The Storm

Crrrrack.

Oh no. That was my first thought as the pod came to a sudden halt, spilling tea over the counter and my suit, where the brown liquid pearled down to the ground.

"What was that?" Emelyse looked up, and on her face was a streak of worry.

"I don't know."

I probably didn't want to know what it was, but one thing was clear: we couldn't travel any further.

"Lottie?" I asked.

Outside, the rain was still hammering down, pouring from so many black clouds that it was as dark as night. Somewhere in the distance, lightning struck, and the sound echoed through my bones.

This is really, really bad. We have to do something.

"Lottie?" I repeated, with more force this time. "Answer me!"

"I-I-I'm here," the assistant's voice crackled through the pod, "What do you want, Toma-toma-toma-to-"

"What's going on? Give me the status?"

"Error."

"That's not helpful."

I wanted to cry. Or maybe scream. Or both. Or just curl up and sleep.

"Can I call-"

No. I won't burden my parents with this, I thought. I can do it. Alone.

I glanced at Emelyse, whose face was cast in shadow. One by one, the lights around us went out.

"This is bad. Lottie? Hey, Lottie?"

There was an electronic crackle, a high-pitched sound, and then even that died off. We were in the dark.

"We are stuck."

"Great observation, Em." I sighed. "What can we do?"

Right now, I couldn't even see much. Emelyse, on the other hand, didn't have problems standing up and navigating, if I interpreted the sound of footsteps (and the missing sound of pain, broken glass, and swearing) right. Soon enough, I could feel her presence next to me.

"How can I help?" she asked.

"Right. I'll check my suit for more light. Can you look after the repair bots in the meantime?"

"I will."

She bent down, while I tapped my suit. The faint outline of my outerwear glimmered in the dark. It wasn't a real light source, but it was better than nothing. I increased the brightness to the maximum, and in the faint turquoise light, I could at least see my surroundings.

Emelyse was bent down next to the bots, poking them with her finger.

"They don't react to me," she said.

"Hmm. That's strange."

They should react to touch, no matter if it came from a human, cat, or alien. I crouched down next to her, and took a closer look at them.

"Wake up," I muttered.

But even as I gently tapped one of them, it didn't even register my touch.

"They're out," I said, louder this time. "We can't rely on them."

Oh, this was bad. This was really, really bad. I tried hard not to panic, but the longer we stayed in this situation, the harder it was. Emelyse, on the other hand, was still composed. At that moment, I was glad to have her. Not only as a support and friend, but as a calming presence. Without her, what would I have done?

"Shall we look at the damage outside?"

"Eh..."

I glanced out of the windows, where rain was pouring down endlessly. I didn't even know if my suit would stay waterproof in this.

But what else was there to do?

"You know what? Let's do it."

I shrugged. Having her here with me gave me an odd confidence. I had repaired bots before. We should at least know what the damage was, and then we could act. Or despair. I wasn't sure what would be more appropriate.

I manually unlocked the door, thankful that the pod was old enough to still have these ancient mechanisms. Rain splattered across my face and drenched the entrance, with gusts of wind shoving more and more water inside.

"Let's go!"

I could barely see. Water ran down my hair, dripped down my nose and ran into the corners of my mouth. The wind howled in my ears, and only a lightning strike here or there illuminated the travel pod.

Next to me was Emelyse, looking as if she wasn't all that bothered. No, that was not it - she was thinking. I knew that posture. Just what was she pondering right now?

At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Lottie looked as old as she had before, the orange color still visible even in this horrible storm. But when I bent down into the mud, I saw that the connector between the power line and the pod had been damaged.

"Did it overcharge?" I wondered.

If that was the case, we could be glad we were still alive. But this was damage way above my knowledge. Even if the repair bots turned on, this wasn't something they could repair.

I cursed under my breath, the sounds muffled by the storm.

We would have to wait. Maybe once the storm was over, we could scrape enough energy together to make a call, and get someone out here to look at the pod. And until then, hope that nothing else would explode.

"What can we do about the damage?" Emelyse asked.

"Nothing." I couldn't help but sigh. "We have to wait. For someone. If it's the Kanda guys, well..."

I glanced into the darkness behind us. Even if they suspected Em here, they couldn't possibly follow us out here, right?

"No. We don't have time to waste." She looked at me with determination glittering in her eyes.

Then, she crouched down next to the pod, and her suit glowed in a way that was entirely different from mine.

"You're not supposed to see this," she said. "But, I'm here to experience Terran culture, right? So, see it as an act of sharing."

With that, she took out her little device. But instead of typing something down as usual, she drew a symbol on top of it, and the whole thing transformed. Lightning struck somewhere once again, and when my eyes regained their vision, the device looked like a scanner.

"W-what's this?"

Now it was my turn to ask question. I had never seen this before. It had to be some sort of technology from Kanda, but what could that help us right now?

"Well, I haven't studied your culture for nothing," she said, her tone happy. "I scanned Lottie while you were still away shopping. So there should be a model of the... thing in here."

"The connector," I said.

"Right! The connector."

"I don't... understand."

"It's easy, Toma. With this-" she waved the device around, "-we can replicate your connector!"

"But... how..."

She smiled at me. "Kandarian tech. It's different from Terran technology, but it can help us now, right?"

"Right."

I nodded. My hands were caked in mud. Just a moment before, I had felt helpless - without Lottie or the bots, there was just no way of doing something. But this explained how Em could stay that composed.

Kandarian technology looked like magic to me. How - out of seemingly thin air - suddenly elements transformed, wires were rebraided and metal bent back into its original form. Elements that were lost materialized again. My heart was racing, not because of the storm, but because of that feeling, akin to magic, that made me remember the first time I got my own bot. This is unbelievable, I had thought.

The same thought ran through my head right at this very moment. But it wasn't magic, or a dream. This was all Emelyse's doing.

And when she got up, with a satisfied smile on her face, the connector looked as good as new.

"Thank you," I said.

There were no other words to express what I was feeling. Just a deep gratitude, and friendship.

"Don't mention it," Emelyse said. "I only did this... to strengthen our interplanetary bonds."

"Yeah, right," I laughed.

Lottie lit up, bathing us in a welcoming, yellow light. It was only then that I realized just how wet and freezing it was.

"Let's go," I said, and hurried inside.

Emelyse followed right after me. We both looked at each other like wet, miserable cats.

"Lottie?" I said.

"I'm here, Toma."

"Glad to have you back."

I couldn't believe that I was missing that overly happy voice. "Get us back on our route." And with a smile directed at Emelyse, I added, "And I'll make us some soup to warm up again."