Parker Interstellar Travels 4: The Trilisk Hunt Page 15

  Kraaaaaack.

  The entire house sounded as if it were being torn apart. After watching the huge shelled machine smash into her room, Siobhan believed it was being torn apart.

  I should jump back toward the others. Caden is closest.

  Siobhan took one deep breath and a second to orient herself. Caden was that way. Siobhan jumped to her left and looked for a passageway in the direction she needed. Another disc robot appeared ahead to the right of her new orientation. Siobhan fired her stunner at it twice. Nothing happened so she tossed the stunner at the thing and grabbed her shock baton.

  I can hit it before those stubby legs—

  Zipfft!

  The disc popped like a small-caliber projectile weapon. One of her attendants darted in front of her, knocking a projectile off its path.

  Frackjammers!

  Siobhan jumped forward with all the muscle in her new legs and swung the shock baton. It struck the flat machine and sent sparks flying. Her hand hurt from the impact. Siobhan did not stop to assess the damage, if any. She simply charged on and struck a window. It resisted her assault until she thrust the baton into it, which popped the transparent pane out and sent it flying from the house.

  Siobhan leaped through the circular hole. Behind her a wave of heat cut through the room. She could feel it on the bottom of her feet and the back of her calves even through the combat suit.

  On the other side, Siobhan almost broke free from the building’s exterior attraction. She rolled and came back into contact with the house. It took her a second to pick Caden’s house. Smoke roiled out of the window she had just exited. Then Siobhan squatted low and launched herself at the other building with all her might.

  She flew out into the sky. She quickly saw she was not alone. At least a dozen flying machines were in view. Most of them were the flat disks, but she saw other shapes as well.

  One of her attendant spheres blurred beside her and exploded.

  “What!” she exclaimed.

  It must have intercepted a threat. I’m a sitting duck out here!

  Siobhan looked back toward the house she had left. She caught her breath. An army of floating machines converged on it. She saw the dark disc-shaped bugs, another torpedo machine, and some multi-armed things that had attached to the outside. The huge shelled robot was out of sight. She decided it must still be inside the remains of the building.

  Her last attendant machine darted nervously.

  Oh no…

  Thwack! Zip.

  She heard a loud smack and the whirr of a ricochet. Her attendant did not explode this time. It seemed to be functioning.

  Hang on! I’m not even half there yet!

  The attendant disappeared, then she heard another loud bang from nearby. She looked around. It was gone.

  What do I need to do? she asked herself frantically. It’s out of my hands; there’s nothing I can do to ensure my survival this time… I should have another weapon!

  Siobhan told the clasps on her pack to disengage. Her equipment separated from her, flying steadily away.

  One more target for those things, if they can’t tell the difference.

  Dread grabbed her as she saw something coming from ahead. It would arrive in a second.

  This is it.

  Her heightened reflexes allowed her to move her shock baton in front of her face. The protection felt inadequate, but she did not know what else to do. The object resolved into an attendant sphere that matched her vector.

  Another attendant! Someone sent me another attendant!

  The attendant darted to one side and smacked away a projectile. Siobhan’s eye captured an after-image of a piece of shrapnel whirring away with a high spin. The attendant was not destroyed. The building ahead grew rapidly as she approached.

  Siobhan connected to the attendant with her link. It told her it belonged to Caden.

  Thanks man… or is he dead?

  “Caden?” she transmitted. “You alive?”

  “I am, but you won’t be for long if you don’t get your ass under cover,” Caden’s voice came through her link.

  “You would have done the same if a giant jamming turtle machine smashed your house to smithereens.”

  The house before Siobhan started to grow. She was almost there!

  “The others are coming for us,” Caden said. She caught sight of him just inside a door on the face of the house she was about to land on. Siobhan could not change her course, especially now that she had lost her pack with the compressed air cannister, but she mentally prepared to dash for the door.

  Siobhan gracefully opened her arms and let her feet slide toward the front by forming a T-shape. Then she landed. She was not quite straight in time, but it did not matter. She rolled and then scampered for the door.

  Booom. Booom.

  Caden fired a couple of shots right before she arrived. Then she dove in, and they were inside the building.

  “It got dicey for a minute or two. Are you hit?” Caden sounded hyper.

  Siobhan staggered across the room and took new cover.

  “I’m alive,” she croaked. “Not hurt.”

  Siobhan gulped in huge quantities of air. She put her hands on her hips and took it all in. She had barely survived! She let off some steam. “Wooooo!”

  “You’re crazy woman,” Caden said, but it sounded like a compliment.

  Siobhan kept low, smiled, and basked in the aftermath of a heavy rush.

  “What the…?” Caden started, looking back into the room.

  “What do we have?” Siobhan said, raising her shock baton. “I used all my grenades! And I had to ditch my pack.”

  “No, it’s just that… I swear, there was a Blackvine right there a minute ago. It left!”

  “I wouldn’t stay here either with all the crap going down!”

  “Where the hell did it go?”

  “Someplace not under attack. I guess Maxsym was right when he said they could move. We’ll catch up to it later.”

  Chapter 17

  Cilreth arrived back at her quarters after her twelve-hour shift. She sighed. Her brain reeled from long hours of study.

  With a shock, she realized someone was in her quarters. A woman. She stared in disbelief at the perfect copy of herself.

  Cilreth2. Wait. Or am I Cilreth2?

  The copy looked as if she had just awakened. “What! Am I dreaming?” Cilreth2 asked.

  “Shiny!” Cilreth transmitted. “What’s going on?” There was an awkward delay while she stared at herself.

  “Cilreth planned to use Clacker, duplicates her mental configuration, design, structure,” Shiny said. “Supersedure more efficient.”

  “I thought we wouldn’t both be awake at the same time!” Cilreth replied. From the way her copy just stood there, she must have been having a simultaneous conversation with Shiny.

  “State change late to commit. Duplicate on schedule.”

  Oh crap. I forgot to commit my mental state when I finished.

  Cilreth usually worked in a private room she had prayed up for the purpose: a dark, cozy area with no distractions. But today she had felt like real exercise, had taken a run around the Clacker, and ended up in a beautiful, faux-sunny atrium to work. The change of routine had caused her to skip her habit of backup upon completion of work.

  “Sorry, I’m fried,” she said to herself.

  She walked farther in, allowing the door to close behind her. Her hand started to unzip her suit, then slowed as her eyes locked with Cilreth2. The zipper went lower, lower, and finally stopped at her belly button.

  They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “You must be—” they said simultaneously.

  Thinking what I’m thinking.

  They approached each other. Cilreth reached out, testing the contact. It felt surreal be so close to a perfect copy.

  Cilreth2 drew her in closer. They kissed. Cilreth felt something powerful. Her months of seclusion had seen to it. Virtual romps were common and hel
pful, but this was in the flesh. The two Cilreths orbited each other clumsily then fell into the sleep web, breathing heavily.

  Madness! Oh that feels so good.

  ***

  “We’re being fired upon!” Siobhan’s voice called out as the swarm neared the perimeter buildings holding Siobhan and Caden.

  “Hold tight,” Magnus said.

  “Let’s go back them up,” Telisa said.

  “Hold here. There are soldiers out there. Let’s see what these things can do. Arakaki and I have long-range projectile weapons. We’ll try some fire support.”

  Telisa realized Magnus was right. The tactical showed an army of machines coming in to assault. If they went outside, they would be targets to more than a hundred enemies. Already two soldier robots were gone. Then three, then four.

  “We’ll be pinned in here within thirty seconds,” Imanol said.

  “Just sit tight. Snipe away,” Magnus urged. “Weapons to robotic target signatures across the board,” he said. “Shiny and Cilreth are sending the soldiers from the entrance lock.”

  Telisa saw Maxsym clutching the pedestal that held an alien device to the floor. It did not look as if he was going anywhere.

  “Relax,” Telisa sent to Maxsym. “I’m going to head over to that window. If I can acquire a target through it, maybe I can take something out.”

  Telisa holstered her stunner. Her hands ran across the strap that held her chain lightning gun to her back, but she thought better of it. Caden, Siobhan, and a handful of friendly soldier robots might be out there, and she did not know whether the lightning gun would hit them. She took out the weapon she called a “breaker claw” she had retrieved from the vault on Vovok.

  “I have something to try as well,” she sent to the team. Telisa launched herself toward the window. Within ten seconds she had pried it open, her breaker claw in hand.

  An alien machine flew by at high speed. It looked like a rocket with arms. Telisa could not lock onto it as it passed, but then it turned back and came toward the house.

  Telisa activated the breaker claw with a link adapter Shiny had given her.

  Kaboom!

  The enemy machine exploded as it approached their house.

  One down, hundreds to go.

  A squad of smaller, disc-shaped machines flew in. Magnus and Arakaki were targeting more distant machines, trying to help Siobhan and Caden. Telisa heard the retort of their weapons. She used the claw on one of the discs. Nothing happened.

  “Dammit. The small ones don’t have superconductors. Or at least the claw isn’t working.”

  Smack!

  One of her attendants intercepted some kind of projectile aimed at her. She tried the claw on another one. There was still no result.

  “Don’t expose yourself any more. The new soldiers will be here in a few minutes,” Magnus urged.

  “Caden and Siobhan may not have that much time,” Telisa said.

  That seemed to galvanize Maxsym. “All right, I have one of these grenades,” he said. “Robotic target sig. It’s ready. I’ll find another spot near one of the holes.”

  Maxsym had the grenade in one hand and his pistol in the other. One of his two attendant spheres shot away to scout a route for him.

  Good man, Maxsym! He’s back into it. And ready to act.

  Boom, boom, boom.

  As Maxsym launched himself “upward” in the house, Magnus’s rifle thundered three more times. Telisa found herself thinking about the chain-lightning gun again.

  Last resort. Wait. They’re flanking us.

  “I got the back,” Telisa said. “I can use the big gun in that direction!”

  “Hurry. If you wait too long, you might kill our reinforcements,” Magnus said and kept firing.

  Telisa started to move to the other side of their house. The tactical showed her machines had enveloped the area. Their soldier machines were fighting and dying all around.

  Telisa slipped and smashed into a bank of equipment as the attractive forces shifted. She managed to keep from firing the lightning gun simply because it was so unwieldy, with two actuators. When Telisa got to the window, she saw a flat disc robot prying it open from the other side.

  I can’t shoot it with this point blank!

  Telisa set the weapon aside as gently as she could manage in one second. With her incredible new reflexes, she had her smart pistol armed and aimed in the next second. As soon as the window cleared half the thing’s body, she fired with a link command.

  Snap!

  The round punched into the machine and exploded, sending pieces of the thing into the torso of her Veer suit, her arm, and the walls.

  She grabbed the lightning gun and pointed it out through the circular portal.

  No aiming this thing.

  She actuated the weapon. She felt only a light kick as the alien-tech missiles launched.

  Foooom.

  White-hot trails of some kind of propellant or thruster system left afterimages on her retina. The enemy machines started to explode in an ever-expanding sphere of destruction. Telisa grabbed her breaker claw and prepared to clean up more.

  “The gravity in here confuses the grenades,” Siobhan transmitted. “They still work, though.”

  “They work very well outside,” Telisa sent back. “We’re moving out toward your position. Stay in there, you have… some big ones outside.” She consulted the tactical record in her PV. “We’ve killed at least twenty attackers.”

  “One of the turtle things is moving in on Siobhan,” Magnus said. Telisa had already seen it. One of the armored behemoths was within a couple dozen meters of Siobhan’s position on the tactical.

  We can’t lose her.

  “Let’s go,” Arakaki urged. “We can’t leave her hanging.”

  Magnus’s face reflected an agonizing decision. “The soldiers from the airlock are almost here. We’ll join them and move toward the rest of our team.”

  Telisa wondered if his command was any easier knowing they were all copies of the original team. She saw the new soldiers approaching in her internal tactical display.

  “Balanced advance only, don’t jump the building until I say so. If anyone loses their attendant spheres, head for the nearest building and take cover again.”

  “My breaker claw can take out that turtle machine,” Telisa told them. “Surely something that size will have energy storage rings. I have to get in there.”

  Magnus nodded tightly. She could tell he wanted to tell her not to risk it. But he knew her weapon could do it.

  He knows I can do it, too.

  “If you lose an attendant, hit the cloaker, please,” he transmitted to her personally.

  “I will. I promise,” she replied privately.

  They all came to the side of their building facing toward the missing two members of the team. Maxsym was taking deep breaths.

  “Stay behind us, and if you lose an attendant…” Telisa sent to him.

  “Find cover. Got it,” he replied privately.

  The soldiers drifted by their building above and to the left of Telisa’s position. She launched herself simultaneously with Magnus. The others followed suit a half second later. She immediately felt vulnerable, flying through the air surrounded by enemies.

  Magnus and Arakaki kept shooting. Arakaki had switched to her laser, making Telisa wonder if she had run out of rounds for the compact gun she carried. Imanol launched a grenade and took out a cluster of disc robots.

  Smack. Zing!

  Then a hail of counterfire descended upon the group. Telisa’s attendants deflected two incoming shots in as many seconds.

  “I lost one,” Imanol said.

  “Me too,” Magnus added. “Get your compressed air out. You may have to veer off to one of these buildings on our right.”

  “You too, Magnus!” Telisa said, knowing he would ignore her. “Just get it out in case you lose your second attendant,” Telisa send to him privately. Then she lost one of her own attendants. It darted in front o
f her and then overheated and slagged, spinning away from her and trailing smoke. Telisa ignored her own advice. She was going to get to Siobhan and save her.

  By the Five. We’re almost there.

  “I can’t see it,” she said. Then she found it on one of the feeds from one of the few surviving soldiers. It was just inside the house, slightly to her right. A section of wall ignited. It was nothing but smoky mist a second later.

  Right there. It’s coming out any second…

  Telisa caught a glimpse of the round shell emerging from the mist. She actuated the breaker claw.

  Kaboooom!

  A huge explosion ripped through the side of the building.

  Five preserve!

  Telisa lifted her arm to protect her face. Her attendant blurred in rapid motion. Something hit her right shin hard, but her suit protected her. A shock wave sent her sharply off course.

  “Everyone, report!” Magnus snapped.

  “I’ve lost my second,” Imanol said. “I’m heading… where? This building is a wreck, and I see robots in there!”

  “Take one of mine, Imanol,” Maxsym said. The biologist released one of his attendants, and it went to cover Imanol. Telisa managed to land on a piece of the house, but she had to grab onto it when she discovered its artificial gravity had failed. Magnus did the same near her. The team held onto the house like shipwreck survivors clinging to a floating timber.

  Telisa saw some enemies withdrawing. She spotted a torpedo machine leaving the house, so she used the breaker claw. It did not explode, but it seemed to spiral out of control.

  “Caden, Siobhan?”

  “We’re in one piece,” Caden replied. “I see some of them retreating. Casualties?”

  “A bunch of robots, just like it’s supposed to happen,” Magnus said. “You make fun of my little army again, and we’ll leave you hung out to dry next time.”