Page 105 of Pandion

Ayase? Are you still there? I can’t do this on my own…Too many simultaneous command processes were needed to launch this thing, and that multitasking prowess Kagesawa supposedly had was all down to Ayase’s efforts.This fucking ship is going to sink, and we’re going to sink with it.Holy shit, that thought was scary if he stopped to think about it for too long.

Satoru was still on this ship. The controls in front of him were daunting. The two other seats beside Kagesawa were a stark reminder he wasn’t supposed to be here alone. Would Satoru be able to do something through the link? But what? And there was no time to teach him the ropes; it was too complicated.

If it could have been done via automation, the engineers would have done it. It wasn’t rocket-science, but manning these machines required a three-week training period.

No, wait. There was a familiar pattern emerging from these thoughts. It was difficult, it required several empaths, it required training, it can’t possibly be done via automation… why?

Because automation wascheap.

With nothing better on hand,Kagesawa smashed his palm reader, pried open the control panel with pieces of the casing, wired the gutted reader to the panel and connected straight to it.

He would fucking code the second set of inputs through the reader while using the main controls to steer the limbs. This fucking thing was notthatcomplicated. Every fucking thing the EA played up as the best thing since self-sorting recycle bins was notthatsophisticated.

He was a glorified secretary, an over-paid fucking vehicle handler. He was trained for this shit. He was an instrument of their decades-long scam.

If the JufO could manage to remote-start this thing and ram it to a bunch of trucks, surely he could get it to haul itself out of this dump.

Kagesawa ran the first script on loop to keep the 16-track multi-level track-system in balance via an algorithm that propelled the robot forward according to some of the steering inputs associated with two of the foremost arms, while the two remaining acted as counterbalance.

He probably could have made it more graceful had he had a couple of hours to play with, but there was no audience, and this was not a dancing competition; it didn’t matter if it looked ridiculous so long as it did its job.

The thing lumbered steadily through the flames toward the hole he’d used to come down to the car decks. The ship was now almost sideways. Satoru was somewhere on the deck ‘above’, much too close to the now roaring inferno ‘below’.

I’m coming up now. What’s your precise location?Kagesawa steered the robot-arms to pull the robot where the whole staircase was now a massive hole half-filled with seawater. The amount of water that had flooded in was deceptive; it was asif half of the decks below—now to the side of him—weren’t engulfed by the flames.

I’m at the information desk. There’s water all the way up to the counter. Most of the promenade area is submerged. Where are you?

Here.Kagesawa emerged from the car deck, using the robot-arms to pull the robot towards the information desk. Satoru was perched on the side of the counter.

The docking robot had sustained some damage from having rammed into the trucks, so water was slowly leaking into the cockpit, but even wading through and under the surface, the leaks were mere trickles along the walls.

This thing was robust and built for dock work; a few minor leaks into the cockpit weren’t going to cause any significant damage to the sealed, water-proof circuitry.

Kagesawa manoeuvred the robot into position to pick Satoru up. It took a fair amount of tries, several strings of expletives and experimental on-the-spot coding to get the tracks to sync with the robot’s limbs in a space where its movements were restricted. When he could finally open the hatch to let Satoru in, he was sweating and swearing profusely, wiping the sweat off his face, trying to clear his lungs by coughing them out, turning them over and giving them a good shake. Satoru looked at him startled.

Close the hatch and sit down.As soon as he’d wiped the sweat off of his face to see in front of him, he resumed wrangling the docking robot astern and port side. With the largest windows on the starboard side now submerged, his best bet was to aim for the women’s baths on the opposite side in hopes they offered a lovely scenic view of the sky.

Kagesawa climbed up and past the enclosed smoking area and the laundry room, the robot’s tracks and limbs ploughingthrough the lightweight wall structures. He ripped off pieces of wall to make the opening large enough to enter into the baths.

The tubs had long since drained and buckets and pails had collected into piles on the back wall. With the handrails and edges of the tubs, there was plenty to grab a hold of while climbing up towards the three large sections of windows above them.

Tiles cracked and crumbled under the pressure when Kagesawa pinned the docking robot between the walls with its robot-arms extended. They hung there precariously with just three of them when he used the fourth to maul through the windows. Then he swung two of the arms up and outside and operated the snapping mechanism to fasten them to the outside wall.

Here goes—!He retracted the arms to lift the robot up and through the windows with force enough to break through the two narrow strips of wall in between. The sound of metal hitting metal in one fell swoop was earsplitting. The robot rolled across the outer side of the ferry in a series of clanks and clatters.

Disoriented by the speed of the roll, all Kagesawa could do was try to stabilise the thing and stop it from rolling. There was no time for a plan B and nothing to grab, so while he managed to slow it down, it still rolled all the way into the ocean.

The only saving grace was that despite its weight, the docking robot was designed to be buoyant. Once it had hit the water and sunk some ways, it slowly started to climb back up to the surface.

Chapter 39

Harumine was glad beyond measure that he’d had the foresight to use the seatbelt provided to him. The roll across the side of the ferry was violent and nauseating, but at least he was attached to his seat at the end of it.

Kagesawa however…

Kagesawa? Kagesawa!

He’d held on to the controls most of the way, so he’d only taken a tumble once they’d hit the water, but he’d already been in a sketchy condition before this. Harumine unfastened his seatbelt, glanced out into the murky grey sea and turned to helpKagesawa, who was sprawled over the armrest, coughing and vomiting violently.

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