Coral, Tim and Norman raced away from Concordance park, darting across an electrobike lane without waiting for the lights, under an elevated section of bubbletruck track, and on towards the station as the sound of Walis’s screams faded in the distance.
He cries were attracting people. Some offered help, but he batted them away. Others had just come from the disturbance in Basic Plaza and recognised who they thought was the leader of the gang of thug-bots. They started jeering and the mood turned ugly. Police-bots and news-bots emerging from the plaza took an interest.
‘Told you that stuff was strong,’ Coral said, slowing as they reached a broad set of stairs near the station entrance.
Norman, still stunned by the effect of his attack, flung the plimp sauce bottle into a recycler. ‘That must’ve really hurt.’
‘So did having your arm half-broken.’
‘You don’t think I blinded him, do you?’
‘One those things? If you did, they’ll just pop in a new set of eyeballs.’
‘I s’pose so.’
Tim glanced at his friend. ‘What’s up?’
‘I dunno. It just seemed like a mean trick, squirting that stuff in his eyes.’
‘You think they’d stop at playing mean tricks? What about all those thug-bots in the plaza? All those kids? You saved our bacon, man.’
They followed Coral through a transit passage leading to a sign further up that consisted of three wavy lines beside the Eltherian word for river. A second set of stairs led to a broad concourse with exits pointing north, south, east and west.
‘Which way?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Coral said. ‘Let’s go for the busiest. Get lost in the crowd.’
They took the northern exit, following the passage to where it ended at an empty platform beside a broad river of what looked like molten lead. It had a dull metallic sheen and flowed like water, but there was no heat, and people were standing on its surface.
They watched as the couple ahead stepped off the platform. Like a real river, the flow along the sides was slow and easy, but as they moved towards the middle, their speed increased. In the centre, people raced along at thirty or forty kilometres an hour, all while standing still.
A group of students went by sitting cross-legged in a circle, chatting amongst themselves. Some people took folding seats from racks on the platform, walked out and made themselves comfortable. Presumably, they had longer journeys.
Coral, Tim and Norman made their way out slowly, picking up speed as they neared the middle. Norman was fascinated. There were no separate bands moving at different speeds. Like a real river, it simply flowed like a single entity.
They passed into an arched tunnel. Signs suspended from the ceiling told them of upcoming exits and they followed their own progress on map overlays in their heads-up displays. Theia was bigger than it looked coming down from Selene Station because many Theian houses were at least partly underground.
After ten minutes, the river split into two smaller streams which in turn broke up into smaller and smaller tributaries, forming the equivalent of local creeks. ‘The one on the right.’ Coral nudged the others. ‘There’s a Basic Accommodation near the end of it.’
They edged across, following a handful of other travellers. A minute later, it left the tunnel system and emerged from the side of a grassy hill into clear evening air before meandering on for another kilometre. The banks on either side were mown grass and fellow travellers simply stepped off into their own back gardens.
‘This is us up ahead.’
The stream ended at a wide, circulating pool beneath an overhead sign labelled Petzval. On the far side, another stream led back to town. They walked across the slowly rotating surface of the pool and up onto solid ground. Coral checked her overlay and pointed to a neat, quiet street beyond the river entrance. ‘That way.’
The long summer evening was drawing to a close. Street lights came on as they walked. A cleaning-bot rolled past, heading in the opposite direction, the low hum of its brushes the only sound above a twittering of birdsong.
The street was lined with trees quilted in spring blossoms, and the air was fresh and lightly scented with their flowers. They passed broad gardens and the low mounds of houses. While central city dwellers lived in apartments, most suburban houses were underground with sky domes, solar panels and sloping entrance ramps the only clues to their presence.
Overhead, two of the planet’s three moons were up and Halo glowed warmly in the light of the setting sun.
They passed a group of people talking, children playing games, and an elderly man walking what was either a gigantic dog or a miniature pony. It was on a harness and had a shaggy coat, mottled grey and ginger. Its long intelligent face watched them as they passed.
‘Oh my god, did you see that?’ Coral whispered. ‘Wasn’t it gorgeous!’
‘What the heck was it?’ Tim said.
‘They’re called silkas. House ponies.’ She turned, looking after it longingly.
‘You keep those things in your house?’
‘You can do.’
‘I’d hate to see the size of the pet door.’
Street level access to Basic Accommodation was little more than a broad grey stair with an illuminated sign, but down below they found a bright, marbled foyer and a greeter-bot that seemed genuinely delighted to meet them. It high-fived each of them in turn and gave them a tour of the facilities.
The sleeping modules they were shown to lay at the bottom of one of the corridors radiating off from the foyer. Ten identical compartments formed a circle around a communal area. All were empty. The greeter-bot explained that Petzval was primarily a winter destination.
‘So there’s no one else in this segment?’ Coral asked.
‘No, miss. We are only at seventeen percent of capacity and I doubt we’ll have any more arrivals this evening.’
‘If you get some, do you have room to put them elsewhere?’
The bot’s large eyes looked into hers for a moment. ‘You’d like privacy. I understand. Especially after the regrettable events at our Concordance facility. I shall reserve this segment for your exclusive use.’
‘Do you know what happened back there after we left?’
‘Unit CS-1124393 was captured and interrogated, but she told the augment nothing and was recycled.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘She acted well. A true Basic bot. She went on transmitting till the end.’
The greeter-bot bowed formally then left them, its rubber-coated wheels almost noiseless on the tiled floor.
They took a module each. The rooms were like regular hotel rooms in terms of facilities, except everything was squeezed into a space a little over a metre wide and three metres deep. Folding the bed away gave access to a bathroom and shower that opened out at the far end, while closing both made room for a fold-out table and a couple of chairs. There was a vid screen on an adjustable bracket above the bed and a little alcove of drinks and snacks beside it. Everything was spotlessly clean and the rooms smelled fresh and airy, but with the doors closed it still felt a little claustrophobic.
After checking things out, they reassembled in the common area. The excitement of the day was wearing off and they sat in silence, trying out different combinations on the drinks dispenser and the snack fabricator.
‘We forgot to get some disposable comms gear,’ Tim said. ‘Is there a Basic Comms nearby?’
Coral checked her heads-up display. ‘There’s one seven stops back, but it’ll be closed by now. We’ll have to leave it till the morning.’
‘They should have their comms switched off anyway if they’ve got any sense,’ Norman said morosely.
‘How are we supposed to contact them then?’
‘Mutual friends?’ Coral suggested.
‘Like who? Meli’s got Krilen, and their parents are off-planet.’
Norman tinkered with the food fab and produced a plate of smac chips and some dipping sauce.
‘Plimp? Coral asked.
He shook his head.
The chips weren’t as crunchy as the Basic Food ones, and no one, not even Norman, was particularly hungry.
‘There was that guy in Albert’s recollection video,’ Tim said. ‘A lab technician or something. Remember? He looked like Krilen’s assistant.’
‘Oh yeah,’ Coral said. ‘A short bald guy in a lab coat.’
‘He was wearing a name badge. I remember the translation overlay coming up. Andrew Something or Something Andrew.’
Coral yawned. ‘I think it was more alien than that. I’ll sleep on it.’
‘What good will knowing his name do?’ Norman said. ‘Even if you do remember it, how are you going to communicate? All Basic bots might have the English module now, but they’ll be on the lookout out for other downloads. As soon as he gets the message they’ll be onto us.’
Coral sighed ‘There you go. We’re stuffed. Thanks, Mr Cheerful.’
‘I’m just––’
‘I know,’ she said mildly. ‘I’m tired too. I think we should all get an early night. See you guys in the morning.’
Tim got to his feet as she headed to her module. He stretched, saying, ‘She’s right. It’s not every day you crash-land on a space station, escape an augment, land on an alien planet, then escape a posse of killer robots. I wonder what tomorrow’s got in store.’