51 (Second Part)
As dawn breaks, Ash is back to his old ways. Se brings up his PDA (For Too Many Actions, according to the spanish acronym) device, a block with a touch screen in the center and the sides filled with cables and ports for memory sticks and other devices. She looks around the cabin for something to plug the PDA into. Doesn't find it. Ash have to start lifting things, and she'd really prefer to save himself that process. The cabin walls are lined with screens, the ones closest to the center are cracked, but functional. None have ports or buttons.
"Maybe in..."
Check the chair. On the back of the right armrest is a simple control system, with which the angle can be adjusted to the pilot's liking. Now the seat is tilted, but when they arrived it was straight. It also serves to operate the lights, activate the internal communications line, send a request for help to those supervising the mission, or turn on the machine. These are simple and very general instructions, because the main way for a pilot to manipulate his armor is through the nexus.
"There is no helmet"
Or at least she can't find one. It's the first time Ash checks a Muskite product, there are a multitude of things she doesn't know. Ash proceeds to observe with one hand under his chin, the five pressure sensors at the tip of the backrest, each set at average finger height. She deduces that it is used to turn on the North Star.
"Fingerprints? Or perhaps microscopic needles to identify Muskite DNA? It's off, like everything else. But I'd rather not try too hard and screw it up"
Check the back of the seat.
"Eureka!"
With the screwdriver she opens the panel. Ash smiles victoriously.
"Ash: 1, North Star: 0!"
She looks to the side to make sure no one saw such an embarrassing side of her.
Ash connects the PDA via a cable. The touch screen lights up, and a flashing red warning indicates the presence of a lock for unauthorized devices.
"Careful..."
If she got one good thing out of his trip to Australia, it was obtaining various illegal programs for his work. The developers demonstrated 91% efficiency, which makes sense when the slavers who commission such programs make the programmer's life or death depend on the result.
Ash first activates a decryptor specialized in Muskite machinery, although to reduce the waiting time, she also activates another one based on allied machines and another one on generic machines. The activation of three such heavy programs could generate a catastrophic error that would set off the alarms of the North Star, but Ash trusts her device, it is her baby, she started to modify and update it since she was ten years old.
Ash sits cross-legged and waits.
An hour passes without any news. Two, and she starts to get impatient. Three, and she goes downstairs with Erika to talk. The German asks about progress, and Ash explains that North Star's security is too tight.
"I'm confident in the power of my programs. But it will take time"
"We've been on the road for four days now..." Erika pulls a strip of dried meat between his teeth, tears it off, chews, and swallows, looking back the way they came. "Damn it. Chester, Nadjela, hang in there, the cavalry will be here soon"
Ash also comments his concern about the possibility of the alarms going off, or some protocol being activated in the armor that will blow them all the way to the Principality. But it is an unavoidable risk.
Evening comes, and then night. At the fifth sunrise, Ash comes in from rinsing his mouth when he discovers that the PDA reads: ACCESS AVAILABLE.
Ash gives a little jump of joy, and retrieves the device to peer into the ethereal bowels of the North Star. His suspicions are confirmed, she has programmed a return protocol to the Principality, a crash protocol, and also a suspension protocol. Both the emergency and suspension protocols have been activated for several days.
"They will have their reasons for not coming to pick him up" she says, but she is not surprised, in Australia the transmissions and signals are erratic. Some even joke that something is eating them.
Regardless of the unknowns, Ash deactivates the aforementioned protocols, and proceeds to turn on the North Star.
A hoarse rumbling is heard. Erika wakes with a start, turns and falls from the seat to the floor of the jeep. From below she discovers the crystal forming the armor's gaze, lighting up. The red of the eyes and the lines contrast with the blue of the rest of the armor and the black of the inner skeleton.
The lights in the cockpit turn on. The same with the screens, which now show the sky and the wasteland. Ash's triumphant smile narrows as she notices the amount of dried blood staining the floor and chair. Erika appears through the door, stares at the stains again, but almost immediately regains her spirits and wraps Ash in a hug.
"You did it, baby!" She completes the compliment with a spank. "I didn't fully trust you, but you shut me up. You're metal"
Ash nods with a forced smile and rubs his bottom.
"Shall we get out of here?" Erika asks, hoping the answer is yes.
"It won't be long now. I removed the suspension and forced the ignition, but there's a second layer"
"I'll get the supplies. I'll be back in no time, there wasn't much left" she says and heads down the rope.
Ash recognizes the measure of the second layer: Rigor Mortis. It is used so that when a pilot's vital signs completely cease, the armor is locked down and not taken over by enemy soldiers. Some go further and use a self-destruct system, but when the armor is too valuable or one-of-a-kind, they vote for less drastic measures. Ash mutters something to himself, and stares at the data on the screen with a look of doubt. Chester, the original pilot, being quite alive, does not understand how such a process was activated.
One side of her tells him that this is illogical. A state-of-the-art machine like that, built in zero gravity, is far from suffering such malfunctions. She shakes her head.
"But it's not my problem. Wipe away your tears and move on, Ash. You can do it, Ash. You're the best"
The goal is to activate the North Star, so Chester and Erika will let you live.
Ash frowns, clenches his fists. She recognizes that all she's been doing since the beginning of her emancipation, is being manhandled by barbarians with big guns and bad thumbs. What she builds with her hands, someone else comes along and destroys it with his feet. If you think about it, Chester and Erika are not very different from Achú.
When will she escape from that vicious circle? When will she put her talent and potential to good use, unaffected by what others do?
By now she should have a business of her own with a portfolio of clients, a steady income, and maybe even a husband or a house. Ash looks at the screens, the barren landscape is far from what she imagined in the past, as a child.
"Where is my bright future...? Fucking unfair world. Fucking unfairness of life"
So go and make it fair.
Her father's words echo in her head.
...
Erika takes a last look in the back of the jeep to make sure she hasn't left anything behind. She looks at the flamethrower tenderly, already getting attached. As she was about to turn around, hears a roar and the ground shakes.
An atomic flame ignites behind the North Star. The shock wave kicks up dust, nearly overturns the jeep, and sends the supplies and Erika into the dust. The German lifts her dirt-tanned face and discover the armor plating on top of her. She loses color, then regains it as her face turns red.
"Daughter of a...!" She stands up and releases what comes from the bottom of her soul. "Bullshit, swollen, shit-swollen bitch! You traitorous rat bathed in vomit and pus! Corrosive waste of an enema! Ooze from a testicular boil! Up your cunt I must have shoved the flamethrower, up your cunt! And pulled the trigger until I ran out of gas!"
No matter how much she screams or pulls her hair, Ash drives away in the North Star.
Erika falls to her knees, hands on her head, wondering how she's going to explain to Chester and Nadjela how big a mistake made. The image of a slave army surrounding La Cuna jumps into her mind. Erika, still cursing, gathers the supplies, runs to the jeep, and starts it to go back the way she came.
With no visor, and with the dust covering any trace of the wheels, she will need a miracle to get to port, but waiting for one, she opts for action.
If Ash drove with the caution of a grandmother, Erika directly mashes the accelerator. Not surprisingly, halfway to La Cuna, a corner of the bumper ended up hitting a half-buried boulder, and Erika went spinning through the air, spinning.
With a roar, the jeep crashes.