Page 50 of The Space Traveller's Lover
He takes her by the hand, slowly walking out of the hangar and into the vast white-walled workroom she remembers so well. But the scene of devastation in front of her leaves her speechless. The large ebony table is tossed upside down against a corner, every single leg splintered and trashed into dangling twisting shreds, its glossy top lying scattered in smithereens all over the place. All the worktops dangle in pieces, their jagged fragments seemingly held together by some invisible wires.
She looks up at Rothwen, waiting for his explanation, although she already has an idea.
“I got carried away … while the humans were aiming at you,” he starkly says, hurrying up his pace while leading Shaillah away from the shard-covered area.
“It’s fine. Everything is replaceable, discardable. The robots will fix it soon. Nothing to worry about,” he adds in a dismissive tone. But he doesn’t tell her how close he came to sending his army into Tinian this very night.
Rothwen stops at the long corridor’s entrance and makes Shaillah stand in front of him while asking her, “Are you ready, my brave soldier?”
She excitedly nods. “Soyelani!”
Rothwen takes her hand, and as they are about to enter the steep downhill aisle, Shaillah suddenly stops in amazement. She gasps as she surveys the impressive sleek army of robots glistening against the high arching walls. In a perfectly aligned formation on each side of the long path, the rows of android robots stand face to face at attention, their line-up extending all the way to the end of the corridor. She closely studies the robots’ sinuous features, trying to take in every detail of their slimline, seamlessly assembled metallic bodies. The robots look similar to those she saw in the UniverseScope arena, but these are taller, with wider eyes and even longer limbs.
Rothwen leads her down the middle of the aisle, and as they pass by each pair, the robots lift and join their arms above them, forming an arch salute.
“These are soldier robots—not guarding robots,” he explains.
“How many are there?” she asks in complete awe.
“How many?” Rothwen wryly grins. Then, staring into the stalwart robots’ tracking eyes, he boasts, “As many as necessary. They replicate, integrate, or separate, depending on what I set them up to do. And they do not stop until the mission is complete.”
Rothwen and Shaillah continue walking down the aisle as Shaillah keeps admiring the robots’ faultless alignment. The robots instantly react to Rothwen’s scrutinising glare, blinking and straightening up their bodies if he makes the slightest gesture at them.
As they reach the exit chamber, Rothwen sends a command for one of the robots to unlock the ground gate. The soldier robot immediately moves forwards and slides its long arm around the floor, dislodging the tunnel’s entry. Then the robot takes Shaillah by her hand and, lookingstraight into her eyes, bows in deep reverence. Amused, Shaillah looks back at Rothwen.This last command was not necessary, she chides him. He responds with a smug smile.
“Suan enjie!” Rothwen cheers while casting a last look at the robots, his voice reverberating across the vaulted walls before they both slide into the scouting-craft waiting inside the tunnel.
CHAPTER 21
THE TRANSITION
I haven’t seen that look on your face for thousands of years!
In the laboratory room’s cold atmosphere, Shaillah’s body lies carefully wrapped in crisscrossed wide silver bands, resting on a free-floating thin bed, while Rothwen, Athguer, and Zula-Or wait for her to make the first move.
Shaillah listens out for her heartbeat, and she can feel it pounding under her tightened chest.At least I must still be breathing, she reassures herself. But no matter how hard she tries, she still cannot open her eyes or move her limbs. To her dismay, it seems that the harder she tries, the weaker she gets.
A rush of anxiety surges through her body as she starts hearing hushed distant voices, progressively getting clearer and louder.I can hear!She cheers herself up.Soon I will be free of these shackles.
“She has been like that for too long.” She hears Rothwen’s impatient voice.
“She’ll soon wake up,” Athguer assures him. “The process will take longer for a replica.”
“Athguer is right.” Shaillah immediately recognises the voice of Zula-Or.
She tries even harder to open her eyes and speak, but not one part of her body reacts to her command.
“We must remember, the cells go into shutdown mode during molecular transfer. If they start resetting themselves too quickly, we risk losing the subject,” Athguer explains in his deep self-confident voice. “Or we could end up with an incomplete transfer, and she’ll never be a true space traveller.”
“You know I trust you, Athguer. But check it out,” Rothwen demands. “I must leave now. Kuzhma-Or is calling me from the central processor.”
“Immediately!” Athguer obliges as Rothwen walks away, not even acknowledging him.
As the voices around her recede into vanishing echoes, Shaillah nervously waits for her fate.I hope Rothwen comes back soon. I feel like I am disappearing into a dark infinite void.Her last thoughts dwindle into a spiralling nothingness as she feels all her senses ebbing away.
Athguer inspects the molecular-mapping images on the holograms behind Shaillah’s bed as Zula-Or attentively watches by his side.
“Only a few areas have not fully transitioned,” Athguer explains, pointing at the black circles, “especially the most delicate neurons in her brain, which we know take the longest time.”
