Chapter 13

“Evacuation order. All inhabitants and guests must evacuate the station. Repeat. Evacuation order. All inhabitants and guests must evacuate the station.”

A klaxon blared over the emergency broadcast and the station shuddered as if two great hands had begun shaking it. Zenith fell to her knees beside BOB’s broken body and stared up at the massive crackling blade. Emotions roiled inside her, each fighting for dominance. Rage and grief for the mutilation of her friend, betrayal and disbelief for the sword poised above her head, and under them all, confusion over how the hell this was happening.

The unreadable menace of the mech kept her brother’s face from betraying his thoughts. Was he hoping to frighten her off so that he and Vaelor could continue whatever twisted shit they were doing? Was he actually planning to kill her? The mech sagged as Harlow lowered the blade. He turned without a word and flew to join Vaelor aboard the departing Tartan.

The crew swarmed to BOB as the ship took off through the particle barrier and into space.

“BOB!” Buddy cried. “I’m so sorry, it happened so fast. I tried to get to you sooner.

“Jim!” Zenith shouted. “Can you help him?”

The crew receded from BOB as the doctor approached. He loomed above his fellow AI, studying the damage intently. His impassive expression made Zenith’s stomach twist. There was no indication whether he was about to start repairing BOB or pronounce their death.

“The motherboard has been cracked,” he said at last. “Significant damage to other structures, but the motherboard must be repaired immediately. We need to get BOB to the medical bay aboard the Sunrunner.”

Buddy lowered her mechanical arms to scoop up her injured friend but was stopped by a hand.

“The ambulation of the mech may cause further damage,” Jim said. “I recommend dragging them on a makeshift stretcher.”

Adam vanished into the storage ring and came back a moment later holding a skid and some rope. He slapped them down next to BOB and looked at Buddy, the only one strong enough to lift the bot.

“Just be gentle,” he said, noticing her appreciation

“I got it,” Odybrix said.

“You do?” Kron asked, looking down at the halfling who didn’t even reach his hip.

“Yeah, big guy. I do.”

A faint aura bloomed across her skin and BOB gracefully levitated off of the floor. While the others watched their fallen companion, Zenith noticed the halfling wince. The soft pink glow dimmed momentarily, then came back stronger as she gritted her teeth. BOB landed on the skid without a sound and Odybrix turned to wipe away a trickle of blood that had fallen from her nose.

“You gotta lay off the psonics, Ody,” Zenith said.

“Not many options available to us right now, ZT. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine.”

“Evacuation order,” the announcement blared. “All inhabitants and guests must evacuate the station. Repeat. Evacuation order. All inhabitants and guests must evacuate the station.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Odybrix asked. “The place should be on lockdown to stop the mutants from getting loose.”

The station shook, and Adam ran to tie BOB’s skid to Buddy’s mech. “All the more reason to get to the Sunrunner. Move smoothly, take your time correcting course.”

“What does that mean?” Buddy asked, concerned.

“Go slower when you’re changing directions.”

“I think this is where we part ways, y’all,” Ebby said. “I’m docked three levels down. I hope to goodness your friend’s alright. I got the two sets of coordinates from Elysium. Gonna take a guess that Vaelor’s flight plan was one of them?”

“Gemheart,” Hoxley answered.

“Then I’ll meet you there. Don’t die,” Ebby said, then spun and began running.

“Nice to meet you!” Buddy called after her.

“I’m in the same boat,” Kron said. “Well, different boat, same situation. If that guy’s headed for Gemheart, I’ll be there. Thanks for saving me from that plasma cannon.”

“Likewise for the lightning,” Adam replied. “It’s like you saw it coming.”

“I did. He did the same thing on Grolvar ... and worse. Here’s my channel,” Kron said, tapping a sequence on his wrist PDA. “Drop me a line when you make it to Gemheart.” Look after yourself.”

The burly orc extended a hand and Adam gave it a firm shake.

“You want to talk to us about Vaelor now?” Odybrix pointedly asked Hoxley.

The crew formed a protective circle around BOB and Buddy as they fought through alternating swells of fleeing station goers and mutants. The latter appeared in diminishing numbers but still required attention—i.e. the occasional rifle round through the head. Zenith didn’t give her other crewmates a chance to take the shots. She scanned the writhing crowd meticulously, throwing herself at the task so that she didn’t have to think about what was going to happen to BOB, or what had happened to her brother.

“I told you he’s not my brother!”

“I’m beginning to think ‘brother’ was being used less as indication of relationship, and more as a cult greeting.”

“I’m not in a cult either!”

“Club then. A club of people who shoot lightning from their fingers.”

“Finger buddies,” Buddy offered.

“Look, I didn’t know who that guy was until recently. I don’t know what his goals are or what he’s capable of. I can tell you my goals though: get off this station, get BOB some help, and go to bed.”

The floor jolted under their feet and knocked the crew over as an explosion tore through a section of wall above them. Atmosphere bled from the interior as the vacuum of space sucked out the innards of the stations. Zenith grabbed one of the personnel holds on Buddy’s GEM, catching Odybrix as she went airborne. A field of light filled the house-sized hole in the station a moment later, and the crew fell back to the floor.

“Everyone alright?” Zenith shouted. “How’s BOB?”

“His bulk kept him anchored,” Jim said, standing up.

“Levisia is under attack,” Adam said. “We need to keep moving.”

Shattered glass and debris littered the path outside the storefronts near their dock. The number of people—normal and mutant alike—had fallen as they approached the Sunrunner, buying them precious time to disembark. That trickle of luck ran dry at the last leg of their escape. Ahead of them, just past an intersection, a section of ceiling had collapsed.

“Hell. Buddy, I know you’re hurt, but can you clear the way? We can’t get BOB through that.” Adam said.

“Yep! I don’t feel a thing right now.” Buddy said.

“‘Hell?’” Odybrix asked. “You must be flustered if you’re breaking out the swears. What would your mother say?”

“Ms. Hargr- mom, isn’t here right now. Speaking of flustered, you’re looking a little pale.”

Buddy unlatched herself from BOB’s makeshift stretcher and set to moving the clutter from their path. She was lying about not feeling anything. There was pain, sure. Dr. Jim’s quick treatment wasn’t going to undo getting mauled by a monster, but there was more. She was afraid. Not of what was going on—though, to her limited recollection, this had been the wildest day of her life—but of herself. The memories that pierced through her lost history were violent and wrathful. The anger that had surged through with those memories made her feel like she wasn’t in control of herself.

The mech’s joints creaked as she hoisted a fallen transport carriage and tossed it out of the way. The last of the obstacles big enough to block their path was a section of wall that had been torn off in an explosion. She lifted the debris and revealed a hunched figure that had been sitting behind it. Buddy was about to ask if they were okay but stopped when they turned to face her.

The woman’s face was a twisted mockery of something that was once human. The left side of her mouth extended into a misshapen ear, baring swollen gums and too-large teeth. The goggles she wore had fused to her skull and her right eye had enlarged to fill the space within. Buddy’s thumb hovered over the trigger of the chain gun in anticipation of the mutant’s attack, but instead, the normal portion of the mutant’s mouth curled into a gleeful smile. Her hands darted deep into a pile of scrap and extracted something, then presented it to Buddy.

The object was decidedly a pistol, but Buddy’s uncanny ability to observe a weapon and miraculously know everything about it was coming up short. The spiral grip connected with the rest of the angular pistol obliquely. Aside from the trigger and what she guessed was a compartment for the power core, the object was one solid piece. The mutant—the woman—proffered the weapon to Buddy, smiling like a child. Buddy carefully plucked the pistol from the woman’s hands and watched as her monstrous benefactor ran to a corner and began furiously tinkering with an assortment of station wreckage.

“Thank you, I think...”

From behind, Odybrix said, “What the fuck are you?”

Thinking Odybrix had seen the woman and was about to shoot her, Buddy began to stammer out a, “Wait, she’s cool,” but was cut short when she saw another mech. The vehicle had somehow snuck between her and the crew at the corridor intersection. Its chassis was a muted metallic gold and more bulky than the one she was piloting. Pronounced shoulders suggested the mech had mini-rocket platforms and the compartments on the back hinted at a better-than-average jet propulsion system.

“Isn’t this a rare treat,” a smooth, haughty voice broadcast from the mech. “Three separate bounties congregating in a hallway. I’d consider this a serendipitous turn if the station wasn’t being blown apart by the Baronnet.”

Three shots rang out and projectiles pinged off the mech. The transparent top of the mech glowed a sickly green and Adam, Zenith, and Sturdy were launched brutally into nearby walls. Their bodies hung suspended from the ground, bound by a psionic glow. Odybrix flared, wresting control of her friends from the bounty hunter and allowing them to drop to the ground and rally. Zenith managed another shot before Odybrix collapsed and the green glow overtook them once more.