The Esper of Algol: Protector

Fetch Quest

Noah was up to his wait in trash.

Stupid old genius.

They'd had to first find Dr. Luveno in the Triada prison, where he'd been locked up for ignoring the ban on transport and shipping to Dezolis, then going stark crazy when the robocops tore up the ship he had been using and discarded the AI pilot as junk. When they found him they actually had to convince him that he should leave.  He was lucky to have only been locked up, and he seemed happy to just stay in his cell. But they managed to convince him by commissioning another ship, so long as they retrieve the pilot to fly it. So while he builds another clunker for them now, they were searching for the robot. In a dump.

"Any luck?" Alis called from a different pile of garbage.

"I can't tell one twisted hunk of metal from the next, to be honest," Odin called back.

Myau hopped up to the top of one of the piles, fur matted with dust and debris. "This is pointless. We've been here all day and have no way of knowing if we are even looking at the stupid thing." He started to clean himself aggressively. "And what kind of madman makes a robot out of laconia anyway."

Odin laughed. "Maybe one of us could learn to pilot the ship, and then if we do find it we could use the robot parts as armor or something."

"Trust me," Noah called as he climbed out, "you'll want something that knows what it's doing on one of Luveno's ships." He didn't mention that the AI was probably  the only thing that kept the ship together when he'd ridden Luveno's last ship back and forth between Palma and Motavia.

"Is that why you were all tensed up on the flight back?" Alis asked as she appeared from behind her pile and helped Noah out of the one he'd been sifting through. "Bad past experiences?"

Noah brushed himself off and glared at her briefly, muttering, "Shut up."

"You guys looking for something made of laconia in this heap?" A rough voice suddenly spoke up.

Noah and Alis jumped. Odin poked his head out from a pile ten meters away, and Myau continued vigorously cleaning his back.

The skeletal man was wrapped in a filthy blanket. He had suddenly appeared quietly next to them.

"You know where it is?" Alis asked the man.

"Maybe," he replied. "I'm awful thirsty, though. You don't happen to have a spare cola, do you?"

Almost immediately, Alis pulled out a cola bottle and handed it to him.

"Huh," said the man, looking down at the offered drink, "most people just ignore me or insult me or something. Thanks." He swigged the cola in one gulp. "Ah, that's nice. Wish it was cold, but I guess beggars can't be choosers."

He handed the bottle back to Alis, who looked at it confused. "Don't want to litter," the man explained. Then he started laughing. "Sorry, it's been a long time since I had any good will toward me, I just had to let out a little joke!"

By this time, Odin had joined the gathering, and Alis introduced everyone. Myau had moved on to cleaning his tail.

"Name's Yuji. Sorry if I startled you."

"Sure," Noah said. "So, you've seen a robot around here?"

"Nope," Yuji replied.

Noah rolled his eyes and sighed, taking a few steps toward the next pile of junk.

"Well, hold on, now, don't get all impatient on me," Yuji said. "I only said I didn't know where it is, but there's ways to find it, especially if it's made of laconia."