Broken Episode One (13 page)

Miss Mimi Chester was turning out to be the greatest
pain in the butt this side of the Rebuilders.

They travelled most of the night without incident.
That was the good thing about having a recording ball that could
transform into a decked out, efficient security orb.

It wasn’t until dawn started to rise above the
endless mountains of sand that they stopped. Suddenly, with no
warning, Klutzo sped off to the side. Mimi wasn’t expecting it, and
by the time she noticed, her speeding slider had already rounded
another dune.

She came to a screeching stop. Setting the brakes to
full, she held onto the rails for dear life. Thankfully the
suspension and shielding didn’t fail, though they did groan in
protest. The very last thing she wanted was to end up headfirst in
a sand dune. By the time she managed to wriggle free, no doubt her
shoes would have been stolen by a scavenger, and her feet eaten by
a wolf.

She managed to pull the slider to a stop before
jumping off. “Klutzo, Klutzo, what are you doing?” She waved at
him, trying to get him to return to her.

He wasn’t paying any attention.

He was hovering a good 20 meters above the ground.
She could barely make him out as the rays of dawn infiltrated the
night.

“Klutzo?” She couldn’t keep the fear from shaking
her voice. For all Klutzo’s eccentricities, when he was in security
mode, he was reliable. He would not dart off without warning unless
there was a problem.

She checked around her, drawing her shoulders in as
she stared at the dark shadowy dunes to her left and right. Dawn
was a slow, languid affair on this planet, and though the first
rays of sunshine were peeking across the horizon, it would be
another half hour before the shadows no longer scared her. There
was something about how the darkness appeared to pool like water
that made her shiver.

Finally she got Klutzo’s attention. He flew towards
her. As he did, he appeared to twist to the side, as if he was
staring at something as he headed her way.

Nerves kicked through her gut, spiraling up her back
and chilling the skin as they went. Swallowing and pressing a thin
breath through her lips, she held her hand out to him. He did not
come to rest in her grip.

“Danger,” he said.

Her nerves turned into fully fledged fear. Mimi
turned around quickly, her eyes widening as she stared at the
sand.

What was out there?

Not for the first time, she started to regret her
decision. Leaving Josh Cook behind had seemed like a good idea at
the time. Now she’d be lucky if that little fact didn’t kill
her.

“There is an object …” Klutzo trailed off. He was a
recording device, and never usually trailed off. Unlike a human, he
didn’t have to search for his words, nor did his emotion ever
overcome him.

Mimi would be a fool not to realize her recording
ball was frightened.

She started to shiver, and she took several careful
steps back towards her slider. “What is it?”

“I do not know.”

“What do you mean? What kind of object is out
there?”

Klutzo took a long time to answer. Again, it
appeared as if all his attention was centered back towards whatever
mysterious object was out there. “It is a black spike, protruding
from the sand, approximately 45 centimeters into the air.”

She shivered. But she also blinked. Black spike? By
the way he was behaving, she’d expected a pack of sand wolves, or
an angry platoon of scavengers, or a horde of barbarians out for a
picnic.

She wasn’t dumb enough to brush off Klutzo’s
comment. He was still the security drone. If he was scared, it
wouldn’t be without reason.

She tried to swallow. Her mouth was so dry she gave
up and coughed instead. “What do you mean?”

“Danger,” he repeated.

She shivered again. Though her instincts told her to
get back on her slider and drive as far away from this spot as she
could get, something held her back.

Curiosity.

Maybe whatever lessons they’d managed to instill in
her at the Academy still remained, or maybe it was courage, or
maybe it was plain stupidity. But Mimi, wiping the sweat off her
brow with her thumb and wrist, took a step towards Klutzo, not
away. “Where is it? What is it?”

“It is over there, approximately 15.5 meters to your
left, right at the base of this sand dune.”

Mimi clutched a hand to her stomach in an effort to
control her nerves. Before she took a step towards the object, she
hesitated. She wasn’t an idiot. She might be curious, but she
needed to find out more about this mysterious spike before she
accidentally tripped over it in the waning dark. “Is it safe to
approach? Are there any other enemies around?”

Klutzo didn’t answer.

“Klutzo?” Her voice wavered with fear.

“There are no other enemies around. There is only
the spike.”

“Well … is it weaponized? Is it irradiated? Is it
okay to approach?”

“I do not detect the presence of explosives or
weapons of any kind. Radiation levels are normal.”

Mimi blinked hard. Then she narrowed her eyes
against the dawn and bit her lip. Slowly, cautiously she started to
walk towards it. When the world didn’t end and the sun didn’t fall
from the sky, she sped up a little, but only a fraction.

Finally she reached it. At first it was hard to
discern the spike in the dim light, but once her eyes spied it, it
garnered her full attention.

Klutzo’s description had been correct: it was a thin
black spike sticking about 45 centimeters out of the sand. What it
was, however, was a mystery.

“Wh
– what is that?”
Mimi stuttered as she came to a wary stop about a meter from its
side.

“I am unable to scan it.”

“What?” She half turned to Klutzo.

He appeared to hesitate a few meters away, as if,
somehow, the electronic orb was scared. Klutzo was a lot of things,
considering the number of times his memory banks had been wiped,
but he never displayed fear. It wasn’t part of his programming.

Still, as she waved him forward and he reluctantly
zoomed up to her, she couldn’t deny how hesitant he appeared.

“Try scanning it again,” she suggested.

“... I still cannot detect the object.”

“Wait,
what? You can’t detect it
–
it’s right in front of us.”

“Of this I am aware. However, my sensors cannot
penetrate the object. In many ways, it’s as if it’s not there.”

“Sorry? You mean something is shielding it from
being scanned, right?”

“No. I mean though I register the same visual image
as you, that is it. There is nothing to suggest it has mass,
charge, weight, or any other standard properties of matter.”

Mimi curled her toes inside her shoes, letting the
move distract her. “Ah, what does that mean?”

“It means we must proceed with extreme caution.”

“Oh.” She felt sick, and immediately slapped a hand
on her stomach.

“Perhaps we should turn back,” Klutzo suggested.
There was a waver in his voice, something that sounded suspiciously
like relief.

Mimi thought about it. She turned back to the black
object. If it weren’t so small, she’d wonder whether this was the
vaunted Black Mass. But surely something fitting of such a legend
would be enormous?

The object in front of her was little more than a
pole.

When she’d struck out into the desert, she’d told
herself she would investigate the Black Mass legend. As well as
finding a ticket off this planet, of course.

Now she wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. If a
solitary black pole sticking out of the scorched sand was too much
for her to handle, the real Black Mass would likely scare her to
death.

With her hands sweaty and a lump forming in her
throat, she nodded.

“Good idea, Klutzo. I think it’s time we get out of
here.”

Klutzo
didn’t wait
– he zoomed back
to the sand slider like a frightened dog.

Mimi followed. Yet she turned her head, half walking
backwards as her gaze was drawn once more towards the pole.

There was something ... weird about it. The way it
made her feel ... she couldn’t put her finger on it. She was merely
aware of this unwanted presence in her mind.

Shaking her head and finally turning around, she
clambered onto the sand slider.

Once she was seated, she turned one more time to
look at it.

....

She shivered.

“Let’s get out of here,” she suggested quickly,
turning around and starting the slider up.

Just as she started to maneuver it out of the dip
she was in, she heard something. It sounded like a knife cutting
over the desert. “Ah, what is that?”

Klutzo appeared to concentrate. Maybe the presence
of the black pole was still affecting his scanners, because he had
to launch into the sky to obtain a visual, rather than use his
sensors.

She craned her neck to watch him hovering about 30
meters above her.

The sound got louder.

Something was coming. Friend or foe, she was soon to
find out.

It was when he started losing hope that he saw
something small dart up into the sky. Using his hyper-binoculars,
he quickly ascertained what it was.

“Klutzo,” he said victoriously as he pulled the
binoculars from his eyes. Casting them aside and hearing them
tumble to the floor of his slider, he leaned over the rails and
gunned the engine.

His slider shot over the desert, churning up great
clouds of sand that lifted high into the sky.

He’d been traveling all night. Dawn was on the
horizon, and thankfully it calmed the frenzied wind of the
night.

Nothing would calm his mood.

“She better be okay,” he muttered, leaning even
further over the rails until his shoulders tightened with
tension.

He kept an eye on Klutzo, and watched him dart back
out of sight under the lip of a tall dune.

If Klutzo was fine, that was a good sign Mimi would
be too.

....

Actually, no it wasn’t. Josh was kidding himself.
Klutzo could have wandered off, malfunctioned, or been left behind
by her kidnappers. So as Josh’s slider mounted the dune, he didn’t
stop. He shot down the side of it so fast he practically caused an
avalanche.

He could see a sand slider parked with its nose
towards him.

He parked alongside it. If parking can include
yanking on the brake and swinging in alongside the vehicle with a
screech of inertia drives and a great cloud of sand.

Josh didn’t stop. He jumped onto the sand. He sunk
in up to his knees, but pulled himself free and stalked
forward.

Klutzo was hovering off to the side, doing a good
impression of looking sprung.

As for Mimi ....

Before Josh could fear she wasn’t here, he heard her
whimper.

She was on the slider.

He rounded the back of it and vaulted onto the
vehicle. His move was so strong he made the thing shake.

Then, then he finally saw her.

She was hiding under the dash with her hands over
her head.

He growled.

She looked up. He watched recognition widen her
startlingly blue eyes. “Josh.”

“That’s right, Princess,” he spat as he marched
forward, leaned down, and pulled her up by the arm. “I’m surprised
you remember me. You did abandon me, after all.”

Though
he was furious, he couldn’t deny his relief. It lapped at him like
waves, washing away the past
days’ worth of fear.

Mimi was fine. Surprised at his sudden appearance,
sure, but okay.

“I ... I didn’t abandon you,” she tried, not
bothering to pull her arm free as he yanked her forward and off the
back of the slider.

“What do you call it then?” He let her arm go, but
didn’t take a step back to reinstate his personal space. Instead he
stared right into her eyes, despite the fact she was close enough
that his breath buffeted her fringe.

“I ... I ....”

“You ran off, put yourself in danger, and wasted my
time.”

She shrunk back from him. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then
what exactly was it like, Mimi? What the hell were you thinking?
That you were better off without me
—” he began, barely getting started on his tirade. He had a
lot to get off his chest. A day of thinking she was either dead or
kidnapped, to be precise.

“Yes,” she interrupted, her surprise abating as her
brow crumpled, “yes, I thought I was better off without you.”

“Excuse me?” He stuttered, shocked at her
honesty.

Before, she had been shrinking away from him,
clearly scared. Now she stood her ground. “I thought I was better
off without you,” she repeated bluntly.

Josh’s jaw dropped open.

“Surprised?” She crossed her arms. She had the
tenacity to cross her arms despite the fact she had wandered off
into the desert on her own, leaving him to track her down.

Briefly he couldn’t say anything, then the anger
came thundering back. “I knew you were arrogant, but this is
insane.”

“Arrogant? You want to talk about being arrogant?
Why don’t you look at yourself first? You have the emotional
understanding of a meteor.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you’re the rudest, meanest, coldest person I
have ever met. Now leave me alone.” With that, she attempted to
walk back to her sand slider.

Josh got there first, leaning in and grabbing her
arm. She didn’t let him hold it long, as she shoved him off. To be
honest, he could easily have kept his grip, but he stumbled back
nonetheless.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked.

She stopped and turned very slowly, sand scattering
over her boots. “What’s wrong with me? Seriously? Can you honestly
be that obtuse? You accused me of killing someone,” she choked
through her words.