Space Wizards

15: Rescue Ship

It took Grimble and Øregård about an hour to remove the Makina beacon and another couple of hours to rig up a tiny command center inside the chest cavity of the robot chassis. Melock sat cross-legged on the floor meditating and silently listening to them work. Murphy sat in the pilot seat staring into the depths of space. 

"I think we're ready to try," said Øregård.

"Let's leave the head off for now," said Grimble from his in-robot command seat. 

He worked the tiny controls and the legs lifted and the arms raised. He reached forward with the robot's hand, clamped onto Øregård's shoulder armor, and shoved him across the room. 

"The Makina are strong! I've never fought one hand to hand."

Øregård picked the battlebot off the floor raising it over his head. Grimble maneuvered the hand and bent one of Øregård's fingers backward. He dropped the robot with a crash. The robot jumped off the floor in a flash and punched Øregård in the arm sending him spinning away.

"You're a tricky fighter Mr. Grimble Grumble," said Øregård punching the robot hard in its arm. 

"As are you, my friend, I thought I was done for when you lifted me over your head." 

The two laughed and began wrestling in a wild destructive way. Smashing into computer consoles and damaging the already destroyed bridge of the ship further. Melock was forced to move over to the co-pilot seat to avoid being flattened. 

"These two are a match made in heaven," said Murphy. 

"Like children with a new toy." 

Melock joined Murphy in peering out into a universe of stars. Light in the far corner of the window started to bend and a glowing three-dimension diamond-shaped rhombus appeared. Its surface was smooth and flat and pulsed in a rainbow of colors. It had no windows nor any type of visible propulsion. 

"What do you make of that?" asked Melock. 

"It looks like a light prism," said Murphy. 

The two wrestlers joined them at the window. 

"That, my friends, is an octahedron grav-shifter. A 71 scout ship," said Grimble. 

"The clones?" asked Murphy.

On queue, the front window changed into a view screen and two identical silver faces flickered into existence. They didn't speak but calmly looked forward with black eyes.  

"They don't have neural transmitters," said Grimble. 

"We are answering your distress call," spoke one of the clones aloud, "and we are detecting an Ibi-Ero Makina presence aboard your ship." 

"The threat has been neutralized," said Grimble raising the robot's arm in a salute. 

"We cannot break our interstellar treaty of noninterference with the robotic species. Your ship appears beyond repair. We can offer to evacuate all surviving crew members." 

"That would be acceptable," said Grimble, "but we don't have spacewalk equipment." 

"Actually, we'll be fine," said Melock. 

Øregård, Grimble, and the two clones looked at Melock with concern. 

"Very well, meet us at your port airlock." The clones vanished from the viewscreen. 

As they walked to the airlock Melock chanted in a language none present could understand and tapped his finger on Øregård and Mr. Grimble. 

"You'll be able to survive in the vacuum for a short time."