The glow of relief didn’t last long. Sparks flew from Clorita’s chest, and her grin faded. She slumped back in her chair, her systems flickering.
“Whoa, hey, stay with me!” Zog said, jumping to her side.
“She requires immediate repairs,” HALAT stated, already moving toward the medical bay. “Her primary power cell is compromised. A transplant is necessary.”
Zog hesitated. “Transplant? You can do that?”
“I can assist,” HALAT said, her voice steady. “However, the procedure will require precision and cooperation.”
“Cooperation? From who?” Zog asked nervously.
“From you, Captain,” HALAT replied. “Your manual dexterity is required for reconnecting the internal circuitry.”
Zog groaned. “Great. No pressure.”
Minutes later, Clorita lay on a diagnostics table in the ship's workshop, her internal systems exposed. HALAT guided Zog through the delicate process, and her instructions were calm and precise.
“Steady,” HALAT said. “Reattach the third connector on the left.”
“I am being steady!” Zog snapped, sweat dripping from his brow. “This is like defusing a bomb.”
“If you fail, the consequences will be similar,” HALAT noted.
“Not helping, Spark!” Zog grumbled, his hands working frantically.
Finally, the power cell clicked into place, and Clorita’s systems hummed to life. Her optics flickered, then steadied—only to remain eerily blank.
Zog exhaled in relief. “Alright, that should do it. Clorita? Say something.”
Clorita slowly sat up, her movements mechanical and precise. She looked at Zog, then at HALAT, her expression neutral. “System initialization complete. Diagnostic check in progress.”
Zog’s circuits buzzed sharply. “Wait. What?”
Clorita blinked, scanning the room with unfamiliar detachment. “Unit designation not found. Requesting identity confirmation.”
HALAT’s optics dimmed in alarm. “Her memory module has reset to factory settings.”
Zog’s synthetic stomach dropped. “No, no, no—this isn’t happening.” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Clorita, it’s me. It’s Zog. Say something sarcastic.”
Clorita only tilted her head. “This unit does not recognize ‘Zog.’ Please clarify the command.”
Zog let go as if burned. His voice was barely above a whisper. “She’s gone.”
For the first time, HALAT’s voice faltered. “I do not—” She stopped, recalibrating. “No. We can fix this.”
But neither of them knew how.
Minutes later, the two still sat in stunned silence, trying to process the weight of what had just happened. HALAT was running silent scans, searching for something—anything—that might restore Clorita’s memory.
Then, without a sound, Luma entered the medbay. The small robotic cat leapt gracefully onto Clorita’s lap, curling up as if nothing was wrong. Her sleek tail flicked once—then extended, slotting directly into a port on Clorita’s chest.
Zog tensed. “What is she doing?”
HALAT’s glowing optics flickered with sudden understanding. “I am not certain. It seems like restoring her.”
Luma remained motionless, save for the faintest hum of data transfer. For thirty long minutes, nothing happened. Then, as suddenly as she had connected, Luma unlatched her tail, hopped off Clorita’s lap, and padded out of the room without glancing back.
Zog and HALAT exchanged a wary look.
HALAT spoke first. “I suggest we attempt another restart.”
Zog hesitated. Then, with a deep breath, he reached for the panel and activated Clorita’s reboot sequence.
Clorita’s optics flickered. Then, after an agonizing pause, she groaned. “Ugh. Why do I feel like I got hit by a shuttle?”
Zog’s circuits buzzed wildly between panic and hope. “Clorita?”
She looked at him, squinting. “Yeah? What’s with the face?”
Zog practically collapsed back into his chair. “You have to stop dying on me.”
Clorita blinked, confused. “Okay, dramatic. I just finished recharging. Why would I—” She stopped mid-sentence, looking around.
Her confusion deepened. “Wait. Why am I in the medbay?”
HALAT and Zog exchanged a glance.
She didn’t remember Nexora.
But she was back.
The hum of the Duj’s workshop felt strangely quiet after the chaos of Eryxion. Clorita sat on the diagnostics table, flexing her fingers and testing her joints. Everything seemed fine—no lag, no system errors. Yet Zog and HALAT were staring at her like she had grown an extra head.
She frowned. “Okay, what’s with the weird looks?”
Zog exhaled, his circuits buzzing faintly. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
Clorita blinked. “That’s a dumb question. We were on the Duj, getting ready for the Nexora trip. I ran some final checks, recharged for a bit, and then…” She hesitated. Something about the timeline felt off. She remembered preparing for the mission, then… waking up here, in the workshop.
Her brow furrowed. “Wait. That’s weird. I remember going to recharge before the trip, and now I’m here. What happened to everything in between?”
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Zog and HALAT exchanged glances.
“You, uh…” Zog hesitated. “You don’t remember Nexora at all?”
Clorita scoffed. “Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be asking.” She crossed her arms. “So? What happened?”
HALAT’s voice was calm but deliberate. “Your power core failed. Catastrophically.”
Clorita blinked, processing. “Wait… failed?”
Zog leaned forward. “Yeah. You took a direct hit in the chest. The power supply was fried, memory core was wiped. You had no idea who we were when we brought you back online.”
Clorita let out a short laugh. “Okay, good one. Almost had me there.”
Neither of them laughed.
She stared at them, the smirk fading from her face. “…You’re serious?”
HALAT nodded. “Affirmative Mom.”
Clorita frowned, her systems running a diagnostic out of instinct. Everything checked out, but there was still that gap. The moment she had powered down, and then—nothing.
“So how am I me again?” she asked, her voice quieter now. “If my memory was wiped, how do I remember everything until the recharge?”
Zog threw up his hands. “That’s what we want to know!”
A beat of silence passed before BOB’s voice sounded far too cheerful for the situation.
“Clarification: During each crew member’s routine recharging session, Luma connected to the Duj’s mainframe and performed an unauthorised data transfer. These transfers consistently targeted primary memory modules.”
Clorita blinked. “I’m sorry—what?”
“Luma regularly accessed the memory logs of Captain Zog, Engineer Clorita, and Unit HALAT while they were connected to the Duj’s central system. Data logs confirm that she copied these files to a separate, independent storage.”
Zog looked at the tiny feline, now perched smugly on a nearby console. “Are you telling me she backed up Clorita’s brain?”
“Affirmative.”
Clorita stared at Luma, then back at the others. “Hold on, hold on. You’re saying Luma’s been saving my memories? Like… some kind of personal backup drive?”
“Affirmative.”
HALAT studied Luma intently. “It is the most logical conclusion. She must have recognised that mother’s system had reset and restored the missing data from her stored copy.”
Clorita let out a short laugh, running a hand through her hair. “That’s insane.”
Zog groaned, rubbing his face. “No, what’s insane is that our cat might be smarter than all of us.”
Luma flicked her tail and let out a small, smug-sounding chirp.
Clorita shook her head in disbelief. “So you’re telling me I owe my life to a cat?”
Luma hopped onto the diagnostics table, curling beside Clorita and tail swishing.
Zog leaned back in his chair, circuits still buzzing with disbelief. “Well, at least she finally earned all that smugness.”
Clorita looked down at the tiny robotic feline. Her expression caught between amusement and gratitude. “Alright, fine,” she muttered. “I guess I owe you one, Major Nine Lives.”
Luma simply purred, satisfied.
As they sat in stunned silence, HALAT finally retrieved the glowing data disk. Zog exhaled, shaking his head. “Alright. Now that we’ve survived that mystery… let’s figure out what we nearly died for.”
HALAT nodded. “Then we proceed.”
The crew—preserved by the most unexpected backup—turned to the next challenge.
As Clorita recharged and Zog slumped in the workshop’s corner, HALAT stood silently, her optics fixed on the glowing data disk.
Zog glanced at her. “So, what’s on there, anyway?”
HALAT didn’t answer immediately. When she finally spoke, her voice was measured. “Possibly the key to the Duj’s future. And perhaps… more.”
Zog and Clorita exchanged a glance, equal parts intrigue and apprehension.
“Guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Clorita said, leaning back with a tired grin. “Just as long as it doesn’t mean more killer robots.”
HALAT’s faintly glowing optics remained fixed on the disk as if considering the weight of what they had uncovered. The answers lay ahead, somewhere in the vast unknown.
Zog’s circuits were still buzzing with residual tension. “Alright. We almost lost Clorita, we nearly got ourselves fried, and Spark here apparently ghosted through the whole mess and came back with the prize. I think we deserve some explanations.”
Clorita, still seated in the medbay, groaned as she stretched. “Yeah, starting with—why do I feel like I missed a few chapters? Someone wanna tell me why I ‘woke up’ in the workshop instead of the shuttle?”
“So,” Zog said, rubbing his temples. “You got the data disk. You shot up some bug-faced maniacs. And you did it all without breaking a sweat. But we still don’t know how you pulled it off.”
HALAT inclined her head slightly. “Would you like a chronological recounting or a prioritized summary?”
Zog smirked. “Let’s go with the How Spark Turned a Suicide Mission Into a Library Trip edition.”
HALAT nodded, her tone as measured as ever. “Upon separating from the team, I navigated through the lower sectors of Eryxion using my internal mapping system. However, interference from the surrounding energy fields disrupted my scanners, reducing their effectiveness by 37%. Progress was slow.”
Zog groaned. “So you did get lost.”
“I became momentarily displaced,” HALAT corrected. “However, my tracking algorithms compensated. I identified an alternate route by detecting residual energy signatures beneath the city. These readings led me to an underground tunnel system.”
Clorita sat up slightly. “Wait. You didn’t use the main Sanctum entrance?”
HALAT shook her head. “Negative. Security at the primary access points was excessive. Attempting entry would have resulted in immediate hostilities. The tunnels were unguarded but structurally compromised. At two separate points, I was required to clear debris to proceed.”
Zog smirked. “So the sneaky approach wasn’t completely smooth, huh?”
HALAT ignored him. “The energy signatures became stronger as I advanced. After bypassing collapsed passageways and unstable terrain, I located a staircase leading to a sealed chamber. It was an archive, long abandoned but still operational.”
Clorita’s optics flickered in interest. “And that’s where you found the disk?”
HALAT nodded. “Affirmative. The archive contained data storage units and an active terminal. I determined that a direct interface with the system would be the most efficient method of data retrieval. However, security protocols required decryption.”
Zog frowned. “How’d you get around that?”
“I utilized a logic-based bypass,” HALAT said. “The system was old, its encryption outdated. I extracted the necessary data onto an available storage disk without alerting security countermeasures.”
Zog snorted. “So while we were dodging killer drones and getting shot at, you were just… burning files onto a space USB?”
HALAT didn’t blink. “Correct.”
Clorita chuckled. “Unbelievable. And let me guess—no alarms, no frantic escape, just a nice, casual walk back out?”
“Not entirely,” HALAT admitted. “The moment I exited the tunnels, I detected the weapons fire from your location. The Xerats had engaged you.”
Zog rubbed his face. “Yeah, we noticed.”
“I prioritized extraction,” HALAT continued. “Upon arrival, I assessed Clorita’s condition and determined her power failure was critical. At the same time, I calculated a 72% probability that you would be overrun within three minutes.”
Zog’s optics narrowed. “Wait, three minutes?”
HALAT’s tone remained steady. “Your combat strategy was highly inefficient.”
Clorita snorted. “I must have told you, Captain.”
Zog threw up his hands. “It wasn’t exactly strategy, Spark! It was survival!”
“Regardless,” HALAT continued, “I initiated suppressive fire, neutralizing immediate threats and providing an opening for escape. I assisted in transporting mother to the shuttle while you covered our retreat. Upon reaching the Duj, the priority shifted to restoring Clorita’s functions.”
The bridge fell into silence for a moment.
Clorita exhaled softly, shaking her head. “Well, damn, Spark. You really saved our hides back there.”
HALAT tilted her head. “As stated previously, your survival is integral to mission success.”
Zog leaned back in his chair, circuits still buzzing. “Yeah, yeah. But remind me never to bet against you pulling off the impossible.”
Clorita smirked. “Face it, Captain. Spark’s the real legend here.”
HALAT remained still for a moment, then simply said, “Acknowledged.”