Dead Planet, page 27
part #4 of Star Rim Empire Series
The Sean bot just shook his head. "I wish I knew."
We kept walking, following the general directions Captain Gankata had given us. At one point, we got lost, so I asked directions from an older woman who was pulling a handcart stacked high with bundled reeds.
"The Dollworks? Now what would two knights be having to do with such a place?"
The Sean bot turned on his charm. "Our quests take us to many unusual places, madame. We would be eternally grateful if you might point the way."
She smiled at him through a mouth full of crooked teeth and jerked her thumb to the east. "Two blocks that way, past the old water tower."
"Much obliged," the Sean bot said. He bowed politely, then swaggered away, showing off for the old woman.
Give me a break.
It turned out that the old woman's directions were right on the mark. On the next block, we saw the rotting skeleton of an old water tower. Its timbers were covered with moss. Beyond the water tower towered a three-story building that took up most of the block.
If we had any doubt if we were in the right place, it vanished at the sight of the huge iron letters mounted on the roof of the structure. Tanga Dollworks.
We circled around to the front of the building, where a wide stone staircase led to a pair of double doors set within an archway.
"This is the place," the Sean bot said.
"I wonder if anyone's home." I pointed to the smokestacks on either end of the roof. Both were unused---unlike nearly every other smokestack on every other building we passed.
But before we could even take a step towards the doors, a thick net of woven rope fell from out of nowhere---right on top of us.
"What the hell!"
Then I heard the twang of crossbows and felt myself being knocked off my feet from the impact of projectiles slamming into my legs.
My world spun as the net tightened around me. I clawed at my RB, trying to draw it, but my arm was pinned against my side. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Sean bot struggle to free himself from the net. But it looked like he was having a difficult time as well.
Then I saw our assailants. Red-robed cultists. Like the ones who attacked us outside of Laelynn's tenement. Bearing down on us with energized clubs.
"Brace yourself, Jannigan!" the Sean bot called.
"What---?"
Then suddenly I heard a high-pitched metallic hum. It got louder and louder and I knew what was coming.
I pulled myself into a ball just as the Sean bot's velocity bubble popped around him, shredding the net and sending me---and our assailants---flying.
My head smacked against the ground and everything went black for a moment as my breath was knocked out of my body. Then the suit blasted me with oxygen, stimulants, and pain suppressors, and my vision returned.
I gasped a shallow breath and stumbled to my feet, then drew my blaster.
At least a dozen cultists had come out of nowhere to attack us. Thankfully, a good number of them had been caught in the Sean bot's velocity bubble. And without armor, they stood little chance. But the remaining cultists chanted some kind of mumbo-jumbo as they charged with knives and clubs which crackled with fiery energy.
I dropped to one knee, steadied my radiant blaster with both arms, lined up my shots, and started firing away. As my training kicked in, I felt the fear drain from my body and I could concentrate on taking out our foes.
To my right, the Sean bot moved with superhuman speed, leaping into the knot of cultists closest to him, smashing, kicking, punching, and blasting. Basically, doing his combat bot thing.
Methodically, I plugged away at the cultists with the crossbows. They didn't last long. Blaster versus crossbow. No contest.
"You okay?" The Sean bot brushed himself off and stepped over a dead cultist to join me.
"Fine. These guys don't quit, do they?"
"Apparently not."
"I wonder how they found us." I hoped that Laelynn and Silbra were okay. We had witnessed the Plover sailing away, so unless the Ecclesia had their own pirate ships, I doubted they could catch Laelynn.
The Sean bot reached down and inspected one of the weapons: a cudgel. "Maybe they planted a tracker on you."
"You think they're advanced enough to have trackers?"
"They have these." He handed me the cudgel.
It was mostly made of wood, but had some sort of metal inlay that looked like it might house electronics and a push-button switch on the handle.
When I pressed the switch, tendrils of energy swirled and danced on the cudgel's business end.
"Interesting," the Sean bot said. "It must have some sort of energy source and a plasma transverter. Probably hexonic micro-emitters as well."
Because my power pack was low on charge, I decided to hang on to the cudgel. It might come in handy.
I looked around the yard in front of the warehouse and then up at the adjoining buildings. I would not be ambushed again. But I saw nothing over my head besides the wispy remnants of rain clouds.
"What are we waiting for?" the Sean bot asked. "Aren't you curious about what's inside?"
The doors opened into a narrow vestibule with a desk. It reminded me of a greeter's desk. Besides a couple of ancient writing implements and several bound books, the desk was bare. Beyond the desk was another set of doors.
The Sean bot inspected the books and announced that they were ledger books of some sort.
"Someone must be keeping track of the clone bots," I said.
"Very funny, JJ. You may want to ready your side-arm and start paying attention."
The second set of doors opened into a cavernous, light-filled hall crowded with machinery, all of it silent. The space was open from the floor to the glass-and-cast-iron roof, twenty-five meters over our heads. A framework of iron girders, struts, and columns supported a second-floor walkway that made a horseshoe around the inner perimeter of the warehouse. Mounted on the interior framework were many different pulleys and gears, winches, and various sets of block and tackle. Running down the center of the space was an elevated track with two wheeled assemblies from which hung hooks and small cargo platforms. But all were unmoving.
The Sean bot led the way, weaving around immense machines of densely packed gears, flywheels, and armatures surrounded by a chaotic mass of tubes, gauges, pistons, valves, and dials. I had no idea how these instruments could be used to make dolls, but here they were.
I ran my finger along the edge of one of the machines, tracing a path through the layer of dust that had accumulated on the device. "Looks like the doll business has been kind of slow recently."
"This might be another dead end."
"It's looking that way."
We veered beneath the walkway where a row of long tables were filled with doll parts, each arranged sequentially, from shoes to legs to torsos, arms, heads, and frocks.
I picked up a little doll head. It looked similar to the one I had found in the sewer beneath the warehouse.
"May I help you?"
I spun towards the voice, drawing my blaster.
Standing before me was a primitive-looking bot with green-colored plating sculpted into a sleek human female form. The bot didn't seem to possess any weapons. At least, none that I could detect. But its spiky helmet bristled with spines and its human-like eyes gave it an unnerving appearance. I almost jumped out of my armor.
"Um, is this the clone bot factory?" I asked once I had recovered from being startled.
"No, sir. This is the Tanga Dollworks, and I am the proprietress, Hanna Tanga. May I ask the nature of your inquiry?"
The Sean bot stepped out from behind a huge block of machinery. "What are you?"
The bot whirred as she turned towards the Sean bot. "I, sir, am a Cugnot model M3 gynoid." Her eyes glowed briefly as she looked him up and down. "My, my. Forgive me for being forward, sir, but I haven't seen one of you for quite some time."
She moved closer and the Sean bot tensed, ready to defend himself. But Hanna Tanga just walked around him, intently inspecting every centimeter of his body. "Remarkable craftsmanship," she cooed. "They truly don't make them like they used to."
"Do you know where I was made, madame? We came here looking for clues."
"Clues, sir?"
"Do you only manufacture dolls here?"
"As opposed to---what---steam turbines?"
"As opposed to larger models. Automata, gynoids like yourself, other robotic constructs. Like me."
"We do have a second facility," she said almost reluctantly. "Area A specializes in automata."
"Where is this Area A?" I asked.
"I'm afraid it's closed to visitors at the moment."
"It's very important that we see it." I brandished my RB.
"Are you threatening me, sir?"
"Just trying to be very clear about my position."
"I see. Well, in that case, please follow me." She turned on her shining heel.
I glanced over at the Sean bot and shrugged. That wasn't too bad.
We followed Hanna Tanga through the dusty main floor of the dollworks, beneath the elevated track and past towering contraptions and around workbenches and racks.
"Is this Area A far?" the Sean bot asked. He was closest to the gynoid, leaving me to bring up the rear.
"Not if you know where you're going."
That was a weird thing to say. I kept my RB free. Just in case.
Set in the brick wall at the far end of the factory was a heavy iron door. The door was enormous---wide enough for two of us to stand side by side, and it stretched at least a meter taller than me. Thick rivets ran all along the door's frame. In the center was a single iron ring and below it, a keyhole. Engraved above the ring were a bunch of symbols that my visor couldn't translate.
I wondered if this was another exit. It seemed like it was.
Hanna Tanga stuck her finger in the keyhole and removed it quickly. A loud click sounded from somewhere within the door and I heard the rumble of machinery engaging.
Not again.
Both the Sean bot and I were on high alert, turning to check our surroundings for any threats. But there were no moving walls, no flooding chambers, no cultists with nets.
"What is that noise?" I demanded, waving the RB at Hanna Tanga.
"We're in a factory," she said dismissively. "There are noises. Are you coming or not?"
"Wait a minute," I said. "Is this door some kind of elegentive gate?"
"No."
"You sure?"
She pushed at the door, which swung open smoothly, revealing a dark corridor beyond. She stepped through the door and the Sean bot followed. I was debating on whether to holster my RB so I could use my hand lamp when the hallway suddenly lit up.
"Unusual," the Sean bot said, looking around.
As I stepped into the corridor, I understood what he meant.
The illumination came from a string of industrial strip lights hanging over our heads. We stood in a cinderblock hallway with concrete floors. The walls were painted an institutional beige. A cluster of pipes and cables ran alongside the lights on the ceiling.
This corridor didn't belong here, that was for sure. It looked like cheap industrial construction like you'd find in commercial building---in the areas that the general public doesn't normally see.
The Sean bot had walked up ahead and was now pointing to the wall. Stenciled on it was an arrow and the word EXIT. The arrow pointed down the hallway ahead of us. I double checked my visor's translation module, toggling it on and off as I looked at the wall. EXIT remained EXIT. No translation necessary.
I was feeling the slightest bit disoriented from the sudden weirdness, but I pushed away the sensation.
"Now we're making some progress." The Sean bot almost sounded pleased.
Something rumbled in the distance. Not the weird mechanical sound I had heard earlier. This was more of a gentle, familiar wash of noise. It sounded pretty much like an HVAC system kicking in.
"I do have to get back to work soon," Hanna Tanga said. "May we proceed?"
"Sure," I said. "I just don't get it. Are we still in your factory?"
I looked back down the corridor towards the iron door, but it was gone. Now it was a dead end, with what looked like some exposed commercial standpipes and sprinkler piping. The pipes were thick and painted red and there were wheel valves and pressure gauges. Everything looked modern and mass-produced. Not like the quaint valves and gauges back in the doll factory.
"You see this?" I nudged the Sean bot.
"Yes, JJ, of course I do. It's a good sign. Remember how we got to Euna in the first place. With any luck, we're on our way out."
"Gentlemen, please! I must insist we continue." Hanna Tanga swooped in between me and the Sean bot, ushering us forward.
The corridor turned a corner and ended in a metal fire door. A sign on the door read EXIT TO LOBBY. Again, I didn't need my translation module.
The gynoid held open the door for us and I followed the Sean bot into what appeared to be a hotel lobby. All the lights and electronics were on, music played faintly over the audio system, but there was no one around. It was utterly deserted.
"This way!" Hanna Tanga said brightly. "Oh, and feel free to remove your helmet if you wish. The air here is much cleaner than that miasma in Euna."
"I'll keep it on for now."
We passed the hotel's long, sleek reception desk, and an alcoved seating area with couches and easy chairs and low tables set with what appeared to be fresh flowers. I looked in vain for any sort of logo or signage which might identify this particular hotel. Everything was very understated and well-designed, though, which made me suspect we were somewhere in the Gold Mantle cluster.
Another corridor branched off to my left. It led to the building's entrance---a large bank of glass doors and windows with daylight streaming in.
I caught up to the Sean bot. "Shouldn't we head outside?"
He shook his head. "Let's continue to follow the gynoid. If we need to, we can double back."
I wasn't so sure of that, but I kept going.
We passed what looked like a bar/lounge area with big round windows that showed a view of blue sky and not much else. Maybe a glimpse of some white buildings, but I couldn't be sure.
"Miss, you said we weren't in Euna anymore."
"Correct."
"So where are we then?" I asked.
"A transition zone," she said without stopping.
"Transition zone?"
"To Area A. That's where you requested to go, wasn't it, sir?"
"Sure. This hotel seems, uh, out-of-place. That's all."
"Yes, well. Comes with the territory, doesn't it, sir?"
Great. An enigmatic bot. That was all I needed.
Hanna Tanga led us to a bank of lifts and summoned one. The three of us stood there for a few moments in silence until a chime alerted us that the lift had arrived.
"After you, sirs."
I was nervous entering an enclosed space, but the Sean bot obviously wasn't.
"It's fine, JJ. Just go with it."
"If this is the entrance to the factory, we're going to run into that elegentive gate," I said.
"We don't know if Denn Jerue had all his facts straight," the Sean bot said. "There might not even be an elegentive gate."
"Oh, there is," Hanna Tanga said brightly.
"What?!"
"We passed through it already."
"Where?"
"EXIT TO LOBBY," she said. "Remember?"
I stumbled back. "How could that be an elegentive gate? We walked right through it."
"Yes, but there's only three of us," Hanna Tanga said. "And you, sir, are the only organic."
"I don't understand."
"It could be that the gate's triggering limit is more than three entities," the Sean bot said.
"Is that true?" I asked Hanna Tanga.
"It is true."
"What's the triggering limit?"
"Nine organics. Three non-organics."
I shook my head. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to this place.
"Shall we?" Hanna Tanga beckoned for us to enter the lift car.
The Sean bot pushed past me. I sighed and followed him in. Hanna Tanga entered the car and placed her metal palm against a control pad on the lift's wall. "Almost there."
As the doors slowly closed, I glimpsed the lift directly opposite. Its doors were opening as ours were closing and I saw a man in the opposite car.
He looked exactly like me.
Then the doors closed.
33
"Stop the lift!" I yelled, slamming my hands against the door. But it was too late. We were moving.
"What is it, Jannigan?" the Sean bot asked.
"I can't stop it, sir," Hanna Tanga said.
"I saw someone in the other lift."
"Unlikely," Hanna Tanga said.
"I know what I saw. A man. In a red exosuit. Holding his helmet. He looked like me."
"You were probably looking into a mirror," the Sean bot said.
"Am I wearing red? Have I taken my helmet off? And do you see any mirrors in this lift?"
"Indeed, sir," Hanna Tanga said. "There are no mirrors in this lift."
"Can we just please stop the car?"
"As I explained, I cannot stop the car. We are on an express lift. To the top."
The Sean bot elbowed me. "To the top. See, JJ?"
All sorts of crazy thoughts raced through my head, including the idea that maybe whoever was running this factory had made a clone bot of me. The thought chilled me.
The lift ride seemed to take forever. Hanna Tanga began humming to herself, some tune I didn't recognize.
I looked over to the lift's control pad, and that's when I spotted a logo. A stylized L-A. It was small and subtle, and I didn't recognize it.
Finally, the lift slowed, and the doors opened.
"Area A," Hanna Tanga announced.
I don't know what I had expected to see, but it wasn't this.
We stepped out onto a metal balcony overlooking a vast space illuminated by long, bright vector lights. Long bays extended out into the distance, each filled with machines: modern, or even futuristic-looking machines, painted a bright yellow color. All unmoving.
