What's in a name

He spent quite a bit of the morning carefully removing components from the destroyed robot and carefully inserting the required components in to the damaged robot and himself. He replaced his broken eye but the other was too damaged to be a suitable replacement for his other eye. A few replaced joints for a better range of movement, but that was about all he could do for now.

For the other, as he was calling it for now. He had to replace several components in the skull and spine region. Along with several portions of their torso, where they were attacked.

The only thing left to do was to turn them back on. And he found himself hesitating. This was the point of no return. All the negative possibilities were weighing on his consciousnesses while the positive possibilities were encouraging him forward. Positivity won out as he connected the last wires and the other sparked back to life.

The other slowly raised them selves up. "What the hell?"

He heard it not from his ears but in his mind. "What the hell?"

"That's what I said."

"So, am I hearing what he is thinking, or what he is intending to say?"

"It's what I am thinking. Who are you anyway?" The other said turning his attention to the individual talking and listening inside his head.

"That's, a complicated question to answer."

"I'll settle for just a name."

"The name I was given first was probably Nick Landen Marsh, But..."

"Nice to meet you Nick" The other cut in to Nicks mental ramble. "My name is Hasso Alexis Brando, you can call me Hasso."

"But those are only the names given to us buy knowledge that could be faulty or lies. Not to mention the name of these things we are in. What was their name?" Nick asked pointing to the destroyed robot.

"I don't know and I don't care. I name myself Hasso Alexis Brando and anybody that objects say so now."

"But what if an objection comes to you later?"

"I will deal with it then, for now I have more important things to worry about."

"Such as?" Nick asked genuinely inquisitive of what that might be.

Hasso making a point to walk away from Nick. "Severing this mental link. If I have to hear every thought that pops up in your mind. I just might have to kill myself."

Nick slowly walking away like an injured puppy. "Sorry"

"It's not your fault, but I need some silence for a while if you can muster it."

"Will do." Nick said trying to think of anything but words.

- - -

Several agonizing moments later Hasso came walking back to Nick. "I think I got it."

Hasso performed some crewed gestures towards Nick forcing the question "Is that how you activate it?"

"Can you hear me now?"

"Yes"

Hasso walked over to the destroyed robot looking for something."This communication is equivalent to a radio with three settings. The one we have been broadcasting on was mind setting. Then there is verbal and ping. Verbal is like it sounds and what I am on right now. Ping is just that, a single note notification send and receive."

"Why am I not able to switch between them myself?" Nick pondered to nobody in particular.

Hasso picked up what he was looking for. "Probably because your system was analyzing what it needed while you had nobody else to hear your thoughts. This is also damaged but unlike yours that is stuck between mind and verbal, mind is not accessible."

Nick turned his back to Hasso so he could replace the module. "So an upgrade in other words."

Hasso hesitated to start. "You won't be able to talk for a while."

Nick chose what words to be his last for a while. "Don't be too happy." And with that Hasso started the procedure.

- - -

Nicks firs words back were "Thanks for the help."

Hasso feeling a little sorry for how he treated Nick just a few moments ago. "I should be thanking you. You brought me back to life."

Nick was starting to feel uncomfortable. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Hasso relaxed "Not at all."

"Your name is German correct?"

"Yes, born, raised and was still living in Germany. If the information is correct."

"Well your English is flawless."

"I don't speak English well at all. It must be a module translating us."

"That should be useful."

"Indeed. We don't know where on earth we are."

Nick was working his emotions up. "Or even if this is earth. Last night I saw two orbiting bodies in the sky"

This peaked Hasso's interest. "Was it two moons?"

Nick pointed to his eye regretfully. "All I had at the time was this damaged eye. I could only see the light and trajectory of the heavenly bodies."

"So, if this is earth, it's not our earth."

"Undoubtedly"

Hasso looked over at the destroyed robot and the damage in his own mechanical body. "And the natives are definitly hostel."

Nick made a point to look around. "And we don't know which way to go from here."

"Switch over to ping"

When Nick switched over to ping he heard a loud noise coming from several directions. Like a lot of notes were being struck at the same time. The loudest was coming from Hasso but the second was cumming from the east. Nick walked towards the east and looked back at Hasso. Hasso then pointed to his ears and mouth.

Nick switched back to verbal. "What was that?"

Hasso pointed towards the east. "It's a ping signal. That's probably the closest signal to us."

"What do you mean probably?"

"You heard my signal, right? Your right next to me and that is why it was so loud. But that one was louder than the others but we don't see anything."

"Ok. So the signal strength is much much bigger but we don't know how much bigger."

Hasso shrugged his shoulders in resignation. "No matter what size it is, if we follow it we will find it. But if it's the strongest signal on the planet?"

Nick finished the thought. "It's going to be one hell of a walk."

Hasso stopped Nick."By the way, I don't hear a ping at all from the destroyed robot, but I heard two from you. The second was barely noticeable but I heard it."

Nick opened a small compartment on his chest revealing a cavity filled with a cylindrical object with a jumble of cut wires, gears and scratches and holes from whatever destroyed the robot. "It just didn't fell right leaving this behind."

Hasso got up "I guess we don't need anything else from here. Lets get going." As they both set off towards the horizon.