A Walking Shadow

3. Observed

It isn't quite a party. It's more like a gathering of friends and neighbors who all live in the same section of the Yed Prior space station, held in one of the station's largest rooms. Random friends and family have turned up as well, so it isn't hard to get in.

Yhun, my unknowing interviewee, is sitting on one of the tables, animatedly recounting a story to three or four friends. I politely wait for him to finish. When he does, and his friends disperse, his attention turns to me. He's an insectoid Kraz, with long antennae, compound eyes, and a shiny purple exoskeleton.

"Hey," he says. He sounds very slightly drunk.

"Hi," I respond. "You're Yhun?"

"Yup. What's up?"

"I heard you had a funny story about a Tarazoid woman and a cleaning bot."

He nods knowingly. "I do indeed, my friend. You want to hear it, then?"

"Yes please." I take my recorder out of my pocket. "Mind if I record it?"

Confusion flashes across Yhun's face for a split second, and then he shrugs. "Sure. Whatever. I don't care."

I turn the device on, sitting down on one of the chairs. "Please, go ahead."

*

Well, I'm not quite sure who you are or how you heard about this story—probably from someone else I've told it to—but I guess it is kinda funny.

Let me set the scene. The bustling streets of Yed Prior Station's shopping district. Actually, they weren't too bustling at the time. But there were definitely quite a few people. I'm sitting outside of a restaurant, drinking some juice or something and enjoying watching people pass by.

Soon enough, I notice this woman standing across the way, eyes desperately scanning the street. She actually looks about to faint. Literally. She's swaying slightly from side to side, and her eyes are clouded.

And then she sees it. The cleaning robot. A couple stores away from her. It's a short, round disk of metal, about half a meter in diameter. It's going about its business, hovering just above the station floor, sucking up all the dirt and waste.

Her eyes narrow, and all of a sudden, she takes off towards the bot with an energy and agility I definitely wouldn't have expected of someone in her condition. The bot seems to sense her pursuit, and it speeds up. I'm not entirely sure why a cleaning robot would have a reaction like that, but who knows—maybe people routinely go chasing after station bots.

Anyway, this woman is very quick. She's gaining on the bot, pushing past quite a few people in the street. Someone yells at her, but she pays no attention. I swear her entire being is focused on this robot.

The bot swerves up one street and down another. She follows. I follow too—I have to jog to keep up, but damn, I want to see what happens.

Apparently the bot is not allowed to bump into people, and this becomes a problem when the more wide, open street turns into a crowded market street. The bot is forced to slow down. The woman sees her chance, and, with a flying leap, she pounces on the poor cleaning robot.

Now, I mentioned that the bot is hovering an inch or two above the street, right? Well, as soon as the woman has got her hands on the bot, it zooms straight up into the air. Like, maybe four or five meters up. And now that it doesn't have to worry about colliding with people, it blasts off down the street again. The woman? She's hanging on for dear life. And she's not just holding onto it either—she's also trying to pull off one of the panels on the side.

The bot realizes that she's some sort of attacker, and starts flying around in tight circles, a futile attempt to throw the woman off. But her fingers are still clasped tightly around the rim of the robot's frame.

Finally, she tears off the panel, and sticks her fingers into the wires underneath, rummaging through them. The bot goes berzerk, frantically tossing itself up and down and left and right.

Then two things happen at almost the exact same time.

First, the woman goes limp.

Second, the bot freezes exactly where it is, hovering about four meters in the air and staying completely still.

The woman drops down and lands in the middle of the street with a thud. She doesn't move.

The bot quits the scene. I don't bother to follow it. And there's a crowd forming around the unmoving woman. So I leave.

*

Yhun clears his throat and looks at the floor. "Okay, looking at it again, the story isn't all that funny, I guess. Well. It was funny to see this crazy lady chase after a cleaning bot. But the fact that she got injured isn't great."

"Right. Of course not."

"You know," he says suddenly, "maybe the bot... like... electrocuted her or something."

"Maybe," I reply.

"There's a reason you asked me to tell this story, isn't there." His eyes narrow slightly as he observes me. "I feel like you know what happened. Do you know?"

"Maybe."