The little girl jogged next to the container, eyes forward, with no emotion.
“Hey!” Jolo yelled at her. But she did not look his way. “Hey,” he yelled again. And this time she turned. Her eyes cold and lifeless. “Where is the big man with one arm?” She pointed up and then ran to the other side of the hopper, as far away from him as she could be. “Stay alive. I’m coming back for you,” said Jolo. By then several other men had come to take the place of the two dead rock humpers.
Jolo jumped up to level 2 and took the outer stairs again to level 5, where he hoped to find Barthelme.
A warning klaxon blared out in one second intervals, red lights flashing in time, as Jolo stepped into the large room on level 5. There were ten humans lying on the floor, a med bot hovering over. A Jaylen walked in and Jolo backed up against the wall and froze.
“Are these the ones with diminished production numbers?” she said to the bot.
Just then a security drone zoomed in and scanned the humans, then started to scan the Jaylen and she slapped it away. “Get out, you stupid little metal box, can’t you see I’m busy actually doing something useful?”
The bot responded inaudibly with a direct link to the Jaylen’s computer.
“There are no intruders here,” said the Jaylen, looking around the room, her eyes sweeping right past Jolo. “So leave, before I make some modifications to your circuits,” she said, waving a red energy blade under the little round security drone. It gained altitude, then left through a hole in the ceiling.
Some of the men on the floor were still and quiet, their faces a gray color, their dull, lifeless eyes fixed on some random point in space. But about half of them were still alive. Jolo could see their chests rising and falling with each labored breath.
The Jaylen started on one end, the med bot displaying the vitals of each man. The first one was dead and the Jaylen kicked his foot with her boot and yelled, “Recycler!” and another bot flew in and sunk two sharp, blood-stained hooks into his chest and lifted him up, ribs cracking as the weight of his body pulled against the hook points. The bot struggled to gain lift, the man’s arms and legs dangling, and disappeared into a hole in the wall on the far side. The man’s hand was too low and slapped against the wall, the bottom edge of the hole smudged brown and red.
Jolo carefully eyed each man, hoping to find Barthelme among the living, but he wasn’t there. He knew Barth would look different, but these men were skin and bone and Barth was a big man. The next man in the row was moving and groaning. The Jaylen stared at the bio readout displayed by the med bot, which showed his vitals. She frowned. “Four months of usage. Flag this one. We need to pinpoint where the duds come from and avoid those areas. Probably some cushy Fed core planet. What a waste of resources.” She tapped on the virtual screen and then yelled, “Recycler!” Jolo watched as the recycler bot headed their way again and then another man started moving. Like the others he was rail thin, and had gray hair. Jolo could only see his left arm, the other covered by the man laying next to him. But then suddenly the gray haired man moved again, grimacing in pain, and lifted up his other arm.
It was a black, mechanical arm, scratched and dented from years of use. The man held it up and reached out with his three mechanical fingers.
Barthelme.
At first Jolo didn’t believe it. How could this be? Had they taken Barth’s arm and attached it to another man? Jolo’s heart was racing and his breaths suddenly came in fast gulps. Meanwhile the recycler bot had almost made it to the second man in line. Jolo wasn’t going to be late this time. He didn’t care if he was risking the entire mission. He jumped out and put a hole in the Jaylen’s head before she knew what was happening. Then another two, THMMP, THMMP rounds into the recycler bot. It crashed down, red-brown hooks scratching across the floor. The med bot started beeping and gained altitude but Jolo told it to come back.
And amazingly, it did.
“Start here,” he said. “Pointing to Barthelme. Give him fluids and a shot of adrenaline.” Jolo knelt down and held Barth’s good hand. He looked into his eyes and knew it was him. All the old man could do was blink. He wanted to say something, but didn’t have the strength. “Hurry!” he yelled at the bot.
The bot inserted a large needle into Barthelme’s chest and suddenly his eyes popped open and he sucked in a huge gulp of air. There was no time for the fluids so Jolo told the bot to take care of the living men the same way. One concern before he left was if Barthelme couldn’t walk, how would he move the big man. But that was no concern now. He looked to weigh as much as skinny Koba. Jolo scooped up his old engineer and started running for the door. Three Jaylens appeared on the opposite side and he paused, still holding Barth over his shoulder and
