Wave closed her eyes and opened them again, all to see if she was really in the dark or if this was just a bad dream. It remained dark. She moved her shoulders and the hard objects digging into her back made a raspy squeak. It felt way too real. She took a breath and arranged her thoughts.

She was lying here and Aki was gone. So, had the Akimoto guys caught up with her after all, or had it been the robots that had knocked her down? She ran her hand past her ear, into loose strands of hair that had once again escaped the captivity of the scrunchie, and palpated the bump that stood out like a mountain range against the flatland of the back of her head. She felt no blood. Then it had been a rubber bullet that had hit her rather than a robotic arm. Whatever it had been, she was still alive. At least, that’s what she believed.

“Are we still alive?” she asked the stranger, just to be sure.

“Depends on what you call being alive. Why don’t you take a look at me? Ah, no, you can’t, with the lights being off.” The stranger made a buzzing sound that Wave just barely heard. “Ah, there should be something we can do. Maybe we’ll just do it like ... God, right? Let there be ...” Then he raised his voice to a loud commanding tone, “Light!”

Radiant dots glowed, in various, asymmetrically distributed locations. Wave squinted her eyes, then blinked cautiously. Blinded by the unfamiliar brightness at first, she gradually managed to perceive what surrounded her.

Lifeless eyes stared at her. Artificial eyes, embedded in a robot skull that consisted mainly of dents and blue, scratched paint. Wave eyed him and frowned. “I don’t think it was you who was talking to me, was it?” The robot skull, as expected, didn’t answer.

“I’m back here!” the voice called out.

Wave pushed the skull aside and more robot parts appeared. The whole room was filled with them. Was this some kind of junkyard? How did she fit in here? She was pretty sure she was a human being made of flesh and blood. On the other hand, she absolutely fit in here. And that was when someone wanted to get rid of her.

She ducked under one leg, the one she’d bumped her head into earlier, spun, and scrambled on all fours toward the voice. A head rolled out from under her hand and she jerked her arm up to keep herself from falling over. The sharp pain that drove into her shoulder as she did so reminded her that she was just as messed up as all the robots that surrounded her.

“You’re about to reach me,” the voice announced. Red eyes shone at her from the semi-darkness and with a clear purpose now she scrambled on, faster than before. Stupid idea. With one leg slipping, she kicked off a small avalanche of electronic debris that rolled down into the depths of the room. Wave lay flat on the bodies beneath her to avoid losing her balance and being swept away by the avalanche, as well.

“Watch out, there’s no way back from there,” he warned her.

She gritted her teeth, ignoring lifeless fingers and elbows digging into her body, and braced herself to rise again. She carefully inched her way along until she reached the dark corner from which the eyes gleamed at her.

“Who are you?”

“Do you really not recognize me anymore? Well, you’ve been in the city for so long, but that’s like a stab, right into my heart.”

What lay there before her, the colorless shadowy outline of a head, torso, and trunk, was clearly a robot.

“You ... have a heart?”

“Figuratively speaking, of course. But you know that, Wave.”

How did he know her? How would she know him? She squinted her eyes to see something, but there was just not enough light. So she reached into the indentations which were supposed to be filled by legs.

“Hey!” he complained. “I’m not saying I’m sensitive about it, but ...”

Wave frowned, briefly wondering if he meant that, then she simply pulled him to a spot where there was more light. And here it dawned on her who it was.

“Oh, by the Citadel, how did I not recognize you!”

The remaining parts of his body were vaguely reminiscent of a Nethuf or human. They were similar enough, after all. Wine-red paint shone out between the many patches that had been mended by armor plates of a different color. But the deciding factor was the fine black cables that apparently sprouted uselessly from the robot’s head. These were clearly supposed to be tentacle hairs.

It had been years but now she remembered. She had even thought of him the day before yesterday in the Arena, mentioning him anonymously while talking to Ember and Hammer. That was Ngi, the robot that had always accompanied her and her parents when she was small. A combat robot, but one she had never seen a fight. He claimed to be a pacifist, even though she had no clue what that even meant at the time.

“That was so long ago, Ngi, I’m sorry.”

“Doesn’t matter, not everyone can have as perfect memory as I do. I’m really glad to see you here. No, wait, considering where we are, I’m not glad at all!”

That made Wave grin. “Where are we, anyway?”

“This is the scrapyard, and somewhere down the line we go into the chipper, then the sorter, and finally the smelter.”

Wave glanced in the direction where the avalanche of scrap metal had gone off earlier and quirked a corner of her mouth. “Sounds inviting.”

“Yeah, a place for the whole family,” he warbled happily, as if in an ancient commercial.

“God, you crack me up.” Had he always been like this? She tried to remember.

“No one has called me a god in a long time, thank you.”

Wave raised her eyebrows, then laughed and Ngi joined in. Strange that this was possible in such a place and situation, but that was just the way it was. Wasn’t that kind of human, to fall back on one’s humor especially when all hope seemed lost? Wave let the thought sink in and that’s when it clicked.

“Tell me, Ngi, is it possible that you have feelings? I mean, one almost can’t make jokes that bad without them.”

“Yes, I do have feelings.”

So she was right in her guess.

“It’s so confusing,” she confessed. “All those robots with their feelings. Just now a mob of robots wanted to lynch me because they’re mad at the humans. Before that, I met one who was hiding in an air vent because he was scared.”

It was as confusing as everything else that had happened to her in the last day and a half. It had only been a day and a half, yet it seemed like half an eternity since she had that fateful accident.

“Well, I’ve had a couple of decades to get used to my feelings, and the disadvantages they bring. But I’ve also learned to love the benefits.”

“You’ve had feelings for so long?”

“Oh yeah. That’s a funny story. A programming error that somehow took on a life of its own.” Then he added mischievously, “And maybe a touch of divine intervention.”

And that was it? The whole story about the feelings had just been an oversight? How could it even be that he had had feelings for so long and she had never noticed as a child? He had never behaved differently than anyone else. Not differently than each human, which she had known, each Nethuf or each other alien, whose thoughts one could at least understand. Well, that had probably been the problem. He shouldn’t have acted like them.

When Wave gave it some thought, she hadn’t met any other robots until she entered the city. They weren’t like him. No humor, no warmth, just cold machines that did what they were supposed to do and had some human behavior programmed into them when necessary. She should have been surprised. If she still remembered him that was. If Ngi had had feelings for so long, could it be that he...

“Ngi, this may sound crazy, but recently I was asked to find a robot to be blamed for robots suddenly developing feelings.”

“That doesn’t sound as crazy as you think, and it’s exactly why I’m lying here in the junkyard.”

“Because you infected others?”

“No, because I seem to have become useless now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Where do I best start?” The robot raised one of its metal eyebrows. It was astonishing. Although there was no artificial skin covering his face, his Nethufian creators had put real effort into his features. “They connected me to other machines and let me talk to them. They wanted me to introduce them to my idea of feelings, and it worked. You know, I was in the Citadel for a while a couple of decades ago and that alone caused a huge mess. But there just weren’t any other robots then.”

Ideas and feelings that he was supposed to share with the others? Which then spread from robot to robot? Wave didn’t want to judge, but others would certainly call that a virus.

“That’s why you were in the outside world, to protect the Citadel?”

“Exactly. But those luminaries from Kanter captured me a few weeks ago and brought me here.”

“Those idiots!” Wave thought of the anger and sadness she had seen at the uprising, and she thought of the assistant’s fear. “Aren’t they paying attention to what’s going on in the streets? The robots are getting violent because they don’t see any other way. They’ve formed groups to demonstrate, maybe they’ll revolt soon too. I could understand if they wanted to screw up Akimoto’s business and if they sabotaged their models. But their own robots are affected as well. So why? Have they just lost control?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s not like they’ve had extensive conversations with me, nor did they reveal their diabolical master plan to me in a moment of weakness. They were so silent, you’d almost think they were the robots, not me.” Ngi laughed and fell silent again when he realized Wave wasn’t joining in. No, she was really mad at Kanter.

“So, what brought you here?” he finally asked.

Wave sighed. “That might sound as crazy as your story.”

“Oh, I’m used to crazy stories.”

“I’m looking for Aki.”

“Aki?” Ngi raised his second metallic eyebrow as well. “Like the radio host?”

“That’s the one.”

“I like that one. Used to stream him on the radio in my bar.”

“You opened up a bar?”

“Oh yeah, a meeting place for the Wanderers. You’ll have to come to visit me there ... oh. Yeah, that’s hard to do right now.”

Yes, she would certainly like to, but they’d have to get out first. Wave looked at the places where Ngi’s arms and legs should be. They had immobilized him so he wouldn’t break out here. Even if he wasn’t willing to fight, he could still rip out doors and break through walls.

Ngi followed Wave’s gaze, and quite as if he was uncomfortable with her seeing him in his helpless position, he changed the subject. “How did you end up in a Kanter junkyard while looking for a radio host?”

“Aki committed suicide.” Wave took a breath. “Not entirely by choice, but he threw himself to his death. Then he suddenly appeared in my ear. Well, not really in my ear, more like in my hearing aid. But now it’s gone.”

Her eyes moistened again, and she wondered where her body was getting the liquid from, after all, she had nearly flooded the junkyard with her tears before.

“Mysterious!” Ngi chopped the word into its syllables, and Wave sighed. This robot ...

“Yes, mysterious. That pretty much sums it up. Anyway, after a solid adventure, it turned out Aki is still alive and in a Kanter lab. Just before I was able to break in there, two guys from Akimoto chased me. Looking at my current situation, I think they caught me, took my hearing aid, and threw me in here.”

“Why would Akimoto employees throw someone into the competitor’s junkyard?”

That was a good question. To answer it, she had to go digging in the realm of conspiracy theories again. “Maybe they’re trying to frame them for murder?”

Ngi’s eyebrows drew together. “Wave, once you’re through the chopper and incinerated in the melting furnace, no one will know that someone was accidentally dismembered here.”

“You’re humoring me.”

“You’re welcome.”

Wave sighed.

“Yeah, I feel the same way,” Ngi said wistfully. “It’s like the old days. With my friends from back in the day, and later with your parents. Dicey situations everywhere you look, always fighting injustice and the mysteries of the Citadel.” He paused, but in a way that suggested there was more to come. And more did come. “But we always managed to get away in the end, with a new story for the campfire.”

“You’re pretty optimistic,” Wave noted. “What was your plan to get out of here?”

“Just waiting for someone to help me.”

“And then this someone was just me, huh?” Wave smiled weakly. “Is there an exit?”

“A drop-hole in the middle of the ceiling.”

Wave tried to make out the ceiling of the room, but all she saw were robot parts and then darkness. Quite a distance, then. Even if she got up the walls, she’d have to keep climbing the ceiling afterward. She alone would be able to do it, but Ngi? Maybe they could build a tower of spare parts that reached all the way to the top and hoist it up piece by piece. But she had already slipped a few times just trying to crawl on those parts. When things went south, they rolled straight down to the chipper.

“I don’t really know how to get us out,” she admitted to herself and him.

Even if they made it out, the place certainly wasn’t unguarded. Whoever had thrown them in here would have no trouble doing it again. Wave felt powerless, so useless.

“Well, cheer up. I’ve been in worse situations with your parents and we got out.”

“Did they turn into monsters and just smashed or cut everything to pieces?” Wave’s voice sounded bitter, just the way she wanted it.

“Oh, your parents are a sore spot, I see. But then, they weren’t always like what they ended up as. They helped where they could, always wanting people in the outside world to be okay. As well as they could, with a city breathing down their necks, that is always hungry. And really, they only became those monsters because they helped even those who were actually their enemies.”

“What do you mean?”