Scarlet Steel

“For two hundred years humanity settled the stars. Five different races worked together, four AI and humans, all unique, but interconnected. Humans, Quantums, Software, Biological, and Mind Rips. While we don’t forget, humans are prone to doing so. Despite our efforts, alliances formed, borders were declared, friction between groups grew, and eventually, interstellar wars began.” - An incomplete history of space travel, written by Kismet.

I lay under my covers, listening as hard as I can. They’re still in the kitchen, still talking, although their words are too quiet to make out.

Fudge it, I can’t wait here forever. I climb out of bed, shove a pillow beneath the covers, and put on a jacket. I throw on my backpack full of tools and water, and pull open the window. I have to throw my bag out before climbing through and setting off.

I know the direction. I know how far. The twin moons are full and bright. The path is going to have changed from the drop, but that’s ok! I’m good at finding my way!

The junkyard is silent as I make my way through familiar paths carved through the scrap, just the sound of my footsteps hitting the ground.

It’s not long before I hit a dead end, the drop has closed off one of my paths. That’s ok though! That just means I’m here! I take off my backpack and place it on the ground. From inside I grab a length of rope and tie one end to the backpack, and the other to me. All that’s left to do is to climb up.

I’ve been doing this for years. Finding my footing, even on the unsettled slopes, is easy if I’m careful. Once I’m at the top I heave up my backpack using the rope, and continue on, walking atop the scrap plateau. 

If I find the mech and need to come back, I’ll need to make a ramp. But that’s a problem for later, for now I have to search! I do so frantically, walking in whatever direction I feel is best, stopping occasionally to move scrap to check underneath. 

“You’re looking in the wrong area.”

I spin around, only to be met face to face with Exa.

“Exa! I- uh. I was going for a walk and got lost! I sleep walk, you know? I didn’t sneak out!”

“Scarlet. You tossed a backpack full of tools out your window, everyone heard it. Your mom just shook her head and said ‘there she goes again’.”

“Wait! You should be with dad!”

“I left my holo on the counter. I’m with him right now.” She walks straight past me, heading in a direction that I totally would have gone eventually. “You saw the Hopper fall, right?”

“Is that what it was?” I run to catch up with her. “I just saw a glimpse, I wasn’t sure what mech it actually was.”

“It is. And what are you going to do with it if we find it?”

“That’s easy! I’m going to repair it!”

“But why?” She asks.

“To help dad!” I answer excitedly. “If I make him a new mech, he’ll need someone to work on it! I can do that! And then I can go with him and keep him safe!”

“That’s a good goal.” She nods. “You wait for me before you do anything too dangerous though, alright? Don’t crush your hand in a gear or electrocute yourself or anything. Don’t be a dummy.”

“I won’t! We can work on it together wherever you and dad come by! I just need to claim it before anyone else.”

“Promise?” She holds out her hand, leaving only her pinky finger extended.

“Promise!” I wrap mine around hers. 

“Let’s get started then.” She crouches down and easily moves a massive metal sheet out of the way. It only takes a small amount of digging before a metal hull gets revealed. Exa knocks on it, and it sounds hollow.

“Is that it?”

“Sure is.”

“Awesome!” I put down my bag and pull out a length of vibrant blue cloth with a small electronic beacon on it. “I need you to tie this to it!”

“Does your mom know you’re using one of her claims?” Exa asks.

“She gave me a few! Now come on! Before someone else finds it!”

“Alright, alright.” She moves another pile of scrap easily, finding the mech’s leg joints. From there she finds a sturdy structural part to wrap the cloth around and tie it off. She finishes off by pressing a button on it, and a green light lights up. “I’m surprised nobody else came looking for this.”

“I never see that many people in the junkyard. They all just work in the factory.”

“The recycling plant?” She glances towards the town, the pillar of smoke still visible. “I guess any metal would be as good as any other. No real reason to come all the way out here.” She glances around us. “And I guess there’s not exactly a shortage of the stuff.”

“Nope!” I agree and dig through my backpack. I have a small foldable shovel, and get to work helping Exa. 

“So when do you sleep?” Exa asks. “Your mom says you go out most nights.”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I made a little bed in my workshop!”

“So what, you sneak out at night just so you can sleep during the day?”

“Well when you say it like that, it sounds like a dummy idea.”

“Well it fits.”

“What does that mean!”

“It means you’re a dummy, dummy.” She pokes me in the side.

“No I’m not! You’re a dummy!” I poke her back.

“Maybe I am.”

The two of us work hard extracting the mech. Well, extracting it is a stretch. The thing is massive! A five ton scout mech! The best we can do is dig out the scrap around it and give us some space to climb around.

“What are these?” I point to a few circular holes on the mech’s torso.

Exa is quiet for a while. Just when I’m about to ask my question once again, she speaks.

“Those are bullet holes.” She says. “Don’t tell your mom I told you that, but, being a pilot can be dangerous.”

“Have you and Dad ever been shot at?”

She’s silent once again.

“A few times.” She eventually admits. “We stay safe though. Juno and Elara’s mech is entirely dedicated to keeping us safe.”

“I don’t want you two to get hurt.” I whisper.

“We’re not going to get hurt. Promise. Now chin up Kid! We’ve got a mech to diagnose! Why don’t we go through and figure out what’s wrong with this girl, alright?”

“Right!” I grab my tool box and get to work. “How do we open it?”

“The way you climb into one of these is from behind. The pilot actually lays on the ground, strapped into a suspension harness to dampen sudden movements, right below the engine.”

“You climb in her butt?” I ask.

“Normally, yeah. We’re uh, not going to be able to wiggle under there though.” She says, glancing down at the mech on its back. “Our best bet is to take off the front chestpiece. You’re lucky it’s an Old Earth Designs mech, you could probably deconstruct this thing with a screwdriver.”

“How do you know that?”

“Take a look at the underside.” She steps to the side to let me look. “You see the serial number?”

“Yeah?”

“Last four digits are the model year. This one’s 2328. Everything before 2343 got leaked a few years back, and I have a copy of the dump.” One of Exa’s fingers spin around, replaced by a few little grabby arms. Those latch onto a bolt and quickly spin.

“This is 32 years old? That’s older than me!” I grab a socket wrench from my backpack and get to work doing the same as her, removing bolts along a seam.

“A few times older. She’s still a good mech if you can get her working though, these things have been pretty much unchanged for the last fifty years.”

“They don’t make them better? Why?”

“A ghost, if you believe your dad, although I think it’s way more likely to be a Quantum pulling the strings. Whenever things start to develop too far, or more precisely, start risking too much collateral damage, something steps in. My favorite example is when a research base was founded on a rogue moon that was kicked out of its system. The place was entirely unknown, undetectable, nearly impossible to find even if you knew where to look. And you know what happened?”

“What?” I ask, enraptured by her story.

“The whole place disappeared, suddenly dropped out of contact with the Quantum network. Another ship arrived four hours later, and found the place abandoned. Every person that worked there, every piece of technology, even the orbital cannons on the surface, all gone without a trace. Just empty hallways dug through the moon. The research they were doing was on ways to get around the FTL suppression field around planets, to let them destroy whatever they wanted. Someone put a stop to that.”

“That’s scary.”

“I think it’s pretty comforting, actually. Something out there’s looking out for the universe, even when we aren’t always doing the same. Plus you’ve got Earth getting people out when things get bad.”

“Earth? Like, the dirt rescues people?”

The last bolt comes free, and so does the entire front. Even Exa has trouble pulling the sheet of steel off the mech. “Don’t tell me nobody has ever told you about Earth.”

I stay quiet, not wanting to admit that, no, I don’t know what she’s talking about. 

“Earth is a planet, where we all originally came from. Humans, AI, everyone but the Mnemosyne. I’d take you to visit it if it didn’t have a planetary shield around it.”

“Why does it have one?”

“No idea. Only contact we have with it is a single trade port in orbit, and a line of mechs way stronger than anything else out here that show up to get civilians out sometimes. Piece of advice, if a Bluebird mech ever comes here, you run towards it. It’s here for a reason and it’ll keep you safe.”

“How will I know?”

“I’ll give you some pictures. Enough about that though, where do you think we should start?”

I take in the inside of the mech. It’s divided into two parts. The bottom fourth is what I think is the backside of a computer console. Wires have been shoved into small alcoves and are wired up seemingly randomly. Or were wired up randomly, more than a few bundles have been cut, with holes into the cockpit itself behind them.

Above that, taking up most of the mech, is the engine. It’s been ruined. Fractured remnants of the thing are pooled in the back of the compartment. Holes pepper the entire thing, and the antimatter cell is entirely missing. 

“I can’t power anything with my battery, can I?” I ask. “How do I fix the engine?”

“Slowly. I hope you’re ready for a multiple year project.”

“I am!”

“Alright. Then we start by making a workspace. We’ll take this thing apart, see what can be salvaged, and try to replace the rest.”

“I can do that!” The basis for any workplace is a flat floor. I get to work moving around scrap, and Exa quickly starts to help. Not that I need her! I made my workshop all by myself, I can do this too if I needed to. But I appreciate the help.

There’s plenty of metal to make a floor out of, the hard part is making sure the metal beneath it won’t shift. We do it though! That, plus a few makeshift tables is all we need!

“Is a mech engine like a car engine?” I ask.

“Kind of.” Exa begins to take apart the engine, letting me watch closely. “There are only so many ways to turn an explosion into momentum. Or at least, the concept is the same. A bit of antimatter gets pushed along a magnetic field into a reaction chamber, add in a small bit of matter, and you get an explosion. That explosion pushes on a magnetic field, and that generates an electric charge. Trouble is, you need a pure vacuum and a perfect combustion.”

“And if you don’t?” I ask.

“Look here.” She pulls out a tube and shows it to me. Small blemishes are all over the inside of it. “Every pockmark you see is a misfire. Enough of those and you get a breach in the line. Luckily antimatter cells have a relief mechanism, it won’t just outright detonate unless something’s very wrong, but it will blow up your engine compartment. That’s why you wait until I’m here to try anything big, alright?”

“Ok.”

“Good. And if you find a cell in here somewhere, please, don’t touch it. Just mark it and let me handle it.”

“I will.” I promise. 

“Good.”

Exa and I work through the night. We get the engine completely taken apart. Not much of it can be reused without repairs, and very little I can actually repair. My biggest problem is that I’ve never found a working welder. Exa has one built into her arm, but that won’t help me when she leaves.

I let her work on the structural parts, and I try to diagnose any small pieces, sorting them into piles based on what’s wrong with them, and what I need to fix them. Or at least my best guess. 

The longer I work, the closer my head gets to the table. But I keep working! Even as exhaustion starts to set in, I keep working.

A hand on my shoulder makes me jump. I look up to find Exa standing over me.

“Alright, Kid. You need to get to sleep.” Exa says.

“I’m fine.” I peel myself off the table and reach up to rub my eye.

“Sun’s about to come up. We can work more tomorrow.”

“Promise?” I ask.

“Promise.”

I nod, and let her pick me up. My eyes drift closed, and I find myself in bed just a few moments later.

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