Retour du mécha

Mecha Return

Original short story · AI-assisted writing and editorial revision · 18+

This is a work of fiction. Every character involved in a romance is a fictional adult aged twenty-five or older, and none of them are related.

Chapter One: The Red Lock

Return-07 hung outside the debris ring. The copilot authority lock glowed red. Ye Yao pressed her card to it. The light did not change. Someone knocked twice on the hatch, not hard.

"Joint retest. Ground wants both signatures." Han Xu's voice came in over the intercom.

She did not answer at once. On the screen, Beijin Four was stuck inside the debris ring, its distress light flashing at a fixed interval, range seventeen hundred meters. Static crushed the public channel. Ma Chuan forced out half a sentence: propulsion locked, requesting a tow. Then the channel went entirely dead.

She turned the public-channel gain all the way up and got only a hiss. She returned the knob to its place and logged 16:41 in the flight log. The retest window stayed open until 17:40. Beijin would not last until then.

"Beijin's life support has forty minutes left," Han Xu said. "The main-battery rules haven't changed. Propulsion and winch at full power together—past ninety seconds it cuts propulsion, and nothing will fire for twelve minutes. The timer stops only when one circuit drops to idle. While towing, heading, line speed, and the clock all have to be watched at once."

Ye Yao was thirty-five. The copilot seat had been empty for eleven months. Liang Qiao had not come down from the last return. She had sent the retest form back four times. She pressed the red lock shut. "You sit the observer seat. Explain the fault. Hands off the sticks."

The hatch opened. Han Xu came in sideways. His badge flashed: Han Xu, thirty-seven, flight engineer. He set his tool bag by the foot of the observer seat and did not look at the empty chair. The thrust curve came up. He pinned a spike with his finger.

"Look at the timestamp. The same second it locked, a shortwave band swept the hull. Three years ago, at the edge of the quiet line, the waveform was the same."

Her shoulders went tight. "The file says you didn't recheck the sensors."

"That's how the file is written." The terminal lit once on his knee. The corner tag read: chief-of-maintenance review, 18:00. He snapped the screen dark. "Beijin is drifting toward the shear band. Line and shortwave—I'll recite them by the rules."

"Talk."

"Tow line, two thousand meters. It can be hooked only once. If the craft being towed doesn't shut down propulsion, the hook overheats and shears, and it cannot be hooked again. Line speed must not exceed eight meters per second. The shortwave antenna may be deployed only when propulsion has stopped. After deployment, idle can send and receive; full power will jam it. Messages are limited to forty characters. Once sent, they are written into the black box and the ground archive and cannot be withdrawn. Only after two minutes of cooldown can the next one be received."

Ye Yao stared at the distress light. "Ma Chuan can't hear a spoken warning."

"Once a cargo mecha's anti-jam routine is running, the pilot can't stop propulsion. The routine releases only if the sentence echoed back from the ground archive matches the opening of the original maintenance record. A command can be added after that opening. The whole message still cannot exceed forty." Han Xu drew out a maintenance card worn white at the corners, held it in his hand, and did not insert it. "That opening line isn't in the manual."

The main battery dropped another bar. Propulsion was locked, and life support drew power all the same. The shadow of the debris ring lay across Beijin's tail nozzle. Ye Yao buckled her harness. "First tell me where the lock comes from."

Chapter Two: The Return Signal

Han Xu expanded the spike. "The quiet-line beacon sweeps the edge of the restricted zone on a sealed band. Friendly propulsion gets swept, the throttle is judged out of bounds, and it locks outright."

Ye Yao eased the thrust lever down. The lever had travel. The tail nozzle did not answer. The side screen popped the same lockout. "The manual says keep pulse-thrusting to push the interference off."

"Each pulse triggers it again," he said. "If Ma Chuan follows the manual, our hook melts the moment it takes a load."

She glanced over the battery. With propulsion locked, that circuit barely drew. Life support and the screens were still falling. "Deploy the antenna."

The vanes opened outside the hull. The shortwave panel lit. Character limit: forty. Cooldown read zero. The small print noted that a transmission could be received only one hundred twenty seconds after sending.

Ye Yao typed a line herself: Friendly mecha ahead, suspected false lock, please shut down propulsion. She confirmed it did not exceed forty characters and pressed send. The panel entered cooldown.

"That one goes into the archive," Han Xu said. "But the routine won't accept it. It only checks the opening of the original maintenance record."

"Wait for the reply first."

In those one hundred twenty seconds, the range grew from seventeen hundred to seventeen sixty. On the outer screen the shear band was a deeper dark. Ye Yao preheated the winch to standby and did not give it full power. Han Xu called the line-bay temperatures, item by item, all of them in the green. "If the other side is still pulse-thrusting, shooting the line now throws away the only hookup."

Cooldown returned to zero. The reply was a single line: Negative. Continue anti-jam pulse thrust. Do not approach.

Ye Yao's hand left the send key. Beijin's power curve was brought up on the side screen. The slope had steepened. The pulses were eating the other craft's life support. His own actions were shortening the forty minutes.

"The original sentence," she said.

Han Xu seated the maintenance card in the shortwave slot. Two columns appeared on the screen. The left column carried an uplink mark: Flight engineer Han Xu did not complete the sensor recheck, causing track deviation. The right column had no uplink mark. It was titled Original Text, and its opening read: Quiet-line beacon false lock, not interference.

He did not press transmit.

"The moment the right column goes up, its checksum will conflict with the archive from three years ago, and both copies will be published side by side." He looked at the line. "My chief-of-maintenance review will be withdrawn tonight. The personnel rules are written that way. There is no appeal."

Ye Yao's name was not in the left column. She stared at the line "did not complete the sensor recheck," then looked at the right column. "You signed off the sensors in my place."

"The coordinates and the band couldn't go into the public record then. To take aboard a civilian pod that had drifted out of the restricted zone, you crossed the edge of the quiet line." He pressed the latch on the card slot. "I changed the words. The send key is on the pilot's side."

Beijin's tail light flashed once at the edge of the dark band and stayed dark longer than it had been bright.

Chapter Three: The Right Column

Ye Yao set the cursor just after the opening of the right column. She typed slowly: Jettison the external cargo bay, shut down propulsion at once, do not fire again, prepare to take the line.

Han Xu counted it out for her. "Eleven characters in the opening. Twenty-two in what you added. Thirty-three in all, seven characters of margin left. The routine only checks the opening. Ma Chuan can see the rest."

"If the external bay isn't jettisoned, the weight exceeds one line's rating," she said.

"The rating is one mecha of the same type. With the cargo bay still attached, the hook will let go from overload even if it doesn't take heat. Letting go is the same as a shear. Still no second time."

She looked at the battery remaining. He had already laid the budget on the lower screen: after these two rounds of antenna and cooldown, the main battery would cover only one dual-circuit full-power burn of less than ninety seconds, and still leave a return reserve covering single-circuit line recovery, an idle approach, and landing. If the return reserve was drawn on, the return lamp would not light.

"There is no second tow," he said, "and no power to go back for the cargo bay."

She read the left column aloud. "Did not complete the sensor recheck, causing track deviation." When Han Xu had heard it, he pointed at the opening of the right column. "This is the sentence the routine wants. The left column will be published along with it."

Ye Yao checked the thirty-three characters once more and held down send. "Uplink."

The panel entered cooldown again. Almost at the same moment, his terminal chimed. The review field changed from "18:00" to four gray characters: qualification withdrawn. He looked for two seconds, snapped the terminal back against the side of the tool bag, and began calling time. "One twenty. Winch on standby. Line-speed cap, eight meters per second. I'll time the dual-circuit full power. At seventy, you decide whether to drop to idle."

"Why seventy."

"At the present drift speed, the shear band licks Beijin's tail survey boom in about eighty seconds. Full power can lift the track clear inside seventy. Another twenty seconds would be steadier, but if it runs to ninety the protection cuts propulsion. Once it cuts, nothing fires for twelve minutes. The landing burn goes with it."

Ye Yao closed her hand on the winch lever. "Wait until he dumps the bay."

Cooldown reached sixty. Winch pressure jumped. Her hand stopped. Han Xu brought up the valve diagram and pointed at a filter screen. "Preheat pushed the deposits onto the sensor. The reading is falsely high. Open the bypass for three seconds and it drops." She opened the bypass. The pressure fell back. He closed the bypass again. "Full power later goes through the main path. The bypass won't hold it."

When cooldown jumped to twenty, Beijin's external cargo bay separated in the picture and tumbled slowly into the dark band. Range held at eighteen forty. The receive window opened. The reply came in two lines: Cargo bay jettisoned. Propulsion off. Archive receipt matches. Requesting the line.

Han Xu checked the receipt number. "The opening matches. The routine released." Return's own propulsion lock turned green with the receipt. A steady light vibration came back under the thrust lever.

Ye Yao took hold of the line-bay safety and did not throw it early.

Chapter Four: Seventy-Four Seconds

She threw the safety. "Shoot."

The sound of the line going out was short. Eighteen hundred forty meters away, the hook bit Beijin's forward ring. The tension lamp went from yellow to green. Han Xu called: "Their propulsion is zero. Hook locked. Nineteen hundred meters of line paid out, one hundred in reserve. There is no second time."

Ye Yao pushed the winch and propulsion to full power together. The lower screen started the clock. The hull sank. Beijin was pulled off its old drift line. The dark edge of the shear band still lay against its tail.

"From now on, call it every five seconds."

"Thirty-five, line speed six point two. Forty, six point five. Forty-five, six point eight."

She held the winch steady and left the spare force to propulsion, to lift the track. At fifty, a string of shattered light scraped off the root of Beijin's survey boom. Han Xu watched the structure diagram.

"The base of the survey boom is outside the pressure hull," he said. "The green marker on the hull is still lit."

At fifty-five her glove slipped on the lever. She seated the speed-limit catch. Han Xu set his spare glove by her elbow. His eyes stayed on the temperature gauge. "Sixty, line speed seven point four. The survey boom has broken. The comms antenna and the green marker are still there."

Seventy. The track had already lifted past the upper lip of the dark edge. Beijin's tail bay was still short by a stretch. Another twenty seconds at full power and the tail bay could clear—and the clock would reach ninety.

Ye Yao looked at the red frame marked twelve minutes. Once that frame lit, landing propulsion would not fire even if the return reserve was still there. She pulled the thrust lever back to idle. The clock stopped at seventy-four.

The winch alone stayed at full. Line speed topped out at eight meters and caught on the limiter. Beijin's tail bay scraped the dark edge. A heat tile fell from the skin. The green marker did not go out. On the outer screen, the cargo bay and the broken survey boom were already left on the other side of the line.

When full power ended, shortwave jumped four characters: Cabin pressure holding.

"Idle holds. Protection didn't trip." Han Xu moved the unlit red frame off the main display. "What's left on the main battery only covers the return reserve. One more dual-circuit full burn and the return lamp won't qualify to light."

Ye Yao left thrust on the idle mark. Towed by the line, Beijin left the shear band at eight meters a second. She set the heading on the mouth of the return corridor. Han Xu entered a correction angle, then checked the line temperature. "Capped at eight. Hook temperature inside the limit."

She tapped the stick. The nose yawed two degrees. Beijin yawed with it. The line did not shudder. The entry marker slid to the center of the screen.

Chapter Five: The Flat Lamp

When the entry marker pressed onto the centerline, the flat lamp above the panel lit. The return lamp did not flash. It only stayed on. They had already entered the corridor. The return reserve was still there.

Ye Yao looked at it for two seconds, then released the copilot's red lock. The bolt sprang open. The restraint on the empty chair still held the length it had when Liang Qiao left. She let the strap out one notch and slid the authority card into the copilot slot.

"Sit over here," she said. "For the back half you watch the battery. I'll take the helm. Go even a little over the return reserve and this lamp goes out."

Han Xu paused in the observer seat before he stood. When he took the copilot seat he turned his shoulder so he would not touch her elbow. The buckle closed. The first thing he looked at was the battery remaining.

"The share hasn't moved. An idle approach is enough."

Guide lights passed beneath the nose one by one. Ye Yao called altitude. Han Xu called the battery. "Three hundred." "Share unchanged." "Two hundred." "Line speed four meters. Hook temperature still falling." She took the line speed down again. Thrust stayed on the idle mark.

Han Xu confirmed that cooldown had long since returned to zero and sent the last message, still held inside forty characters: Follow Return. Do not fire. Release the hook at the end of the corridor. The panel counted a full one hundred twenty seconds again. They held idle and waited for the berth frame to line up. The receive window opened. The reply appeared: Received. Cabin pressure normal. The slope of Beijin's sustain curve had already gone flat.

The release point was a circular berth frame. Ye Yao dropped the line speed to one meter. Han Xu opened the hook's release permit. Beijin's forward ring left the hook. The cargo mecha slid into the frame on its own cold-gas jets. Return-07 held idle. The hook retracted into the bay. The line-bay lamp turned white.

Return-07 settled into the station's recess. The return lamp switched from ship power to ground power. Its brightness did not change. When the hatch opened, a duty board sat on the step. The top line was gray: Han Xu, chief-of-maintenance review, qualification withdrawn. Below it, the public log waited to be signed, left column and right column side by side, the checksum conflict boxed in red.

The opening of the right column matched the message she had sent. The left column was still the sensor-recheck line from three years ago. Han Xu's pen paused outside the box, then came down anyway. He signed the flight-engineer field and pressed his thumbprint in the cell for the rewritten record.

Ye Yao signed in the pilot field and wrote: Quiet-line crossing confirmed. The characters pressed into the cells. Nothing was altered.

The duty board slid back into the slot beneath the step. She walked to the line bay. The tow hook had stopped at the end of the rail. Its temperature had fallen until a hand could touch it. Ye Yao pushed it into the deck catch and held the latch until the short click came up through it, and only then let go.