ACT IV INTERLUDE 3: THE MYSTERY OF CAITLIN'S COMET (PART THREE)

Amberlee was making her way back from Climatrol when something caught her eye—two yellow Punos-M robots drifting aimlessly in the weightless corridor. Her instincts told her to hide, to stay out of sight, but there was something off about their movements. One of the Punos waved awkwardly, while the other flailed as if it had no idea how to handle the zero-g environment. Narrowing her eyes, Amberlee hesitated, trying to make sense of it.

Then she heard it—faint voices. Her heart skipped a beat. Voices coming from the robots?

She pushed herself gently along the wall, using the low gravity to stay quiet. As she drew closer, recognition dawned, and her eyes widened in shock.

She knew that voice.

"Mike?" she called, her voice trembling with disbelief. "Is that you?"

One of the yellow Punos robots turned toward her, its optical sensors scanning before responding. "Amberlee!" the robot said in a voice she hadn’t heard in years. "Call me Zeus now."

Amberlee floated closer, her gaze darting between the two robots. The second Punos-M waved clumsily, its limbs struggling to adapt to the weightless environment. Zeus introduced him with a touch of amusement. "This here is Freddy. We, uh, got a little lost on the way back from the Mining Pit. Took a few wrong turns—ended up in the Ice Mines somehow—and, well... here we are."

Amberlee chuckled, her initial wariness melting away. "You got lost?"

Zeus groaned, a surprisingly human sound coming through the robotic speakers. "Yeah. Freddy's still figuring out zero-g, and I’ve been trying to coach him."

Shaking her head with a grin, Amberlee glided effortlessly toward them. "You two need directions? I’m heading back to Nervous myself."

"That would be great," Zeus replied. "Freddy here could use a crash course in more than just directions."

Amberlee smiled, gesturing for them to follow. "Alright then. Let’s get going. We’ve got a lot to catch up on."

Ambercat and Molly-Lee glided effortlessly through the ruins of the spaceport, the weightlessness allowing them to navigate over the debris and jagged remnants of destroyed structures with ease. The black UFO still hung ominously in the sky above, silent and foreboding. As they drifted deeper into the wreckage, a gruesome sight caught their attention—dismembered bodies, floating aimlessly in the zero-g void. Up close, it was even more horrifying. The Herbsters—once formidable mercenaries—were no more. Their armored forms, now broken fragments, drifted like remnants of a brutal battle in the eerie stillness.

But where was Shin Hajime? That was the question gnawing at them both.

Ambercat led the way, scanning the wreckage with growing desperation. Dread clawed at her gut, but when they finally found Shin, the sight left them both unsettled. Curled into the fetal position, covered in blood, but with an expressionless face, Shin Hajime lay against a fallen beam. Her pale face lacked the usual sharpness they were used to seeing in her.

"Shin!" Ambercat floated down beside her, gently shaking her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Shin Hajime's voice came out quiet, almost detached. "I'm cold... and my stomach hurts." Her words were strange, as if she were describing someone else’s pain, not her own.

Molly-Lee crouched beside her, frowning. "She’s... hungry?" she guessed.

Shin Hajime blinked slowly, her gaze distant. "Mike once told Hajime about his belly worm. Said it made him hungry all the time. I think I understand now." A soft, mirthless laugh escaped her. "I’m so human now. It’s funny."

Ambercat and Molly-Lee exchanged a glance, unsure how to respond to Shin Hajime’s sudden reflection on her own humanity. There was a vulnerability to her now that hadn’t been there before.

"Get some rest," Ambercat said softly. "We’ll figure something out for you to eat."

As they prepared to leave, something unusual caught their attention.

In the corner of the spaceport, wedged between support beams, floated a retro-looking spacecraft. Spindle-shaped, with a ring around its midsection, it appeared to be a relic from a different era. About sixty feet long and fifteen feet wide, it stood out amid the chaos. But what was even stranger were the four Punos-M robots awkwardly climbing on it, struggling with the zero-gravity environment. Their movements were clumsy, as though they weren’t used to operating their mechanical bodies in space.

Ambercat narrowed her eyes, watching the odd scene unfold. "What the hell are they doing?"

Molly-Lee floated closer, her detective instincts on high alert. "They’re trying to jump ship! That’s... unexpected."

Ambercat nodded, her expression hardening. "Let’s check it out."

With a final glance back at Shin Hajime, Ambercat and Molly-Lee floated toward the mysterious ship, ready to uncover whatever puzzle awaited them.

As they hovered just beyond the vessel, they watched the four Punos-M robots clumsily trying to maneuver themselves inside. It was almost comical—despite their powerful, heavy-duty bodies, they seemed utterly inept at handling the zero-gravity environment. Their movements were awkward, arms flailing as they struggled to gain control.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Kurli!” one of the robots shouted.

"Come on, Dave! You’re holding everyone up!" Kurli’s voice crackled through his speaker, clear frustration evident.

"I’m trying, okay? These stupid arms don’t move right!" Dave grumbled, failing to grip the side of the ship. Each attempt ended with his mechanical hands slipping off, sending him spinning helplessly through the air.

The other two Punos weren’t doing much better. One was wedged between two supports, his legs flailing wildly, while the other kept bouncing off the side of the ship, unable to stick a landing. The yellow robots floundered comically, struggling to gain entry into the retro-looking spacecraft.

Ambercat exchanged a glance with Molly-Lee. “Are they serious right now?” she whispered, trying to stifle her amusement.

“They seem to think so,” Molly-Lee replied, deadpan.

Ambercat drifted closer, clearing her throat loudly enough to get their attention. “You guys need a hand?”

The four robots froze, their torsos swiveling sharply toward her. For a moment, an awkward silence hung in the air, as if they couldn’t decide whether to panic or not.

“What the hell—” Kurli’s voice wavered, clearly on edge.

The other three robots let out an audible gasp. “No way. No way!” one of them shouted, his robotic arms flailing. “It’s them! The Olavi Twins! From The Stars Are At Fault!”

“Wait, what?” Molly-Lee blurted out, caught completely off guard.

Another of the Punos chimed in, his voice filled with suspicion. “They look just like they did in that old movie. But they should be, like… adults by now, right?”

Ambercat stared, dumbfounded. The Stars Are At Fault—the film they’d starred in nearly a decade ago. The fact that these robots were recognizing them in the middle of all this chaos? Seriously? Fans?

One of the robots waved his arms frantically. “Shape-shifters! I knew it! Aliens taking the forms of people we remember!”

“Are you serious right now?” Molly-Lee asked, her tone flat. “We’re not aliens. We’re clones. Born about an hour and 48 minutes ago, give or take. And there are four of us now. Deal with it.”

The four Punos robots stared at the clones, their panic slowly shifting into confusion. Kurli finally spoke, his voice uncertain. “Clones?”

“Yeah, clones,” Ambercat confirmed. “Look, we’re clones, you’re robots. This comet does weird things to people. We’re all just trying to get off this rock like you. Does that ship of yours still fly?”

Dave, the robot who had been quiet until now, spoke up, his mechanical voice wavering. “It flew when we got here, but the radiation… it made us sick. We probably died.”

Kurli added, “Then we woke up as robots, and just… kept going.”

Molly-Lee raised an eyebrow. “So the ship can still fly?”

Kurli’s robotic shoulders twitched in a mechanical shrug. “Maybe. But the radiation leak needs fixing.”

Ambercat pulled out the AirScan 3000, the device humming softly as it performed its diagnostic sweep. The screen flickered to life, displaying a complex readout of radiation levels. “Radiation’s leaking from multiple points on the ship,” she murmured, scrolling through the data. “Looks like it's concentrated around the rear thrusters and some internal compartments.”

Molly-Lee leaned over her shoulder, brow furrowed. “We’re dealing with a mix of beta and gamma radiation,” she noted. “The thrusters are probably cracked. Without proper shielding, the whole ship will stay hot. We need something to absorb that radiation.”

Ambercat glanced at the debris floating in the zero-G environment. “It’s not like we’ve got access to high-tech shielding out here. We’ll need a real solution.”

That’s when one of the unnamed Punos robots chimed in. “Mineralogy ain’t exactly my specialty, but we learned a bit from working on that debtors' mining asteroid,” he said, gesturing with his clunky arms. “There’s something that could help absorb radiation—boron.”

“Boron?” Ambercat echoed.

Kurli sighed in exasperation. “Sure, great idea. But where the hell are we gonna find boron out here? Just floating around?”

Dave shifted awkwardly, but there was a spark of enthusiasm in his voice. “Wait. This robot’s got all these built-in functions. One of them is a mineral scan. Let me check.”

As the group exchanged looks, one of the Kline brothers quickly activated his robot’s scanning feature. Before anyone could react, his monitor flickered with results. A laugh crackled through his speaker.

“What’s so funny?” Ambercat asked, raising an eyebrow. “Also, your names? I know that’s Dave, and he’s Kurli. You two are?”

“The Kline brothers,” one of them answered.

The Kline brother who ran the scan turned his screen toward the group, grinning. “You won’t believe this. Nearly 90% of the tailings extracted from this mine—the stuff that’s just floating all around us—is boron-based.”

A grin spread across Molly-Lee’s face. “Looks like we’ve got our solution.”

Ambercat smirked. “Let’s gather that boron and fix this damn ship.”

Amberlee and Molly-Cat found Shin Hajime standing in front of a food processing machine, staring blankly at the menu options. The screen flickered, casting a dim glow over her bruised and battered form. Bruises covered her arms, and scrapes crisscrossed her legs. She looked like she’d been through hell.

“We’ve been looking for you!” Molly-Cat exclaimed, rushing over. “Saw what went down back there… looks like you handled it.”

Amberlee raised an eyebrow. “Handled it? She looks like she went through a defabricator.”

Zeus, lagging behind, finally caught sight of Hajime and froze. His voice echoed from his robotic frame, his disbelief clear. “Hajime... what happened to you? You’re all messed up!”

Shin Hajime glanced at him, blinking slowly as if processing his concern. “I don’t know what I want to eat,” she muttered, her fingers hovering over the screen. “I don’t have any preferences. Now my belly worm is mad at me.”

Zeus, still worried, offered, “How about ramen noodles? Always works for me.”

Before he could elaborate, Amberlee cut in sharply, her tone urgent. “We don’t have time for this. We’re not here for dinner. If I had time to spare, I wouldn’t have had to shut off gravity just to get us moving.”

Zeus and Freddy exchanged glances before explaining their purpose. “Ambercat and Molly-Lee sent us,” Zeus began. “We’ve got a plan—using one of the tailings rockets to launch ourselves straight to Huis' ship. It’s our best shot at escape.”

Amberlee tilted her head, considering the plan. “That’s... ambitious. But yeah, that could work. If done right.”

Shin Hajime nodded absently, her eyes still unfocused. “I’ll come.”

“Then let’s move,” Amberlee urged, taking the lead toward the catapult.

They sprinted through the eerie silence of the comet, their steps light but unsteady in the zero-g. As they approached the catapult, they stumbled across the wreckage of a massive carregador robot, its twisted remains lying in heaps. The sight of the mangled, inert machine sent a ripple of awe through the group.

“Damn…” Freddy muttered, shaking his head.

Gathering at the tailings rocket, a strange mix of admiration and hesitation filled the air. The plan was risky, but it might just get them off the comet. Shin Hajime stood a little apart from the rest, shivering slightly. Her earlier stoic demeanor had been replaced by a quiet vulnerability, but despite that, she stayed with them.