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11. Stay Away From Me!

Corby's mind became active again. About to wake up, he wondered why he felt so uncomfortable. Maybe he really needed to empty his bladder.

His eyes slowly opened. When the reflection of two bright blue lights appeared in them as he looked at the rest of his no longer blanketed body, they widened.

Samuel was about to knock on the door to Corby's room, but halted his fist the moment he heard Corby's voice.

"Get your claws off, you—"

Then there was a short moment of silence.

Samuel wanted to ask if Corby had another nightmare, but before he could open his mouth, he heard more of Corby's shouting from that room.

"Look what you did, you disgusting little freak!"

Ora's voice followed. "Wasn't that supposed to happen?"

"What the hell is wrong with you, you defective scrapheap? How could you?"

"You seemed like you were getting prepared for it, so I thought—"

Corby's shouting became even louder. "That wasn't an invitation, you … you … I was asleep! Look at yourself! You make me sick!"

Samuel felt like he had to interfere. "Hey, what is happening in there?" Then he heard the sound of cloth being thrown around.

Corby said, in a lower tone, "Clean yourself up and take this to the washing machine before I wrap you in it and leave you in the lake to grow algae! Piece of s**t robot."

"I will," Ora said before the buzzing of her wings sounded off from the room. Then the door leading outdoors was heard being opened and closed.

Samuel knocked three times. "Corby, what was that all about?"

Corby opened the door, still in his pajamas, and couldn't even look the old man in the eyes. Shaking, he muttered, "I … I'd rather not talk about it. I think I'm going to puke."

"I've heard what you two were saying. She did something to you. Don't be afraid to talk to me."

Corby put his hands on his head. "I don't … I can't … I want to wipe it out of my memory!"

Samuel had a look of pity on his face. "I think we'll have to kick that robot of yours out of here."

"We can't!" Corby said, still refusing to look Samuel in the eyes. He waved his arms. "I hate her and I really, really want her gone ... but we need her."

"Let's just go to the dining room before she comes back. You'll have to calm down and talk to me and Vanessa."

Corby shook his head. "No. No, I don't want to discuss this. Let me just forget it like I forget everything else."

Samuel pushed him toward the opposite door. "Boy, that's a bad idea. Don't let her get away with this. Don't shut yourself in like that. Come on!"

"Can I go to the bathroom first?"

"Sure."

Corby took his usual seat at the table. He was still shaking while staring at the cupboard where Zoom sat.

Vanessa looked at Corby, then took a seat opposite to him. "What happened to you?"

He gave her no answer and just held a blank stare toward the cupboard.

Samuel, sitting on the chair at one end of the table, said, "Ora did something to him."

Corby closed his eyes and sunk his hands' fingers between his hair's spikes while slouching over the table and growling.

"Did she hurt him?" Vanessa asked.

"Scratch marks," Corby muttered.

"Where?"

Corby swiftly delivered the answer. "I don't want to talk about it."

Samuel said, "Don't let that robot near you anymore, Corby. Lock her outside your room next time."

Vanessa frowned. "Is she going haywire?"

"It's all Nargi's fault!" Corby said, waving his arms in front of himself. "She gave Ora that book!"

"What book?" Vanessa asked.

"Heck if I know! Ora mentioned a book, but I forgot to ask Hilarion about it and … and then this happened."

"I think we should go talk to Hil and Nargi about it."

"N-no! Please, it's difficult enough for me to face you and Mister Samuel."

"Corby, Ora hurt you. You're not the one who'll be judged. Let's go to their house together. I'll keep Ora away from you."

Corby grimaced while digging his nails into the table's surface, but he stopped shaking. "Fine. I'll go talk to them."

Corby and Vanessa arrived at Hilarion and Nargirata's door. The hosts greeted him with confused stares after seeing him scowl and point at them while still dressed in his pajamas.

"Nargi, what the hell have you been teaching my robot?"

Nargirata's eyes became shifty. "Well, she asked for books about human relationships …"

"Show me those books!"

Corby held a book and stared at its red cover while sitting on the edge of Hilarion and Nargirata's bed. He glared up at Nargirata, who stood nearby. "Why did you give her a book about how s*x keeps people in relationships?"

"You asked Hilarion to give Ora books about human relationships," Nargirata said. "He told me to take her to our library corner."

"When did I ask for that?"

"A day ago," Hilarion said.

"I don't remember. But then again there's a lot I don't remember."

Ora arrived at the door that led outdoors from the bedroom. She clawed at the window while staring at Corby.

His eyes widened. "D-don't let her in!"

Ora broke through the glass. She landed on the bed, causing Corby to jump off it and back away while holding the book as a shield. She said, "Corby! I've been looking everywhere for you! Samuel smacked me with a towel and told me to stay away from you! I think these people are trying to split us!"

Corby glared daggers at her. "Stay away from me!"

Ora flew toward him. "You can't let them do this to us!"

"Disgusting robot!" he said.

She tilted her head to the left. "What do you mean?"

"While I was sleeping, you twisted piece of junk!" He threw the book at her.

She dodged.

He pointed at her. "You could have seriously wounded me with just one accidental poke of your claw!"

Hilarion squinted at Corby and said, "If I'm getting this right, your robot … molested you in your sleep?"

Corby didn't answer, instead looking at the purple slippers he had on—given to him by Vanessa before leaving the house.

That silence was all Hilarion needed as an answer before focusing on the blue robot. "Ora, why didn't you discuss things with Corby before trying to do stuff to him?"

She raised her claws and slashed the air at Hilarion. "This is just between Corby and me! Stay out of our relationship!"

"There is no relationship between us, you delusional machine!" Corby said.

Hilarion put himself between Ora and Corby. "He's right. A relationship is built on trust, not taking advantage of someone."

Nargirata scowled at Ora. "I wanted to tell you that it was best to just ask Corby about what he'd allow you to do with him, but you didn't even bother to listen."

"Only Corby can tell me what to do!" Ora said.

Corby pointed at her. "J-jump into the lava pit then!"

She landed on the bed. "If I do that, then I won't be able to protect you anymore. So I cannot jump into the lava pit."

Glaring while showing his teeth, Corby ran up to her and slammed his palm over the button on her forehead. He pressed with as much force as he could and waited, hoping the lights of her eyes would fade out as she'd turn off.

A minute passed, but nothing happened.

She crawled away from under his hand. "The glowanade keeps me permanently powered. I cannot be turned off."

"Why?" Corby cried out while raising his fists in the air. "Why am I stuck with you? Why?"

"I can blow her up if you want me to," Vanessa said.

"If we didn't need her for her oracle abilities, I would tell you to do it right away."

Ora lowered her head. "You'd let her kill me?"

"Without a second thought," he said.

"But why? I didn't kill you. I only left a few scratches."

"A few scratches and a mental scar. At this point I'd rather be dead than know you're still around." He turned toward Hilarion. "Keep her locked in your house. I don't want to have her in the same house as me."

Ora flew toward him. "Corby! You can't leave me here!"

Hilarion caught her while she was airborne. "You're going to give him some space."

She clawed at Hilarion's muscular arms but failed to do any serious damage. "Let me go, stupid primate that has developed a vocabulary!"

Corby and Vanessa left the room.

"No!" Ora screamed. "Corby! Corby! Don't leave me here! I will stab them, Corby!"

"You're not stabbing anyone," Hilarion said with a smirk. "Hey, Nargi! Bring me some rope! I'll tie her up."

Nargirata nodded at him and went to look for the rope.

Trying to get Corby to calm down, Vanessa took him to one of the abandoned houses in the west of the village, near the cave's wall.

"It's in here," Vanessa said while walking into a dusty room that had four gray cubes which could be used as chairs or small tables.

At the center of the room, between the equally distanced cubes stood a strange mechanism. On the room's ceiling, it had a copper circular platform. A similar one was on the floor. Sandwiched between these platforms, there was one silver sphere the size of a basket ball. It levitated at half the height of the room. Around that sphere there were six other, much smaller spheres of various sizes. The one closest to the big sphere was rusty brown and rotated the fastest. It was only a tenth the size of the big one. Further away from it, a silver sphere of equal size to the prior one revolved slightly slower around the largest one. A golden sphere almost twice bigger than the previous one revolved even slower around the central one, and was orbited by two twin silver spheres 5% its size, one closer to the golden sphere than the other. The fourth sphere had mostly green blotches with copper veins running through them, interrupted by five blue imperfect ovals—the largest one being at its bottom pole while the rest were scattered near its equator. Instead of a sphere, an object that looked like an inflated tortilla chip orbited it. The fifth sphere was greenish-blue and of the same size as the fourth. The last sphere of the system was blue and a quarter the size of the central one. It was at the center of four silver, vertical, concentric rings and revolved the slowest.

Corby approached the system to get a better look. "It's a model of our planetary system!" He poked the plump tortilla chip object, causing it to fly away a short distance before it returned to its rightful place next to the mostly green sphere. "This is definitely Hypnos, as it revolves around Quirinus." After pointing at the blue sphere that had rings, he added, "This is a nice representation of Chronos too." He poked and disturbed its rings, but they resumed their stance within a few seconds.

Vanessa said, "I'm almost sure this was built by aliens. It looks so precise, and yet so ancient ..."

"There are plenty of signs in this cave which tell that aliens once lived on Quirinus," Corby said. "What I want to know is … where these aliens went."

"Maybe they went further below the ground."

Corby poked the representation of Quirinus and watched it return to its place along with its moon that orbited it the whole time. "It's a possibility. Maybe they've evolved further as they went deeper. If they're still alive underground, we might be sharing our planet with the aliens. In fact, that would mean this was never our planet to begin with. We are the aliens here."

"That would be an awkward realization for us humans," Vanessa said. "Do you think those unusual forest robots count as aliens?"

"I don't know. I mean, they might be the creations of some rebel humans. But even if they were made by aliens, they're just machinery."

Vanessa grabbed the odd tortilla chip object and held it with her fingers so she could look at it. "They'd count as alien technology, and if they are sentient like our social robots, I guess that still makes them aliens." She released the object, and it went back to the Quirinus sphere.

"Speaking of robots," Corby said, "do you ever wonder what happened to that robot you've helped escape from the mine?"

"I haven't really thought about him after we parted ways. Hil was closer to him and he brought up that question to Grandpa a few months ago. The robot had class 6 glow, so recharging is off the list of problems he'd face in the forest. But there are other dangers out there—the Triumvirate's forces included. If they've spotted him, he's probably scrap metal by now."

Corby frowned. "Yeah. And even if he'd stay hidden, the glow thieves are going to be a pain to deal with. One of them even attacked me!"

She chuckled. "Well, you do have the strongest glow, so you must be like a glow thief magnet."

He sighed. "I'm a trouble magnet."

Trying to change the subject to get Corby out of that bad mood, Vanessa said, "Hey, I'll be going for a run through the village soon, to get my daily exercise. Care to join me?"

"More running? I've been running almost every day since the incident at the refinery."

"It'll be different. There won't be anyone chasing you, and you'll be able to stop whenever you want. It will also keep you in shape, so next time if you're being chased you'll be better prepared."

He smiled at her. "Okay, I'll join you. It might help me get all these problems off my mind for a while."