Upon hearing that tell-tale click, I hid behind a support pole, flinching as a bullet chipped the side of the concrete. I weighed my next move.

With Boger gone, I needed to focus my efforts on saving any other humans I could find.

I faced a hazardous predicament. I needed to find out if Sarah, Rebecca and Brice were safe, but with a gun wielding Ss'sik'chtokiwij behind me, I feared I would compromise their safety by even going near them.

And where was Sydjea? I could only hope and pray she was helping my friends.

If I only had a radio, I thought. Some kind of communication device. But I had neither the skills nor resources.

Wait. Of course! Who better to ask than an indigestible android?

My only obstacle: The Ss'sik'chtokiwij with perfect night vision and flying bullets.

How many times can you fire one of those things? I didn't know.

My guess had been six, judging by the movies I'd seen.

Bullet one: Gone into Ahxalybij's head. Note: I have no idea how she survived that.

Bullet 2 and 3: Buried in my exoskeleton.

Bullet 4 to 6: Punched holes in the vent cover.

Bullet 7 chipped the concrete pillar.

Was it safe now?

I decided that if I were to do something risky, I should do it fast.

Spinning on my claws, I darted out into the open, racing to the staircase.

As the gun hammer made its drawback noise, I dove behind the wreckage of the `Dalek'.

Pop! Something in Brice's machine exploded, looking like pyrotechnics displays at a `rock concerts' I've seen on recordings. I scurried away.

That's when all the lights chose to come back on. Apparently someone had figured out how to reroute the power system, putting everything in full operation once again.

Ahxalybij took advantage of my distraction, shooting me in the back. I fell to the floor.

"Sydjea!" I cried.

My sister did not respond. Where was she?

Click.

Ahxalybij's claws scratched closer.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Not the sound of my enemy's claws.

I turned my head, watching her depress the trigger again and again to no avail.

No more bullets!

This would have been wonderful if not for one slight little problem: I couldn't move.

Ahxalybij stomped closer, raising the pistol.

The club end slammed into my head so forcefully that it seemed like the power had failed a second time.

The last thing I heard before I blacked out: "Now we're even."

After what seemed like an eternity, I came to.

Ahxalybij had left me alone, presumably to finish her meal.

Still couldn't seem to get up. I had suffered a spinal injury, one where I could only move my upper body, like Mrs. Hansen.

Speaking of which...

I pulled myself into a half pushup, dragging the rest of my body up the nearest staircase.

I don't know how long it took for me to reach the top step, but it felt like days.

`Mujer Robot' lay slumped against a closed door, the left half of her face looking like a baby doll someone threw to a rabid dog. A missing eye, the ragged torn skin peeled away to reveal a half melted plastic skull and loose wires. Hard to tell if she still worked.

I crawled closer.

Mara looked dead, but she looked dead when mom separated her upper body from her lower torso.

I poked cautiously at the android's face, knowing from various educational materials how sensitive and temperamental electronic equipment could be, and how a radio antenna can receive a signal if you only move it a fraction of an inch.

"Mrs. Hansen?" I said hopefully. "(God)."

Mara didn't respond, even when I poked other spots on her body.

I frowned at her in frustration. It seemed I was on my own.

I slumped facedown on the floor in despair...and fatigue.

You tend to think about things when you're lying prone.

With Ahxalybij busy consuming her meal, and Sydjea on my side, presumably aiding the humans, or dead, that left me with only two foes to worry about: Mother and Hissandra.

But what foes!

I could detect neither of them, nor Sydjea, which actually made me feel worse.

Again, it would be dangerous to seek my friends out, for I could inadvertently bring them the trouble I wish to prevent.

Mrs. Hansen was my best hope. "Wake up! Please!"

She didn't answer.

I pushed myself up on my elbows, folding my claws.

"Dear Lord," I prayed mostly in my own tongue. For some reason, the intrusive mental tics did not impede me whenever I spoke thus. "I have heard you are not a god that answers prayers about Lottering Tackets and Super Bulls or computers or Sparts Karrs that flash. I therefore do not presume that you will provide me with the mechanical assistance I so desperately need.

"But I do not make this request for my own sake. I seek the aid of beloved friends, and this machine may be of assistance. Oh Lord, can't you please grant me this one concession?"

As if in answer to my prayer, Mrs. Hansen straightened her back, appeared to inhale, her remaining eyelid fluttering open. "Enter command prompt."

No idea what she was going on about. For a moment, I awkwardly fumbled for words.

Then, instead of `entering a command,' I just blurted, "Mom?"

A Freudian slip, or Tourette's. Maybe both. I quickly corrected myself. "Mrs. Hansen? It's me. Ernie. (Maranatha)."

I suppose I could have said "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik" or "Ernestine" to be more accurate, but I wanted to be perfectly understood the first time. I had trouble already with all the involuntary tics.

The android responded with a warm smile, though her eye didn't look at me, as if blind. "You don't have to call me Mrs. Hansen, sweetie. Just call me mom."

I swallowed hard. Intellectually I knew that maybe her programming attached the `love response' to anyone that called her mother, even a Ss'sik'chtokiwij or a toaster with a voice chip, but my heart pounded at the thought of a human, or even someone slightly human, actually loving me like a daughter. I wanted this to be real. I would have wagged my tail if its nerves weren't completely dead. "Mom, I'm worried about Sarah and Rebecca and Brice. I don't know (Satan), I don't know where they are, and I don't want to endanger them by trying to find them. Can you (yes) please help me find a communication device to talk to them, or at least a camera to make sure they're all right?"

"Sarah," she whispered. "Your older sister..."

My sister! What a wonderful fantasy this was! I coughed, struggling with the emotion. "Yes, mama. (Judas). Please help me."

Mara stared absently at nothing for an entire minute. "We need to get into Corridor 117B. It's on the other side of this door, but the security protocols have it locked down. Even after the power disruption, it won't open."

I frowned at the closed metal barrier she rested against. "How do we do that?"

Mrs. Hansen froze again. "I need to access conduit 9192718."

She pointed to a section of paneling a few yards away.

Deceptively close, only outside the door to crew quarters, but in my sorry condition, it felt like the other side of the planet.

If only Sydjea were with us...

"I'm very tired. Can you carry me there?"

I shook my head. "(Judas). Mama, I'm hurt bad. My sister shot me in the back."

The android sucked in her breath. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry!"

The legless female wrapped her arms around me, kissing my head, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't even care that I smelled like a sewer. A love so unconditional got me sobbing again.

We must have looked strange, two pathetic half dead creatures embracing each other, but I didn't care.

"You're sick," she said when she heard me sneezing.

"No mama. We Ss'sik'chtokiwij always cry like this."

She kissed and stroked my head. "Are you sad?"

"No mama. (Hosanna). I'm happy."

"Mama's going to make you all better." Mara waddled around me on her hands, poked around my back, examining my wounds. I heard her sharp inhalation, the tsk sounds. "Why does Sarah have to be so cruel?"

"No mama!" I protested. "It was my other sister that did this! Ahxalybij!"

She froze as she processed this information. "...Your sister and I are going to have a long talk when this is over."

I forced down a laugh.

The woman reached into her eye socket, pulling out a long metal cylinder.

"What's that, Mrs. Hansen? (Chair)."

"It's a laser." She adjusted the settings on the device. "Based on the data we have acquired on Ss'sik'chtokiwij physiology, I should be able to extract the bullet without further damage."

Mara pronounced the word perfectly after only hearing it once. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I actually loved this thing, this synthetic human. We had only been together a few hours, but more and more I found myself longing to be her daughter, and wanting this love to be real. Was it a sin to love a cold blooded collection of wires and plastic this much?

"Will I be able to walk again?"

"Insufficient data. It is generally unwise for individuals with spinal injuries to move, or be moved, except by qualified medical professionals." She leaned over my dorsal side, whispering, "Baby, this is going to hurt, but the inventory database shows no medical requisitions for this area in the last 720 hours."

I vaguely recalled seeing a first aid kit in the lounge, but again I'd have to crawl all the way over there. "It's okay, Mrs. Hansen. This (Jesus), this slight moment of affliction is preparing me for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."

She froze. "2 Corinthians 4:17. Accent changed to reflect personal circumstances." Apparently I had caused her to reference some internal system database, for it came out mechanical sounding.

"Yes, Mrs. Hansen."

"Please, call me mama. You may be adopted, but that doesn't mean I love you any less."

I swallowed. Amazing how she made me believe I was really her daughter. The amount of effort it would take to program a system to recognize that it's impossible for her body to produce something that looks like me, and to re-contextualize it to make me still fit into the family structure! "Yes, mama."

I winced as a burning something sliced into my back. I couldn't see what she was doing, but it hurt. "You're quite a little evangelist. Not many girls your age can recite bible passages chapter and verse like that."

Ss'sik'chtokiwij don't really smile, and my tail was dead, but I sort of bared my teeth in response. "Ss'sik'chtokiwij are really smart, mama."

She just made a pleasant "umm hmm" sound.

Suddenly my arms stopped working. It seemed Mara didn't know as much about Ss'sik'chtokiwij physiology as she thought she did.