
Living City
In a planet-sized city built and maintained by aggressive autonomous robots, Tian and Salene are humans struggling to help their little community survive. On a mission to find food they encounter a man fighting back against the machines.
Tian glanced at his scanner as the ground shuddered with another constructor step. He had a limited range, maybe twenty feet, but it was a critical warning system. The conbots were blindingly fast and they wouldn’t hesitate to tear he and Salene apart the second they were sensed. Each bot was easily twice the size of a single human, maybe larger, and Tian didn’t want to tangle with one if they could avoid it.
At his shoulder, Salene drew her bow to its full extension and took aim. The slim arrow balanced on her finger blinked green, a single LED that indicated the payload was active. She took a breath, and released.
The arrow shot toward the ceiling. It buried itself deeply, piercing right through a sensor tower’s steel shield. The tower shuddered as its mechanism caught on the arrow, then the entire system drooped and shut down. The red lights indicating active scanning faded out. An orange light blinked, an attempt to reboot. Then that light, too, faded to black.
”We’re clear,” Salene whispered.
The constructor took a step that shuddered through the city.
Tian took the lead. He darted away from their protected gap in the wall, making a dash across open space. He slid under a broad pipe. His cargo pants had been reinforced on the knees and lower legs with panels of scrap. They withstood the friction easily and Tian popped up on the other side of the pipe. He ducked immediately to the right against a square hulk of metal. The city was made up of all kinds of parts and pieces, but everything was metal. For miles around, possibly the city entirely, there was nothing but mysterious ancient structure maintained by the constructors and their conbots.
Salene ducked under the pipe and followed Tian against the metal block. She pulled another EMP arrow from the batch against her thigh as Tian checked his scanner. In the metal ceiling far above them and just beyond the block, was another sensor tower. It showed up on his scanner as an orange icon that he could tap for more detailed information. The subtle arrow of attention that circled around indicated the tower’s field of view, and, critically, the direction of its powerful railgun. Occasional pulses of orange washed over the image, shadowed where the metal structure of the city blocked the scan. Salene nocked her arrow. Tian held up his hand. The tower was turning past them now, they just needed to wait for the next pulse.…
The orange wave washed over their hiding spot. Tian closed his fist. With expert speed, Salene stood, turned, and drew her aim up at the tower. It hung from the ceiling like a lump, it’s huge laser railgun rotating away. She released the arrow and ducked back down before the next pulse could reach them. Salene nocked a new arrow as Tian waited for the first one to activate. The orange dot on his scanner remained solid. He gave it another few heartbeats. It was possible that Salene had missed the tower, but unlikely. Sometimes the EMP in the tip of the arrow was finicky.
As the tower circled around to them again, the orange dot on Tian’s scanner flickered and died. It attempted to reboot, blinking in steady rhythm for several seconds. Then it shut down entirely.
”Go,” Tian whispered.
Salene didn’t hesitate. She vaulted over the metal block at their backs with one hand, the other sliding her arrow back into it’s holster on her thigh. Tian had to scramble after her, being less agile. They rushed across the next gap, wove between crisscrossing wires, and as Salene approached a wall of piping, she slung her bow across her chest. Their gap was closing, and so was the moment of safety. Salene’s back hit the center-most pipe and she crouched. Her woven fingers came to rest on her thigh and she nodded as Tian lined up. He never slowed down. With the kind of ease that comes with practice and training, Tian planted his boot square on Salene’s hands and jumped. She launched him high, her broad shoulders lifting as much as her thighs to throw Tian to the top of the pipes where a catwalk stretched off to the left.
Tian grabbed the edge of the metal grate and hauled himself over the bar. He spun around in time to see Salene take her final running steps. She jumped off the pipe and stretched her hand up high; Tian dangled himself down as far as he could. They grasped each other’s wrists. Salene walked up the distance to the catwalk and both of them moved quickly on. There was no time to catch their breath just yet. If the tower managed to reboot before they left the area, the conbots would be on them in seconds.
The catwalk was overhung with wires loosely bundled into groups. They came from mysterious sources and they went to equally mysterious destinations. Tian had been tempted more than once to cut through them, just to show the city he could, but a constructor would recognize the damage instantly and Tian didn’t want their main road crawling with conbots any more than it already was.
Salene crawled into an open vent shaft set into the wall, kicking loose wires to the side. Tian followed. The space was cramped, but at least here they were safe from most of the city’s defenses.
The vent angled upward. It’s twisting path brought them from level 164, where Tian had been born and raised, to level 165. Flaking white paint denoted their destination. Tian had never been beyond these two levels. He knew there were levels below and above, though how far they went he couldn’t say. Rumors circulated that the city started on level one, others said it went even lower than that. How high it went, no one could say. A year ago, three people from level 170 had found their little hidden village, so there were at least another five levels above this one. But Tian wondered if the constructors weren’t constantly adding more, just building up and up and up forever.
After she wiggled out of the vent, Salene crouched to the side to let Tian take the lead once more. They just needed to avoid one more tower in the ceiling, and with any luck they’d be back home before dinner.
Tian checked his scanner before moving away from the wall. The display stretching across his forearm was pale blue. No conbots in sight. He took a deep breath and crouched low. This level featured a spine of piping and wire down the center and not much else to take cover behind. If a conbot was waiting at the end of the hall, there was little they’d be able to do about it.
Tian dashed away from the wall and hugged the huge piping in the center. The metal was cold to the touch. Whatever flowed through these huge tubes was kept cold enough to make frost flowers on the outside. Another pipe like this one bisected the village. Harvesting the frost was their most reliable source of water.
Tian and Salene crept forward, their boots soft on the corrugated metal floor. Tian checked his scanner every few feet, while Salene unslung her bow and nocked an arrow at the ready. The sensor tower came into view before it showed on Tian’s scanner, and he paused their advance. This tower was the hardest to eliminate. It could see them at a much greater distance than Tian’s scanner could reach, and there was nothing between them but air. No blocks of metal to hide behind, no mystery wires to shield them. Nothing.
Salene stood and drew her bow. The compound pulleys flipped and took the weight off her shoulder. As the tower rotated past them, she aimed with patience.
Something exploded further down the level. It shook everything. The sensor tower twitched in that direction and red lights blinked down the length of the railgun. A deadly red beam shot toward the smoke and sparks, only to reflect off something and sear the ceiling above Tian and Salene instead.
They ducked and inched backward. Those beams could slice through every known metal and energy shield. What could possibly have reflected it? Tian shot a glance at Salene. Now was their chance to take out that tower, while it was distracted with a target. She narrowed her eyes back at him and the message was clear: whatever could defend itself against a tower would wipe the floor with them.
He didn’t disagree. But before Tian could wave her back, another massive explosion rocked the entire level.
–//–
A cloud of black smoke, backlit with the golden glow of fire, billowed across the ceiling. Tian watched the railgun twitch, seeking a target and finding none. The heat of the fire probably confused some of its sensors. Then a massive conbot crashed over the center spine of pipes and wires, and struggled to right itself on the floor. Two mechanical legs were missing on one side, giving the mech a drunken look as it attempted to compensate. Red lasers strobed in the direction of the fire, then twitch-focused on the tiny, dark figure of a man as he dove off the pipes toward the conbot. He rolled against the floor, popped up suddenly to the left, and dodged the conbot’s first laser shot by inches. He activated some mechanism on his arm that glowed blue.
The railgun in the ceiling found the stranger. Red lights began to charge. Tian hissed at Salene, ”Shoot it.”
She stood straight, drew, fired. The arrow flew in a beautiful line, striking the sensor tower directly at the base of its gun. The EMP triggered on impact, shutting down the railgun before it could fire. But the conbot rotated its red laser eye toward Salene.
”Shit,” she said.
She and Tian ran. The conbot’s nine remaining legs pounded the corrugated floor with echoing doom, moving the massive robot far faster than either of them could hope to escape. If it didn’t shoot them dead, they would be crushed under the mech’s metal spike legs, skewered like trophies.
An energy shot made Tian duck instinctively, but it wasn’t from the conbot. Blue electricity enveloped the mech, freezing it in place for a heart-wrenching moment. Then the conbot collapsed to one side, and as the body of the beast fell, Tian saw the strange man perched on the pipes. His right arm was extended, and the mechanism there smoked. The entire level shuddered when the conbot crashed to the floor.
Salene grabbed Tian’s shoulder, pulling him away, but he resisted. He wanted to know who this stranger was that could bring down a conbot with one shot, who could apparently blow up its legs to incapacitate it. How had he launched it across the pipes stacked fifteen feet overhead?
”Who are you?” Tian called. The fire glowed red behind the stranger, outlining a silhouette, Tian was sure he’d never forget. Even at this distance, the man looked tall and his shoulders were broad. Tian needed to know more about him.
The stranger lept lightly off the pipes and approached them. Tian moved to meet him, despite Salene’s grunting protest. As he came closer, Tian realized the man was wearing a skinsuit from head to toe. It glittered subtly with stored power, and outlined every angle and bulge of muscle. Tian licked his lips and tried to focus. ”Do you have a name?”
”You two shouldn’t be here,” he said.
The stranger’s voice was oddly rough. Dark with some injury or distortion. It sank into Tian’s ears and made his whole body tingle.
Salene grabbed Tian’s shoulder. ”Hey, we just saved your life.”
”No, you interrupted my hunt.”
The stranger took another step closer, close enough to loom over Tian even though his skin suit’s mask hid his eyes behind flat black panels. Then his knees gave out.
Tian caught the man roughly and collapsed under the unexpected weight. They both hit the ground hard; Tian on his knees, while he hugged the stranger awkwardly around the chest. Tian peeled one of his hands away, and it was red with blood.
”He needs help.”
”No,” Salene started.
Tian rolled the man onto his stomach and gasped. The entire back of his skinsuit had been torn away, the body beneath burned and bloody. ”We need to help him.”
”No we don’t.” She took a step back. ”We’re out here to get more meal blocks, Tian, not rescue an idiot.”
Tian pulled his small backpack off one shoulder and dug out a precious medical kit. ”Don’t you want to know how he took out the conbot?”
”It was an EMP–”
Tian pealed the seal off the medpack and pressed the gel surface firmly against the stranger’s mid-back. Immediately the pack activated, sealing and sanitizing the injuries as the gel crawled outward on its own. There wasn’t enough to cover the man’s entire back, but Tian only had one. It would have to do.
”Conbots are immune to EMPs,” Tian said.
Salene snorted. ”It was a big EMP. Look, I don’t care. We can’t drag him around and expect to get home safe.”
Dragging… yes, he could drag the guy. A sled would be a lot faster. Tian turned to assess the fallen conbot.
”Tian!”
He whirled on her. ”You go get the meal blocks, Salene. I’m not leaving him like this.”
She gaped at him for a moment, then threw her bow over her head and shoulder, and scoffed. ”Then you’re an even bigger idiot,” she said. ”Have fun.” Salene didn’t even look back at him as she jogged away.
Tian dismissed her concern. Food was important, sure, but if they could fight back against the city? That was even better. Maybe they could carve out a space larger than six or seven cargo crates. Maybe Tian could even have his own room rather than sharing with six other men. This stranger had technology Tian was desperate to learn about.
Satisfied that the med kit was doing its job, Tian took a moment to check the stranger over for additional injuries. He manipulated each limb, searching for broken bones, scratches, and the like. The skinsuit still glittered with stored energy. Tian hoped it wouldn’t discharge by accident. Was the damage in the back critical?
He checked the man’s right arm closely. Tian ran his fingers across a metal bracer there not unlike his own scanner. But he’d seen this device shoot and incapacitate a conbot with one energy pulse. Clearly it was more than a simple scanner. Whatever generated the laser wasn’t immediately obvious, though, and Tian moved on.
Tian found another rip in the suit along the front of the bracer. The damage had taken the skin suit’s glove with it, exposing the stranger’s dark, flush skin. Undamaged, supple skin. Tian folded the torn edge of the skin suit away from the wrist and exposed a tattoo. A number seven digits long.
”Who are you…?” Tian stood. He got to work disassembling a panel from the conbot that he could rig as a temporary sled.
Salene would make it to the meal block printer without a problem. She was quick and always took safe routes. That meant she wouldn’t come back this way, though. With the damage from the fire, and the fallen conbot, the local constructor had probably already sent more mechs to investigate the damage and affect repairs. If they found Tian, he wouldn’t stand a chance. But the unconscious stranger would be even more vulnerable.
He had to move quickly.
–//–
There were two routes back to the village. Back the way Salene and he had come, through the narrow vent, or along the city’s major corridor where the constructors traveled their pre-programed paths. Tian reviewed what he knew of the constructor schedule as he assembled the makeshift sled and dragged the stranger awkwardly on board. He was oddly heavy. Then he set off toward the city spine, the central gap where the constructor’s traveled.
The path along the corridor was exposed to the constructors, but with the local conbots swarming over here thanks to the fresh damage, perhaps Tian could get away with it. Salene would take an alternate route from the meal printer and probably beat him home to boot. But he hadn’t lied to her when he said he needed to save this man. Even if he wasn’t willing to share his technology, he probably had knowledge about the conbots and the city itself that could help the village. Sure, they had water and regular printed meals, but was that really all the city could give them?
How far did the city go? Who had constructed the constructors and where were they now? Where did the metal come from? And if the constructors saw humans as a pest, why did they build and maintain the food printers?
Tian had questions the elders in his village couldn’t answer, and some they threatened to exile him for. Salene had volunteered him as a runner as much to get him away from the elders as to help him find answers out in the city itself. He owed her for that. But even if she was willing to scour the city with him, he couldn’t blame her for running at the first real sign of something different. The conbots abhorred difference. Everything in the city was built to the constructor’s exacting, mysterious standard and the conbots were the agents of that standard.
This mysterious, powerful man was likely a thorn in the constructors’ side. Hopefully they didn’t have a way to track him.
Tian adjusted the wire straps he had rigged as a harness over his shoulders. In the short time he’d allowed himself, Tian had scavenged the most valuable parts of the conbot that he could access. The village tapped into the city’s natural power grid, but they only sipped from a dozen different access points to avoid drawing attention. The braided wire Tian had harvested should allow them to upgrade the older wires and perhaps establish one or two new points. He’d also grabbed the conbot’s battery array, which weighed as much as his mysterious stranger. The battery alone was worth risking the main corridor for. Hopefully Salene would forgive him the rescue mission when she saw that.
The final piece Tian had scavenged was the conbot’s brain. The black box housing everything the conbot knew. Tian had a safe rig tucked away near the village that would allow him to plug the box in and read all that data. Or, it was supposed to be safe. Tian hadn’t ever found a brain box to plug in before. But there was nothing actually connected to the rig but a plasma interface so the worst it could do was curse at him…right?
Tian smiled at himself. He wouldn’t know until he tried. He’d just have to keep Salene from snooping around for a few days. He didn’t want her worrying until he actually had something to worry about.
When Tian dragged the sled to a hallway junction, he spotted the flaking remains of white paint on the metal floor. At some point there had been a series of arrows here, but who or what they were directing, Tian had never discovered. Their destination also remained a mystery since some corridors were more well traveled than others and what had once been a throughline was now only patches of paint here and there. Tian dragged his sled over the mark, wearing it further, and turned left toward the spine.
The hallway terminated at a broad shelf bordered by defunct repair terminals every thirty feet or so. A pair of six-axis arms bracketed each terminal, all of them folded into the resting position and without power. It gave the wall the look of a multi-limbed insect, just waiting for prey to wander too close. Opposite the terminals, the shelf stretched another twenty feet, then ended abruptly at the spine. The shelf dropped away to open air, the ceiling, some fifty feet overhead, stopped at the same place, and beyond was nothing but air for hundreds of feet. In the far distance, the city resumed in much the same manner as Tian’s side. There were levels stretching down and down as far as anyone could see. And up. Each one perfectly built and maintained by the constructor and it’s conbots. Each one identical except for the level number painted off to one side of a support column.
As far as Tian knew, there were no bridges or spans from one side of the city to the other. If anyone had ever crossed, he’d never heard of it.
Tian hauled his sled and its cargo at a steady pace parallel to the spine gap. The shelf extended in this direction farther than Tian had explored, making it one of the most direct routes back to the village. But its proximity to the spine, and that same stretch of empty space that made it so easy to travel, also left Tian exposed. His sled scraped loudly–metal against metal–and he could only hope that he’d guessed right. With the conbots investigating elsewhere, he hoped he was safe.
The entire city shuddered as a constructor took a step. On the shelf, Tian stumbled to his knees and stayed crouched there for several heartbeats. There was nowhere for him to hide, nowhere to run, and the sound of that step had been far too close for comfort. Tian checked his scanner but nothing showed up on the faint blue display. He cursed again the short range of his tools.
Tian grunted and got back to his feet. If the conbots were coming he had to move, if they weren’t, he still needed to move. He pushed himself to a healthy trot, leaning into the wire harness of his sled. He passed terminal after dormant terminal on his left, short bordering walls with folded arms, ready to receive an injured conbot and fix whatever needed fixing. Tian had seen conbots repair each other, too, when the terminals were too far away. Maybe they had learned to fix each other from the terminals and no longer used them.
There was much they didn’t know about the city and bots that lived in it. Some of the elders were convinced the constructors and everything they managed were simply trying to keep the city maintained, but Tian had his doubts. Why wouldn’t the bots be able to learn just like people? And if they could learn, why couldn’t Tian teach one to help them? That was his real goal with the conbot’s brain box. With a bot working for the humans, they could do more than just survive from day to day. Maybe they could explore the other levels. Maybe they could find other people out there!
The massive, three-toed grasper of a constructor passed silently by the shelf where Tian jogged and held fast to the floor below, rattling the entire city as it did so. Tian skidded to a stop and dove behind his sled. He covered his head with his hands and tried to swallow his gasps of fear. That foot alone had been larger than a con-bot. At least fifteen feet across each toe, maybe more. And that was only one leg of a constructor–the thing that produced conbots by the thousands!
On his arm, Tian’s scanner vibrated softly. A proximity warning. Tian scoffed. A little late for that! If the constructor had seen him, he’d already be dead!
A hand landed heavily on Tian’s shoulder. He screamed and jerked away, found himself caught by the sled’s harness of wires, and fell over himself. He slapped his hands over his mouth and breathed hard through his nose, eyes straining so wide his jaw muscles hurt. The injured man on his sled grunted. ”Get moving, that’s just the forward leg.”
His voice was hard and full of gravel, but it got Tian moving. He untangled the wires and with a final glance toward the unmoving leg of the constructor, he leaned into the sled. He had questions. So many questions. But he also knew the constructor was busy scanning floor after floor of the city, deploying conbots en masse wherever it saw fit. And if it spotted Tian, he was done for.
Heedless of the scraping metal, Tian hauled forward at a rapid clip, eyes fixed ahead, searching for the hallway that would take him away from the shelf and toward the village. He wouldn’t be able to fit himself and the sled through some of the final passages, so it was a good thing his rescue had woken up.
Another leg of the constructor passed silently by Tian and he watched in terrified wonder as the three-toed end of it grasped this level of the city. Two toes on top, one on the bottom. It secured the foot with a hydraulic hiss as he ran by. Tian glanced backward. The two legs he could see both extended upward, past the ceiling of this city level. The constructor was above him, then. He knew from lessons back in the village that the constructors had a dozen legs or so–just like the conbots they built. They moved along the spine by holding onto the levels on both sides, which allowed them to move up or down as they wished, scanning as they went. The body portion, he’d heard, was large enough to house the entire village…if it wasn’t filled with conbot assembly. He’d never seen one of the beasts in person and now that he was so close, Tian was torn between fascination and fear. He was curious, and it would probably get him killed.
There, the hallway! He’d almost missed the chalk mark on the wall with his distraction. He took a hard left just as the city shuddered with another constructor step and Tian shook his head at himself. Getting a glimpse wasn’t worth his life. Not when he had both a battery and a brain box to show for his ranging today.
At the next junction Tian brought the sled to a halt and began disassembling his wire harness. ”Can you walk?” If his rescue was mobile things would be a lot easier.
The man rolled off the sled onto his hands and knees, then struggled to his feet. He had to the lean against the wall, but he was upright. ”You salvaged the battery. Well done.”
Tian beamed. Praise for his work was uncommon. But he also tended to come home empty-handed. ”Leave it there, I’ll send someone back for it.”
”Isn’t that risky? Leaving it alone?”
Tian shrugged. ”I can’t lift it far and you’re in no…shape…to.…”
The stranger hauled the battery up in his arms with no apparent effort. His skinsuit glowed blue around his shoulders and back. Tian shut his mouth and got to work coiling the wires. He didn’t forget his brain box. With a nod, he led the way.
The corridors here were at most two people wide, and several times only a single person could pass, but the trick was the final squeeze sideways between two walls of metal that seemed to dead-end. Tian shuffled his way down and knocked twice on the wall at the back. A single knock replied. He knocked three times. And then the entire wall shifted to the left, revealing a decorated, hidden space where Tian’s entire village of a hundred had made their home.
The sentry who had opened the way for them closed it again when they cleared. Tian managed another two steps before Salene tackled him from the side. ”You made it! And with salvage!”
”A battery,” Tian nodded behind him at the stranger and Salene stiffened against him.
”You brought him here.” She hissed in his ear, ”You showed him the way?”
”He was unconscious until a few minutes ago. And we have that battery thanks to him. Maybe show a little courtesy.”
Salene huffed, but when she stepped away to greet the man, she was all smiles. Tian dropped his load of wires to the side where there was room to stretch them out and inspect for damage. Hopefully his rigging the harness hadn’t bent anything too badly.
He joined Salene in time to see the stranger bow stiffly at the waist, his arms still full of battery. ”Pleased to meet you. My name is Nyo. And to whom do I owe my rescue?” he asked, head turning to Tian.
”I’m Tian,” he said. ”It was nothing–”
”Nonsense. You spent a medpack on me, which I’m sure you have in short supply. I will replace it.”
Tian and Salene exchanged a surprised glance. Did Nyo know where to get more? Or did he have a stash of them someplace?
”You saved my life, that is a debt I will repay.” Nyo bowed awkwardly over the battery at Tian this time.
Tian blushed and tried to deflect the attention, but he was secretly pleased with the way it made his gut tighten. ”Well, Nyo, welcome to our little village. We could really use your help.”
–//–
This story is available from April 5th — 13th. If you’d like to be notified of free fiction when it goes live, please join the newsletter! You can buy your own copy on my webstore, or your favorite ebook store. Special thanks to my Patrons who made this short story possible.
This story was available from April 5th — 13th. If you’d like to be notified of free fiction when it goes live, please join the newsletter! You can buy your own copy on my webstore, or your favorite ebook store. Special thanks to my Patrons who made this short story possible.