The bots were smooshed together as if cradling for warmth. They couldn’t be cold. They were frightened, however.
Blip looked at her and then glanced at them.
Syn spoke, even as the Jacob rocked again. “It’s okay. We’re going to the needle.”
The other eye-bot spoke, “Where’s that?”
Syn remembered her conversation with Arquella. “The Gates of Paradise.” She hated to say it. She hated lying. But he was a child, and she had to calm him. But it was not a child, and it was not truly paradise. There were so many layers of truth wrapped in lies in that small cabin, Syn thought she might drown just from them.
The outside tower creaked and something rumbled far below them.
Blip muttered. “The base has broken. Water’s in the tower.”
Although she wasn’t sure why she did it since the other bots’ hearing abilities were likely as perfect as Blip’s, Syn scooted closer to Blip and whispered, “Will we make it? Will the Jacob survive?”
Blip paused and said, “I’m not sure this Disc will survive.”
“What?” Syn’s voice was louder than she wanted. She spoke again, quieter, “What?”
“There’s nearly an ocean of water slamming into this Disc. The weight and forces could destroy this entire Disc. Snap it off at the needle.”
“What do we do?”
“Neci said she was going to eject the Disc.”
“Can we do that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It makes sense that the builders would’ve considered that perhaps one of the Discs might need to be removed.”
“How would we do that?” Syn was shaking her head. This was absolutely insane.
“Olorun would know.”
Syn grabbed Blip with both of her hands. “Neci said Olorun was alive. You said it was, too. Can you talk to it? When we get up there?”
Blip answered quickly, “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Because you would’ve kept running to it for answers… It’s not like me. It doesn’t care.”
“What is it like?”
“You don’t want to know. She’s cold. Insane. Old.”
Syn glanced at the bots. “Did Olorun wake them up?”
Blip sighed, “Maybe.”
“Do you talk to it?”
“Her.”
“It’s a girl?”
“She wants to be called a her. Olorun is a she.”
Syn nodded. Neci had insisted that Olorun was female. “Do you talk to her often?”
“Not if I can avoid it.”
“But it… She has all the answers. She can tell us what happened to the colonists. She can tell us what’s going on with the fuel. She can tell me who woke me up. Who woke the Sisters up? Why were separated? She can answer everything!” There was an excitement in Syn’s eyes fueled by equal amounts of anger and hope.
The interior Jacob lights went dark. One of the child bots whimpered. There was a hush from what Syn assumed was its mother.
“She won’t.” Blip pulled back to the control panel. A moment later, the outer edge trim of the Jacob lift glowed red.
Syn noticed that she was already lifting off of the floor. They were over half-way up, and gravity was losing its hold.
“Why?” Syn was not letting go of the topic of Olorun.
“She’s a bitch.” Blip’s voice was as matter-of-fact as Syn had ever heard it. He had used the same word Neci had. So maybe Blip wasn’t an agent of Olorun as the Crimson Queen feared.
“What?”
Blip floated around the Jacob and moved to peer out one of the windows. Syn pushed up and floated next to him, putting her hands out to stop her momentum against the side. The other bots were moving around—the eye-bots didn’t seem to be bothered by the low gravity at all.
Syn looked at the cleaning bots. They were spinning in place as they lifted up. Crap! she thought, they’ve never been in zero gravity. Syn left Blip’s side and grabbed ahold of one of the bots. “It’s okay,” she said, “This is part of it.” She looked at the child bots. “You’re going to have to help.”
Blip spoke up, his gaze still out the window, “Tell them to increase their gravs.”
“What?”
“All bots move by grav resistors. Like the hover bikes. They can increase their gravs and be pulled down to the surface. Or they can use their gravs resistors to push against the metal and float around. It’s how I do it.”
Syn shook her head. “I know that, Blip. Who do you think fixes them?”
“Then why did you say, ‘What?’”
“Cause you told me to tell them. You could tell them yourself.”
“Oh,” Blip said.
Syn shook her head and looked up at Huck, who had not left her side, “Did you get that, Huck?”
He nodded up and down.
“Help me tell the others?”
He nodded again and zipped toward the other eye-bots further away.
Syn looked back at the frightened cleaning bot. “What’s your name?”
The cleaning bot said, “Margaret.”
Syn wanted to laugh. That was such an old name. “Margaret, did you hear what Blip said?”
Margaret said, “Yes.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
Syn turned toward the child eye-bot, “What’s your name?”
Without hesitation, it answered, “Joey.”
“Can you help your mom, Joey?”
Joey’s voice became excited, “Yeah! That’s easy.” The ability to do something his mother struggled with buoyed him. Joey flitted around the inside of the Jacob shouting, “It’s easy mom. Just try it. Look, we can fly!”
Syn left Joey and Margaret and the other bots and sidled back up near Blip. Outside the window, the ocean grew. The water was rushing around the edge of the Disc, and they lost its progress in the clouds.
Syn said, “Why won’t Olorun help?”
“She doesn’t think like that. She’s not like you or me or even the Sisters. She really doesn’t care.”
The light of the sunstrips increased, and a tension hit Syn. They were nearing the top. They were nearing the waiting Neci.
The Jacob rocked again, but the turbulence was less, or perhaps it was the lack of gravity that buffered the impact.
“We need to get through the gate,” Syn said.
Blip nodded.
“She’ll be waiting for us,” Syn continued.
Blip nodded again. “Neci’s forced us. We’re going to have to open the gate. We have to get through.”
“I’m not letting her in.”
“You’ll have to fight.”
“I’m not sure I can stop her.”
Blip glanced at the bots.
Syn took in the sight of the floating bots. They were chaotic, but they were learning. The younger ones had mastered the zero-gravity flight perfectly. The others were getting it. There would be others on the way up. She was sure that many had died. There just hadn’t been that much time from when Blip sent out the call. But there would be more than this.
“I’m not sure she can stop you,” Blip said, with a smile.
The two stared at the bots for a bit more, knowing they were minutes from arriving in the needle.
Syn spoke, “Why did you shut down when they first grabbed you? I mean when we came down the first time. You knew they were there. You shut down when they came. Why didn’t you run?”
“I knew what they wanted. I figured it out. The explosion. The debris on the other side of the gate. I knew the other Eves were getting through. I thought they’d try to reason with you. I shut down so they couldn’t force you to use me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Syn raged.
All sensation of gravity disappeared. They were moments from stopping.
The Jacob lift rattled again and went into complete darkness. The red strips blinked out. The small bots chirped and whined.
Syn shouted, “Quiet.”