The sun shined brightly over Sarha, a cityscape featuring an enormous collection of Earth’s forgotten architecture. Most everything could be found, from the simple groups of brown straw huts to the huge shining marvels of Earth’s final years. The richly varied sights gave the impression of a colorful children’s book cover.
Braya once thought it a wonderful place, but things were different now. A large variety of spirits moved into Sarha during her two-month absence. They were monsters from children’s nightmares among other things, and all very eager to feast on her flesh. Their overwhelming inhabitance made it clear that the city was now theirs; the native android population fled into their homes and refused to come out. Travel was quite difficult as well. Braya’s safe passage was mostly a matter of luck as she struggled to avoid detection. It hardly helped that she hadn’t slept in almost a week; she yawned and stumbled through the city almost as if drunk.
Braya’s destination, the Central Control tower of Sarha, stood tall among the city. It established a sense of power through its vibrant reds and greens. Braya always found it silly with its crown-like golden swirling hat.
It was so close, but Braya’s luck ran out. A river blocked the way to the tower, and a group of spirits blocked the only usable bridge. Braya wiped her forehead and sighed. She leaned against a cool brick wall and peered around the corner to check them out. Six rats were huddled together blabbing on about something in their hissy little voices. They weren’t the small kind of rats that lived in people’s walls; these ones could smash through your door and tear your arms off within seconds. Sickening green saliva dripped down their snouts. They were all quite hungry, and a cat would make an excellent meal. Braya could not simply walk through their little meeting.
Braya shook her head in a futile attempt to arouse a workable level of consciousness, then walked to the opposite corner of the brick house. A rusted chain fence warned her of the river ahead. It didn’t look quite like water but a ditch covered in a plate of blue glass. She pulled herself up the fence and swung down onto the concrete walkway beside the river. The rats stood near the walkway not far off. They somehow hadn’t noticed her.
First she taunted them: “Hey brainless morons, you’re looking pretty sanitary over there. You’re all so clean it’s pathetic, you must be cats just like me! Meow!”
The head of each rat darted to glare at her. Some of them immediately knew that she was their next meal. More of their green saliva poured out and drenched their bodies.
“I’m not clean!” one of them whined. “I’ve got things. Like, how about syphilis? That’s a bad one!”
“That cat’s just trying to tease you, love. Don’t listen,” another hissed.
“Oh will you two just shut up? Let’s go get it, I’m starving!”
Every one of the rats charged down the walkway. They fought and squeezed ahead of each other in desperation to be first, and some fell off into the river. The rats squealed like pigs and thrashed as the deceptively powerful current carried them off in the opposite direction. Those remaining scurried forward without paying any mind for the fallen.
Once the rats came close enough, Braya clung to the fence and hauled herself back up. She balanced over the top and watched the rats gather. Some were angry and shook at the fence to get her down, but she held on tight and simply waited. With frustrated hisses, they began climbing after her. Each of them struggled with their grip and nearly fell down a number of times, but they made gradual progress while Braya teased them. The highest of the rats laughed with perverse glee and swung its wretched little paw to grab her ankle. Braya kicked herself off the fence and fell to the other side, hitting the ground hard on her back. Groaning in tired annoyance, she pulled herself up and charged off with all haste. The rats were still struggling with the fence by the time she turned the corner. With some luck, they wouldn’t be smart enough to turn around and catch her. Rats tend to lack common sense when it comes to anything other than systematic spreading of diseases.
By the time Braya made it around the house, the last of the rats had made it through the fence, and none of them thought to stay behind and ambush her.
Braya walked over the bridge and continued on to the tower.
The silver door to the control room sensed Braya’s presence and temporarily dematerialized to invite her in. She stumbled into the room to see dozens of computer monitors hanging along the right wall. Many soft leather chairs occupied the space in front of each monitor. Everything seemed normal, but the android assistant was missing. She was supposed to tend to the monitors at all times.
Braya studied several of the monitors. They overlooked different parts the city, and almost all of them focused on the monstrous spirits. They were nearly everywhere. Braya frowned, wondering if there was any hope left to get them all out.
Heavy footsteps near the door called Braya’s attention. A brown furred android cat stepped into the room. A thick head of gray hair covered her head, and a colorful parakeet sat on her shoulder. It was Tower Assistant, named after her duty.
“There you are,” the brown cat grumbled.
Braya blinked for a moment and wiped her eyes as Assistant stepped closer.
“Look at you. You drank something alcoholic or you haven’t slept. This is no time to be irresponsible.”
Braya mumbled something incoherent and waved her hand to throw off the assistant’s scolding.
“Just tell me what’s happening,” Braya said.
The bird on Assistant’s shoulder twitched its mechanical little head around, carefully studying each of the monitors on the wall. It turned back to Braya and out came its shrill voice. “War! War!”
“I won’t pretend to understand. Some time after you left for Aster, Clara started letting the spirits in.”
“Why? She’s the one who wanted to keep them out.”
“I’m uncertain. She hasn’t been here to tell me what she is planning. In any case, too many spirits came in and now they are out of her control.”
Braya groaned and rubbed her temples. Nothing was making sense.
“We also have other visitors,” Assistant said. “You will be surprised. See the first monitor.”
She pulled Braya over to the furthest monitor. With an impatient glare, she watched it and said nothing more. Braya vaguely recalled that this monitor overlooked some southern section of the city not far from her own house. A small movement caught her eye on the streets below. Assistant used the monitor’s touch screen to manipulate the camera and reveal a humanoid figure. A dark extremely bulky set of blue armor covered its form. The creature slowly turned around to look the other way, revealing its dark skinned human head and hands. Braya wasn’t so much surprised as uncertain.
“A cyborg? Everyone on Earth was supposed to be—you know—” Braya mumbled.
“Your cyborg friends from Earth were either lucky or clever. They must have developed a way to escape the apocalypse. Now they’re trapped in battle with Clara and the spirits.”
“So it’s a fight between cyborgs, spirits, and Clara?”
“Clara has it the worst. She’s been fighting the spirits to keep them under control, while the cyborgs appear very interested in destroying her. At this rate, Clara will die and the spirits will be free to invade the remainder of the city. This likely includes that house containing the humans you brought here.”
The suggestion of Meeki getting hurt broke through Braya’s half-slumber quite easily. She heard enough, now was the time to act.
“I’ve got to do something. I can’t let them get hurt, it’s my fault they’re here,” she said.
“I saw you on the way here,” Assistant lectured. “You’re barely able to do anything. You’re getting some rest first.”
“No!” Braya moaned. “You said there wasn’t much time, I’ve got to save them! You can’t stop me.”
Assistant frowned, as Braya was very much correct.
“Stubborn. Stubborn girl,” the parakeet squawked. “Need the Band, the bad Band. Very bad!”
Braya’s ears picked up with some excitement from the reminder. She pointed to the bird in an almost drunken manner.
“Right! Drey’s Band, it’ll help me deal with this. Where’s it?”
Assistant stared blankly for a moment, but Braya glared back, knowing that she had authority over the android.
“It’s in a small building marked ‘H’ six blocks south,” Assistant said. “If you insist on going, I’ll call up for help.”
“Call whoever you want, I’m going. I don’t like what Clara’s been doing, but I’ve got to help out for everyone else’s sake.”
The rats hadn’t returned to their spot by the bridge, and the trip further south seemed unusually clear of danger. Braya still kept her eyes and ears open for any signs. She gradually relaxed and the walk became somewhat pleasant. She could hear the sound of fighting somewhere far off. Guns, growls, and yelps of pain. There must have been a large battle somewhere.
About halfway through the walk, Braya heard the footsteps of someone or something heavy behind her. She tried her best to feign ignorance.
“Braya?” spoke a familiar masculine voice.
Braya turned to see one of Sarha’s many androids, a brown cat with black stripes. It was Jeremy, her best friend. She smiled and couldn’t find the right words to express happiness in seeing him.
“You’re a mess, what’d they do to you on those planets?”
Rather than waiting for her answer, he bounded forward and wrapped her up in a hug. Even as a machine, there was such wonderful warmth in his heavy arms. Braya missed that more than anything.
“I’m really glad to see you, but I can’t talk now,” Braya said.
His face became dark, as if contemplating something very unfortunate. Braya felt somewhat ashamed, thinking she hurt his feelings.
“Uh, sorry, maybe you can walk with me,” she said.
They walked for several minutes in silence until Jeremy spoke again.
“I know you talked to Tower Assistant, she’s the one that called me here. I have a little confession to make,” he said.
“Confession? What’s going on?”
He hesitated in saying it. He was always so self-conscious.
“I—I went against orders. We’re not allowed to question what you and Clara do, but Clara’s just been so weird. I tried to ignore what she did, but I couldn’t. I had to follow her around and spy on her so I could try figuring out what’s going on.”
“That’s brave of you. So what’s up?”
“I listened to Clara talk to those monsters. She was all friendly to them and tried to work up a deal. I couldn’t really understand, but she said she would let them hurt the people on Aster and Newhope if they did a few things for her.”
Braya sighed and wished it was a joke, but Jeremy was not a liar.
“Why’s Clara doing this, Braya? She’s supposed to be our friend. She was so gentle and kind but now she’s hurting us,” Jeremy said.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to find out. What else do you know?”
“Um, not much else. I know there’s this big important—”
“Freeze!” a deep voice yelled from behind.
Braya and Jeremy spun around to see that some of the blue armored cyborgs ambushed them. They aimed their guns and prepared to fire on command.
“What are you doing? I’m Braya, don’t you remember me? We used to work together,” Braya said.
One of them stepped forward. “Don’t you dare think you can fool us. We’re on orders from General Fintan to collect several of your kind. Come along and you probably won’t get hurt.”
This wasn’t exactly going well. Braya started to get a little nervous that something was very wrong with the cyborgs. Jeremy stepped ahead of her.
“I’ll defend you,” he said while glaring to the cyborgs.
That was suicide. Braya would have none of it.
“Stop it. I know these people—I think. Let me go to them and remind them of an alliance we once shared,” Braya said.
“But—they said—”
Braya pressed Jeremy aside.
“Okay, we surrender,” she told them.
“Good choice,” the cyborg assured her.
Two of the cyborgs stepped behind Braya and Jeremy, then sharply jabbed the guns against their backs. They forced the cats around a building, where a small ship was waiting to pick them up.
“Get on and have a seat. No trouble out of you, now!”
As the ship flew over the city, Braya fought to stay awake but easily lost that battle within minutes.