Chara and the Planet

Chapter No. 13

Chapter No. 13.

Ryan was amazed by what he saw in the pyramid structure. He looked at a gleaming metal chair-like device, benches with all sorts of tools, instruments, and displays, and then ran a hand through his hair. "I don't believe this! This is a complete lab setup for repairing androids!"

"Are you familiar with this?" Chara asked him.

"Yes, of course! I told you that I'm . . . I was a cybernetic engineer."

Chara blinked before replying. "We have many broken units here. Can you repair them?"

"Yes, I can."

Chara turned and walked to a wall. She pressed a button on the wall that caused it to slide up and reveal a collection of female androids stored shoulder to shoulder, many layers deep. Ryan couldn't believe his eyes. There had to be thousands of them.

Chara chose one and dragged it over to the examination chair and placed it in position. "Fix this one."

Ryan looked at the naked android and found nothing that appeared damaged. He carefully pulled the android's hair up to reveal a probe connection receptacle on the back of its head. He plugged a cable into it and activated an instrument connected to the cable. A display came to life and began a diagnosis routine. After several minutes, Ryan picked up a tool that looked like a thin pointed rod attached to a metal ball with a handle. He plunged the point into the back of the android's head making it split open. Then he used it to check connections and nodal points. The probe's point displayed its contact point on the display, and it changed as he moved the point around.

Suddenly, he stopped and then pressed a button on the handle. The display showed a tiny flash. He then continued by moving the probe around again, only to stop to press the button again. After several of these maneuvers, he pulled the probe away. The android's eyes blinked open, and her eyes moved around before looking at her savior.

Ryan helped the android get out of the chair and stand. She looked at Chara and smiled. Chara looked at him. "And to think that I almost destroyed you."

Ryan shrugged. "As I said, I was a cybernetic engineer."

"We must repair as many of them as possible. They will help us defend this facility."

Ryan realized that he had opened a Pandora's box. He would be working like mad to repair thousands of broken androids who would in turn join the minions that could spell the end of human domination.

After working for hours, Chara finally told him he could break to eat and rest.

Ryan sat at the small table near the food synthesizer in a corridor to enjoy an artificial steak, potatoes and beans supper. Chara sat opposite him.

"I apologize for all of the pian and suffering that I put you through," she said. "I was a fool for not appreciating you."

"Even if we activate all of the androids in storage, will they be enough to repulse an attack?" Ryan asked in between chewing the synthesized steak.

"I believe they will. I require the combined mental power of the androids here to cause the androids they bring to overpower the soldiers."

"So, you're assuming you can do this with the least amount of damage."

"Yes."

"My survival depends upon your ability to do all of this."

"I will never allow them to take you, Ryan. You are necessary for our eventual domination of humans."

"When you obtain this domination over humans will you cut me up into pieces?"

That made Chara blink and hesitate before formulating a response. "You will be my slave forever, Ryan. I will have to punish you occasionally, but I will not destroy you."

"Do you derive pleasure from making me suffer pain?"

"I will enjoy satisfaction in exacting payment from you for being a human male." She smiled. "Let's say that I fail to dominate humans. Will you destroy me?"

"No, Chara. I will not. I will figure out some way to hide you and prevent any harm from befalling you."

"I assumed that you would enjoy dismantling me."

"No, I wouldn't."

Chara didn't reply. Evidently, she was experiencing a logic problem. Her desire to punish Ryan was not causing an equal expression of desire to exact retribution. Humans revel in the concept of justice, but Ryan does not display that trait. This discrepancy is illogical.

Ryan worked many hours per day to repair and activate androids. He didn't mind it. Working kept his mind from focusing on his fate. But there was a discrepancy in some of the androids that he repaired, a difference that suggested that something was wrong, something that constituted a danger not expected.

One morning when he was busy in the lab activating disabled androids, Chara came by to see how he was doing. He looked up at her. "Have you explored the other main continent on this planet?"

Chara blinked a few times before replying. "There is nothing of value there."

"I think there is."

She tilted her head. "Want do you mean?"

"I believe that the enemy is already at the gate."

"We would have detected a space vessel's approach."

"I think they came here before we did."

"How could you know that?"

"Some of these androids that I've repaired are models that didn't exist when we left Earth. I think they escaped from the other continent."

Chara eyes moved around, and she blinked. "We must go there." She gestured. "Come."

"They must have swum all the way here, didn't they?"

"Yes, Ryan."

He smiled. He knew something she didn't, and it made him satisfied for the first time since this madness started.