Bobby-Jo tugged at the ears of the bundle knotted around her chest. With both ends loosened, she whipped out a wrench the size of a sledgehammer. Ada winced as the tip of the weapon hit the ground with a 'thunk'.
The young cow visibly struggled against its weight, not used to throwing around such a large weapon so causally. After nearly slipping from her grasp a second time, she hoisted it up at both ends like a battering ram. Shifting her weight between her legs, she steadied herself, then made a lunge for the animal standing closest. Ada yanked her back by the straps of her suspenders before the blow had the chance to land.
BJ lost her grip on the hefty tool which hit the ground with a 'clang'. Sensing their prey was getting overzealous, the threatening canines continued to yip and growl, their jaws dripping with enough foam to fill an evening pint.
"What are you doing?" the young cow hissed into Ada's ear.
The Countess pointed upwards, directing BJ's attention towards the cliff face where a barely distinguishable speck was plummeting towards them. The figure grew rapidly in size, becoming more and more recognizable the closer it came, letting out an uproarious battlecry that shook the canyon floor. Ada shielded her companion's head as rocks and debris came raining down on them from the cliff.
The Minotaur chief's landing was hard, causing sections of earth to rise around him in splintered chunks. Smoke billowed from the bull's nostrils like from the chimney of a steam train.
The pack soon swarmed him, recognizing their biggest threat. One pounced at his face, trying to sink its teeth into his tough hide while two others grabbed hold of his back leg and tail. Rory dropped down on all fours and delivered a rear end kick before rising onto his hind-legs and smashing, head first against a boulder.
The first set of blows caught one of the dogs on the nose and the other right under its chin. The second caused the animal which had been clinging to his snout to crack its spine against the boulder's jagged corners. With half of the enemies down for the count, BJ took the opportunity to retrieve her wrench.
"Show 'em who's chief, Chief!" she cried, charging with the weapon in hoof and locking it onto the jaw of one of the dogs. After a hard twist, the jaw came lopsided, dangling off the mandible by a single screw.
"Bite me if you can!" the cow spat before Ada pulled her out of the way of another set of jaws.
The young Minotaur didn't miss a beat. "You got anything on you, you can use?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Nevermind then, just sit tight. The Chief'll finish them off."
Of that Ada had little trouble believing. Although her experience with them was limited, she knew the might of a rodeo fighter shouldn't be underestimated. They were some of the most powerful borgs in Cyberspace when it came to brute strength. Now that she had at last seen him in action, she had no doubt he had at some point counted among their ranks.
After aiming one more strike with the tip of his good horn, the remaining members of the pack were driven off, tail between their legs. They ran down the canyon a short while before diving into the shadowy crevices at the side of the road. Rory waited for them to disappear before falling back onto all fours, every inch of his body heaving in time with his weighed breaths. Despite initial appearances it seemed had hadn't managed to entirely shrug off the attacks.
"Are you alright?" Ada rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, just kind'a regret making that jump now." The Minotaur chuckled. "If Mimi were here, she'd be giving me the earful."
"You were brilliant." The Countess smiled. "Do you think it's safe for us to rest here?"
"For the moment. But not if we want to get through this place by sunset. You wouldn't want to spend the night down here."
"A fan of ambushing in the dark are they? A most foul lot."
"I ain't talking about the coyot's. Without the sun warming this place during the daylight hours, it'll turn into an ice cube after dark. Don't expect you find that too cozy."
"Indeed not."
After BJ and Ada successfully uncoupled their wagon from the lift, the trio found themselves on the road again. Rory's stamina was unwavering, though Ada noticed the leg that had been bitten now limped slightly. She considered bringing this up to him and insisting they have time to rest before proceeding, but in light of what he had said about the frigid sunset, chose to keep quiet. They would all be better rested somewhere warm and well sheltered.
Once Ada had, had the chance to get settled aboard the wagon, she felt a sudden tiredness come on. Her head felt as if it had taken on the weight of a cannonball. Her eyelids drooped and there was a dull ache in her legs and back. She attributed these to the rush of addrenline that had come with her brief brush with death. Sitting on the floor of the cart, she rested her head on the crates stacked behind her.
"You okay, Earthlie?" BJ voice sounded slightly muffled as it reached her ears. Ada nodded wordlessly. The young Minotaur continued to eye her up and down, seemingly unconvinced by the answer she'd been given. "You're kind'a a fragile thing ain't ya? I mean, no offense. I wouldn't think it to look at you, but I guess you don't get out too much."
Ada forced a smile. "I've had my fair share of adventures, believe it or not. If I had been born with the strength, there might have been more."
"Are you sick?"
Ada nodded again. "This is the first time in a long time I've come this far from home."
"You really like that Doctor Marbles don't ya?" the young cow mumbled, adding by way of explanation once she caught Ada's questioning look. "I heard you and the Chief talking last night."
"I see."
Ada stared up into the roof of the caravan until she eventually dozed off. Her sleep was shallow and plagued with muddled thoughts. Had she really gone all this way for Marbles? Or had it all been for her own selfishness? Her own desire at a legacy? And if she was, was that wrong? Surely not more severe than the alternate of apathy.
She was unsure of how long she slept, only that she woke to the sun on a downward momentum and with Rory's voice in her periphery.
"I'm sorry?" She slowly lifted up her head.
Despite the shade provided by the ravine, her skin stung with heat. Resting a hand on her forehead, she detected a fever had begun to come on.
"We're going to stop here for a while."
Ada dipped her head in acknowledgment and attempted to make herself presentable. It was unlikely she'd be required to present herself to anyone in such a place, but such were old habits.
As best she could, she tamed the loose strands of her burnet hair with her fingers. Finding herself in need of a relief, she reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out the vial. To her dismay the small bit of liquid remaining barely covered the bottom. If she consumed it now, it would wear off before evening. She had to hold off. At least until she found Marbles.
She slipped the vial back into place before inching towards the edge of the wagon to steal a look at their surrounds. Rory had parked them in front of a rubble hole plugged up with stones and dirt. Atop the mass were several planks of wood which had been nailed into the side of the cliff wall to, Ada guessed, stop the debris from being removed.
"I wouldn't be surprised to find a dozen phantoms in a place like this," she joked, wearily, wondering why Rory had chosen this of all places to stop.
Bobby-Jo hopped off the cart from the other end. "What is this place, Chief?"
The Minotaur did not give an immediate response. As he approached the pile of rubble, he seemed to carry with him an invisible weight, many times greater than that of their wagon, and got down on one knee. For several heartbeats, he remained unmoving from this position, his front hoof planted firmly on the ground in front of him. A slight bulge told Ada there was something concealed within. She waited in silence until he finally pulled away, revealing a tower of stones each balanced perfect atop the other.
It was then that Ada noticed a scattering of similarly sized pebbles across the ground. She hadn't paid them any mind before, but now noticed that the pebbles were clustered solely around the plugged hole whereas the ground further down the road was clear.
Rory's stones were positioned, in Ada view, for the purpose of acting as a marker. Or memorial.
The Countess felt her heart drop. She glanced at BJ to observe a similar expression on the cow's features. Rory seemed to notice this change in their mood and became verbal once more.
"It happened well before my time. But a lot of drives were ended down here."
"What happened?" Ada asked.
Bobby-Jo turned and walked off. Ada noticed her choose a position a far distance from them where she kicked up billows of sand and pretended not to listen. Her chief's story was one she was already well familiar with.
"One day, a Minotaur in the mining crew hit a water vein. The tunnels started flooding and collapsed before anyone had a chance to get out."
Ada's eyes narrowed. "Then who was the one to orate such a tale?"
"You really want to know?" BJ mouthed from the distance. "You'd really believe us over the borgs?"
"I owe you an ear at least."
The young cow shot her chief a silent plead. He returned it with an expression that was cool and inscrutable. Even after Ada had given the Minotaurs her best sympathy, it seemed it would take a greater effort to fully win the trust of the older bull. Nonetheless, with the influence of his young friend, he was convinced to expand on his narrative.
"When the Judge was handed her administration, she took charge of the mines, providing workers supplies out of her own pocket in exchange for a cut. The arrangement was popular for a lot of folks who couldn't afford to get started on their own."
Ada dipped her head in a gentle, nudging motion, trying to encourage him to continue. Rory's pace was slow and purposeful, a tempo that made one think he was liable to stop at any moment and decide his story wasn't worth telling after all.
"Nobody knows who triggered the leak that day. The only ones might have enlightened us didn't survive. It might have been us, or one of them. But what I'm sure of is that a lot of drives would have been spared if the tunnels had held up a little longer. Or at all."
"You believe the materials provided by the Judge were of inadequate quality?"
Rory nodded. "That was the theory at least. By the only one who crawled out of this place alive."
He shot Ada a glance as if he expected her to intuitively fill in this blank of her own. Ada's mind flew through the short list of suspects she had names for, with one quickly sticking out.
"Your much cherished, Mister Emmett."
"After that, the Judge figured she needed to do damage control," BJ said, arms crossed defensively over her chest. "We became Sensible Flat's enemy #1. The man-eaters that swallowed those borgs down to their gaskets."
"Little sister."
There was a warning in Rory's tone, through Ada wasn't sure what he had found reason to object to.
BJ stomped her hoof in frustration, seemingly anticipating her chief's resistance. "If we tell her the truth she can help us! We can finally change things."
"We don't need their charity."
"But you're okay taking it from him?" she hollered back.
The Countess was certain she knew who BJ was referring to. The young cow's gaze momentarily flitted towards her, begging for what she had just let slip to go no further.
"We need parts, Chief."
"They cut you out of the network." Ada concluded aloud, without addressing either of them specifically.
When Cyberspace had first been set up, the admins had been placed in charge of much of how their sites operated, one of their duties including the regulation of inter-site commerce. In a glitch in the system Ada had not anticipate was the with hold of resources from a people on account of political agenda.
A thread of hopeless hid behind BJ's weak laugh. "No one wants to sell parts to a bunch of defects."
"We'll get all the parts we need." Her chief insisted before turning towards Ada. "I reckon you've pieced things together, ain't that right?"
Ada nodded. "Hacker won't be your savior. He'll only drag you down with him." Despite the vehemence which accompanied her voice, Ada could already sense her protests had fallen on deaf ears. Rory eyes held the same stoic look he'd maintained since their stop.
"More than Motherboard already has?" he challenged.
"Whatever mistakes we've made, we can correct. If you could only give us a chance."
"Motherboard's never given a rusted screw about the Minotaurs, once in fifty years. Why should she deserve my loyalty?"
"Chief…" the young cow whimpered, wringing the points of her hooves together.
Rory spun on her, his red eye flashing like the first strike of lightning in a fast brewing storm. "Let me tell you about the Hacker."
1987
Rory plunged his head under the cold running tap of the locker room, rinsing off the sweat which had precipitated his brow. Even with his switch from running derbies to fighting in the ring, working underground in R-Fair City was far from a cakewalk. Though his win ratio after his first month with the rodeo was nothing to scoff at for a newcomer, he still felt as if he had to constantly be on his toes just to keep up with his contemporaries.
Unicorns, those sly faced rust sniffers from Happily Ever After Ville, seemed to dominate the ring just as they had the turf. They had become the bane of the young bull's existence.
He splashed water over his horns, rubbing their tips to a shine. His manager was always on him about looking good when he stepped out. Apparently it 'filled seats', though Rory wasn't entirely convinced of the claim.
After drying himself off, he took a seat and waited to be called for his next match. It would be his fourth of the day. Every screw in his body already felt stiff, but the pay was too good to pass up. He had to take every fight he was invited to while his gears were still young.
"Excuse me, coming through, pardon me."
Rory could hear a commotion coming from the hall outside. He glanced up, an amused smirk on his face as his manager, a middle aged and stocky satyr with a large mustache, appeared in the doorway. The stubby borg had his back to the fighter and was attempting to block whoever had spoken from entering.
His efforts were in vain and he was swiftly pushed aside as a young and willowy borg barged through. The stranger had a polished way of speaking, though the same couldn't be said for his movement which to Rory bordered on comical as his bean stalk of a torso waved from side to side.
"Ah." The bean said 'ah' with the inflection of someone uncovering a family heirloom while dusting. He looked around the grubby locker room before expressing approval at a massive dent beaten into a nearby wall. "That your work?"
Rory shook his head. The other's cadence drew a chuckle out of him. The bold strut as he entered, coupled with the way he glanced around with faux authority. It reminded him of some kind of amateur stage performer.
"I thought I saw you while I was coming in," he said, slender arms on hips. "If I knew you were fighting today, I would have come sooner. So, when did you get this gig?"
"I'm sorry, have we met?"
The borg's face froze into a look as if he'd just been beat over the face with a fryer. "It's Hacker. The Hacker," he said, popping his collar so that the flaps stuck straight up.
Rory gently shook his head, indicating that his memory had not been jogged.
"I've been coming to your races for two years." The Minotaur again shook his head.
"I bet on you twice at a twelve second handicap. You lost."
"Well, I hope I didn't cost you too much."
The borg grunted, looking so offended by his contemporary's lack of recollection that Rory had to hold back his laughter.
"Don't take it too personal. Look, I'm real sorry. There something I can do you for?"
"There isn't. I just thought I'd formally introduce myself after seeing you again. I've gotten to see a lot of borgs compete these last two years. You might say I have a sixth sense for talent."
Rory simply smiled and nodded, knowing from experience it was easier than arguing with someone who sounded so sure of himself. "Well, I appreciate the pep talk."
The Hacker's head bobbed up and down like a paddle ball on an elastic string. "You're welcome. They say praise boosts performance. And we want you in peak condition. From now on, when you see me in the stands, you'll know who the Hacker's got an eye on you."