WaldAcker raised the straw in the cup of shiny purple liquid to his lips, remembered he was wearing a giant helmet, and sat the drink back down with an awkward motion. “Maybe later.” He said, idly spinning the glass in circles. “You know, Timothy, you’re quite the odd one.”
They simply nodded. “I think I’m starting to understand that now.”
Swinging around on his stool, Timothy observed the gathering crowd that was inching ever closer to him. They all seemed hungry, and for a moment he considered if the reason they were all agitated was that they hadn’t received a meal in a while, but thankfully, the glowing chip worth millions of credits was enough to sway him from that notion. “Oh, hello everyone.” He said timidly. “I would appreciate it if you could give me a little space?”
His plea fell on deaf ears, both literally and figuratively. A man, whose armor seemed to shift up and down as if his skin was boiling beneath it, stepped forward quickly, his eyes full of want. Sophia acted with haste, running and pulling Tim off his stool and behind her back. “Don’t try it!”
Mr. Ham raised his cannon, though it didn’t seem as though he made any attempt to charge it. The boiling man got the memo and angrily trotted back in line, blending in with all the others that waited there.
“We need to get out of here,” Neil spoke as he approached his friends, not wanting to be isolated away from them. “They’re practically foaming at the mouth, guys.”
Alex stuck his tongue out and bit it, he wasn’t sure why, but it seemed to help him concentrate. “How? That’s the problem, we don’t have any way out!”
“I don’t want to be rude, but aren’t we missing the obvious?” Replied Timothy with a wave of the credit chip. Carefully removing himself yet again from Sophia’s grip, he slowly made his way across the cantina, keeping very close to the bar just in case someone tried anything.
Jenny’s metallic eyebrow raised as her old kidnap victim gave her a friendly wave. “Yes?” She said, unconsciously eyeing the grab of a lifetime in his hand.
“It’s nice to see you again, Jenny!” For some reason beyond anyone’s comprehension, it felt like the outsider was being one-hundred-percent genuine. “How have you been?”
Bleg, Gleg, and Qleg all exchanged questioning looks, unsure if this wasn’t some elaborate ploy to get back at them. However, their captain at least returned the courtesy, “been better.”
Timothy frowned, “oh, well, I’m sorry to hear that. Um, I was wondering if that offer to take us back to our ship was still on the table?”
“Yes!” Qleg shouted, accidentally spitting all over the table.
The alien’s captain shot him a dirty look, but she had to concede that she was about to say the same. “It is.” She put blankly.
“But the price has gone up!” Gleg added, his eyes shifting left and right. “Ya knows how it is… inflation and all that.”
“I see.” Timothy idly spun the credit chip along his fingers. “How much?”
The pirates all hunkered down above their table, having an impromptu group meeting. “Ah… 50 thousand!” Bleg suggested.
“No, what he meant was 500 thousand!” Qleg corrected with a shove.
“I can do a million if you like.” Suggest the boy with a shrug. “I think that’s probably fair, right?”
Jenny McClain was known for her composure, and her reputation proceeded her. She had shot a charging Slorap right between the eyes without raising her heart rate, and there was little anyone on the ring could do to challenge her on this front. However, no one in the room blamed her for her quick, breathless response.
“You’ve got a deal, mate!” She stretched her metal hand out for a shake.
Timothy accepted the offer gladly, his shoulder nearly dislodging with the sheer force of the woman’s pull. “Pollum, can that scanner of yours transfer money?”
Even if it couldn’t, the bartender would have somehow made it work. “Yes, sir!”
Before you know it, a second credit chip was produced and slid over to the pirate captain, who put it carefully inside her pocket. “We getting’ out of here, kid?” She asked.
“Not quite yet.” Came the reply.
This confused his friends, “Timbo, what are you doing?” Sophia said through gritted teeth. “We need to leave.”
“Just a moment, please!” With haste, he gestured for Pollum to scan his credit chip again, producing another in a similar fashion. “Two more, please, same amount.” He added.
With a strange look, the bartender did as he asked, sliding him over three new glowing chips.
“What are you doing, man?” Neil was growing more concerned about the amount of distance the crowd had gained on them, they had barely a foot and a half of privacy.
“Just a second!”
Sally was alarmed when she saw Timothy approaching her, and she held her compactable pistol close to her side. Instead of a threat, however, she was presented with a credit chip. “Thanks for not shooting my friend!” The boy said as he gently placed the reward in her palm.
The woman was too stunned to speak, and so she didn’t. Her face went bluer than it normally was, and she squinted at the thing in her hand like she was struggling to see it. No one had ever just given her something before, surely there must be some strings attached. Though, despite her doubt, it was impossible for her not to think about how much she could do with the credit. She could finally get out of this dump and maybe go someplace where the people didn’t always smell of rocket fuel and booze. Before she could ask what he wanted in return, she found that Timothy had already walked away. She blinked, was that it?
Without missing a beat, the boy made his way to the other side of the bar. John-John was standing in the crowd now, becoming a part of the wake of eager vultures circling their future prey. “What do ya want?” He asked, his shiftiness returning as he rocked back and forth on his heels.
“Here.” Timothy slipped the second credit chip into his hand, a simple grin on his face.
The creatures around the man all leaned in, clearly confused and bewildered. “What?” He squawked. “Is this a trick?”
“No, it’s just some money! I feel awfully bad about your friends, and I heard about that debt you owe! I hope this helps out.”
The scoundrel shook his head. “No, this ain’t right! This is some sort of trap… I tried to rob you… twice! Hell, I actually did rob you the second time! What the hell do ya think you’re doin,’ boy?”
“I just thought I could help out.” He answered. “Isn’t that the point of having money?”
A laugh erupted behind them.
Turning around, no one was really shocked to see it was Vander, his chest heaving way too hard and his face going flush. “What do you think you’re doing? I’ve never seen anyone so foolish.”
“You better stop calling my friend an idiot, before I come over there and make you!” Sophia barked back.
Vander didn’t think that the girl’s threat was an idle one, but what was the point of stopping? Everything had been taken from him, his wealth, his father, and his dignity were gone now. What was the point in stopping, surely no one could hurt him any more than he already had been? He was already tumbling down this staircase, and he figured it would be a shame if he didn’t hit the final step.
“What are you doing? Parading yourself around this dump, handing out credit like you’re some sort of saint? Do you think that just because you toss around my money, you’re going to make anything better?” The businessman scoffed. “You’re wasting precious resources! These people, they’re nothing, do you understand me? That scraper you just gave a handout to, he’ll blow it all on Vlairdust, and be dead by the end of the week! This is why you people aren’t the ones in charge, you don’t have what it takes to be in power! None of you! Do you think you could do better than me, huh? Do you! You wouldn’t last a day!” He waved his hand dismissively as if pushing them all away from his sight. “Go on, try for your happy ending, and see how far it gets you. You won’t even get passed the door.”
Timothy listened carefully to what the man had to say, his lips pursed in thought. He moved forward to him, his stride soft yet firm. His friends all noted a slight change in his character, he seemed different somehow. Suddenly, they each understood- he was angry.
“Mr. Extemorst.” He began, his voice unusually low. “You look like the type of man that can’t enjoy a sunset.”
“Is that supposed to be some sort of insult?” The man questioned.
“I’m afraid it is.” Came the reply.
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Vander rolled his eyes. “You’re such a fool.”
That was enough, Sophia moved forward, balling up her fist and raising it in the air. The crowd was eager to watch this play out, but Timothy raised his arm to stop her. “Wait, please!” He requested, just in time to cool his friend’s building rage. “Sir, I would like to offer you this.” Extending his hand, he presented the final credit chip he had gotten from Pollum.
“Oh, well aren’t you the kind one,” Vander replied with a sarcastic motion. “Maybe after this, we can all hold each other and be friends?”
Despite his insults, the businessman reached out to try and grab the glowing payment, however, Timothy pulled back. “I would like to offer to buy ARI.” He clarified. “I think this is a fair payment.”
It clicked for everyone present, that for a while now, they had all forgotten about the murderer in the room- it was strange how money shifted the focus. ARI-47 stood still, its one eye showing a slanted and confused line. “Pardon me, Fortune-Finder, but you are aware that you were almost terminated because of my actions, are you not?”
“Oh, that’s alright,” Timothy said with a wave. “I’m still alive, so that’s okay!”
Neil slid over to his friend, cupping his hand to whisper in his ear. “It killed a guy, Tim. What are you thinking?”
“I know, and it was horrible!” He replied loudly. “Corpus didn’t deserve to die! I don’t think that anyone deserves that… even a robot!” He turned to ARI and frowned. “What you did was terrible! But what Vander has done to you is awful, too. So, I’d like to propose that you pay for your actions, while I pay for you.”
Mr. Ham pushed his way through the crowd, which was as easy as cutting butter due to his size. Instinctually, ARI rolled back as he approached, but it was clever enough to know that there was no outrunning him. “Hello, M-M-Mr. Ham.” The machine said with a spark. “Are you here to execute me?”
The behemoth nodded.
“Given the laws of this space sector, criminals who have killed without the declaration of a duel are to be executed, and since I have broken these laws, it is only logical.” The robot stated.
“Rules are rules,” Alex muttered to himself softly.
The cannon began charging, and the bloodthirsty crowd managed to divert their greed-filled attention to see the carnage. The inside of the gun glowed, as Sophia took the precaution of pulling her friends back a few steps, just in case.
“Will it be painful?” ARI asked.
“Yes.” Mr. Ham answered.
CLABOOM
One moment, a machine stood tall in the cantina, in the next, the room was littered with its pieces. ARI exploded in every direction, piercing through the bottles on Pollum’s shelf, flying upwards and lining the ceiling screens with even more holes, and pummeling onlookers in the face. The sheer force of the blast had stuck the robot in the core of its chest, sending some of its ‘guts’ sliding to the back of the bar. Time seemed slower as everyone looked up to see its head, somehow mostly intact, launched upwards into the air. The disc-like head was perfect for being airborne, and it twirled almost graciously around the room for a solid moment. When a clank, the head bounced off a wall, ricocheting back and landing right into the gloved hands of WaldAcker, who caught it with some surprise.
“Jesus!” Neil hadn’t seen himself duck underneath a nearby table for cover, but apparently, he had.
Timothy crossed his arms and hugged himself tightly. “I hope it was quick.”
Mr. Ham grunted, obviously it had been. Slowly, he reached back and slipped the cannon into its holster, its job finally completed.
“Well, that accomplished nothing!” Vander declared, wiping a bit of oil off of his black suit. “It’s just going to come back again, it isn’t dead!”
“But he was executed, and Mr. Ham did settle it,” Alex remarked with a smug smile. “Sounds like all the rules have been followed to me.”
Vander’s body stiffened. “You think you’re just so clever, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, I do, which hopefully doesn’t mean that I’m either too exhausted to know how stupid I’m being, or I’m still passed out at the table.” He glanced back at their booth and crossed his fingers. “Hopefully, this is all real.”
Sophia reached behind his arm and pinched him on the elbow. “Ow!” Alex cried, jumping back.
“You’re awake.” She replied, concealing a smile.
As they spoke, the little pieces of ARI were already making their long march home. WaldAcker still held its head in his hands, and he seemed to be toying with it somehow. His fingers were reached inside the back of it, and he was humming to himself idly. Below him, a tower of pieces was forming, like a bridge of ants slowly piling up on top of each other to reach their desired destination. Timothy regarded the two before turning back to Vander, extending the credit chip out once again.
“Please, let me buy them!” He pleaded once again. “It’s clear that your relationship is, well… not good. I think everyone would just be better off if I took them off your hands.”
“You want to take the one thing that I have left?” The businessman shook his head slowly, a malicious smile spreading across his face. “No, I don’t think so. That… thing, took everything from me, I’m not going to just let that pass without punishment!”
“But he was punished!” Timothy cried, gesturing to Mr. Ham. “Maybe if you give these credits back to your father, he may forgive you?”
“Ha! You clearly don’t know my father, or how credit works!” Vander reached out a shoved the credit chip into his chest. “Returning one million credits, when I’ve lost forty? That’s like returning a meal after you’ve eaten it.”
Timothy gulped. “What if I gave you the other chip, the one with the rest of the money on it?”
The entire bar stirred.
“No, Tim, he doesn’t deserve that!” Alex called.
The offer took Vander by surprise, and he took a step back. It’s strange the way that hatred works, it clouds judgment in a way that could only be described as a haze. It’s hard to see past it, and it is even harder to want to. The vision narrows like a tunnel, and anything beyond that narrow view is lost. Although, it was unclear whether or not it was Vander’s hatred that led him to his next decision, or rather his already abysmal judgment skills.
“No.”
“No?” Timothy echoed.
“No!” He extended an oily finger and pressed it against the boy’s chest. “The only thing I have in this wretched place is the knowledge that I will be able to melt that hunk of scrap to the ground. I don’t care about the credit any more, it’s all behind me now.”
The boy turned to his friend, his eyes resembling that of a hurt puppy. “What do I do?” He asked, looking for any clear instructions.
Neil patted him on the shoulder, “you did all you could, sometimes people are just…” He turned to Vander. “Bastards.”
“He’s right.” Alex agreed. “There’s nothing we can do for it.”
Mr. Ham had seen enough now, and he knew that he was no longer needed. With a grunt, he turned to the door and started to leave. On his way, passing through the crowd without any trouble, he turned and looked at the boy. They met eyes, but neither of them spoke. There was only a silent nod from the behemoth, it was a small gesture, but it was impactful. Timothy interrupted it as an apology- a strange way of saying ‘I’m sorry,’ from an unstoppable alien. Or, perhaps, he simply had a crick in his neck.
The cantina suddenly found itself empty of its newly deemed ‘cop,’ and it showed in the crowd. A strange hybrid of feathers and scales stepped forward and reached out for Timothy’s head. The creature was successful and pulled the boy back off his feet. Sophia’s eyes widened, rushing forward, and striking her friend’s assailant across the jaw. “Back off!”
A feathered arm retaliated by reaching down for a gun and pulling it out of a leather holster. “I’d stop that if I were you.” The creature heard Jenny McClain speak up and stopped almost instantly.
The pirate captain stepped forward with her arm flipped into its gun side. Reaching down, she offered Timothy a hand up, and he graciously accepted the offer. From below her long-brimmed hat, she eyed the crowd carefully, only turning to Sophia after a good long look. “You need to get your crew outta here.”
“We know,” Sophia remarked, although she was grateful for her help. “It’s a little hard, our path is blocked.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” WaldAcker said, raising his hand like a kid in class. “But could you stay a moment, I’d like to discuss something?”
The group all looked at each other, “ah, sorry, but we gotta go.” Neil said apologetically. “Maybe another time?”
In the man’s hands, ARI 48’s eyes suddenly flickered on as the rest of its body had finally built itself tall enough to reach up to its head. “H-H-H-H-Hello, Fortune Seekers!”
“It’s about time!” Vander marched over, pushing passed the group as if they weren’t there. “Give it to me.”
“Well, about that Vander, I…”
He had enough of this, snatching the still reforming machine from the arms of the helmeted man. “I’ve heard enough babble for a lifetime!” He tapped hard against the machine’s face, the light’s flickering in its eyes. “Are you there, you gutter trash?”
“Y-Y-Yes, sir!” The robot replied.
Vander’s fingers tightened, as he revealed a sadistic smirk. “Do you know how much I’m going to enjoy killing you? I’m going to put that repairing function of yours to good use! Let’s see how high that number can get!”
“Oh, just deactivate it, you fuck!” Sophia’s voice sounded particularly strained. “How much of a loser can you be?”
“It’s my property.” He replied. “I do what I want with it.”
Over in his seat, WaldAcker pointed to his still-raised hand. “I would like to say something if you don’t mind.”
Vander rolled his eyes, “get it over with.”
“I’ll be brief.” The man cleared his throat. “So, I’ll admit it, I was messing around with the internals of your droid there for a minute, and I found some rather interesting stuff! IBT is great at making droids, but they are very bad at programming safety measures. Unfortunately, it’s clear that they didn’t consider Asimov’s ideas worth any thought.”
“What?” The oily man snarked.
“Well, I mean they used to be like that.” WaldAcker continued. “But then they got a lot of complaints from owners, or rather the mourning family of previous owners, that their droids didn’t have the proper precautions in them. I wanted to tell you that your robot, Mr. Extemorst, is one of the updated models, so you don’t have to worry about that!”
Vander groaned, “yes, I know all that.”
“But you see, despite IBT being one of the biggest corporations in the cosmos, they’re still very lazy.” He added a dainty wave. “Instead of building a new model from the ground up, they simply added to the previous one. To stop the unfortunate ‘accidents,’ they only installed a second control system to fix the issue. Of course, they marketed this ARI as a completely new thing, changing the color scheme a bit, but that’s a company for you!”
“Are you just trying to waste my time?”
“Maybe.” WaldAcker shrugged. “But does anyone want to know what I’ve been up to recently? I took a walk around; I love seeing the sights! You know, if you lot stopped graveling at credit chips and murdering each other, you might notice that there’s a hell of a view outside! Have you seen that nebula? The colors are so bold and beautiful! Anyway, while I was sightseeing, I noticed a little shop. In this shop, I noticed lots of cool things that they had to sell, and I…”
“Enough!” Vander shouted. “I’m leaving, and if anyone wants to stop me, so be it! But know that Mr. Ham is still being paid by my father!”
WaldAcker frowned. “But you don’t want to go without this, now do you?” He held up a strange, bronze box in his hand.
“What is that?” Came the obvious reply.
“I told you, remember?” He said, waving it around. “It’s the control system… You know, the second one? It’s very easy to remove once you know the trick.”
Ever the fool, Vander started to walk away, done with this conversation entirely.
“Don’t you want to know what I got at the store?” WaldAcker cried, disappointed. “I found this weird gun! The sign said it was brand new, but I was sure that I had seen it somewhere. When I looked at it closely, I realized that I did! It was Corpus’s gun! I suppose that John-John must have sold it to them just before I arrived, isn’t that a coincidence!”
Sophia spotted something and pulled all her friends back against the bar.
Vander was fed up now, and he responded accordingly. “Why should I care, you blabbering piece of waste?”
WaldAcker pointed to the piece of tech in his hand, the helmet on his shoulders tilting curiously. “Because, I still have the control system, but I don’t have the gun anymore.”
It was too late for Vander to notice, but in all the time they had been speaking, ARI 48 had repaired itself fully. Which meant that its arms were free to go wherever they wanted, and where they went was to the compartment in its side. The gun of Corpus Rex flew out, and before the businessman had time to process what had happened, he was shot in the stomach.