[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 15] The Factory of Brothers
The voices of the six units overlapped until they seemed to come from a single source.
“Report why you are accompanying humans.”
Robo stood half a step ahead of Crono and Lucca. Each time the factory's emergency lights flickered on, the same faces appeared in the red glow.
“These humans intend to open the isolation door in Proto Dome. I chose to assist their return.”
The leading unit straightened its head.
“Choice is not recognized within the mission system.”
“My former mission is damaged.”
“Then you are defective.”
The judgment came faster than conversation. Two units moved at once and seized Robo by the arms. Crono raised his metal bar, but Robo opened a palm to stop him.
“Wait. This may be an authentication procedure between units of the same series.”
Before he finished speaking, a third unit struck him across the face.
The blunt impact rang through the factory. Robo's head snapped sideways, and the blue light in his eyes wavered. The two holding his arms dragged him toward a cargo platform.
Lucca raised her launcher but could not pull the trigger. The magazine was empty. At most, the storage cell in her tool bag held enough power to make a single spark.
“Let him go.”
“Human commands are not accepted.”
“It wasn't a command—”
A second blow caved in Robo's chest plate.
Lucca's words stopped.
She saw the wires she had connected and the knee shaft she had straightened. With every impact, the parts that had been working inside Robo only moments ago slipped out of place. Anger at watching her repairs destroyed rose in her—but ahead of it came the fear that the voice she had awakened inside that body might disappear again.
Crono kicked an empty cargo crate across the floor.
It rolled along the rail and struck the nearest unit in the knee. The instant it lost its balance, Crono jammed the metal bar into the joint and twisted with his full weight. The retaining pin tore loose, and one leg folded beneath the machine.
Lucca ran to the control panel on the wall.
“I'm turning the security system back on!”
“It'll attack us too.”
“If everything in here becomes a target, at least it won't be six against two.”
She touched two wires together. The surveillance arms overhead came back to life. Red beams swept the room and fixed on everything that moved. The R-Series units scattered at once.
Robo fell to the floor. He tried to rise, but his left arm would not move.
“Crono.”
For the first time, he called a name without a number or a question attached to it.
Crono started toward him, then stopped. Two units blocked the way, and behind him the light from a surveillance arm was narrowing to a point. He looked toward the controls for the conveyor on the opposite side.
He threw the metal bar. It struck the lever and forced it down. The stalled belt lurched suddenly into reverse, pitching three of the machines on its platform into one another. Lucca released a hanging chain and dropped the cargo claw, splitting the group in two.
Crono plunged through the gap.
The moment he seized Robo's shoulder, a mechanical hand caught the back of his coat. His feet left the floor. The wound in his side pulled tight, stealing his breath.
“Humans halted production.”
The machine drew back its arm to throw him into the wall.
Robo's right hand closed around its wrist.
The blue light in his one remaining eye sharpened.
“This human activated me.”
Robo twisted. Metal tore, and the hand released Crono's coat. Crono dropped, rolled on impact, and let the floor take the force of the fall.
“It was only a repair.”
“For me, it was a beginning.”
Robo drove his shoulder into the other machine. An irregular grinding came from inside his crushed chest. He could not keep fighting for long.
Lucca tore the emergency lights' power line free.
The factory went dark.
Only the red eyes of the R-Series and the security devices remained, casting their light over one another. Crono read their positions by the direction of the beams. When one unit charged, he stepped aside and kicked over a drum of oil on the floor. Lucca pressed the storage cell's two terminals together and made a spark.
Fire spread across the oil.
The flames did not so much burn the enemy as divide their field of vision. The R-Series clustered to one side to escape the heat. With the last of his strength, Robo shoved the cargo platform. Hundreds of kilograms of metal slid along the rail and pinned three units against the wall.
The remaining three changed direction together.
One went for Robo. The other two tried to separate Crono and Lucca. Crono shortened his grip on the metal bar and deflected the first strike. It could not cut like a sword, but it could force the attacker's weight aside. Lucca crawled beneath the conveyor and looped a slack chain around its ankle.
Crono pulled the other end.
The unit toppled backward. Lucca immediately opened its head casing and severed the power lead. Pain surged through her wrist, setting her fingers trembling, but she found the second wire and cut it cleanly.
Another machine brought its arm down toward her.
Crono planted the metal bar between them. The impact traveled up both arms and into his shoulders. The bar bent, and one of his knees struck the floor.
Robo seized the machine around the waist from the side.
“Get down.”
Lucca and Crono dropped low. Robo's chest plate opened. Energy gathered in the storage system within and discharged in a brief burst of light. The flash struck the opposing unit's sensors head-on. As it staggered, Crono thrust the bent bar between its legs, and Lucca released the brake on the cargo platform.
The three units trapped against the wall and the final two standing machines all tumbled over the rail at once. A succession of crashes rose from the deep processing pit below. One by one, the red eyes went out.
Only Robo remained standing.
He checked Crono and Lucca, then took a step toward them. His right knee buckled. His heavy body struck the floor.
Lucca ran to his side.
“Robo, can you hear me?”
A narrow glimmer remained in one eye.
“The conditions for your return... have not yet been fulfilled.”
“That can wait.”
“Proto Dome's isolation door requires main power.”
Crono unfolded the factory map. The main power room was directly below them. They could not leave Robo here, but until they diverted the power, they could not even open the door to carry him somewhere safe.
Lucca inspected Robo's power lines.
“If I disconnect the auxiliary circuit, you'll hold together for a while. But you'll shut down completely until I reconnect it.”
Robo's eye turned toward her.
“Can you activate me again?”
Before answering, Lucca looked at the crushed chest and severed arm. Her habit of sounding certain about things she could not possibly guarantee rose to her throat, then stopped.
“I'm going to try.”
“That answer is imprecise.”
“It is. But it's more accurate than saying I'll give up.”
Robo's light flickered once.
“Agreed.”
When Lucca disconnected the line, his eye went dark.
They laid Robo on the cargo platform and pushed him down to the lower level. The main power room opened when they entered the four-step signal sequence. Inside, an enormous drive shaft descended into the depths beneath the factory. Even after the rest of the facility had stopped, its core continued to turn slowly and radiate heat.
“We weren't supposed to turn the power on,” Lucca said as she studied the layout.
“The factory is already running. Only the line to Proto Dome was cut. Releasing it may cause an overload.”
“How long will we have?”
“I don't know.”
Crono looked at Robo, then placed his hand on the bypass lever built into the wall.
He and Lucca pulled together.
Something immense seemed to wake beneath the floor. Blue current raced along the lines overhead and out of the factory. In the distance, a faint light came on inside Proto Dome.
Then the alarms began.
The drive shaft accelerated. Red warnings spread across every wall: the cooling system had failed long ago and could not sustain the diverted load.
“Now we run.”
They pushed the cargo platform.
The route they had taken on the way in no longer held the same shape. Conveyors changed speed without warning, and machine parts fell from the ceiling. In the transport sector, black smoke from the burning oil hid the path. Crono cleared debris from the front while Lucca leaned over Robo to keep him from sliding off the back.
Near the entrance, the floor tilted sharply.
The platform slid sideways. Crono caught the handle, but the bandage on one hand came loose and the wound split open again. The weight dragged him toward the edge.
Lucca jammed a tool into the wheel on the opposite side. While the wheel held, Crono hauled himself upright and changed the platform's direction. They nearly rolled down the final ramp with it.
The wind outside struck their faces just as the factory entrance collapsed behind them.
The power line to Proto Dome was alive, spitting blue sparks. But Robo was far too heavy for two people to carry, and one wheel on the platform had broken. It would go no farther.
Crono pulled Robo's arm over his own shoulder. Lucca took the other side and supported his waist. Robo's metal feet dragged over the ground, cutting deep tracks behind them.
Their pace soon faltered.
Then Proto Dome's door opened.
Marle ran out carrying a long, knotted cable. Without wasting words, she fastened a loop around Robo's body and activated a motor inside the dome.
The three of them pulled together.
The instant Robo's metal body crossed the threshold, the external power line exploded. The isolation door froze open, but every trace of blue light on the factory side disappeared.
Marle looked down at Robo where they had laid him on the floor.
“Why won't he open his eyes?”
Lucca did not answer. She opened her tool bag, removed the damaged panels, and arranged the severed wires on the floor in order. Her wrist was swollen and black oil stained her fingertips, but her movements were steady.
Crono brought a lamp. Marle gathered the last of their clean cloth and water.
None of them said that Robo could be repaired simply because he was a machine.
When they first woke him, all they had needed to know was whether he functioned. What they were trying to recover now was not a function, but the one who had called them by name.
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