"Astro," Luna linked. "I know you're here. Please: answer me."
His presence grew more definite, then he linked, "Luna."
"Astro! Are you alright?"
"Alright? All right? All. Right. Umm, wait."
Suddenly she could feel him at full power.
"There," he said. "Wow."
"What happened?"
"When that thing from Berq'an hit me, it downloaded a very aggressive program. I couldn't control it, and it blocked my emergency shutdown, so I jammed in a random memory over-writer program of mine, and then lost contact. I think I must have pushed myself out of my own processor; it was majorly weird."
"No doubt. I was able to clear the junk out of your dynamic memory and reboot your processor okay, so you think you'll be good to go now?"
"Let me check. ... All clear; I'm in." He opened his eyes, looked around, and found Orkan, Ran-tan, and Evan-sa all hunched over a prone Berq'an. Standing up, he asked, "What's with him?"
"Dad!" Ran-tan and Orkan shouted together.
"Yeah, I'm okay now. Just a little glitch from when I defended myself against that gift."
"I crashed it," said Orkan, pointing at the still robot. "We were trying to find out what it had done to you."
"And?"
"As near as we can tell," said Ran-tan, "it sent you a program that was supposed to override everything and become your operating system."
Astro stooped down to get a better look at Berq'an. "I suppose it would have worked too, if I had been just a robot."
Orkan glanced around. "I think we'd better get out of here. Berq'an's likely got somebody nearby who's supposed to be looking after it, and they're probably on their way." He stood up and grabbed the robot.
"Good idea," said Astro. "Let's go."
A couple of moments after they had cleared out, the Mellanine pulled up and hunted over the entire area, frantically scanning with the controller, but was unable to turn up any evidence for the drama that had just taken place or any sign of his master's precious robot.
Dr. Mella's projected image flickered into view in the spacious and well-appointed office. "What is our status, Mr. President?" he asked through translation software.
The man in the dark blue suit bowed. "Agent Six has failed, Holy One, and your robot is lost. However Six did report a finding of interest before he ... died: it seems that Astro is not the only robot of its kind."
"Lost, eh?"
"Yes, Holy One. Our agents examined the area where Six's body was found, and there was no sign of the robot except for the controller, which Six was still holding. We have to assume the worst, since they were unable to make contact of any kind with the robot through that controller."
"It is well for Agent Six that he administered his punishment himself. As for those ... Astro-style robots, deal with them."
"Immediately, Holy One." He bowed as the image flickered out.
The next morning, Astro located Orkan with the non-functioning Berq'an in his small unfurnished hut in the junk field. "Find anything useful?" he asked.
"Nope," said Orkan. "The only other software it had was its operating system and associated libraries, and those were pretty much off-the-shelf."
"So basically an ordinary robot with custom packaging."
"Yup, pretty much. Can we keep it?"
He shrugged. "We sure don't want Mella to have it back, if he was the one who sent it."
"If?"
"Yeah, I know: Who else would have? You got plans for it?"
"I just want to mess around with it; you know, reprogram it and stuff, maybe let Ran-tan's kid play with it when it gets a little bigger."
"Go for it. Sounds like fun."
"Sure."
Astro gazed at the ceiling for a moment. "Orkan, I want some advice. If you were Mella, how mad would you be about now?"
Orkan resisted the urge to wince in loathing for having to dip back into the pool of evil. "After failing to get you again? How about 'exploding volcano', as in: wipe out anything that has to do with you."
"Like all the androids?"
"Like all the androids."
"Thanks. We better get everyone out to those farms tomorrow at the latest."
"I'll be ready."
After Astro had left, Orkan tapped Berq'an's head in a couple of places, and it split open. "Now," he muttered to himself, "let's get that little weapon out of there before it hurts anybody else."
As he tinkered, he thought about Leader: who he was as a person; what drove him to do what he did. He couldn't have been all evil, could he?
Yes, he could. From the murder of his maker to the murder of the group seeking changes in taxation policies, there was nothing but pride, the seeking and using of power, the growing connections with the Mellanine group in the capital city.
Gently he pulled the radio equipment out of the way and was able to get a hold of the little launcher. It came out easily.
Then he realized that, no, Leader wasn't totally evil after all. The conflict with Astro shook him more than he had himself realized. He thought he had it all, but in the face of Astro's firm defiance, it meant nothing.
After his attempts to destroy Astro had failed, suddenly he wanted the android: an equal, one who could stand up to him and make it stick. The humans were so weak, so fragile, so useless. Astro was a new power, one to be reckoned with, one who could be useful ... one who would understand.
He lured him in, but was horrified to discover that Astro already had a friend, a lover: Luna. Crushed, he tried to destroy them both—and failed again.
Orkan reinstalled the radio, and closed up Berq'an's head. Stepping in front, he gazed into the robot's blank and lifeless eyes.
Yes, that's when it all changed. He awakened in the hands of Astro and Luna, who loved him in spite of everything, and gave him far more than he'd ever dreamed was possible.
Yes. He was Pilon Orkan. At over fifteen years of age, he was technically the oldest, the most experienced of the androids. But he'd never say anything. He was simply happy to be alive, one of the 'droids—two things Leader could only have yearned for. And he didn't hate Leader any more, because Leader was truly a part of him—a troubled part, but a part.
"Mr. President," said General Perham, chief of the Civil Defence Administration, as he stood stiffly in front of the desk in the presidential office. "Regarding the Holy One's orders to eliminate Astro Tenma and his annoying robot friends: It appears that they have gone into hiding."
He spread his hands. "Well, no problem then."
"I wish it was that easy. They seem to have taken practically all of the unholy ones in and around Robovale with them."
"Now that is a problem. What are you proposing we do about it?"
"Nothing for now, is my advice. We need to forget about them and move swiftly on the unholy ones in the remainder of Antemonain and of Wesaimin: get them all out of circulation before they can slip out of our hands, so that they can't interfere with our plans. We can always get back to the robots later."
"Do it."
"Yes, sir."
As Ran-tan set up his portable computer screen to show the broadcast of the ascending of Dr. Mella to the overflow crowd in the large farmhouse dining room, Astro sat and gazed at Orkan, who was happily linked with five-week-old Maz-ven—how Ran-tan and Evan-sa's baby had come up with that name, no-one knew.
Orkan had linked with Astro shortly after he had successfully integrated Leader into his persona, to show Astro how the world saw him.
He, Astro, was just an android, and yet Leader Orkan had chased after him, Dr. Mella was chasing after him—even God himself had appeared to him.
It made no sense.
"It makes sense when you factor me in, Astro."
"God!" Astro linked.
"You are just an android, but you obey me, so other people feel my love."
"So why's Mella trying to kill me?"
"Because that love shines my light of truth into his darkness where he wants to hide his selfishness and hatred. He wants very much to be seen as a hero and a great one, but in reality he's a poor lonely child who plays empty little games that kill people. He hates that light; he hates me; he hates you."
"Ouch," linked Luna.
"What can we do about it?" Astro asked.
"Shine."
"Understood, sir."
"Ladies and gentlemen of the world," came the announcer's voice from the computer screen. "The president of the great republic of Wesaimin, Victoro Tremorten!"
There was thunderous applause from the huge gathering in the square in front of the immense House of the Earth—the headquarters of the Congress of the Nations—as the man took his place on the podium.
"My fellow citizens of the Republic, and citizens of the world, welcome!" he said, raising his arms in greeting. Loud cheers. "This day is a great day in history, a day that will never be forgotten, a day when we realize our perfect freedom!" It took a couple of minutes before he could say anything else over the celebration. Finally, he was able to continue. "We are here today to achieve what has never been done before. We are here to bring unity to our world for the first time. We are here to acknowledge the Holy One, Cedillo Mella, the man sent by God to rule over us, as unchallenged president of the world!"
At that moment, the man himself appeared, hovering on a flying platform above the House of the Earth. It swooped onto the stage beside President Tremorten, and Mella stepped down beside him.
"Is the vote unanimous?" asked Mella through a translation device.
"Let the roll of leaders be called!" said Tremorten, and as their names were read, the government leader of each country in the world stood up from where he or she sat in front of the stage and called out, "I vote 'yes'!" Then came the leaders of the various world religions.
Astro cringed when the leader of those who supposedly worshipped God as he had seen him declared his vote.
When the roll was completed, the President asked the woman reading, "Have all accepted?"
"They have, Mr. President."
"Thank you." He turned to Mella. "Holy One, it is unanimous. Welcome, President of the World!" This time, the audience started to chant 'Freedom! Freedom!" and kept it up for at least five minutes.
Astro gazed at the vast throng as the cameras panned over it. Where had Mella intended for him to fit into all this?