Hope Rides Alone

[Proto Man]

“You’re from the fountain,” the woman remarked, her voice mirroring her facial features. Did that statement mean that she thought he was a Prime or was she referring to the exact incident where they had all arrived almost simultaneously?

“I arrived with a bunch of others, yea…” The other women had all been brunettes, but Proto Man (and his internal computer for that matter) couldn’t help but feel like they’d encountered her before. Maybe it was those eyes…

“Samus Aran,” the woman spoke after a long silence. The robot couldn’t help but feel she had taken that time to assess him or something.

“I’m Blues.” He extended a large, gloved hand, and after a pregnant pause, the woman shook his hand. Her grip was firm, like that of a career professional. When combined with her overall stance and demeanor, it was clear to the robot that he was talking to someone who had seen a little more of the world than he had. “So you hear about that big parade? That message the Judge sent out seemed to imply that there might be some danger.”

Samus nodded her head. “I’ll be there. I need to learn more about this city…a lot more.” She glanced around as she spoke, as if she half-expected to see someone hiding on a rooftop or behind a window.

“Likewise,” Proto Man stated, recalling the strange feeling that he was being surveyed as he had traversed the past few blocks. “If you received that message, you must be connected to the Dataverse, right? I don’t have many connections here, so it might be nice to have one, right? It’s all about who you know.”

“Sure,” Samus said as the robot handed her a pen and a pad of paper. The woman raised an eyebrow at the collection of pictures that could have only been drawn by someone his apparent age. She scribbled her information on a fresh sheet of a paper and handed it back to him. The android nodded his head and slipped it back behind his back. “Notes?”

“It’s easier to draw sometimes. Viewing pictures takes up too much of my visual display… see you at the Jubilee?”

Once again, the woman responded with a nod, and they parted ways in silence.

A few streets later, Proto Man found himself staring at a large building surrounded by a detachment of stormtroopers headed by a grizzled-looking man in a massive suit of armor. Despite the entourage, they didn’t seem to be actively guarded the place, so the robot strode right up to the entrance and found himself greeted by one of the troopers.

“Welcome to Elevator Gamma,” he replied as he pointed through an archway. “If you’ll be traveling down today, there’s a man inside who can process you. If you’re here to enjoy the museum, a movie or our illustrious fine dining, you can find the amenities inside and to your left.”

“What is this place?” Proto Man asked as he took another step back to look at the wide, cylindrical structure. From what he could tell, there must have been numerous machines on the upper levels, because he could spot at least a dozen exhaust tubes and vents that were actively spewing out a colorless vapor of some sort.

“Elevator Gamma,” the trooper replied. Although his helmet concealed his true face, the robot could tell from the tone that the man was confused by his ignorance. “This is one of the many illustrious installations that connections the first and second tiers of Coruscant. We are home to more than a dozen fine dining establishments, and we are the only Elevator Compound with fully-reclining leather chairs in our movie theatres.”

“Fancy,” Proto Man uttered as he walked passed the man and through the archway. On the other side, the hallway opened up into a giant, mall-like area with numerous shops and restaurants along the edges. A few large hallways connected to larger amenities, which undoubtedly included the aforementioned movie theater and Coruscant Elevator Museum. The center of the vast chamber, however, was dedicated a series of large lifts. There were roughly six of them, each with a line of people formed to get on board the next one down.

Explains the machinery. Proto Man mused as he glanced up at the machines above the lifts. They seemed to operate like any other motors he’d seen before, but he could see them burning no fuel. On top of that, the exhaust had been clear and odorless, which meant it couldn’t have been coal or gas or even some variant of nuclear energy. Strange world.

With a shrug, the robot turned around and activated his GPS tracker. After a short delay, a route back to his apartment building popped up on his screen, complete with indicators guiding him in the appropriate direction. Now that he had a few landmarks saved, he could come back and visit these spots without having to wander aimlessly, but for now, he wanted to rest up for the Jubilee.