Across the tables in this area lay two large bodies—Syn recognized them as two of the three men that Taji had led up from the lower levels. Dead.
Syn started to examine them, but something moved and caught her eye. Beside them, dozens of broken bots lay scattered. In the stack, something jostled again, and Syn discovered a small, red eye-bot, much like Huck, wiggling about for her attention. Next to it, a chrome sphere, identical to Arquella, squawked out in a noise-filled blurt, “Help us.” Its voice faltered on the last word, and only a low hum and static projected from the bot.
“I thought Neci hated machines,” Syn said.
“She does,” Pigeon answered, “But she needs them.” The girl picked up the wriggling eye-bot. “At least, she needs what’s in them.”
Syn furrowed her brow. “Huh?” She returned to the two burlys nearby. The larger of the two had several long incisions in its skull. About it lay several of the inhibitor switches and various assorted parts Syn recognized as pulled from bots. Chunks of flesh and organic matter sat in a bucket nearby. The room was littered with bits of bot and human. “It’s a butcher shop.” Not a workshop, Syn added to herself.
She ran her finger through a pile of black, grainy powder. Lifting her fingers to her nose, she smelled sulfur. Is this gunpowder?
Pigeon whispered, “We didn’t know about the other Disc, so we were desperate. We set the world on fire, and let them burn. Some survived, but we were able to rule them. This is how. She took the living and the dead, alike.”
Syn said, “Is this how she does it? She takes the machines’ parts and put them in these… these corpses?”
Pigeon nodded. “It was right after she killed her companion. At least I think that’s where she got the idea. In the center of the scrapped machine were pieces of flesh. Brain tissue, I think.”
Syn nodded. All bots had a small organic component that helped them process. “TyTech,” Syn said and shivered. She hated the idea of something living inside the bots’ shells, but she wasn’t sure why.
“Huh?”
Syn said, “The builders called it TyTech. Just a way to speed up the machines. Makes them smarter.”
“Well, she figured out how to reverse it. Plant the connectors in the dead bodies, and they would still function. They don’t need to eat, although they still tend to, out of habit. They run and run until they just run out of energy. There are more than enough bodies to work with. Taji’s the best at finding the really good ones.”
“All this time, she’s been chopping up the bodies to make her own slaves?”
Pigeon nodded. “She used her own companion’s parts in her prize.”
Prize? Syn narrowed her eyes, confused momentarily, but then she remembered the golem that did not resemble the others. The one always with Neci. The one that appeared the most human.
Pigeon continued. “She keeps him perfect. She calls him Admiral. Some of the Sisters sent their companions away when they discovered what she was doing. We hunted down most. In fact, only one is still unaccounted for.”
Syn spoke, her eyes going wide, “We found another companion on our side. He was dead. He fell from the needle.”
Pigeon answered, “That must’ve been the missing one. Spot. Laoule’s. He was in hiding. His name was Spot. He ran away a long time ago. A few weeks ago, some of the golem flushed him out. They caught him and brought him back. Laoule was too attached to him. She helped him escape. She left with him. They fled to the needle. I don’t know what happened after that. Neci didn’t tell me. She sent Taji soon after we heard the explosion. When we found your companion, we thought we had found Spot, that perhaps he had come down somehow.”
“Oh,” Syn began to put the pieces together. She had heard Laoule. The dead charred girl in the gate room. The first real human voice Syn had ever heard. So, the companion that had invaded Syn’s Disc belonged to Laoule. “What happened in the room where you found Blip? There were all these dead… children.” Syn struggled on the last word, and the memory of hiding amongst the bleached skulls of infants and toddlers caved in upon her. The shiver the image created rippled through her.
Pigeon shut her eyes and didn’t answer for a long time.
“Please.”
Pigeon nodded. “We went there because of Laoule. We were still hunting Spot. What you found…” Pigeon paused. “When Neci started gathering up the remaining living men to make into…” She motioned at the corpses on the table, “She would have us kill off the women and children. Said they were a drain on our already thin resources. I guess they probably were. Perhaps she just hated anything weaker than herself. Laoule had been hiding the children and keeping them safe in that room. She’d go back to them. But one got out and thought Taji was Laoule. Laoule’s secret was out. Neci killed them all. She let Laoule live thinking that she had been punished—she made her watch as she killed each of the kids, one by one.”
Syn gasped and tears flooded her eyes. “Why did you bring me here?” Syn stepped over to Pigeon.
Pigeon looked at the ground. “You said you’d show her how to get to your Disc. I showed you the carousel so you knew this place could still be saved. And I showed you this so you could see what she’ll do to your world. She’s wicked. Twisted.”
Syn turned around and stared at the chaos. In her workshop, Syn repaired bots. In Neci’s she took the living and the dead—both bot and human—and merged them into something horrific.
At that moment, the room went white. The overhead lights flicked on. Syn and Pigeon stepped around the corner to see Neci standing in the doorway, accompanied by her favorite burly, Admiral. The carnage of the room was revealed in the clear light. Blood and chunks of flesh were splattered across every surface. Large knives hung from hooks in the corners. Box after box of destroyed bots were stacked everywhere.
Neci took a step further, “Girls, this room is off-limits.” She wore only a long, thin gown, and Admiral was completely naked. Syn almost gagged again at the scarred, sliced flesh of the burly. Across his skin, a dozen long cuts had been made and stitched back together, leaving grotesque scars. There were patches of oddly mismatched skin that Syn assumed were torn from other corpses. Neci frowned, “Pigeon, can you please tell me what are you doing in here?”
Pigeon didn’t respond. Instead, she took a half step back to stand behind Syn.
Syn gestured at the table behind her. “What are you doing in here?”
Neci walked toward her and then around to gaze at the other part of the workshop. After a moment she said, “I’m building our future.”
Syn turned back to Pigeon to see her reaction, but the girl had disappeared. In the briefest instance, the little girl had left. Syn was jealous.
Admiral stepped behind Neci, towering above her. Neci put out a hand and rested it on his chest. “Have you met my husband?”
Syn tilted her head. “What?”
“I’ve noticed you’ve been watching him.” She took a step toward Syn, looking her over from head to toe. “We’re so much alike. When I heard you were fixing those machines, I knew we were much more similar than the others. We can build things. We have the same mind. And we have the same desires.” She glanced back at Admiral. “I can make you one.”
“Your husband?” Syn was still focused on the strange use of that word. But as she asked it, she saw what Neci had created. A companion. Admiral was more than a guard. He was her lover. Syn’s eyes went wide. “How could you?”
Neci shook her head, dismissing the question, and ran a hand across her own stomach. “I’m so glad you’ve chosen to take us to the other side. It’s important to me that we leave this place. It’s not safe for us. It’s not safe for me… or my child.”