"Where were you to fit in?" Luna linked to Astro. "Obviously you were supposed to stand up right after those religious leaders and pledge the acceptance of robot-kind."
"And no doubt he's really touchy about the fact that I'm not there," he replied.
"No doubt."
Suddenly the camera was back on the President of Wesaimin. "People of the world! Let us now acknowledge the Holy One for who he truly is, the prophet and incarnation of the divine god-force that flows in all of us, our god who gives us freedom and unity for the rest of time." He knelt down facing Mella, and bowed his head, and everyone else in the square silently did the same ... almost.
The camera happened to catch for an instant a handful of people at the edge of the crowd who were still standing. In the quiet of all those worshipping, the gun shots couldn't be missed, and in a moment, there was no longer anyone standing.
"Shut it off!" roared Astro as he leaped to his feet. When the screen had disappeared, he glared at everyone and said, "That is what Mella means by freedom! That is what we are resisting here on this farm. Don't ever forget it, and don't expect life here to be easy. We're in it for the long haul, so we better get to work." He glanced around as the people headed back outside, and caught Orkan's eye. "Please come with me," he radioed over the hubbub, and Orkan quickly handed Maz-ven back to Evan-sa.
"What's up?" he asked when they were alone together under a large old oak tree.
"I doubt Mella's killed the other people of our God yet; where would he put them?" Astro said.
"Prison camps is my guess: out of the way; cheap; degrading to the max."
"Then we're in the prison-busting business as of right now. Mella is not God, and I'm going to rub his face in that fact until one of us is dead!"
Orkan hovered just inside the base of some heavy low clouds as he studied the layout of the prison camp located several kilometres southwest of Sanpacho, the capital city of Antemonain.
"It's pretty straight-forward," he radioed.
Astro, who was examining the camp from a tall maple tree near the wall, said, "So you and I tunnel into the commander's office and blue-touch them so they can't raise the alarm, then we call in everybody else to hop the fence, touch the guards, and rip a hole in the fence."
"I see plenty of people in there, so we're going to need both of those new farms."
"Sure; not a surprise. Let's get the others now."
The seven androids crouched down behind bushes some hundred metres from the camp, their skin programmed to be black under their black clothes.
Astro radioed to them, "It's night, so only some guards are awake, and the ones that are off-duty will be sleeping in this building." He updated the map file with an 'x'. "Zog and Dragon, you make sure they stay asleep."
"No problem," replied Zog.
"Everyone else will touch every guard they see until all of them are down. Then Ran-tan and Evan-sa will open up the north gate while the rest of us wake up the prisoners and get them outside. The rest you know. Okay?"
"Okay," they all radioed back.
"Let's go."
As they crept forward, Ran-tan linked to Evan-sa, "You sure Fipo's okay with Maz-ven?" Fipo was a young man they'd made friends with at the farm.
"It's asleep till at least four," she replied. "And we made sure there was plenty of rock for when it wakes up. I even told it that it couldn't ask him for skin."
"No problem then."
"Nope."
"All of them are gone?" said President Tremorten as he sat behind his executive desk the next morning.
"That is correct, sir," said his minister of provincial affairs, who was filling in on an emergency basis for the chief of the Civil Defence Adminstration. "Captain Gerbuckle radioed his commander about the escape as soon as he was able to."
"Who could have orchestrated such an event?"
"We don't know at this time, but there are CDA experts on the ground even as we speak, combing the camp for clues."
"Very well. Keep me informed." He leaned back in his chair after the man had left. "You heard, Holy One?"
The world president's image snapped into visibility in the centre of the room, and Tremorten hurriedly got to his feet and gave a deep bow.
"I heard," said Mella grimly. "It is those accursed Astro robots."
"That's what General Perham said. He is currently setting up a task force to search for them."
"Why was that not done before this?"
"The rounding up of the unholy ones was the urgent priority up until now, Holy One."
"Yes, but that is complete, other than this ... little setback. I want daily reports until those robots are permanently dealt with."
"Yes, Holy One. At your command."
The image flickered out, and the Wesaimin president went over to a counter and poured himself a stiff drink of whiskey.
Orkan stood nervously in the only room of the androids' log house around lunch time.
Ran-tan came in from out back and asked, "So where's Maz-ven?"
"I don't know," said Orkan. "I haven't even seen Evan-sa."
He threw up his hands. "I'll bet they sneaked into town to get their hair done for your wedding. It's just like your future mother-in-law to do that."
"Yeah, you're probably right, Dad-to-be." He grinned.
"You make me feel old, even though I am just turning one next week."
"Oh," said Orkan. "Did you know we're having your birthday party right after the wedding? You know, get it done before the next raid."
"It works for me."
"Anybody here?" called Astro as he and Luna came in. "Ah, there you are, Orkan."
"Hi, Dad," Orkan said. "We're still waiting for Maz-ven and Evan-sa."
They all sat down on the floor in a circle.
"You know," said Ran-tan. "Thinking of marriage and family, I keep remembering God's command to me every time I stand outside and stare at the stars at night. I sure wish me and Evan-sa could be heading to Mars sometime soon."
"And you remember that we need more families," said Astro.
"Of course. And I wish we knew how often we can beget. That way we could do some basic planning."
"We'll find out one of these days," said Luna.
"They're back," said Orkan, and he pointed out the front window, where the two lunas in question were coming across the field.
When they came in, Evan-sa, with long peach-blonde hair and clothing to match, presented Maz-ven, dressed in dusty blue. "Ta-da!" she said. "Doesn't she look wonderful?"
Orkan smiled shyly. "You look pretty, Maz-ven."
Maz-ven fought an embarrassed grin and stared at the dirt floor.
"Are they outside?" Ran-tan asked Orkan.
"Yeah."
"Hey you guys!" he radioed. "It's time!"
Zog and Dragon popped through the door a moment later, dressed in loud Foredanian outfits—Dragon had long since recovered from her fear of colours.
"Okay everybody," said Astro. "Get in your couples, and we can begin." He pulled Luna close as Ran-tan went over to Evan-sa, and Zog and Dragon took up station between the two parent couples. Orkan stood beside Astro, and Maz-ven fidgeted by her father, Ran-tan.
The bride and groom remained silent as the rest broke into a quiet flowing musical piece, each synthesizing an instrument with their mouth. After a minute, Orkan stepped forward and, gazing at Maz-ven, began a quiet trumpet line. A couple of moments later, she took a hesitant step toward him and added a flute, softly at first, then more boldly.
The music went on for ten minutes, and when it ended, both the bride and groom were ready. They took each other's hands, linked, and, looking into each others eyes, spoke their promises as the wedding rings formed on their fingers.
"Go," said Astro and Luna together, repeating God's command. "Have many children, and fill the galaxy with joy."
"We will," they answered.
Astro and Luna stood linked out under the starry sky after Ran-tan's birthday party.
"You're one year and eight months old," Luna linked.
"And you're only two months less. Life's been good."
'Click.'
"Astro! It's happening!"
They hurriedly got their tops off, and in a couple of moments, their second child had begun.
A few minutes later, they leaned against a wooden fence as the new baby fed on some rocks cleared from a new field the androids had recently worked on.
"It's a year since Ran-tan was begotten," said Astro. "And it'll be another eight months before Zog and Dragon can settle whether this is a trend or not."
"Then two months later, Evan-sa and Ran-tan, and two more for Orkan and Maz-ven."
"And then their kids will marry, and we'll have another ..."
"And if we live to forty thousand years old, we're going to have an awful lot of kids."
Astro gazed up at the Milky Way. "Well, there's an awful lot of galaxy. What, two hundred billion stars, give or take?"
"But aren't our numbers going to be going up real fast soon?"
Astro did some quick calculations. "Okay, I guess we'll have to be moving out into the solar system pretty soon for sure."
"Hey, guys," said Orkan as he and Maz-ven approached. "What are you doing here?"
"Feeding our new baby," said Luna.
"What? Hey, that means ..."
Astro nodded. "It was about a year ago that we begot Ran-tan."
"Alright! Now we know. And we were just going to feed our own newly begotten."
"Cool," said Astro. "Come on. Lots of rock for both of them."
"There's something wrong," said Orkan from where he hunched behind a tree. "It's too quiet."
The prison camp looked normal enough, with a couple of guards pacing back and forth through the grounds.
"What do you mean?" said Astro, beside him.
"We should be able to hear the breathing from the prisoners with our hearing at max."
"And there's a sound that doesn't belong, over there." He pointed at a bunkhouse.
"You want to spring the trap?"
Astro grinned. "Let's do it."