A simple job

Chapter Two

The three of them walked through the ruins, searching for any sign of their target. The only noises they could hear were the sounds of Jahnarton's inhuman mechanical body. Sum wasn't sure if all the noise made them safer or put them in even more danger. On the one hand, all the noise might frighten their targets away and he wouldn't have to worry about being shot at. On the other hand, all that noise gave away their position, so if their targets were not cowards they could easily set up an ambush for the trio.

The only words they had exchanged since Urak agreed to let them help was Urak asking Jahnarton to quiet down so they could avoid either of those two possibilities. Jahnarton surprisingly did so without complaint, since he didn't want to risk the cultists fleeing. The difference in the volume of the sounds was barely noticeable, but Urak still thanked him before going back to saying nothing.

All in all, it was probably the fourth most awkward situation Sum had found himself in, (the three situations that were more awkward than this one also happened to involve Jahnarton). Suddenly the princeling froze, causing most of the noises coming from his body to cease. The other two glanced over at him. "What's wrong?" Urak asked, his hands clasped tightly around his assault cannon.

"I just realized we've missed lunchtime by a half hour. Sum, do you mind getting me one of those citrus sausages you made for us out of your backpack? Oh, and I suppose you should grab some for you and your fellow horse stabber as well." Sum sighed in a mixture of relief and annoyance before doing what he was asked. He gave Jahnarton a sausage. Several feeding tubes untangled themselves from the tangled mess of wires and cables that adorned the princeling's body and began to dig into the sausage and carve out their own little tunnels as if they were worms eating an apple. The tiny whirling blades inside the tubes chopped the food into even smaller pieces so they could be vacuumed up.

"I'm good," Urak said when offered a sausage by Sum, sounding vaguely sick as he watched Jahnarton's feeding tubes burrow in and out of the sausage.

"I get it," Sum said before taking a bite out of the sausage. Once he was done chewing he added, "I eventually got used to it though." He was lying, he was just too hungry to care about his disgust right now; although it stopped him from properly enjoying the sausage's citrusy flavor. It was a pity, he had marinated it in orange and lime juices for nearly an entire week.

"Can... Can he even taste it?" Urak asked, sounding like he was almost afraid to hear the answer.

Jahnarton spoke up before Sum could answer him. "I can't," Jahnarton answered even as his feeding tubes kept wiggling their way through the sausage. "But at least it's better than having a mouth."

"How in the world is that possibly better?"

"Because I don't need a mouth when I could get these instead," Jahnarton replied, gesturing towards his feeding tubes.

"But why get those when you were born with a mouth? What possible benefit do you get from them?" Urak asked, clearly baffled.

"I get the benefit of having these instead of a mouth."

This answer left Urak feeling completely stupefied, but Sum placed a hand on his shoulder before he could say anything else. "Don't bother, I tried asking him something similar a while back and we just ended up talking in circles. All Navdite nobles are raised to think metal is better than flesh, even in cases it's more of a detriment than a benefit."

"Having metal instead of flesh is never a detriment," Almost as soon as he said that, one of his feeding tubes began to smoke.

"You know that's starting to..." Sum began to say before being cut off by Jahnarton.

"Yes, yes I know," Jahnarton said as he yanked the smoking tube out of his food and looked down into it. "Looks like it's clogged." He then spent around ten minutes trying to unclog the tube before Urak lost his patience and continued to scout for any signs of the Zaalites; Sum followed after him because watching Jahnarton unclog his tubes was about as nauseating as walking through a Navdite art museum, (Jahnarton had paid Sum to walk through one with him a few years ago. Even though Sum was being paid to go in there, it still felt like the world's worst waste of money to him).