Gamma World: Tempus Fugitive: Epilogue

EPILOGUE

It was a funny old gamma world.
    That’s what Garadun had said about the results of Cera’s quest. As she stood there in the great plaza in front of Robotropolis City Hall, staring up at the enormous former body of Asimov, the robot city’s founder, Cera was forced to agree. She had travelled thousands of kilometres and risked her life in pursuit of a dream that had turned out to be nothing like she’d imagined. Reality had proved to be far weirder.
    Cera turned at the sound of kittens trilling, and saw Symphony’s many adorable selves scampering across the plaza’s smooth granite towards her. They swarmed around the other pedestrians, robot and biological alike, and came to her side. They sat back on their haunches and gazed up en masse at the colossal robot body. Cera read her friend’s thoughts and couldn’t help but smirk. Symphony was unimpressed.
    The kittens miaowed and pointed paws.
    “All right, I’m coming,” Cera told her, and gave Asimov’s old shell a final look before following Symphony back across the plaza to where Garadun was waiting for them in their newly modified motorhome, something Symphony did find impressive.
    The original suspension system, four-wheel drive train, axles, wheels, and everything else that had rolled the land yacht across Gamma Terra was now gone; replaced with an all-new hover repulsion system that, at rest, had it floating about a half-meter above the ground. The RV had also been repainted in stylised construction colours. The body was primarily yellow, with a black roof and trim around the top. There was a big black stripe that went around the entire lower portion, topped with a thin white stripe. The front end below the grill had diagonal black and yellow hazard stripes, as did the rear bumper and big panels on either side at the back. Cera knew it wouldn’t be long before that immaculate paint job started getting scuffed up. The interior had been left as-is, although the steering wheel had been adjusted to act as a piloting yoke.
    Garadun stepped out of the door with a grin. “What do you think?”
    “I love it,” Cera replied with a grin of her own. “Gods, it doesn’t look anything like it used to, does it? It’s a whole new machine.”
    “It is at that,” he agreed, looking at their motorhome in satisfaction. “And damned fast, too. The boys at RoboGear said it’ll do four hundred over open terrain.”
    “Four hundred kilometres an hour?” said Cera, gobsmacked.
    Garadun nodded. “And because we’re flying over the ground, we can go pretty much anywhere we want, Cera. Anywhere. Even across the oceans.”
    “Gods.”
    Symphony’s many selves scampered up the steps and into the motorhome, miaowing excitedly. She gathered on the dash and waved her paws, miaowing and mewing and pointing out the window. Cera listened to her thoughts.
    “What’s she saying?” Garadun asked.
    “Symphony thinks we should head east, go back to Big Boat,” Cera translated. “She wants to see my home town.”
    Garadun smiled affably. “I agree. You’ve told us all about Big Boat. I want to see it for myself. And with our new ride, it’ll only take a few days to get there.”
    “A few days.” Cera shook her head in wonder. “Then where?”
    “Anywhere we want,” he replied, and stepped inside and sat in the driver’s seat. Cera followed, closing and locking the door behind her before sitting in the passenger seat. The dashboard had a lot more dials and readouts now. The robots had spent days teaching Garadun how to fly the vehicle, and had given them a manual which they had written and printed themselves.
    Cera pointed to a switch that read DEFENSE SYSTEM. “What’s that?”
    “Oh, that.” Garadun gave her and Symphony a wicked grin. “Didn’t I mention it? The lads went and installed a laser defence system, like the ones on guardbots. There are hidden panels on all sides. Hit that button, and guns pop out to blow the hell out of anything that tries to attack us. It’s automated, but we can also switch to manual.”
    Symphony miaowed gleefully. Look out bugs!
    “Are you serious?” said Cera in astonishment.
    “Damn straight. Gamma Terra is bloody dangerous, and this is our home,” Garadun told her. “We gotta protect our home, don’t we? The lasers were Welder-5’s idea.”
    Cera lowered her voice. “Were they allowed to do this?”
    Garadun gave her a wink. “Do what?”
    That got Cera laughing, and many of the kittens crawled over to settle on their laps and shoulders. Garadun put their new RV in gear, and it rose to a full meter above the ground. He carefully pulled out and merged with traffic, just one more big hover vehicle on the streets of Robotropolis. Using the onboard mapping system (one of many little toys the robots had installed, along with the lasers) he soon had them across the city and out the main gate to return to the open road. He brought them up to a nice cruising speed of 150 kph, and Cera was once again amazed. She had flown before in her own airship, but it hadn’t been anything like this.
    “Next stop: Big Boat,” Garadun declared happily.
    Cera smiled and sat back, resting her moccasined feet on the dash. She opened her window to let in the fresh summer breeze and gave a content sigh.
    Life was good.