Breaking and Entering - 15

My head was starting to swim and my arms felt like lead. I just wanted to find somewhere I could crawl into and fall asleep, but I knew I wasn't gonna get the chance. Not yet, anyway.

I stepped down from the cockpit to the floor, my arms shaking at the exertion. I ignored them, turning to watch Talwyn follow me while Clank rounded the ship from the driver's side. I hurt, I was exhausted, and I was sure I needed to get a serious amount of water in me, but there was business to take care of first.

"We need to call... I dunno. Someone," I said, running a hand over the top of my head. I could feel fur sticking out at odd angles.

"Because of that... thing?" Talwyn asked, frowning lightly at me. "What exactly was that, anyway? I mean it, looked like a giant walking building but where the heck did it come from? And what were you doing on top of it? And where did you go?! You just disappeared!"

I shook my head at her although what this was suppose to mean I didn't even know.

"I still do not believe it was by choice, Talwyn," Clank defended me. "But I do think we should hear what happened before we do anything else."

I shook my head again with more purpose. "That thing's still walking around. We need to do something."

"It is on a wild planet with no large cities or dense populations and no way of getting off-world. I think it will be alright for half an hour," He replied, giving me a sideways look.

Tension was growing in my gut, telling me we had to get going, get it figured out and fix it some how. This was happening now and I felt the urge to try and deal with it now. But I didn't have the energy to even picture myself getting back in that ship and turning around. My head was starting to pound.

"How'd you find me anyway?" I rubbed at my eyes as I spoke.

"We'll give you the full story, but first it looks like you need an aspirin... or 12." Talwyn crossed her arms at me, but she didn't seem angry.

I sighed and nodded, not bothering to argue. "Fine. We can... exchange notes or whatever in the living room or something."

We crossed the hangar towards the elevator as I tried to figure out a way to blow the news gently to Tal about what her dad had done. The thought was draining, but I needed to tell her.

"You need nanotech," a voice said beside me.

"How many times I gotta tell you I'm fine?" I snapped, shooting Clank a dirty look. "I look worse than I am. Honest."

"You are limping," He replied with a flat voice, turning his eyes from my leg to my face. I couldn't read his expression.

I dropped my shoulders at this, turning to the front again. "Oh yeah. That."

He didn't look away, probably waiting to hear my explanation but I kept silent, keeping my eyes forward. I couldn't put on the best stubborn act at that moment, though. I was dusty, my fur mussed in places, and I could feel my ears hanging lower than normal. That last thing always annoyed me. I dunno why I did that when I got hurt, but Clank had long ago noticed the involuntary sign and made sure to take note of it when I'd been smacked around a few times too many.

"I've got a stash you can use," Talwyn said, turning to give me something like a smile, although it wasn't all the way there.

I managed to give her a proper one in response, and doing so helped me feel like I managed to let go of some tension. "Thanks, Tal."

The elevator ride was quiet, but I could tell that although they still seemed on edge, both Talwyn and Clank were convinced that I wasn't gonna keel over dead on the spot or whatever it is girls and know-it-all robots worried about. I was determined not to give them a reason to fuss, so I refused to wince when we climbed the stairs to the living quarters.

Talwyn had the best couch in the entire universe at that moment. I flopped down on it and gave a long exhale, sinking in place. I felt Talwyn give my back a single pat before she tapped the nav-unit on her wrist.

"Back safe and sound guys," She said into it.

I was watching her when I heard the metallic footsteps walk away, heading for the kitchen. I turned to watch Clank go. Somewhere, the selfish part of me felt hurt that he was just gonna leave the room without saying a thing to me. I was too tired to follow him. I gave a surreptitious sigh to myself as I turned back to Talwyn talking to her robot guardians.

"Yeah, we're ok more or less," She said in response to whatever Kronk had asked. I hadn't been paying attention. "A little worse for wear but I think we're ok."

'We' I noticed.

"Could you run and get me a nanotech pack from the infirmary?" She asked casually. "Ratchet twisted something I think."

"Can do, Miss!" Kronk replied. "We'll get him good as new for ye in no time!"

"Whatever that's suppose to mean," I grumbled to myself.

Talwyn ignored me, but I saw her smile. "Thanks, Kronk. And bring some aspirin too."

She sat next to me on the couch when she was done. I purposefully gave her something between an annoyed and confused look when she looked me over once again.

"Take a picture, why don't you?" I huffed but it sounded more sulky than anything.

She rolled her eyes but relaxed. "Sorry. I'm just... I'm glad you're ok."

I leaned my head against the backrest. "Define 'ok'."

"Well;" She said, as if she was gonna give a lesson. "You're not bleeding, missing any limbs, or coughing up a lung."

"You don't really have a very high bar for being 'ok' do you?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

She gave a soft laugh. "You're also obviously feeling well enough to complain. That's always a good sign. Now, if you were sitting there without any kind of retort, then I'd be worried."

I couldn't help grinning at her, although it was a little half-hearted. I turned to rest my cheek against the backrest instead, looking in the direction of the kitchen.

"I guess Clank's not too impressed with me right now, huh?"

"He was worried," She said sympathetically. "I mean, we all were but... you disappeared and didn't take him with you, or even tell him you were leaving. He was convinced you were in trouble of some kind."

I sat up again. My shoulders were starting to ache from the odd angle. "Sorry if I scared you guys."

She stared at me with her sharp blue eyes. "What happened, Ratchet?"

I started to reply when I heard Clank come back. I turned towards him, eager to try to explain myself. I stopped when I saw he was carrying a glass. He stood himself in front of me and held it out, a stern expression on his face. I chuckled and gave my head a shake but took it and drank. The water felt like it was freezing my throat solid as it went down, but within two seconds I'd downed the whole thing. As I drained the last of it, I felt the shift as Clank climbed up to sit on the other side of me.

I put the glass down on the coffee table. I was still thirsty but I figured I'd grab something else later.

"So, how'd you guys find me?" I asked again, leaning my elbows on my knees as I turned to him.

"Well, first I woke up and noticed you were gone," Clank started. "I did not think much of it, but I noticed you had left your wrench as well as your nav-unit. That did not seem normal. So I went looking for you around the station."

"We couldn't find you," Talwyn added. "And what was weird was that Aphelion was still in the hangar. So at first we thought maybe you'd gone out to the asteroids for some weird reason."

"Really," I said, giving her a look.

She shrugged. "Hey, I dunno what it is you get up to in your free time! You always seem to find the weirdest ways to get yourself into something dangerous."

"Anyway..." Clank went on. "After we were sure you were not on the station or any of the asteroids surrounding it, we started wondering if perhaps you had left using a different ship. So we checked the station's docking records for last night, and we found the identification number for Mr. Apogee's ship. It had logged itself in and, about 10 minutes later, logged itself out again."

"So we figured dad had come to pick you up for some reason and you'd left with him," Talwyn picked up the story again. "So we erm... talked about where the two of you would go." The last sentence was said with a sideways frown towards Clank. He gave her a look in return but spoke to me instead.

"I was convinced that you had run into trouble. It is not like you to go somewhere unarmed, even if you were not going to tell me where you were going. I felt it was best to try to find you to make sure everything was alright."

"I didn't think it was a big deal," Talwyn interrupted. "I mean, you were probably with my dad... but It was a bit strange. So we decided to go looking anyway."

"The Zoni temple was somewhere that seemed like a good start," Clank said, ignoring Talwyn's annoyance. "It was a large ruin that the man on television had said had lombax influence in its design. We thought perhaps Max had taken you there for some reason."

"Only when we got there, the place had... gone," Talwyn said, turning back to me. "There was a giant hole in the ground where it'd been and only a few destroyed sections of it left! That's when we saw that... thing walking over the horizon."

"We decided that that was exactly the signature kind of trouble you and I are known for causing," Clank gave me a smile.

"So we followed it and caught sight of you next to that big satellite dish," Talwyn finished. "And the rest you know."

I nodded. "Lucky break, huh? Glad you didn't decide to check Igliak first or something."

"No kidding." Talwyn gave a half-laugh. "But now it's your turn. What happened? I'm guessing it was my dad that woke you up, right? Or... someone using his ship? Why didn't you take your wrench? Or tell anyone?"

I took a deep breath, running a hand over my face. I wondered what was taking Kronk so long with the aspirin.

"It's... not a good story."

"You still need to tell us," Talwyn urged.

I shook my head. "No I mean... it's not a good situation. At all." I sat back again, crossing my arms over my chest as I tried to pick my words before saying them.

"So... I guess I should start with last night," I said reluctantly. As if to try to give me an excuse to stop, my head began to pound a little harder. Both Clank and Talwyn were staring at me as if I was gonna disappear again if they looked away.

"Ok." I nodded, mostly to myself. "Well... Max woke me up and said he needed my help with something in his ship. It sounded urgent so I followed him quickly. That's why I didn't take my wrench or tell any of you."

"But why did you not come back when you decided to leave?" Clank asked. Clank was not good at hiding unhappiness and he stared at me with clear disappointment.

"I never meant to leave," I said, turning to stare at the screen of the TV in front of us instead. They were quiet as I gathered myself to take the plunge.

"I followed Max to his ship to help him with... I can't remember. Something. But when I got there I was knocked out."

Talwyn's eyes went wide. I felt the tension in the room change.

"By who?!" She asked before I could say any more. "What happened to my dad?!"

"That's the thing." I avoided her gaze, scratching absentmindedly at one of my cheeks. "I woke up in the trunk of the ship a little later. And when we landed, it turned out he's the one who hit me."

She said nothing. I didn't look at her, afraid I might lose track of what I needed to tell them if I did. I stared at the blank tv instead as I slowly retold them everything that'd happened. It was hard. Not only because I could feel every change in emotion from Talwyn, but also because I had to bite my tongue on how I felt towards Max when this'd happened. I didn't tell her how I felt betrayed right down to my very core and how angry and hurt I was by all of this. I didn't tell her how much I'd hated him at that moment in time. I didn't tell her how I felt like once again, someone I trusted had turned on not only me, but everyone else I knew as well. I didn't tell her how the image of her face was the reason I didn't let her dad shoot me.

Eventually I got to the end. I told them how I'd been thinking of climbing down before I heard Aphelion's engines and saw them. I stopped at this point, but I still avoided looking at her. I stared at the black screen instead. I realised I could see her reflecting in it. She wasn't looking at me either. She was staring ahead of herself. Her expression looked dull. I wondered if she was staring at my reflection too.

After a few moments, she got up. It was then I finally turned to look her in the face again, but she didn't look back. She stood in place, as if trying to decide what to say or do. Then she turned and walked out of the room. It wasn't a furious march, or a tearful run. It was just an empty, hollow walk. I heard her footsteps go down a hallway towards her room. I heard the door open and then close again. a Vague memory came back to me of her doing something similar once before. I remembered last time it had also been because of something I'd said. I remembered hearing her cry through the door before I turned and walked away.

I propped my arms on my thighs and buried my face in my hands, shaking my head to myself slowly. There was silence again and I remained where I was, unsure of how to feel or what to do.

"He knocked you out," Clank said eventually.

I gave a slow nod but didn't raise my head. It was hurting again, as if reminded by his words to do so.

"Did he do anything else?" Clank asked carefully. "Now that Talwyn is out of the room?"

I thought for a moment. I pulled myself up again, folding my hands over my chin instead.

"He hit me again when we got to that thing's control room or whatever the heck it was suppose to be. Otherwise, just some pushing and shoving."

"Hmm," Clank said. Experience told me it was anger building up in him, despite how quiet he seemed on the outside.

I gave a half-shrug. "Nothing really."

Clank nodded at this, as if pulling himself away from his own thoughts.

"I am glad you are alright," He said sincerely.

I managed a smile and a nod. "a Little beat up, but yeah. I'm ok." I gave him a look out the corner of my eye. "D'you believe me this time?"

He nodded again. "I do. But I think you need some rest before we try to deal with this any further."

I shifted to get up, bed in the forefront of my mind. "I'm not gonna complain. I feel like crap."

"You look it," He agreed, climbing off the couch. "I will try and find information on what has happened to that temple. That way you do not have to worry about anything getting out of hand while you get some sleep."

"Sure thing." I nodded as I stood up. I turned to stare the way Talwyn had gone. "D'you think I should... talk to her?"

"I do not know," Clank said, following my gaze.

I stared at the hallway for a few minutes before I turned and walked the opposite way towards my room. I wanted to help her, but I wasn't sure I was the one she wanted to see right now. Clank followed me. I caught him staring at my sprained ankle. The limp was obviously bothering him.

"Could you go see what's taking Kronk?" I asked as I sat down on my bed, picking up my wrench from the top of the set of drawers and putting it beside me where it was easier to reach.

"No problem," He said, giving me a glance over his shoulder as he left.

I didn't wait for him to come back. I fell asleep within moments.

-

I woke up slowly. I was still tired and at first couldn't figure out why I wasn't still asleep. Something must've woken me up. I shifted, rolling over to look at the rest of the room. It didn't take much searching. Green eyes stared up at me patiently.

"Hey," I yawned, pushing myself up to a sit groggily.

I noticed that I felt much better. I was still tired but I didn't ache any more. In fact I didn't ache at all. My head felt clear, my arms felt rested, and I my ankle seemed fine. No way sleep did all that.

"I'm guessing you found Kronk... or I've been asleep for a month," I said, rotating a wrist experimentally.

"You took a full dosage of nanotech, but other than that you seem to be fine. I did not see a reason to wake you up," He said. "And no. You have only been asleep for an hour. I came to wake you because I contacted the Polaris Institute for Archaeological Research. I believed they would have some knowledge as to what is happening on Otani."

"Any luck?" I stood up, looking around for some clean clothes.

"I told them everything we know and what we have seen, as well as Mr. Apogee's involvement. I... do hope that was right?"

I sighed but gave a nod. "No point trying to hide it from them. Probably better that you told 'em than Talwyn. I'm in no mood to deal with admin type things myself right now."

He nodded, relieved. "Well, after I had told them everything, they said they would search through their records to try and piece together what is going on. They said they would like to talk to you in an hour's time. That was an hour ago." He tilted his head slightly. "Sorry."

I groaned but nodded as I left the room, the shower calling me from down the hall. "I can't really ignore them, I guess. Besides, I wanna get this thing stopped. I dunno what it is or what it does but I just know it's gotta be bad news."

"It is always bad news," Clank remarked as he followed me part of the way.

"Sucks doesn't it? If they call while I'm busy, tell 'em to hold," I said as I closed the door behind me.

Finally clean, I at last felt like I was back to normal. Getting my helmet and harness on gave me a better sense of security and helped me feel like I was gearing up to handle this thing, although I wasn't sure how a nav-unit was gonna do much. I couldn't help but pull a face to myself as I realised I felt more prepared to deal with an enormous walking building than I was facing Max. He was still inside that thing. Unless he jumped, which I didn't believe was something he'd do. I knew I was probably gonna have to confront him once we went back, but I couldn't think of anything I'd be able to say. To be honest, I'd have been happy if the giant walking monster was the only thing we had to worry about. I think my priorities needed some serious readjusting.

Once dressed, I went to the living room. I slowed when I saw Talwyn sitting on the armrest of the couch. I suddenly felt awkward, like I'd lost control of my arms and my tongue tied itself into a knot.

"Hey," I said as I walked over to her. Even the 'hey' sounded stupid to me.

"Hi," She said. She turned to look at me. That was a good start.

"Erm..." I gave a meaningless shrug. "You er... ok?"

She shook her head, turning back to the tv. "Not really."

I didn't reply. I flitted my gaze to the screen for a moment, watching Clank talk to some or other official looking person. I sighed and turned back to her, unable to let it go.

"I'm real sorry, Tal."

She shook her head again turning back to me, trying to give a smile despite herself. "It's ok, Ratchet."

"But it's not really." I sunk in place.

"No. It's not." She lifted her gaze again. "But it's not your fault."

I rubbed one of my arms, feeling stupid. I knew she was right, and I didn't believe it was my fault anyway. And yet I still felt guilty somehow. Feeling guilty about something I didn't feel responsible for. Yep. Priorities seriously need some realigning. Or maybe sanity? I didn't even know.

She sat up a little straighter, as if pushing the thought out of her mind before she nodded towards the tv. "They said they wanna talk to you about this."

I gave a puff of a sigh and nodded. "Yeah I heard. Wish me luck, enh?"

She smiled but didn't say anything. She seemed better than I expected, and yet I could feel that stab of sadness in every look she gave me and movement she made. I felt terrible for her. I almost felt like I wanted to start hating Max for causing this. My own sense of betrayal I could cope with. Watching other people get hurt was not something I was good at letting slide.

I shook it off, literally, as I came to stand next to Clank who took a step to the side so we could both be seen.

"Ah! There you are!" the official looking person said when he saw me. He was a robot and by the looks of it, one built for office work.

"D'you find anything on whatever the heck that thing strolling through the forest is?" I didn't feel like wasting time.

"I wouldn't know." he said, pulling a pile of papers from somewhere off screen and flipping through them. "I'm just here to keep you on the line until I can transfer you to the president and the head of Research."

I put a hand over my face, pinching the bridge of my muzzle. "Please tell me you mean the president of the institute or whatever it's called."

"No. no I mean the actual president," He said, putting the papers down again. "I believe both of them are back from lunch in his office. Patching you through."

"Wait," I tried to stall. "Isn't there someone else we could-"

"Hello there, faithful sidekicks!"

My head decided to forget it'd been fixed and started to pound again for all it was worth.

"I hear you've been out there exposing the evils of cultural heritage sites!" The beaming figure of Qwark gave us a thumbs up. "Good job! I always knew there was something sinister about those places."

"Getting the place to stand up and walk away wasn't exactly something I had planned, Qwark," I sighed.

"Have the researchers managed to learn anything about what it is?" Clank interrupted.

"Well, I let the king egghead here explain it to me, but frankly it sounded too textbooky." He leaned forward as if the person standing beside him wouldn't be able to hear if he did. "He's kind of a nerd. I'm more a man of action, so I thought you might be able to deal with the nitty gritty of the situation."

"So why are you here?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Why?! Have you forgotten the people of this great galaxy have re-elected me as your president and residential hero?" This statement was accompanied by some chest inflation and hands going to his hips for added effect. "It's my JOB to make sure everything is going well with my tender flock. After all, I'm the one everybody looks to for guidance and strength! Not that I expect the duties of being a public figure would be understood by those who will never have to suffer that pressure." This last bit was said with an excess of melodrama.

I ignored the fact that he didn't actually answer my question and instead focused on the other person in the room. A much smaller man that seemed to be a Tharpod. I'd been seeing more of them around since we'd sorted out the mess on Magnus. I'd say he didn't look very old but Tharpods have ridiculously long lifespans so I honestly had no idea how old he really was.

"Great, Qwark. Who's your friend?" I tried to change the subject.

"This is Dr. Faversham. He runs the group of scientists at the Institute for really smart guys. He said this thing you woke up is pretty ugly. Go on, tell these guys about it." He gave the guy a backslap that was mostly a push forward.

The academic gave him a very ugly look that went completely unnoticed before he turned his focus on me and Clank, clearing his throat.

"Yes. Well. I am the head of the Institute for Archaeological Research in Polaris." He reintroduced himself just in case we didn't figure it out the first time. "After your associate contacted us and informed us of what's been happening on Otani, we've been scouring our records to find some historical account we could compare this with."

"And?" I raised an eyebrow impatiently.

He seemed a little annoyed at my lack of being impressed. "Well, we've managed to find some good news and bad news. The good news is that, because we dated the Lombax architecture on the zoni temple as being added roughly 30 years ago, we could narrow down our search considerably, and taking into account that you said you eventually reached a core that seemed to have been constructed by the Cragmites, we could focus our attention on a specific period of time within our rough estimate. Because of this we were able to narrow it down to a few accounts recovered from near the end of the Great War that we feel refers to what you discovered."

I listened closely, but mostly I just waited for him to finish so I could ask: "And the bad news?"

"Ah. Well." he cleared his throat again. "I'm afraid the bad news is what this thing actually does."

"And what does it do?" Clank asked eagerly.

"We went through what we had and found the temple could, in fact, be a Cragmite weapon built near the end of the war during the stalemate," He started. I was gonna tell him to get to the point but decided to hear him out. If we had to go back there, something he said might be important. You never know. "The weapon was code-named 'The Switch'. Supposedly it was a walking transmission station with a satellite protruding from its highest point and had eight or so legs it could use to move its location."

"Sounds like our walking temple to me." I nodded, sitting down on the coffee table as I listened.

"That's what we thought. Our records of it come from surviving Lombax documents, which seem to suggest at some point they managed to capture the weapon and hid it as far away from the Cragmites as they could. Seems they thought using the ruins of an old zoni temple on a primitive planet was as good a hiding place as they could find for something its size."

"But why did they not try and use it against the Cragmites themselves?" Clank asked.

"Well that's where this whole thing gets us all in a very bad situation," The man continued, lacing his fingers. "The reason the transmission station is mobile, is because it's been designed to find a clear line of signal to broadcast to without the need of a pilot or remote control. Its satellite dish is huge, but it needs to find an orbiting satellite or different transmission station that's connected to the rest of the galaxy in order to send its signal. That's probably also the reason the lombaxes put it on the most remote and primitive planet they could find. Reports say they did try to destroy the thing, but initial attacks on it were unsuccessful, and they were more concerned about keeping it out of Cragmite reach than they were dismantling it."

"That is the second time you have not answered my question," Clank frowned, putting his hands on his hips. "What does it do and why did the Lombaxes not try and use it against the Cragmites?"

"Well, mostly because the Cragmites didn't design it to attack the Lombaxes. Not directly anyway," Dr. Haversham said, setting his jaw in annoyance. "With the stalemate drawing long, it seems the Cragmites decided to try and find a way to cripple the Lombaxes rather than just try and power through them. The Lombax race is not known for its physical strength or size. It seems the Cragmites were trying to remove the thing which gave them their edge; namely technology."

"Charming." I pulled a face at this. "So what? This thing sends out a virus? An EMP of some kind?"

"Something like that." The archaeologist nodded. "Only instead of disabling some of their opponents' weapons or vehicles, the virus carried by their 'Switch' is more like a mass kill code. It's designed to infect all artificial frequencies and eradicate them. Think of it as... if it were an organic virus, it would target neurological transmissions sent out by the brain and follow them back to their source and destroy what it found."

"So... it's like a zombie telephone call that eats brains?" Qwark interrupted.

"If you really want to simplify it that much. Yes. But in this case, it targets synthetic frequencies and command codes."

"So the Cragmites were going to destroy every piece of technology the Lombaxes had with this thing?" I stood up again. I didn't like the picture this was painting for me.

"Not exactly. If it could tap into a large enough network the thing could, theoretically, wipe out all technological frequencies galaxy wide, Lombax or not. Why risk any other species trying to take the Lombaxes place, right?"

"That's insane." I stared at the man's face, wide-eyed. "They'd permanently cripple the whole galaxy just to get a step ahead in this stupid war?" I was about to rant further when a terrible thought hit me. "Wait... so this thing, if it finds a way to broadcast off-world, is gonna kill everything with a computer brain? Like... everything?!"

"That is the idea, yes." He nodded, giving me an irritably frown at how slow I sounded.

My stomach gave a roll as my mind filled in the blanks as to what something like that would mean if there was a chance, however small, that it found a way to broadcast.

"Are you alright?" Clank's voice added a stabbing period to the thought. "You suddenly look sick."

I turned away from the screen for a moment to look at him. He was staring at me with something between concern and bemusement, unsure what to make of my sudden change in mood. I had no idea if he was on the same page as I was at that moment. On the one hand, He's a very smart guy, on the other, he was also extremely naïve at times.

"No," I answered in a tense voice. "I'm not alright." I narrowed my eyes and turned my full attention back to the screen, glaring at the archaeologist. "How do I kill it?"

"Information's a little sketchy on that detail," He said with the same nonchalance as before. Now however, it was starting to cause the growing anger in me to burn. I wanted a straight answer. I wanted a plan of action. I wanted this thing dead.

"Well let's unsketch it then," I said, not even worrying about how stupid a sentence that was. "Can we blow it up?"

"Evidence would say 'no'," He answered, picking up an electronic clipboard and paging through its contents. "Apparently, the outer structure was built to withstand fire from anything smaller than a planet buster. Chances are, anything big enough to break through it would burn the planet's atmosphere to nothing at the same time."

"So how do we stop it?" I snapped, rather loudly but I didn't care at that point.

Faversham gave me a look as if I was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe. I glared at him as if I was trying to set him on fire through the screen. He blinked first.

"It seems the lombaxes were busy developing a kill switch for the machine before they hid it away. We don't know if the device was ever completed, but we know it was past the prototype phase and was busy being implemented in the machine itself before the Switch went 'missing'."

"And where is this thing now?" I asked.

"We don't know," Haversham said, trying to gain some sense of superiority again. "But if it were used, it couldn't be done very far from the Switch itself. Once finished it seemed to be have been intended to be put inside the lombaxes' added on sections to the existing Cragmite design."

"So it's inside that thing if it's anywhere," I summed up with a stiff nod. "Got it."

I turned, determined to head straight to my ship when Qwark quickly muscled himself back into frame. "Woah there, my eager young compadre! There's still one tiny detail you oughta know!"

"Qwark. I really don't care right now," I said, turning back to the screen. "Tell me when I get back."

"Well, I would care if the Polaris government was holding me responsible for this but-"

"WHAT?!" All three of us in the room blurted out together.

Qwark physically flinched and pushed Faversham in front of himself, as if he'd somehow shield his massive bulk from us.

"Hey I'm just the messenger here!"

"You're the President!" Talwyn yelled, getting off the couch's armrest and moving into frame. "You're blaming Ratchet for all of this?! Are you crazy?! He got bashed on the head, stuffed in a trunk, and dragged to that place! Last I checked that's what you call 'kidnapping'! And you're gonna somehow twist that into this being his fault?!"

"Relax Talwyn." I stared at her in shock.

"We're not saying it's ENTIRELY his fault!" Qwark gave her a nervous grin. "But er... the guys in suits here say there's no way this Max guy would've been able to start that thing without his help. Right?"

I snapped my gaze to him at this, speechless.

"That is unreasonable!" Clank interrupted before Talwyn could continue. "You are saying it is his own doing that he was kidnapped?"

"Hey, I'm not saying anything!" Qwark waved his hands in front of himself dramatically. "I'm just telling you what the guys under me said!"

"But you're suppose to be the president!" Talwyn yelled again.

"I'd like to think of myself as more of a... leader in morale." His hands worked faster than his mouth. "I mean, where's the time in the day to work out who's responsible for what when there's high society lunches that need attending! It's up to me to let the high-class know their president is there to test the shrimp and make sure it's up to standard!"

"Besides, if I may interject," Dr. Faversham didn't bother waiting for permission. "It IS true, isn't it? My researchers weren't able to get any of those deeper doors open, let alone turn the thing on. I'm guessing Max ah, escorted you to the location to get past these obstacles?"

"Considering that Mr. Apogee was armed, what would you suggest he have done?" Clank crossed his arms, glaring at the tharpod.

The Archaeologist shrugged again. "Refuse?"

"And suppose Mr. Apogee is more unstable than we believed and used his weapon?!"

"Considering we're facing the possibility of eradication of all robotic life...?"

"You're sick," Talwyn spat. "And you're even worse!" She added, stabbing a finger towards Qwark. He pushed Faversham a little closer towards her, as if Talwyn could physically attack him through the screen.

"All I'm saying," Faversham pulled himself out of Qwarks' grip irritably, "Is that your friend technically didn't HAVE to assist Mr. Apogee in this foolishness."

"Can't argue with that," I spoke up, pulling my gloves on a little tighter.

They all turned to me, most of them looked shocked.

"You're not serious, are you?!" Talwyn stared at me.

I gave a shrug. "I didn't know all this stuff while I was down there. Maybe I'd have done things differently if I did. I just worked with what I knew at the time."

"Yes but they can not blame you for that!" Clank argued.

"Well it... kinda seems like they can," Qwark said, straightening himself a little now the situation seemed to be getting under control again. "The Polaris government is gonna hold Ratchet responsible for all of this, by himself if they can't get their hands on Max. Unless of course," He gave me a sideways glance. It wasn't hard to figure out the expression. Qwark wasn't very subtle. "You go in and fix it?"

I gave a sigh, shaking my head wearily. "In other words, if I don't go back there and save your butts again, They're gonna blame it all on me. Am I getting this right?"

"Saving the galaxy is a duty!" Qwark pointed a finger skywards meaningfully. "Perhaps you'd understand better if you had my experience, but you should feel privileged the government thinks so highly of your skills! And if you end up getting killed in the process, we'll be sure to build you a statue and give the kids a day off school."

"You're not gonna put up with this, are you?!" Talwyn snapped at me.

I gave her a weak shrug. "What am I suppose to do? Just let that thing find a freak drifting satellite in its range and kill half the galaxy's population?"

"No but..! This isn't fair!"

"Like it ever is?" I cracked my knuckles before giving my hands a shake, turning to head towards the stairs. In truth, I was more interested in fixing this mess than I was about whose fault it was. "Tell... whoever's running the galaxy I'll deal with this, they don't have to pop a gasket."

"Good luck, Ratchet!" Qwark gave me an intensely annoying salute. "And remember, you're not just doing this for your galaxy, you're also doing it for your president!"

"D'you think we should remind him I'm not really from this galaxy?" I asked no-one in particular as the screen switched itself off with the call ending.

"I still can't believe you're letting them order you around like this!" Talwyn gave me a glare.

"I was gonna go and try to stop it anyway," I shrugged again.

"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" She crossed her arms, the glare intensifying.

"That Faversham guy said the lombaxes were trying to build some kind of override for it, right? If it's got such a short-range, it's gotta be inside that thing somewhere. Best I can do is try to find it and hope it works... and that it's not broken after all these years."

"So you're gonna run headfirst into this thing and hope it all works out?" She snapped, uncrossing her arms again.

"If you've got a better idea I'd love to hear it!" I frowned at her, eager to get going. "If I can't find it I'll... I dunno... see what kind of wiring I've got to work with. I'll stop it somehow."

"My dad's still in that area right? Maybe we could.. I dunno... ask him to stop it or... or something!" Her eyes searched the floor as she spoke.

My shoulders sank. "Tal. He's the one who switched it on in the first place."

"But he didn't know what it does!" Her gaze met mine again. "I'm sure if we explain it to him he'll understand! He knows more about this stuff than we do! I know he can do something to help!"

I thought back to the gun-barrel pressed to my temple.

"Talwyn... I don't think he's going to care..." I said it as gently as I could.

She gave her head a tight shake. "Tell him they're trying to blame all this on you! Tell him if you don't stop it they're gonna hold you responsible!"

"Listen to me." I took a step or two over to her again. "It won't matter to him."

"How do you know?!" He voice cracked as she yelled. "He's not a monster, Ratchet! He's not some super-villain trying to destroy the galaxy!"

"I know," I nodded. "But... you didn't hear him down there. He's obsessed with this thing, Tal. I don't think he's thought of anything else in the last 10 years besides getting inside it and seeing what it can do. He's not gonna want to hear what we have to say."

I could see her shoulders shaking. "He's my dad, Ratchet!"

I almost flinched at this. "I know."

She shook her head, putting her face in her hands. I didn't know what to say. There wasn't anything I could think of that'd help. Not unless I was gonna lie. I shifted my weight where I stood, unsure of what to do. I'd never seen her this wrecked about anything. I didn't know how to handle it, and as the moments ticked by my anxiety grew stronger and stronger as I pictured the walking satellite dish somehow finding a way to broadcast off-world. The expression 'feeling torn' had never been more fitting.

I sunk where I stood, swallowing as if that'd clear my awkwardness away. "I need to get going."

She sniffed, straightening again and wiping at her face. "I can't go with you."

I frowned softly. If she'd asked to come I'd have told her 'no', but I'd been preparing to argue with her about it. I'd expected her to insist on coming along.

"You're just gonna stay here?" I asked.

She gave her head a hard shake. "He's... he's my dad. I can't... ..I can't go with you. I don't want... ..I don't want to see this."

I stared at her for a moment before I turned to the side and gave a nod.

She didn't look at me as she turned, wrapping her arms around herself as she walked towards her room, her head hung. I watched her walk all the way to her door and go inside before I turned and headed for the atrium.