“Why are you up, Mr. Dingo?” she asked in astonishment. “I sedated you with enough stuff to keep you down for days.”

  “Sorry ma’am, let’s just say I’ve got a high tolerance to all kinds of stuff,” Dingo replied somewhat sheepishly. “Wanna buy a map?”

  “What?” they all said in unison.

  Fink came striding in and right up to them. “Hank! I thought I recognized that voice. What are you doing on this rock?”

  “Just looking around,” Dingo replied, obviously greeting an old acquaintance. “What about you? Have you signed up to be a merc?”

  “Oh no,” Fink said. “Fingers sent me along to look after them. When I caught up with the lieutenant here, he was in a Port Mist lock-up…”

  Lewis walked out, figuring that Fink would keep talking for a while. Telini and Roquette were hunched over the desk top display.

  “Are we better yet?” he asked.

  “Twenty-four seventy, it’s still going up,” Telini told him. “But it’s slower now, it claims we have ten minutes to live.”

  “As long as the water keeps flowing, the heating trend should reverse itself,” Roquette posited. “How’s our patient?”

  “Actually he’s supposed to be sedated,” Lewis answered. “But he’s awake and lucid. Lindy was shocked. I’m going to check on that fire. Derrik, come with me.”

  When they were in the hallway a heavy pall of smoke hung in the air. Two hundred yards up on the left a door had been ripped off its hinges and lay on the other side of the hall. They approached slowly and heard a slow thumping sound coming from inside; when Lewis looked he saw the vehicles that had passed earlier. They were moving slowly toward the door in single file.

  “Look, it’s pushing the other one,” Derrick said in a voice that was louder than it needed to be, right next to Lewis’ ear.

  “I can see that,’ Lewis replied quietly.

  A mechanical voice rattled from the machine in the rear. “Please assist.”

  “C’mon,” Lewis told Derrick, as he stepped into the room.

  They walked by the first unit and Lewis saw that a display on its side read ‘battery depleted’. The machines had two small, open panels in front with four-foot manipulators sticking out. The arms on the front machine hung down to the floor, while the other machine was using its arms to push its companion toward the door. The display on the rear unit declared ‘battery low’ in flashing orange letters.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Please help push,” the machine said in a quieter voice than before. “Must get to charging port!”

  While they pushed, Lewis felt a little admiration for the machine. It was clearly unwilling to abandon its companion there, even though its battery was dangerously close to failing as well. A manual lever for steering rose up from the small standing deck at the back. The machine behind reached out and pushed the lever to the right. The front unit began to swing to the starboard as it inched out of the door.

  “The floor slopes down!” the robot said, as they straightened out in the hallway and the robot began to move more easily. “Thank you! You may proceed! Use respirators if you go into the smoke!”

  A small door fell open on the side of the machine and two plastic boxes slid slowly out. Derrik took the boxes and set them on the floor as the machines accelerated down the hallway. Inside each box was a small oxygen bottle attached by a tube to a lightweight cup to use over the nose and mouth. They put the straps attached to the oxygen bottles over their shoulders and tied on the breathing cups before entering the room. Inside they found a workshop, damaged by the fire which had burned in a small side room. When they looked through the scorched door, Lewis saw what looked like a transformer. It was burnt and melted with thick foam dripping into piles of goo at its base. A heavy rancid, burnt plastic smell was palpable even through the mask.

  There was another door in the workshop that when opened led into a control room for the water system. The room felt cramped, its sixteen foot width filled along the far wall with pipes and filter canisters. The wall to the right was covered with valve wheels and levers. Lewis examined the controls, each of which had a small sign explaining its purpose. In the center of the wall, one control caught his eye. It was labeled ‘emergency reactor coolant, please return to original position after twenty minutes’. Lewis looked at his watch, and then pulled the lever toward him. It slid a rod forward, accompanied by the sound of rushing liquid.

  “Let’s go,” he said to Derrik.

  Derrik nodded and led the way toward the hallway, rifle held at his waist in both hands. On the way out, Lewis noticed a panel on the wall that was labeled ‘call maintenance,’ he pushed it and a yellow light pulsed beside it.

  Their footfalls echoed in the big hallway as they walked back to join the rest of the team. Roquette met them in the hall.

  “What did you do, boss?” she asked.

  “We helped that fire unit evacuate its incapacitated companion,” Lewis informed her. “And I found a manual coolant switch for the reactor, did it help?”

  “It did,” she nodded. “The temperature started coming down a couple of minutes ago. Tony thinks that the system…” Her voice trailed off as she stared past Lewis and Derrik.

  Lewis turned and saw a yellow vehicle moving towards them. It passed them and stopped at the broken door that was lying on the floor. After a while, it moved alongside the door and extended its two arms, lifting the door. Holding it off the floor, the machine disappeared into the room that they had just left.

  “That’s going to take a little getting used to,” Lewis commented. “Let’s go in and get some rest.”

  One of the doors on the way to the control desk opened into a bathroom with a small shower. They all stood double watches, taking turns patrolling and showering. In the morning, Fink cooked breakfast while Gomez trimmed everyone’s hair. Fink would not submit to such treatment, but Mr. Dingo was happy to avail himself of the service.

  Fed, clean and shaved, they were all eager to get underway. They spent several more hours walking underground. They had to help Mister Dingo some of the time, but he mostly kept up with them. When they emerged from underground they turned around and saw a two story building built into the side of a canyon fifty feet wide and a hundred feet deep. Most of the tracks led to the right, down the canyon.