A Visitor to the Future - 103 - Aftermath

The engineering room was a flurry of activity as we all tried to get our Proxies back into fighting shape. We even ran back to our team area - every moment counted this time around. I passed a small cutting torch up to Blaise as he perched on the wall-mounted telescoping arm for access to my Proxy's head. He tapped an area at the top of the skull.

"Here's the evidence of your brilliance - see this dent here? That's from your headbutt. A clear sign that you headbutted an alloy that was more resilient than your own, but somehow lived to tell the tale."

He then moved his finger around the side of the head to the front, and tapped the wrecked casing again.

"And here's the evidence of your misplays - this is where Tungsten clipped you as you were approaching his opponent, and knocked you out."

"I said sorry!" said a flustered Tungsten from the other side of the room, who was carrying a replacement foot for his own Proxy. Anode shushed him - an odd gesture for a individual without a mouth or lips - and beckoned him and the foot forward as he quickly got back to work on his own repairs. His Proxy was in about as bad a shape as mine. Even Gatecrash had significant damage, the right knee entirely twisted and shattered. It had really been Gatecrash who cinched the win - Tungsten's opponent had taken him out, leaving Gatecrash to mop up our collective mess. Thankfully Tungsten had got in some good hits, and the cleanup had been an easy win for Gatecrash - even with a leg down.

"It really wasn't Tungsten's fault - I was in the way, really," I said.

"It was bound to happen, whether it was Tungsten or one of your opponents," Blaise replied, "You were just too immobile after all that damage. But still, you won what was a very difficult matchup. You should be proud, mate."

I took a step back, taking it all in. It was odd, when you were piloting a Proxy you were aware of tactile sensors, the stress readouts - information was relayed to you as if it was your own body under strain. But seeing it now, I got more of a sense for just how bad the damage was. One arm missing, one leg awkwardly immobile, head a mess of circuits and fragments. As Blaise said earlier, it was a miracle that one of my optics had survived the blow that my head had taken from my opponent. I couldn't take a risk like that again.

"We'll replace the lot," said Blaise, "Pass me that head casing."

I did so, as the telescoping arm lowered Blaise for access. The true nature of Resiliency was starting to become clear - we only had one more spare casing for my Proxy's head - after that, we'd be trying to cobble together repairs from scraps. I'd just have to take more care of this one.

Blaise got to work, removing the head, replacing the brackets, and in a few short minutes the head was replaced. The tools available for the engineers in Resiliency were limited compared to the Consortium standard, but they were still hundreds of years ahead of what I was used to in the 2020s. Sometimes, you could blink and you'd miss it.

"That's odd," said Blaise as he lowered himself down again, "We've got less microphones then we should have left over. Did we trade some?"

"Not so!" shouted Tungsten from where he was now helping Anode to install the foot, "I suspect they're already in use, aren't they, Sasha?"

Gatecrash and Sasha looked at each other conspiratorially as they wiped their hands clean, repairs finished. The comment was enough to trigger a realization.

"That's your gimmick, isn't it?" I asked, "Enhanced hearing? I wondered how you were able to track Heavy Metal in the fog. Oh, and when Nimble Poindexters jumped us in the last round - I thought your reactions were really good! You heard them coming, didn't you?"

"Tch- ah, you got us," said Gatecrash, "Yeah, Sasha's grasp of audio devices is really great, and I wanted to use that strength. Honestly, if I didn't work with noisy kids all the time, I'd be tempted to get some audio enhancements done, I've really enjoyed the experience."

"Why not toggle?" said Sasha, indicating her own modified ears, "Is what I have - you think I like listening to Blaise singing at the other side of the ship? Switch on and off as you like."

"Hey!" said Blaise in faux-shock, "I'll have you know I was in a band, once. Might have been several hundred years ago now, but I'm sure I've still got it. Don't suppose you feel like sharing what your gimmick is yet, Tungsten?"

Now it was Anode and Tungsten's turn to look conspiratorial. "I think I'll keep it as a surprise for now," Anode said.

"Then we'll do the same," said Blaise, giving me a wink, "But seriously, nice one Sasha, I'm surprised you got decent fidelity out of pairing these things together. They're pretty primitive compared to what you're used to."

"Yes, I am very good," said Sasha, smiling.

With the help of Sasha and Gatecrash, the remainder of our repairs went faster than expected - we even had time to re-paint some parts back into the overall colour scheme. It was a secondary concern, but as Alexandra had pointed out to us at one point, it was important from an intimidation perspective. If you were facing a team that still looked relatively fresh three rounds in, that could be an important psych-out factor.

The ambassadors came to grab us for some post-match discussion, briefly stopping to admire the team's handiwork. I took no credit - I was still in the business of simply passing things to people who needed them.

"Nice work in the last round, I know we didn't have much time to talk in the frantic run back," said Sarkona, "Really well done."

"The great news is we're officially though the group stage, no matter what happens in the next round," added Antonia, "Because we beat two of our three matches!"

"Don't get complacent though," said Alexandra, "We need to get through the next stage with as little damage as possible. I've just been talking with the Outcasts, and I found out that they won only one of their two matches. That means our labour agreement might be null and void if they get eliminated in their next match."

That seemed like a real risk in Resiliency - any deal you struck with another team - parts, intelligence, or labour exchange, could become a non-factor if the other party was eliminated.

"I also want to remind you that the teams who only have one point won have everything to play for in this next round. They have no incentive to hold anything back. That also applies to the teams who have zero points and just don't want to place last. This could be one of the most dangerous rounds of the tournament," continued Alexandra, looking down at her notes, "The good news is we've figured out who most of the one-pointers are - our talks with the other teams are paying off. Team Barbeque, Shiny Glass, The Castle Smashers and Mystery Tees are all ones to watch for in that category. We also know that the Nimble Poindexters and the River Wardens have no points at all. We're not sure about some of the others - we think that Preservation Momentum are on two points, but we can't be sure."

"Have you seen any other gimmicks in use?" asked Tungsten.

"I just saw Wires, Wires Everywhere! using grappling guns to get around. It looked really fun but Team Confrontation still beat them," replied Antonia.

"Am I the only one having a hard time keeping track of all these?" I whispered to Gatecrash as the ambassadors kept relaying information.

"Don't worry," Gatecrash answered, grinning, "That's their role to keep track of - just worry about who comes up next. They'll tell us if they have any useful information on them, I'm sure."


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