Robot Warriors (4 page)

Right on cue, Mordant Talliver came sidling over.

“What’s wrong, John Riley? Having a bit of trouble with your computer, are you?”

“Mind your own business,” John said, too angry to think of anything more clever.

“How’s your design coming on?”

This time, John didn’t say anything at all.

Mordant shook his head. “Oops. Looks like you’ve wiped it. Clumsy. I expect you pressed the wrong icon.”

“I don’t know why they let a primitive try to use one of these sophisticated desk-coms, master,” added G-Vez.

“I’m surprised he didn’t try to worship it as a god,” smirked Mordant. “Too bad, human. Better luck in next year’s contest.”

Mordant chuckled to himself as he walked away.

You did this,
John thought furiously. He was certain of it. Those long Gargon tentacles could easily have slithered under the desk-coms and fiddled with his console. John realized he had been an easy target for Mordant – too focused and out of his comfort zone to have time to think about protecting his work from the class bully.

But no one had been standing nearby to see it. He had no proof. And even if he had, his work was still gone.

There was only one person on the whole ship who could help him now – and it wasn’t even a person.

“Zepp,” John said under his breath. “Can you hear me? I need your help!”

“Affirmative,” said the computer, talking through the desk-com speaker. “I’m wired into every device on this ship!”

“Can you restore a deleted file? My robot project’s been wiped!”

“Let me see... this is not good. All the local data’s been deleted. I will assess my archives. I might be able to piece it back together.”

“Please try!” John’s hands trembled with worry. All that work, ruined. And for nothing more than sheer spite.

The seconds seemed like hours as John waited for Zepp to respond.

“Good news, John Riley! The files are fragmented, but recoverable! Give me five minutes, and Super-Rover will be back with you!”

“Zepp, you rock,”John said, sinking onto his desk in relief. “I seriously owe you one for this.”

There was a tap on his shoulder. It was Kaal, looking worried.

“What in the nine moons was
that
all about?” he asked, gesturing at Mordant’s back.

“I can’t prove it,” John whispered, “but I’m pretty sure Mordant deleted my whole project. Zepp’s recovering the files, but it’s taking time. Time I haven’t got.”

“He just can’t resist, can he?” Kaal glanced in disgust at the gloating boy, who was taking his robot, IFI, on another tour of the classroom. “If I were you, I’d report him to Master Tronic.”

“For cheating?” John said. “That’s way worse than just copying. They might even expel him for that. You know what the Examiners are like.”

“You know, they just might,” Kaal said with a dark look. “Wouldn’t that be a shame? Can’t you just picture the look on his face?”

John thought about it. “I’ve got less than four hours left to build Super-Rover as it is,” he said. “I don’t want to waste any more time.”

“They’d give you an extension. You know they would!”

John knew Kaal was right.
But if Mordant gets expelled,
he thought,
I won’t have a chance to show him up in the contest.

“
It’s tempting,” he admitted. “But you know what would be even better? Beating him fair and square.”

Just then, Zepp interrupted with a triumphant, tinny fanfare. “Good news! All project files successfully recovered!”

“Better let you get to work, then,” Kaal said, smiling. “Cool-looking robot, by the way.”

“Thanks!” John grinned. It was a huge relief to see Super-Rover’s schematics spread out in front of him again – every servo, wire, and circuit in place. He was doubly relieved that Kaal seemed to be back to his usual, friendly self.

Ms Skrinel said this was supposed to be fun,
John thought
. But I see now that it’s much more serious than that. Looks like some people don’t care how many rules they break if it helps them win. I thought people would play fair. I won’t make that mistake again.

John set to work.

The electronic chime rang out for six o’clock.

Only two hours left?
John thought desperately.
But it was five o’clock just a moment ago!

Super-Rover was slowly but surely taking shape. John had given him a metal skeleton made from recycled struts, and his homing-device power core had been strapped in place inside his belly. The socket for the tail was installed and could even wag. He didn’t yet have a head, but John was still very proud of him.

Master Tronic stepped to the front of the class. “You are dismissed for half an hour to go and get some dinner!” he boomed. “Remember, robots can go without food. Organic beings cannot.”

“And even if we could, who’d want to?” laughed Lishtig. “Come on, guys. I’m starving.”

John’s stomach gave a tell-tale rumble. There was still so much to do, and he didn’t want to waste any more time. Some of the other students continued to work, skipping their evening meal so they could finish their robots. He wondered if he should do the same.

No. He’d skipped lunch already. If he didn’t eat, he’d fall over.

“Zepp, can you lock my console? Mordant might try to delete my work again.”

“Consider it done,” Zepp beeped. “And don’t worry about Super-Rover. I’ll put him in a stasis field to protect against sabotage. Now, what would you like to request for dinner? I’ve been researching several new Earth dishes today!”

Warning bells went off in John’s brain. Last time Zepp had made him a special Earth dish, it was toad in the hole. At first it had seemed delicious, but after three bites John had spotted the head of a baked Neptunian toad looking back at him from inside the Yorkshire pudding. It still made him feel queasy just thinking about it.

“Maybe we should just stick to cheese toasties,” he suggested.

“Understood! And I’ve got a surprise that’ll go
perfectly
with those! Something you previously asked me to develop...”

Emmie and Kaal were waiting at their usual spot in the canteen. John’s mouth watered as he saw that his huge plate of cheese toasties was ready – with a cheery red blob of ketchup on each one!

Nice one, Zepp,
he thought. He’d missed ketchup badly out here in space.

Kaal made a face as he sat down. “I know your Earth food is weird, but that is something else!”

“Try one!” John said, cramming a cheese toastie into his mouth and chewing. “
Oo
might like
um
.”

“Animal juices curdled into a paste, then melted over half-scorched slabs of plant mush?” Kaal looked ill.

“We ought to try,” Emmie said. “Come on, Kaal. How many times has John tried our food on this ship? It’s our turn.”

“OK,” said Kaal. “You go first, though.”

“Oh well,” Emmie said. “Here goes.” She took a deep breath, then nibbled a tiny bit off the edge of a toastie.

Then she took a bigger bite, and smiled at John. “It’s delicious!”

“Told you,” John said. His friends’ loyalty made him smile.

“It’s amazing! Tastes like... I dunno... like being cosy and warm under the Sillaran sun.”

Kaal picked up a toastie by the corner and dangled it as if it were a rancid sock. He gave John a wary look and then took a bite. His face told John exactly what he thought.

“Sorry,” John said with a grin. Emmie shrugged and helped herself to another.

Kaal swallowed as if he were forcing down a golf ball. “Zepp, get me a Gyronic surprise, quick,” he said. “I need to get the taste out of my mouth...”

The Gyronic surprise looked like a bowl of rainwater that rats had drowned in. A strange rainbow-coloured scum drifted over the top of it. Unidentifiable lumpy masses stirred in the thick morass beneath. Kaal lifted the bowl to his mouth with both hands and drank deeply.

“I’m heading back to the lab,” John announced, pushing his empty plate away.
Good job I finished those before Kaal started slurping that stuff. He’d have put me off my dinner!

“Me, too!” Emmie said. “I’ve got some tweaking to do. I can’t seem to get Cammy to go into fight mode. She prefers hiding.”

“I’ll be in the dorm,” Kaal said, wiping his mouth. “I’ve already finished Laserdon, so I think I might video call my family.”

“Laserdon?” John raised an eyebrow. “Why’s your robot called that?”

“You’ll see why soon enough!” Kaal said mysteriously.

As John watched Kaal jump up from the table, he hid his disappointment. He’d hoped that if Kaal had finished his own robot, he might offer to help John complete his. It was the kind of thing his best friend would usually do. But then John caught himself; he was determined to do this by himself anyway, wasn’t he? He would have probably turned down such an offer, but he was still surprised.

Back in the lab, John worked like he’d never worked before. The console ate up his raw materials and ejected custom-made components. They only took seconds to make, but it was still frustrating to even have to wait that long.

John fitted each new piece into place as soon it was delivered, feeding fresh scrap materials into a hopper on the side.

Attach the leg servos, screw the neck in place, bolt the head on, clamp the ear antennae on the sides... Super-Rover was looking a lot more like a dog now, but the clock on the desk-com was already reading 7.46 p.m., and he didn’t even have his weapons yet. Sitting up and barking wouldn’t be much use against the likes of IFI... or any other robot, if it came to that.

At least he had Super-Rover’s remote control handset ready. It was held together with molecular binding strips, but it ought to work.

Across the lab, Emmie was making frantic adjustments to Cammy’s electronic brain. The hovering skimmer’s cockpit was open, and its skin was pulsing with patterns that didn’t match the surroundings at all, but were still beautiful – rolling open skies, strange red-orange rocky landscapes: a digital waltz of computer-generated forms.

John had never seen a more stunning robot. Even if Emmie struggled with the technical side of things, she definitely had a talent for art and design.

His own Super-Rover looked a bit basic next to Cammy, like a mutt made of old tin cans. But John knew there was a lot of power under that metallic skin. He’d plugged it in there himself. Now if only the components would hurry up...

The clock now read 7.54 p.m. Super-Rover’s freshly made, razor-sharp tail clonked into the delivery tray. Working as quickly as he dared, but careful not to cut himself, John wrestled it into place.

Now Super-Rover only needed his teeth. John had sliced the old beronzium claw into bits with a high-beam laser cutter earlier, and now he tipped the whole lot into the hopper. As he waited for the teeth to arrive, he heard an ominous low hum. An Examiner came drifting into the room.

The sound always made John’s hair stand on end, thinking of the first time he had met them.
It must be coming to collect the robots!
John realized. He glanced around and saw that everyone else was finished. He was the last.

“Come on!” he whispered to the console. Nothing happened.

In a moment of frustration, he thumped it. Suddenly, like a fruit machine paying out, the console dropped freshly made metal dog’s teeth into the tray. Finally!

“You have one minute to finish assembling your robots,” the Examiner intoned. “Countdown begins.”

It’s OK. I can do this. Piece of cake.
John began to fit the teeth into the sockets already set in Super-Rover’s jaw. The first clicked home. The second, he fumbled. It went spinning across the floor.

“Fifty seconds.”

John dived after it and managed to snatch it up. “Ouch. That’s sharp!”

“Forty seconds.”

He clicked it into place and grabbed for the rest. The tray came off in his hand, sending loose teeth rattling everywhere like puzzle pieces. John groaned in dismay.

“Thirty seconds.”

“Come on!” John told himself desperately, as he picked up the teeth and tried to cram them into place. “Don’t mess it up now!”

“Twenty seconds.”

I’m not going to make it,
he just knew.

“Ten, nine, eight...”

Gaaah! Why did I design something so fiddly?
John was sweating as he clicked the last row of teeth into place. His hair had fallen into his face, but he didn’t even have time to brush it away.

All done. But wait – no, there was a gap. A tooth was missing.

“Four, three, two...”

There it was on the floor, almost under the console. He grabbed it and shoved it in. Sharp metal dug into his finger, drawing blood.

“Ow!”

“...one.
Bzzzzt.
Time is now up. Step away from your robots. If you do not step away from your robots, they will be destroyed.”

John moved away from Super-Rover, sucking on his injured finger. “That was too close,” he gasped.

The Examiner came drifting over. A single glowing eye wafted back and forth across its digital faceplate.

It angled its head towards Super-Rover, and a blast of red light engulfed the little robot. Then it was completely gone.

The Examiner moved on across the classroom. John felt as if the floor had given way under him.

“They destroyed him!” he blurted. “That’s not fair. I finished in time! I know I did!”

“John, John, it’s OK!” Emmie insisted. “The Examiner’s just teleporting the robots for safekeeping overnight!”

John looked again. He could see all the robots were being zapped away. Cammy vanished in a red flash as he watched.

“Oh,” he said. “Phew. Sorry. Bit worked up.”

“Come on. Let’s get some rest,” Emmie said with a grin. “Don’t want to be all sleepy when the competition starts tomorrow, do you?”

“Dunno if I can sleep now,” John said. “It’s too exciting.”

“Looking forward to it now?” Emmie asked with a smile.

“You know what? I think I am.”
Especially if Super-Rover gets to crunch that robot of Mordant Talliver’s like a dog with a bone...

John slept uneasily. He dreamt that a crowd of Examiners was chasing him down a never-ending corridor, firing beams of red light at him.

When his alarm went off, he sat up bolt upright, breathing hard.

“Quick, get dressed, John!” Kaal called from his side of the dorm. “The competition starts in twenty minutes, and I don’t want to be late.”

John pulled on his clothes, feeling nervous and apprehensive. All the excitement of the day before seemed to have evaporated overnight. Now he just felt like he was going to be tested and, in all likelihood, fall at the first hurdle. There were hundreds of students at the school, most of them older and more experienced than he was, and there were to be only six possible finalists. He’d never made a robot before. Why was he even trying to compete, with the odds stacked against him like that? They must be thousands to one. And what if he looked like a joke in front of the whole school?

I have to make it through to the final somehow,
he decided.
I’ve got just as much of a right to be there as any of them. I belong here.

“Wake up time!” Zepp said, and a full glass emerged through the top of the bedside table.

John rubbed sleep out of his eyes and tried to focus. “Is that orange juice?”

“It’s orange, and it’s juice... that’s what you wanted, right?”

John sipped it and made a face. “This tastes like bat poo!”

“Lots of things in the universe have orange-coloured juice,” said Zepp, sounding confused. “Anyhow, you need to be at the Sonic Sports Hall in ten minutes.”

“Where’s that?” John asked.

“Come on,” Kaal said impatiently. “If you’re quick, I’ll show you.”

John drank down the glass of juice that was orange in colour but had nothing to do with oranges and headed out of the room.

John wondered if the Sonic Sports Hall was on some deep level of the ship he’d never been to yet. Hyperspace High was full of unexplored corridors and shifting walkways. But Kaal seemed to be leading him to the normal sports halls on the west side of the ship. Surely none of them were big enough?

When they reached the large, brilliantly lit hall, he understood. The dividing walls between all the sports halls had sunk into the floor – he could see the faint lines where they had been – and this created one enormous open space.

“The teachers can remodel the ship,” Kaal explained. “It can even split into separate ships in an emergency.”

“Cool,” John said, impressed. But his mind was saying something else:
How can I ever learn my way around in this school if the walls don’t even stay in one place?

The Sonic Sports Hall was big enough to dock an aircraft carrier. From the ceiling hung racks of spotlights and force-field generators, able to suspend students in bubbles of elastic energy for games of Zero-G Impactball or to create instant arenas for martial arts duels. Matter stream cylinders could provide any surface needed for sports – sand, earth, water, and even lava – and disintegrate it again afterward.

The robots were stationed at the near end of the hall, arranged in a neat row, and in faintly glowing starting zones. Two Examiners hovered over them, keeping a careful watch.

John saw Electric E, IFI, Quondass’s huge drill-like robot, one that looked like a dustbin with short, dumpy legs, and several others – more than he had time to count. And there was Super-Rover, sitting on his haunches like a real dog, as if he were waiting patiently for John. At the far end of the hall was a faint blue light, filling the space from the floor to the ceiling.

A section of floor beside them had been raised to make a stage. Master Tronic stood there, just visible behind the crowd of students that had already begun to gather.

“Welcome to the contest!” he boomed. “The first round is a simple test of speed. The first six robots to cross the finish line in each year group will be the winners of this round!” He gestured with a metal fist to the glimmering blue field.

“Sounds simple enough,” Kaal shrugged.

“Yeah,” said John. “It’s not rocket science, is it?”

Kaal looked puzzled. “Of course not. This is Robotics. Rocket Science is next term.”

John rolled his eyes and went to join the crowd that was already checking out the robots. With more than a thousand to see, it was like being at a futuristic art exhibition.

Some of the older students had done unbelievable work. A crowd had gathered around Prince Karfelan, a tall, grey-skinned alien with oval black eyes, who had built a robot that was a living swarm of tiny, smaller robots.
Stylish
, John thought,
but not as fast as his own little dog robot
.

John turned his attention to the competition from his own year. Many were obviously no-hopers – jumbled, botched, or just plain weird, like the centipede with an air horn for a nose or the thing like a goldfish bowl on triangular wheels. Maybe John had a better chance than he thought!

“Competitors!” roared Master Tronic. “Take your places behind your robots! If you have controllers, activate them now!”

With his heart beating madly, John went and stood behind Super-Rover and switched on his controller. To his right, Kaal was firing up a controller of his own. His robot, Laserdon, was hawk-like, with a fierce light burning in its eyes.

“I reckon you’re in with a good chance in this round,” John told him. “Laserdon looks
fast
!”

“Not as fast as Cammy,” Kaal said modestly, looking over at Emmie’s sleek robot. “Have you seen Silverfire, though? Shazilda’s built her for nothing
but
speed!”

Shazilda was a cocky, purple-skinned girl from the planet Pellgrayne; her robot looked like a rotating silver bullet, hovering a few centimetres above the ground.

“The race will begin in ten seconds!” Master Tronic announced, the red light in his head now pulsing furiously.

“Good luck,” John said to Kaal. His friend returned a determined smile.

A high-pitched whistle sounded.

In the next second, the hall was filled with the whirring, buzzing, thrumming, screeching noises of a thousand robots launching themselves into the race. Aluminium-covered cockroaches raced against trundling battle tanks. Scuttling pyramids with wobbly eyes shouldered aside chattering androids with chomping jaws. But out in front of all of them was Silverfire, rushing through the air like a high-tech express train.

Super-Rover was hot on Silverfire’s trail. John rammed his speed control up to full, steering him around other robots that had capsized, suffered power failure, or – in one case – burst into flames.

Super-Rover’s springy little legs were a blur. John bashed the jump button, sending Super-Rover in a graceful leap over a burning robot. Laserdon glided along behind them. Kaal’s face was a green mask of pure concentration.

Silverfire whizzed into the blue field, finishing first out of the whole contest, followed closely by Dol’s eel-like robot.

There was nobody else in front. John leaned into the final stretch, sure of finishing next. But then Cammy appeared out of nowhere, right ahead of him! He heard Emmie laugh. “Surprise!” she said, as her streamlined camouflage robot whizzed through the blue field.

Super-Rover charged through seconds later. John leaped up and punched the air. He’d done it – the first round was down!

Laserdon was hot on Super-Rover’s heels, and John saw Kaal smiling at his achievement. John quickly counted – only one more place left. The remaining robots wheezed and whined as they struggled to cross the distance. IFI zipped in front of them, moving easily on its force field. As John looked on, Mordant’s robot swerved out in front of two others, a barrel-like stomper and an elegant tripod. The barrel swerved, too, trying to avoid IFI, and smashed into the tripod, sending it toppling over. The students controlling them yelled angrily.

“Cunning move, sir!” said G-Vez. “Nothing in the rules that says you can’t go sideways, is there, sir?”

“That’s two less losers to worry about,” gloated Mordant. “OK, I’m bored now. Let’s go.” He pressed a control, and IFI zoomed silently over the finish line.

“And master is through to the next round!” G-Vez cheered.

“I could have been first if I’d wanted to.” Mordant put his hands behind his head as if this had all been too easy.

“The race is now over!” announced Master Tronic as the field suddenly turned red with a buzz.

There was a chorus of disappointed
awwww
sounds from the gathered students. The hall was still full of robots ponderously tromping towards the finish. John felt a little sorry for them, despite his own victory.

“All those who have qualified for the next round will now be transferred to the ship’s main hangar,” Master Tronic said. “To save time, we will be using sonic transference!”

John had only a second to wonder what that was. Then a dizzy feeling came over him, and his vision started to blur...