Kartega
Chapter 13

Blades filled the story-high holsters of the clear, concave walls in the charging cells and Sid found it impossible to look anywhere else. She barely heard Ashlan when he left her to her own devices, promising to return in a few hours for his blade. Did she really agree to repair it by that time? Glaring at the rotating, perforated steel shelves as they charged the off-duty weapons, Sid was finding it difficult to focus, let alone figure out where anything was located. The shelves stretched all the way from floor to ceiling in never-ending rows. An uncountable number of blades pulsed their bright blue lights at different intervals as they recharged to be ready for use. She always found it odd that the ring’s glowing power field that shone in the brightest shade of gold dulled to a steel-cold blue when recycled into the power needed to sustain the technology Colton’s people invented. So far, everything in the towers had felt sterile and cool to the touch. Such a complete opposite to the star’s magic coursing through her veins every waking moment. Would I be blue and frozen if I lived here? She wondered, realizing the foolishness of her question. The chipped Domers had been powering Neostar for over a decade and none of them changed color. If you didn’t count their dull and bland attire, of course.

Not that she had any intention of actually fixing Ashlan’s weapon. The first part of her plan was already underway; he had left her alone. All she needed now was to sneak away and find a technician’s dock; from there, locating her valve should be a spacewalk in the stars. A robotic arm locked a blade into a charging dock next to her and sent it off into rotation, spinning the charging shelf in unison with the rest of the docked blades. Maybe she could fix his blade before she looked for the tech dock?

Just forget about that guy!

A lock mechanism hissed and a door slid open at the end of the hall in front of her. Sid curved her body tightly to the wall and inched away from the walkway. A moot point since the only thing separating her from whoever was heading her way was two panes of glass.

Sid squinted, peering out from the edge of the thick glass, careful not to show her face. A harder task than it seemed and she was quickly starting to realize that flattening herself out to the thinness of a leaf was not a talent she was born with. She edged closer, studying the stranger walking toward her down the corridor.

A short, stout man stumbled in her direction, his fingers tapping maniacally at the projected screen in his hands. His wide-set nose was scrunched in frustration and Sid could see beads of sweat forming at the top of his brow. He wiped the wetness off with the edge of his lab coat and continued to tap.

Her eyes scanned the area, trying desperately to find an exit without success. She had hidden herself in a dead end and the man’s brisk walk was rapidly closing the distance between them. Sid had to be quick and come up with a convincing enough story for her being here. If she could fool a Starblade and the NSO general, she sure as the stars could fool this man. Judging from his lab coat, he was likely one of the scientists working on the droids and ring operations. She could say she’s a junior scientist that got turned around? No, too obvious and her filthy suit did not match the story. A student? That wouldn’t work either. She didn’t even know the first thing about how students behaved in the city.

Think, Sid! Think! She urged herself as the man walked close enough for her to feel a breeze from his steps. In a moment, her mind cleared and she landed on a solution. I got it!

But before she had a chance to practice her lines, the man turned the corner and stopped right in front of her.

She wasn’t certain if he even knew she was there, his fingers still gliding over the projection screen. Sid watched the rows of data code flash across the screen as the man concentrated to find whatever it was he was looking for.

Maybe he’s blind? She wandered.

As if reading her mind, the scientist paused his finger and pointed it in her direction instead.

“Can I help you?” He asked, looking her up and down with a frown.

“Actually,” Sid answered without pause, “I think I’m here to help you.”

The scientist pressed a button and the screen of the projection shut down. He tucked the interface box into his pocket and burned his gaze into Sid’s eyes. She wasn’t wearing her goggles so there was no point pretending to be anyone other than a Domer. Even with the goggles on, she had a feeling this man was much too intelligent to fall for it. She was starting to feel foolish. The longer she stood here with her jaw slack, the more doubt she put into her story.

“I was asked to assist you. With the-” she gulped, “the droid malfunction.”

The scientist narrowed his eyes and Sid’s heart sank. He didn’t believe her. It was over. Her first instinct was to cry. Her second to run. Neither seemed like a good idea at that moment. Before she could make a choice one way or the other, the scientist spoke again.

“Ah! Of course. I hadn’t realized they had called someone in. Typical, I’ve had twenty-four hours to resolve this and they are already panicking. The nerve of some people!” He scoffed. “I am perfectly capable of fixing the stardamned droid myself!”

Sid sighed in relief. How many droids were breaking down in this place?

“No matter now,” the scientist said. “You’re already here so we may as well get to it.”

“Get to what, exactly?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Please tell me they briefed you on the problem at hand?”

Sid shook her head.

“Oh, my. They’re just completely incompetent, aren’t they?”

Sid tried to figure out who the ‘they’ were that he was constantly referring to but her memory went blank. Whoever ‘they’ were, the scientist was not a fan. She offered a shy smile and shrugged her shoulders, hoping to say as little as possible.

“Very well,” he pulled up the code he was studying before and handed Sid the screen, “see if you can make sense of any of this.”

Rows of numbers flashed before her and Sid studied each sequence, trying to understand what malfunction might be plaguing the poor droid in question. “What are the droid’s symptoms?”

“Symptoms?” The scientist scoffed, “It’s a droid, not a patient.”

“Right. Of course,” she agreed, her cheeks reddening. “I meant the anomalies it’s displaying.”

“Well, it’s gone completely bonkers!” The scientist flayed his arms in exaggeration. “When it’s not spinning in circles, it’s freezing everything in sight. The stardamned thing is entirely off its sequence! We had to seclude it in a solitary wing just to make sure it doesn’t cause any damage to its owner.”

Sid scanned the code again. It sounded like an issue with the axel but the freezing threw her off. She rolled her eyes over the flashing sequences, pausing abruptly and using her finger to scroll up a few pages. Of course! Just like Rusty! She thought excitedly, remembering a time she got the ship’s nitro tubes tangled up and almost froze the entire engine room. She tapped her finger to a random sequence, “Here! See?”

The scientist squeezed closer to the screen and squinted. From this angle, he looked more like a child than someone who was likely four times Sid’s age. “Hmm,” was all he said while examining her findings.

“He’s just all turned around. His nitro tubes are scrambled.”

“And how do you explain the spinning?” He asked, though to Sid, it seemed more like a test than a question.

She turned the screen back and scrolled until she found what she was looking for. Sid pushed the projection back to the scientist. “Because they’re not just scrambled. They’re looped around his axel. If he was a person, he’d be dead right about now.”

“If he was a person, he wouldn’t have an axel or nitro tubes,” the scientist chuckled and she was surprised that a man this serious had something resembling a sense of humor. “Not bad, Domer,” he added approvingly.

Sid wanted to reach down and slap the man but thought better off it. She couldn’t keep acting offended every time someone thought she was one of the workers. If anything, it only meant her acting skills were improving. She held out the interface box to the scientist and waited until he grabbed it and tossed it back into his lab pocket.

“We should probably get going.”

“We?” Sid raised an eyebrow.

“Of course. It’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Besides, I’m happy for the company and you’re the one that found the anomaly. You should get the honor of getting the droid functional again.”

“The great honor of being a technician,” Sid sneered under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing, just talking to myself. Happy to help in any way, of course!” She almost saluted the man but stopped herself from yet another embarrassment.

“You should be! It’s not every day you get to fix a Magistra’s personal droid. I’d assume this is a very big deal for someone like you.”

Sid’s eyes bulged so far out that she was sure she was about to lose one to gravity. “I’m sorry, did you say a Magistra’s personal droid?”

“Of course. Why else would we waste this much time on a machine? You think they’d employ the queen’s lead scientist for just any droid?” He shook his head, “I recommended we wipe the foolish thing but the Magistra insisted on repairing it. Something about having built a rapport with the piece of junk. I’ll never understand it but here we are.”

Her head was spinning. She was about to help fix a droid that belonged to the queen’s lady in waiting. Sid felt like she had won the prize of a lifetime. She had always been jealous of the Magistras and their proximity to Queen Leona and now she could solve a problem for one of them. She had something they didn’t and it felt good. It felt better than good. It felt like she was someone.

She was still smiling from ear to ear when a frail and pot-marked hand poked into her peripheral.

“I’m Professor Cevil,” the scientist said with an outstretched hand.

Sid reached down and shook his palm lightly, surprised at the coldness of his skin. “Nice to meet you. I’m Sid.”

“Well, Sid. Are you ready to get started?” He asked and motioned her back to the doors he came in through.

Sid nodded and followed the short, little man obediently. She’d never been more ready for anything in her life.

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