The cyborg and Richard were flabbergasted. The cyborg shouted, 'Holy stardust... ... what was that? Did he watched too many movies or what???'

'I'm not sure,' Richard answered. 'Robert watched more documentaries than movies, you know.'

'What?'

'Never mind.'

The cyborg approached the corpse of Robert and examined it a bit more closely.

'All his clothes burnt onto him. It'll difficult to see anything. His heart must be charcoal right now. Oops! I just kicked his leg away. Sorry about that. It was gone anyway. On the bright side, the head is still there.'

Richard was already doing his best at not looking, but he failed at not listening.

'Mind you,' the cyborg continued, 'it looks more like pulp than burnt flesh to be honest. Hum. Interesting. You never know, his brain might be still intact. Let's see.'

He deployed over Robert's head a sensor that he had recovered from under his breast plate.

'Oh boy. I think he's still alive. The encephalogram does detect activity... Besides, I'm pretty sure he just winked at me.'

Richard's legs fluttered and he sat down on the floor.

'Can you believe it? When you're initially brainless you can't become brain dead! Ah Ah. Hum. Sorry. Not the time. But, well, now, I'm gonna have to do something you probably don't want to see me doing. So I advise you to divert your eyes for a little while.'

'Could you please shut up! I'm not watching anything and I clearly wish not to hear anything either.'

'Oh right. Calm down. We need to calm down and be cooperative. You know, I'm only doing here what is required to save this hero. And that would be great if you could help your friend as much as I'm trying to help him now.'

'So listen to me, whenever you turn around, which I hope is pretty soon, you will realise that your friend's head can be saved using the cyborg technology. Well, your task will be to fetch an adequate cyborg device. It's important to be quick. It is a matter of life and death. He's got less than five minutes and after that he'll be gone for good. Seriously. Please, just look at me now and listen very carefully, I shall say this only once.'

Richard cowardly opened his eyes to face the cyborg. And in fact he was faced with two faces. The cyborg was holding Robert's severed head right beside his own. The slimy fishbowl containing the cyborg's head was opened up with a hole large enough to fit a brain through.

'Simple plan. My head goes out of the fishbowl, his head goes in. Then you put my head into the fishbowl of the dead cyborg under the rumbles, and you run to our cyborg ship and come back with a portable medic unit. All within five minutes, otherwise we both die. Is that crystal clear?'

The answer was not.

'Don't you mumble me. I need you to think and speak properly. Do you think you can do it?'

'I guess I have to try,' he pronounced.

'So be it.'

And before Richard could change his mind, the cyborg switched his head with Robert, and went still.

'Oh my... How am I gonna carry this? Oh... Shit. Hurry, boy!'

The other cyborg had fallen below a pile of debris blocking the entrance of the corridor leading to the shuttles. He would have to climb up the debris anyway to reach the shuttle. He moved a few chunks of plastic and metal to spot the other cyborg. But it was not sight but hearing that led him.

'I'm not dead yet either, you know. But I'm completely blocked down there... And he lied to you, you know that.'

'Shut up,' answered Richard, focusing on his retrieval task.

'There's no way a cyborg brain without a skull can survive more than one minute outside his fishbowl. He sacrificed himself to make sure the hero survives. You better run directly to the ship to save the only one that can be saved.'

'Shut up, I said.'

'But what do you expect by excavating me? You're losing time for your friend.'

'I'm executing the plan. He told me to put his brain into your fishbowl.'

'Wait, one cannot fit two brains in a fishbowl. That's ridiculous.'

'I guess we both have to try.'

'He's already dead, but you'll kill me. That's murder.'

'You just talked about sacrifice just before, you could do your part now' said Richard, at the same time as uncovering the cyborg's head from under a last chunk. 'Anyway, I need to hurry. Which button opens the bowl?'

'The red one.'

'Of course. Now stay calm. I don't want to let it slip away. Here we go. No worry, I'll go smooth. I think it's done. Good boy... And how do you close it?'

But there was no answer, so he went on to the next stage.

Richard stood up on the rumbles and looked at the long corridor he would have to run through. He tried to avoid any cutting edge while jumping safely onto the floor. But he fell unevenly and his left ankle twisted.

'Ouch,' gasped Richard as he fell heavily on the floor. It was followed by the unusual sound of something sliding on the floor for quite long. When he tried to see what it was, he couldn't spot the object and realised it was its glasses. He automatically checked by putting his hand to his face, but was surprised to glance at his own blood on his fingertips.

'Hurry,' he thought. He started running with a limp, but quickly settled for walking and looking around. He passed the furthest point where he thought his glasses might have escaped. Shit. He stopped, doubled backed and his first step crushed them for good. Shit shit shit.No point in staying. Run.

He tried to run faster despite the pain of his injured ankle and he fortunately arrived to the first hatch. It was empty. The next one opposite was a cargo. The cyborg commando would have on boarded from a warship shuttle, not a cargo. He estimated the distance to the next pair of hatches and, preparing himself to suffer, he sighed.

A muffled sound came from behind him. He let himself fall on the floor and turned around at the same time. No danger coming his way. His heart beat like never. He stood up again and from the corner of his eyes he saw a silhouette on the other side of the cargo hatch. The muffled sound again. A cyborg.That must be it. He grinned. He walked to the door. The cyborg was visibly shouting but not producing any words. The sound again. Maybe his fist on the door.

Richard did not even bother to communicate and directly pressed at random the buttons beside the hatch. The fourth produced a result: he could hear the cyborg.

'Stop removing the air out,' he shouted frantically. 'Push the two yellow buttons!'

'OK, ok. Sorry. But do you have a medic unit? Fetch it now!'

'We're OK. Don't worry.'

'Not that. How do you open the door then?'

'The red button.'

Of course.

The door instantly slid up into ceiling. Richard was exhausted but he managed to explain.

'There are three people decapitated but alive. I put the heads in fishbowls, 2 or 3 minutes ago. Hurry!'

'Understood.' And the cyborg dashed into the corridor.

'But wait, and the medic units,' asked a despaired Richard.

The cyborg was already too far. Richard sighed and turned back to fetch the medic unit himself. But a group of cyborgs, he hadn't heard coming out of the cargo, rushed past him. Or just about so. One of them actually walked on him, and incidentally shattered his other ankle.

'Oh sorry,' he heard just before he collapsed out of pain.'