Ella saw the ad early in the morning, two days after her win against The Praetor. Caroline was hosting a mech-team convention today. It would be at her farm workshop in the middle of nowhere. Mechs could spar in the clearing outside the workshop, but pilots would have to bring their own Bessmer chair.
First of all, no one was gonna drag a Bessmer chair all the way there. Second of all, no one was gonna go to some farm and chat with some unknown team—
Wait. Sabersong had beaten The Everlancer.
It was still too insane to be true. Surely Caroline had rigged the duel.
Anyways, Ella and Luyan were going to go regardless. Ella would see if any of Caroline's teammates were behind her death, which she doubted; Aria was still her main suspect. Luyan would see if they knew anything about Marvin Yao's death.
The "farm workshop" was exactly what Ella had expected: a big dome of metal amongst a field of golden shalewheat stalks, surrounded by a sizable clearing of short grass. A singular shuttle was perched on a slab of stone, with no space beside it. Ella decided to park on the grass.
Caroline was already outside to meet them. She shook Luyan's hand, then Ella's.
"No one else here?" Ella asked.
"Nope, you're the first," Caroline said cheerfully. "Come inside! We have food."
Ella and Luyan exchanged a look. It was probably going to be generic Nagatown slop, but oh well. Gotta show some respect to the host.
The inside of the workshop was surprisingly clean, though it was obvious it didn't usually look this way. Shelves of mech parts lined the walls, and four large worktables were tucked by the edge of the room, making a large empty space in the center. A dining table and kitchen was off to Ella's right. To the left was a door that led to what Ella presumed were bathrooms and bedrooms.
Three people milled about like dumb factory bots: Ben, Renee, and Steve. Caroline's teammates. They waved at Ella and Luyan, turned around like they had somewhere to be, then turned back.
"What is this supposed to be?" Ella asked, gesturing to the cleared out space. Luyan shot her a look of, Can't you be nice for one minute?
"Shouldn't there be tables or something?" Ella continued.
"Um, we kind of messed that up," Caroline said. "We thought about using the worktables, but they're too big…" She pointed to the dining table. "Wanna sit there?"
Ella nodded. Where else would we sit?
And so she found herself at the rectangular metal slab with Luyan on her left, Renee on her diagonal right, and Ben, Caroline, and Steve across from her. Now that she was here, drowning in the awkwardness, she realized how vague her plan had been. How was she supposed to discern if these people had tried to kill her? That wasn't exactly going to come up through conversation.
"Congratulations on your win against The Everlancer," Luyan started.
"You too," Caroline said. "Against The Praetor, I mean."
Luyan shook his head. "It's thanks to her."
All heads turned to Ella. She gave a quick smile.
"How'd you win so quickly?" Steve asked, his cybernetic mouthpiece buzzing with blue light. He was an odd-looking guy. He was entirely metal, from his hands to his smooth, silver face. Had Ella not known he was a cyborg, she would've mistook him for a factory bot.
"His melting tech," Ella said, pointing to Luyan. "Crazy stuff. He got it in the badlands."
Caroline's eyes seemed to alight with recognition. "From scavengers?"
"Yes," Luyan said. "Harrowing deal, I must say."
"So we heard. We had dinner with one of the scavengers," Caroline explained. "He told us how you convinced him to come to the megacity."
Luyan smiled. "I remember the kid."
They began talking about the melting technology in more detail, and Ella couldn't help zoning out. She appreciated Luyan a lot, but Immortal Ignition was more than just a useful piece of tech, wasn't it?
Her mind wandered back to the pilots' debrief with Morgan Silo, pilot of The Praetor. He was among the ten highest-ranked pilots, and he'd been reduced to mush in one minute and twenty-two seconds. Anyone else would have come into the meeting with an edge, but Morgan was surprisingly well-mannered. It made Ella treat him with equal reverence, something she rarely did for her defeated opponents.
But Morgan had barely talked about her piloting. Everything was about the melt-drills. Where'd they come from? How do they work? Is it autonomous or manual? How long have you been practicing with them?
She'd asked to end the debrief early.
Their conversation around the dining table gradually shifted to Caroline's win against The Everlancer. Carolie claimed that she didn't know the exact reason, but she suspected Carlos was taking it easy because of his illness.
Ella wished Carlos would just get the implants and save them this controversy. Choosing to be paralyzed for life because the cure might make you worse at mech-fighting was a weak mindset. If Carlos practiced hard enough, he'd be as good as he used to be.
As they kept talking, Ella began glancing at the front door more often, hoping that someone would walk in. That someone else would bother showing up to this event.
No such luck.
At the end of an hour, she was about to die of boredom. She asked to sync with Caroline's mech to see how the controls fared. Piloting different mechs was good practice or something.
"Steve can help you," Caroline said. Steve's head whipped around in protest, though he said nothing.
What does he have against me? Ella wondered.
Steve reluctantly got up and beckoned Ella to follow him to the Bessmer chair. It was in a small room next to the bedrooms, an ancient thing that was strung up to the walls by countless wires. The rest of the room was empty save a hologram projector and a decrepit desk in the corner.
"I'm gonna set up the mech," Steve said. "Don't sync until I come back."
"You could've set it up first, then took me here," Ella pointed out.
Steve simply stared at her with those cold, electronic blue eyes and that blank face-plate. Then he turned around and began to walk away.
"Wait," Ella said. "Why are you a cyborg?"
Steve paused and looked over his shoulder. "Accident."
"Why not get more human-looking chrome?" Ella asked. "Stylistic choice?"
"Yes," Steve said. And then he left.
Great. Ella looked down at the Bessmer chair, and a shiver ran down her spine against her will. Steve could've easily hacked the chair, making it electrocute her the moment she sat down. That would finish what he started, in roughly the same manner, too.
Who are you kidding? she told herself. The odds of Steve being the killer were zero. Now that she was reminded of how blatantly robotic he was, she realized she would've recognized him immediately had he been at the engineering pod. He might not even dislike her; he just had a cold personality. Maybe he was antisocial.
Still, Ella hesitated as she sat down. There were still plenty of things that could go wrong by sitting in this decrepit Bessmer chair.
Why was she here again? Right, to waste time so that Luyan could finish talking with Caroline. She didn't really care about syncing with Caroline's mech.
When Steve came back after several minutes, Ella said, "Sorry, I changed my mind. I don't wanna sync."
Steve stared at her again.
Ella winced—there was a point where her bluntness was too much, and now she almost felt bad for the cyborg. "I'm sorry. I looked at the Bessmer chair a bit more and I don't know if I… feel comfortable syncing with it. There's too many differences from what I'm used to, and I'm worried my brain…"
Steve kept staring. Then again, those eyes didn't have the ability to blink. Yeah, it was time for a topic change.
"Why'd you name yourself Sabersong?" Ella asked.
"We liked Saberstar," Steve replied.
"That much?" Ella said. "Did you guys know Marvin Yao or something?"
"Um, not personally," Steve said.
"You're Caroline's apprentice, right?"
Steve nodded.
"Are you good at piloting?"
"I think so."
"Better than Caroline?"
"No."
Ella crossed her arms and a fun idea came to mind. "Wanna spar?"
Steve seemed taken aback. "Right now?"
"Yes, right now. You and me."
Steve tapped his metal fingers together. He glanced from side to side. "Um…"
"I'm just kidding," Ella said, rolling her eyes. "A punch from you would probably kill me."
Steve chuckled nervously, and Ella smiled. It was kind of fun to tease him. He was like an AI companion. In fact, she found herself wanting to keep talking to him.
"Did you tell Sienna about Bob?" she asked. Last week, Ella had joined Steve's team to meet Bob in the badlands. Bob had explained that the government was covering up Marvin Yao's death, and he'd asked them to tell Sienna, his fiance, that he was dead. He wanted her to stay in the city so she could keep mech-fighting, since that was what gave her the most joy.
"We haven't talked to her since," Steve said. "She's working with an Inspector now."
"Eh, I'm sure she knows," Ella said.
"That Bob's dead?"
"No, that he's alive," Ella said. "They're literally engaged."
Steve fidgeted with his silver hands but said nothing.
"You don't think so?" Ella asked.
"He said he wanted Sienna to be happy."
Ella was about to retort when a tug in the back of her mind made her consider. Would it be better to tell your significant other that you were alive but unreachable, or to let them believe you were dead? What would bring less pain?
"What would you do?" Ella asked. When Steve didn't respond, she asked, "Do you have a significant other?"
Steve shook his head. "Do you?"
Ella shook her head as well.
-----
After another hour, Luyan was ready to leave. Ella stopped talking with Steve after thirty minutes and they'd spent the rest of the time lounging at the dining table, listening to Luyan and Caroline drone on about season schedules and logistics. Luyan gave Caroline and Ben tips on how to plan out their one-hundred duels for the season. Renee showed Ella a program she'd made that controlled the mech's internal temperature. It was nothing compared to the one Ella had, but Ella pretended to be invested. She liked Renee.
At the end of the talk, Caroline offered Luyan two mech parts as thanks: a hip reinforcement, and an ultrasonic sensor. Luyan took the hip implant but he said there would be no need for the ultrasonic sensor.
As Ella and Luyan boarded the shuttle and strapped themselves into the co-pilot chairs in the cockpit, Ella asked Luyan if he'd gleaned anything from the meeting.
"I think they knew Marvin tangentially," Luyan said. "But in the end, they're just Saberstar fans."
Ella nodded. She'd figured as much.
The shuttle lifted off, flattening the nearby shalewheat and grass. Out the cockpit window, Ella saw Steve walk into the clearing to retrieve the mech he'd set up earlier. His movements were sluggish and his back was hunched.
Sorry about that, she thought.
"What about you?" Luyan asked. "Learn anything new?"
"Nope." Ella didn't want to admit that her suspicion of them had been unfounded. On the bright side, she could focus on her actual suspect now: Aria, her programmer.
They were silent for a few seconds as the shuttle rose to its flying height. Luyan reached for the accelerator, wrapped his hand around the handle, and was about to push it forward.
Then, his hand froze.
Ella looked at the stick, then at the engineer's face. "What's wrong?"
"It wouldn't hurt to have an extra ultrasonic sensor," Luyan said.
Ella wanted to groan. "You sure?"
"We'll be back up in a second." Luyan directed the shuttle back towards the ground. Ella sighed and looked out the window, at the clearing where Steve was hauling Sabersong into a cart.
Ella and Luyan stepped back into the grass clearing just as Steve was about to drag the cart into the workshop. He spun around in surprise.
"Hi," Luyan called. "We've decided to take your offer."
Steve craned his neck forward and he walked two steps towards them. "Sorry, what?"
"We've decided to take the ultrasonic sensor."
Steve looked almost incredulous. At length, he nodded and said, "Sure, let me—"
Just then, the workshop door swung open and Ben poked his head out. He didn't bother looking in their direction as he called, "Marvin, you need any help?"
Steve turned around and began, "One sec—"
And then time seemed to freeze. Ella stared at Steve, then at Ben, who had finally noticed them. All mouths that could open went agape, and Ella had no doubt Steve bore a similar expression.
No, not Steve. Marvin.