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3. Shelter

Snowflakes had stopped falling, but the wind whistled about, scattering the snow and shaking the trees. Corby had no way to tell if it was still morning or not, because he could not see the sun through the thick clouds on the sky mostly obscured by branches.

"We have been traveling for three hours so far," Ora said, still being held in Corby's arms. "Shouldn't we stop so you could rest?"

Corby let out some steam from his mouth as he spoke. "I wish I could afford to rest, but I need to find shelter as soon as possible." He looked around. Nothing but trees and snow. "I can't believe I'll have to experience one whole year of winter out in the wilderness, away from civilization ... Damn it! Matthew warned them it'll blow up, but they still did it! 'We're just following orders,' they said. And what did he get in the end? He got hunted down and shot!"

Ora looked up at his face. "I know that was a traumatic event for you, but if things had gone differently, you and I would have never met."

He frowned while staring back at her. "Look, Ora, I am thankful for your help. Still, I got to admit that being at the refinery, hanging out with Matthew away from the cold and the ultra-violets while not being hunted down like a dangerous criminal sure beats the hell out of being where I am right now."

"You still miss your friend."

His eyes squinted a little. "Us humans tend to have a hard time getting over losing close friends. Matthew and I grew up together; we were next door neighbors. To see him end that way was … I better stop now before I punch a tree and hurt my hand."

She tightened her right claw's grip on his arm. "I can be your new friend."

A hint of a smile formed on his face. "That's nice, but ..." He wanted to refer to the user manual's statement about friendship with a robot like her being a bad idea, yet the thought of upsetting her made him go quiet.

"Do you not want to be friends with me, Corby?"

"I need some time to recover after my loss. Maybe later on a friendship will blossom between us." He hugged her tighter, but then remembered that she could not feel physical interaction. She wasn't even warm. She was just software in a metal shell trying—and failing more often than not—to pass off as human.

Her smile lit up. "When that time comes, we can be friends for as long as we're both alive!"

"Yeah ..." Corby said halfheartedly.

She noticed his tone. "Is something wrong?"

"It's just the cold. Don't worry about it."

One hour of treading through the snow later, Corby and Ora found what could be considered a welcome discovery: a steaming pond of azure water surrounded by brown mud that was warm enough to not be covered by snow. Around the edges, there were yellow rocks scattered all over. Many of them were oval and the size of a ping pong ball or a chicken egg, while eight were shaped like pillars of 3.6 meters—twice as tall as Corby. The only problem with the spot was that no trees grew close enough to hide it from drones.

After being placed on the ground, Ora flew to inspect the water. She landed on its edge and touched it with the tip of her right claw. "This might be a thermal lake."

"Perfect!" Corby said, bringing out his wooden ladle. He approached the pond and noticed that its center went so deep it seemed bottomless. Just before his ladle could touch the water, a rumble resounded from below, bringing more and more bubbles to the pond's surface.

Ora spread out her elytra and wings. "Something is changing."

Just then, the pond's center erupted in a tall jet of boiling water that seemed to reach the sky, letting steam spread through the air. Corby had jumped about a meter away from it while holding the ladle up as a shield—for whatever good that would do.

"It is a geyser," Ora said, shaking the water off by beating her wings. Then she proceeded to wipe the droplets off her face with her claws, much like how insects clean themselves.

After the jet collapsed back into the pond, a yellow glow spread to the edges of the water. From the sand on the shoreline, three green-glowing creatures—each with millipede-like body, eight circular, flat legs, one eye on its triangular head, and a pair of antler-like antennae—crawled out. Much like the glow thieves, their bodies were semitransparent, gaining color only due to the substance that illuminated their insides. When spotting the yellow glow of the pond, they rushed inside and absorbed it by wiggling in the substance. Once they consumed all of it, they went back to the edge and dug into the wet sand until they were completely buried.

Corby dug up one of the creatures out of curiosity. It squirmed helplessly in his hand.

Ora tilted her head while looking at him. "Are you going to eat that?"

He scowled, ignoring her while inspecting the semiaquatic creature. It was half a meter long and had a tougher shell than he expected. "Ora, what is this?"

"A possible relative of the glow thieves, adapted to an amphibious lifestyle."

He held the creature by the last three segments near its head and waved it in front of her. "And you expect me to eat this?"

"Well, you were trying to eat native fruit this morning."

"Fair point," he said before releasing the creature. "I won't eat that thing. I don't trust anything related to a glow thief. But speaking of eating, could you hunt me a pigeon, please? This geyser seems good for boiling food."

Ora spread her wings and took off. "Will do."

With her out of the picture, Corby felt free to search for tree branches that he could deem good enough to form a roof for a shelter. He had to wrestle with some of the thicker ones until he cut and tore them off the trees, but he considered that it was worth the effort. The shelter would surely be done by the evening if he'd keep at it.

When Ora returned, she found Corby a bit further inside the forest. She held the prey tightly under her right claw as she flew toward her master. She landed at his feet, hid her wings, and presented the kill. "Pigeon retrieved!"

He took the little carcass from her claws and looked at it while frowning. It barely looked like a bird, with bits of yellow fuzz that couldn't even cover the pink patches of skin. The wings had no feathers at all, looking like underdeveloped forelimbs while the legs were feeble and thin. Its beak seemed far too large for its head. The creature's neck had been snapped at a right angle—clearly the cause of death. "Ora, why did you kill a baby pigeon?"

"It was the nearest pigeon, and it was better to kill this chick than to kill the parent guarding the nest. The parent can lay more eggs sooner, whereas the chick would have taken longer because it had to mature. In addition, removing the parent would have likely doomed both of the chicks."

Corby stroked the dead chick. "This poor little bird … You should have just left them alone and searched for pigeons that weren't involved with a nest, Ora. This thing barely has any meat on it."

She bowed her head to him. "Preference noted."

He too made a note—although a mental one. Ora cared more about following orders than about the well-being of living creatures that weren't him. This was yet another reason why she could never truly be his friend.

Ora kept turning around on the ground, scanning the surroundings to make sure none of the Triumvirate's forces were nearby. She noticed the roof made of branches. "Is this going to be our hideout?"

"Yes," Corby said, placing the dead chick next to the shelter. "I'll need you to dig some soil out, to make it more roomy. Could you do that, please?"

"I'm on it!" she said before going in and throwing soil out of the shelter with her claws.

He watched her dig for about two minutes before saying, "Stop! I think it's deep enough. Now all we need are a few more branches to make it all fluffy so we don't have to lie on the wet ground. Stay here. I'll go look for some."

"But what if the Triumvirate finds you?"

"Don't worry. I'll be nearby. If anything happens on my side, I'll return here and tell you. If instead they get closer to where you are, you can just fly over to me."

"Whatever you say, Corby."

He saw some smaller trees in more illuminated spots of the forest and went for them. Their branches came off easier, so he didn't need to pull too much or hack away at them with his knife. It took him about half an hour to gather sufficient branches, which he then carried to the hideout, where Ora was waiting for him.

She watched Corby as he dropped the branches near her. "Are you finished gathering?"

"I think these will do," he said as he shoved the plants into the shelter, lining the ground with them. "There we go! A nice, fluffy floor."

"Will it not attract the attention of the Triumvirate's drones? A pile of branches forming what appears to be a tent is possibly the most suspicious sight they could find."

Corby picked up a snowball. "That's why I'll cover it in snow. While I'll be doing this, please go hunt an adult pigeon. One that isn't taking care of a nest."

"Understood," she said before taking off and flying away.

By evening, Corby had covered the tent and carved three wooden bowls of various sizes and three skewers. He deposited them inside the shelter, near the entrance. The largest bowl contained a half-eaten boiled pigeon.

Ora sat in the middle of the branch tent, holding her claws tucked under her body. She raised her head when she saw Corby enter.

"Hey, Ora, what do these pigeons eat anyway? There seems to be nothing but native plants and creatures everywhere."

"I found them gathered around dill plants. They were pecking dill seeds."

He raised his eyebrows. "Dill? Did you find a village or something?"

"No. Just a small area of the forest with dried dill. The abundance of sunlight due to very spread out trees must have allowed the Earth plants to thrive there."

"But why would dill get this far? There must be some humans farming nearby."

"Do you want to go look for them?"

He thought for a bit. If there were independent people hiding in the forest too, then maybe he could ally with them. But there was one problem holding him back. "It's getting dark, so we'll have to wait until morning before we set out to look for people." After sitting next to Ora, he stared at his left sleeve. "I forgot my pajamas at Gruzifor. But given the low temperatures right now, it would have been a bad idea to wear them instead of my daily clothes anyway."

Ora looked at the exit of the tent. "What are you going to use as a door to keep the shelter warm?"

He scowled. "Darn it!"

Back outside he went, searching for more branches to use as a door. He hoped that it wouldn't take too long, since the sky was much darker. Ora helped him see thanks to her eyes' blue glow. It took the duo ten minutes to gather enough branches, and once they returned, Corby shaped up the door and covered it in snow. Then he and Ora gently crawled inside by pushing a branch from the edge outward.

"That's the best I could do," he said. "If we had burrowed into the ground, I don't think I could keep warm when the soil is so wet due to the snow."

It didn't take long for a new problem to arise.

Corby could feel his muscles twitch. "Seems like the leaves aren't really good as insulation." Trying to get his mind off the cold, he decided to change the subject. "Hey, Ora, how far do you think Earth's civilization has developed by now?"

"It is impossible to check the current state of Earth's civilization from this distance. When the Hermes starship was launched, humanity in the Solar System was a type 1 civilization on the Kardashev scale and was working toward becoming type 2. Since that was 138 years ago, they may have conquered a large part of the Solar System by now."

"I wish I had a spaceship so I could escape to Earth," he said. "From what I've read about that planet, there's a lot of nice scenery, interesting creatures, more types of food … Right now even that dried up dill is starting to sound appetizing."

Ora brought out her wings, occupying much of the tent. "Should I go bring you some?"

He held out his palm in front of her. "No. I don't think there's much for me to digest out of that stuff. Some fresh vegetables or fruit would be nice though. Eating meat for so long isn't really doing my bowels and my behind any favors."

"The only places from which I could acquire vegetables and fruit are dome farms," she said. "Breaking into one would be very risky, but I'd do it if you want me to."

"Don't. The last thing I need is the Triumvirate's forces capturing you. They'd be unstoppable if they'd make use of your predictions."

She hid her wings. "I wish there was some other way to help you."

He gently put his right hand over her forehead, and she flinched away. "It's okay. We'll think of something tomorrow. For now I think we're going to be fine. We have a shelter, there's a geyser where I can boil food and get water, and those stinking drones are nowhere near."

Just then, a cold gust of wind hit him. He turned around and realized he was staring up the barrel of a large, silver gun. The human holding the weapon was slightly taller than him, and dressed entirely in white, thick clothes. A matching bandanna was wrapped over the nose and mouth of the person, only allowing the brown eyes to peer through as a hood covered most of the head. Even the forehead was hidden by silver, bristly hair like Corby's. The person's skin was even paler than his. Deathly pale almost.

Corby shrieked and wrapped his arms around Ora.

"I'll blow your head off if you don't stop screaming," the intruder said, the voice seeming to belong to a young woman.

Ora spread her elytra and wings out. "Let me stab her!"

Corby squeezed Ora tighter, forcing her to retract her wings. "N-no, Ora!" He grinned sheepishly at the woman. "You'll have to excuse my assistant; she's overprotective."

The woman continued to hold the gun in front of his face. "Why are you here?"

"I'm just trying to survive," he said. "The Triumvirate wants to kill me for witnessing an accident at Kimiatronica's refinery and—"

She cut him off. "The Triumvirate is after you?! You brought them here?!"

"Don't worry; they've lost my trail."

She pointed at him. "Their drones must be flying all over the forest because of you! I'll have to kill you and leave your corpse somewhere so they can find it and stop searching."

Ora squirmed in Corby's arms. "Can I stab her now?"

Ignoring the robot, Corby said, "Wait! Don't shoot us! I can help overthrow them! I … I've got a plan!"

With the right hand's index finger ready on the trigger, she said, "Someone who would have been found frozen by morning due to a poorly made shelter has a plan to overthrow the Triumvirate. Yeah, right. But amuse me: what is your plan?"

While holding Ora tightly with his right arm, he used his left hand to bring out the papyrus device from his pocket. After gently placing it on the ground, he looked at the woman and said, "Open it."

She looked at the device. "You're not planning on having it explode in my hand, are you?" After turning her head to the right, she said, "Zoom, pick up the papyrus device and inspect it!"

A robot of the exact same model as Ora flew next to the woman. It had a red color scheme with pink arms and forehead octagon. Its eyes were yellow, just like its smile. "Right away, Vanessa!" the robot said in a male voice. He grabbed the device between his claws and spread its sheet out. "Looks like a normal papyrus device to me."

"It is a normal papyrus device," Corby said. "Now, I want either of you to prepare to do … any action you want, and then intend to actually do it about one minute from now. Just don't tell me what it is. Got it?"

"Sure," Vanessa said. "Now what?"

"Ora, please check what will happen two minutes from now. Send the video to the device."

Ora's eyes gained a brighter blue glow as her circuit lines came out of her body and spread all over the shelter and everyone inside. After she retracted the circuitry, a video started playing on the papyrus device's screen.

Corby saw future Vanessa step back to shoot the future him and Ora, blasting them to pieces that flew through the back of the tent. He winced before saying, "Wow, you're really hellbent on eliminating me! The Triumvirate should hire you."

Vanessa took the device from her robot's claws. "So, your robot can see the future. My people might have use for you two."

Corby's eyes widened. "There are more people around here?!"

"Yes."

"That's great!" he said. "Take us to them so we can finally get to work on my plan to defeat the Triumvirate!"

Vanessa gave him his device back, then told him, "We'll lead you to our village, but if you show any sign of hostility toward any of us, I'll make your robot's prediction come true." She took three steps back until she was outside, making way for him.

He put his device into his pocket. "We have no reason to start trouble. In fact, we're thankful for any help we can get." After exiting the tent and releasing his robot, he said, "Ora, just follow us and don't do anything I don't tell you to, okay?"

Ora flew to his right. "Understood."

As they walked away from the tent, Vanessa said, "Tell me more about this robot of yours. Where did you find her? Does the glowanade have anything to do with her ability?"

"Some time after the incident at Kimiatronica's refinery, I hid inside the trash zone with my colleague. He was digging through the trash, hoping to find some useful stuff—other than the knife and lighter he gave me. A voice whispered to me that the Triumvirate will send two minotaurs to ambush us. I went to check who it was, and I found Ora. She gave me her papyrus device and showed me a video on it about how the minotaurs would attack from behind the trash hill that my friend was digging through. Then it happened before my eyes. They killed him. After that they continued to search for me while Ora and I hid behind other piles of trash on our way out of the trash zone. She predicted exactly what the Triumvirate's forces would do and where we'd be safe. Since her former owner just called her Assistant and she wanted to put the past behind her, I suggested to change it to Ora—based on the word 'oracle'. As for why she's able to kind of predict the future … I'm not sure. It might have to do with her glowanade contamination."

Ora inserted herself into the conversation. "My former owner was Anthony Bohral, also known as Bohr."

"Hold on," Vanessa said. "Are you referring to Bohr of the Triumvirate?"

Ora nodded. "That is him. One day, he was experimenting with glowanade, trying to figure out how much he could 'starve' it. He ordered me to bring him a container to hold the serum that was being extracted by the machine he was using. I wasn't flying fast enough, so he told me to get there faster. I accidentally bumped into his desk lamp and crashed into the machine. He had no idea that some of the glowanade and serum ended up inside my head. He was too angry to even check if I had been contaminated, and instead he turned me off and threw me down the trash chute in anger. I've spent two years roaming the trash zone, discovering that the glowanade could act as an extension of my body and as a means of acquiring energy from the environment. Eventually I learned that I could use it to calculate the future and past state of matter somehow. It turned out to work correctly in most cases, but sometimes simply telling someone about the future could alter parts of it, as it happened with Corby's fate just now."

"Corby? Is that his name?" Vanessa said as she pointed at him with her thumb.

He nodded. "I'm Corby Yggdrasil."

Vanessa let out a laugh. "A member of the Yggdrasil family." She pointed at his hair with her right hand's index finger. "Genetically modified. They deserved to have no choice but to resort to it after mocking all of the modified people for not being pure like them."

Corby lowered his head. "I know my grandfather said some pretty nasty things about GMHs. I know that my dad followed in his footsteps for a while, but they've changed once I was born into the family. The death of my mom during her pregnancy made my dad understand that sometimes genetic modification is the only way to save a three month old fetus that could barely be put in an incubator. At least I grew up like a normal human."

She shook her head slowly. "Is that what you tell yourself to cope with it?"

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly fine!"

"Keep walking in the sun and you'll be riddled with tumors. We were modified for working below the ground, where there's only artificial light. Also, we look like freaks compared to the pures. Washing this hedgehog hair is a nightmare!"

Corby shrugged. "I always washed it with my bath brush."

"You're still limited by what you were born to be, and that is a worker whose life is owned by the Triumvirate. Nobody's free from their control; although I pity the cyborgs more. They're just brains trapped inside robot bodies that are put under strict hormone regulation. At least we're free to have more emotions. To be honest, I envy the pures. They have the most freedom."

He didn't know what to say to that and feared angering her, so he remained silent during the rest of the travel.

The fifteen minute walk ended when they reached a pile of pointy, yellow rocks. Vanessa placed her weapon close enough to herself so she could reach it immediately if needed. Next she pulled some tightly-knit rocks out of the pile and placed them on the ground. "Zoom, you go first. I need you to keep an eye on these two once I send them down."

Corby swallowed audibly. Was she going to throw them down the hole inside the pile? Was this a prison?

Zoom flew into the entrance and crawled down the tunnel.

"You two, follow Zoom!" Vanessa said. "Grab onto the rocks on your way down. It'll be just like using a ladder."

Corby went first, carefully stepping onto the rocks that jutted out of the tunnel's walls. His hands grasped the rim of the hole until he took another step down. Then he could use them to grab onto the rocks. The darkness of the tight space worried him a bit, but as long as he could feel with his palms and feet, he was sure he'd make it to the bottom safely.

"Corby! I can't see you anymore!" Ora said.

"I'm okay," his voice echoed. "It's just really dark in here."

Ora flew down into the tunnel. "I'm coming there to light your way!" Her wings and elytra got her stuck. When she folded them, she ended up falling on top of Corby, who lost his grip and went down all the way to the bottom while screaming his lungs out.

Vanessa rolled her eyes. After strapping her weapon over her left shoulder so she could carry it on her back, she grabbed the lid of rocks and went into the tunnel, sealing the entrance as she made her way down.

The robots' eyes emitted enough light to reveal Corby, who was leaning against the wall on the right. He said, "Fortunately I was close enough to the ground when Ora landed on me. Still twisted my leg a little though."

"You should keep your robot under control," Vanessa whispered. "We can't risk attracting the Triumvirate's attention by making so much noise. It would doom the people who live here."

Gritting his teeth as he used his aching left leg, Corby followed her. After walking through a much larger tunnel that was illuminated by winged glow thieves trapped in jars in holes in the walls, they reached an open area of an underground city made of umbrella-shaped, silver buildings with eight arched entrances each. Pillars of stone that towered at five meters had constantly burning orange flames at their tips, acting as natural versions of street lamps.

Corby took in the sight of the apparently abandoned village. "So … how many other people live here?"

"Just my grandpa, my cousin, and my cousin's wife," Vanessa said.

He frowned. "Way lower numbers than I was expecting. Looks like I'll have to make some drastic changes to my plan."