A/N: This one's short, I know. So kill me.

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CHAPTER 3

Everyone froze.

“Keep going, you idiots, if you want to live.” Nobody moved. To prevent further wasting of time, Amadeus tapped his temple, saying, “Heat imaging. Let’s go.”

“We crash on a house, a girl somehow manages to survive it, and you refuse to go to her aid?” Lorrie asked as she held onto Elric, her face sour.

“What kind of monster are they making at the Republic these days?” came T-ron’s cutting follow-up.

“Get moving!” Amadeus said loudly. The only movement that registered in his temporal lobe was that of Lorrie. She relinquished Elric’s support to approach Amadeus, sticking an accusing finger in his face.

“Not until you help that poor soul. We may all die anyway, am I correct?’

The android blanched. They left him no choice but to comply. He could force them to go on, but Lorrie was right, they could all die anyway. At least in the couple minutes it would take him to get to the crash survivor, the others could rest.

T-ron and Kelgek cried out in alarm as Amadeus’s support suddenly left them. They clasped each other, but fell to the ground anyway. Elric moved to help them up.

Amadeus already knew where she was. The girl lay under the nose of the ship, near one of two walls in the house that had not yet given out. As he approached, visual details became clearer. The PAU had ground her leg into the floor, and her arm had been pulverized by falling debris. Amadeus’s circuits nearly shorted at the knowledge of such staggering damage to a body, of the amount of pain she must be in. He heard her cry “Sudran! Vydran!” as he worked his way to her, stepping over rubbish and removing larger obstacles from his path.

Still holding his head with one hand, he butted his shoulder against a huge chunk of the ceiling and pushed it to one side, exposing the girl in front of him. Her arm had been underneath that massive chunk of ceiling, and it was only intact to her elbow. His sympathy circuit kicked in without warning. She was covered in her own blood, gasping. At the sight of Amadeus, she turned to hysterics, flailing about, her eyes wide.

“Hu! kad yfyo, tasuh!”

He let go of his head. It slumped forward as he reached down to wrap his arms around the girl. She tried to scoot away, and more blood gushed from her crushed limbs. Why had she not died? There was much less blood than there should have been from her injuries, yet there she was, very much alive.

“Kad yfyo! Mayja sa!” she screamed as he touched her. He pulled on her gently to test the strength of the crushed leg. Her anguished cry rose up from the clutter. The bone was broken and the flesh was a mess. Being an android, Amadeus was ten times as strong as a human, but moving the entire ship was hopeless. All he could do was pull on the girl until her body separated from her crushed leg. It was brutal, but there was no time.

“Tasuh! Vemdr! Ku pylg du Ramm!” He adjusted his body; his head moved slightly, and he looked at her. Their eyes met, his gaze cold and unfeeling, hers fiery with hate. Time seemed to stop. He muttered an apology, and in one swift movement, ripped her free of the crushed leg. The sound that escaped her lips was unmatched by any, living or dead. It was not long before she lost consciousness as Amadeus carried her through the wreckage, muttering until her lips said no more.

“Eh kut E bid so dnicd, du cibbund yht cdnahkdrah sa. Ra fru huf fydlrac ujan so sudran yht vydran eh rayjah crymm cuuh knaad sa yc famm. Dra Munt ec so crabrant, E crymm hud vayn...”