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Chapter 13

"Okay," Quirk said, jacking out of the cyberspace terminal. "That went pretty well. The ship has sixteen suspension facilities spread throughout it."

"Crap," Xerian exclaimed, looking dejected. "We'll never be able to check all of those for one Synth before they catch us!"

"Hold up, I'm not finished," the Protogen said. "Obviously we can't search for your boyfriend by name, but they have divided the facilities into organic and synthetic lifeforms. Also more than half of them are empty."

"Can we narrow it down any further?" Niall asked. "The Emperor was talking about categorising them by colour or something."

"Not really," Quirk said. "Since that was a recent decision they have been freezing their acquisitions in the order they were abducted. I know how many blue Synths there are and which facilities they are in, but since there are several in each facility we'll have to try all three."

"That's a start," Xerian said, looking grateful. "Though we will still have to check out the organics as well. It is our civic duty."

"So was being arrested, and look what happened," Lautrec sulked. "Heh, maybe we can see if that policewoman is a captive! Wake her up and say 'I told you so'!"

"And how will they react to that?" Niall asked sternly. "Being revived on an alien spaceship by people she doesn't trust?"

"On the other hand," Xerian mused, "She could be a valuable help."

"Whenever you're in trouble, just ask a policeman!" Niall sang. "Hmm, that definitely worked better in the original language."

"Point is, she is likely to be better at handling herself in an emergency situation, which this definitely is," Xerian pointed out. "And we will be informing the authorities of this situation, as is our duty as good citizens. Can you find her, Quirk?" he asked. "If she's here, we can narrow that down to organic female lizards taken after we were abducted!"

"I'll see what I can find," Quirk said. "I need to go back into cyberspace anyway when things have calmed down as I don't yet know how to bring people out of stasis."

"You do that," Niall said. "I'm going to talk to our captive, just in case they know anything about the suspension system."

* * *

Sitting on the ground, the red protogen started as the door opened.

"Hello," Niall said. "How are you doing?"

"Now I am worried," the protogen said. "You're going to bring the psycho traitor in next, right?"

"No, Quirk's busy committing treason," Niall said. "I, on the other hand, would like to see if you've decided to join us or not. On the understanding that Quirk will probably kill you immediately if you betray us. But at least you'll keep your mind intact."

"Until he splashes it over the walls," the protogen sighed.

"So you just need to avoid giving him a reason," Niall said. "Anyway... what's your name?"

"In your language I would be called 'Toast'," the protogen said sullenly.

"Well met, Toast," Niall said. "Actually this isn't my native language either. Anyway... What do you usually do when you're not sent to capture escaped prisoners?"

"I am a videographer," Toast said. "My duty was to document the Emperor's glorious achievements. However, I also documented him running into his panic room and this did not improve my career prospects."

"So you were sent to watch over the mooks?"

"Yes. And I was warned that if we failed... I would become one."

"Then it does sound like you'd be safer with us," Niall said. "I can't promise complete security of course, but we'll try our best."

"I am not sure how much protection you can offer against the full force of Lord Cyra's will," the protogen said. "But if I am to be lobotomised, I would at least like to push that day as far into the future as I can manage. I will aid you if you can."

"Good choice. Now... Do you know anything about the suspension chambers?"

"Not much," Toast said. "You... You're not planning to destroy them, are you...? Blow up the stasis banks?"

"Certainly not," Niall said, raising an eyebrow. "However, we would like to make a withdrawal. And most likely, a few deposits as well."

"That I can probably help with," Toast admitted, sounding relieved. "I am not an expert, but I will try, at least."

"Good. Come with me, then. When we've decided which facility to investigate first, we may need your help."

Niall reached down, and helped the black-and-red protogen into a standing position. Toast glanced at his shoulder, and concentrated for a moment. The lightning bolt sigil on his arms, cheeks and hips vanished and was replaced with a circle with a line intersecting it.

"I'll think of a better one later," he said.

* * *

"Guh," Quirk said. His electronic eyes were facing different directions for a few moments and his mouth displayed a tongue poking out. "We should get out of here," he groaned, and stumbled, twitching slightly.

"What happened...?" Xerian asked, concerned.

"Cyber-defences got me. I'll recover in a bit, but they know exactly where to find me. We need to run before that happens, or we'll have a bunch of robots and mooks firing at us."

They hurried out of the room to find Niall and Toast heading towards them. Quickly they headed back to the store-room that Toast had been kept in and hid there until Quirk felt well enough to move on.

"Oh yeah, I think I found your policewoman, though," Quirk said, when he had stopped shivering.

"Oh?" Xerian looked pleased. Lautrec did not.

"The database tagged people who are believed to be authorities," the protogen said. "Even if it's not your acquaintance, they might still be helpful to have on our side."

"We'll check her out after we've found Zuki," Xerian said eagerly.

"Actually she's in the closest facility to us," Quirk pointed out. "We should go there first. Keep in mind we have never done this before," he reminded them. "It might be better to experiment on someone less dear to you."

"Also, we will need a charger for Zuki," Niall reminded them. "While I'm all for locating him, setting him free might have to wait until we're sure he's not going to die as an unintended consequence."

"I can't argue with that," Xerian said, looking despondent.

"I'll have another look through the database later," Quirk decided. "If the Emperor is serious about building an army of Synths, he must also have been building life-support infrastructure for them - or they won't live long enough to complete basic training, let alone conquer the Zenith Sector."

"The robots and mooks have gone," Lautrec said. "But the lights are dimming in the corridor."

"Yes," Quirk said. "We should get to bed. I'll set up the barrier."

"We do only have one spare bed here," Xerian pointed out. "That was okay before Niall and Toast joined us, but we'll have to do something about this later."

"I like beds too," Lautrec said. "But I can manage without at a pinch."

"I don't need to sleep at all," Niall said. "Even my organic twin doesn't need to. But I... We... have been an adventurer and have slept rough as part of that to maintain my disguise."

"What is an adventurer?" Toast asked. "And what's with the 'we' pronoun?"

"Long story," Niall said. "The short version is I'm an android replica of a living person, originally made as a decoy. I have his personality and his memories up to the point I was created. Our language, and yours for that matter, isn't really equipped to deal with this situation, where I remember doing things, but they strictly speaking, happened to someone else. So I just muddle along as best I can."

"So you don't need to sleep because you are an android?" Toast asked. "But Xerian is, and he does. So does the panther robot."

"It's optional," Lautrec said. "But since Xerian does need to sleep, I figure I should too. Besides, I like sleeping."

"My kind," Niall said, "My creator race and my twin, that is, we do not need to sleep. We feed on emotional energy and can enter the dreams of other people. However, as we come into our magical powers and become less dependent on things like eating, drinking and sleeping. Eventually we lose the ability to dream entirely, and most people simply stop bothering to sleep after that."

"Adventurers are warriors for hire," he added. "In the bad old days the normal folk were plagued by dangerous magical creatures who would kill them for sport, or as a way of improving their prestige. Adventurers tried to defend the weak and slay monsters. But it was never that cut and dried. We 'cubi were considered monsters who had to be slain."

"You betrayed your own kind? You hunted your fellow creatures?" Toast looked appalled.

"Look who's talking," Lautrec said.

"That's not true!" Toast protested. "I have begun to doubt the Emperor's plan, but I am not looking to slay others of my kind! In blindly following him I would help enable the slaughter of many on my own worlds when the Emperor returns with his army."

"Then why did you help him at all in the first place?" Lautrec asked.

"One, I am a cameraman," Toast reminded him. "I never signed up to be an active combatant. Two... saying 'no' to the Emperor is not recommended if you wish to keep your brains inside your head, let alone intact."

"...I can't argue with that," Lautrec said, looking throughly cowed.

"Our panthers are very squeamish when it comes to brains being damaged or destroyed," Niall said quietly. "Can't say I blame them."

"People make toasters and washing machines to last a few years and then be scrapped," Lautrec said in a small voice. "I can't quite shake the idea that we're any different."

"You're sentient, and that gives you far more rights than a washing machine," Niall said, patting the cyberjag reassuringly.

"Anyway. Getting back to your earlier question, you must understand that not all magical creatures shared the same goals," Niall stated, looking at Toast earnestly. "We 'Cubi, before we become full adults and get our magical powers, we think and act very much like Beings - the mundane folk, I mean. Many of us were brought up not even knowing we were different.
"As a result, some 'Cubi feel a kinship with Beings, even though it's not reciprocated. And even the warrior clans, who tend to view themselves as superior, saw this kind of adventuring a useful way to train their clan members and keep them fighting fit in case the Dragons tried to wipe us out again.
"So I helped defend Beings for that reason, but given the genocide against us I'd draw the line at killing a fellow 'Cubi unless there was no other option. Had the rest of my adventuring group realised what I was, they'd have lopped my head off immediately and considered it a win, even though I was only trying to help them because I felt sorry for their lot."

"I see, so you feigned sleep as part of that disguise," Toast nodded. "This makes sense."

"Eventually there was a great upheaval and the adventuring industry largely collapsed," Niall said. "Once Beings and Creatures were not constantly at each other's throats, the need for adventurers greatly diminished. There are still guilds around, but they have much less work to do.

"Anyway, point is, I don't need a bed. I can keep watch, or find some way to amuse myself until 'morning'."