When she and Ari reached the workstation, she leaned to him and kept her voice low. “Now, what?” They had to get rid of the artifact before Welozz made another unscheduled appearance.
“Well—“ Ari scratched the side of his scruffy jaw. ”—I think the only thing we can do is put it back where it belongs.”
Morgan put her hands on her hips. “And just how do you propose we do that without getting caught?”
“Yo… Wrench Queen,” an unfamiliar, male mechanical voice piped up from the table. “Good thing I’m here to save the day.”
Morgan jumped. She’d totally forgotten her own surprise for Ari.
“What’s this?” Ari leaned down with his hands on the top of his thighs and glanced at Morgan. “You got it to work?”
“Hey, Captain Obvious! Of course I’m working.” The gold-and-silver spider bot on the table jumped up and down. “And I ain’t no ‘it’, buddy!” The droid poked a slim, golden foreleg in Ari’s direction. “You better mind your manners, or I’ll tell everybody about that sexbot you took just before we left.”
Ari straightened. “Huh?” His golden brows furrowed. “What’s a sexbot? And why would I want one?”
Morgan glowered at Ari and crossed her arms. A sexbot? One of those monstrous sex toys that looked like a metallic Barbie and held her prisoner on FiPan? She knew damn good and well why he’d steal one of those. Especially if he got it to work.
“Jeez, Arakiba,” the spider-bot complained. “If I have to explain that to you, why did you insist on taking one?”
“Arakiba?” Ari’s hands fisted at his sides. “Is that my name?” He looked away with a blank expression.
Morgan turned to the small droid. “Is that his name?” She pulled up her multicorder and typed it in. It didn’t take long for the device to spew out various scenarios until the last paragraph. There it stated that Arakiba was one of the originalAdamoucreated after the Titans. It stated that he and his four “brothers” perished in the great flood thousands of years ago.
She looked up at Ari who was still lost in his thoughts. That couldn’t be him. Could it?
The bot dropped onto his bulbous butt, like a dog with his back four legs spread out. “Hey, what’s going on here?” His spider head swiveled between her and Ari. “If you didn’t know that’s his name, what’ve you been calling him? Blondie?”
She ignored the droid and put a gentle hand on Ari’s forearm. “Does that name sound familiar to you?”
He blinked before focusing on her. “No.” He shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. “It doesn’t.”
Morgan turned her attention back to the small bot. “Are your memories intact? Do you have total recollection?” Hopefully, this droid had the key to not only help Ari, but it might have the info they needed to speed up the repairs onElemi. “Do you know what your designation is?”
“Designation? Get a load of you, Missy!” The bot stood on all eight legs. “Mynameis JR12. But you can just call me Starchaser.“ His metallic undertones had a slight whirring sound.
“Look, Zippy.” Ari addressed the droid. “Answer her question. Are your memories intact or not?”
“What?” JR12 cocked his head. “Yours aren’t?”
“JR12…”
Morgan hid her smile behind her fingers at the exasperated tone in Ari’s voice.
“Down boy! Dang, if it was any more obvious, it’d be written in neon.” JR12 groused. “Of course I do.” His multifaceted eyes glinted in the low light of the room. “But then I wouldn’t know if I didn’t, now would I, Einstein?”
Cheeky little bot. Morgan snickered.
“Believe me, you’d know.” Ari’s jawline hardened. “Okay, let’s try this another way.” He turned and faced her. “Morgan…”
“Morgan?” JR12 jumped up and down. “Are you Morgan Elara Jackson from Atlanta, Georgia?”
Startled, she took a moment before she answered. She’d forgotten she’d told the Zerin when she’d joined their exchange program she was from that place in America. Being undercover, she hadn’t divulged her true origins from Aethralis. But how did this droid know her fake profile?
“No,” Ari answered before she could. “She’s from…”
“Yes, that’s right.” She interrupted before he finished. “I’m Morgan Jackson from Atlanta.” She pursed her lips. “How’d you know that?”
“Holy cosmic craziness! I don’t believe it.” JR12‘s excited tone matched the quivering of his small gold-and-silver metallic body. “Look at us, completing our mission without even trying. Didn’t we show them stupid naysayers we had what it took? Finding her that fast in this big, wide galaxy!” He snapped his front chelicera together. “Boy, Sue Fitzmaurice sure was right when she said,‘You must go on an adventure to find out where you truly belong’. And boy, oh boy, was she ever right! Ain’t we’s da bomb, A-Man?”
