Fam Away From Home

The System to the Rescue

Graham showed them all to a museum-like area with artifacts and Judy walked them up to a small spherical robot with three short legs and a camera.

"Kerblam Delivery Bot version 1.0. Also known as Twirly," Ryan read. 

Charlie was still anxious, but if a robot tried to choke you out, you might be too. "I don't think we should do this. If Mister Slade finds out..."

Judy held out her hand. "Leave Slade to me. Let's just hurry up before the TeamMates come on their patrol."

The Doctor sonicked the display case open and stuck her arm in the top of the lowering glass to turn on Twirly. "Here we go, Twirly. Nice to meet you."

But it was still booting up and the glass was still coming down. 

"Quite cute, isn't it?" Yaz commented because what else could they do?

Ryan looked to her, as ever, awaiting her opinion or command. "Yea.... It's kind of retro."

"Well, he is getting on a bit." The Doctor reached into the vanished case and picked up the robot. 

"You mean he's getting old?" Astra asked in confusion. 

"Yep!" the Doctor responded to her frequent need for translation. "I love a bit of retro."  

The robot soon booted up and began shouting offers they couldn't interrupt. He assured them there would be interruptible commercials later, but had to set their preferences. But right as he ended his questions, he ran out of power. 

The Doctor groaned softly because of course and why didn't she think of that? It was a centuries old artifact and now they've wasted time. "It's out of juice. It needs a big recharge before I can access the code."

But Graham always had good ideas when he was willing to help and not a big party pooper. "Maintenance store. There's everything there."

"That's not a good idea," Charlie stammered out, his heart a pounding mess. Perhaps he was sitll in shock or scared of the robots. 

"Doctor, I've just had a notification that one of the workers from Packing has gone missing. Her GroupLoop's disappeared right off the System. Name of Kira Arlo?" Judy read off of her tablet. 

"But you didn't get a notification about any of the others?" Astra asked, still mostly suspicuous with the woman. 

At the same time, Charlie was freaking about his crush going missing on top of everything else and even Ryan had grown attached to her, from when they worked together, Astra guessed. But he'd best keep his eye on the prize. "We have to find her.

Judy shook her head. "Well, it didn't until now. It's like it's sending us a deliberate message."

"It knows we're onto it," Ryan insisted. 

Astra rubbed her forehead. "So future amazon is an evil AI?" She touched the Doctor's shoulder. "Forgive me, I can handle a live, massive machine, but an automated computer system? That's gonna be a movie on Earth someday."

The Doctor laughed, taking her hand and squeezing it. She faced the blonde, the smile still faint on her face. "Where was her signal last recorded?" she asked Judy expectantly. 

The woman moved her eyes from their joined hands to the tablet. "Er... Dispatch."

"That's not possible. No people are allowed down there," Charlie yelped. 

The Doctor looked at the blonde, serious again. "Dispatch? Foundation levels, right? Where the power's drained down to."

"How do we get to her?" Yaz asked.