Steelheart (43 page)

A maintenance bot lay up ahead, belly up, treads churning. She started to pass the machine, started to leave the area, when a voice called from the wreckage. "Hey, beautiful, how 'bout a hand?"

Amy turned, saw Doon leaning against a sheet of smoke-blackened metal, and ran to his side. An arm was missing, and he looked at the stump. "There goes another one... Sojo will be pissed."

Amy laughed and threw her arms around the android's neck. Kissing wasn't supposed to mean anything, not to machines, but somehow it did.

 

 

 

Epilogue

 

 

Nano made their way down through hair-thin fissures, met in vaults deep within the planet, and exchanged information. Then, having assigned themselves billions of different missions, they went about the work they'd been designed to do.

Continental plates were eased, faults were repaired, and lakes of magma drained into the planet's core. Volcanos fell dormant, the quakes eased, and the weather began to clear.

Not much at first, but enough to help the crops grow, and bring the wildflowers back. Solly paused to enjoy the view, checked to make sure the furrow was straight, and whistled through his gills. The mutimal leaned into the harness, pulled the plow through the rich, moist earth, and toward the other end of the field. The wedge, exactly like the one Crono had ordered destroyed, lifted the dirt and folded it under.

It had been a long time since anyone had questioned the plow, how Solly met his beautiful wife, or what the crusade was like. And that, like the sun on the farmer's back, was very, very good.