AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The cyborg faced her, paused, and his expression went blank.Hannah froze.Had she short-circuited his head somehow?
But a few seconds later, he blinked.“RH103 agrees with you.”
“What?”She looked around the field for RH103.“Where is he?”
“Aboard our cruiser, making reports for your community meeting later this morning.”
“He waslisteningto us?”
“Everyone is listening to us.”
Hannah had suspected that they had some kind of common broadcast link, but she hadn’t expected that it was so closely connected.“Do you have a hive mind or something?”
“We share information and conversations freely.”
“What are you called, or is RH103 the only person who has his own name?”
“My designation is SP29.”
“Nice to meet you.I guess you already know I’m Hannah.”
The cyborg nodded.“You’re the leader of New Eden.”
“I’m really not.”
“Your voice is the one on the SOS broadcast.”
Hannah didn’t want to think about when she’d made that desperate plea on New Eden’s ruined equipment.“I did.There was no one else to do that.”
“Then you are the interimleader of New Eden, until your people hold an election.”
It was on the tip of Hannah’s tongue to point out that there weren't enough people left to bother holding an election, but she refrained from doing so.She didn’t have the energy to get into such a discussion, not when she would be taking the stage again in a couple of hours.
She turned back to the tomatoes and resumed picking them.
It tookRH103 a few moments to put a name to what he felt as he approached New Eden’s ruined amphitheater.
He wasnervous.
He was scared that New Eden would reject him and his brethren, force them back aboard their cruiser and back out into the open bleakness of deep space.There was nothing left for them out there since their world was destroyed.
By sending some of his brothers out to help, to show that they would be worthy new citizens, he may well have jeopardized their chances of acceptance.SP29 had told him of Hannah’s distress via their shared broadcast link at seeing some of them harvesting vegetables that were in dire need of being picked.She’d thought they were trying to conquer New Eden, take their resources.
RH103 had fucked it up.
Hannah arrived at the amphitheater a few minutes early, as he had, a trail of cyborgs behind her.RH103 could smell the soil on them as they approached and noticed a streak of dirt across Hannah’s forehead under the brim of her large woven sunhat.Dark half-moons under her eyes revealed her sleepless night, undoubtedly one of many since the disaster had struck the planet.
She looked up at him in surprise.“Where’s your helmet?”
RH103’s heart skipped a beat at her question, and he made a mental note to run a full diagnostic later.She noticed I changed my appearance!“I thought it would be prudent to appear less machine-like,” he replied.“So, I removed it.”
Before he could send a suggestion to the rest of the cyborgs to do the same, everyone started to take off theirs as well.
“Huh.”Hannah regarded him thoughtfully under her hat’s brim.“You have nice hair.”
SP29’s voice filled his mind.Are you malfunctioning?Your pulse is elevated.
I’m fine,RH103 replied.It’s nothing.
