Part 17 (2/2)

Fortalexa had set up a small workshop in one of the crew cabins. He had the control panel off the machine and was attaching various instruments and monitors to its internal circuitry when Ace found him. Lannic was leaning against the wall watching him, her arms folded. She pushed herself away from the wall as Ace came in.

'You feeling all right now?' she asked.

'Fine thanks. Throat's a bit sore still, otherwise no problems.'

'Good.' Lannic pa.s.sed her in the doorway. Ace turned sideways to let her through. 'Good,' said Lannic again as she squeezed past, and she smiled and clapped Ace on the shoulder. Then she turned back into the room and called across, 'Oh, you might try linking the VR units to the projection system via the real world interface. Should get you something.'

Fortalexa looked up for the first time. 'Yes, it's a thought. Thanks.'

'Pleasure.'

After Lannic was out of sight down the corridor, Ace went over to Fortalexa. 'Thank you,' she said.

'Ah, forget it. Dragging unconscious women across asteroids and flinging them into airlocks is what I joined up for. It was the Doctor's idea I should go looking anyway.'

She could see he did not want to make anything of it. 'Sure. But thanks anyway.'

'Pleasure,' he echoed Lannic.

'She seemed in a good mood.'

Fortalexa flicked a couple of switches and tapped a recalcitrant read*out. 'Probably glad to be on her way home. I know I am. Where's your home, by the way?'

'Oh, in the Federation,' said Ace vaguely. That was a discussion she was not sure she was up to yet.

'I went to the Federation once, as a child before the war.'

'Oh?'

'Yes, Went shopping with my mother. We got deported.'

'What? Why?'

'Silly mistake on my part. Bad choice of words. Mother was trying on necklaces on Alpha Centauri. I saw a really nice one and pointed it out to her.'

'What was wrong with that?'

'Well the sales a.s.sistant was just beside us, and I said ”That's the one I'd get.” He took it personally.'

It took Ace a moment. Then she laughed out loud. It made her throat hurt more, but it made the rest of her feel good. 'A bit unfair to our monocular friends,' she said when she had recovered. She said it not because she meant it, but to show she really had understood the joke.

Fortalexa shrugged, 'Oh I don't know, they've got a great sense of humour from what I've heard.' He frowned at the readings and flicked another switch. 'This thing's ancient.'

'Why bother with it then?'

'The technology's ancient, but what it does is remarkably sophisticated.'

'And what is that?'

'I wish I knew. There's some circuitry in here I just can't interpret, but it looks like serious function.' He disconnected a set of wires from one of his meters and connected them to another set on the controls. 'There's a lot of microcode hiding around as well. More than it should need.'

'Lannic said something about a ”real world interface”.'

He answered automatically, busy with the wiring. 'Yes. Might work.'

'I didn't realize she was a techie.'

'She's not. Probably just repeating something she heard from someone. Hey,' he looked up, 'that's a point. Do you think the Doctor might have any ideas?'

Ace laughed. 'I'm sure he would. He's full of them.'

'So's everyone else. But unlike the Doctor, that's usually not all they're full of.' He disappeared behind the machine.

Ace tried to see over the top, but gave up and bent to look underneath instead. She could just make out the shape of Fortalexa's head through the tangles of wire and componentry which hung down out of the body of the machine. 'I'll get him for you,' she said. He did not answer so she left to look for the Doctor.

'I'm determined to sort out this thing if it kills me.' Fortalexa stood up and smiled over at the young woman. But she had gone, so he returned his attention to the machine. Try linking the VR units to the projection system via the real world interface yes, it should certainly give him some sort of result. Maybe he could display some internal diagnostic information through the interface.

The linkages were fairly straightforward, unlike most of the other rechannelling he had attempted. Fortalexa held his breath and pressed the operation key.

The result was immediate. A red glow formed in the centre of the room, an image within it. Fortalexa walked round it. It was vague and hazy from all angles, but seemed to be solidifying. The red glow was fading as the image within gained clarity. It was a group of figures, a tableau. He moved a little closer and concentrated on one of the figures. It was humanoid, but it was not human. Too bulky.

It was a robot. Two of the figures were robots. Taller than Fortalexa and much broader. They were constructed from reflective metal built into an exoskeleton. The skull head was riddled with fine mechanisms to drive the jaw and rotate about the neck. The eyes were glowing red bulbs set deep within their dark sockets. The rest of the body followed an almost human bone structure, but was left bare no covering material at all, the joint circuitry open to view. Fortalexa could see the tiny motors drive the knee joints as the metal figures stepped forward; could hear the whirr of the servos as the fingers flexed on the ends of the metal hands reaching towards him.

They were magnificent examples of precision engineering. Probably from the climax to The Good Soldiers The Good Soldiers. He would have examined them in greater detail if he had not at that moment recognized the figure standing between the robots as they stepped towards him.

Fortalexa backed away, his jaw slack, his head shaking from side to side in disbelief. He was preoccupied with the human between the robots that he hardly noticed when they stepped forward, out of the red field, and s.h.i.+mmered into reality. His brain was still wrestling with the problem, trying to relate it back to the events on Menaxus, trying to tie in the dream machine, when a metal hand closed round his throat and with a swift servo*a.s.sisted movement snapped shut.

'Here he is,' Ace led the Doctor into the room. 'He'll get you sorted.' She looked round; the room was deserted. There was just the machine in the centre of the floor.

”Fortalexa?' the Doctor called out.

'Can I help you?' Fortalexa stood up from behind the machine.

'I thought I was going to help you,' the Doctor told him.

'Thank you, but I think I can manage.'

'Hang on there,' Ace leaned across the machine. 'You said you needed the Doctor's help.'

'I think I can manage,' he repeated.

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