Page 46 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars
Daisy stared after the droid angrily. It had not only destroyed her only weapon but it had also refused to help her. The fact that she was far from joint space territory gave her a moment’s pause. It was a small setback, but it seemed that it didn’t change the fact that a Daranthiki droid had found her and should have been programmed for immediate assistance.
“Hey!” she barked as she trotted into the corridor after it. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t just leave me here! What is your designation? I’m going to make a note of it and report you as soon as we arrive at the nearest station.”
The hard line of its lips quirked, and she misstepped in surprise before catching her balance once again.
That was strange. Were the droids now being programmed with emotional response? If it was meant to set people at ease, it was failing miserably. It creeped her out.
That, however, wasn’t the most immediate problem. No, it was the fact that it was ignoring her as it plodded along through the corridors deeper into the starship rather than heading to the docking port and getting them the fuck out of there. There was no one navigating the ship, and unless the captain brought the ship to a full halt before everyone was slaughtered, it was drifting through space to gods knew where. These were issues that were more than mildly alarming, so what the hell was its problem?
She groaned inwardly.
Please don’t be fucking malfunctioning!
That was the last thing she needed, but given that it was ignoring her presence and all the programming that should have made certain that it would whisk her to safety, she had the sinking feeling that was exactly what was wrong.
If only she had her wrench, she would use the McGillin method of “fixing” droids that malfunctioned on the premises. The way it was working her last nerve, she had no problem with the idea of bashing it over the head a few times to see if there was any chance of a connection realigning.
Hissing between her teeth with frustration, Daisy picked up her pace, staying just far enough back to keep clear of its swinging tail and the floating rubbish bin that was trailing after it. She nearly careened into the droid, however, when it suddenly stopped by an open port at the rear of the ship.
Unable to see above its massive shoulders, Daisy leaned in close so that she could peer around its side. A dull metal ladder descended into the belly of the ship. There only thing that could be down there would be the cargo hold and engineering. It stared down at it for a moment before tapping a couple of keys on the bin. It immediately went stationary as the droid returned its attention to the ladder. One hand went to hold it steady as it put its foot on it. The ladder surprisingly held in place rather than even so much as groaning under what had to be hundreds of pounds of metal. She hadn’t realized that the quality of United Earth’s government starship construction had improved so much.
They usually were such cheap bastards.
“What are you doing? This ship is probably drifting straight into a sun with the way my luck runs. We need to get out of here.”
It grunted at her—the miserable thing’s communication skills were as shoddy as all her relatives combined—and stepped fully onto the ladder. She blew out a breath of frustration as it began to descend rapidly. Because of course it would. Only she would have to be rescued by a piece of shit droid.
Hustling after it, she peered down into the port, her eyes narrowing at the top of its head.
“Hey, you!” she snapped down at it.
The head tilted up, its white hair falling back from its face as its red cybernetic eyes looked eerily even brighter in the dark of the passage. Framed by the red markings that fell at its temples, it honestly looked rather demonic, like a creature from one of the old vids she’d seen when she had dated a non-gratas boy for a time in her rebellious youth. Back then, when she had been idealistic and had protested against the barriers that kept the non-gratas subservient to the citizens of United Earth Government, she had never imagined anything as scary as those vids. Reality had somehow finally trumped it for her.
Its eyes narrowed dangerously at her as it adopted an air of waiting.
Creepy as all fuck .
“While I admire your interest in searching for… uh… other survivors, I’m guessing, I would kind of like to get out of here. According to the systems I’m all the only live person on board.”
“I am not looking for survivors,” it ground out before dropping the last few rungs and disappearing from sight.
“What?” she shouted after it.
Her voice echoed up at her, but there was no other sound except for the heavy stride of its boots as it walked away.
Groaning, she set her hands on her hips and glanced helplessly around the hallway. She supposed that she could just make her way to its ship. No doubt it had a programmed return flight that would take it back to its base. She would merely send someone back after it… and if the starship drifted into the sun…, well, it was only a droid, right?
She grimaced, unable to entertain the idea. Even if it was a hunk of metal, she just couldn’t stomach the thought of abandoning it. A heavy sigh escaped her, and Daisy gripped the ladder resolutely as she began to descend. The moment her feet hit the metal flooring, she turned and trotted down the corridor, her bare feet slapping lightly. She barely glanced into the cargo bay, slowing just enough to peek inside as she passed it. As she’d expected, it was completely cleaned out. That left little doubt as to where the droid was heading then.
A scowl formed between her eyebrows as she continued to jog down the corridor. What could the engine room hold of interest to the droid. She didn’t know how much crap it had already pulled out of the starship so far. For all she knew, Darvel paid bounties for standard parts retrieval rather than dragging the entire ship home if it was too damaged. Perhaps there were also parts that had to be acquired from engineering.
The idea of the starship being on the edge of critical systems failure terrified her. She hastily ran through the damages that she had noticed. Aside from the massacre, while there was significant damage from blaster fire and obvious malfunctions, she wouldn’t have thought that the ship was that bad, but she wasn’t a fucking engineer either. She barely knew the basics of combustion engine mechanics and that was only because Jaren had a penchant for dragging home twentieth-century automobiles when he was still alive. That there was a possibility of the ship of greater damages than she thought… The notion was horrifying!
Her scowl intensified as she slid at full speed around the corner. She couldn’t even ask the fucking AI since the droid had already disabled it.
“Fucking useless droids aren’t worth the scrap metal they’re made from.,” she grumbled as she sped up just as the engineering room came into view. Isn’t that what Greg had always bitched about when yet another one of their droids stopped working? “Of course I would get the one that can’t even alert me about the condition of the ship. It just ignores my questions and stomps off to continue stripping the ship.”
She wasn’t going to risk it. If the droid was malfunctioning, she was going to insist that they get the fuck out of there and to the nearest space station. Screw whatever else it was required to pull from the ship. She wasn’t staying there a moment longer!
She burst into engineering but immediately stumbled to a halt, her eyes widening at the sight of the enormous engine dominating the room. The droid stood at one side, its hands moving at a swift pace that was difficult to track as it began pulling small components from the drive and stuck them into the sack that seemed to materialize from nowhere. Said sack was now slung across its chest and already bulging with all the tech the droid was shoving into it. It turned an ear toward her and glanced up expressionlessly, its eyes narrowing on her once again. If droids were capable of emotions, she would’ve sworn that it was glowering impatiently at her presence. She shook her head and gave a silent, mirthless snort. That was ridiculous.
Pulling her shoulders back confidently, she strode up behind the droid and stepped over beside it. She frowned down at the mess of tubes, chips and wires that were exposed as the droid methodically gutted the engine of its parts. Mercifully, nothing appeared to be going off, but the sight still made her distinctly uncomfortable.
She glanced over and up at the droid, suddenly aware of just how close it was. Though her palms itched for some kind of weapon with which to protect herself—a blaster preferably, and one with enough kick to take off the droid’s head or any other body part, if necessary. She flattened her expression with the renowned McGillin poker face as she stared over at her “rescuer.”
What a joke.
She narrowed her eyes at it and jutted her chin out stubbornly. She was prepared to engage in battle to get the droid moving in the right direction. She knew it was looking at her from the corner of its eye, and she lifted her chin subtly. She jumped, however, her calm shattering as the droid tore out what looked to be a large section from the engine’s casing with a loud squeal of separating metal. A thick connector cable pulled free, and for a moment the lights flickered and noticeably dimmed.
The droid froze and stared up at the lights and then at the engine, its ears pricked on alert as the red glow of its eyes shifted and swirled with whatever internal calculations it was making.
Daisy chuckled uneasily, half-expecting the lights to die out completely.
“That thing must have one hell of a spark plug,” she joked lamely. “Now, seriously, it’s time to go. You will just have to chalk up whatever you didn’t get as a loss because we aren’t staying here a moment longer.”
The droid’s long ears flattened back, and its lip curled with clear disdain that made her heart thump uneasily as a shiver ran through her.
“ You do not order me , female,” it hissed vehemently, as if it were the one at the end of its patience and not her.
“This is not right,” she mumbled to herself with unease. “You’re definitely malfunctioning. Droids do not talk that way.”
It spun on her, sticking the large component beneath its arm as its eyes narrowed in an unmistakably impatient glare. “I am not a droid, human. Now get out of my way and cease your noise so I can finish and be on my way.” With a final glare, it turned its broad, muscular back to her. The movement of the muscles as it worked were now noticeably far too organic to be that of a droid.
She froze, her blood chilling.
Not. A. Droid.
Fuck!
In a move of desperation, she rushed forward for the blaster on in its hip, but her hand did not even skim the cool metal before the alien turned far too quickly and wrapped its hand around her wrist in a bruising grip.
A low, threatening growl filled the air, and Daisy paled at the maelstrom of red fire in its eyes. This was not going to end well.