Code Lightfall and the Robot King (9 page)

In the distance, the hazy shape of the water strider appeared. It skimmed toward them, sliding forward with great swipes of its paddle legs. As it approached, crewbots threw rope ladders over the side. Code took hold of a rung and patted Lodestar on its crest. “Thank you, Lodestar.”

The creature solemnly flapped its wide tail on the water, then submerged. The shifting lights of its deep armor wavered beneath the rippling waves, then faded back into the hidden depths.

From the deck of the water strider up above, Code heard a familiar grinding voice. “Little buddy!” shouted Gary. “Look at you, you're small again!”

14
Water Strider

The Great Disassembly:
T–Minus Fifteen Hours

The water strider cut smoothly through the Fomorian Sea on its journey to the Beamstalk. From the narrow top deck Code watched the paddle legs scissor back and forth, pulling the craft across the surface of the ocean. He shuddered to think of all the creatures lurking
below
the surface.

Up ahead, he saw the Beamstalk, now closer than ever.
There's no turning back now
, he thought.
Either I make it to the top or all is lost
.

It was incredible that John Lightfall had lived with the robots for years, mused Code, ruling their world and leading them into battle against terrifying creatures. And now his grandfather was helpless, under the control of Immortalis. Only the Robonomicon could free him.

Code could picture the mystical book in his mind's eye, each heavy page describing some new and wondrous robot. He had to find it and read it—figure out exactly how this world worked. Then he could stop the Disassembly.

Gary was laughing deliriously and chasing Peep around the deck with thunderous steps. In fact, Code had barely survived being reunited with the slaughterbot. Gary had been so excited to see Code that his internal batteries had overheated and his armor turned white-hot. A simple handshake almost turned fatal. The crew of the ship had to place Gary in a corner by himself until he cooled down.

And it was all they could do to calm Gary down. Code soon learned that the slaughterbot had spent the last several hours convincing the captain of the ship to circle the spot where Code's exoskeleton had disappeared into the water. In a panic, Gary had even threatened the crew with his finger cannons. As a result, the ship had spent the whole day combing back and forth while Gary leaned over the railing and desperately scanned the surface for Code and Peep.

A small crewbot wearing a bright white sailor suit wheeled onto the deck of the ship, its hat cocked jauntily to the side. It chewed on a piece of rubber loudly as it greeted Code: “Howdy, passenger! Welcome to the HMS
Affectacious
. As you may know, we're hauling all of Mekhos's greatest artistic treasures to Disassembly Point so that we can take them apart, piece by piece.
Kablooey!
”

The crewbot chuckled, then continued. “Given our mission, we are now holding mandatory art appreciation in our main gallery belowdecks. We are gonna have
so
much fun. Come along, everyone, and get ready to appreciate some fine art. Fine? I'll say!”

Balancing on two wheels and waving its snaky arms, the crewbot shoved everyone along. Code and Gary reluctantly shuffled belowdecks with the rest of the passengers from Clockwork City. At the bottom of a grand staircase the view opened up onto a room the size and shape of a football field. Every square inch of wall space was taken up by art: classical paintings, ancient hieroglyphs, and mind-bending holograms, as well as sculptures, mobiles, and carvings, plus a healthy smattering of light displays, kinetic stucco, and levitating boulders.

While peering at a gleaming bronze ax, Code suddenly wondered how long the rift between Earth and Mekhos had been open. A very long time, he imagined.

“Wow,” said Code, craning his neck to discover that the ceiling was also plastered with art. Gary wandered away, in awe at some of the larger sculptures of the Shatter-Gun Brigades. Code was left alone, squinting into the distance, trying to focus on the beautiful objects.

Just then, the crewbot in the sailor's uniform popped out in front of Code. “Howdy!” it shouted. Code let out a strangled yell. The crewbot punched Code lightly in the arm.

“Didn't mean to startle you there, comrade. But I can't help but notice that you haven't got any sensory augmentation. Can that be true? Are you seeing the world through a set of organic eyes?”

Rubbing his arm, Code said, “Yeah, I guess so.”

The crewbot shrieked in pretend fright, which caused Code to flinch again.

“That's just no good at all. May I recommend you get yourself a robo-retinal implant? We've got a whole big box of 'em right here, by the entrance. Haven't used them in
years
. Just grab a couple and hold them up to your squishy little eyes—and they'll do all the work.”

The crewbot grabbed a box and held it up. Code grimaced. The box was full of candy-colored robotic eyeballs, all blinking at different times and looking in different directions. They looked shiny and wet and gross. Code had never really seen anything quite so disgusting, but the crewbot kept shaking the box at him. Gingerly, Code reached into the box and pulled out two glossy green eyeballs. He frowned at them, and they blinked sleepily at each other. The crewbot looked at Code expectantly.

“I don't know about this,” said Code. “I have some questions. Are they safe? Is it going to hurt? Are there any side effects? Will they make me look funny?”

“No! No! No! Yes!” the crewbot answered. “But it doesn't matter anyway, buckaroo. You've got to have robo-vision to appreciate our fine art. And, as I stated previously, art appreciation is man-ding-dang-dand-atory!”

“What's so special about this art?”

The crewbot took a deep breath, clasped its pincered hands together, and in a deep voice began to deliver a clearly memorized speech: “When you see a piece of artwork, the experience wriggles into your brain and changes who you are. It throws a monkey wrench into your noggin. Years later, you'll have a crazy idea for a drawing, a story, or a nuclear-powered toaster, and you won't know where it came from—but it'll be because you saw a piece of art years before. Art shakes up your brain!”

“Okay,” said Code cautiously. “But I'm really used to seeing the world through my own eyes.”

The crewbot laughed uproariously. It wiped a tear from one cheek and straightened its sailor cap. “You are a riot! Everybody who is in the know
knows
that organic eyeballs are next to useless.”

Suddenly serious, the crewbot pulled out a clipboard. It clicked a pen and rolled itself closer to Code. “Let me ask you a few important questions, sir. Can you see in the dark?”

“Uh, no.”

“Can you see when the sun is shining in your eyes?”

“No.”

“How about itty-bitty microscopic objects? Can you see those?”

“Well, no.”

“Can you see X-rays, microwaves, radio waves, and infrared waves?”

“I don't think so.”

The crewbot threw the clipboard away. “Then what good are you? Can't see in the dark or the light. And I'm betting you can't zoom in and out, take pictures, or do anything else useful with your eyes.”

“Wow, yeah,” said Code. “I mean, no, I can't.”

“Then why not go for it?”

“If I do this”—Code held up the little greenish eyeballs—“I'll never be the same again. What if someday I don't even remember what it was like to see the world normally?”

Code thought about Lodestar. Did it remember what it was like to be a
real
whale, made of flesh and bone? Another whale probably wouldn't even recognize Lodestar as one of its own species. But if you change only a part of yourself, aren't you still the same person?
It's just my eyes
, thought Code. They've got nothing to do with who I am as a whole. And if I could take pictures with my eyes, I would have a perfect memory. If I could see tiny things, I'd be a human microscope. And if I could see in the dark, I'd never need a night-light again!

But then a frightening thought crept into Code's mind: Was this what had happened to his grandfather? Did he start on this same path and then end up trapped here with that monster Immortalis? Maybe it starts with just one little upgrade, and the next thing you know there are robots crawling all through your body and you aren't even recognizable as a human being anymore.
And what if
I
can't ever leave?

“Can I let you in on a little fact?” asked the impatient crewbot, leaning in conspiratorially. Without waiting for a response, it said, “Change. Everything is change. From one second to the next every single creature is changing. We learn new things and forget old ones. We get a little older and a little stronger. You are never the same person from moment to moment. Change. You can't hide from it. Embrace it, like everybody else! I mean, what makes you think you're so special?”

“Uh, I'm beginning to wonder,” said Code.

The crewbot broke into a grin. “You're not! You're not special in any way! Nobody is. So stop worrying. Life is about what you
do
, not about what you think about.”

Code considered this. It was true that he had traveled out of his own world and into Mekhos. He had ridden the mowers of the Topiary Wyldes, soared across the Nanoscopic Traverse on the transped, and fought XO in Clockwork City. Just a few minutes ago, he had escaped from ancient sea monsters in the Fomorian Sea. More important, Code had overcome his fear and made the best friends of his life. And now those friends needed him.

Super-vision could help me find the Robonomicon
, thought Code.
It could help me defeat Immortalis and save Mekhos. I've got to do it
, he realized.

“Okay,” Code said, nodding to the crewbot. “Let's do it.”

“That's the spirit!” cried the crewbot. “Get over yourself! When in Rome!”

Code took a deep breath and looked at the pair of blinking eyes he held in his hands. The crewbot explained what to do, and Code pressed the green devices over his eyes. They flashed, activating on contact.
Pow!
Code let go. The orbs stuck to his eyes, big round hazel balls that swiveled around, looking in every direction.

“What happened?” asked Code.

“Congratulations,” said the crewbot. It held up a pocket mirror.

Seeing himself, Code shrieked in alarm. The bulging eyes were stuck to his face, wildly rotating left and right. He clawed at his face in horror, but the eyeballs stayed fixed.

“I can't get them off!”

In a panic, Code snatched the mirror from the crewbot. His gargantuan green robotic eyes protruded from his face and made loud motor noises every time he looked around. They were an ugly, monstrous addition to his face—and they were apparently attached forever.

The crewbot began to speak. “From a hundred yards away every creature looks just the same—”

“Who cares about that?!” wailed Code. “I look like … like a Chihuahua!”

“Or a goldfish,” added the helpful crewbot.

Code sat down heavily on the stairs. He drew up his knees, put his head on his arms, and squeezed shut his eyes. “I'm a freak,” he sobbed. “I shouldn't have done this. I should have stayed home where it's safe and read a book in my bedroom.”

All at once, the two green orbs popped off, hit the ground, and rolled away like marbles. Code's eyes snapped open. He reluctantly looked in the pocket mirror. His eyes looked just as they had before, only now they had an odd gray green shine to them.

“What happened?” asked Code.

“Those shells were just there to protect your precious peepers while the real robo-retinas installed themselves. I didn't have the heart to tell you, little camper.” The crewbot burst into laughter, then stopped. “Be careful. Once you've had one upgrade, you won't want to stop!”

The crewbot did a quick pirouette on its rubber wheels. “Enjoy the art, pal.” And it zoomed away, laughing maniacally.

Code looked around the room again—this time in absolute wonder. His eyes zoomed in on sculptures to examine them in microscopic detail; he focused his eyes in a new way to see paintings in other spectrums of light—from infrared to microwave—and he found that if he blinked twice quickly in just the right way, his eyes would take a picture that he could look at whenever he wanted.

Code returned to the top deck and spent the next several hours exploring the world through a whole new pair of eyes: he watched solar flares erupting from the sun in spouts of magnetism; he examined a family of insects crossing the railing, each the size of a pinprick; and he took many silly pictures of Gary in various bodybuilder poses. But when the crewbot gathered the passengers to the front of the boat for their farewell, the boy was completely unprepared for what he saw.

“Welcome to the Right Eyeland,” said the crewbot, extending one arm and smacking its rubber gum.

The majestic island spread before them, forming an almost perfect circle except for a river that ran across the middle. Most of the surface was a flat, dusty plain teeming with millions of robots gathered for the Disassembly. But dead center, a jet-black building sprouted from the ground and towered over a mile into the sky. The top was almost invisible among low-hanging clouds.

“Welcome to the Monolith Building of the Right Eyeland,” said the crewbot. “This lovely isle was created during the Great Garbage Wars of yore, when Charlie, the greatest hero and criminal of Mekhos, used a terra-blade to resculpt our supercontinent into most of a smiling happy face. This island got its name because it is the right eyeball. Isn't that just the cutest story you ever heard?”

The crewbot assembled the rest of the passengers and addressed them all. “We will now continue up the Mercurial River until we reach the Monolith Building, at which time we will disembark so that we can all get broken down into our component pieces and put on shelves.
Kerbang!
”

The crewbot laughed at its own joke, then straightened up. “But seriously. It has been my pleasure to accompany you all on this final voyage. You've been my best group ever. Enjoy the Disassembly!”

Code zoomed his eyes in on the Monolith Building and saw that a narrow ribbon of light rose from the tip, straight up into the sky—higher and higher—until it ended far above the clouds. His mouth ajar, Code stared up at the twinkling line as it curved away into infinity.