Zero (Mech. Chronicles Book 1), page 10
Zero almost gasped.
Henshaw’s eyes misted, so Zero didn’t try to make him feel any guiltier than he already did. But he was starting to see the other side of the wise old kindly doctor that he didn’t like. He pushed the horror from his thoughts because there were more immediate concerns that required his undivided attention.
He wanted to get a closer look at Stacey. He wanted to make sure the doc wasn’t lying to him, but he didn’t get the chance.
“Stand against that wall and we’ll figure out what happened to your software.”
He did so and Henshaw used a pneumatic wrench to remove his chest plate. He plugged three wires inside his chest. Zero was afraid to look down at the open cavity. He felt like if he did and saw the mechanical workings, he’d have no choice but to accept that he had lost his humanity.
The doctor picked up a handheld tablet and started to play around with the numbers scrolling across the screen.
Zero tried to make small talk, but it became immediately obvious that Henshaw wasn’t listening. He was too focused on the task at hand.
Henshaw tapped the screen with his index finger and Zero felt a weird twitch in his legs. Then he heard a mechanical squeal and looked down to see two hatches open on each of his thighs. Inside were two handguns. Henshaw hit the screen again and a larger hatch opened lower down on his right leg. Inside was a rifle of some sort. He hadn’t even known he had that in him.
Henshaw hit the screen again and all three hatches slammed shut. He unplugged the three leads from his chest and finally said, “Try to get to your guns now.”
He didn’t know how.
Henshaw must’ve seen the confusion on his face. “Pretend you need them to protect yourself. You need to need them to make them deploy.”
He imagined a couple of scenarios, but nothing happened.
The doc said, “Imagine that you were at the training camp when it was infiltrated. Imagine that you were the only one there who could save everyone.”
He’d barely formed the thought when all three hatches opened and his hands shot down to retrieve the two handguns. He held them up menacingly before he realized how inappropriate the gesture was.
The doctor said, “Good. I think we got it.”
Slowly, Zero put the guns away, then the doc closed his chest cavity with the wrench.
Henshaw looked him in the eyes and said conspiratorially, “I’m sorry for your malfunction. I think it was my fault. I tweaked your settings away from their factory presets and I must’ve done something wrong. It’s all fixed now.”
“Is that what happened to the others?”
“Oh no. They simply malfunctioned. It happens.”
So his malfunction was a direct result of whatever Henshaw had done to him. “Why did you change my presets?”
Henshaw avoided eye contact now. “I was just tinkering around, is all. You’re all better now.”
He knew the doc was hiding something, but before Zero could grill him, the doc waved him off, saying, “Send in the next one. Be quick. We’re running out of time.”
He took one last look at Stacey and went to fetch the next patient.
Eve volunteered to go next. He wasn’t really sure what her malfunction was, but she was eager to get rid of it. She came back a few minutes later, beaming. Her body was shiny and new-looking. She said excitedly, “He knocked all the rust off these old bones and gave me a spit shine. I feel like a brand new girl.”
It was a smart move, otherwise the ambassador would suspect they were lying about being new recruits based on their decayed bodies alone. The only thing that remained of the old Eve was the number on her chest.
Piss-pants went after her and he too returned within minutes, shiny and new.
Volts went last. He was gone almost as long as Zero. Probably because his malfunction was so severe. Maybe he needed an entire systems overhaul. Yet he returned with a spring in his step, his metal plates buffed and reflective.
He whispered, “The doctor had to go in through my back plate. I was scared to death that he’d mention the hack job we did to bypass the kill switch back there, but he didn’t say a word about it and he didn’t undo the work.”
Zero screwed his face up. It was great that the doctor was suddenly on their side and wanted the best for them, but there was something off about his behavior.
“Wouldn’t you think he’d remove the bypass if he wanted us to pass as recruits? If someone else finds out what we’ve done, they’ll know there’s something different about us.”
Volts shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just glad he didn’t fix it.”
Eve whispered, “I agree with Zero. There’s no reason for the doctor to go to such lengths to help us. He has an ulterior motive he’s not telling us about.”
Piss-pants said, “Maybe he’s helping us because he’s a good person.”
Eve shook her head. “He tore our minds out of our bodies and stuffed them inside robots. Good people don’t do things like that.”
Zero didn’t know what to believe, but he knew suspicious behavior when he saw it, and the doctor was hiding something from them.
Before they could go any further, Stacey walked into the room, followed by Henshaw.
Zero stepped forward and she said, “Is that you, Jack?”
He nodded and added, “It’s me, but they call me Zero nowadays. We all have nicknames.”
She smiled weakly. “This is all so weird.” She looked around the room at the identical mechs that stared back at her.
She dug her finger into her chest plate and ran a deep groove down its length. “You’ll know me by this mark,” she said. Then she put her finger against his chest and froze when she saw the etched groove already present.
The moment was awkward, so he spoke up. “We did this already, a couple days ago. Plus, I have this number four to identify me.”
She smiled, but there was a hint of sorrow in it that nearly broke his heart.
She said, “I have a lot of catching up to do.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t miss anything worth remembering. Epigog sucked. Training sucked. At least you get a second chance.”
“Yeah. I guess I’m lucky,” she said with a total lack of conviction.
It was odd. He was ecstatic that she was alive, but she didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.
He wrote the number one on her chest plate with the marker and explained that she was the only one of them to actually earn her number.
She waited for him to explain further, but before they had a chance to talk more, Henshaw spoke to them from the front of the room again.
“I just overheard Jack tell Stacey that you are all using nicknames now.” To him and Stacey he said, “I apologize for eavesdropping.”
Zero shrugged. A little eavesdropping was hardly a breach of trust compared to ripping his mind out of his head and putting it inside a robot.
Henshaw continued, “We can’t have any confusion. You need to either go by your nicknames or your birth names from this moment onwards.”
It made sense to keep things as simple as possible. The best lies were the clean ones with little elaboration, or back-stories to muddle them up.
Henshaw said, “Who among you vote to go by your nicknames?”
Every hand went up except for Piss-pants’ and Stacey’s.
Henshaw said, “Majority rules. You’ll go by your nicknames from now on.”
Piss-pants said, “That’s bullshit! My nickname is Piss-pants.”
Henshaw snorted and the room erupted in laughter. Even Stacey managed a chuckle.
Henshaw said, “That’s unfortunate, but standards must be maintained. If most of you refuse to go by your birth names, then none of you should use them. If anyone asks, just tell them that your parents had a weird sense of humor.”
Piss-pants pointed at Stacey and said, “She didn’t even get a nickname. She gets to use her birth name, so I will too.”
Henshaw looked around at the rest of them. “Is it possible for each of you to never again use this young man’s nickname?”
Volts said jokingly, “I don’t know. I’m too worried I’d screw that up.”
Piss-pants yelled at him, “You always call me Dan in private. Stop making this more difficult than it already is.”
Volts smiled and said, “I’m just kidding. Of course none of us will refer to him by his nickname.”
Henshaw sucked air between his teeth in agitation. He was clearly flustered by the back and forth banter. Maybe he was too old to understand that Volts was just messing with him. “No, no. I think we need to stick to parameters. I’m sorry, son, but you’ll just have to live with it. You’ll be called Piss-pants until your assignment is over.”
Piss-pants punched Volts in the shoulder. “You’re a dick.”
“I was just kidding. I’m sorry.”
Henshaw cleared his throat loudly to get them to shut up. “The ambassador will be here in less than an hour. With any luck she’ll believe our story. Fill Stacey in on details about training so she can at least pretend she’s been there.” Then he left the room.
Piss-pants shoved Volts aside and skulked off to the far end of the room. Zero didn’t blame him for being upset, but a silly nickname was the least of their problems.
He walked over to him and said as gently as he could, “Get over yourself and get your ass over here with the rest of us. We have more important things to consider than stupid nicknames.”
His aggression caught him off guard. He was normally pretty docile and understanding, but the situation required more of him than that.
Piss-pants stared at him as though he’d just punched him in the dick. Then he smiled and shrugged. “I knew I was going to like you. You’re right. I can be a bit of a baby sometimes.”
He put an arm over Zero’s shoulder and they joined the others.
Zero was glad he understood.
XIV
✨
Missions
THEY EACH GAVE Stacey specific details about training. Zero didn’t have much to offer since he wasn’t there for long. She seemed perplexed, but she kept her mouth shut and her ears open. The doctor must have told her how important the cover story was to their survival, because she treated it with the gravity it deserved.
By the time the pant-suited ambassador arrived, they were fairly confident they had their stories straight. Her ship docked and Henshaw looked like he was about to keel over from a heart attack. They waited patiently while he scurried around frantically to get squared away. Henshaw finally returned to the room with her taking up the rear.
She regarded them coolly, like she barely knew what to make of the situation or of the wide-eyed mechs staring back at her. Henshaw took a seat as she stood front and center of the room.
“The doctor filled me in on what happened to you. We’ll find out which species did that to the camp and punish them accordingly. Luckily, you all led your class, so I’m going to recommend that you be given assignments rather than wait until the camp can be rebuilt.”
Henshaw looked like he wanted to jump up and run around the room, but he contained his enthusiasm.
The ambassador looked at them seriously. “The Beetar ambassador has been informed of the situation, and he agrees. In fact, he wants us to stick to our original plan and send two recruits out to his warship. He wanted me to send him two of the more qualified candidates, but he’s confident that two of you will be sufficient.” She stared at the numbers on their chest plates and pointed to Piss-pants and Stacey. “You two led your class, so both of you will be stationed on the warship. You’ll travel with me when I leave here.”
Henshaw stood up slowly. He looked upset. With a quavering voice he said, “Zero showed some promise in training too. Would it be possible to station him there instead?”
The ambassador’s brow wrinkled. Her voice raised an octave. “I’ve made my damn decision. I didn’t ask for your opinions. Sit down.”
Stacey looked at Zero out of the corner of her eye. He couldn’t tell if she was happy he’d written the number one on her chest or not, but there was no doubt that his actions had gotten her the post onboard the warship.
The ambassador said, “As for the rest of you, we’re prepared to station you on a Beetar controlled planet not far from here. You’ll act as enforcers to put down rebellions and maintain civility among its alien residents. Don’t worry about your lack of training. You’ll be taught by the others already stationed there.”
That didn’t sound too bad, but his enthusiasm was short lived when she added, “You will be launched from this space station and take up orbit around the planet in about a month. There, you’ll be picked up and brought to the surface. But here’s the part you won’t like: you won’t be in a ship. Your bodies can withstand the rigors of space on their own. The good doctor will prep you and then launch you bodily.” She smiled when they were rendered speechless.
Zero was the first to break the silence. “Screw you. I won’t do that.”
She looked over at the doctor and Henshaw turned to him. “You’ll do what’s asked of you. I will empty your fluid systems prior to launch and your consciousness will be turned off for the duration of the trip. We’ve done it plenty of times. It is nearly risk free. The planet isn’t far from here. It’s in this very star system, so you don’t have very far to travel.” To the ambassador, he said, “It’ll be done. Don’t worry about it.”
She nodded and then pointed at Stacey and Piss-pants. “Follow me. We’ll launch in a moment.” She walked from the room, but neither Stacey nor Piss-pants made a move to follow her.
Henshaw rushed forward and said in agitation, “Hurry up. We got very lucky just now. Don’t blow it.”
Stacey gave Zero a hug. She was trembling, even though she was a mech and trembling was not part of her programming.
She whispered, “I’ll see you when our assignment is over.” It was part statement and part question.
He said, “We’ll meet again soon. Go on now.”
She followed after Piss-pants, and Zero’s heart went still.
Volts said to Henshaw, “You’d better have a plan, because I’m not about to let you shoot me into space without a ship.”
Henshaw shook his head. “You don’t understand. This is a best case scenario. She didn’t even double-check to see if our story was true. The alternative might have been scrapping the lot of you. Please be grateful for such good fortune.”
Zero felt no gratitude. The doctor was nuts if he thought they should kiss his ass for this.
✨
The doctor was supercharging them to make sure they had enough juice to last almost a month in a hibernation state while they ripped through space. When they were fully charged, he fitted each of them with an array of jets that could correct their trajectory should something knock them off course.
He said, “If even the smallest asteroid or rogue body was to interfere with your linear course, you could end up floating through space forever.”
If he was trying to alleviate their fears, he sure had an odd way of doing it.
Henshaw picked up on their apprehension and added, “The chances of any of you crossing paths with anything larger than stardust are infinitesimally small, but why take the chance.”
Volts stared at the floor the entire time the doctor was speaking, and Eve kept shaking her head.
Henshaw whispered to Zero, “Should the opportunity arise, I’ll make sure you get posted aboard the warship. It’s a great honor and I wish you’d been picked for it.”
“Why do you care about me more than the others? Stacey and Piss-pants are way more qualified to serve on the warship than I’ll ever be.”
The doctor looked away, which Zero was starting to realize was his tell—he was about to lie. “Your body was modified. It’s superior to the others. I just wanted to show it off.”
Maybe that was the truth, but Zero doubted it. He had yet to show any signs of performing better than his fellow mechs, and in some cases he significantly underperformed.
Volts shouted to Henshaw, “I want to see my real body before you launch us. I want to be reminded of what I’m doing this crazy shit for.”
Henshaw stared at Eve and Volts and said, “Your bodies are six months from being ready. If I interrupt the sequence for even a moment to show you your bodies, the program will have to start all over again. It’s against protocol to let you near them and I just won’t allow it.”
Zero spoke up. “How long before mine is done?”
“Your body has only been here for days. You’ll be in the program for a substantially longer amount of time than your friends, because they’re almost done. My best estimate is ten months, but that’s because I’m an optimist. Don’t be surprised if you’re here longer than that.”
“Shit.”
“Sorry.”
He asked a question he should’ve asked before he ever agreed to any of this: “Can I go back to Earth when I’m cured?”
“Of course you can. But do you really want to? There’s a whole big, mysterious galaxy out here tailor-made for a young man with a new lease on life.”
Zero would have to consider his options. The Earth had probably changed in major ways since the last time he’d seen it eight hundred years ago. And if he decided to go back, he’d have to go back into stasis for another eight hundred years. The Earth might not even be fit for life by the time he got there.
