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An incessant clicking and the sensation that her face was on fire forced Harmony to open her eyes.
“What the hell is making that racket?” Her eyelids felt as if they weighed a hundred pounds each, and when she pried them open, a bright glare immediately forced her to close them again. Harmony tried to lift her arm to cover them but couldn’t. What was wrong with her? Had someone boarded Airus and tied her up? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Maybe she was dead and this was hell.
At that moment, a sharp stabbing pain shot down the full length of her body. Nope. Too much pain to be dead. Harmony drew in a deep breath and rolled over onto her side. This time when she opened her eyes the deck flooring and two metal feet were the only things in sight. “Molly, where’s Boy?” she groaned.
Only a series of agitated, rapid clicking noises came from the robot. That wasn’t good. Those were the sounds Molly made when under duress. Damn. Molly had been built over eight hundred years ago, before The Great War. The little robot had not only witnessed that war but also its aftermath, the planet’s environmental destruction. Almost all the cities around the world had been leveled along with most of the humans and their technology, so this antique robot had enough experience of real catastrophes never to let little things get her all worked up. So, whatever had happened must be bad.
With pain shooting through her every nerve ending, Harmony pushed herself up onto her knees and used Molly’s help to get upright. One quick look around had her wishing she hadn’t bothered going to so much trouble. The airship was a complete wreck. Debris was strewn from bow to stern and the balloon was nowhere in sight.
Trying not to panic and needlessly upset Molly, Harmony patted the ancient robot’s head before hobbling up the slope of the deck toward the starboard side. The balloon’s tethering wires were all laying in that direction, so she hoped that, even though it was no longer inflated, it was still intact and not badly damaged.
Dread settled in and became more pronounced with each step closer to the railing. The ship was at such an angle, Harmony had to hold onto the rail to keep from falling backward.
She peered over the edge. “Oh, no. What am I going to do now?” The mess on the deck looked minor compared to the sight of Airus’s balloon sprawled across a sandy beach. Somehow they’d come down onto the shore of what looked like a small island, but the balloon hadn’t been as lucky and half of it was still in the water. She needed to find a way to lower the ladder and pull it out before it filled with sand and became too heavy to lift. After that, she would figure out which problem to fix next.
Molly made it up the slope and stood next to Harmony.
She patted the top of Molly’s head and asked, “I don’t suppose, downloaded into that wonderful brain of yours, there’s some clue as to our whereabouts?”
A series of hurried, clicking sounds came from Molly. Maybe there was something wrong with her other than worrying over their current predicament.
Harmony knelt down to eye level with the tiny robot. “Are you okay?”
Again there was only a series of unidentifiable sounds, but this time Molly waved her arms around, relaying her frustration at not being able to communicate.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry. We’ll fix you.” Those were grand reassurances. Harmony glanced between the deflated balloon and Molly. What the hell was she going to do? She needed the information Molly had programmed into her but knew nothing about resetting her.
Anyway, where was Boy? Harmony closed her eyes and tried to remember the last time she had seen him. She had sent him to the cabin to check on Molly. He must still be there.
She reopened her eyes and patted the little robot on the head again. “Let’s go find Boy. Maybe he’ll know how to fix you.”
Harmony took off through the debris, toward the cabin. The sounds of agitated clicking made her stop and turn to see what was wrong. Molly was entangled in the fallen balloon’s glide wires, so Harmony headed back to help.
Somehow Molly had gotten several of the wires wrapped around her, but every time Harmony figured out how to untangle one, the robot would wriggle around as if trying to help and make matters worse.
“Stop moving. You’re not helping.” Only when Molly did as she was told could Harmony slide the wires over Molly’s head and pulled them away from her arms and legs. When they were all finally off, Harmony picked Molly up; the tiny robot too short to step over the debris.
At the cabin, Harmony stood in the doorway and looked at the chaos inside. The only thing not thrown against the port side was her bed, and that was only because it was screwed down to the floor. There was no sign of Boy anywhere in the mess of bedsheets and scattered clothing. She set Molly down and wadded into the debris in search of him. She tossed bedcoverings and clothes aside until she’d almost concluded that Boy wasn’t in the room when she finally stumbled upon him beneath a pile of her underwear. Harmony cleared it all off and knelt beside him.
“Boy, are you okay?” and Harmony grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him close. She waited for him to respond but he only stared without blinking. A tear slid down her face but she wiped it away when Molly came over and stood by her side.
“Can you fix him?” Harmony said, but closed her eyes when Molly’s only answer was just more clicking.
Harmony drew in a ragged breath and hugged Boy against her chest as she whispered, “We’re going to be just fine. You wait and see. Molly’s going to fix you up and I’m going to fix Airus. I’ll get us all home, safe and sound. I promise I’ll get you back to Liberty, if it’s the last thing I ever do.” She had to; Boy loved Harmony’s grandmother Liberty above all others and was happiest when he was by her grave. He only traveled with Harmony because of a promise he had made to Liberty before her death. Boy felt responsible for her family now she was no longer able to be there for them. Harmony had to get them all back home, if for no other reason than to return Boy to being by his best friend’s side.
Harmony ran a finger down a long crack in Boy’s glass head. What if he couldn’t be repaired? What would she do without him by her side? Boy had been there her entire life, always giving advice – always caring what happened to her. Harmony had assumed he always would be there.
She looked around at the damaged airship and then back at her best friend. Not once had she ever considered the possibility that she might one day not make it back home. Clearly that had been a naïve assumption. Her family would have no idea Airus had been blown out to sea and it might take them weeks to realize she was even missing. And when they finally did, they wouldn’t have any idea where to begin searching. It was all too overwhelming to think about.
At first Harmony didn’t realize she was crying until the tears began running off her face and down her neck. Even after reaching up and wiping away the wetness, it took her a moment to realize it was coming from her eyes.
Molly placed her hand on top of Harmony, as Harmony always did to comfort Molly and Boy. That simple act of love was enough to make Harmony realize she wasn’t alone. She smiled at Molly and patted her hand in return.
“We’re going to be okay. It’s going to take some work but somehow we’re going to make it through all of this.” She picked Boy up and carried him over to the bed, where she carefully placed him down. She turned to Molly. “If we want out of this mess, we’re going to have to save ourselves.” Harmony straightened Boy’s arms and legs out and patted his head. “I’m leaving Boy in your capable hands. I don’t know the first thing about how to fix him, but I bet you do.” She knelt to eye level with Molly. “It’s going to take some doing but I’ll find a way to get us back home.” She hugged Molly and pleaded, “Please help him. I don’t know if I can live without him.”