"Jun... What happen to leg?" Sheggok gurgled as the girl and Jun walked into the garage.
"I just got into a bit of an argument with someone a little too big and angry," Jun said as the synthetic girl helped him over to a table.
"You did that? Sheggok did not think you were troublemakers. The red Xyiikt is very angry, so is Xur." Sheggok opened his frog-like mouth and five long tongues flopped out and began examining the broken leg, his long eye stalk maneuvered to get a better view of what he was doing like a hungry snake. He moaned unhappily, "I don't have all parts needed, can't fix perfectly."
"When will you be able to get new parts?" Jun asked.
"The Market is in orbit again, I check soon."
The Market was a massive nomadic space station run by the Jel'Seglok government, it's neutral territory so it is one of the few places Xyiikt and humans are allowed to meet outside of political meetings. The girl had only been to it a few times to carry supplies, but the Xyiikt made sure to keep her far away from any humans.
"I'm probably not going to be able to see it this year because of the storm," she sighed, "Transports are already shut down, it's so annoying."
"Ha ha! Sheggok ship not have to follow Xyiikt rules though, and is strong enough to get through bigger storm!" He stamped one of his three feet on the deck, "Made for Seglos, remember?"
Seglos was the Jel'Seglok's home world. It was a large ocean moon with very little land and perpetual hurricanes circumnavigating the moon constantly. Their ships all had a defined ruggedness to them with massive thrusters and thick outer armor plates, meant to deflect any number of shrapnel and debris.
"So do you have anything simple that I could use?" Jun said wiggling his severed leg, "I need to get back to work as soon as possible."
"For walking -yes. For work -not so much," Sheggok hobbled over to his work bench and took out an android leg that wasn't much more than a pipe and a flat, metal foot, "and this is Generation-5, still compatible, but of course not as good as Generation-11 like you."
"Gen-5?" Jun was hesitant, but nodded, "How and why do you even have something that old?"
"Won in bet, came with ship," Sheggok gurgled and quickly began fiddling with the joint and the leg was attached before Jun could change his mind, "Test that, see if needs adjustment."
The girl watched Jun stand up and walked around the room awkwardly.
YOU ARE READING
The Ark Chronicles: The Storm
Science FictionThis was sort of like an old prototype of my "Breath of Sol" project. It's set in the same universe with only a few differences. (Most of these are unfinished chapters)
