If you want to move to a preceding or following part, or read an actual description of the story, click [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/1901902/223764924/0/0]Table of Contents[/url]. They meandered through more cars on a pair of short bridges spanning a gorge that flowed into a small lake just a few hundred feet from the Cosmodrome’s main en-trance. All that was left of one bridge was the part of the highway suspended by its support pillars, the sections connecting to any land having collapsed long ago, so they crossed at the other bridge. The Cosmodrome’s entrance was flooded, with pools formed off to the left and right in front of the gate. Tall evergreen trees grew at random points around the mass of cars, while twiggy scrub brush grew between them. The cars were particularly weathered, with moss growing on sun-side doors, hoods, and trunks. Awnings for bus stops were rusting beside what remained of the road. Half an overhead highway sign was a hundred feet away from its complementary half and pole. Trash hung impaled from one of the remaining lightposts. Nicholas helped Morgana sit down on a dry spot and leaned her against a car. “I have seen Guardians patrol this far outside Cosmodrome and summon their vessels. You should have sufficient signal.” Morgana nodded blearily. She could feel her energy waning. Her fingers had pins and needles in them and felt fat and heavy as she looked down at her notepad. She navigated through the program to find where she could connect to the signal. Then the screen blacked out. “What the hell?” she shouted, startling Nicholas. “What?” he asked. Her screen turned on again, displaying a depleted battery. “Damn it! The battery died!” “[i]Sukin syn,[/i]” Nicholas cursed. “This is why I never depend on technology. Do you have replacement batteries? Some way to charge it?” “No,” Morgana snapped. “I never thought I would be here more than a night, bleeding out in front of the Cosmodrome, needing to use the damn phone. I’ll remember next time to pack some spare batteries or my induction charger to plug in.” Nicholas sniffed. “No need to be cross. Does it have surge protection?” “I think so.” “Good. We can use car battery…if they are not ruined.” Nicholas walked off and started digging into car hoods. The first one he found was fried, literally, as though it had been burned in a fire. The next looked good, if a little dingy, but when he pulled it out it felt much too light to be normal. He kept searching, adrenaline feeding his anxiety. Morgana had a different problem. Once her notepad’s screen had gone black again, she became aware of a faint, unceasing, irregular beeping. At first she thought some piece of metal was moving, but it wasn’t windy enough to blow anything around. She turned her head back and forth, trying to hone in on the noise. Her eyes trained up toward the trash hanging from the light post. From her angle, the junk looked like some kind of heavy, oblong beehive built right in the middle of the pole. She shifted her head a couple more times to make sure. The beeping was definitely coming from it. “Hey!” she called out. Nicholas appeared a second later, his face even dirtier with auto grease. “What is it?” “What’s that up there?” she asked pointing to the mass. Nicholas squinted at it for a moment before waving it away. “Nothing important. Dead machinery. It has been there for many years.” “Did you know its beeping?” “Beeping?” Nicholas cocked his head for a second then looked back at the pole. “[i]Neprivychnyy[/i]. I did not know it did that.” “What is it?” “Some humanoid robot.” “Why is it making that noise?” “Does it matter?” Nicholas retorted. “It is nothing but machinery. I will grant, it was well made, but it obviously could not last with pole in its torso.” Morgana looked at the mass, and could now distinguish a head, arms, and legs hanging limply from the body. Her mouth dropped open in realization. “That’s an Exo!” “Beg your pardon?” Nicholas asked. “An Exo!” she repeated. “They were made late Golden Age as some of the most advanced robots in our history. After the Darkness came, much of their memories were severely damaged. They are very complex, no programmer, mechanic, or technologist in the City today can understand them. They’re practically human!” “[i]Khernya[/i],” Nicholas replied. “That is still machine. Nothing can feel alive but what is already alive.” Morgana had stopped listening to him and was focusing on the beeping again. She noticed that it alternated between short and long bursts. Another idea hit her. “No, you can’t really be…” she muttered to herself. “What?” Nicholas asked. She was behaving too strangely for his liking. “Quiet,” she ordered. “I’m trying to listen.” Everything was very quiet for several minutes while Morgana paid close attention to the beeping. Long, short, short, short, long, short… “By the Traveler, you are,” Morgana gasped, breaking the silence. “That’s Morse Code!” “Morse Code?” Nicholas asked. He was getting fairly put out with having no idea what was going on. “Yes! It’s a very, [i]very [/i]old means of electronic communication used many years prior to the Traveler’s arrival. My uncle once decrypted a codebook used by nations in case of emergencies when contemporary communication was unavailable.” “What does that have to do with this ‘Exo’?” Morgana smiled. “Because the beeping we’re hearing means ‘Could someone help me down?’ That Exo is still alive!” Nicholas was both bewildered and frustrated, a bad combination. “What are you blathering about? That [i]thing [/i]was never alive, it is not ‘still alive.’ It is [i]broken[/i], and even if it were not, because you believe that it is communicating to you by beeping, how is it even relevant to helping us in our current predicament?” Morgana was stunned by his violent outburst, but responded hotly, “You said [i]he’s [/i]been here for years, right?” “Yes!” Nicholas stressed. “Did you find anything to power my notepad?” Nicholas faltered. “No.” “Then, since [i]he’s [/i]still alive and I [i]can [/i]understand him, and since you say [i]he’s [/i]been here for years [i]and [/i]that you’re having a hard time finding things, maybe it’s a good idea to get [i]him [/i]down in case [i]he [/i]knows anything.” As she spoke, Nicholas began to understand just how much of an ass he had seemed. It wasn’t a happy sensation. “Very well,” he indignantly huffed, “I see how it could be useful. I suppose you expect me to retrieve it?” Morgana was in so much pain she was starting to feel disoriented even while sitting down. “If you would be so kind.” Nicholas grunted and trudged off to the light pole. Typical. He had no desire to do this whatsoever, but he was the only one who could get that hunk of junk down. He really hated the idea of being reliant on any machine, whether it be Morgana’s stupid little notepad, damn car batteries, or the rusted heap beeping down at them. Survival didn’t need machines. It needed food, water, shelter, and clothing (though that was questionable because he couldn’t imagine cavemen needing clothes). If you had all those things in good supply, you were safe. If you didn’t, you died. He cheated a little with medicine, but other than that his life was so much simpler without having to deal with that technology crap. He stared up at the robot from the base of the light post. How the hell was he supposed to get up there? How did people change the light bulbs on these things in the old times? Cranes? Hovering platforms? More robots? Nicholas didn’t have any of those, so he would just have to figure something out. Another reason to avoid machines: they made people uninventive. He looked around for something nearby he could climb on, but the light pole was fairly isolated. None of the cars were tall enough to offer much of a boost. He examined the base of the pole, hoping to see if its footing had been weakened at all and if it could be easily tipped over, but it appeared to be relatively stable. The only option left was climbing. He clambered on top of the closest car and removed his cloak, twisting it tightly into a makeshift rope. He wrapped it around the pole and bound the ends around his hands. He put his feet to the pole and threw his weight against the rope, making it taught enough to hold him against the pole as he flicked his wrists to make it shimmy up it as he carefully stepped forward and up. He was about twenty-five feet in the air by the time he reached the robot. It was leaning forward where it hung, and he quickly grabbed its legs to climb onto its back. It was much bigger up close, and Nicholas had to admit, it was very well made. A torn chunk of armor in the arm revealed bundles of fiberoptic cable that looked almost like muscle. Part of the head casing was blown off, and inside were components that Nicholas couldn’t even fathom their purpose. The whole thing was colored of faded grays and blues, and it reeked of electric burn and ozone. Clearly, the weather was not this thing’s friend. Up close, Nicholas could easily here its beeping, and began to see how its alternating short and long beeps might be construed as code. “Be silent,” Nicholas muttered to the thing. Curiously, it stopped. Evidently, there was still some awareness within, which actually disturbed Nicholas even more. How could anything survive being in this condition for so long? He bent down to see what was keeping the robot up. A spoke in the pole was under its chest and supporting all of the weight. Nicholas wasn’t sure that it would hold for long since it was equally well-weathered, but he didn’t want to test it while he was on the robot. Come to think of it, it had held the robot’s weight this long and was now shouldering his as well, so it was doubtful it was going anywhere.