Dyllys
Chapter Four

Whenhe woke up his head hurt, he felt as if his heart was pushing too much bloodinto his head and it would explode at any moment. He had never has such a badheadache. He groaned in protest to the pain, for a moment wishing that hehadn’t woken up. Then he opened his eyes and found he was staring at a sterilegrey ceiling. It confused him for a moment until Dyllys’s head blocked his viewand he found he was staring into her icy blue eyes. Then he remembered. Theship landing, that horrible man Hector demanding Faran hand over Dyllys, andthen Dyllys had come. They must have made him sleep after that because he couldn’tremember anything else.

“Whydidn’t you run? Why didn’t you leave?” Faran asked trying to sit up even thoughhis head throbbed violently.

“Icannot leave you Padrone.” Dyllys’s cold hand grabbed his and she lifted him tohis feet. When she let go, Faran groaned and then fell against the wall. He slid down it until he was seated again andput his hands on his head.

“Ithought we had this discussion already. I thought you understood that I am notyour Faran.”

“LikeDyllys is not she, I remember.”

“Butdidn’t understand.” Faran suddenly looked at Dyllys. “Do you have no selfpreservation at all? Don’t you understand what they are going to do to you? Youwere listening when Glory told us about them? Mind you, I didn’t believe her atthe time, but she’s been right about everything else.”

“Selfpreservation is second to preserving you.”

“WellI can’t say you are doing a very good job of that either. Wouldn’t it have beena better idea to not be caught by these people? Couldn’t you have just grabbedme and ran.”

“Padrone,you did not direct me so. You said I should run and I could not leave you.”

“Whatabout after when they started dragging me away. Did you just follow along withno resistance? Did you even try to free me?”

“Youdid not seem to need freeing. You seemed peaceful. They were not harming you.”

Faranlooked at Dyllys and shook his head. “Well next time if someone tries to moveme when I am sleeping you make sure they don’t.”

“Iapologize if I have upset you.”

Faransighed. “Forget it. What is done is done. Why don’t we just try to replace a wayout of here.”

“Ofcourse Padrone.”

“Andstop calling me Padrone. What does that mean anyway?” Faran got up off thefloor. His head was starting to feel better. Whatever they had done to him waswearing off.

“Padrone?It is 'master'.”

“Welljust don’t call me that or master or any other title like that. Just call meFaran. I don’t want to be your master, Dyllys,” Faran said. He whispered thelast part and then he saw a smile flicker momentarily on Dyllys face. It was soquick he didn’t think he had actually seen it, merely just imagined it.

“Youand Glory have the same commands,” Dyllys said, her expression concealed again.She turned away from Faran and looked at the door to their cell.

Faranwas about to speak when there was an explosion and the ship rocked to one side,artificial gravity not working fast enough to keep the ship stable. The resultwas that Faran was knocked off his feet. He tumbled into Dyllys’s arms. Sheseemed unperturbed by the sudden violent movement.

“Whatwas that?” Faran asked as he pushed his way back to his feet.

“Itsounded like an outside impact. I believe this ship is being attacked,” Dyllyssaid. At the same time an alarm started to sound in the corridor.

“Escapingnow would be a good idea then. I mean while they are all occupied with otherthings.” Faran wandered over to the door. There was no panel on this side ofthe door. It would have been too easy if that had been the case, and also not avery good prison cell. He was just peering through the window on the doortrying to see how far away the panel was when he heard metal being wrenchedapart. He felt a cold hand on his chest and then he was gently pushed out ofthe way.

“Iam sorry Faran. You are in the way.” Faran saw Dyllys’s other hand was on thedoor. She pulled on it with more force when Faran was out of the way and Farancould hardly believe what he was seeing as the door crumpled like aluminum foilbeneath her grasp.

“Ididn’t know you could do that.” It sounded dumb the moment he said it. Ofcourse she was strong: she was an android after all.

Dyllyshelped Faran through the hole she had made and when they were out in thehallway Faran looked around. There was no one to be seen.

“Doyou think you could replace a way off this ship?”

“Notat the moment, but I can soon enough.” She wandered up the corridor awhileuntil she came upon a control panel and she ripped the cover off it. Grabbing awire she connected it to her wing and closed her piercing eyes. In that momentFaran saw the ghost of the woman in the picture clinging to his great-granduncle’s arm. When she opened her eyes again she grabbed his hand.

“Thisway,” Dyllys said and pulled him down the winding corridors, “We have to get tolevel four.”

“Whichlevel are we on?” They had reached a ladder and Dyllys had opened the hatch.

“Leveltwenty-eight,” Dyllys replied and then helped Faran reach the ladder below.

“Wouldn’tit be easier to take a lift down?” Faran asked as he began to climb down theladder.

“Theexplosion caused electrical shorts. The lifts are working intermittently. Iwould like to avoid us getting stuck on one.”

“Fairenough,” he said as he continued his descent down the long vertical corridor.

* * * *

“Isit just me or do the sounds of conflict seem to be getting closer?” Faran askedas they passed level five.

“Thatis correct, Faran. We are headed to the source of the breach,” Dyllys said.Faran was out of breath and sweaty; he disliked looking up at Dyllys and seeingthat it took her no effort at all to travel to this level.

“Thatdoesn’t seem wise.” He had reached the landing of level four and had gotten offthe ladder. He was leaning his hands on his thighs trying to catch his breath.He suddenly didn’t feel like going through the door before him.

“Ihave calculated the odds of success for each possible route and this one seemedthe most probable for success,” Dyllys said as she landed softly on theplatform. Faran was amazed that she could move so lithely; it was deceptive forall the power that she contained.

“Whatabout an escape pod? We could have just gone back down to the surface of Tossuin one of those, and we wouldn’t have had to travel so far to get to them,”Faran objected.

“Weare too far away from the surface of the planet. We would have drifted in spaceuntil our air supply ran out and that would have killed you. If we did not runout of air, we would have been picked up by either the ship that we are alreadyaboard or our distress signal would have reached a ship sent out from theOrdalis. Glory always told me to keep far away from the Ordalis and as you donot want to remain on this ship that seemed like an illogical choice.”

“Howlong have I been asleep?”

“Approximatelyseventy six hours.”

“Overthree days?”

“Ourbest option for escape, Faran, is to board the ship that has attacked thisvessel. As they are not friendly with our captors we have a better chance thatthey will harbor us until we can again reach Tossu.”

“Idon’t want to go out there, even if they are our best chance of getting out ofhere. It sounds like there is some serious fighting happening just beyond thatdoor.” Dyllys cocked her head and listened to the sound issuing from the otherside of the door. It did sound like there was a lot of gun fire.

“Donot worry, Faran, I will let no harm come to you.” She grabbed his hand beforehe could protest and opened the door. Faran could barely feel his feet touchingthe floor as they ran down the passageway. He could hear fighting happening allaround him but could see none of it as it passed in such a blur. Then suddenlyDyllys stopped. They were in a passageway that wasn’t included in the ensuingviolence. He could see a doorway at the end of the hallway. It was closed.

“Wehave reached the airlock,” Dyllys announced and pulled Faran closer to thedoor. She closed her eyes and connected once again with the ships computer. Shehad established a wireless link with it when she had been connected through thehardline. Not having to connect to the ship to talk made things a lot easier.When she opened her eyes the airlock opened as well.

“Machinesseem to respond well to you,” Faran said as the door hissed closed behind themand the other opened to reveal an earthy smelling corridor. The contrastbetween the ship they had come from and the ship they were now on was likewater and fire. This ship felt like it was someone’s home, rich in detail andcare. The walls were not naked metal but covered in richly colored fabrics.

“Itlooks like the painted tree,” Dyllys murmured. Faran looked at her and realizedher eyes were lit with wonder even if her face and voice did not convey thatsame sentiment; she had said it more like a statement than amazement. Faranlooked at the corridor. It did look as if someone had captured the essence ofautumn and placed it here. Rich browns and deep reds, with accents of goldenyellows and burnt orange. It didn’t seem like the sort of ship a pirate wouldlive on.

“Weshould hide,” Faran exclaimed, making Dyllys forget her thoughts, “until we arefar enough away from Hector’s ship that they can’t send us back.”

“Whois Hector?” Dyllys asked as she pulled Faran deeper into the ship.

“HectorDavenport, the man I was arguing with on the planet. He’s commander of the shipwe were on and son of Victor Davenport, President of Davenport Enterprises.”

“Thenyes, hiding would be a preferable option.” They had rounded a corner at thistime and Dyllys ran into someone coming from the other direction. The impactknocked all three of them off their feet.

“Excuseme,” said a female voice. Faran looked up at the source and realized he waslooking into the eyes of another android. This one didn’t have eyes with thesame allure that Dyllys’s had. Her eyes were the standard grey. But her hairwas a wild red and her face had intricate tribal tattoos covering it. She musthave been a custom model. She didn’t look like any other AS android Faran hadever seen, and when he looked at her, despite the array of red hair andtattoos, he thought he saw Dyllys staring back at him. She matched the rest ofthe ship from the end of her hair to the outfit she wore; a tight fitting pantssuit that made her look like she would be home on Radden cavorting withupperclassmen.

“Iam very sorry,” Dyllys said as she helped Faran to her feet.

“DoesParris know that you are here?” the android asked.

“IsParris your master?” Faran asked. The android looked at Faran then at Dyllysand then pulled a gun from her belt and trained it on Faran.

“Iam going to have to detain you,” the android said.

Dyllysstepped between Faran and the android. “Please, we were hostages on the vesselyou attacked and we came here to request safe passage back to Tossu.”

“Whatis your designation?” the android asked.

“Iam Dyllys.” The android still had her gun trained on Dyllys and was looking pasther to Faran.

“Iam AS-24-318, but you can call me Esper,” the android, Esper, replied. “I havenever heard of the Dyllys series android. When were you created?”

“Iam not a product of Davenport Enterprises. My creator was Emanuel Salazar. Iwas established as Dyllys two hundred and four years ago.”

“EmanuelSalazar you say?” Faran turned startled by the sudden male voice that spoke athis ear. The voice was refined and spoke in Old English. Faran surmised he musthave come from the Capital of the Ordalis Empire, Ordalis Central, as thedialect was only used there with any frequency. He turned to look at the sourceonly to realize that he had a gun trained on his side.

Dyllysturned and looked at the man. She saw the gun at Faran’s side and moved towardshim.

“Iwouldn’t move, Bellezza, for there are two guns and as I know you have noregard for yourself at this moment, either one could be used to pierce hisflesh.” Dyllys stopped moving and merely stared at Parris.

Parriseased the gun away from Faran’s side. “Now enough with this standoff, as much asI am interested in hearing the story of your woes, I in fact have a schedule tokeep. As long as keeping you away from Davenport Enterprise will vex them, thenI will gladly give you passage on my boat.” Parris eased his stance, set thegun in his holster, and walked smoothly past Dyllys, waving for Esper to followhim. She, too, holstered her gun and the two of them disappeared around thecorner leaving Faran and Dyllys to stand agape.