, as if it were just going off on a hike before being shut down. But when Chrono looked closer, he saw pipes running out of the metal rod and connecting to the thing's back. Lucca would probably tell him what they were eventually.

Its eyes flickered on and off a few times – probably a form of blinking. There was a pause. Then it swiveled around – sharply and suddenly, never lifting its feet as if standing on ice – giving Lucca a good scare.

"Greetings," a voice came out of the machine. It was surprisingly pleasant and personable. "I…" it stopped. Not immediately… the voice trailed off into nothingness.

"What, is it broken again?" Nadia asked.

"Sh!"

"What…" it was the machine again. "What happened here?" Its head swiveled around in a semicircle – actually, only the top half of the head, the part that had the eyes. "Is this Proto Dome?"

Lucca gasped. "Wow, he works."

"Who works?" the machine asked.

She scrunched her brow. "And he understands what I say."

"That is natural. And who are you?"

Lucca extended a hand. "I am Lucca. I fixed you, you know."

The machine didn't take it. "Understood. You, Madam Lucca, fixed me."

"Oh, no, just plain Lucca." Her hand was still extended.

The machine didn't take it. "Plain Lucca fixed me," it said, it's eyes blinking comically. "Thank you."

"Forget it," Lucca muttered.

"And who are you two?" it continued.

Neither Chrono nor Nadia really thought to answer, so Lucca did it for them. "Oh, them. That one is Nadia, and the other one is Chrono."

"Greetings, Nadia. Greetings, Chrono."

"Uh, greetings," Nadia returned.

"How did I get here – with you?" the machine went on.

"Oh, his memory banks must be wiped out," Lucca whispered to the others.

"Memory? What do I remember? I remember this place. I remember standing right here next to the computers. And then Madam Lucca fixed me."

"Just call me Lucca!"

The machine looked at Lucca again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean don't call me Madam."

"Impossible. That would be rude."

Lucca gritted her teeth. "Look, I hate formal titles… hey, Nadia, what about you?"

"Oh! Yeah, I hate them too…"

The machine looked taken aback – as much as a machine could. "Oh, I am sorry. Then I will just call you Lucca."

"Yes, that's better. And what should we call you?"

"I apologize. In my confusion I forgot to introduce myself. I am R266-Y."

"Oh, please," Lucca chuckled, but caught herself. "I mean, that's really a mouthful. Don't you have a short name or did people really call you R26something-Y?"

"I do not understand."

"Never mind. What you need is a good name."

"But I have a name."

"Know what a nickname is?"

"But my name is not Nick."

"Never mind – come on, Nadia, Chrono, help me out. What should we call our friend?" Nadia just shrugged. Chrono just squirmed a bit on the floor. "Some help you are."

"I do not think the other robots and I had – "

"Wait!" Lucca held up a hand. "Robots?"

"Yes, robots. That is what I am. I am a robot. A robot is a machine designed to emulate – "

"Then we'll call you Robo."

"Lucca, it is impolite to interrupt."

"Nadia, what do you think? Thought so. And Chrono? Chrono! Hey, Chrono!"

Chrono snapped to attention. But he was having trouble concentrating. "Whatever. Whatever you want."

"That settles it, then. You'll be called Robo from now on."

"Lucca, something inside me tells me that is not a good name."

"It's a great name."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the minutes that followed, Lucca gave Robo a brief overview of their journey from Trann to Proto Dome. She was pleased that Robo seemed to understand a bit about time travel, or at least that he didn't ask a million questions about it. He seemed to have no questions except "what happened here?" And Lucca didn't really know how to answer that. The other question was "what year is this?"

"I don't know. What is the last thing you remember?"

"I cannot remember anything except what this place looked like before now. But it looks like it has been many years since that memory."

Robo looked at Chrono and Nadia again. "What are they doing?"

"Oh!" Lucca knocked herself on the head. "Sorry. Before we fixed you, we were trying to open this door. I nearly forgot…"

"That door?" The robot gave it a look. "It is not surprising you are having problems. The door is locked electronically. It will only open if there is a power source. Unless you have some kind of power source you carry with you, you will have to turn it on manually."

"What? What's that mean?"

"There is a power plant a few miles from here – if it is still standing. You will have to go there and turn on the power and hope the lines are all functioning. But they won't function for long, so you will have to hurry back and open the door before it shuts off."

"Wow. Okay." Lucca leaned against one of the dilapidated computer consoles. "Do you know how to operate the system?"

"I could try. It never hurts to learn something new. Besides, you may need me to get in. Normally, there are guards that allow access, but if they are not there, you will need to use the machinery entrance. Only robots can open it. From there, everything should be easy."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lucca clapped her hands to remove some of the dust. "Come on Nadia, Chrono…"

Nadia rose. "Um… are we all going to be able to go? Chrono might not make it with his leg…"

"I'll be fine!" Chrono stammered. Nobody bought it.

"No, you won't."

"Chrono, you may want to stay behind," Robo interjected. "Your leg may collapse if you try to follow us. Also, you can operate the door. That way, we do not have to worry about hurrying back. That is - if you do not mind being alone for a half-hour."

"Okay," Nadia said. "But shouldn't someone stay back to keep Chrono company?"

Oh, please, I'm not a complete invalid.

Robo looked at Chrono. "No, unless you are going to be very lonely. We should only be gone a short time. Nothing could possibly hurt you. You can just push on the door when the lights turn on."

"Oh, all right. Are you sure?"

"Yes. Besides, I will need all the help I can get at the plant."

Chrono slumped down beside a trashed monitor. "Well, hurry up, then." And they were off.