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“FOR JUST THIS ONCE, I wish you would do as you were told without an argument.” Rat tossed the ladder over the side of the airship and then leaned over, to work the kinks out of it as best he could.
“All I’m saying is that you should lower me down like we did before. I can then hold the ladder and you won’t run the risk of getting blown off to your death.” Boy waited for Rat to straighten up and face him again before adding, “It only makes sense, you know.”
Rat headed over to the captain’s chair, Boy again on his heels. “No. It doesn’t make sense.” He stopped and grabbed the satchel filled with food and water from the chair. “I can’t take the risk that Molly won’t be able to pull you back onboard, and I don’t want her flying to Freedom alone. I need the two of you to go get help.”
“You’re assuming Walker is still there. What if he’s already headed off to the Forbidden Lands? What if he’s out there looking for you right now?” Boy paced between the helm and the friction engine.
“What if, what if, what if. You could go on all day and it would never change my mind. You’re staying onboard. I’m turning Independence over to you.” Rat pointed a finger at Boy. “And you damn well better take good care of her until I return.”
Boy stopped pacing and faced him. “For who? You? What does it matter if Independence is safe or not if you get blown off the ladder, down to your death? And what if you do survive the descent? What is your big plan once you get down? there”
Rat threw his hands up in the air. “You and your ‘What if’s.” He had the sudden urge to yank half his hair out, or better still, smack the top of Boy’s head. “You always want me to know the future.”
Rat headed back over to the ladder. “I’m depending on you to go get help.” He stopped and faced Boy again. “Now you have two choices. You can go get help or you can stand here all day and worry about the things you’re afraid might happen.” Rat walked back over to Boy and placed a hand on the top of his head. “It would be more helpful if you put your worrying aside,” then he knelt down. “You’re old enough to know by now that no one knows the future. What if I do die today? The world will still go on.” He touched Boy’s face. “You will go on.”
“PeopleI love keep leaving me.” Boy touched Rat’s cheek.
Rat closed his eyes and sighed. The tiny robot loved too much. It was humbling to know that something made of metal and glass was filled with more humanity than he knew he ever had. He reopened his eyes to find Molly had joined them. “Tell him I’m going to be fine.”
Molly touched Rat’s shoulder and said, “I wish I knew.”
Rat had to grin. “See? Even Molly doesn’t know the future. Over nine hundred years old and still not a psychic.”
He stood and wrapped his arms around both robots, pulling them into a deep hug. “You both know how much I love you, so no more talk of anyone dying today.” He stood back and folded his arms across his chest, deciding it was time to use his best commander voice. “The two of you are going to do exactly as I instructed earlier. As soon as I’ve climbed down, get the ladder back onboard and get Independence to Freedom. If Walker’s not there, then head back to the homestead. Tell Griffin that I’m going to do everything I can to keep these people safe until help arrives.”
“But you don’t know anything about these people. Maybe they don’t even want your help. We could be leaving you with a bunch of crazed lunatics. The only other mountain people I’ve seen were cannibals. What if these people are, too?”
“We’re worrying about cannibals now? Is there no end to your list of worries?” Rat climbed onto the railing, but before heading down, he did his best to reassure Boy on this one last thing. “Did Isa and the other women act like those crazed man-eating mountain people to you?”
Boy stood next to the railing. “Isa did stare at you the entire time, like she would like to eat you up, so I don’t know.”
Rat laughed, knowing full well that he had probably stared at her, looking just as hungry. He doubted that Boy understood the difference between a person needing food and needing another person’s presence.
“You’re never going to change, my friend.” He patted Boy on the head before slipping over the rail and placing his feet onto the first rung of the ladder. “And I’m not even certain I would want you to, anyway.”
Boy reached out and covered Rat’s hand with one of his own. “You’re wrong, you know.”
“About what, this time?”
The little robot came closer. “You think I can go on when someone I love dies. I don’t. A piece of me stays with them. Liberty took a part of my heart with her to her grave. In the back of my mind I’m always aware that she’s never coming back, and it hurts so much that sometimes I don’t want to be here, either. I keep having to remind myself that I promised her I would look after her family.”
Rat leaned his forehead on top of Boy’s head. “You do know that I can’t live forever, even if I don’t die today?”
“I know, but I want you to really live before that day comes. I want you to have a wife and children. I want you to be completely surrounded by love before that day.”
Rat leaned back, to look Boy in the eye. “How does anyone leave that?”
Boy did one slow blink before saying, “So, now you know what it is I feel.”