The Human Inside

Chapter 21

Drop-Pod Landing Zone

    "6, this has to be the worst idea you have ever come up with. People have done this in the past. Need I remind you that they didn't exactly survive?"

    "You want to check your energy levels again? If you have a better idea, then say so. Otherwise, quit whining and let me work on this."

    6 took her hand away from the panel of the drop-pod cluster and pointed a finger in 5's face when he got too close. He lifted his hands up in surrender and backed away with his mouth firmly shut. The rest of the amborgs that had gathered watched in stunned silence.

    6 had dragged their drop-pods into a giant horseshoe formation and was setting up wires connecting them all together. Per her instructions, they had also managed to acquire a large generator.

    "Look 6. I was only trying..."

    5 was interrupted once more.

    "That has to be the lowest power level I have seen in your databanks since the time you played videogames nonstop for fifteen days," she said observantly and in a very condescending tone. "You want to talk about insanity? Come at me bitch."

    6 stopped what she was doing and looked at 5 with an apologetic look.

    "Sorry. I didn't mean to curse. I'm tired."

    "No apologies are necessary," 5 replied. "But look at this, you have taken several drop-pods, hooked them up together, and this is supposed to harness power and refine it so we can properly recharge? We are being struck by lightning."

    "Not directly," 6 said. "Have some faith and do something stupid for once in your life 5. It should be in our job requirements."

    "It's not a job requirement. It's an occupational hazard."

    But she didn't hear his last comment. 6 stepped back away from her pod and admired her handiwork. She had attached some sort of make-shift lightning rod to the roof of the pod. Somehow she had also managed to make twelve kites and they flew in the sky, heavily attached to the roof of the pod, and they were now floating and waiting for the storm to hit. 6 turned to look at the amborgs that were currently with her. Her enthusiastic smile faded at their looks of skepticism.

    "Oh come on," she protested, "Benjamin Franklin did something like this with one kite in order to experiment with the theory of a lightning rod. That worked, didn't it?"

    "Yes, that is correct 6," 5 said. He seemed to be the only one willing to speak up from the crowd, "However... we aren't sure if that bit of history is accurate. And another thing..."

    He pointed a finger up at the kites as thunder rang out in the sky.

    "...You have the lightning rods all ready," he continued, "...and the wires necessary to harness the power into the generator to form a backup power supply for those of us not here. But still, you are asking us to attach ourselves to the ends of those wires from our pods and be the ground rods... we are the receivers. This is not going to work."

    "Sure it is!" 6 exclaimed confidently, "LTO is an especially good conductor for any forms of quick charge and we are designed to run on basic forms of power. Except we can't exactly run on car batteries so... yeah. And even if the technicality of it is not sound for you, it will be fun to have a taste of Zeus' wrath. Wouldn't you agree?"

    "But did we ever test if LTO inside a genetically modified human is capable of withstanding such a large power surge at once?"

    5's question instantly caused them all to shiver.