Space Wizards

26. FeRRum 26

Two Ibi-Ero Makina soldier droids, one oddly lumpier than the other, appeared out of thin air deep inside the robot species' teleportation research facility. Grimble's control panels exploded with binary communications whizzing by at mind-numbing speeds. Sitting next to him was a miniaturized version of Melock the Wise. 

Melock held a finger up to his lips and mouthed a silent Shhhh. He glanced with his eyes to Grimble's left and a shrunken de Martín appeared with a stunned and shocked look on his face. He felt his body in multiple places to make sure he was still in one piece. 

Melock waved a hand over the control display and brought up a map of the surrounding superstructure and a pathway to the prison block. Grimble smiled and made his robot suit give an arm wave to indicate Murphy should follow. 

Murphy adjusted her armor and looked around the iron hallway. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all built with the same gray steel. There were no windows. Murphy clanked off behind Grimble's robot walking single file down the corridor. She was considerably shorter than the standard two-meter Makina battle bot. 

They moved past several large blast doors, turned left, then right, then left again before they came across any other robots. Two gunmetal blue steel sentries stood on either side of a big freight elevator. Two sets of three electronic eyes scanned them from below curving shoulders. Clamplike hands that held wide-mouthed blunderbuss blaster weapons. Their blue scanning beams passed over Grimble and Murphy as they walked between the sentries and entered the elevator. The lift doors closed from the top and bottom and slammed together with a clunk. The two imposter-bots stood at the center of the spacious freight car. 

Inside Grimble's bot, Sabastian worked his magic on the elevator controls and hacked the Ibi-Ero network. The lift began climbing. 

"Bonjour mes amis," came a voice over a newly established private network embedded within the Makina system. "We are on our way to the 27th floor. These binary level indicators tripped me up there for a second. I can't believe we made it past their scans!?" 

Murphy cracked her neck and stretched her legs like she was preparing to run a race. 

The lift slowed, stopped, and the doors opened. 

"This isn't our—" said a voice that fell silent. 

A patrol unit of six Makina guards identical to Grimble walked into the freight elevator and Grimble and Murphy stepped back to give them room. The lift passenger readout indicated eight military units, two with unclear destination assignments. The central control relay hub for the building queried the discrepancy. The six guards stood in a two-by-three formation facing the two units already on the lift. 

Sabastian hacked like the desperate man he was. In his mind, he couldn't help focussing on the fear of remaining twelve centimeters tall if the wizard was killed. He set their destination as guard replacements for level 27. The patrol units did a 180 and faced the door. The lift resumed going up.

Murphy focussed her attention on her breath and slowed it down as well as her rapid heart rate. She prayed for the ability to remain still and gripped her war hammer tight. 

The lift stopped again, the doors opened, and the patrol clanked off. The doors closed and they continued their ascent. 

"That was too close," said Grimble. 

Melock made no comment and seemed lost in thought. The lift slowed, stopped, and the doors opened. 

"We get out here," said Sabastian. "He's in the room at the end of the hall." 

They stepped off the elevator into another iron hallway with two guards at the elevator and two more at a large closed steel door at the end of the hallway. They walked past the elevator guards and they activated and followed, marching in formation to the opposite end of the hallway.