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RH103and the rest of his brethren hadn’t needed to listen to New Eden’s SOS broadcast to know that their planet had experienced devastation.Their cruiser’s sensors had told them as much—that it was a broken place with a smaller than expected population, considering how long the colony had been there.
Yet the condition of the planet’s ruined city and its citizenry’s despair had surprised him.He, like everyone else of his kind, had never encountered a place or people so broken.If RH103 had been capable of being shaken to his core, he would have experienced it when he looked at Hannah Forsyth or the people who looked up to her.
She didn’t consider herself a leader, but the residents did.So did RH103.Only a leader would run across a field in the middle of the night to greet a strange ship that had broken her planet’s atmosphere instead of running for help.Only a leader would send out the impassioned plea for help across the galaxy, as she had.
A leader or a fool.He hoped it was the former.
They have agreed to let us stay?
His fellow cyborgs’ collective voice filled his head, a familiar and usually welcome buzzing sensation.He had switched off his brain’s broadcast signal while in the destroyed outdoor theater, not wanting to appear distracted if the other cyborgs asked him questions.He’d noticed the strange look that crossed Hannah’s face when they spoke to him after they landed.They’d asked about whether they would have to stay in their pods in the cruiser for the night or if accommodations would be provided.
Yes, for now, he replied.We must stay on the cruiser for the night.We will speak with the residents in the morning, after they’ve had some rest.Staying in the cruiser indefinitely was not an option, given the fuel it would waste maintaining the ship’s functions.They needed to conserve it for an inevitable off-world supply run in the near future.
In the moment when Hannah Forsyth met him in the field, her obvious feelings of curiosity and terror warring on her face, he had never been more grateful for insisting that the entire collective read about expected etiquette and manners in organic societies.Their original plan had been to land and start rebuilding immediately, heedless of the time, and RH103 was very glad he looked into other organic humanoid cultures before implementing it.
They have no suitable place for our cruiser.A field is not appropriate for long-term storage,said CW44.There’s no fuel, no protection from the elements, nothing..
You saw its scans, RH103 replied.Their landing pad was destroyed before the earthquake happened.This is not a culture that places high value on interplanetary travel.
Or any kind of travel, for that matter.There was no need to, when New Eden had everything they needed to survive in one place.They’d built their city on the one habitable land mass, in the south, where it was warmest.The northern part was uninhabited and largely composed of mountainous territory and caves, with nowhere to plant crops or build infrastructure.The city was surrounded by freshwater oceans, a rarity in this part of the galaxy.New Eden’s climate was pleasant to unenhanced bodies, the land in the south arable, the air and water suitable for human life.Or would be, if its infrastructure was repaired.
We shall find an appropriate place for our cruiser at a later time, RH103 replied.He strode across the field, where his brethren still waited outside the ship in a perfectly formed straight line.Their backs were ramrod straight, eyes trained ahead.Their black helmets shone under the light offered by the twin moons overhead.For the first time, he understood how they could be seen as intimidating.
Back aboard, he commanded them.Into the pods for the night.
If they’d been capable of groaning over their shared broadcast link, he was sure they would have.He didn’t blame them.While he didn’t mind the recharging pods, some of the others found them uncomfortable.As it was, they walked back up the cruiser’s ramp, single file, with RH103 at the rear.
Despite the exhaustionpulling at her, Hannah knew she wouldn’t sleep well, if at all.It took over an hour for her to get back to her house as the remains of New Eden’s citizenry peppered her with questions.
How many others were there?How big was the spaceship?Was shesurethe cyborgs were there to help them?Why had she been out so late at night, picking vegetables?
Hannah answered as best as she could, glossing over the queries about collecting produce in the middle of the night.She caught sympathetic glances from Jasmine, who knew about her sleep issues since the quake and how she dealt with them.How did one tell her friends and acquaintances that their agriculture production was so far behind that she had to harvest in the middle of the night, just to keep the city fed?Just to keep their food from rotting in the fields?
The thought of the tomato plants she’d left behind that needed to be picked and distributed made her heart hurt.But she could hardly steal back out of her house at this late hour, with most of the city wide awake, to pick them.She told herself that it would be okay, that an extra day or two on the vine wouldn’t spoil them.That her inaction wouldn’t doom the rest of the New Edeners to starvation.
When she reached her house, Jasmine quickly followed her to the front door and grabbed her elbow.“Do you want me to stay with you?”she said, voice quiet.Hannah had to strain to hear her over the voices of the people who had tagged along for the rest of the walk home.
Hannah considered Jasmine’s question for a moment.It would feel so good to talk to her, to unload her fears about New Eden’s future, her grief, the planet’s collective grief.And that was without even touching on the cyborgs she had invited to live with them.
But talking would take too much of her precious energy.“Thank you, but I think I’ll be okay for the night,” Hannah murmured.
Jasmine nodded.
“You’ll be at the amphitheater tomorrow, right?”
“Of course.”Jasmine looked affronted at the very hint of her not being in attendance.“I’m curious to see what a gang of cyborg clones looks like.I wonder if they’re all as huge as the one you marched through the streets.”
“I did not...”Hannah sighed.“I did notmarchhim.I don’t think that’s even possible.”She thought of how RH103 had loomed over her, making her feel small.Yet he had listened to her, even helped haul her up to the stage.
The memory of his hands on her shouldn’t have sent a shiver through her, but it did.And it wasn’t one of fear.
Jasmine noticed.“Are you all right?”
“Are you serious?”
“I mean, less all right than usual.”
Hannah shook her head.“Yeah.I’ll be fine.I just need some sleep.”
