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The mechanical girl shut the thick steel door tight behind her, cutting off the sound of the blizzard outside. Having finally returned from the frigid outdoors, she unzipped her thick winter coat and dropped it to the floor. This allowed her angelic wings to spread open freely. After brushing a lock of her short red hair out of her face, she observed the rest of her people. Each of them was hard at work inside their little bunker. Three girls were glued to a radar screen. One was in a chair against the wall with a rifle in her hand, who nodded, acknowledging the girl’s entrance. Several more were scattered about the room and the adjacent hallways performing miscellaneous tasks like repairs and cleaning. However, they were too engrossed in their work to notice her entrance.
The girl paid them no mind. Instead, she approached a seemingly unattended table. It was mostly barren aside from a small radio, an oversized screwdriver, and a video camera. She patted the radio with a gentle smile on her face. “It’s time to wake up, you three,” the mechanical girl stated.
“Morning already?” The radio’s case opened up to reveal a tiny girl inside of it. The small girl was built very similarly to the much larger mechanical girl, with some key differences. Besides being so much smaller, she had short, lilac hair and tiny, translucent wings. The radio case folded up around her, forming a pseudo armor covering her from the neck down. Only parts of her shoulders and knees were exposed.
“Allison, did you bring food?” The screwdriver’s case popped open, revealing another tiny girl with long, blonde hair. The case folded away, becoming a pair of shoulder pads for her. Meanwhile, the actual screwdriver became her right arm. The rest of her body matched the girls around her, including her translucent wings and the light clothing she wore.
“Don’t be such a glutton,” the camera transformed into a third small girl with white hair in a ponytail. While physically no bigger than the other two, the video camera’s case formed a much bulkier armor for her. The lens sat atop her right shoulder, while the fold-out screen became a small shield on her left arm. She possessed a pair of wings like the other two; however, hers were so short and stiff they could not possibly be used to fly.
“Dee, Ver, Mera, how was your nap?” Allison asked.
“It was nice,” Ver the transformed screwdriver nodded, “but I’m getting pretty bored. Wish we had something to do.”
“I like being able to nap all the time,” Dee, the former radio, commented.
“Keep thinking like that, and people will just keep ignoring us,” Mera pointed out. “If it wasn’t for Allison, no one would even know we exist.”
“Now, now, it’s fine,” Allison assured. “Here, I did bring some food,” the redhead reached into her pocket and produced a little bag of chips. For the average person, the bag would barely qualify as a snack; for the tiny girls, it was a grand meal. The trio each devoured a chip on their own, gnawing at them like hamsters. Once their meal was complete, each girl burped in satisfaction.
“Excuse me,” Mera apologized while leering at her two companions who didn’t do the same.
“You three,” Allison rolled her eyes and laughed.
“Allison, are you done playing with the little ones yet?” One of the three girls attending the radar asked. “We need you on the radar. The system is acting up again.”
“We’re not playing. We’re just talking,” Ver huffed.
“It’s okay, I’ll be right there,” Allison pat the little one on the head. “I keep telling you three there’s something wrong with the equipment itself for this problem to crop up so often.”
“The equipment is fine,” another of the radar girls insisted. “It just needs your magic touch. So could you please help us?”
“I’m coming,” Allison sighed. “You three behave yourselves.” She left the trio to their own devices.
“I can’t believe they treat us like a bunch of kids,” Ver grumbled.
“Dee, we were only constructed a half dozen solar cycles ago,” Mera pointed out. “Most of the girls working here have been doing this job since before our blueprints were finalized.”
“So, we are kids, then?” Dee asked.
“Kids are a relative term created by species with actual maturity cycles,” Mera explained.
“You and your big words,” Ver grew more annoyed. “I’ll show them; I’ll fix the radar myself.” Dee hopped off the table and made a beeline for the radar.
“Should we stop her?” Dee watched in concern.
“She’ll never learn if we do.” Mera asserted.
Ver raced across the room, running as fast as her little legs would take her. While it only took Allison a few steps to reach the radar, it took Ver ten times as long. After her short jog, Ver quietly approached the radar. It was an extensive system of computers, encased into a console bolted into the floor. Ver used her screwdriver hand to open up a panel on the side of the radar and slip inside.
“So, is that the whole issue?” Allison inquired as she finished her quick once over of the radar.
“That’s it,” one of the radar girls assured, neither she nor Allison noticed Ver’s intrusion.
“Okay, well, the loss in range is probably the worst issue,” Allison explained. “I don’t think that’s a problem with the equipment here. It must be the antenna itself.”
“Now she tells me,” Ver mumbled from inside the radar system, trapped in a tangle of wires. “I’m afraid to move.”
“How bad is the loss in range?” The radar girls asked.
“Bad enough that we’ll need to fix it before the main fleet returns in the next decacycle,” Allison continued. “If not, our all clear might not reach them. So unless you want to go another solar cycle without supplies, that will need to be dealt with.”
“We just did maintenance on the antenna in the last decacycle, though,” the third radar girl exclaimed. “There was nothing wrong.”
“We’ll have to go over it again,” Allison insisted. “Either you missed something, or something happened since your last check. We’ll have to-What’s wrong with the display now?” The four girls looked back at the radar, which began to glitch out.
“What now?” The first radar girl started frantically checking the system for any damages, “How could-? What the, who opened the cover?” She noticed the entrance Ver made in the side of the radar.
“Uh, oh,” Ver struggled inside the mass of wires but still couldn’t free herself.
“Why you little,” the radar girl spotted Ver inside the system and yanked the tiny girl out of the case. “Are you trying to cause trouble now?”
“I was just trying to-” Ver attempted to reply.
“I don’t care, you’re in so much-” The first radar girl yelled.
“Stop it, that wasn’t the problem,” Allison cut in, taking Ver out of the other girl’s hands. “The radar is still glitching out. The storm must be picking up.”
“F-fine,” the radar girl muttered and backed off.
“Be careful. You almost got yourself more than just hurt in there,” Allison scolded Ver.
“I wanted to help,” Ver gave her a pair of puppy dog eyes.
“I understand that, but you need to understand a problem before you try to fix it like that. Okay?” Allison stated.
“Yes, ma’am,” Ver looked down at her feet.
~--~
“I’m such a screwup,” Ver lamented her recent mistakes. She and the other small mechanical girls had hidden in a little cubby overlooking the bunker’s main room. Dee and Mera looked on at their friend with a pair of complicated expressions. Neither was able to find the right words to console Ver.
“Ver, you didn’t...well you almost...I mean, um,” Mera tried to console the other girl. Yet, she couldn’t come up with a single sentence that didn’t at least contain a partial lie.
“You just need to find the right time to shine,” Dee exclaimed proudly.
“And where’d you pull that from,” Mera looked at the radio girl suspiciously. “Was it from one of the stories Allison reads to you?”
“N-no,” Dee looked away sheepishly.
“You two...” Ver sighed. One part of her was happy her two friends tried to help; the other part was disappointed by how bad they were at it. “I’m going to take a nap,” she changed into her screwdriver form.
“Ver,” Mera felt a little guilty but said no more.
~--~
No more than a cycle had passed since Ver’s little incident in the radar when Allison found herself a new problem. In between the radar’s frequent glitches and flitting between reaching its full range and half strength, the mechanical girl got sight of a familiar signal—several familiar signals at that.
“They’re over half a dozen cycles early,” Allison stared on in shock. “Do we have enough time to fix it?”
“Who’s early?” One of the radar girls leaned over to observe Allison’s monitor.
“Unless the equipment is spitting out bad information, that’s the main fleet incoming,” Allison explained.
“What!” All three radar girls fell out of their chairs in surprise.
“We’ve got maybe a half a cycle to fix that antenna,” Allison declared, “we’re going out there now!” She and two of the radar girls scrambled to gather their belongings and tools before suiting up to brave the blizzard outside.
~--~
“Did you hear that?” Dee commented, “They’re going to fix the antenna, or the main fleet won’t notice us.”
“And?” Mera inquired.
“I have an idea,” Dee beamed, “one that’ll make Ver and Allison happy.”
“Oh no,” Mera gulped.
To Be Continued...
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Well, this story just sort of ballooned out of control. It's been a while since a story took me three days to write (four if you count editing). Look forward to the second part next week.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy
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