Eldern Landfill, Wivern. 67K 23N.E.
Only a blink seemed to pass when she opened her eyes again. Opened wouldn’t be the correct term, however; her vision seemed to flicker into existence. There was no more open sky filling her vision but instead the face of an older man wearing glasses.
“Huzzah! Petri, come look at Fishy!” The man yelled to his side, rolling backward on a chair.
Well, she certainly wasn’t expecting that. She tried retorting and asking where she was, but for some reason, she couldn’t move her mouth. Now that she was coming to, she couldn’t feel any part of her body at all. Glancing around the room, she took in her surroundings to get a better grip on what was going on.
On the far wall was a long table with robotic arms and chips tossed around atop it. Hardware tools hung on the wall itself, decorated with signs of wear and usage. An arsenal of wires ran along the ceiling, but she couldn’t turn her head to look where it ended. It frightened Terra that she couldn’t move even her neck, but she tried her best to stay calm internally. The last thing she remembered was bleeding to death in the castle courtyard, and now she was here. Wherever ‘here’ was. And now she couldn’t even do her signature move of asking questions since she had no mobility whatsoever.
A young man entered her vision from the left.
“That does look a little better, but that mask is a little freaky. Where did you find it again?” the young man called Petri asked.
“Southern section. That little girl in the stasis chamber was clinging to it for her dear life. Poor thing.” The older man shook his head and turned from Petri to Terra. “But that mask was a perfect fit! Now we don’t have to worry about Fishy’s wires getting caught on anything when he bumps into things. Right, Fishy?”
The man smiled at Terra expectantly. She was more confused than ever. She already suspected the name ‘Fishy’ was her name, but why? Had she already made a mark in this world and named herself Fishy and then suddenly forgotten her memories? And why was she being referred to as a male? And where was she and who were these strangers who acted so familiar with her?
Pretending she could feel her limbs, she imagined an arm and lifted it, surprised when she saw an arm rise in front of her. She didn’t know which shocked her more; the fact that she could actually use her limbs but not physically feel them, or the fact a robotic arm rose in place of her arm. Flexing her fingers, she confirmed it was, in fact, responding to her.
“Uh, is Fishy alright?” Petri asked.
Terra lifted her other arm, getting used to the feeling, or lack of feeling, that was required to moving her limbs. She turned her head around and got a better understanding of her surrounds.
She was sitting on a metal table in the center of some sort of windowless hardware lab. Broken robots sat in a corner and a large generator sat in another, a massive amount of wires running from it. Well, that answered one of her many mysteries at least. Terra pushed herself off the table to a standing position. From what she could tell, she still had two legs, two arms, a torso, and head, but was completely made of metal and wires.
“Fishy,” the man sitting in the chair rose above her. “Status report.”
“All operations functional. Invasive substance detected. Operating at a hundred percent.” A computerized voice she didn’t recognize came from her.
“Elaborate on invasive substance.” The man’s brow furrowed.
“Unknown.” the robot replied.
“Petri, you haven’t been messing with the settings have you?” the man turned accusingly to the boy.
“Don’t ask me, I haven’t touched Fishy since you put that mask on it,” Petrie said, arms raised in surrender. The man did not look pleased.
“Fishy, scan for any trackers.”
“No trackers detected.” the voice replied.
“Software report, then.” the man ordered.
“Efficiency model seven operating system functioning at full capacity. No foreign software detected.”
“Doctor, I think Fishy is fine. I’m sure there’s just a bug or something crawling around and it doesn’t recognize it. And I mean like a live bug, not a computer bug.” Petri tried, but the older man still looked concerned.
Terra was just uncomfortable. For some reason, her limbs refused to work again no matter how hard she imagined moving them. Internally sighing, she just went along for the ride until she could piece together what was going on.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The doctor rubbed the back of his neck, still looking unsure about the status of his robot.
“Alright. Petri, let me know if you notice anything different about Fishy, alright? I really don’t want to reset him, but if they somehow managed to plant backdoor software on him then we’re going to be in a heap of trouble.” He turned to Terra. “Fishy, report over.”
Terra could hear the limbs of the robot unclick and she was able to move her arms around again. She stretched out her arms and legs one at a time to be sure she could fully move them again. Glancing around, she spotted a few scattered scraps of paper on the ground and a pen in the older man’s breast pocket. Terra reached for the pen first in the hopes of writing down her confusion and getting some answers.
“Fishy, stop.” The man’s voice ordered, and Terra’s arm paused in mid-air. “Dammit, there is something wrong,” he muttered to himself, then ordered the robot to sit back down on the table.
He picked up a screwdriver and walked to the back of the table, out of Terra’s sight. Petri’s face showed signs of pity as the doctor did something behind the robot. Terra couldn’t feel anything, but from the look the younger man had plastered on his face, it wasn’t good.
“I’m really sorry Fishy. It’s been a great twelve years.”
Terra’s vision flickered to black, but then reappeared again. The doctor had moved in front of her and Petri was standing at his side. How did he move so quickly?
“Thank you for choosing Efficiency model seven, the right choice for your everyday needs! I come fully equipped with cooking and cleaning modulators and will do everything to make your life easier. To begin, what would you like to name me?” A chipper robotic voice rang out from Terra’s body.
“Fishy.” the man replied with a solemn tone.
“You said, Fishy. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, my name is Fishy. You can change my name at any time by saying the phrase ‘Fishy, name change.’ What do I call you?”
“Indo. This is Petri.”
“Nice to meet you Indo and Petri. If you would like me to download any other--”
“Skip intro,” Indo muttered.
“What may I help you with?”
“Status report.”
“All operations functional. Invasive substance detected. Operating at a hundred percent.”
Indo sighed and ran his hands through his hair. Petri stood uncomfortably next to him, looking like he wanted to comfort the doctor but instead of using words just crossed his arms and made himself small.
“Go into the city and find me a Type 1 Rebar Button Head Coupler. Use this map, do not go online.” He laid out a map. “Shop at Discount Counter, the owner will recognize you.”
When Fishy looked at the map, Terra could feel her mind memorize the map. It felt like cold water running through her brain and she almost jumped at the feeling, but since her limbs were still stuck in the position she mentally flinched.
“Is this a good idea?” she heard Petri ask Indo as she started walking out of the room.
“It’s the only way to make sure Fishy wasn’t hacked. If he comes back, we’re safe. If not, then I have to format another one and discard him.”
Terra/Fishy was already walking through an open space that resembled a living room by the time they finished conversing. A large screen sat in a corner; the largest one she had seen yet. A semi-circular couch lay in front of it with a coffee table sitting a few feet away, littered with mugs and forgotten magazines. To her right, there was an open kitchen with pots lying scattered on the counter and plates stacked high in the sink. Her legs brought her to a metal ladder screwed into the side of the wall and pushed her up to a hinged door. Turning the wheel to unlock the door, Fishy pushed through to meet her new world.
Her first world was a snow-covered Detroit. Her next world was a desert with two suns. This world looked like it was burning.
The sky was hazy and red and she was completely surrounded by trash. She literally had to crawl over a mountain of shopping carts, old washing machines, plastic bags, stuffed animals, broken fans, worn mattresses, and clothes to be able to see the horizon, and even that was a stretch. While the sky was red, the places it touched the earth had a disgusting dark yellow tint. She could see the city Indo had told her to go to in the distance, but it had a grey cloud coating the tips of the buildings, making it difficult to judge just how large it was.
Terra had told herself to try and find the small joys in life and not focus on the negative, but this was too much. Even an optimistic mind would struggle to find anything positive in this world. Her body moved on its own, and she was pretty much forced to walk through mounds of trash for a mile before reaching something that remotely resembled ground. Even that was a stretch since it reminded Terra more of the desert she had been stuck in, minus the clear sky and golden ground. Her body walked through this field of dust and Terra was glad she couldn’t feel the particles of dust pelt against her skin.
As the city inched closer, the grey haze that served as a bad ceiling stretched towards her. Terra wanted to get off this planet, but first, she needed to learn how to control this metallic body of hers and find where her organic one went. She needed Alter to brief her, but she was nowhere to be found.
A cracked pavement reached out into the dusty wasteland she had walked through, beckoning her into the city. Smaller buildings lay abandoned at the entrance, their windows smashed and dust filling up their interiors. Terra turned when she caught her reflection in a window not completely coated in dust. Forcing her limbs forward, she wiped the window with her robotic hand.
The mask that the creature had worn adorned her face down, the clear crystal turned black. But that meant the crystal mask she had purged had been used somehow. Terra thought back to the last moment she could remember at the Capitol. She had been laying on the ground reminiscing about the good times she had and...Terra internally slapped herself. She had wished to go home! Terra’s heart dropped when she came to a realization; if the crystal had really granted her wish, was this her home?
As if in response to her dread, her body automatically moved forward towards the dark interior of the city.