"Call the ship? Is that something you can do, T1N?" Dotty threw herself at him and tried to shake him, but the android was as immovable as if he were a solid metal block.
"Can I?" he asked in a distant voice without taking his eyes from his creator.
"You can, yes. That, and so much more. You can attack and destroy any security software, invade any communication network and take control. But to do that you will need to awaken completely."
"Yes!" cried Dotty, still shaking him by the shoulders. "We can go home!"
"Your friend isn't going anywhere," Bella replied in a distorted voice. The effort of communicating was using up the last of her energy reserves. "Only the android." Her eyes were fixed on her creation.
"What?" T1N asked in shock. "If she's not coming, I'm not going anywhere."
"You don't understand." Bella closed her eyes.
One of the robots surprised Dotty from behind, binding her in its arms and lifting her off the ground.
"Let me go! You're hurting me!"
T1N spun around and his arms began to lengthen.
"If you resist, your friend will die." The way Bella said it, it wasn't a threat or an order. It was a statement of fact.
T1N lowered his arms.
"T1N, I brought you here to give you this mission and that's the most important thing right now. The girl stays. Alive or not, that depends on you. For what it's worth, she'll have much better odds of survival here than on Earth. Once the Hermes lands there, no one will want to return."
"Put me down! T1N, don't listen to her, she's crazy!" Dotty raged in her impotence.
T1N looked at Dotty. Seeing her suffer like this caused him an almost physical pain. He calculated the possibility that she could escape unharmed if he tried something. It was too risky. He balled his fists and glared at his creator.
Bella's rib cage opened outwards and the cables inside writhed about like so many tangled worms, creating a space in the centre of her chest. From that space, a tiny cube shone from within. The light was blinding white, bouncing off the android's skin and the walls or the cavern. A cable sprouted from inside the cube, and grew until it hung in front of the android. Its end matched the port in the base of T1N's neck.
"I want you to connect with me and with the city. I need you to break through the firewalls blocking communications and to contact the ship. You have to make it come back while we still have time."
"And afterwards?" T1N looked again to Dotty, who was kicking the air in an attempt to break free of the robot's grip.
"I want you to deactivate the purge protocol and board the ship with a little gift for the people of Earth." Bella stretched out one of her cables and it returned holding a small black vial. She pressed it against his chest and the bottle disappeared beneath his metal skin. "When you arrive, three years from now, you only have to throw that bottle into the sea. Simple, no? By then, I'll be dead. Such a shame I won't be around to see the end of their race."
"T1N! Don't do it, T1N! She's sick!" Dotty yelled with tears in her eyes. "Let them kill me! Just don't do it! Her thirst for revenge has driven her mad!"
T1N looked at the end of the cable that hung in front of him and then back to the girl.
"Please—" Dotty's voice cut off into a sob. "I don't want a whole planet to die for me."
Bella's mouth stretched into a smile and her eyes flashed with the same light as her chest.
"Let's go, son. Time is running out. Will you do it of your own free will? It would only take a word from me to override your autonomy. It's the right decision. The humans have never given you anything, but I gave you life. If we deal with them now we can stop their greed before it consumes any more resources or planets."
"No." T1N's voice echoed across the cramped cavern. "I would never bring the horrors of this moon to Earth. Millions of lives would be extinguished. Not everyone deserves that punishment. Your anger is speaking for you. Please reconsider, Bella."
"Very well. If that's all you have to say… The good thing about the intelligence of an android is that it can be switched off. Even yours."
Bella said three words that only T1N could hear. Her eyes flooded that dingy hole in the ground with blinding light. When she closed them again, the cable wrapped itself around T1N's legs, all the way up to the port in the back of his neck.
The twisted smile of that ancient woman froze Dotty's heart. She hung her head and cried, useless.