11 The Gear

Jesse threw the last piece of pizza pocket into her mouth and brushed her hands together to clear the crumbs.

Unfortunately, she still had crumbs stuck on her corner of her mouth.

Alekai reached out without thinking and brushed them off her lips.

Her eyes widened.

His hand froze as he realized what he had just done.

"You had some stray crumbs on your lip…" he muttered and looked away.

Jesse compressed her lips together and stood up. "Meet me outside. I have to get our Gear."

As she made her way out, Tom chuckled.

"Smooth, Alekai."

"What are you talking about?" He scowled.

"Not a thing. You are starting to see the truth of your existence, which makes me happy." He crossed his arms over his chest and stared out into the back yard where the blonde girl was standing.

Alekai shook his head. "I still have no idea what the truth of my existence is."

Tom pointed to Jesse. "She's the truth of your existence."

He tapped on Alekai's shoulder. "Come on, let's not keep her waiting."

The two of them walked out into the afternoon sunshine and joined the blonde girl.

She was standing in the middle of a small clearing staring straight up at the sky.

Alekai followed her gaze and looked up.

There was nothing but a bright blue expanse of cloudless sky.

"Where's your Gear, Jesse?" Tom glanced up.

Jesse said nothing. Her eyes were unfocused and she was muttering something to herself.

Suddenly, a black dot appeared overhead.

The black dot got larger.

And larger.

And larger.

WHOMP!!!

It landed on the ground at a distance from them, a big black hulking thing with large robotic looking arms and legs and a large square head.

"Holy cow!" Alekai whispered. "What in hell is that?"

"That," Jesse grinned, "is our gear! Come on!"

She ran up to the thing that just landed and passed a hand over its knee. The entire front opened up and a seat lowered.

"Come on! Get your butt into the Command Seat." She grabbed onto Alekai's hand and dragged him to the bucket chair with arm rests that held blinking panels of various buttons.

With a strength that belied her small stature, she pushed him into the seat.

"Tuck your arms and legs in." She announced.

He'd barely had a chance to squeeze his body into the seat when she reached out and pushed a button.

Two sets of restraints came down over his chest and pushed his back flat against the seat rest.

Alekai gasped. It didn't feel uncomfortable, but it would take a bit getting used to since it was somewhat restrictive.

He had barely gotten used to being cocooned into the seat when it shot up and swung into place, anchoring him into the large square head.

Alekai's jaw dropped.

What he took for a large square head was actually the cockpit of the Gear and he was in the driver's seat looking out of its visor-looking eyes

He looked down and saw Jesse sliding into her own seat, which swung into the chest area below him.

"Can you hear me?" He heard her high-pitched melodic soft voice.

Alekai smiled. "I can hear you"

"Good. You see that panel in front of you?"

"Yeah."

"Put your hands on it."

"Both hands?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Anywhere. The entire dashboard will respond to your touch."

He reached out and placed his hands, palms down onto the dash. A low hum began and suddenly, the panels lit up.

"Welcome, Alekai. I am Gear EXO8473. Please stand by while I synchronize myself to your specifications."

"Hang in there, Alekai," he could hear Jesse's voice coming through behind the Gear's metallic-sounding voice.

"The gear is just making sure your body's measurements are recorded so that the controls and the monitor height adjusts to you."

"Was it adjusted to you before?"

"What? Oh no. This is a new rig. Nobody's ever been in the Command Seat of this Gear before. It was just in the default position, but it's now specifically adjusted for your height and weight, limb length and width."

"I see." He felt the back and bottom mold itself around his body. "The seat is adjusting to my body."

"Yep. Even the size of your head has been measured so that your Command Chair can encase you if there is an emergency."

"This is so cool."

"Hahaha. I'm glad you like it. Want to name this bad boy something different? All those numbers and letters are too hard to use."

"I don't care. You can name it whatever you wish." Alekai responded without thinking.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then, I'll name it Bessie."

Alekai grimaced. "Didn't you just call it a bad boy?"

"Alekai, it's a piece of gear. It doesn't have a gender. We can call it anything we want."

"Yeah but Bessie is a cow's name!" Alekai grimaced.

"Well do you have anything better than that?"

Alekai closed his eyes. He could not think of a cool name that quickly.

"Fine." He sighed again. What did he care.

"Bessie it is!" Jesse chuckled. "Okay, I'm going to take Bessie up."

"What do I do?"

"You don't have to do anything during this time because this is my part of the action. When we get higher, you will have a chance to show me what you can do."

"Okay." Alekai looked out over the clear glass window and saw Tom Duncan waving goodbye to them. Alekai waved back but suddenly realized that Tom Duncan wouldn't be able to see him from out there.

For some reason, Alekai felt a bit sad as he saw Tom turning around and walking back into the house.

It was as if Tom had passed him onto the next phase of his life, but something inside Alekai wanted to remain with Tom and live the simple life he had only ever known.

Alekai had no more time to think about anything because Bessie made a swooshing sound and shot up into the sky.

"Haaaahh!!!" Alekai gasped as the g-force sucked him into the seat.

"Sorry! I should'a done one of those count down lift offs but I forgot."

"You forgot?" Alekai was incredulous.

Oh God.

He was strapped inside the head of a humanoid shaped robot thingy with a ditzy blonde who forgot to count down a lift-off!