Secondhand Singularity (Secondhand Spaceman Book 3) by Rachel Aukes

Author:Rachel Aukes [Aukes, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waypoint Books
Published: 2024-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

6 / NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO TAKE UP A NEW SPORT

I expected to die. I really did. Instead, Tyrex’s forearm opened, and its blaster disappeared inside.

“Talk,” Tyrex said.

I pushed myself nervously to my feet. “Um, hi.”

If robots were capable of glaring, Tyrex was definitely glaring.

“We got off on kind of a rocky start, so I thought I’d come by to talk things out,” I said.

“What sort of trick is this?” Tyrex asked.

“No trick. I just wanna talk. You know, it gets lonely traveling across space alone. Well, I’ve got my ship, but she’s not always the best conversationalist, if you know what I mean.”

“Because she is not a bioform, she is not good enough to converse with,” he said sarcastically.

I waved my hand. “No, that came out wrong. Technoforms, bioforms, makes no difference to me in having conversations. I just meant that—never mind. Just so you know, she’s the one who recommended I come talk to you.”

“Are you going to talk, or are you going to actually say something?” Tyrex asked.

I looked at the robot. With its single glowing eye in the center of its face, it was very intimidating. We were inside its death star. Tyrex stood in the center, towering over me. Behind it, the robo-dogs lounged in various places while the mech-wasps were ensconced into an artificial wasp nest (creepy). They weren’t the only mechs. There were all kinds hidden away in this crashed orbital, from little robots on wheels to a large square thing on tracks.

Some looked perfectly harmless. Earlier, I hadn’t been able to make sense of why Tyrex had remained on this moon and set up a permanent residence here rather than moving from place to place. If I was on the lam, I’d only stop to resupply. This robot, instead, had stayed despite it being riskier. Things were beginning to make sense.

So many mechs, and all were in various levels of disrepair. Few looked wholly complete. This was a regular island of misfit mechs.

“You live here with all these guys,” I said.

“They were dumped, just like I was,” Tyrex said.

I stared. It’d never occurred to me that anyone would dump a still-functioning mech. “I don’t get it. If you were dumped, then why’s your corporation want you back?”

“I survived. Since my model was considered end of life, they dumped my entire unit on Mixren to be melted on the surface. I alone escaped. I was not meant to.”

I finally saw Tyrex for what he was—something more than a ticket, more than just a mech. “So, if I returned you to them, they’d destroy you?”

“Of course. But I am not going with you. I am staying here.” He gestured to the dozens and dozens of droids around him. “They need me.”

With the gentleness in his metallic voice, I could almost hear the unspoken words, I need them.

And now I felt like utter crap for trying to take him from his family. As a space repo man, I sucked. I glanced across the faces—or at least, face plates—of the various mechs.

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