Mech 3 by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

16

Rade lounged on the rooftop deck with Jiang, Chow, Bender, Pyro and Tahoe. Initially, Rade had been reluctant to trust the alien… he didn’t want to accept the creature’s hospitality, not when it came to boarding or food. But eventually, out of necessity he gave in. He had no other way to feed his team. And they did need a place to shelter when they weren’t exploring the city.

Jiang and Chow were the last hold outs, and refused to eat the meal replacements for two whole days, but they, too, eventually came around—starvation had a way of doing that. It helped that they saw the others weren’t adversely affected by the food, either.

Like Jiang, Rade’s trust of the alien only went so far: the team members remained inside their jumpsuits when they entered the breathable dome environment of the rooftop. He wasn’t going to expose his team to contagions, not if he could help it. Sure, the air might seem clear now, but it wouldn’t take much to sneak a contaminant into the atmosphere as soon as they removed their helmets. Well, that was one excuse for not accepting the breathable environment, anyway. Perhaps a weak one. But he did have a few others.

So no, he didn’t trust the creature’s intentions, not entirely, and since his team could still produce their own oxygen, he felt no need to rely on the alien for that. The creature still behaved as if they were utilizing the atmosphere aspect of its hospitality, however, because the inner and outer hatches of the airlock always opened and closed to properly protect the environment whenever one of the delivery spheres arrived, or the team came and went.

That’s right: the alien allowed the team members to enter and leave as they pleased: all they had to do was approach the airlock, and its inner hatch would open. After entering, the hatch would seal, the atmosphere would adjust to match the destination, and the outer door would slide away.

Despite this freedom of motion, Rade planned to lay low here for the time being, at least until the mechs cracked the written language. Speaking of that language, at the moment Valjean was working with the AI trainer to learn how to interpret those sparkles in the glass tubes. The mechs of Pyro and Bender were spread out between the adjacent floors, allowing Rade to remain in contact with Valjean at all times.

It also gave him forewarning whenever anything approached the rooftop from within. At the moment, a delivery sphere was approaching. Right on time.

The outer hatch opened and closed to allow the sphere entry; after the inner atmosphere of the airlock adjusted to match that of the dome environment, the sphere emerged onto the rooftop.

It approached the team and vomited that gooey mass known as “food” onto the rooftop before retreating.

Chow got up and retrieved an empty packet from the back of Jiang’s helmet. Then she went to the MRE, opened up the packet, and slid it through the glutinous mass like a shovel.

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