Robots of Avery Five.

Chapter 7

The dim lights from the Aver moons aided the fugitives by illuminating the forest. But the deeper they went into the foliage, the harder it became to see in front of them.

“We should stop.” Kimiora panted while moving tree branches aside.

“If we can hear them, they can hear us,” Alexander whispered. He could only see a quarter of her face outside the shadows.

The forest wasn’t a quiet place. Roaring of angry men and chirping of nocturnal beasts mixed with bongs emitting from the roots of the sponge trees. Sadie pushed one of the tree trunks and let her body drop on the soft cushion-like bark. The movements of its leaves, let some of the moonlight through. Then the chirping became louder and they heard a rattling sound behind them.

On the tree next to it, a large animal with arms for legs, curled his tongue into his nose and rotated its head down. The worms on its scalp crawled into the holes where its eyes should have been, revealing a second jaw with bigger teeth.

“Get up,” Kimiora stuttered at Sadie. “That tree might have been his house.”

Sadie got up slowly and held Alex’s hand. The lizard-like creature jumped off the branch, but Cam kicked it away. Kimiora and Sadie screamed as Alex and Cam ran behind them. They went in no direction—not that they knew where they were going before—and their view was pitch black.

The four kept running into more trees and branches. The impact slowed them down but didn’t cause them any physical harm. Unlike Earth’s trees, most of the Avery Five vegetation had a soft porous texture. Elasticity was also present in the smaller plants, which allowed them to grow wider than usual.

It was in one of these plants that wrapped around Alex’s foot and made him propel to the dark sandy dirt. The creature stopped by his feet and began vomiting a white honey.

“Alex!” The girls unwrapped the plant as the resin melted the sole of the Earthian’s boots.

“Take them off, take them off.” Kimiora pulled off the shoes and threw them at the animal, who began vomiting over the boots.

Barefooted, Alexander felt the wet dirt becoming dryer and a tall wire fence appeared in front of him.

“I forgot it was here.” Kimiora pushed the hexagonal patterned fence, and led the rest through an opening.

This time, they met a monument made out of rocks. Underneath it, a short tunnel took them to a hatch.

“Have you been to this place before?” Alexander watched Kimiora enter a code in a dirty number pad and the hatch swung open.

“This is it,” she said. “One of the places the Aver government and the Human Federation don’t want us to see.”

Broken vases, scratched wooden furniture, and ripped items of clothing were some of the items in the chaotic room. Sitting on a chair, the decomposing body of a woman laid in the solidified version of the Aver beast’s white vomit. A small battery light filled the place with hard shadows.

“This is Betty.” Kimiora stood by the unrecognizable character. “We found her like this. She had been writing on paper notebooks a lot before the end of her life.”

“Paper notebooks?” Sadie looked for signs of paper.

“Well, we needed to preserve them, so we took them with us—” said Kimiora. 

“We?” said Alex.

“The farmers.”

“You mean those guys who tried to kill us just now, and gave you that cut on your head?” He pointed at the dried up blood on Kimiora’s eye and cheek.

“I didn’t get the chance to tell you everything.” She tried to rub the dirt off her shirt.

“When the Human Federation took my mom for collecting religious books, I was angry, so I hung out with the wrong people. One thing led to another and I ended up recruited by a group called the hunters. When I realized they only wanted to murder Earthians, I became a double agent for the farmers. Somehow, both groups wanted you dead at the same time, so I offered to do the job. The three men who found us were hunters. Don Crowe, the one with long hair, is their leader.”

“I guess they know who I am.” Alex explored his surroundings. 

“Yes, they have contacts in the Sagittarius driftlines. They saw the spaceship manifest and recognized you as the son of Hammond of Singapore.”

“What is this place?” Sadie touched every broken object.

“This is where I learned the truth. These are the remains of one of the first Avery Five colonies.”

“How do you know? There’s barely anything here.”

“We actually found Betty surrounded by a lot more than her notebooks. Many of the farmers share my same background, so, as students of history, we decided to preserve them in a safe place.”

Alex looked at the broken handmade furniture, imagining what it felt like to build it with his own hands. He figured it would have taken long hot nights in the endless Aver summer to get it done without the use of robots. The person who built it might have been in pain afterwards. The life of the ancients was one with endless tribulations.

He then noticed the corner of a familiar piece of paper coming out the dirt from under the seat. He dusted the area and pulled on the thin sheet. It didn’t look the same or as new as the ones he had seen before, but he was sure of what it was. The man reached into his jacket and took out the red packet. He compared the eight American dollar bills to the one he had found. They were of equal size and colors, but the new acquisition had different symbols.

“How lucky,” said Cam. “You have found a two American dollar bill.”

“Cam, how do you know this stuff?” asked Sadie.

“Sexy trivia. I told you,” said Cam.

“Where did you find that?” asked Kimiora.

“Who lived here?” Alex ignored her question.

“We have limited knowledge of this place. All the books we found, including Betty’s notebooks, were written in different languages. But we have learned about the people who lived here through the pictures in the books and from Betty herself.”

She walked behind the corpse and pressed a button on a small panel. The voice of a young woman began to speak in a modern Aver language.

“Hello, father. It’s me, Betty. I know the Human Federation cut all signals and you’ll never get this message, but after Ash and Nguyen died, I have no one else to talk to. You must be very disappointed in me because I decided to follow the renegades to Avery Five.” Static signal. “We were all in one giant camp, but people began taking sides when the Human Federation offered a deal. So I left with the British and the Americans, and we camped west.” Static signal. “Now I’m alone.”

“She has many recordings but the more she speaks the less we learn about her world.” Kimiora turned the radio off. “Loneliness takes a toll on her and she spends her time reminding her father about happy moments on Earth.”

“Why wouldn’t this be in the online history?” asked Sadie.

“You can’t cover all of history. I’m sure they had to be selective about what they were going to teach,” replied Alex.

“You still think that after seeing this place?” Kimiora shook her head at Alex. 

“You want to paint the Human Federation as this horrible monster who wants to control society. Yeah, nothing’s perfect, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to start a movement.” Alex cleaned the bill on the sleeve of his jacket. 

“But you told Don—”

“I told him what he wanted to hear. The deal is, you feed Sadie for a while until I’m able to figure it out, and I’ll put in a good word for you. Maybe they won’t clone you. That’s fair.” He glanced at the area where he had found the money and wondered how he hadn’t spotted the angular piece of metal that was now clear to him.

“You think I want mercy? I don’t want their mercy. I want change. I thought you understood that.” Kimiora continued arguing. 

Although she raised her voice, the man wasn’t listening. He returned the money to his pocket and dug around the object as fast as he could. When he had a good grip on it, he gave it a few jerks, and was able to haul out an L-shaped device slightly bigger than his hand.

A hard transparent plastic covered half of the strange object. Although it looked dirty, the area on top of the L looked well preserved.

“Say, Cam, you don’t happen to know what this is, do you?” Alex squinted.

“I sure do, Alexander, but I don’t want to tell you about it,” said Cam.

“Let me guess. The rules of sexy trivia—” Alexander juggled the object to his other hand and made an attempt to spin it.

Cam shifted his gaze toward the object every time Alex moved it in a reckless manner. He extended his arm and snatched it off his hand.

“Yes, but I’m also programmed to follow safety rules. This is a handgun.” The robot held the bottom of the L and pointed it at the floor. “It’s an ancient human weapon. Compared to the modern electric rifles of the Human Federation, it is unstable, but much deadlier.”

Cam pulled off the transparent cover. He pressed a small button to release the magazine and pushed it back inside. He racked the slide, checking the chamber, and aimed the barrel at the wall.

The three humans gave each other confused stares. The gun and the s*x robot’s knowledge equally intrigued them. 

“What species did you say he was?” Kimiora asked Alex.

“He’s an Ai-consort,” answered Sadie.

“A s*x bot? He looks so real and knowledgeable. Did you modify him?” Kimiora frowned. 

“No.”

“See this?” Cam showed Alex a hollowed area of the gun and put the object back on his palm. “The ancients called it the trigger. Now, hold the grip, but don’t aim or pull the trigger until you are ready to destroy what’s in front of you.”

Alex lifted the weapon, slid his finger inside the middle ring and jerked the trigger. He gave Cam a frown, expecting for something to happen. “It won’t work. Does it require a DNA code?”

“And that’s why I left the safety on. That was a test, Alexander of Singapore. You did not pass,” said the android. 

“Are you robotshitting me?” Alex pressed the trigger again.

“I do not know what that means, but I sense you know nothing about ancient Earthian weapons.”

“I don’t. I don’t need them. The human planets are mostly safe.”

"Perhaps your mind will change when you perceive its power.”

Cam held Alex’s arms up and aimed the weapon at the wall. He pressed a small latch down by the gun slide, removing the safety. As he was about to let him press the trigger again, Don Crowe and his associates entered the room.

“I was willing to let you live, but now I’m angry.” Don raised his knife.

One of his men yanked Sadie by the hair and licked her on the cheek. The girl winced and screeched. 

As the leader ran toward him, Alex’s blood pressure raised, making him pull the trigger. Don’s body flipped back over the floor, where he remained immobile. His eyes blinked twice until his pupils faded, and blood began to stream from under his body.

Alex stopped breathing, seeing the hole he had created on another man’s chest.

“Let her go,” he whispered at Don’s men. He continued to hold the gun up.

Everyone stood frozen in disbelief.

“I said, let her go!” he yelled and pointed the weapon at the men.

Everyone except Cam jumped. The men dropped their spears, raised their hands, and ran out of the hatch.

Alexander began taking heavy breaths. He glanced at the gun and set it down on the ground in front of him. His eyes focused on his shaking fingers. His feet felt like spiders were crawling under their skin. His attention shifted to Sadie.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

The girl nodded and he fainted.

 ----------------------------------

Sadie held her abdomen, watching Alexander sleep on his bed. As she left the bedroom, her brain replayed the events of the day. The uncertainty of her future came to her at once. The quietness of the house enhanced her anxiety.

“Thank you for letting me stay.” Kimiora met her in the hallway.

“Oh, it’s the least I can do,” she replied. “Thank you for the white sand.”

“Yeah, about that. What you ate will only last until tomorrow morning. I need to go back to the café in a few hours.” 

“Solar-flair, you don’t have to do that for me.”

“I’m also doing it for myself,” Kimiora added. “I don’t want to take the Met pill. It’s a matter of principle. The white sand will keep us alive, but we’ll eventually need other things.”

“Okay, I just want this to be over,” Sadie agreed. She had many questions about the white sand and how it grows. 

“Sadie, I need you to convince your boyfriend to speak for us,” Kimiora said after a silence. 

“What?” Sadie straightened her spine. “Alex is not my boyfriend. He’s a guest in my house. I met him last Thorsday.”

“Oh, he looked so eager to help you, I thought he had chosen you—” said Kimiora. 

“He hasn’t,” she swallowed.

“All right.” Kimiora gave her a quick smile. “If you excuse me, I’ll go to sleep now.”

Sadie passed the stairs and headed toward her room without saying goodnight.

Cam sat on her bed, smiling and analyzing her body. He wore loose shorts and a cotton t-shirt with long sleeves.

“The pregnancy has enhanced your hormones,” said Cam. “You seem stressed.”

Sadie took off her clothes and laid on the bed without saying a word.

“I would ask if you are okay but I already know you are not,” he added.

“I need to ask you a question,” she said.

“Ask away.” He lied down beside her and caressed her stomach.

“How did you know how and when to fight?”

“It’s in my programming.” 

“I looked at the Ai-consort manual. There are no sexy trivia questions about ancient history,” said the master.

Cam’s face remained neutral. “I’m not sure I have an explanation for that. In these situations, when the owner is unhappy with the sale, the Ai’s behavior could be the result of a glitch. You may reset my system if it does not please you.”

“No, I am satisfied. More than satisfied, actually.” The girl was contemptuous with her Ai-consort-turned bodyguard. The only smart things he should have said were s*x related answers and relationship advice. 

“Are you sure? I sense the opposite.” He sucked on her neck.

She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around him. She kissed his collarbone, remembering Cam didn’t have the natural fragrance that drove her mad about Alex. She could not feel his breath on her face, or the warmth of his lips, or the beating of his heart unlike that one night with the Earthian.

“I hate him,” she whispered as Cam pressed his lips around her breast and massaged the other one. “I hate him so much for making me feel this way.”

The robot made circles around her navel with his wet tongue.

“They will clone me again for wanting him inside me; for having his baby. I will be reborn and I won’t remember any of this,” continued Sadie. 

She began to moan. Cam was now between her legs, rubbing his lips against her womanhood and licking her opening. The girl replayed the memory of the only night she had with Alex. She could almost taste his skin on her mouth. “He doesn’t want me. He would never want to be with a clone. When I told him what I was, it disgusted him. He’ll never love me.”

“I love you, baby.” Cam got on top of her, wiped her only tear and expanded himself inside her.

“How much do you love me?” she moaned on his ear, pretending Cam was Alex. 

“I love you more than you’ll ever imagine.” He turned her jaw to make eye contact.