CHAPTER 36
I wanted to see Delovoa to at least give the poor guy the stuff I had picked up for him.
The trains were still deactivated over here in the southwest. Not even sure they could be turned on. The few Navy bunkers I saw were abandoned. Presumably they had shifted their men to the populated areas to try and focus against the resistance.
I looked around to make sure the coast was clear and then entered Delovoa’s.
“Hank,” he said, his voice weak from disuse.
I had seen pictures in history lessons of what our primordial ancestors looked like. They seemed to be composed entirely of hair and mud. Delovoa made them look elegant by comparison.
“I got you some things,” I said, putting down the trunk of items. “It’s not a lot, so don’t get your hopes up. They stripped your workshop clean.”
This news hit Delovoa hard. That was basically his life savings, as it were. He was even so distraught he momentarily paused looking through the gear.
“Hey, look what I found,” he said, popping back to life.
And he spoke to ZR3 some word I wasn’t familiar with.
ZR3 responded by spinning its torso around and around as I watched, frightened.
“You’re teaching a Dredel Led to do tricks?”
“I really don’t think it’s a Dredel Led.” He said the word again, and the robot stopped spinning. “That’s ancient Colmarian.”
“How do you know ancient Colmarian?” I asked.
“I don’t. You know the expression, ‘better than to leurdenstae’?”
And at that ZR3 began swiveling its torso again. I couldn’t concentrate well with the robot spinning like a top.
“Uh, sure,” I managed.
“You know what it means?”
I was still transfixed by ZR3.
“Like, at least it’s something.”
“Close. Better than wasting time. Better than going in circles. That’s what ‘leurdenstae’ means.”
And at that word, ZR3 stopped again.
“Fine, but how did you know to say that?”
“I didn’t, I just said it by accident.”
“How do you accidentally say an expression like that?” I asked dubiously.
Delovoa looked a bit embarrassed.
“I think I’ve been…talking to myself lately.” And I let it drop at that, remembering how long he’s been alone. “His name is probably the same. It’s not really ZR3—”
“Yes,” the robot answered dutifully.
“It’s probably some ancient Colmarian word that sounds like that. Who knows what we’re really asking it?”
“Like, ‘say yes’?”
“Sure, or ‘are you powered on?’”
“But why does he have those letters,” I began, not wanting to verbalize them, “written in Colmarian on him? And why is he answering in modern language?”
“That’s just paint. That could have been put there at any time. And maybe the word ‘yes’ didn’t change over the years. Or maybe it means something else.”
This was definitely weird.
“Do you know any other words?” I asked.
“Only a couple. If we were in real space I could maybe tele some research, but out here it’s too far, and my tele is all messed up. Ancient Colmarian had a lot more flourishes and accents than it does now. As we got more and more species we dropped them all until we ended up with simplistic names like ‘Hank.’”
“I think it’s really dangerous talking to this thing, Delovoa.”
“But I’m sure it’s following me because I accidentally said something that sounds like ‘follow me.’ If I can just figure out the counter-command, just a few words, I’ll be rid of it.”
“What if you accidentally say something that sounds like ‘pulverize me’?”
“Well, that would be bad,” Delovoa said quietly. “But you can help on this. Go to the library and look for some books on—”
“Library,” I said, cutting him off. “Where do you think we are?”
“We have a library, I’ve passed it a bunch of times, just never had much of a need for historical works.”
“That’s just a building. We store junk there. I don’t even think when the station was first built it had any reference items. Belvaille library…” I shook my head at the concept.
Our talk got cut short, however, by an amplified voice from outside.
“You are surrounded. Come out with your hands on your heads and you won’t be killed.”
Oh, crap.
I moved to the window and peeked out and there were dozens of soldiers stationed behind their vehicles. How did they find us? Were they tracking me?