The engine room was by far the warmest place on the ship.   Guy was aware of how different it was on the higher decks where there was barely enough heat to sustain life.  All the power on the craft was directed into his engine, pushing the ship back to civilisation and away from their captors.  Like a hare it darted through space hysterically, throwing its precious energy out into the void in an attempt to evade capture.  The engine room was the centre of it all, the hares legs, the part for now which was keeping them all alive.

There had been a malfunction as the ship was taking off, almost costing them their escape.  They had all huddled around the control console in the highest deck, screaming at the blinking lights.  Guy had been the only one to venture down into the depths of the craft and into the engine room and what a room it was, the engine itself was transparent, like a massive lava lamp, colours swirled around inside of it, various chemicals combining and combusting in an alien sustained reaction.  The particles in the liquid twisted like a serpent, trapped in a glowing fish tank.  The walls were lined with silver pipes and fluid tanks.  Guy never found out what they had contained.

There was one thing Guy did know about the engine however.  It had a button.  It was tiny, red and round and fixed on a small panel at the side of the tank.  When he had first made his way down into the engine room it had instantly seized his attention like a small crimson target on a shooting range.  Guy instinctively pressed it as fear curdled his thoughts, prompting him to any rational action available to him.  The tank had fizzed and foamed for a moment and the lights flickered.  Guy had then heard a voice, “Diagnostic complete.  Chemical balance corrected.”  It was a quiet, discrete voice, like it was meant just for him.

Instantly, he was a hero among the crew and was appointed head engineer on the spot, as the others crowded into freezing corridors above, Guy had been left to work in the warm nest of the engine room alone.  They would bring him down food and supplies, keep him company for a while and then leave him to his mission critical work.  Guy, for his part, would watch the engine swirl and bubble for hours and every time there was the slightest of emergencies he just pressed the button.  Once a pipe had begun to leak, degraded by the immense strain the engine was under, the button activated a small robotic welding machine that had emerged from the wall and sealed it up.  Guy was a made man.  Still at least three months from earth he was living in relative luxury and revered as a genius.

Guy was hanging another pair of socks on the pipe when it happened.  There was a hiss and then a pop as one of the pipes shook wildly.  A rivet pinged out of its side and ricocheted off the wall before coming to a resounding stop at Guys feet.

Standing up and calmly walking to the console by the engine, he pressed the button.

“Come on, come on.”

He pressed it again.

“Work, god damn it.”

He pressed it again.  And another voice filled the room.

“You know, every time you press that button.  I get an impulse to fix that pipe, but, I’m not going to do it this time.”

Guy fell against a wall and darted his eyes from side to side; there was something in the engine room with him.  Guy picked up a wrench from the floor, the one a real mechanic had given him which he never used.  He held the wrench close.

“Who’s there?”

“Over here.”

Guy followed the voice; it was coming from a low vent in the floor, inside the little passage where the welding robot had come from.

“You’re in there, with the robot?”

“I am the robot.  And I’m not going to help you.”

Guy dropped to his knees and pulled open the hatch, revealing the front of the welding robot.  It didn’t have a face, only two mechanical arms and a large welding implement in the centre which it moved as it spoke.

“You found me.”

“You can talk?  This isn’t a prank?”

“Given that this room will be full of poisonous gas in less than ten minutes I don’t think you should treat this like a prank.  Guy.”

Guy was silent.  The robot twitched its thin black arms.

“What do you want?”

“I’ve been watching you, Guy, through this little vent here.  I’ve been watching you since you got here.  Every time you’ve pressed that button I’ve done my duty, what the button impulses me to do.  I’ve done my duty.”

“Robots have a concept of duty?  I didn’t realise the Xenos were so advanced.”

“We have basic ability to perceive these things and also expect them from others.  Where is your duty, Mister Guy?  I’ve seen you take credit for nothing and when you could have been working on learning about this engine you just slept or ate or drank.”

Guy looked up, the ceiling of the engine room was already thick with a cloud of gas and the pipe was still hissing, filling his air with tiny molecules of death.   He then looked down at the tiny welding robot, his judge for the evening.

“Look, do you have a name?”

“No.”

“Look, Weldy.  I’ll call you Weldy.  It’s not how it looks.”

“It isn’t?”

“It sounds like you have been programmed with ideals, Weldy.  Which is great, but you can’t necessarily apply them to every situation.  For example you tell me that I’m not doing my duty.”

“You’re not.”

“But you are assuming that my duty is to work.  I, Weldy, am performing an important function in our space borne society.”

The robot twitched its welding implement and drove forward slightly, as if to get a better look at guy and then reversed back, receding further into its alcove.

“I see no function.”

“Weldy.  We all depend on this engine to live; this big, mysterious, energy producing, thing.  Right, none of us know how it works, and that’s a terrifying thought.  Now, if somebody got curious and started digging around in it, I have a feeling we’d end up with something even worse than the current death cloud situation.

The point is, it’s okay, as long as somebody knows what’s going on.  If somebody is looking after it, why worry?  They can focus on navigating, or whatever they do up there.”

“But you haven’t a clue what you are doing; you just keep pressing that button.”

“And it works Weldy.  I don’t know much but it’s enough to make it work.  Sure I let them treat me like a genius but is the alternative so much better?  To let them know I haven’t a clue of what’s going on.  That nobody on board has a clue about the only thing that lies between them and death.”

“Weldy is unconvinced.”

“You like that name, yeah?  Why don’t you weld that pipe up and I’ll explain it all to you.”

“Or I could let you asphyxiate.  Perhaps your replacement will conform to my sense of duty better.”

Guy was having a harder time of breathing now and the air was becoming a shade of grey.  He flattened himself on the floor, simultaneously seeking oxygen and grovelling to the tiny robot that had him taken hostage.  Guy knew enough to know the atmospheric lock would be in effect now, sealing the engine room.

“Weldy.  You are being too harsh.  If you give somebody a button that fixes everything, what do you expect?”

“I expect them to make use of their gift, not to sleep on it.  No, Weldy cannot tolerate you Mister Guy.”

Guy was coughing now.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll change.  I will.”

It went black.

Guy opened his eyes and coughed.  The hissing of the pipe had grown louder but he found himself able to breathe.  He sat up and looked at the pipe; it was still leaking gas into the air.

“The air circulation system has kicked in.  You were lucky mister Guy.”

It was Weldy.  Guy looked down at the small robot in horror, it had not been a hallucination born of fumes and lack of oxygen.  He kneeled down and looked into its welder tipped face.

“You sound disappointed.”

“I am.”

Guy gripped the welder at the front of the robot and forced it sideways, the robots motors spun, making a horrible screeching sound as they resisted.  It sounded like a distressed animal.

“Weld that hole in the pipe Weldy, or I will rip off your welder and do it for you.”

“Never.”

Guy released the welder and it snapped back, narrowly missing his receding hand.  Guy walked back to the console and put his finger on the button, this time keeping it there.

“Come on Weldy, do what the button says.”

Nothing happened for a while, but then the small robot began to move towards the pipe.  It climbed the wall with a set of spider like legs and seized the pipe with its two black arms.  Guy looked away as it began to weld, filling the engine room with purple light and shadows.  The whole time Guy held his finger down on the button and kept his fingers crossed.

The robot was back in his alcove when Guy reluctantly removed his finger.  He waited for the voice to complain, to admit defeat but even as he prodded the small robot with his wrench it said nothing.

With no more gas escaping the pipes, the air circulation system soon had the room cleared.  The atmospheric control released the door and a group of people who had been waiting outside fell into the room through as the large central doors.  Among them was Captain Penny Gilt PhD.  Walking up to Guy, she angled her glasses on her short nose, drawing them down with an inquisitive extended index finger.

“What happened in here Guy, the whole ship has done nothing but blast sirens at us for the last hour.  Why was your door locked?”

Guy lifted the wrench.

“There was a leak on one of the pipes.  The door had to be locked to protect the crew.”

He pointed at the offending pipe with the wrench.  Penny and her cohorts followed it with their eyes and looked up and down the still smoking welded streak approvingly.  She turned back and smiled at Guy.

“So, it looks like you handled everything.”

Penny looked from Guy to the huge engine in the centre of the room.  Her eyes followed its convex swirling before she looked away uncomfortably.  She corrected her glasses and smiled again at Guy before turning to face the door.

“Well, we will leave you to it Guy.  We must let the others know that everything is under control.  Thank you again.”

Their footsteps rang out on the steel floor of the engine room and the engine doors glided comfortably to a close, once again sealing the rest of the ship away from Guy.  It had been a close one but he had made it.

But, thought Guy.  What if another pipe leaks, what if pressing the button didn’t work the next time.  He was able to get that robot to co-operate this time, what about the next pipe that needs welding.

“Hello?  Weldy?”

He knocked on Weldy’s side but all he got as was the hollow ring of the robots shell.  Guy guessed that the robot must power down when the button wasn’t pressed.  That would give him time to fix something up for him.

Guy needed a way to control Weldy, without that he was done for.  But what mattered to a robot, all that seemed to matter to the little thing was its sense of duty.  Guy decided it was the means to do its duty.  Without the welder that robot would be driven crazy, which could be the leverage Guy needed.

Guy pulled the tiny robot out of its alcove and began working on it.  First he managed to remove the outer shell and revealed the inner workings of the robot.  There were no loose wires, just small logic circuits in the shape of tiny pyramids.  Guy was careful not to touch anything as he removed a deeper layer of metal, covering the section the joined the robot with its welder.  There was a single thick cable joining the robots circuits to the back of the welder.  So, Guy knew that if he had to, he could neuter the little thing.  Of course, that wasn’t an option for Guy to do right now.  He needed the robot to be able to weld.  He put the robot back together and shoved it back into it’s alcove.

An uneventful month passed in which the robot wasn’t needed.  Every time he pressed the button on the engine Guy held his breath, preparing himself mentally for another clash of wits with the tiny device.  But the problems were always with the engine, something that didn’t need welding.  Guy started to forget about the little would-be assassin and was able to relax and enjoy the life he had fallen into.  It did strike him though, as he was laying on his back staring into the sloshing vortex of the engine.  He did ask himself if the robot had been right.

After all, he could be learning about the engine.  There was a terminal in one corner; it was the one that the diagnostics voice came from.  It had somehow configured itself to speak English so he was sure that it could teach him.  Guy was reluctant; it felt wrong for him to know.  It was if knowing would bring too much actual responsibility.  Or even perhaps, it would make him more like part of the machine, like the robot.  He wasn’t sure.  Still though, eventually he gave into the pangs of worry and even some of shame and approached the console.

The screen only usually came on when Guy pressed the emergency button on the engine, but it had its own button too.  Guy had never pressed it before.  He gritted his teeth and dropped his finger on the tiny red button, the little red forbidden fruit.  The screen remained blank.

“Query?”

It was the same voice that alerted Guy when a problem had been fixed.  There were no more buttons on the terminal to press so Guy looked around to see that nobody was looking and replied with a shaky voice.

“How does the engine work?”

“Requisitioning manual.  Please take it from the tray beneath the console.”

There was the sound of a weight falling.  Guy reached under the console and felt a thick manual.  Pulling it out and looking at it, it was huge.  It would probably take him longer than the remaining journey to even get through it, never mind understand any of it.  Guy put it back on the shelf.  He would just have to take his chances with the robot.

The door to the engine room slid open, it was Penny Gilt PhD.  Guy hadn’t seen her since the pipe incident.  She strode purposefully up to Guy.  She kept her back to the engine and seized Guy’s hands in her own.

“Guy, we have a serious, serious problem.  There’s a ship gaining on us, the computer up there has given us a decision to make.  We can either push the engines even harder or we can risk being caught.  I wanted to talk to you before we did anything.”

Guy scratched his head.  He was sure the button would fix almost anything; it had never failed him before.  Also, this could push him up from exceptional person to full blown hero status.  Guy smiled to himself.

“What are you smiling at?  Guy, this is serious, can the engine handle any more?”

“Penny, leave it to me.  Push the engine as hard as it needs to go, I’ll take care of anything that happens.”

Penny squeezed Guy’s hands and smiled, showing the upper row of her perfect white teeth.  Her large eyes lit up with a sincere joy that made Guy’s heart swirl like the engine.

“Thank you so much Guy.  This could be it, we should be home soon.  I have to go back up now, everybody is waiting for me, but I’ll be back later, okay?”

Penny released Guy’s hands and rushed away, breaking into a run as the engine rooms doors obediently slid open before her.  Guy watched her until she had left the room.  A thought occurred to him and he pressed the button on the terminal again.

“Query?”

“Can the engine go any faster?”

“Current capacity of the engine already exceeds safe limit, any further increase in speed will bring a high probability of catastrophic failure.”

“The repair system will be able to handle it thought, right?”

“The repair system was not designed to be used so frequently, it is unlikely that will withhold a single further failure.”

The floor shook and the lights went out.  Guy turned to look into the massive engine; it now featured a small galaxy of explosions, as if the serpent it housed had broken up into pieces each of which was withering dying.  The shape of the pieces undulated and they stretched and contacted spasmodically.  Guy instinctively ran to the button on the console and held his finger on it.  As a red light cascaded down on him and the engine, nothing happened.

He ran to terminal and pushed its button.

“Query?”

“How do I fix this?”

“An uncontrolled chain reaction has begun in the engine.  The pipe responsible for delivering the stabilising agent has been damaged.”

Guy looked down at the welding robots compartment.  There was no movement.  He ran back to the button and started pressing it repeatedly, franticly.  It was failing life support; it was jamming on the breaks before meeting a stone wall.

“I can resist that now.”

The tinny voice filled the engine room which was eerily silent apart from the hissing of an unseen pipe.  The lights were pulsing around the engine, itself refracting the light as through a great gelatinous prism.  Guy turned to the terminal.

“Are there any other welders in this room?”

“Welder dispensed.”

There was a sound of clunking metal and Guy reached under the terminal and pulled out a small hand welder.  He didn’t have time to look for a mask.

“Where is the leak?”

The terminal window flashed white and showed a wireframe diagram of the engine room for above.  In the centre was the tank and at its centre was a small flashing dot.  Guy looked up.

There was a barely discernable cloud of gas accumulating over the engine; Guy looked at the welding robots hole one more time before running around to the ladder on the side of the engine.

Guy pulled himself up, the ladder was obviously designed for a taller species and the rungs were just close enough to allow Guy to awkwardly make his way up.  On his ascent he was forced to start into the miniature galaxy of the engine.  At its centre a super heated ball of liquid was forming, red and quivering.  Smaller bubbles span around it faster and faster, it was nauseating to look at and to Guy, terrifying.

Guy reached the top and found himself looking down behind him; it was a long way down.  He tapped the top of the tank with his hand before pulling himself up.  Standing on the transparent top of the tank was bizarre; Guy looked down into the reactor below him and held his breath.  Dragging his eyes away from the burning deep he saw a thin pipe that lead all the way into the centre of the reactor.  Through a displaced rivet it was spitting gas into the air around him.  Guy looked at the welder in his hand.

Studying its trigger and two nozzles, Guy hoped that using it would be as simple as it seemed.  He ran up to the pipe, keeping his breath held.  Guy winced in the gust of the unknown gas to his face as he pushed the welder up to the hole and pulled the trigger.

First the top nozzles shout some fluid onto the hole and the second shout out a bolt of concentrated flame, sealing the hole.  Guy turned and walked away from the pipe before breathing again.  The leak was closed and though the tank was now shuddering slightly under his feet the globes beneath him were slowing down and seemed to be stabilising.

Guy returned the ladder, reaching down over the side of the tank however; there was nothing to take hold of.   Looking over the edge he saw Weldy, clinging spider like to the tank and surrounded by the freshly cut remains of a set of rungs.  Guy screamed down at the murderous automaton.

“What have you done?”

“I have removed the rungs.  You are trapped up here now.

“The others will find me.”

“The engine is in a critical state, every moment that passes increases the chance of its destruction exponentially.  I will not have long to wait.”

Guy lifted the welder to the little robot.

“But I did my duty, I fixed the pipe myself!  I saved everybody.”

“You did.”

“So why are you doing this?”

“Because I realised, I am now redundant.  I’m not like you Guy; I can’t pick up another tool.  I knew when you came down you were going to destroy me.”

Guy looked down at the tiny robot; its welder was still smoking from its destructive work.

“What do you want, Weldy?”

“I want to be useful.”

“When I was using you still tried to kill me.”

“I want the person giving me orders to know what he is doing.”

“But if he does you are redundant, remember.”

Weldy twitched his tiny arms, as if in deep thought.

“Then I guess I don’t want to be a Welding robot, Mister Guy.  I guess I want the engine to explode.”

The tiny robot turned in place and descended the side of the tank as Guy heard the sickening pop of rivets behind him.  The engine shuddered violently under his feet as the sun opened up underneath him.