Chapter 23: School Eternal — Part 7
“Spunky. He would have made short work of the enemy.”
“He’s insane, or as close to insane as an android brain can be.”
“He’s also the only one capable of controlling the weapons Elec made to protect you from harm. I sure can’t, because I don’t have the synchronizing processors specific to the task. Maybe she thought she’d fixed him last time. Maybe she really was close. Maybe if you looked at her technical and programming schematics, we could get him back on line, and sane.”
“How do you recommend we fix him?” Orchid said. “How could we ever trust him if we did bring him on line.”
Trenton and Triana dropped into the scene, having just witnessed the odd comment by the retreating Dead. “We got the one at the asteroid, as ordered.”
“We know. That’s why we’re all still here.” Orchid said, ignoring them for the moment. “How Glyph? How am I to fix him?”
Glyph circled quietly, processing with much consideration. “You’re smarter than Elec. If anybody can find a way to fix him, you can.”
“Synergy.” Ren said, and Orchid turned to him.
“Synergy?” Orchid countered, as if her definition of the word were somehow different, when it was apparent that Ren was thinking something profound.
“Blue and Spunky — Synergy. Each has needs the other can fulfill. Spunky has the neural coordinators for base processes, and Blue is sane. Blue’s far more complex, having been developed later, and nobody wants to be insane, given the alternative not to be: Synergy.”
Orchid considered the task, weighing the risk to Blue, to Spunky, to everybody, and she turned to Yap, her voice clipped. “Take Jun to the crypts, bring them to my lab.”
“I’m on it, love.” Yap didn’t need to be filled in on details. She would bring Orchid Blue and Spunky, and despite the tragedy around her, Yap’s sudden happiness was not easily concealed.
“Trenton, Triana, please help Bamboo collect the remains of the enemy. We’ll need to examine the corpses for strengths and weaknesses.” Orchid snapped on her heal. “We should have some weeks before the next wave, so we had best be ready before then. Diane, Sweetie, bring me a map of the planet. I want to know every point of attack, every place where they set down.”
Diane considered the task. “It will take me time, love.”
“We have to find what they’re looking for. They are after something specific.” Orchid paused. “Bamboo, please attempt to contact the President and query him.”
Bamboo, looking on her with eyes that were exactly like hers, looked too worried. “We know that the President has been replaced by a biodroid puppet. What’s to keep the monster from attacking me?”
“Jun, of course.” Orchid tried not to sound too exasperated. “Please, brother, I have to hope one of the puppets will be programmed with some knowledge of their target, or with their objective. They seem intent on killing me, or I would go myself.”
Orchid carefully sent wires into Blue’s access ports, thousands of them that would allow Blue to interface with her nonsentient computers and take them over. She stroked Blue’s head between the eyes, one of the only places from which the android could still sense touch. Blue’s mind found her computer’s audio interfaces. His voice sounded artificial, not the nurturing resonant baritone that had once bolted from the body that now lay on a massive slab of stone, devoid of physical sensation. Spunky lay near him in its box, still disabled, unable to send signal out or receive it — Orchid could not risk letting Spunky have access to the world before speaking with Blue.
“Your look bothers me.” Blue said.
“I didn’t know you could still see.” Orchid said, her fingers touching gently. “I was going to try to ease into this, but I don’t know how. Your body will remain inaccessible to you without replacing your core reponse processors. This cannot be done because it is integral to your android neural matrix — it’s the center of your brain, and a shaft of metal slammed straight through it. However, Yap and Kamau have helped me to design a work around, a way to get you up and moving. But it’s tricky.”
