The Project

Chapter 8

The Project Chapter 8 Part Two

"You look great Arna," observed Alex, I had you in mind when I chose that style and color of "cammo's, you look great too Kelly."

"Would you be more comfortable if I wore clothing?" asked Arna.

Alex snickered,

"That's not really the point, naked 'droid's don't really bother me, but I just think all of us look a little more professional in these outfits." Kelly didn't really have too much to say, about the urban cammo cargo pants, black boots and a black tank top, other that an embarrassing comment to Alex. Modeling her uniform to Alex, she asked,

"Or would you prefer I didn't wear a bra, Arna isn't wearing one?" Alex shook his head, and sighed,

"Kelly, you do what you want, I just thought this combination of clothes would look sharp, nothing more, nothing less. By the way Arna, what kind of trouble should we expect once we get to this Xindus?"

"Living beings were responsible for the creation of the androids, and according to what I was told, they treated the androids and robots cruelly, but it's been a very long time now, and they do not come anymore. I only warn you that my friends may not permit you to join me, they didn't for Gideon."

"So what did he do?" Asked Kelly,

"There is a nearby moon called Mito, he went there."

"Well don't get us into something we can't get out of Arna," replied Alex.

The trip took four days or cycles, as Arna called them. Originally, she and Gideon operated on what worked out to a twenty-six hour cycle, but Alex preferred a twenty-four hour one,

"Twenty-four hours makes up one of our days," he explained to Arna,

"Let's set up our cycles to match that, our biological "clocks" are also set to an eight hour sleep cycle, so it would really work out a whole lot better if we did it that way."

"This will be fine by me," replied Arna, "I will adjust the ships computer to this new cycle."

At the appropriate time, the computer brought the Karla-Ann out of hyper-drive showing them to be around eight thousand miles from Xindus. This was another re-calibration Arna performed, and that was to adjust measurements for miles, feet and inches, Alex felt that he had enough to do while learning how to fly the ship without worrying about alien units of measure. As they neared the planet, which appeared to consist of two large continents surrounded by water, both Alex and Kelly worried about being attacked by angry droid ships who hated humans.

Instead, they were hailed by a normal sounding voice who asked who they were.

"This is captain Arna speaking, I am in command of the spacecraft Karla-Ann, and we are a class three transport/cargo ship."

"Arna…Yes, welcome back, is the human with you?"

"No, however there are two living beings with me, they are in no way associated with the creators. They are friendly, and mean no harm, if they are not permitted, then we will leave at once." There was a long silence, then the voice replied,

"We know you Arna, you are a friend. Very well, your human friends will be allowed to land on Xindus, but you will be completely responsible for their actions, is that understood?"

"Yes," she replied, "And thank you very much, my friends are vary curious about Xindusians, and only wish to meet them."

"Very well, then you may proceed, land at the coordinates your computer should now have."

"Well so far, so good," replied Arna, "Just stay close to me, there is someone I would like you to meet." Alex thought about Gideon's pistol, but Arna was wearing it now, which was only right, she was the captain. They set down in what was some sort of landing area, there were a number of other craft parked nearby, the spaceport as Alex termed it appeared to have a lot of strange looking trees, and other assorted growth covering the area, something rather unusual for a place of this nature he thought. Stepping off the ship, they were met by what Alex thought were humans at first, but they were androids all the same. Dressed in blue jumpsuits, they zeroed in on he and Kelly.

"You have temporary permission to be on Xindus," announced one of them, "But humanoids must submit to a security check." All Arna could do was stand and watch, as the two droids stood staring at Alex and Kelly.

"What is that in your pocket?" He was asked,

"It's just my multi-tool, I use it all the time, but it's not really a weapon."

"Please remove it and demonstrate its function." Alex shrugged, and took the tool out of his pocket, then held it up as he demonstrated all the different functions. This seemed to puzzle the sec droids who then had him demonstrate, and explain the device all over. Before long, two more droids arrived, but these looked more like Arna, their "skins" looking more silver-like, but their facial features not so human -like. He was asked once more to demonstrate the tool, then the new droids asked that he hand it over, so they could duplicate his efforts. Meanwhile Arna and Kelly looked on with curiosity as Alex's pocket tool-kit drew much attention. The new droids operated the tool flawlessly, several times, without a word. By now Alex was extremely puzzled as to what they were up to.

"We will take this for the time being, but it will be returned shortly."

"Looks like they just stole your knife," chuckled Kelly,

"Well they said I'd get it back," replied Alex, and I tend to believe them. One of the sec droids placed metallic wrist bands around their wrists, except for Arna, who then told Alex and Kelly that they were permitted to roam around, but not to start any trouble.

Arna led them over to a large plaza, where again, there were all sorts of androids milling about, and every one of them gave the two teens the once-over.

"This is starting to bother me," stated Alex,

"What if they decide to attack us?"

"You are perfectly safe," replied Arna,

"How do you know that Arna?" He asked. She stopped and turned to him,

"They told me,"

"Who did?" He asked,

"Look," said Arna, as she pointed to what looked like an android coming towards us.

"It is my friend Garmik.

"He looks like you Arna," announced Kelly. Indeed he did, "skin" of a silver/grey color, even the same type of masquerade mask like Arna wore.

"Oh Garmik! Exclaimed Arna, I missed you so much." Alex and Kelly shared puzzled looks, as the two androids touched hands.

"Garmik, I would like you to meet my dear friends, this is Alex, and this is Kelly, they are from the planet earth. Garmik studied both teens,

"They are not creators?" Arna made a metallic giggle,

"No Garmik, they are not, they come from an entirely different planet, located in an entirely different quadrant. Garmik continued to study the two.

"Do you have droids and robots on your planet?" Alex looked to Arna for guidance, receiving the android equivalent of a shrug.

"Well yes, mostly robots though. I think I've read about android technology, but like I said, it's mostly robots, and pretty much industrial types."

Garmik made a grunting noise, then turned his attention to Arna and asked,

"So what have you been doing since your last visit?" Alex and Kelly watched as Arna placed her right forefinger and index finger gently on

Garmik's forehead, and held them there for several seconds, when she removed them, Garmik said.

"I'm sorry to hear that, you were very fond of him. So you three are off to explore the galaxy eh? I certainly wish I could come as well, it's pretty boring here."

Alex looked at Arna, and then at Garmik.

"Would you like to come with us, it's clear that you and Arna have a "thing" for each other. Do you have any skills that might be useful?"

"Garmik is a flight engineer," said Arna,

"Yes," replied Garmik. "Unfortunately no one is much interested in traveling anywhere these days, afraid of the creators I suppose; therefore flight engineers are not in much demand." Alex smiled at the droid, and said,

"Well Garmik, I can't promise much in the way of pay at this time, but you're more than welcome to come, it might be a little crowded on board the Karla-Ann, but we'll make do." Garmik looked at him and replied,

"You would offer me this chance?"

"Of course we would Garmik, we could certainly use a good engineer, I don't know jack squat about anything yet, Arna likes you, that's all I need to know."

Garmik then touched Arna's forehead with his fingers, for a few moments, then when he removed them she brightened, then speaking to Alex, she said,

"Garmik and I must do something, we may be gone for a long time, feel free to wander, no one will bother you now, if you get tired, just return to the ship."

With that, both droids walked off together,

"Well how do you like that?" observed Kelly, "They go off to make a little android "whoo Hoo" and abandon us here, what are we supposed to do now?"

"Well Kelly, I don't know about you, but this is the first alien world I've ever been on, I'm going to look around…"

"Well don't leave me," she replied, "Say uhh, I gotta pee, and real bad too." Alex looked around,

"It just occurred to me, do androids even need bathrooms?"

"I don't f*****g know!" snapped Kelly, "But I've really gotta pee." Alex shrugged,

"There's a tree over there, go take a squat behind that." Kelly gave him a dirty look, but scooted for the tree.

When she returned, Alex grimaced,

"Hey look Kelly I'm sorry but we don't know anything about this place, you know I was just thinking about where we could get something to eat, but then I realized do androids eat, Arna told me she didn't need to."

"Well what would we use for money anyway?" Observed Kelly

"Good point," he replied. They began to follow a winding path past large grass covered hills, Kelly commented on the almost yellow looking grass as well as small funny looking trees that seemed to grow like shrubs.

"Kinda like those "Bansai" trees the Japanese have," replied Alex.

As they walked, the teens observed 'droids sitting on the sides of the hills, or moving along on other paths. As they approached what looked like a small river, they saw a number of androids standing along the river bank looking at something in the river. As Alex and Kelly got near, they could see an android struggling in the water, bobbing up and down.

"He can't swim!" Gasped Kelly, we have to save him." Without saying a word, Alex took off his boots, and took off his pants, before diving into the water. Not to be outdone, Kelly did the same, disregarding the fact that she was now half naked.

As the other androids just stood and watched, the two teens got in front and behind the male android, who wasn't doing very much to save himself.

"I've got him around the waist Kelly! See if you can keep him from hitting me with his arms." Both struggled themselves but were able to reach the bottom of the river with their feet. Slowly, the two of them were able to get the android back on shore, and back up on the bank. The android lay on the ground but didn't seem all the worse for wear. It then sat up and looked at Alex,

"Thank you for helping me, I must have walked too close to the river's edge."

The android was a silver metallic color, no distinct facial features, or hair. It was obviously a male, as there were no breasts; basically it closely resembled a*****e mannequin.

"I take it you 'droids can't swim?" Asked Kelly,

"I cannot, however there are some that can," replied the droid.

"What is your name?" Asked Alex,

"Dozox 1168,"

"Well that's certainly a mouthful," said Kelly.

"Normally I am known as just Dozox, the numerical designation refers to my structural program."

"Well Dozox," said Alex, "You might want to be a little more careful around water next time."

"Thank you, I will." The crowd had now dispersed, leaving the three standing there, Dozox then spoke out,

"Are you two "Creators?"

"I don't know who these creators are Dozox," replied Alex.

"If you mean the people that created you, then no, we come from another planet entirely."

"Well thank you," replied Dozox, all will now know of your assistance." The two teens looked at each other and shrugged,

"Well let's find someplace to dry out," said Alex, my shirt and underwear are all wet,"

"So are mine," added Kelly. The two continued to walk, skirting areas where androids appeared to be congregating, coming upon an open meadow with what appeared to be some sort of shed on the edge of it. The door was hard to open, indicating that it had been a long time since anyone had been around here. Once he got the door open, it took Alex a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark but when he did,

"s**t! f**k! There's a dead body in there." As he backed away, Kelly had to take a look for herself.

"s**t! It's a fuckin skeleton Alex; it looks like it's been in there a long time too." Forcing the door open as wide as it would go, Alex cautiously took another look inside,

"Damn, will you look at that?" He exclaimed. Kelly entered, but kept averting her eyes to the remains,

"Well it looks like a human skeleton, although the skull looks a little larger, and a little longer than a real human one," said Kelly, rather matter-of-factly.

"What's all that stuff laying on the ground there?" said Alex. Together, they examined the floor around the skeleton, the clothes were still intact, and covered most of the remains. They found what looked like a weapon of some sort, along with a small book with the pages being made of something other than paper, but in a strange looking language. Although the small devices they wore in their ears, allowed the teens to understand others, they were unable to read anything.