"What happened to him?" Ran-tan asked anxiously as Orkan and Flin-bik knelt over Astro, who lay staring and unresponsive on the dirt floor of an unoccupied house on the new farm where they had laid him. Flin-bik had found him first thing in the morning at the edge of the farm yard.
"I can't tell for sure," said Orkan grimly, "since I can't get him to link back to me, but I did find this." He held up his father's left hand.
He gaped. "Mom's ring's gone! But how ... ?"
"I've already sent Maz-ven to Chinbury to find out, but there's only one reason I can think of for that to happen."
Ran-tan nodded. "She ... she's ..." His eyes filled with tears.
"She's what?" asked Flin-bik.
"Dead, my brother," said Orkan. "Somehow Mom has died out there."
"D-dead? How can you tell?"
Ran-tan stared grimly at the wall. "A wedding band is made through the link from the energy of our spouse's core. The only way it could disappear is for that core to ... go dead."
"No." Flin-bik backed away. "NO!" Crying, he fled in search of Mee-spen.
Orkan watched him go. "I think ... I think I may do the same thing when Maz-ven gets back."
"Yeah," said Ran-tan tightly, and linked, "Evan-sa, would you come here please?"
The rest of the androids—including Berq'an, and Flin-bik and Mee-spen's child Ish-pah—gathered as word spread, and they sat quietly leaning against the walls while they waited for Maz-ven to report. Suddenly, Orkan stiffened, and they all leaned forward anxiously.
His eyes widened, and he turned to Ran-tan. "Do you have the screen projector here?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Please, get it now."
When he returned with the device, Orkan connected to it. A screen opened, and on it was a rather uninteresting view of a crater. "That's what's left of Chinbury, according to Maz-ven" he said in explanation.
"What?" everybody exclaimed.
"How big is it?" asked Evan-sa.
"Maz-ven guesses that it's at least three kilometres across," replied Orkan, "and the damage out beyond it is scary bad."
"How's that possible?" said Dragon.
Ran-tan gazed at them all for a moment, then said, "There are only three things that could create that kind of damage: a nuclear bomb ..."
"It's not that," said Orkan. "Maz-ven's not picking up any radiation."
"There's that photon bomb that, uh, you used on Dad when you were Leader."
"I destroyed that research after he made a fool of me again by dodging it, so they haven't had time to make a new one yet. What's left?"
"Something Dad mentioned back when he was trying to decide what to do with your core: Dr. Elefun showed him how much energy a core contains, and that, with the use of a powerful-enough outside energy source, that core could ..." He forced the next word out: "... detonate."
Flin-bik whimpered, "Mommy," and the rest of the androids stared silently at each other as what that meant sank in.
Finally, Evan-sa wiped her eyes and asked, "What do you mean by, 'outside energy source' here, with Astro?"
"The one thing he feared," said Ran-tan. "The plasma gun. The Mellanines must have finally found it."
"That means that that woman, Elentor Bastich, may be one of their agents," said Zog angrily, "because she was the one who asked Luna to go get her brother there."
Dragon shot to her feet. "I'll go tell the humans!" she said as she headed for the door.
"No you won't!" shouted Orkan, and she froze. "We don't know for sure. Evan-sa, would you tell them, please?"
"Sure," she said, and left.
"Why not me?" said Dragon defiantly.
"That's a message that needs great gentleness," said Zog, laying his hand placatingly on her arm. "Evan-sa is the gentlest android here."
Dragon was plainly hurt, but she sat down with Zog and huddled against him.
Abruptly, Berq'an,who had been watching the whole exchange, burst into tears, and Zog and Dragon had to take it out for a while until it settled down again.
In the silence that followed, Mee-spen asked, "What do we do now, with Luna gone, and Astro ... like that?"
Ran-tan stood up. "I'd like Orkan to take over as our leader until Dad is functional again."
"Why me?" Orkan asked, surprised.
"It's obvious that you were his second in command. I mean, he trusted your advice without question. And I trust you."
"I don't like it, but I'll do it if everybody's okay with it." He looked around, and they all nodded. Bowing his head, he muttered, "Even when I don't want it, leadership follows me."
"What happened to Chinbury?" exclaimed the President at the quailing projected figure of the governor of Foredan.
"There was an incredibly massive explosion, and the entire city is ... gone—apparently vaporized. Three-hundred thousand people are missing and presumed dead, and any evidence of the cause has to have been destroyed with them in the blast. Damage from the blast's shock wave extends well out into the countryside. We can't imagine what could possibly have triggered such an explosion."
"What, indeed." He sighed. "Thank you, Governor. I'll see what we can come up with in disaster relief, but, as I'm sure you're all too aware, things are getting tight."
"Yes. Thank you." He disconnected.
President Tremorton tapped an icon on his desk computer and bellowed, "Get me General Perham now!"
A few minutes later, the general's grim image appeared in the centre of the floor. "I take it you've heard about the Chinbury disaster."
"Governor Kelor told me."
"Hmm. And now you'd like my opinion as to its cause."
"Of course. Do you have one?"
"Yes, Mr. President, I do. One of the Mellanine agents was stationed there with an operational plasma gun, and I'm assuming that an Astro robot must have triggered their trap."
"So you're saying that the gun misfired?"
"That's the only possibility that I can think of which could account for what happened. It certainly couldn't have been the robot."
"No, of course not. I would suggest then that all further use of plasma weapons be suspended until your experts are able to come up with a good explanation. Dr. Mella's friends have been known to get ... a little testy when their property gets destroyed."
"Yes sir."
Astro searched the entire spectrum of the link one more time. Where was she? Why wouldn't she answer? She'd never been gone this long before.
"Astro?" came a presence over his link.
Who? It definitely wasn't Luna. "Who are you?" he responded.
"It's me, Berq'an. Are you okay now?"
"Okay? Why?"
"I just noticed you were trying to link for the first time in a while. You've been awfully quiet, you know, ever since Luna ... died."
Astro shot up into a seated position and grabbed Berq'an's arm. "Dead? How do you know?"
Berq'an simply pointed at Astro's left hand.
Astro stared at the spot where Luna's wedding band had been, and the emptiness began to creep into his consciousness. Dead. How? He struggled to think back, to remember.
The last thing he recalled was ... Luna, staring at a soldier with a ... plasma gun ... pointed at her ... chest.
Dead. Gone. No good-bye, no link, no love, no nothing.
He flopped back and burst into desperate tears.
Berq'an quietly linked with him again, and waited.
After a while, a thought came to Astro: cores shot by plasma guns go boom. She was in Chinbury at the time.
"What's happened to Chinbury?" he linked.
"Um, it's gone."
Astro saw the image of a crater in the link, and gathered other details in the subtext.
"Can I go and get Dad for you?" Berq'an linked. "He's better at explaining." When Astro nodded, it stood up.
"Wait," Astro said, spotting Berq'an's new red boots. "You're grown up already? I've been out that long?" He looked at Berq'an again. "But ... but if you're an adult, where's your hair?"
Berq'an looked away, tears filling its eyes. "I never got any. Ish-pah and I tried to get married even though we didn't know whether I was astro or luna." It held up its left hand. "But no rings formed. She cried." It wiped away its tears. "I'm obviously not an astro; I doubt I'm a luna. I'm just a ... a freak android."
Astro jumped to his feet in spite of his own raging pain. "No, you're not! Sure, you're different, but so what? You just have to be patient until you find out where you fit in."
"What do you know about fitting in?" it shouted.
Something inside of Astro snapped, and he grabbed Berq'an's arm and linked with the android. "You need to see this!" he said, and called up his memories from before ... Luna. Gritting his teeth, he finished assembling the file, and uploaded it.
Finally, Berq'an said softly, "No way! You fit in worse than me: You weren't human—even though your father made you think you were—and you weren't really a robot either. And you were the only one. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."
Astro took it by the shoulders. "We'll survive, you and me. We have to." Berq'an nodded. "Now, let's tell everybody else I'm back." He radioed, "Hey! I'm here. Please come and see me!"
While Berq'an told him some basic news, the house quickly filled with androids, twelve in total.
"How many died in Chinbury?" Astro asked.
"According to our atlas program," said Berq'an, "over three-hundred thousand in and around the city."
"Oh man. They're gone too. All of them." He scowled. "Because of Mella." Looking around, he wiped tears from his eyes. "Link with me, all of you," he said. "I've been out of it for a while and I need to catch up—especially with you, Orkan. Congrats on your promotion." He managed a grin, and Orkan bashfully grinned back.
They linked by having the astros touch Astro's hands, and the lunas connecting through their wedding links. Berq'an and Ish-pah each touched one of his hands as well.
Astro immediately jumped in surprise, and everyone saw through the link what he was reacting to.
"Luna," he cried.
"Hi Astro," she said. "God has sent me to you to tell you that, yes, we androids also have an eternal destiny. The death of your body is simply the end of this life and the beginning of an eternity with God. Do not allow yourselves to despair. God will fulfil what he commanded; and I'll be here ..." She looked pointedly at Astro, "... waiting for you, and for all the children yet to come." She vanished from his inner sight.
"That was seriously special," said Dragon in awe, and everyone laughed.
Then Astro's eyes filled once more with tears, and he sagged to the floor, because the brief sight of Luna had ripped open his terrible wound.
The others wouldn't let go of him though. They maintained the group linkup for the rest of the day, attempting to fill some of that void called Luna in his heart. However, they couldn't answer the one question that Astro was holding in his mind: Why is my best destiny to be without Luna?
At nightfall, they quietly let him go so that they could sleep, except for Berq'an, who maintained its link with him even when it finally fell asleep.
"She's gone, isn't she?" came the hissing voice of Adversary in the silence of the night.
Astro winced at the pain as he recognized his enemy, but also felt Berq'an's sleeping presence in the link.
"My slaves destroyed her," it went on exultantly. "I told you your precious humans would listen to me, and now they hate you."
Waves of rage, of envy, of pride, washed over Astro, and he struggled to find himself in all of it.
"Oh no you don't," snapped Adversary. "You lost, robot. There's nothing left for you to live for. They tore her away from you, and now you're totally alone. It hurts; it's ripping you apart. You're mine." Its voice became tender. "Come, greet your new friend, Death. Let him quiet your fears, ease your pain. Why, he'll even help you to forget it all."
Astro struggled, even as the offer pulled at him, tempted him, urged him on. Dying would end it all. Yes.
"No!" linked Berq'an urgently. "Luna said we have an eternal destiny. Don't listen to this monster!"
Astro shook his head, and the spell broke. "I won't die!" he cried to Adversary. "You lose, jerk! I'll find a way to shame you. I won't let you master me!"
"You dare to defy me, you petty little robot?" roared Adversary. "I'll show you your eternal destiny!" A roiling ball of flame appeared to Astro's inner sight. But it wasn't ordinary fire: it was completely dark; glowing, but with terrible rage, not light; hiding, not revealing. It seared deep in his heart: utter isolation and abandonment; total fear; deepest shame; unending regret. In its turbulence lay complete madness.
Astro, even as he struggled to hold onto his sanity, knew what this vision was: hell.