Chapter 12: Foundry
Jimmy, for the
longest time, thought that being a boyfriend to a girl (or a boy,
though, he was fairly sure he didn't swing that way) would involve
equal amounts of good times and bad. Times spent cuddling and kissing
and talking and playing video games, and times spent arguing over who
cleaned the kitchen and who made the most money, and all the other
examples he had seen in fiction. But then, he actually got a
girlfriend, and all the bad times had involved scary people with guns
trying to kill them.
On the whole, he was
grateful for that.
Then
he woke up with Pix splayed across his chest and body like a uneven
comforter – one with some soft pillowy bits, but also weird,
suprising bony bits that he hadn't expected – and realized that he
had just run into one of the bad times. Specifically, the: Do
I dare move and wake my girlfriend while she is laying ontop of me,
or do I remain perfectly still and just let my arm hurt more and more
as it is slowly blood starved into gangrene and death?
After a minute of
agonized thinking, Jimmy decided that he would move...if his fingers
started to turn green and smell like death.
Until then? He
waited and tried to convince himself he was comfortable.
It almost worked,
too!
After what felt like
a few billion years – enough for Harbinger to complete its slow
route through the galaxy, digest several planets, and then return
back to where it had found the bedraggled remains of the human race
and their children – Pix opened her eyes and nuzzled her nose
against Jimmy's chest, before looking up.
"Hi," she
said.
"Hi,"
Jimmy said, reaching up to brush through her hair with his hand.
"Are you
comfy?"
"Um, I-"
"Good."
She snuggled against his chest once more, pressing even tighter
against him. After a moment, she spoke – her voice only slightly
muffled by his shirt. "Wanna do it again?"
Jimmy started to
splutter – he wasn't honestly sure if he was about to say yes, no,
or yes yes yes yes. Pix interrupted him by pushing herself up –
freeing his arm – and kissing him. Jimmy's eyes widened.
And not just because
his arm was suddenly burning with a rush of blood and circulation.
It was also because
they hadn't used any mouth wash since last night.
"You, bleck,
you were right the first time," Pix said, waving her hand under
her nose. "Morning breath."
"How could I be
right? You didn't let me say anything
before you kissed me!" Jimmy said, rummaging around in
his pack for the wash. He pulled out the small dispenser, sprayed the
smart liquid into his mouth, and shivered as he felt the faint tingle
around his gums and teeth as the wash got to work.
"I can read
your mind,” Pix said, shrugging slightly. Jimmy spat out a hardened
pill of collected plaque.
“You cannot!”
Jimmy said as Pix swished her mouth, then spat out her plaque as
well.
“Can too!” She
grinned, then started to tick things off. “You think my butt is
sexy, you spent five minutes agonizing over whether to move your arm
and wake me up or suffer – and you chose to suffer, very nice of
you – and you are not looking forward to another round of walking
through endless corridors!”
Jimmy frowned.
“Okay, fine,”
Pix said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were thinking my
boobs are sexy. You never were a butt guy...”
###
The two of them eyed
the doorway that led out of their campsite
"Who wants to
bet the Xorquin is on the other side of this door?" Pix felt
around her pockets for her gun. "He has been ambushing us ever
since we started...except for that one time where we could
have ambushed him, but, I mean..." She trailed off,
looking cross.
Jimmy, seeing a
chance to change the subject ahead of time before an argument,
grabbed it and said: "I'll see you that bet."
"What should we
bet?" Pix looked at him.
Jimmy rubbed his
chin. “Not sure...”
“Oh!” She
jumped up slightly, her antennas sparking. “I know! Favors.”
"Okay,"
Jimmy said. A moment later, he looked at her side long, his eyes
narrowed. "What favors? It's not like I have a lawn you can mow
or any thing."
Pix just grinned.
"Um, when you
make that face, it's normally before you-"
Pix leaned over and
whispered in his ear.
"Oooh...then...I
really hope I win this bet," Jimmy whispered. She giggled.
"So do I!
Mostly cause I hate getting shot at. Well, that and also cause I
love-"
Jimmy opened the
door before she could finish that sentence. The moment between the
door starting to open and the door actually being open
had an eternity of tension. Despite their joking, Pix's face was set
and ready for action, her hands clasping her pistol. Then the door
finished open and revealed another stretch of Harbinger's corridors.
Pix holstered her weapon, shaking her head.
"Yeah. That's
what I love. The lack of light, bullets, walking long distances, the
lack of ice cream, the lack of beds, and the fact we haven't had sex
for an hour.”
Jimmy laughed.
“Well, hey, I won the bet, at least.” He started forward into the
corridor, Pix following him once she had checked to make sure her gun
was safe in its holster. They walked down the corridor, Jimmy's
finger brushing along the wall, his other hand in his pocket, resting
right on the handle of his gun. There was a long time of simple
silence between them – and Jimmy felt rather proud of that. Some of
their conversations felt more like they were to ward off the massive
size of Harbinger. Far from
other humans and E.L.F.s and even other aliens, the sheer scale of
the galaxy's largest starship started to feel like a heavy weight
crushing on his shoulders.
The next door they
came to was rusted shut. Pix and Jimmy looked at one another.
Silently, Pix held up a fist. Jimmy held up a fist as well. They
shook. Pix threw her hand flat, but Jimmy kept his hand clenched in a
fist.
“Tire skids on
oil,” she said, grinning.
Jimmy swore. “Knew
I should have done pipe...”
“Get to work,
slave boy,” Pix said, leaning on the wall, assuming a stance that
was too casually relaxing to
be actually relaxing.
Jimmy
snorted and then got out the laser cutter. The searing brightness of
the laser's contact point was actually filtered down by the night
vision's computers – which, he noted, might make them useful later
in non-pitch black areas of the ship, to help with bright lights as
much as with dim lights. As he carefully cut through the rust that
had clouded around the doorway – and tried to figure out why this
door had rusted, while most of
Harbinger's construction was immune to the ravages of time – he
heard Edna's voice speaking through the coms.
“Hey, kids,” she
said. “You're near the Slor's terretory.”
Pix shuddered
overdramatically. "Ugh. Slor."
"Hey, hey,
don't be racist,” Jimmy said, not taking his eyes from the cutter.
"I'm not
racist. I've just seen them talk." Pix paused. “Okay, you
can't see, but I'm making HUGE finger quotes.”
Jimmy grunted as the
laser cutter worked its way through the part of the door he had been
aiming it at. He tested the door and it shifted ever so slightly –
if he had to characterize the door, he'd say it was grumpy that he
was making it do anything it didn't want to do and was fighting him
tooth and nail. He gritted his teeth. "It's like...tolerance,
Pix, you gotta have it!"
Pix scowled. "We
don't have tolerance for people who spray mucus over us at home. Why
is it suddenly okay for aliens to do it?"
"Cause when a
human does that, they're sick. When a Sor does it..." Jimmy
braced one foot against the door, then pushed his back against the
wall. He started to push with his leg, gritting his teeth.
"They're...rrrrgh!" He shoved again. "Talking!"
"Yeah, but..."
Pix said, sounding plaintive. "It's gross!"
Jimmy frowned. “You
know. You're an engineered life form. Aren't your muscles twice as
efficient as human ones? Couldn't you HELP me with this?”
“Actually, after
the Eugenic's Wars-”
“Just
get over here!” Jimmy snarled. Pix rolled her eyes and hurried
forward to the door. She put her shoulder to the door beside Jimmy's
hands and together, they shoved hard. The door shifted and swung
outward to reveal a long corridor, curving slightly to the side. But
what was more important was...it was illuminated.
Sure, the illumination was Slor-style, but their luminators were
splattered all over the wall.
Jimmy laughed.
And then the Xorquin
leaned around the corner and fired a burst from his rifle. Bullets
bounced off the metal of the door and floor. Jimmy dove to the side,
slamming Pix against the wall. She oofed, her antennas clacking
against the wall. Then Pix saved Jimmy by pushing against the wall
and shoving them behind the door frame just as another burst ripped
out. This time, the bullets stitched along the ground where they had
both laid.
Jimmy scrambled to
get his legs behind cover and drew his pistol.
Pix did the same.
"How'd he find
us?" Pix whispered. Well. She whispered the only way one could
during a gun battle – which was by shouting slightly lower than the
top of her lungs.
"No clue."
Jimmy fired his gun at the open part of the door, not aiming at
anything or even sticking his gun around the corner. He just wanted
to rattle the Xorquin before he actually fired the gun around the
corner. Pix did the same, kneeling down so she could shoot the ground
too. They kept shooting for a few seconds before Jimmy's gun clicked.
He hit the eject button and the empty container for the caseless ammo
brick slotted down.
Pix fired two more
shots, then her gun clicked. She reached into her pocket, but when
she pulled out her caseless brick, it fell from her fingers and hit
the ground with a thud. Jimmy snapped his gun back to ready,
peeking out around the corner, his forehead itching like it was on
fire. But nothing blew his brains out from the back of his head. The
Xorquin was staying put. Or getting ready to do something evil.
"Jimmy? What is
going on over there, I'm not getting any video,” Edna said.
"Xorquin has us
pinned down, might be trying to jam us, figure us a way outta here!"
Jimmy shouted. Something moved down at that corner – a tiny
subliminal thing, a shift of shadows, the faint edge of scales
peeking around the corner. Jimmy jerked back behind cover. That
turned out to be the right decision: Another shower of bullets came
down the corridor at them. Pix yelped, standing up with the ammo
brick in her hand.
"I felt it
ruffle my hair," she whispered, eyes wide. Jimmy grunted, then
had a brainwave.
"PULL!"
Pix got it in an
instant. She grabbed the door's wheel beside Jimmy and started to
pull as hard as she could. Jimmy's arms strained and his legs
strained and he gritted his teeth, hard, and together, they pulled.
The door creaked shut.
"Laser cutter!
Laser cutter!" Jimmy hissed, grabbing it from his pocket. He put
it to the joints of the door. Pix looked at him like he was crazy.
Maybe he was!
"What are you
doing?" Pix and Edna asked at the same time. Jimmy could have
sworn he heard Edna whisper 'jinx'.
"Trying
something," he whispered. Clunk. A dull sound reverberated
through the door's solid structure and it jerked outwards before Pix
hauled back, her arms trembling as she shut it once more. Jimmy could
hear claws scrabbling on the door, then heard silence. The Xorquin
was getting a better grip on the door, to try and pull it open. The
cutter finishing sheering through the joints. Jimmy put a foot up on
the door and shoved.
Slowly, it inched
forward. Then, gaining momentum with every degree that it tilted, the
door slammed down onto a living, fleshy shape with a sound between a
clang and a splat.
Silence.
"Jimmy...did..."
Pix whispered. A single, green clawed arm stuck out from under the
door, a thin spread of pink blood spreading out from the metal. The
blood pooled around scaled knuckles. Pix put her hand over her mouth.
"Oh shit,"
Jimmy whispered.
"Nice job,”
Edna said. “Got video again.”
"Edna, I
just...killed him."
"Good. I'd
suggest heading out. Now."
"I killed him."
Jimmy whispered again. Pix's hand was still over her mouth, her eyes
wide. The Xorquin's fingers twitched...then clenched into a fist. Pix
yelped as the Xorquin's arm jerked up and grabbing the door's side,
finger claws scrabbling against the metal, leaving thin little
furrows.
"Run! Run!"
Jimmy shouted, grabbing Pix and then jumping forward, running over
the door. It clanked and clunked, with an unpleasant squishiness
underneath.
They ran around the
corner. Pix jerked Jimmy to a stop, almost dislocating his shoulder.
"What are you doing!?" he asked, rubbing at his shoulder.
"He's still
alive!" She looked around the corner. "That door was
weighed a ton! He should be dead!"
"Xorquin are
tough, though. They evolved as apex
predators, and not just really excitable monkeys. If he gets
out from under that door, he might still have his gun. He might be
able to riddle us all up with bullets, even if we've broken half the
bones in his body. We? We need to run!" Jimmy said. "Babe,
we gotta go!"
Pix nodded,
distractedly, and they hustled off.
“Also, never call
me babe again,” she said, panting slightly.
“Yeah, that just
sounded weird, snugglebutt.”
Pix
nodded as they ran down the corridor. “That's better!”
Jimmy laughed...but
as he laughed, he kept running and kept trying to estimate weights
and forces and Xorquin tolerances to blunt impact. In the end, he had
no answers, just a lot of questions. They ran till they couldn't run
anymore. Even Pix was sweating fops. Jimmy gulped, gasping, his hands
on his knees.
“Okay,” Pix
said, panting. “I think we can stop running.”
Jimmy laughed around
his gasping. "Cool. Think we can stop worrying about the
Xorquin?"
"Maybe. If he
can catch up with us with that many broken bones and internal
injuries, then I don't think keeping on running will save us..."
Pix leaned back against the wall. Then she paused, putting her hands
on her comlink and lifting it up off her head. "Jimmy, we've got
light."
“Now you notice!?”
Jimmy asked, laughing.
###
After they caught
their breath, Jimmy and Pix took a moment to check out their first up
close look at a proper Slor lamp. Or at least, they hoped it was a
lamp. It looked kind of like a slug that had been hardened to the
wall with a epoxy. The slug had three light sources within its back,
which were covered with a thin white membrane that softened the harsh
white light. There was another slug a couple of feet down the
corridor, stuck on the ceiling emitting a greenish color.
"Huh," Pix
muttered. "I wonder how they keep them glowing? They need food,
right?"
"I'd think so,"
Jimmy said.
"Does someone
come around and feed them?" Pix asked, turning away from the
slug.
"We've got
battery men, don't we? The Slor probably have feeders or something."
Jimmy shrugged.
"Hurm...” Pix
shrugged. “Well, let's go then.”
Jimmy grinned,
tapping his comlink. “Edna, got directions?”
Silence.
"Edna, come
in."
"Edna?"
Pix asked, tapping her comlink as well.
They both looked at
the ceiling. "Nothing on your end?" Jimmy asked.
"Not a thing,"
Pix said. "What oh what are we going to do while we wait for
directions?"
"We could sit.
Talk. Gaze longingly into each other's eyes, in a completely chaste
and...uh..." Jimmy blinked as Pix grinned, put her finger on his
lip, then got on her knees.
###
Edna came back
online as Pix wiped her mouth on her sleeve.
"Sorry, the
connection is getting spottier-" Edna's next sentence was
obscured by a sudden upswing of static. "-I say again, closer to
the Foundry?"
"Uh, Edna, we
think the Xorquin might still be alive, but we are not sure."
"Say again?"
Edna sounded like she was shouting, but her voice was mostly consumed
by the crackling, hissing static.
"I said, the
Xorquin might still be alive!" Jimmy shouted.
"Say again?”
Edna's voice sounded more distant.
"The Xorquin
MIGHT still be ALIVE!" Jimmy blushed – he realized he was
practically bawling into the com.
"Ooooh! How did
you-" Static. When Edna's voice returned, Jimmy was almost
convinced that she had just said: "-whistled for a babboon?"
"Just give us
directions." Jimmy sighed.
After shouting at
one another through the increasingly hazy connection, Jimmy got the
directions. Pix, who had been listening in, chimed in. "Okay, we
go left, then right, then left, then left, then right again."
"L, R, L, L-"
Jimmy started to bob his head in the indicated directions, trying to
keep them straight. He grinned. “Wait, if I know a damn thing about
my geography, that'll take us around Slor territory!”
"I know!” Pix
laughed. “Let's make a song out of it, for celebration's sake! L,
R, L, L, and an R! It's a hippity hoppity, bippity boppity-"
"You're just
making up words now."
"And you frungy
know it!"
###
Jimmy had heard
stories about the Foundry's and its light. But he had never thought
he'd come to the Foundry. He
had also known it was near Slor territory, but he also had had no
idea that Edna's directions would take them to it. If he had known,
well, he wouldn't nearly have been so happy to avoid the slugs.
Then again...it
meant he got to see one of the wonders of Harbinger...
The Foundry's light
bled the color from everything it touched, drenching it in such thick
whiteness that everything under it was turned into a watery wash. It
was a pure, stark, brilliant whiteness that washed away everything,
leaving more and more brilliance. There was no place for color or
detail or even shapes under that blazing light.
And the door that lead to the Foundry...only seemed to make the
brightness more intense by contrast: It was an utterly normal human
style door, with a square plate of treated glass that let filtered
light spill into the corridor that looped around the Foundry.
"Wow,"
Jimmy put his hand under the light. It looked almost white, with a
tiny core of his normal color, watered down to a coffee stain. "That
is very bright and white..."
"I like you
normal." Pix dragged his hand out of the white. "Like
chocolate!"
Jimmy bit his lip.
"I was always more of a vanilla man."
Pix arched an
eyebrow. "And bubblegum?"
"Vanilla and
bubblegum," Jimmy said, hurriedly. “AND bubblegum!”
“Good, you get to
live,” Pix said, winking at him.
"Okay,"
Edna's voice crackled over the comlink. "If you two are done
being horny..."
Jimmy opened his
mouth to complain about being characterized as 'horny', but before he
could say anything, Edna interrupted him by continuing her sentence.
"This door
leads to one of the most inhospitable area of Harbinger, other than
the Planet Maw and the engines. Raw material cut out of planets is
dumped down here from the Planet Maw. It goes through that big old
beam of blinding light at the top of the Foundry."
Jimmy and Pix bent
over, peeking through the window. They looked away, blinking. "Ow.
Ow. Ow. OW!" Pix rubbed at her eyes. "Let's not look at
that."
"What is it?"
Jimmy whispered.
"If we knew,
we'd build some of them ourselves." Edna sighed. "Raw
material falls into it and completed things come out the other end.
Robots, machine parts, and other things that Harbinger needs....”
Jimmy nodded.
“Yeah,” he said. “I remember, my Dad told me about it! He
called it the Converter Beam. My question is, why build a room so
big, and then put the Converter Beam at the top of it?”
“Well,”
Edna said. “The video footage I've seen shows the items falling
from the beam, getting about five meters from the ground,
then...vanishing. Some of the material shows up where we need it –
to fix broken doors. But most of it just vanishes.
No one is sure where they go."
"Uhuh. And why
don't we know for sure?" Pix asked. "The
Tette<click><click> have been on Harbinger for two
thousand years and other races have been here almost as long! Why
hasn't anyone figured it out?"
"You two didn't
pay any attention to Studies of Harbinger class, didn't you?"
"That's a
college course! We're just out of high school!"
There was a pause.
"Really? Damn. Well, uh, okay, let me try to dumb this down for
you two. Firstly, you-" Pause. "Um, wait just a moment."
Pix sighed. "Can
we tell her we don't care once she comes back?"
"I dunno, I
thought it was kinda interesting." Jimmy leaned against the
door, looking at the white light spilling onto the ground. “My
question is, where we do go from here? ...we're not going across
the Foundry, are we?”
“Oh, no!” Pix
said. “I'm betting we're going to go from here to one of the Slor
black market trade towns that are nestled near the Foundry!”
“How in the hell
would you know about black market Slor towns?” Jimmy asked.
Pix
beamed. “By deduction, my dear Leonite. The Foundry? Too dangerous.
Slor territory? Too settled for two human children to get across it
without being detained. And the Slor aren't exactly
friendly to humans, partially
thanks to your Dad getting involved in peace talks. That leaves the
Slor that Edna would have a pull with – criminals. Thus, there must
be Slor criminal towns nearby!”
Jimmy blinked, then
nodded. “That...that makes sense. Good job, Pix.”
“Okay, now I'm
offended that you sound so shocked!”
Before Jimmy could
respond, their com-links clicked on.
"Okay, uh, bad
news guys." Ed sounded kinda grim. "My contacts in the
local Slor black market burbs have gone to ground or are dead – and
I'm talking recently dead...”
As she said that, Pix mouthed 'told you' to Jimmy. “Now, we
could try the Dark, but the rumors are that the Dark near Slor
territory has some monster in it...”
Jimmy nodded, then
glanced at the window to the Foundry. He blinked. “Uh...wait just a
second, Edna...”
“What?”
“Something's
coming,” he said, while Pix stuck her head over by the window as
well.
“Down the
corridor?” Edna asked.
“No,” Jimmy
said. “From the Foundry!”
It was a person, or
at least a humanoid. Their clothes were reflective, so it hurt to
look at them for too long, but Jimmy got the impression of a suited
individual, lugging one of those backpacks with wheels behind them.
The figure got closer and closer, till it arrived at the door. Jimmy
and Pix stepped back in a hurry as the door opened. There was a
moment of searing, painful light that burnt skin and crisped
eyes...and then the door closed again, the silvery figure standing
inside the hallway.
The figure wore a
helmet that had long sides that drooped about over his shoulders.
There was a black faceplate, which reflected Jimmy and Pix's shocked
expressions. Large, clumsy gloves, reached up and grabbed at the
helmet, then pulled it up and off, revealing the last thing that
Jimmy or Pix had been expecting.
A human being.
He was pale, with a
lantern jaw, and dull brown hair sheered almost bald. His nose bent
violently about halfway down, while his eyes were an odd mix of
gentleness and a glinting fierceness that made Jimmy feel a little
uneasy. The human looked intently at Jimmy, then intently at Pix, and
that fierceness didn't waver one jot.
"Oh, hi,"
he said. "Didn't expect to meet anyone on this side."
"Uh...neither
did I, actually,” Jimmy said. “James. James Leonite. Pleasure to
meet you.” He held his hand out, not sure if he'd regret this or
not.
"Collins.
Collins M. Korban." The man blinked a few times, then took the
offered hand. "Are you two kids aware that this is a dangerous
place?"
"Uh, yeah, we
just came from the Armory?"
"Really?"
Korban clapped his gloved hands. "Well, I have to keep going-"
"Wait, uh, what
were you doing in there?"
"Me? I was
doing research." Korban tapped his nose with a gloved finger.
"Keep it mum, children, it's technically illegal."
"He's right,"
Edna came back online. "There are treaties that prevent all but
a joint operation to study the place, but anyone who tries finds out
the hard way how the Humans and the Xorquin, the Yetel and the Slor
and so on all can't get themselves to work together. Hell, we have a
hard time getting humans to work with humans."
Jimmy winced. "Yeah,
that does sound bad."
"What sounds
bad?" Korban asked, turning back from his backpack which he had
opened. Inside, Jimmy saw some complex machines and small computers
and other science stuff.
"Oh, right."
Jimmy tapped his comlink. "Comlink."
"Ah! You know,
when I was a youngster, everyone just wanted esophagus implants."
"Ew." Pix
furrowed her brow.
"Ew is right.
Fifteen people strangled themselves to death before they decided to
remove them from the market." He shook his head. "Insane.
Still, don't let an old man ramble!"
He turned back to
his backpack. He had worked his way past the science stuff to some
data crystals. Jimmy and Pix glanced at one another. Neither of them
said anything.
"Aaah, I
noticed," Korbin said into the silence, grunting as he tried to
lug his main computer out of the backpack. "That your young lady
friend is an Engineered Life Form. Does she have data processing
capabilities?"
"Well, uh,"
Pix said. "I can speak for myself.'
"What?"
Korban blinked. "Oh! Sorry, E.L.F."
"I have a name
too,” Pix said, sliding her hand around Jimmy's hand – almost
calculatingly. She narrowed her eyes, watching Korban as she squeezed
Jimmy's hand.
Korban blinked,
opened his mouth, closed it, then brushed his hands through his hair
as he looked at the two of them. A slow flush started to rise up his
cheeks. "Well, um, what is your name young...lady?"
"Pixel,"
she said, sticking her chin out. By now, Jimmy was starting to feel
like he was standing near something very awkward.
But he had no idea what it was.
"Right!"
Korban nodded. "Now, Pixel, do you have the capabilities to
process data?"
"I've got a
class four data processor." Pix preened and Jimmy kissed her
cheek. Korban gaped. He hastily closed his mouth and nodded, handing
her a data crystal. Pix looked at it, then at him, arching an
eyebrow. “Okay, I have to know...” She said, shifting slightly so
that Jimmy hid her data-port. Jimmy didn't look down, but he knew
that Pix was taking out the Xorquin crystal. “What was your plan,
if you didn't meet an E.L.F
outside of the door?”
Korban
blinked, coughed, and said: “Well, my original plan was to walk to
one of the nearby towns, and rent computer time...”
Pix
shrugged. “Well, how about you give me half of those credits?
Since, you know, I am saving you the trouble.”
Jimmy
did look at her this time, his eyes wide. Pix winked at him, grinning
slightly.
“I...suppose...”
Korban sounded faintly disgusted. He tossed a credit chit at them,
and Pix caught it, then took the data crystal from his hands.
"This data
should take me about an hour." Pix smiled.
"That is fine,
thank you." Korban said, though it sounded far less than fine to
him.
"Are you sure
you should be wasting your time with this?" Edna whispered.
"Well, my feet
hurt, we need a break, and it's lunch time." Jimmy shrugged.
"Also this guy might know how to get across quicker than your
'walk in a big circle' method."
Edna sighed. "Fine.
Whatever."
Jimmy tapped his
comlink and looked at Korban. Korban was looking at a small device
that looked like a metal tennis ball with a radar dish attached. "Um,
young..."
"Jimmy."
"James!"
Kroban stood up. "Would you care to help me set this up?"
"Don't see why
not." Jimmy shrugged. "Could you tell me more about your
work?"
"Sure!"
Korban stood up. Jimmy glanced at Pix, then leaned in and kissed her.
She started and opened her eyes.
"Hey," She
grinned. "You made me miss a byte."
"It's just a
byte," he whispered. "Keep one eye open, we don't know if
we're safe or not."
"Don't worry
about it. I've got the eyes of a dagget and the ears of a fennec!"
Jimmy grinned,
kissed her a few more times, then headed back to Korban.
"So I see you
are, ah," Korban groped for words as he carried the tennis
ball/radar dish dohicky- he and Jimmy were making a good pace, even
if every footstep made Jimmy's feet ache more. "...involved
with that E.L.F."
Jimmy looked at him
funny. "Um, yeah, I'm in love with Pix."
Korban harrumphed.
"You do know she is just a cyborg right? It's not like she is
really real."
And suddenly, the
pieces all fell, click click cluuunk, right into place. Then Jimmy's
brain went through several stages. First, denial. No, no way. Korban
was so polite and cultured! Second, shock. Before now, the only
person who'd ever said something like that had
been the gutter-trash that surrounded Pix's foster home. The people
who were poor and needed someone to rail at. Not
this...this...cultured, polite, odd scientist out in the middle of
nowhere.
And
then, the third and final stage: I will not punch this man
in the face. I will not punch the man in the face.
Jimmy, instead, just
focused on getting his job done with as fast as he could, so that he
and Pix could leave.
They came to another
door into the foundry and there, Korban started to multitask
amazingly well: First, he started setting up his device. And
secondly, he made Jimmy's job much much harder. "I know she may
look pretty, my boy, but she is still a construct. I know popular
opinion is against people like me, but we're more common than the
liberalized media will have you believe."
Jimmy clenched his
jaw.
"And I know you
are angry now, while she has you whiled with her fake charms, but
when you know her for longer, she'll be a lot less real..."
Jimmy crossed his
arms over his chest. Out of sheerest desperation to change the
subject before he belted the guy, he asked: "Sir, can I ask you
some questions about the Foundry."
Korban turned
around, finished fiddling with his widget. "You may."
"Can we get
across it with suits like you were wearing?"
"Presumably,
but I only have one spare."
Jimmy gritted his
teeth. "What if we paid you?"
"Those suits
are hand made. I wouldn't trade them for the world, that would end my
experiments!"
Jimmy closed his
eyes. "What if we used the suits to get from this side to the
other, then hid them on that side and let you take the long way
around. Then, when you finished coming around, you can pick the suits
up!"
Anything to get
out of this place faster, and get away from this jackass...
Korban pursed his
lips. “Interesting. Would you mind carrying some supplies with you?
If you set up three more transponders and cameras, I could then
process the data while I walk, and...hmm, yes! This could be most
adventitious to both of us. It could give me more data, and you the
short cut you so desire."
Jimmy nodded. “Okay.
Okay. Sounds good.”
“And, well, your
cyborg would be useful in setting up those transponders,” Korban
said as he stood up.
Jimmy smiled,
coldly, his desire to be better than Korban suddenly vanishing in a
puff of smoke. "Korban, if you call her a cyborg again, I'm
going to break your kneecaps."
He stalked off,
leaving Korban to stare after him.
Yes, saying that
might not have been the wisest thing to say. But it had felt good.
###
Jimmy tugged on his
right glove with his left hand, working the fingers into the
surprisingly small holes. The fingers looked so big, but most of that
was insulation or whatever kept the killing light of the Foundry off
your skin. As he dressed, he ranted.
"A thousand
years ago, they'd be bugging out cause my skin is dark and yours is
white!"
Pix paused in
getting her gloves on and licked his cheek.
Jimmy scowled
playfully at her. "Pix, please! I'm trying to stay angry here!
You licking me isn't-"
She licked him
again.
"Stop that!"
She giggled. "Oh,
come on. Don't let haters fill you with hate. If you hate someone,
they'll hate you right back. You gotta hug to get them to change
their minds."
Jimmy blinked,
pausing in struggling into the left glove. "That's actually kind
of profound, despite the whole insufferable cuteness factor. Also,
wait, didn't you want me to ambush and shoot the Xorquin in the head?
Just, like, two days ago?"
Pix smiled.
"Profound and cute and hypocritical! What more could you want?"
"Again, you ask
these questions, and answers I can't seem to find." Jimmy sighed
and then leaned in to kiss her quickly before plomping his helmet on.
Everything became tight and hot and instantly, his face started to
sweat and itch.
Pix turned to him,
her face turned into blank blackness by her helmet. "Besides,"
she said, her voice muffled. "There's a difference between
trying to kill someone who has a different opinion from you, and
killing someone who is trying to kill you and wipe out the human
race. Edna, can you hear me?”
"Sure can! And
Jimmy..." Edna's voice sounded only slightly muffled.
"Yeah?"
Jimmy asked.
"You should
have broken that asshole's knees."
###
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