Unfortunately, sleep did not come like he wanted. Despite the mental exhaustion from experiencing numerous psychological attacks from Herald, he couldn't rest. His mind was in a constant state of flux. He had spoken with Derrin with such confidence about escaping, but he was starting to doubt himself. Doubt was a strong word. More unsure about himself.
Before, he had just thought about himself. It was easy to take his own life for granted and do something rash. He was pretty good at that from the look of things. However, he couldn't afford to make the same foolhardy decisions. He needed to look out for Derrin now. Despite the man's confident exterior now that the Herald was gone, Red knew that he was hurting.
Everything that had happened to him was all directed at Derrin. Mentally, he must be reeling a whole lot worse than he himself was. Red knew from the brief snippets of conversation that the Gearborn needed some information from Derrin. Information, he was clearly not going to give up easily. That meant that this new blasted guy would tear it out of his mind.
Red would have liked just to ignore the problem entirely. Derrin got himself into this situation in the first place. It wasn't his job to try to get him out. But, he now owed Derrin a favor for all the information that he had been given. He couldn't simply let the guy die anymore, no matter how easy it would be.
So that left Red looking over the odds of proper escape instead of sleeping as he had intended. There were now two of them, and while he had never been in a proper fight, Derrin was experienced. According to the Herald, Derrin also possessed his first core layer, along with a strange defect. Red wasn't sure how he felt about that, but it didn't seem right to pry when they barely knew each other.
Still, this put him in a much better position if they needed to fight their way off the ship. Their odds were still practically zero, but practically zero was better than absolute zero. Red needed to find a way to avoid that, but he wasn't sure it would be possible. If he was being honest with himself, it felt much better not knowing anything about the blasted Herald.
Eventually, he gave up on trying to create a solution. There was going to be some sort of risk no matter what, and he was forced to accept that. Rolling over, Red stared at the place where he carved a map into the floor. It had seemed like such a great idea at the time, but now it was practically useless. He could create traps that would probably kill a regular Gearborn, but he had no idea how to damage this Steelforged Herald, let alone kill the thing. As much as he hated to admit it, they were in a predicament.
It would also take him at least another week to fully power up his shockblasters at his current rate. However, he was certain he didn't have that much time left. They might still have been heading deeper into Valencia, but the Herald would return and continue torturing information out of Derrin. Red was certain that his honor would prevent him from giving up anything important. That meant Derrin would most likely end up dead if he didn't move their plan along quickly.
Red barely registered the time passing before the latch at the end of the hallway clicked and the trapdoor swung open. He blinked in surprise and sat up in bed. What the hell was… He glanced at his tiny port window. The light was fading. It was already the evening. Where had the rest of the day gone? He squinted, trying to get a better view out the window. As expected, a storm was definitely coming.
With a sigh, he turned to see who the visitor was this time. Alpha came strolling down the hallway like he was the king of the place, which in a way he was. He held two trays of sludge this time. They brought water, which was good. Red was out of water, and he'd need it to wash the sickening stuff down.
Alpha smirked at him, "I see the Steelforged has gone and taught you some manners."
Red burst out laughing when he remembered what the Herald had said, "Oh, please. You don't even want to know what he said about you."
Alpha's face hardened, "He said something about me…"
"Indeed, it was something as he walked around acting like there was a gear stuck in his nut."
Red heard a choked cough come from Derrin's cell.
"A gear stuck in my nut!" Alpha howled, "What did you do to make him say such things? You crazed miscreants. This is your doing! If not for you, I'd be in good standing with the Steelforged."
Although he was currently teasing Alpha, Red was in no mood to joke around. He had too much on his mind at the moment. If not for the goop and cold water, he would have preferred Alpha not come at all. But just because he wasn't in the mood for it didn't mean he could stop. That would ruin his carefully cultivated image as an unshakable humorist.
"You know now that we're such good friends…do you think you could tell me the Steelforged's name? I mean, it would be such a great surprise for him if I suddenly knew what to call him the next time he came down here," Red asked innocently.
"Do you think I'd ever tell a lowly human like you something like that?" Alpha growled.
"I didn't know there was something wrong about it," Red suddenly whispered conspiratorially, "Is his name weird? Is that why you are so scared to say it?"
"No, his name is not weird, you blasted scum. It is just undeserving of coming from your mouth."
"Are you saying I'm too good to even say his name?"
Alpha's entire face seemed to grow to a shade of crimson. Red heard a choked cough coming from Derrin's cell that he thought was some sort of warning. Honestly, this was probably the best part of his day so far. Well, other than the morning. The Gearborn was always just so tolerable. It was so strange.
A roar of angry beeps exploded from Alpha's mouth, "You beep I'm going to beeeeep boop and beep beeep your beeep beep you."
It was as if the gearborn's entire voice box had broken. Instead of sounding like talking, it was coming out all broken.
"Calm yourself," Red said hurriedly, "Who knows what would happen if you break something in there?"
The Gearborn glared daggers at him. To Red's utter surprise, a slight smile twitched at the corners of Alpha's face. Well, it looked more like the entire face plate of the robot was vibrating slightly. Red assumed he was trying to smile at least.
"I think you have forgotten something. If the captain will not teach you manners, then I will."
Red blinked, "What?"
Alpha waved the tray in front of Red's cell, then turned away. "Until you learn better manners, I'll be keeping this."
Red unconsciously took a step forward in surprise, then paused. He decided not to argue. It would be interesting to see who could play out this game longer. Obviously, he would starve if he didn't eat for a while. But Red had a feeling the herald wouldn't allow that to happen. So either he would be forced to cave, or the herald would force Alpha to give.
The Gearborn clearly wanted him to argue back, which was precisely why he didn't. An irritated sniff escaped Alpha's mouth, but he turned and walked on just like he said he would. Red sighed and flopped back down on his mattress, which groaned ominously. He was sure what was worse: Going hungry or eating that gut-wrenching gunk.
After Alpha left, Derrin asked, "Do you do something that stupid every time a Gearborn comes down here?"
"Pretty much."
"I see."
Red lay on his mattress well into the night. Derrin didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. Either that or he had gone to sleep already. Red was just fine with that. All he wanted to think about was the following morning. His stomach grumbled irritably, and he sighed. This would get annoying quickly, but he was sure there wasn't much else he could do about the situation. Keeping his mouth shut was definitely never going to happen.
He listened to the rain pelt against the window for a long time. The occasional flash of lightning caused a slight glint to illuminate his cell, but the thunder was all muffled out. He thought it was muffled at least until a resounding thoom thoom shook the boat. Red sat up. He tasted a strange metallic flavor in the air. The taste reminded him of when he'd fire his guns. The winding up always left him tasting a slight hint of electrical energy.
"That was a lot louder than before," He muttered, "I wonder if they got hit…"
Before he could finish his statement, he was thrown from his cot and slammed into the floor with a loud crunch.