Chương 68: KK2 - #16 OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (2/4)

"Ali! What the—watch it!" I shouted. The Alliance's bodyguards wanted to retaliate, but the arming of their machine guns came a second too late. The MK-VII suffered from the same weakness as the previous models, namely their LED orb. A breeze for a. 50 caliber AE in good hands at such a short distance. Insufficiently restrained by weightlessness, the crimson armored carcasses touched down at the same time as the decapitated spasming body of Nigel Hemingwest.

Slipping on the ground, Ali received the remains of the cyborg before she also struck the cold and greasy metal of the hangar.

"Why?" asked Zéphyr, who had regained full control of her envelope. Immediately disconnecting the red wire, Ali replied: "What a stupid question, Z."

"Good Lord Darwin! It's a mess…" I sighed as I joined the two lovebirds. Struggling with gravity, small marbles of blood fluttered from Hemingwest's neck and landed on my chops.

"Is everyone okay?"

"You are the biggest idiots of the entire system," the Maiden groaned.

"It's presumably a family trait, yes…" I lamented. My partner lifted the androgyne's inert body and took her aboard the Kitty. Meanwhile, I kept at a distance the toothless personnel of the hangar, already greedily looking at the MKs and the Buzzard. They swore to remain silent in exchange for the precious spare parts. Of course, their words were worthless.

"My vision is only static. I freeze and burn at the same time," Zéphyr murmured as I entered the hold.

"This sadist damaged my brain-unit…"

"What can we do to get you back on your feet?" Ali asked as she climbed behind me to the cockpit where I ordered the opening of the gates.

"I doubt it is possible for us to find a competent techie on this doomed world," Zéphyr replied, harnessed into the copilot seat as Ali was unrolling two of the control computer's cables usually used for her wrist computer.

"Our only option is to reach Oberon's orbit."

"No time to waste then."

"Thank you. Both of you." My human firmly held the Maiden during the take-off. In less than a minute, Umbriel disappeared beneath the ice giant.

"What are we going to look for on the black moon?" I asked, configuring the autopilot.

"There is an asteroid in the vicinity that has no electromagnetic or thermal signature, and I will provide you with the latest known coordinates." Connected by the two wires, Zéphyr transmitted her information about the lost object through the computer. The latter then launched a series of calculations before issuing an alert message as the main monitor displayed an error code in frightening red capitals in digital font. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"This is a Metal Rain warning protocol," I noticed.

"Where are you taking us?" Right after, the map of Uranus IV and its orbit opened on the lateral monochrome terminal.

"To Fairyland…" Zéphyr muttered before her voice, divided between her mouth and the Kitty's speakers, got lost in sizzling. Oberon's surface was nothing but geological desolation. Asteroids and comets of the first ages had dug huge blue craters on the butchered red coat. Chasmatas weaved across its sparse envelope, surrounding under-dome cities as the dark moon was inhabited despite its nights as long as a decade.

"We're not colonizing planets. We're killing them," Ali sighed from the hold, her forehead against the airlock's window.

"And look at all these shipwrecks!" Indeed. Oberon's orbit was a graveyard. The solar storms that constantly swept the area had disastrous consequences. The radio's canals were nothing but interferences, void demons whispering profanities to the unbidden traveler.

"I don't think that's what Shakespeare had in mind when writing A Midsummer Night's Dream," I commented while turning on the front beams to navigate between the wrecks and the rock fields.

"It's not Fairyland, it's the hellish Purgatory."

"What would a cyborg do here?" my partner asked between two alarms alerting us from incoming solar winds.

"It's suicidal with all this radiation!" Our destination appeared at the indicated coordinates. However, it wasn't detected by any of the instruments driven mad by the streams of charged particles. Hidden under a metallic half-moon in the shape of a bell, the mysterious planetoid made of anarchic yet geometric masses of giant oxidized bismuth squared crystals shone with a thousand colors despite the lack of natural light. These mineralogical configurations could only be obtained by artificial synthesis.

"Damn… It's beautiful!" I heard my human comment.

"Do you live here?"

"I was born here," the Data Maiden replied after she had progressively regained consciousness in our bed. She kept talking through the speakers as she was still linked to the control computer to keep her alive.

"This curious pyramidal formation is called Fairyland. It was assembled by the data broker who made me what I am today. And the same broker still hides hither. He's a friend. And I can't even remember his name. Ali… I can't—""Just relax, Z." The rainbow-colored bismuth, however diamagnetic, didn't repel the metallic hull of the Kitty. On the contrary, I had the feeling that a tractor beam was at work and guided us to the center of the artificial shimmering satellite.

"And this data broker plays for the Technocratic Marine?" I asked. I had in mind the military message.

"In the past, yes," replied Zéphyr.

"But he also worked for a wide range of corporations specialized from cybernetics to data manipulation."

"Have we heard of this guy?" dared question my human as I jumped from the cockpit between two extension cables.

"No, I don't think so… his name… Ali… I remember… Man—Mancéphalius—" Zéphyr stuttered, whose words were beginning to fade again. She slowly opened her ivory eyes which didn't gleam as strong as they used to.

"Once there—" Her voice disappeared. The control computer alerted us via the lateral monitor that the cyborg's vital functions were at a new low. It had initiated a procedure to keep her in stasis for the next few hours. Gripping Zéphyr's hand, Ali allowed herself one tear as the Kitty was magnetically anchored on Fairyland's surface.