Chapter 27

Bobby John hadn’t been seen for days. Whenever Betty Sue asked Grokmar about him, the ship would simply tell her the boy was in his cabin working on the battered, non-functional droid, Bob. He had been taking sustenance and appeared healthy, if tired.

Betty Sue didn’t like not knowing what the boy was up to, but she had to respect his privacy. After all, she wasn’t the boy’s mother. Only a concerned friend really, and she knew how quickly he had taken to the now-destroyed Vincent. The droid’s loss had devastated him.

Working on Bob was probably good for the boy and if the ship said he was healthy, she had to believe it was true.

Betty Sue, Zeke and Carol Anne were sitting around the galley table having lunch when the boy finally reappeared. Jim Bob wasn’t there and hadn’t actually been on board the ship since it had landed on the asteroid. When asked he claimed he was tired of being cooped up. That was fine with Betty Sue who was sick to death of the competition between the man machine and Zeke.

Bobby John looked pale and tired when he wandered in, but something was different about him. Instead of the sad feeling of defeat that had surrounded him like a bad odour, his eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Well lookee who we have here,” Betty Sue said with a grin. “Good to have ya back, Bobby John!”

Bobby John’s smile was shy. “Hey Betty Sue. Whatcha all doing?”

“Silly boy,” Carol Anne said. “As you can plainly see, we’re eating.”

“We’re having fatback and greens,” Zeke rumbled. “Why don’t you sit down and have a mess with us?”

By this point the boy was almost vibrating. He clearly had some great secret he was dying to tell. “Maybe later, Zeke. But thanks.”

“Maybe later?” Betty Sue couldn’t believe her ears. “You haven’t had proper food in weeks and you’re turning it down the first time it’s offered? You feeling all right, boy?”

This time the grin on the boy’s face almost threatened to split his head in two. “I got something to show you first!”

“Well out with it, boy! What’s got you so all fired up?” Betty Sue asked.

The boy stepped aside and with a flourish showed what had been hiding behind his back. Hovering, looking only slightly less bedraggled with a large burn mark across it’s main circular unit was Bob.

“You fixed Bob,” Carol Anne said clapping her hands together.

Bobby John’s smile faltered a little. “Not quite. The damage to Bob was too much to fix him.”

“But, he’s floating right there, real as you can please,” Betty Sue said. “How can you say you didn’t fix him?”

“Oh, this is Bob’s body, sure enough,” Bobby John said. “Difference is, what made Bob, Bob is gone cause that was the piece that was destroyed.”

“Okay, Bobby John. You’re gonna have to explain this to us. How can this be Bob, but not Bob? I don’t understand,” Betty Sue said.

“I don’t know what ya mean either,” Zeke said.

Bobby John furrowed his brow for a moment before brightening. “Well it’s kinda like this. You know how when you put up preserves you put them in jars? Sometimes the jars get cracked so you need to put the preserves into a different jar? The preserves stay the same. It’s just the container that has changed.”

Betty Sue frowned. “Bobby John, what in THE heck are you yammering about? What do preserves have to do with that there robot behind you?”

The battered red robot floated forward. “What Bobby John is trying to say is that while I look like Bob, I am in fact Vincent. I do not know how he managed to recover my memory and processing units nor do I know how he was able to make them work in this frame but I am grateful. This is twice Bobby John has saved me.”

“That is most impressive, Bobby John,” Grokmar said. “And welcome back, Vincent.”

“Aw, shucks,” Bobby John said, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the floor. “Tweren’t nothing.”

“I disagree, Bobby John,” Grokmar said. “What you have done is well beyond the capabilities of most. And you did it using old and damaged parts.”

“Well…dang, Bobby John,” Carol Anne said sounding extremely impressed for the first time. “How’d y’all do it?”

Bobby John scratched his head. “Ah don’t rightly know. When ah was looking over Bob’s damaged body I knew I couldn’t fix it. But after I found the pieces of Vincent I could just see how to put it together so it would work.”

“Poor Bob,” Vincent said. “He was a good friend.” The little robot floated in silence for a few moments. “It is odd but I believe I have some of Bob’s memories. Perhaps I can maintain and catalog those memories and keep a part of him alive in that manner.”

“I think that would be very nice, Vincent,” Betty Sue said. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke. Her voice was thick as she spoke again. “Now, Bobby John. How about some vittals to celebrate?”

“Sure!” the boy said.

“Betty Sue,” the Grokmar interrupted. “I have detected the approach of Sheanna’Ree.”

“Let her in, Slagfloor. We might as well find out if her uncle will help out Jim Bob or not,” Betty Sue said.

“Very well, Betty Sue.”

Betty Sue looked around at her companions. “Dig in everybody. No sense letting good food get cold.”

The humans were eating when Sheanna’Ree burst into the galley. “Come quick. Jim Bob’s gone crazy!”

Betty Sue, who had stood up when the alien woman appeared, held up her hands. “Hold on now Missy and catch your breath. What the heck are you going on about?”

Sheanna’Ree glared. “Didn’t you hear me? Jim Bob’s gone crazy. There’s no telling what he might do.”

“Oh is that all?” Betty Sue sat back down and started eating again.

“Well?”

“Well, what?” Betty Sue said.

Sheanna’Ree was almost beside herself. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

“About what?” Betty Sue said between bites.

“Are you stupid? I want to know if you’re going to do something about Jim Bob?”

Betty Sue set her fork down, very slowly and deliberately, and looked Sheanna’Ree in the eye. “Firstly, I don’t rightly appreciate you calling me stupid. Don’t do it again or you and me are gonna have a problem. Secondly, Jim Bob has always been crazy. What do you expect me to do about it? Lastly, so what if he goes a little loopy? What’s the worst that could happen?”

Sheanna’Ree took a deep breath and started again. “I apologize for calling you stupid, but I don’t think you quite understand the situation. I was coming back from speaking with my uncle about helping Jim Bob. Jim Bob was waiting for me as I came through the door. He asked me what Uncle Maligna said.”

Betty Sue was watching the woman closely. “And just what DID your Uncle Maligna say?”

“He said ‘No’.” Sheanna’Ree sat down then. “I tried everything to get him to change his mind but he refused. He simply wouldn’t listen.”

“And that’s when Jim Bob went crazy?” Betty Sue asked.

Sheanna’Ree shook her head. “No. He just said okay and started to go away. I told him we would find someone else and started coming here. I was halfway to the ship when I heard him howl. I turned to see him rip the doors off and go storming back into my Uncle’s quarter’s.”

Betty Sue nodded. “Now I understand. You’re afeared that Jim Bob will hurt your uncle.” She turned to her husband. “Zeke, you better get on down there and see if you cain’t calm Jim Bob down. I’d hate for him to hurt someone.”

“You still don’t understand,” Sheanna’Ree said as Zeke stood up. “I’m not worried about Uncle Maligna at all. It’s Jim Bob I’m concerned for. You see, before my uncle was sent here, he worked for my father’s company. His job was to convince people to do things.”

The humans all looked at her with blank expressions.

Only Carol Anne spoke. “So what? My pappy liked to argue too. ‘Specially when he’d gotten into the shine.”

Sheanna’Ree’s smile held no humour. “Uncle Maligna never bothered to argue to convince people to do things. He would start by asking nice and if that didn’t work he would start to get more physical with them.”

“What, like wrassle with ‘em?” Zeke said.

“Not exactly. More like, he would start breaking their legs and arms.”

Betty Sue grinned. “Well, then. We’ve got nothing to worry about. Jim Bob don’t have no real arms and legs.”

Sheanna’Ree licked her lips. “Um, well, to tell the truth, if breaking the legs and arms didn’t work, Uncle Maligna would make people disappear.”

“Like a magic trick?” Zeke asked.

“No. More like dead⁠*,” Sheanna’Ree said. (*One person's convincing was another person's trip out the airlock without a spacesuit, apparently.)

Betty Sue stood up, trying hard to look calm and failing miserably. “I think we might just want to go have a look see for Jim Bob.” She had no sooner finished speaking than she was running out of the room.

***

MegaDan sat on an overturned crate and considered his options. There were first times for everything and this was definitely one for him.

As a newsbeing he hadn’t ever really had to worry about what he said. He hadn’t even been particularly concerned about going wherever he wanted, although his editor certainly didn’t seem to want to send him out on the plum assignments.

It simply wasn’t fair that all the second raters got to go but he never did. Well, he never did anymore. Always passed up for the fun assignments. And why? One simple little mistake and he was stuck in the studio forever. And it hadn’t ever been that big a deal, really.

You would have thought the network owner would have more of a sense of humour about his daughter, after all.

But he had gotten this story. It had been a hard fight, but he had gotten it. He stopped and thought about the owner’s daughter again for a moment. Maybe that WAS why he was here now.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he had dismissed it. No, even the boss didn’t have this kind of clout and he would never put personal feelings in the way of a story either. 

And now he was relegated to travelling in a military garbage scow with no easy communication with the outside galaxy. It was a very good thing he had inside sources.

He looked around the room, more of a closet really. The two cots folded out of the cabin’s walls were the only furnishing. The walls themselves were the dull orange of rusted metal. Wherever rivets fastened the panels to the supporting structure, rivulets of oxidized metal had pooled beneath on the floor.

There wasn’t enough room to stand so he and his cameraman sat, knees touching each other.

Good thing he still had his contacts or there would be no story whatsoever.

He looked at his cameraman. “What do you think, Charlie⁠*? (*It is one of the mysteries of the universe that anyone who runs a recording device for a newsman has the name, nickname and/or subspecies designation of Charlie.) I knew we were on to something with old Greklor. I never expected him to go to these lengths to shut me up.”

Charlie shrugged and remained silent. He had learned long ago with MegaDan that, what might actually seem like a question was, in reality, a chance at social commentary, or rant or sometimes even a simple remark on the weather.

“I knew I had touched a nerve when I talked about this being a revenge play.” MegaDan tried to pace around the room but only really succeeded in spinning around in place. “I never expected any reaction from him though. He’s widely known as a cold fish just like everyone knows his idiot son was an embarrassment.”

MegaDan spun for several more minutes. It just didn’t make sense. Wipe out an entire planet because a fool, even a foolish son, died just didn’t make any sense. He straightened, an expression of excited determination now covered his visage.

“If it doesn’t make sense to me, then it can’t be right.” He looked at Charlie. “You should get some sleep. I’ve got research to do.” He pulled out his mini-comp and began hacking his way into the military network.