amongst themselves-it was eerily human.
She goaded her mount forward until she came out into an open area where only threads of mist swirled. This place was different than any other region she’d found in the crater. It had a solid floor of dark metal. How it had come to be here, she had no clue.
There were many mechs in evidence, at least two score of them. Nina’s heart sank as they swung their orbs toward her. She’d thought perhaps there had only been three, and that she might possibly slay the leader and flee. All such fantasies evaporated when she saw their numbers. Still, she rode forward confidently, as if they were all her servants.
Among them, three figures stood apart. One was a mech that carried a skin sack on its back. The second was a thin human who stood tugging on a hatch in the middle of the region, which was made of solid dark metal. The third was the one that captivated her entirely once she’d spotted him. This was the one-the mech who commanded the others. He was the one who’d presided over a group when they’d slayed her beloved Leon. He still wore a wide-brimmed hat, a fluttering blue scarf and a cloak that trailed behind him.
“I request to parlay with you, the rebel leader!” Nina shouted.
The leader raised his gripper, and the others lowered their weapons. Nina knew he’d sent out a radio signal on their local subnet, ordering them not to slay her. Her stomach unknotted-but only slightly.
“Who wishes to parlay with me?” asked the leader.
“I’m Baroness Nina Droad.”
The mech moved forward several clanking steps when he heard this. His broad feet rang as they struck the dark metal platform they stood upon.
“I am called Sixty-Two,” he said gravely. “Why is it you’ve come here?”
“I’ve come to slay you, and I’ve brought an army to do it with. Surely, you must have noticed.”
The mech turned its head slightly to one side, as if thinking. It was an oddly human gesture, and Nina found it slightly disgusting to see him perform it.
“What gives you the right to slay us?” he asked.
Nina blinked in surprise, but the question seemed to be in earnest. “Because you are rebels who have resisted your rightful masters and in some cases slain them.”
“Our ‘rightful masters’,” Sixty-Two echoed thoughtfully. “And what gives one man the right to be the master of another?”
Nina made a sound of exasperation. “You are not men! Look at yourselves! I will admit, you are a singular case, Sixty-Two. You are different than the rest. Something clearly went wrong in your processing. But that doesn’t change things.”
“I believe that it does. I am a human with a metal body of your people’s design. I want to know why this has been done to me.”
“Because you are a criminal. You are all criminals. You were rightfully convicted and sentenced to this fate.”
“What then, was my crime? For I do not remember it.”
Nina decided to take this opportunity to get closer to her target. She thought it may be the only chance she ever got-and besides, she was curious. Who was this mysterious mech, who’d become a warlord and caused so much damage?
She dismounted and approached until she was close enough to peer at his chestplate. She tapped the serial number on the mech into her computer scroll and did a search. She wasn’t able to access the net from this maelstrom of geological activity, but all such public data had been stored locally on her computer in any case.
She studied the results, frowning. “Hmm, the serial number is listed as unregistered. It is listed as unused, and isn’t in the database. Did you alter it?”
“No,” Sixty-Two said. “I suspect my processing was never finished, and the ID was never logged. I’ve done the same search myself with the same results.”
“I see, yes, the processing must have been interrupted. That would explain a lot. But in short, I do not know who you are-who you were.”
“And you see no crime in that, Baroness? Your people have erased me, and cannot even tell me what it was I supposedly did to earn my fate.”
Nina looked troubled, but only for a moment. “The situation is self-evident. You are a mech, therefore you were previously a criminal. Only the most heinous of crimes earn people such a fate.”
“Really? Then let us indulge ourselves with a second test. Here is a girl named Lizett. Research her number, please.”
Nina stepped up to the towering mech female and scanned her breastplate. She waited a moment, then frowned at the results.
“Well?” demanded Sixty-Two.
Nina straightened her spine to stand as tall as possible among the towering mechs that surrounded her. If she were to die, it would not be in the posture of a sniveling liar. She read the report as it was written on her device. “Lizett Germaine. Age twelve. Daughter of shopkeepers Otto and Gisele Germaine, from Alsace fief. Family evicted for non-payment of lease and convicted as debtors.”
“Lizett Germaine,” Lizett said, pronouncing her last name carefully. “Do I have any brothers or sisters?”
Nina frowned. “It doesn’t say here.”
“Let me see if I understand the situation,” Sixty-Two said gravely. “She was a child of debtors, and the entire family was processed for non-payment? You call this justice?”
“You knew who she was before you had me look it up.”
“That changes nothing. Would you call this justice?”
Nina looked at the female mech and shook her head. “It would not seem to be a fair sentence.”
“Look at the date on the record, Baroness. When was the act performed?”
“Uh-sixteen years ago.”
“So,” Sixty-Two boomed, turning up the volume of his speakers. “Your people ripped her brain from her body as a child. Deprived of hormonal influences, memories, and until recently emotions, she did not develop. She still has the mind of a child and most likely forever will.”
“I concede her grounds for a grievance. Perhaps she can plead her case and receive restitution.”
Sixty-Two snorted in disgust. “No fief judge will consider a case brought by a runaway mech. We are slaves. We are chattel. We have been gravely wronged. Can you not understand our actions now? You are a fiery knightrix, a warrior at arms. Would you tolerate such dishonorable treatment in our situation?”
Nina eyed the hulking mechs around her, seeing individuals for the first time, rather than machines. Part of her wanted to break her chivalrous code and tell them an untruth, but she could not.
“No,” she admitted at last. “I would not tolerate such treatment. I would be angry, and I would most likely rebel.”
“Excellent. Now that you have admitted your guilt, we can proceed with our own justice.”
“My guilt?”
“You have confessed to mistreating mechs, to persecuting us with armed troops when we are the ones that have been wronged. That dishonor must be punished.”
“What kind of a parlay is this?” Nina shouted.
“It is the kind your people have often given us. You are the sole available representative of your government. You are to be tried and executed for the deaths of over five hundred civilian mechs at our base in Sunside.”
Nina drew her sword and powered it. The blade flared into life and plasma rippled over its length. “Sixty- Two, or whatever your name is, I would challenge you to a duel instead!” she shouted. “As one commander to another! Let this war be decided by a single death, rather than a thousand.”
Sixty-Two was taken aback. “You challenge me? I have ten times your strength of arm.”
“I’ve slain your kind before. This blade will cut through steel struts as easily as bone.”
“How would such an act change the course of this struggle between our peoples?”
“We’ll record the duel. We will record the terms. If I win, I walk freely from here, and our army retreats. You will have been executed for your crimes, and I will pursue the rest of your mechs no longer.”
“And if I win?”
