Chapter Text
About two dozen warning lights were flickering on the dashboard of Jumper’s ship and a frantic beeping was assaulting her eardrums. She was going down, and fast. Falling through the thin atmosphere of this foreign dusty orange planet. Leather gloved hands grasped at levers and slammed into buttons frantically. All the pilot's attention was focused on landing her ship safely on the nearest clear surface before any vital part of the ship’s safety features or navigational processors gave out completely.
Jumper was a good pilot but she had gotten caught in the crossfire of a few of the more violent local factions and she had already sustained substantial damage by the time she had been able to shake her pursuers.
A good kick to the central processing unit got the break stabilizers to flicker back on, unfortunately at the cost of her navigation systems. It was enough though, to slow down her descent. Finally, she got the chance to take a proper look out her window at the planet she would be landing on. From orbit, the planet looked to be a bright sunset orange that Jumper had assumed would be some sort of clay soil or red desert, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The planet was a graveyard of old and outdated ships, the orange was all rust. Jumper could even recognize some ships that dated back to the birth of space travel. If the metal had rusted, the atmosphere, however thin it may be, would at least be mostly composed of oxygen. so Jumper could at least refill her levels while she was here unless the O Tanks were busted.
She climbed down the steep stairs to the center of the ship. O Tanks were intact, thank the Watchers. The heating systems were busted, and Jumper ran over to frantically shut them down before the still-sparking wires dangling dangerously from the ceiling could cause a fire. She ran around the room checking for any other flammable machinery and while it didn’t appear damaged Jumper threw a tarp over the central engine just in case.
The main problems were that the lift-off assistance systems were on the fritz, her navigation module was completely downed and the brake stabilizers had been shot through. She had enough spare wires to fix the lift-off assist and it looked like her navi module would just need some time to cool down and a new antenna. What concerned Jumper was the break stabilizers. They’d been completely destroyed so Jumper would need a new sheet of metal to cover the hole, and possibly entirely new circuitry. All things she would need to do before she could get back out there.
Jumper sighed defeatedly and looked out at the landscape of metal carcasses, somewhere out there she would be able to find everything she needed. She would just have to find it all. Jumper of course would have much preferred new parts from a more trustworthy source, but right now that wasn’t an option.
Jumper grabbed a space suit from the gear closet and equipped a low-oxygen mask, tying her hair back into a tight ponytail so it wouldn’t fall in her face as she trekked across this unfamiliar planet. Jumper hauled open the back hatch of her ship and stepped out into the air. The atmosphere was warm but light, and while there was gravity there wasn’t nearly as much as on earth or on most space stations, so Jumper bounded through the air in long arcing leaps, keeping a lookout for ships that seemed to be the least damaged or anything that looked like a newer model. She continued on like that for a few miles before something caught her eye through the thick glass of her oxygen mask. The ship was sleek but still worn out by weather and slightly corroded by rust. From the looks of it, Jumper guessed that it was only four or five years old. It was about as old as Jumper’s ship but much fancier, if she was lucky enough it could even be outfitted with the same technology as the Shard.
Jumper yanked hard at the entry hatch, wincing at the screeching sound of rust and metal scraping against each other. One final tug got the hatch to pop open and allowed Jumper to climb inside. The ship had crashed here at an angle such that Jumper had to push herself off shelves and chairs to move around. It seemed to be a small private travel ship likely once belonging to someone of high status or wealth. There were shattered bottles of alcohol on the floor and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling in rows. As much as the interior decor of the ship was interesting, it was not why she was here. Jumper found her way to a door labeled “qualified personnel only” and figured she was about as qualified as it was going to get on this nowhere planet. Unlike the hatch she had entered, this door wasn’t rusted shut, instead, to Jumper’s surprise, it swung open with ease and led into a dark, steep, stairwell.
Jumper shone her flashlight down the steps and braced herself against the thin, metal sheet walls. The steps were uneven and rickety from their lack of maintenance over the years, but she made it to the bottom in one piece. Jumper found herself in what seemed to be a maintenance or crew hallway, it wasn’t as glamorous as the rest of the ship, but it was in much better condition. Jumper figured that she was likely to find some of the parts she would need down here.
The metal plates groaned slightly underneath her as she walked through the empty hall, occasionally popping her head in and out of closets filled with ruined and spoiled food. Untouched by anything for years, It was eerie being in this ship, just a ghost of its former glory. With only her light to guide her, Jumper just hoped to find a mechanics' room or something. a slight draft came from the darkness so there must also be an opening somewhere along here too. Jumper coughed out some dust, dropping her light down to the floor for a moment while she did. Before going back to looking around, something caught Jumper’s eye.
Confused, Jumper bent down and picked up the fist-sized mechanical part from the ground. She looked it over for a moment before realizing what the thing was. It was a miniature engine, like one on a ship, but smaller, it was the size of her fist, and lumpy, shaped unlike any mechanical part she had ever seen before. She couldn’t figure out what it was, or what it was supposed to power but it was intricately made, the delicate copper wiring almost looking like veins. Jumper dropped the mini engine into her pocket, it was too intriguing to not keep after all.
After that sidetracking, Jumper remembered why she was here in the first place, she had parts to find. With new determination, Jumper picked her head up and started to walk forward again, swinging her flashlight across the floor. She didn’t get far though, before she noticed something strange about the maintenance tunnels of the ship. Large scratches and dents decorated the walls, leading to a hole torn through the thin sheet metal. Jumper shone her flashlight through the hole and it cast a cold light down a long hall, bringing stark shadows to life along the floor. Jumper could see her light reflect on a few colored bulbs indicative of a circuitry room. Score.
Jumper kept her flashlight low as she stepped over debris until she found herself in the main engine room. Immediately Jumper identified an intact break assist system and got to work removing it from the ship. It was a standardized part and so Jumper was able to extract the mechanism without damaging anything. The piece was lightweight and about the size of an atlas. There were a few other parts that Jumper needed so she swung her flashlight around to the other half of the room and screamed.
If anyone were to ask, Jumper would deny that she leapt almost half a foot in the air. But In her opinion, the reaction would be perfectly justified and reasonable. A shadowed humanoid figure was slumped against the cold walls of the engine room. Jumper shone her light on it directly and cautiously took a step forward. The figure was an android, it had a matte black metal exterior with only a little bit of exposed wiring. There seemed to be places where plating was missing, and some of the metal on its face was cut. Despite all that the robot looked surprisingly human, unlike most bots this one had a fairly detailed face and black hair down to its shoulders.
The android looked lifeless, which Jumper realized was a strange thing to think about something that had never been alive in the first place. Still, the way the robot's body was splayed out, its head fallen to the side, body weathered by time, it really looked like a corpse. Her eyes caught on a cavity in the robot's chest, a place where the metal seemed to have been ripped away. Inside was some exposed wiring and circuitry but there was also an empty space, about the size of her fist. She took out the small engine from where she had pocketed it earlier and held it out, now that she could look at the robot and the engine side by side. It was a perfect fit.
There was almost nothing Jumper loved more than fixing things. She crouched down next to the robot’s body and propped up her flashlight so it cast a light on the internal wiring of the bot. In doing so she cast the rest of the room in pure darkness. It felt silly but the only word Jumper felt accurately described the atmosphere of the room was spooky. It was like she was in some old forgotten tomb led by only the tiniest bit of light, Jumper couldn’t help but be a little nervous.
She carefully wired the engine back into the robot’s body, careful not to disturb any of its other parts and as soon as the last wire was connected the robot sparked back to life. The bot’s eyes glowed a bright white and suddenly its hands were around her neck trying to cut off her breathing. She tried to claw its hands away from her neck but it was unmoving and inhumanly strong. Jumper kicked at its loose panel as she felt her lungs straining but still nothing she did worked.
“Let me up! Please! I just saved you!” She tried to shout but the words came out as nothing more than a hoarse cough. But the robot’s eyes flickered, its blinding white rage shifted into something almost like confusion.
“What-“ The robot’s metallic voice sputtered, cutting itself off as it unceremoniously dropped Jumper to the ground in a heap. The robot looked down at her as she gasped for air “oh, oh! I’m so sorry” the robot suddenly shifted in demeanor from its cold automated movements and empty stare and was now fidgeting nervously but he seemed so much more alive. He seemed like a man waking up from a years-long coma and from the looks of it that might not be far off from the truth.
She looked up at the robot and coughed out a “You're welcome I guess. Who are you? And why are you even here?” Jumper found the strength again to stand up, still breathing heavily into her mask. She looked up into the robot’s eyes, now glowing a softer white. He was very visibly banged up. “Um, You’re still damaged. I- there’s more work to be done, your exoskeleton needs to be realigned and put back together, and your wires are all loose-” she cut herself off when a new thought occurred to her, “what even happened to you?”
The robot stared back at her, silent and unblinking, as if he was trying to retrieve an answer to anything Jumper had just said from somewhere in his processing drive. He was like a buffering computer and Jumper almost laughed at the thought of a spinning rainbow wheel. “Hello? Are you okay?” Jumper tried again, concerned that he might be malfunctioning.
“Yes. Yes, or well, I will be if you can get me to a mechanic before something important fails” the speakers crackled slightly and the robot returned to his previously awkward tone but this time it was tinged with frustration and annoyance.
“Well then it's lucky you were found by me! An android of your caliber would just be sold off by most people, even scrapped. The good news is that I can fix you right up! Might need to do a bit of research, but…” Jumper patted him on the shoulder excitedly “I’ve never worked on a robot of your make before!”
“Woah woah- hold on lady, who said I would let you rewire my intestines.” He brushed past Jumper towards the exit but only got about five steps before she heard something fall loose and the robot knelt to the ground in something akin to pain. He fiddled with his hanging open stomach cavity and Jumper could hear his speaker cracking and whining again. It sounded like he was in distress.
“Hey hey hey- take it easy, you’ll only hurt yourself more. Besides, if you try to go on your own you’ll just get stranded. Do you know how few people even come out here? You're lucky I found you” She guided his body down to the floor and laid him down.
The robot gasped a clattering breath “I’m guessing not many, just, ah- please help” he sounded defeated and desperate. Jumper felt bad for him, he seemed remarkably sentient and he had been abandoned out here damaged and left to rust.
“I was going to help you anyway so just hang in there, I have to harvest some parts from the engine” Jumper left the robot alone, trusting him not to stir from where he lay, hoping he wouldn’t attack her again. She walked over to the heating system and got to work removing layers of insulation panels.
“You didn’t answer my question from before”
“Which one?”
“Who are you? How did you end up here? All broken and-“ she grunted as she loosened a particularly tight screw “-with your engine down the hall”
She could hear him sigh, warm air passing through his cooling vents. “I am UniTek product number 60, assassin and spy android, but I am usually called Minute Tech. As for how or why I’m here, I don’t know. I can’t properly access my memory card, it seems to be a little damaged.”
“Assassin and spy? Must have been quite the story then” Jumper couldn’t help but feel a twinge of nervousness, no matter how broken up the robot- Minute was, he was clearly dangerous, her still burning lungs were testament enough to that. Jumper would just have to avoid giving him any reason to harm her.
“Yeah, I don’t think I had a good time at my job though. I’ll see what I can scrounge up from my code. Oh- and since I gave you mine, what’s your name, lady?”
Jumper laughed a bit looking up from the bin of parts she was rummaging through. “real charmer aren’t you, Minute? It’s Jumper. Jumper Who” she turned around to see Minute with his head propped to look in her direction. His warmly glowing white eyes illuminated his face. For the first time since they met, he was smiling.