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Description
“20, slow down a minute!” The transmission came from a small mech currently scrambling over the sizable dune.

“Maybe you shouldn’t get so distracted all the time, Rosa,” the larger mech shot back. When she finally made it to the bottom of the dune, Rosa reached up and patted her companion’s knee.

“I don’t always get distracted,” she sent, “and sometimes you’re the one that gets distracted instead of me!”

“When have I gotten distracted?” 20 sent, carefully moving off toward yet another new riverbed.

“How about that one time with that mech we found? You know, the one you couldn’t stop ogling?” Rosa skipped ahead, picking up random pebbles and storing them in her tiny chassis.

“I told you, I was not ogling,” 20 replied, “Marci wanted to check her ID code or something. I’ve told you how she is.” He carefully stepped around a particularly dangerous looking pit Rosa had gleefully hopped over. “And before you remind me of the solar panels, it’s not like there was anything left of them to look at.”

“You should still respect a lady’s--” Rosa suddenly halted transmissions and froze, head tilted slightly toward the crater ahead of them. 20 waited for an explanation, and then he heard it. At first, 20 thought there was some mistake. When he checked his instruments, though, they were definitely reading some kind of audio input. A set of tones repeated in a strange pattern. It ended on something almost piercingly high, paused, and started again.

“New life form?” 20 sent, motioning for his smaller companion to check. Rosa quickly scampered up to the edge of the crater and looked in while 20 waited. There was something about the wait that agonized him, but he kept his frame still as he watched.

Rosa motioned him forward with one small hand, still staring down into the crater. Cautiously, he moved to the edge and took a look at what he never expected. Inside were a couple of mechs. Both of them were dusty, the white of their paint coated in dark red.

“I thought we were the only ones,” Rosa sent through a short transmission.

“There’s multiple ORs up there, so I guess there would be more functioning here, too,” 20 replied.

“Is that another you?” Rosa asked in awe.

20 took a moment to really look at the other mech. There was a strong resemblance, but he noticed the differences probably easier than Rosa could. Definitely dirtier, and possibly a little slimmer than he was. “No. Whatever he’s doing to make that sound, I can’t. Also, look at his foot. He’s got a hole straight through it! These two have been here longer than we have,” 20 sent.

Suddenly, Rosa stood up and was rocketing down the crater as fast as her little frame could withstand. The cascading rocks halted whatever the strange mech had been doing as it suddenly turned toward the two coming into the crater.

“Hello! I’m Rosa. Who are you? What are you doing here? Who’s the girl?” the small mech sent, broadcasting her transmission wildly.

20 quickly caught up with Rosa and quickly picked her up. The feat was simple, considering their comparative size, and 20 quickly sent and apology. “She’s always excited about new things,” he explained, “Sorry to intrude.”

The two of them waited for a response for what seemed an awkwardly long time. The other mech was slightly smaller than 20, definitely more slim and worn. There were dents and rust spots on his hands, and even more on his feet.

“20, audio,” Rosa sent quietly, and the large mech checked his instruments. Instead of the registered pattern from before, there was now a single tone, sent infrequently and quietly. When 20 looked up again, the other mech took a small step backwards, spreading his arms slightly as if covering the dusty female behind him.

Slowly, 20 sat and put Rosa down, watching the quiet mech’s optics switch between the two of them. “Hello?” 20 sent tentatively, “Do you read?” The tone suddenly changed pitch as the other mech slowly dropped his arms. “Hello?” he tried again.

“Curiosity.” The transmission was quiet and garbled, as if not quite set to the right frequency. 20 and Rosa looked at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion without talking. Slowly, so as not to startle, 20 reached out a hand. It took a moment, but the other mech stopped making those strange noises and slowly shuffled forward to to shake with his own, much more worn hand.

“20,” the newer mech sent. He was rewarded with a tilted head and a kind of chirp, so he tried again. “20.”

“Curio.” The other mech gave a small smile and turned toward Rosa. “Curio,” it sent in that same garbled way, sticking out his hand to the small mech.

“Rosa,” she sent. Her transmission was simple and strong, and Curio gently shook her hand.

“20? 20, do you copy?” a new transmission said.

“Maven, I read. What’s up?” 20 returned, looking toward the sky.

“Sandstorm headed your way. Shelter is advised,” Maven sent.

“Received,” 20 sent. When he turned back to the others in the crater, Curio had already leaned down to gingerly pick up the other female. “Maven, who is Curio?” 20 asked quickly as the other mech started carrying the female out of the crater. 20 motioned Rosa to follow as he tailed Curio and the still deactivated mech in his arms.

“Curio? Oh! He’s your predecessor. I guess you two would be brothers. He doesn’t talk much, though,” Maven answered, “Now, cutting off communique until the storm has passed.”

20 remained silent as the four mechs made it out of the crater and to the nearest outcrop of rock. There, Curio placed the female down in the most sheltered corner before sitting next to her. He slowly hugged his knees, rested his head on them, and deactivated.

“He’s a strange one,” Rosa sent, “though I’m more interested in the girl. Tell me if I miss anything interesting.” She gave 20’s knee another affectionate pat and curled up with the other mechs, shielding her folded panels from the incoming sand as she deactivated for the storm.

20 joined them, though he didn’t deactivate. Instead, he studied his “brother” and the other girl. She looked disturbingly familiar until his memory brought up the picture of solar panels crushed by a combination of rocks and too much sand.

20 would have said it was the same mech he and Rosa had abandoned for scrap, but this one had a slightly different angle to her nose, her mouth more relaxed in her deactivation. Her hands were more scarred, too, and her feet showed much more wear. His optics focused on the soles of her curled up form. He could see wiring there, barely holding on to its protective covering, and the plating had more rust than paint.

Quickly, 20 shifted his observation to his “brother” mech. Curio seemed to be younger than the sheer amount of dust implied. He spotted a damaged transmitter, its crooked end at odds with the companion receiver that stood straight and proud by his ear. The paint was still there, underneath all the red dust, and only the very edges of pieces were starting to chip away. His hands were about as scratched up as they could get in maybe five years of wandering. Curio’s poor feet were the real issue. The large hole was evident, creating a small window to see what the mech was standing on at all times, but there were more, less obvious holes that led 20 to wonder why he didn’t limp noticeably. On the leg that didn’t have the large hole, the knee was showing much more wear than necessary. It wasn’t that Curio didn’t limp, it was that he limped evenly on both legs.

Deciding that there was not much else to do but wait out the storm like the others, 20 resettled and deactivated. When he came back online, Rosa was predictably gone, but so was Curio. The other female was still deactivated in the shade of their rock, a sight 20 found more disconcerting than it had when the others were resting.

Emerging from behind the rock, 20 found Curio raptly paying attention to Rosa as she unfolded her solar panels and prepared to charge for the day. “Idea,” Curio sent before walking back around the rock.

“What’s going on?” 20 asked. Curio didn’t respond, but he emerged, carrying the girl with him.

Rosa waved him over and messaged quietly, “I think he’s trying to wake her up, though why it would have taken this long, I have no idea.”

The two of them watched as Curio gently put down the female and positioned her in the same relaxed pose Rosa was using. When he oh so carefully unfolded the panels from her back, Rosa’s frame gave out a sudden, quiet screech. “I think the dust may have had something to do with it,” 20 sent quietly.

Slowly, 20 reached out and put a hand on Curio’s shoulder. The brother mech startled slightly, but he looked up anyway. “What happened?” 20 asked. At first, Curio just crouched where he was before solar panels too dusty to catch any kind of light. That moment of silence was followed by a wall of pure data that sent both 20 and Rosa reeling as they attempted to make sense of what they’d received.

A body. Dust cloying to any surface it wanted. Images of a red landscape. Dates. A satellite image of a sand storm. A flash. Visibility barely out to the hand. “20! I’m getting reports of a system overload, is everything okay down there?” Times. Another of the storm getting larger. Records. Dust that just hung there. Then larger. Dust everywhere. A corner. Sand. Digging. “Sending command for manual cool-down. 20, do you copy?” It was Maven. She was transmitting.

Suddenly, 20 felt much better. The fans continued to run, but he could feel himself coming down from a possible disaster caused by overheating, and he sent a small affirmative to the orbital relay hoping it would calm her down without the need for words. 20 looked at Rosa, who had somehow managed to finish processing and was now berating Curio for touching someone else’s solar panels.

“No! Stop that. These things are fragile, and after what they’ve been through, they don’t need any more tempting,” Rosa sent, her message huffy as she tried to bat his hands away from the panels.

“Curio,” 20 asked cautiously, “what did you just do?”

The thinner mech turned toward him and let out a high pitched whine. “Report.”

“Well, whatever you did, don’t do it to us,” Rosa said, finally getting him to leave off the solar panels, “I only got part of the message, and that damaged transmitter is making everything go weird.”

“20, what happened? Why did your metrics suddenly freak out?” Maven asked, her transmission quick and slightly alarmed.

20 held up a hand to the other two mechs and looked at the brightening sky. “I asked Curio about this female mech he’s carrying around, and I think he tried to send me a report.”

“Requesting MSL Curio mission report from AV 20,” a dry voice intoned. Confused, 20 transmitted the data he had received to Ody.

“Wow. Must be something special if the old one’s making the transmissions,” Maven sent, then, “Please stay safe down there. You’re not equipped to receive so much data at once.”

“Thanks, Maven. I’ll be careful what I ask Curio from now on,” 20 replied. When he looked back down, Rosa had carefully folded the deactivated mech’s solar panels back while Curio looked on with an expression 20 couldn’t quite read. The optics focused intently on Rosa’s actions, but the mouth frowned while the fingers fidgeted and the toes dug at the sand.

“If you want to clean this, you’re going to need more tender hands than the ones you’ve got. 20, do your Relays have any other contacts that might work?” Rosa sent, turning to the brother mechs.

20 sent up the request and was pleasantly surprised at the quick reply. “This is OR Maven sending map to IN Sight as requested by AV 20. Current ETA is three months.” The mech sent up a short transmission with gratitude and turned back to his companions.

“We’ve got a path and ETA. Don’t forget your missions,” 20 sent, also transmitting a copy of the map to his companions. He nodded to Curio and picked up Rosa. “Charge on the road. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”

Description
“20, slow down a minute!” The transmission came from a small mech currently scrambling over the sizable dune.

“Maybe you shouldn’t get so distracted all the time, Rosa,” the larger mech shot back. When she finally made it to the bottom of the dune, Rosa reached up and patted her companion’s knee.

“I don’t always get distracted,” she sent, “and sometimes you’re the one that gets distracted instead of me!”

“When have I gotten distracted?” 20 sent, carefully moving off toward yet another new riverbed.

“How about that one time with that mech we found? You know, the one you couldn’t stop ogling?” Rosa skipped ahead, picking up random pebbles and storing them in her tiny chassis.

“I told you, I was not ogling,” 20 replied, “Marci wanted to check her ID code or something. I’ve told you how she is.” He carefully stepped around a particularly dangerous looking pit Rosa had gleefully hopped over. “And before you remind me of the solar panels, it’s not like there was anything left of them to look at.”

“You should still respect a lady’s--” Rosa suddenly halted transmissions and froze, head tilted slightly toward the crater ahead of them. 20 waited for an explanation, and then he heard it. At first, 20 thought there was some mistake. When he checked his instruments, though, they were definitely reading some kind of audio input. A set of tones repeated in a strange pattern. It ended on something almost piercingly high, paused, and started again.

“New life form?” 20 sent, motioning for his smaller companion to check. Rosa quickly scampered up to the edge of the crater and looked in while 20 waited. There was something about the wait that agonized him, but he kept his frame still as he watched.

Rosa motioned him forward with one small hand, still staring down into the crater. Cautiously, he moved to the edge and took a look at what he never expected. Inside were a couple of mechs. Both of them were dusty, the white of their paint coated in dark red.

“I thought we were the only ones,” Rosa sent through a short transmission.

“There’s multiple ORs up there, so I guess there would be more functioning here, too,” 20 replied.

“Is that another you?” Rosa asked in awe.

20 took a moment to really look at the other mech. There was a strong resemblance, but he noticed the differences probably easier than Rosa could. Definitely dirtier, and possibly a little slimmer than he was. “No. Whatever he’s doing to make that sound, I can’t. Also, look at his foot. He’s got a hole straight through it! These two have been here longer than we have,” 20 sent.

Suddenly, Rosa stood up and was rocketing down the crater as fast as her little frame could withstand. The cascading rocks halted whatever the strange mech had been doing as it suddenly turned toward the two coming into the crater.

“Hello! I’m Rosa. Who are you? What are you doing here? Who’s the girl?” the small mech sent, broadcasting her transmission wildly.

20 quickly caught up with Rosa and quickly picked her up. The feat was simple, considering their comparative size, and 20 quickly sent and apology. “She’s always excited about new things,” he explained, “Sorry to intrude.”

The two of them waited for a response for what seemed an awkwardly long time. The other mech was slightly smaller than 20, definitely more slim and worn. There were dents and rust spots on his hands, and even more on his feet.

“20, audio,” Rosa sent quietly, and the large mech checked his instruments. Instead of the registered pattern from before, there was now a single tone, sent infrequently and quietly. When 20 looked up again, the other mech took a small step backwards, spreading his arms slightly as if covering the dusty female behind him.

Slowly, 20 sat and put Rosa down, watching the quiet mech’s optics switch between the two of them. “Hello?” 20 sent tentatively, “Do you read?” The tone suddenly changed pitch as the other mech slowly dropped his arms. “Hello?” he tried again.

“Curiosity.” The transmission was quiet and garbled, as if not quite set to the right frequency. 20 and Rosa looked at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion without talking. Slowly, so as not to startle, 20 reached out a hand. It took a moment, but the other mech stopped making those strange noises and slowly shuffled forward to to shake with his own, much more worn hand.

“20,” the newer mech sent. He was rewarded with a tilted head and a kind of chirp, so he tried again. “20.”

“Curio.” The other mech gave a small smile and turned toward Rosa. “Curio,” it sent in that same garbled way, sticking out his hand to the small mech.

“Rosa,” she sent. Her transmission was simple and strong, and Curio gently shook her hand.

“20? 20, do you copy?” a new transmission said.

“Maven, I read. What’s up?” 20 returned, looking toward the sky.

“Sandstorm headed your way. Shelter is advised,” Maven sent.

“Received,” 20 sent. When he turned back to the others in the crater, Curio had already leaned down to gingerly pick up the other female. “Maven, who is Curio?” 20 asked quickly as the other mech started carrying the female out of the crater. 20 motioned Rosa to follow as he tailed Curio and the still deactivated mech in his arms.

“Curio? Oh! He’s your predecessor. I guess you two would be brothers. He doesn’t talk much, though,” Maven answered, “Now, cutting off communique until the storm has passed.”

20 remained silent as the four mechs made it out of the crater and to the nearest outcrop of rock. There, Curio placed the female down in the most sheltered corner before sitting next to her. He slowly hugged his knees, rested his head on them, and deactivated.

“He’s a strange one,” Rosa sent, “though I’m more interested in the girl. Tell me if I miss anything interesting.” She gave 20’s knee another affectionate pat and curled up with the other mechs, shielding her folded panels from the incoming sand as she deactivated for the storm.

20 joined them, though he didn’t deactivate. Instead, he studied his “brother” and the other girl. She looked disturbingly familiar until his memory brought up the picture of solar panels crushed by a combination of rocks and too much sand.

20 would have said it was the same mech he and Rosa had abandoned for scrap, but this one had a slightly different angle to her nose, her mouth more relaxed in her deactivation. Her hands were more scarred, too, and her feet showed much more wear. His optics focused on the soles of her curled up form. He could see wiring there, barely holding on to its protective covering, and the plating had more rust than paint.

Quickly, 20 shifted his observation to his “brother” mech. Curio seemed to be younger than the sheer amount of dust implied. He spotted a damaged transmitter, its crooked end at odds with the companion receiver that stood straight and proud by his ear. The paint was still there, underneath all the red dust, and only the very edges of pieces were starting to chip away. His hands were about as scratched up as they could get in maybe five years of wandering. Curio’s poor feet were the real issue. The large hole was evident, creating a small window to see what the mech was standing on at all times, but there were more, less obvious holes that led 20 to wonder why he didn’t limp noticeably. On the leg that didn’t have the large hole, the knee was showing much more wear than necessary. It wasn’t that Curio didn’t limp, it was that he limped evenly on both legs.

Deciding that there was not much else to do but wait out the storm like the others, 20 resettled and deactivated. When he came back online, Rosa was predictably gone, but so was Curio. The other female was still deactivated in the shade of their rock, a sight 20 found more disconcerting than it had when the others were resting.

Emerging from behind the rock, 20 found Curio raptly paying attention to Rosa as she unfolded her solar panels and prepared to charge for the day. “Idea,” Curio sent before walking back around the rock.

“What’s going on?” 20 asked. Curio didn’t respond, but he emerged, carrying the girl with him.

Rosa waved him over and messaged quietly, “I think he’s trying to wake her up, though why it would have taken this long, I have no idea.”

The two of them watched as Curio gently put down the female and positioned her in the same relaxed pose Rosa was using. When he oh so carefully unfolded the panels from her back, Rosa’s frame gave out a sudden, quiet screech. “I think the dust may have had something to do with it,” 20 sent quietly.

Slowly, 20 reached out and put a hand on Curio’s shoulder. The brother mech startled slightly, but he looked up anyway. “What happened?” 20 asked. At first, Curio just crouched where he was before solar panels too dusty to catch any kind of light. That moment of silence was followed by a wall of pure data that sent both 20 and Rosa reeling as they attempted to make sense of what they’d received.

A body. Dust cloying to any surface it wanted. Images of a red landscape. Dates. A satellite image of a sand storm. A flash. Visibility barely out to the hand. “20! I’m getting reports of a system overload, is everything okay down there?” Times. Another of the storm getting larger. Records. Dust that just hung there. Then larger. Dust everywhere. A corner. Sand. Digging. “Sending command for manual cool-down. 20, do you copy?” It was Maven. She was transmitting.

Suddenly, 20 felt much better. The fans continued to run, but he could feel himself coming down from a possible disaster caused by overheating, and he sent a small affirmative to the orbital relay hoping it would calm her down without the need for words. 20 looked at Rosa, who had somehow managed to finish processing and was now berating Curio for touching someone else’s solar panels.

“No! Stop that. These things are fragile, and after what they’ve been through, they don’t need any more tempting,” Rosa sent, her message huffy as she tried to bat his hands away from the panels.

“Curio,” 20 asked cautiously, “what did you just do?”

The thinner mech turned toward him and let out a high pitched whine. “Report.”

“Well, whatever you did, don’t do it to us,” Rosa said, finally getting him to leave off the solar panels, “I only got part of the message, and that damaged transmitter is making everything go weird.”

“20, what happened? Why did your metrics suddenly freak out?” Maven asked, her transmission quick and slightly alarmed.

20 held up a hand to the other two mechs and looked at the brightening sky. “I asked Curio about this female mech he’s carrying around, and I think he tried to send me a report.”

“Requesting MSL Curio mission report from AV 20,” a dry voice intoned. Confused, 20 transmitted the data he had received to Ody.

“Wow. Must be something special if the old one’s making the transmissions,” Maven sent, then, “Please stay safe down there. You’re not equipped to receive so much data at once.”

“Thanks, Maven. I’ll be careful what I ask Curio from now on,” 20 replied. When he looked back down, Rosa had carefully folded the deactivated mech’s solar panels back while Curio looked on with an expression 20 couldn’t quite read. The optics focused intently on Rosa’s actions, but the mouth frowned while the fingers fidgeted and the toes dug at the sand.

“If you want to clean this, you’re going to need more tender hands than the ones you’ve got. 20, do your Relays have any other contacts that might work?” Rosa sent, turning to the brother mechs.

20 sent up the request and was pleasantly surprised at the quick reply. “This is OR Maven sending map to IN Sight as requested by AV 20. Current ETA is three months.” The mech sent up a short transmission with gratitude and turned back to his companions.

“We’ve got a path and ETA. Don’t forget your missions,” 20 sent, also transmitting a copy of the map to his companions. He nodded to Curio and picked up Rosa. “Charge on the road. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”