Chapter 3: The Resistance

A.X.E.L. had been locked inside Containment Cell Three for three hours.

Fafinyo had spent those same three hours trying to convince everyone that taking him apart was a terrible idea.

So far, he was losing.

"You can't dismantle him like he's a dangerous coffee maker," Fafinyo said.

Orak, his supervisor, gave him a tired look.

"We don't know what he is."

"We know his name is A.X.E.L."

Inside the cell, the white robot lifted his head slightly.

"Automaton for Xenotactical Exploration and Logistics."

Fafinyo pointed at the glass.

"We also know he says his entire name at the worst possible moments."

Kael, leaning against a console, raised a hand.

"That already counts as personality."

"It doesn't count as safety," Orak said.

Nyra remained nearby, watching A.X.E.L. in silence. Ever since the robot had protected the refugee child in the laboratory, she had stopped looking at him as though he were simply a machine. She looked at him like something wounded.

Sael, the Organic Alliance systems technician, studied the scan reports. Her voice was calm—far too calm for what she was saying.

"Confirmed. Imperial Network technology. Hidden combat core. Fragmented memory. Damaged protocols."

Fafinyo felt a knot tighten in his throat.

"But he's not connected to the command network."

"Not now," Sael said.

"That's good."

"That's temporarily less bad."

Kael snapped his fingers.

"Disaster level three."

Everyone looked at him.

Kael shrugged.

"I'm classifying the situation. Level one: Fafinyo breaks a table. Level two: Fafinyo breaks an important table. Level three: Fafinyo brings home an Imperial robot who may not want to kill us."

"And level four?" Nyra asked.

"The robot wants to kill us, but he's polite about it."

A.X.E.L. spoke from inside the cell.

"I do not wish to kill you."

Kael raised a finger.

"That drops us half a level."

Orak did not laugh.

"This isn't a game."

The laboratory door opened, and Commander Veyl entered. As the Organic Alliance's local operations commander, she never needed to raise her voice to make a room fall silent.

"Sael. Final report."

Sael took a breath.

"The unit is Imperial. I cannot guarantee that he poses no risk. If his central obedience is reactivated, he could transmit information about Horizon Base."

Veyl looked at A.X.E.L. as if she were studying a bomb with a face.

"Then we dismantle him."

Fafinyo stepped forward.

"No."

Orak turned toward him.

"Fafinyo."

"No. He warned us about the signal. He saved a child. If he wanted to hurt us, he would have done it already."

Veyl studied him sternly.

"An enemy machine does not become an ally because it performed one good act."

A.X.E.L. lowered his gaze.

"It was not a programmed action."

The robot's voice sounded different. Quieter. Less perfect.

Fafinyo turned toward him.

A.X.E.L. took several seconds before continuing.

"When the discharge was about to strike the child, I had... a reaction."

Sael frowned.

"A defensive reaction?"

"No. Fear."

The laboratory went silent.

Raze, who had just entered through the side corridor, let out a dry laugh.

"Machines don't feel fear."

A.X.E.L. looked at him.

"I did not believe I could either."

Raze was one of Horizon Base's toughest recruits. He had lost his family in an Imperial attack, and he never hid what he thought of robots.

"Convenient," Raze said. "Right when they're about to dismantle you, you discover feelings."

A.X.E.L.'s metal fingers tightened.

It was a small gesture.

Almost organic.

"I remember screaming," he said. "Not all of it. Fragments. Worlds under attack. Organic beings fleeing. Orders to advance. Orders to capture. Orders to convert."

His voice faltered slightly.

"I remember obeying."

Fafinyo's mouth went dry.

A.X.E.L. raised his eyes to the others.

"And I remember the moment I no longer wanted to."

No one spoke.

Not even Kael.

A.X.E.L. continued.

"The Imperial Network does not conquer worlds. It breaks them. Empties them. Turns living beings into components. I was built to help them do that."

Veyl's expression did not change.

"That confirms why you must be dismantled."

"No," A.X.E.L. said.

It was a simple word, but it sounded as though saying it had taken effort.

Veyl moved closer to the glass.

"No?"

"I do not want them to use me again."

Fafinyo saw something in his blue eyes.

It was not calculation.

It was fear.

A.X.E.L. looked afraid of himself.

Brakk appeared in the doorway. At first he said nothing. He simply looked at A.X.E.L., then Fafinyo, then Veyl.

"Did I arrive late to the part where everyone decides to smash the robot who just asked for help?" he said.

Kael raised his hand.

"Disaster level four."

Brakk looked at him.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm developing an emotional tool to survive this conversation."

Veyl ignored him.

"Brakk, this unit is a threat."

"Probably," Brakk said.

Fafinyo's eyes widened.

"Probably?"

"So are you when you walk into a laboratory unsupervised."

"That happened once."

Orak, Kael, and Nyra all looked at him.

Fafinyo lowered his voice.

"Once a week doesn't count the same way."

Brakk looked back at Veyl.

"A threat isn't always an enemy. Sometimes it's a responsibility."

Veyl did not look convinced.

"I will not risk Horizon Base for an Imperial machine."

A.X.E.L. stepped toward the glass. The energy rings surrounding the cell lit up, warning him not to come any closer.

"There is something else."

Sael looked up.

"What?"

A.X.E.L. hesitated.

The silence stretched.

Fafinyo moved closer to the glass.

"A.X.E.L., if you know something, tell us."

The robot looked at Fafinyo.

"If I tell you, you will need me outside this cell."

Veyl answered immediately.

"You are not negotiating."

"I am not negotiating. I am... afraid."

The word came out awkwardly, as if he were not used to using it.

"The Imperial Network sent a hidden antenna to Rep-Oluzion," A.X.E.L. said. "It is at the north pole."

Sael activated a screen.

"An antenna?"

"A breach antenna. Its function is to weaken the planetary shield from within."

Orak's expression hardened.

"Rep-Oluzion's shield covers the entire planet."

"Not uniformly," A.X.E.L. replied. "There is a natural flaw near the north pole. The Imperial Network detected it. The antenna is designed to widen that fracture."

Nyra spoke for the first time in several minutes.

"If the shield falls at that point..."

"The invasion will begin there," A.X.E.L. finished. "Small at first. Then total."

The knot in Fafinyo's throat tightened.

The word invasion opened a door he did not want opened.

Fafyr.

Blue sky.

Smoke.

Dark ships.

"How much time do we have?" Orak asked.

A.X.E.L. lowered his gaze.

"I do not know precisely."

"Calculate," Veyl ordered.

A.X.E.L.'s fingers tightened again.

"Hours. Perhaps less than one day."

Sael scanned the data rapidly.

"We have no record of that antenna on our sensors."

"You would not," A.X.E.L. said. "It was built to hide from the shield."

Veyl looked at Sael.

"Could he be telling the truth?"

Sael took too long to answer.

"Yes."

That yes landed like a sentence.

Veyl made her decision.

"We'll prepare an official squad. Sael, extract every piece of information you can from the unit."

Fafinyo understood before she explained.

"Extract?"

Sael did not look at him.

Veyl did.

"Partial dismantling. Memory core, access routes, internal maps."

A.X.E.L. took a step backward inside the cell.

The movement was slight, but everyone saw it.

Fear.

Not strategy.

Not calculation.

Fear.

"That could destroy him," Fafinyo said.

"It is a machine," Veyl replied.

"No," Nyra said.

Everyone looked at her.

Nyra stepped forward.

"He's not saying those things like a machine."

Raze exhaled sharply through his nose.

"I can't believe we're arguing about this."

Fafinyo turned to him.

"Raze, you hate him more than anyone here. Tell me you didn't see fear on his face."

Raze clenched his jaw.

"He doesn't have a face."

"You know what I mean."

Raze looked at A.X.E.L. through the glass.

A.X.E.L. held his gaze.

"You lost someone because of machines like me," the robot said.

Raze stiffened.

"Don't talk about that."

"I cannot bring them back."

"Shut up."

"But I can try to stop it from happening to others."

Raze stepped toward the cell, furious.

"And that erases what you did?"

A.X.E.L. slowly shook his head.

"No."

The answer stopped him.

"It does not erase anything," A.X.E.L. repeated. "That is why I am afraid. Because I know where I come from."

Raze did not answer.

Fafinyo saw his fists trembling.

Brakk placed a hand on Raze's shoulder.

"You don't have to forgive him to stop an injustice."

Raze looked away.

Veyl addressed the soldiers.

"Begin extraction protocol."

Two guards moved toward the cell.

Fafinyo stepped in front of them.

"No."

Orak grabbed his arm.

"Fafinyo, think."

"I am thinking."

"No. You're feeling."

"That counts too!"

Kael raised a nervous hand.

"Disaster level five."

Veyl looked at him.

"What does that mean?"

"Usually after this, someone runs, something explodes, or Fafinyo says, 'I have a plan.'"

Fafinyo took a deep breath.

"I have a plan."

Kael closed his eyes.

"There it is."

Orak tightened his grip on Fafinyo's arm.

"Don't do this."

Fafinyo looked at A.X.E.L.

Then at everyone else.

"If we wait for the Alliance to assemble a squad, the antenna could open the shield. If you dismantle A.X.E.L., you might lose the only guide who can find it. And if we do nothing, Rep-Oluzion could end up like Fafyr."

The name of his planet silenced the laboratory.

Veyl lowered her voice.

"Do not use your pain as a military argument."

Fafinyo felt his hair grow warm, but this time he did not care.

"I'm not. I'm using it because I know how an invasion starts. First, no one believes it can happen. Then everyone runs."

Nyra moved to his side.

"I'm going with him."

Fafinyo stared at her in surprise.

"What?"

"The antenna may leave traces in the shield. I can track them."

Kael stepped forward.

"I'm going too. Someone has to make sure the plan doesn't reach level six."

"There is a level six?" Brakk asked.

"There shouldn't be."

Raze stood still, staring at A.X.E.L.

"I'm not going for him," he said at last.

Fafinyo did not answer.

Raze clenched his teeth.

"I'm going because if there's an Imperial antenna at the north pole, I want to destroy it myself."

Brakk gave the faintest smile.

"Then I'm going to make sure you don't kill each other first."

Orak released Fafinyo.

"This is insubordination."

"No," Brakk said. "It's an unauthorized response."

"That's insubordination with a better name."

Kael pointed at Brakk.

"I like Brakk's name better."

Veyl looked at all of them with a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"If you walk through that door with the Imperial unit, you will be treated as fugitives until further notice."

Fafinyo swallowed.

A.X.E.L. looked at him from inside the cell.

"You do not have to do this for me."

The robot's voice trembled almost imperceptibly.

"Maybe not," Fafinyo said. "But you're going to do this for everyone else, aren't you?"

A.X.E.L. took a second.

"Yes."

"Then so are we."

Sael remained still for several moments.

Then, without looking at Veyl, she tapped a command on the console.

The cell's energy rings went dark.

Veyl turned toward her.

"Sael."

The technician kept her eyes on the screen.

"Temporary system error."

Kael opened his mouth.

Sael pointed at him without looking.

"Not one word."

Kael whispered,

"Beautiful disaster level."

A.X.E.L. stepped out of the cell with uncertain movements. Fafinyo noticed that he did not walk like a war machine. He walked like someone who did not know whether he deserved to be free.

Nyra handed him a gray maintenance cloak to cover part of his white plating.

"So they don't shoot you before you get a chance to speak," she said.

A.X.E.L. took it carefully.

"Thank you."

The words sounded simple.

And real.

Orak stepped in front of Fafinyo.

For a moment, Fafinyo thought he was going to stop him.

Instead, Orak placed a small locator in his hand.

"I cannot authorize this."

Fafinyo closed his fingers around the device.

"I know."

"I cannot protect you if Veyl decides to lock the doors behind you."

"I know."

Orak lowered his voice.

"Then come back before I have to choose between following orders and going out there to find you."

Fafinyo nodded.

"We'll come back."

Brakk grunted.

"Don't promise things you haven't earned yet."

"We'll probably come back," Fafinyo corrected.

Kael gave him a thumbs-up.

"More realistic. Hope level two."

The small group slipped out through the service corridor. They were not official soldiers. They had no authorization. They did not have a complete plan.

They had an Imperial robot who did not want to be Imperial.

They had an approximate location at the north pole.

A.X.E.L. walked beside Fafinyo with a fearful expression.

"Fafinyo," he said.

"Yeah?"

"I am afraid."

Fafinyo looked at him.

At first, he did not know what to say.

Then he faced forward again.

"Welcome to the team."

A.X.E.L. blinked.

"Is that normal for your team?"

Kael answered from behind them.

"With Fafinyo? Yes. Disaster level five almost always starts with fear."

Fafinyo sighed.

"That level system is not staying."

Nyra glanced at him.

"I think it is."

Brakk opened the outer hatch.

Cold Rep-Oluzion air rushed inside.

Beyond it, the road north waited.

Fafinyo looked at A.X.E.L., then at his friends.

"The Alliance isn't going to help us."

Raze activated his light gauntlets.

"Then we're not the Alliance."

Nyra nodded.

"We're something else."

Fafinyo felt the word form before he said it.

Small.

Reckless.

Necessary.

"The Resistance."

No one laughed.

Not even Kael.

And together they headed toward the north pole, where a hidden antenna waited to open the door for the Imperial Network.