An airlock. She entered the lock, one of the fluid expandable types that worked with many ships or transit doors. It seemed to function, despite the ruin of the front of the building. She watched the environmental data change, and then she was auto-squeezed through an expandable door, like walking through a rubber bubble. She burst out into a room to high pitched screams.
And barking. Two small children and a fuzzy dog were crammed under a table.
“Are you bad?” A tiny voice asked.
2LN77 took off her helmet. She thought for a moment. If she still followed her cyborg orders, she might well have killed these small beings. She took a deep breath.“I am not bad. I am sentient,” she said. “I will not harm you. I hope I can get us all to safety. Are there any others alive?” She used the Galactic Standard Language.
“Non,” said the older child with long, soft, golden-brown hair. “I have called but no one answers. Why is your hair all metal?”
“I can use my head appliances to get data from many different computer systems. They are also useful on a ship or other operation. My designation is 2LN77.”
“I’m Hailey. My baby brother is Hadron.” To 2LN77 the infant appeared very small. Was it newly born? The little girl was in a white outfit with a pink belt and what looked like a toy bag. Hailey lifted up the dog, that didn't look quite like a dog. It had odd scaled feet. “Mako.”
“You are very small, where is your overseer?”
“Owersee?” The child screwed up her little face in confusion.
“Adult. Parent.”
“They putted us in here and said Grandpap would come.”
“Let me look around and check our situation.”
“All right. What is your name again?”
“2LN77.”
“Elen,” the little girl repeated.
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