The Paradox Corridor

Chapter 13: That's Not My Robot!

"He may be old, but you have to admit that he's got style." said Andrew as Amber timidly pulled the plane temporarily out of the range of the robot, testing out the controls she had just tried to learn.

"Shut up, Andrew. Custodian, what do we do?" asked James.

"Whenever a console turns red, go over to it and do whatever it says to fix the problem," replied the right custodian. James was extremely nervous being trusted with the repairs of a ship too complicated for him to understand. As his head whirled with these thoughts, he suddenly felt another presence in his mind, like the voice from earlier, except this one seemed a lot nicer. It didn't speak, necessarily, but it did calm him down and get his mind straight. He suddenly felt a lot more accepting of the whole situation; the custodian, the robot, the spaceship, everything. He didn't know what this feeling was, but it was just what he needed. He wheeled over to the nearest console, ready and waiting. He looked around, and noticed that his friends, too, seemed a lot more confident and calm than before.

"And me?" ask Amber to the custodian, "What should I do?"

"Fly around the robot in a wide circle, changing direction once every minute or two, and whenever it is about to fire at us, take evasive action. I assume you have reached that part in the manual, correct?"

"Yes sir, I have. Will do."

"You've already read through the whole thing?!?" asked Andrew in disbelief.

"You know I've always been a fast reader." said Amber, blushing. "Now lets go get rid of this robot once and for all." She pushed the throttle a bit, and turned the wheel, and the ship turned back around and headed for the robot. Even with the presence's help, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about openly attack a robot that was both angry and armed to the teeth.

"Ok, custodian! Fire!" Amber yelled when she was in position. The custodians swiveled their cannons and opened fire. The cannons smoked and recoiled and let out loud BAROOMS as two huge yellow blasts struck the robot's side. The explosion was massive, and smoke clouded around the robot as the custodians continued to fire until they eventually had to reload. The robot stood up from the crater, enraged. To their surprise, it seemed completely unaffected by the blasts, unlike before, in which mere stones alone had been able to break all of its armor. It let out a screech and began priming its arm cannon, which lit up as it did so.

"That should have at least dented it!" complained Andrew as Amber began to fly around the robot. "It didn't do a thing!" Amber began to fly faster and faster around the robot, who tried to spin around to keep it's cannon primed on their ship. James realized that Amber was trying to make it dizzy by making it spin too fast. However, she forgot that, since the robot wasn't actually alive, it in fact could not be made dizzy, a fact she figured out when the robot fired at them from it's humorous pirouette and hit the top of their ship. The custodians both sighed as the ship rumbled and the alarm blared. James wheeled over to the red console, which read: FIRE ON TOP OF SHIP. ACTIVATE EMERGENCY COOLANT? Y/N James hit Y, and the alarms ceased.

"I was hoping it would be their robot, "said one custodian to the other as Amber tried flying in a Zigzag pattern.

"Indeed," said the other. "But this creature..., well, we may not have the right tools to hurt it."

"What are you talking about?" asked Andrew, "That is the same thing we saw this afternoon!"

"Use the high powered-radar. It should prove otherwise." said the custodians. Andrew looked around the room, and saw the console labeled Radar. He gestured to James, and they both wheeled over to it. As they did, the entire room shook as another blast from the robot barely missed them and the custodians futilely returned fire. Andrew clicked the first button on the console, and an automated voice came out of hidden speakers.

"What would you like to scan in greater depth?" asked the radar, in a proper-sounding British female voice. There were only three things on the radar currently; the trailer, the robot, and their ship. Andrew touched the robot, and the system went to work, whirring and beeping as the system scanned the robot and looked it up in its database. While Andrew waited for the system to find the robot, James wheeled over to Amber as the ship lurched from the change in altitude.

"Thank goodness" said Amber, "I could really use a co-pilot" she said as she drove a jaggedly circle around the robot, causing Andrew to fall out of his chair.

"In a minute, Amber, our systems are still looking up the robot, or, whatever it is."

"Ok, but as soon as you are free you need to take over the wheel. My nerves are killing me!" There was a loud ping, and James hurried over to Andrew.

"We've got a hit!" cried Andrew.

"What do you mean, a hit?" asked James, "What's a hit?"

"I dunno. They just say that in spy shows a lot" replied Andrew. "Anyway, the system found the robot." They looked at it in greater detail. But as they looked at the full file, they realized something was wrong. The system showed the robot's picture, among others, but the file was not the robot's at all. In the corner that held the name, it read "Gal-Gatha"

"A Gal-what?" asked Andrew in surprise.

"That's not all. Look!" said James, pointing at another area of the screen. It indeed proved the custodians were right. For the short description of the 'robot', it simply read "Shapeshifting predator." They looked at each other in surprise, and then continued reading the long description. "Although a photograph has never been taken of these rare creatures in its true form, it has been caught on camera changing its form. It seems to prefer taking the shape of the thing its prey fears most. It cannot be harmed while it is imitating another creature or object, and the only way to hurt it is to force it to return to its true form. This has never been done, and the methods of actually pulling it off are unknown." They stood in shock, faced with the apparently hopeless facts.

"Well..." said Andrew dejectedly.

"Crap," finished James. "We're screwed."