Angry Jasper: Thirty-two

Katy was in such a pissy mood. Buzz hated being around when she was that way. Not that she was afraid of her, though she had a tendency for smashing stuff when she was like this. Kate had never harmed a bolt on his head, but the threat was always there, as if she would lose complete control in a moment. It was just the tension that threatened to overloaded his circuits. Kate’s mood made it so much harder for his other functions to operate. He groaned, and could already feel the circuits falling off one by one in these jittery and illogical (human) sort of quirks and mistakes.

He might have easily blown her off. After all, he’d seen more than his share of Kate's emotional mine fields. This one was different though. Not anything specific he could necessarily put his alloy finger on. This was one was of a much darker character, like she was being trapped or blackmailed into something from which she could see no escape. Kate wasn’t the kind of gal who could be forced or cajoled into anything, and she wasn't the sort to hide her thoughts. Too often Buzz couldn't shut her up. Bur this time she was beyond silent. It was beyond brooding. It was, well...hopeless.

Kate walked right past him and sort of groaned as she sat heavily on the small bed in the corner. Eager to turn her mood somehow, Buzz pulled out a small vibrator. He affixed it to the top of his head and saddled up beside her with this dumb hey-baby-can-I satisfy-you sort of smirk. He tried to sell it with a wink, but the mechanical eyelid caught mid way and buzzed until he wacked his head and it rolled back into place. When she didn’t acknowledge him Buzz gave the vibrator a little rev, and sort of leaned over, trying to force her gaze. He revved the vibrator twice more quickly.

“Not in the mood, Buzz,” she sighed, glumly

“Just trying to help.” There were all this little hairs all over her clothes. Thomas’ no doubt, and it was kind of revolting, Buzz thought, imagining the creepy fellow all over her.

“You can’t.”

“What happened with Thomas?” he asked.

Buzz pulled the vibrator off and stowed it away. He sat beside her. She was staring into space. Kate let out a long, mournful groan.

“Things are really eff-ed-up, pal,” she said.

Buzz scoffed. “All hail queen of the obvious.”

She looked sharply at him. “I need to know all there is about Thomas.”

“You don’t trust him?”

“You do?” she replied, with the quality of a drowning soul.

“The guy creeps me out for some reason.”

She stood and paced the room, figuring. She turned suddenly. “I want you to find something on him.”

“Like what?” Buzz asked, indignant.

“I don’t know, anything.”

“The magic word would be nice,” he said.
“What?’

“Please, would be…”
She cut him off. “Just do it! You’re a damned robot. Do as you are told!”

Buzz was taken aback by the venom of her outburst. Sure, he was a robot, a cyber-being, a machine, but he still had feelings, for Pete’s sake. He didn’t have to take that kind of abuse.

“That’s right,” Buzz fired back, “a robot, not your damned slave, you cranky old skank.”

Kate raged to heaven. “Please, god, give me the strength to send this one back to the recycle heap!”

“If you wanted a machine that would jump whenever you wanted, cut two slots in my back and make he a toaster!”

“At least a toaster would do its friggin’ job!”

“That’s it!” Buzz exclaimed. He'd had enough and could feel his circuitry overheating. The mechanic after his last overhaul warned that he had a tendency towards high core pressure. Too much strain and he ran the risk of serious, and maybe even fatal flare out. “Don’t take this crap out on me. I thought we were friends, partners…”

Buzz saw immediately that he had gotten to her. Just in time too. He damn near busted a seam on that one. She turned towards the door and hung her head.

“I’m not gonna apologize,” she said quietly. She never apologized, at least not in so many words. “You, uh, you are the best partner I’ve ever had, at least out of the sack.”

“Well…”

“You know what I mean.”

She turned, her eyes pleading. “Buzz, I really need your help.”

“First of all, change clothes,” he suggested. “There’s hair all over you, and I just can’t look at it any longer.”

“Hair?” she exclaimed. Kate hadn’t noticed it before. “Buzz, that’s it. Let’s run a DNA test with his hair and run it against the rebel databases and see who it matches. All his ancestors might have bought it at Branson, but their DNA lives on in him.”

Buzz carefully lifted several strands from her clothing. He was more than curious too. Problem was, he had never actually run a DNA program before. Sure, the procedure was programmed into his hard drive, but that was different from actually performing it, and he told Kate as much.

“You have to try,” she urged. “And please do it fast.”

Time was running out, and both of them knew it, but in ways they could never have guessed. Time was running out for everyone, for the earth, the alliance and the Corporation. Little could Kate have guessed what fate still held in store for her, throwing her headlong into a fight that would determine the very existence of all mankind.