“And here you see where we process the station’s wastewater,” an adult droned on.

  Despite the adult’s less-thahusiastie and the noise, Yulia was enjoying the field trip that the headmaster had put together for the orphanage. She couldn’t say the same for the rest of the kids, who looked extremely bored, but she was fasated by how things worked. She may have felt differently before Alex got her started on her puzzles though.

  Now instead of b maes that did dull tasks, she wondered how they actually worked.

  “Ooh! Ooh!” she jumped up and down and raised her hand so the worker could see her.

  The man tilted his head back slightly and closed his eyes for a moment before speaking. “Yes, what would you like to know this time?”

  The rest of the kids groaned, but she didn’t care. “How does the mae process the water?”

  After moving on from that part of the trip, Markus leaned down and whispered to her. “You gotta stop asking questions. We are already two hours past the evening meal, and I see Headmaster Woing frustrated. Not to mention the younger kids are beginning to pin.”

  After Markus said that to her, Yulia too realized she was starving. She had just been so caught up in all the hings that she had overlooked her own hunger.

  The rest of the trip sped by, and Yulia did her best to keep any more questions to herself, even though she was burning to know. She could ask Alex, he was smart; surely he would know how an oxygen recycler worked.

  “That brings us to the end of the trip. I hope you have enjoyed yourselves and learned something. Perhaps one day, you too could be a system mainteech, like me.”

  The kids all cpped half-heartedly. Most were tired and hungry. But even Yulia didn’t think she wao be a whatever tech like this man. She wao be like Alex. He was cool.

  With the help of some of the older kids, the headmaster male the group into the elevator. Ohe door closed, blissful sile all their ears. The tube shot to the sed ring while the younger kids pined about their ears ringing. The headmaster did his best to calm their s, but they were being quite fussy.

  Yulia just hummed to cover the droning buzz. The older kids just bore it quietly. They were so cool.

  After returning to the orphahe headmaster spoke up. “I know it's te, and I will get the meal ready as soon as possible. In the meantime, I want you all to get ready for bed.” Quiet cries of pihat statement.

  “Enough of that now. After we eat, you’ll all brush and head straight to bed. Now chop chop. And don’t interrupt me or dinner will be even ter.”

  The kids shuffled off, dragging their feet, while the headmaster hurried into the kit. All except Yulia.

  She waited for the older kids, specifically for Markus to head into the bathrooms before she snuck out. There was too mu her mind for it to wait until m. She o ask Alex about the stuff they learoday, or she wouldn’t get a lick of sleep tonight.

  Yulia had never been out this te, and the station was eerily quiet at this time of night. But she didn’t let that stop her as she kept humming as she skipped toward Alex’s shop. It wasn’t until she was most of the way there that she realized he may be closed or asleep. Did robots sleep?

  Thankfully she saw that the light was on, and she could hear voices. With renewed vigor, she sprihe rest of the way. As soon as she got to the door, she shouted. “Alex, guess what I learoday!”

  Two men in full suits turoward her.

  ***

  Alexander was w te o another repair, thankful that his work had picked up again after the Omni ships left the system. He didn’t o sleep and the money he earned from the case was more than enough to fortably live by, but to him, it might as well be blood mohe money would be used eventually, but he preferred to rely on his skills for the time being.

  As he was repg a solenoid, two men in full vac-armor walked into the shop. He couldn’t tell who they were as their face shields were set to reflective. But he didn’t o see their faces to know who they were. The armave it away. It was the armor he had repaired months ago. Then he saw the guns. Pulse rifles weren’t illegal but they were severely frowned upon by station security. Although, that wasn’t the terminology used iual w.

  He paused in what he was doing and stepped back from the desk before raising his arms in the air. Nobody walked around on in hand uhey po use it. “Gentlemen.”

  “Open your ste room,” the closest man said in a moduted voice through a speaker on his suit. Now both of the men had the rifles pointed squarely at him.

  “Slowly!” he added as Alexander began to move.

  He made his faod in uanding as he slowly ehe code on the door behind him. It clicked open aepped aside. Both men’s guns moved to follow him. Ohe door was clear, the first man walked around the ter and shoved the door the rest of the en.

  “Where are the guns?” he growled. “We saw you put them in here.”

  As soon as he realized who these two were, he retty certain he knew what they were after. That statement only cleared up any lingering doubt. Had they seen him w on the on, and only came in after that to verify what they saw? Or did they see them sitting on the shelf when he exited the ste room? Not that it mattered, because they had obviously seen them. “I don’t have or sell ons,” he responded knowiher of these men would believe him.

  If he had only been able to modify his damn trol box, then maybe he could fight back or something. As it sat, he couldn’t even touch these men thanks to the restris hardcoded into the device.

  “I know what I saw, so don’t fug lie to–,”

  “Alex, guess what I learoday!” aed girl's voice stated triumphantly from the doorway.

  Horror flooded Alexander’s mind as he watched the sean whirl and fire otle girl.

  The first man fired as well, but the pulse bst was aimed at Alexander. It hit him, but it simply dissipated on his body. With no path to get to Yulia without going through the man behind the ter, he simply grabbed the heavy metal ter that was obstrug him and pulled.

  The whole thing ripped off the ground, shearing the anchor bolts with a scream of metal. He threw it across the room, trying to get it out of his way so he could protect the girl.

  But even as he was heaving the heavy metal of the ter around like a toy, the sean had already pulled his trigger.

  He screamed internally, diving to try and intercept the nearly invisible discharge from the on, but he was too te. He could only wat horror as the girl's eyes went wide a moment before the bst struck her in the chest, smming her against the door frame where she crumpled without so much as a muffled scream.

  Rage like nothing he could ever recall filled Alexander and he was momentarily blinded by the emotion as he whirled owo men. Both men had seen what he did to the ter, and bst after bst smmed into him until one finally shattered the trol box, plunging Alexander into a pit of darkness and despair.

  ***

  After the robot finally colpsed to the ground, the first man rushed over and cuffed the sed upside the helmet. “You dumb shit, you shot a kid!”

  “How the fuck was I supposed to know? She just ran in here, startling me. What do we do now?”

  “Now? Now we get the hell out of here before station security finds these two. The Captain is going to be pissed that the op went sideways.”

  “Fuck that, I ain’t going without something.” The sean sged around until he came up with a few credit chips.

  Then they rushed out of the business and down the hall.

  Markus remained frozen around the er as the two men ran past him without even notig. After he had realized Yulia had snuck out, he kly where she had gone. So he went to retrieve her before she got herself into trouble. He rouhe corridor just as the fightied.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, he cautiously approached the open door to Alexander’s Repair shop. The first thing he saw was Yulia's small form crumpled against the entrahere was blood. He started to panic as it brought back memories of finding his dad after the act that took his life. Markus did the breathing exercises that the doctors told him should help, but it felt like they weren’t doing much. “Whaddo I do, whaddo I do?!”

  He recalled the first aid training that the older kids were forced to sit through to assist if one of the younger kids got hurt. With a shaking hand, he lightly touched Yulia’s ned felt for a pulse.

  It took him lohan it did in the video, but he eventually felt ohat was good, she was alive. After cheg on Yulia, he looked into the room. His eyes went wide at the damage, but they settled oionless form of the robot. There wasn’t anything he could do about that. He turned and rushed down the corridor until he found the closest terminal. Then he smmed the emergency button aered the location.

  The few w emergency lights in the area started fshing, and a voice spoke over the terminal. “Emergency services are on their lease state the nature of the emergency.”

  Markus told the womahing he had seen and even provided descriptions of the two men. Soon a team of rescue workers arrived and loaded Yulia onto a stretcher before rushio the medical ter.