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even the two intruders could sense it clearly. The battle wasn't going well.
There was a handpicked elite of Officers and Enforcers around the Brain,
conferring in low tones and attending it. Baldan looked to his mother, raising
his chin and brows inquiringly.
What misplaced practical joke of the Protoculture brought me here? she carped
to herself. All she had ever wanted to do was enjoy life and the attentions of
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admirers, to let her beauty speak for itself and languish in the adulation
that everyone seemed eager to accord her.
But she nodded to her son that she was ready. The two leapt out to either side
of the cover, rifle muzzles at waist level, firing Protoculture blasts.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tesla was very troubled in the last hours before the attack. When I asked him
about it, I expected one of his evasive numbers or egomaniacal silences.
But he seemed to need to talk to someone. He was psychotic by then, I think;
the lab people conjecture that he'd actually been increasing his chromosome
numbers.
At any rate, he said, "I have had a recurring dream lately. A great phoenix of
mind-force rises from a small blue-white world and soars away to another plane
of existence. It fills me with apprehension."
Lisa Hayes Hunter, Recollections
Karen had seen to Jack's wounds as best she could, but he went into shock,
still losing blood. It came down to a simple choice of leaving him there and
going for help, or staying with him and watching him die.
Then the decision was taken away from her. A Hellcat bounded into sight at the
bunker's entrance, showing its glowing fangs. Its eyes were flashing
rhythmically; it was one of Tesla's.
Three had originally been dispatched by Tesla to keep Karen and Jack from
getting word of his treachery back to the Sentinels. But an ambush by the
Brain's forces had cut down the other two 'Cats.
Tesla had picked the feline-shape for the job because it was smaller and more
limber than the biped Inorganics. Now, it slunk into the entranceway of the
bunker on all fours, belly scraping sparks from the gleaming floor, yeowling
at its prey.
Karen was already trying to drag Jack back to safety, but the side doors were
all secured. So at last she wound up crouched, with Jack, against the dead end
of the entrance-way's rear wall. The Robobeast edged nearer, its strobing eyes
lighting the darkness, claws gouging the quartz-hard floor.
Karen raised Jack's pistol and her own side-by-side and opened fire. The
'Cat screamed and lowered its head, shielding its eyes, but kept coming; it
had little to fear from a conventional handgun. One paw reached out to slice
her wide open.
But it missed because it was being yanked backward. It turned to grapple
with something Karen couldn't see, unable to get any fighting room in the
confinement of the entranceway.
Then it was gone, dragged into the open, and there was a monstrous clash going
on outside. Karen rushed to the entrance, looking for Skull colors;
nothing short of a mecha could have jerked the Hellcat out of the bunker
tail-first.
She was right. It was an Odeon, rolling with and slugging the smaller
'Cat. Another Odeon joined it, its nose-tentacle flickering out to ensnare the
Hellcat. In another moment, they were socking and kicking the thing,
dismembering it. Their optical sensors were not flashing.
Karen thought about making a dash for it, but she couldn't leave Jack behind.
The Odeons were rising from their savage battle and turning their attention to
her.
She backed into the shadows once more; they closed in. But as the nasal whips
curled and snapped at her, a stream of depleted-transuranic slugs the size of
candlepins hit them.
Karen spun and threw herself headlong, shielding her face. The Odeons, holed
through and through, leaked green nutrient fluid for a moment as their
systemry fizzled, then they collapsed, smoke and flame belching from their
split seams. They ruptured open with explosions that mingled with the sounds
of a descending Alpha's thrusters.
Karen had sat up again, face smudged and pallid. The VT was in Guardian mode,
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its canopy raised now as the pilot stood. Blaze's light reflected off a
well-remembered flight helmet, one cast in the image of a Praxian war helm.
"Well, well! Maybe when we get a moment, you can tell me why two enemy slugs
killed & friendly 'Cat that was in turn just about to eat a Sentinel!"
It was Bela.
"Tesla! Ark Angel to Tesla!"
"Still no acknowledgment, Captain," the Human commo officer told Lisa.
"Keep trying anyway," she said. To the mike, she repeated, "Your troops'
lines are collapsing in all sectors! You must get them to stand fast!"
She switched off her mike and told the officer, "Keep on trying to raise him."
Then she switched to ship's net. "Rick, he's not answering. I think it's a
double-cross." She looked intently at the duplicate trigger, on her command
console, for the explosives in Tesla's collar.
"All right; make another approach," he answered from the drop bay. "I'm taking
in the last of the reserves, to get our troops back out."
It was on her lips to object, but she held it in. The lessons of the
Praxians had subsumed those of the Academy. Of course you don't leave your
buddies in deep trouble, no matter what the cost. She knew it as well as he.
It was just that she wished she could make the assault with him and the other
units.
She brought the ship onto a new heading, bearing down on Beroth at low
altitude and steady helm, coming to dead-slow. Luckily, the Invid had used up
most of their missiles, and their conventional cannonfire and smaller rockets
weren't powerful enough to do more than dent the starship's armor and blow
away noncritical superstructural features.
Ark Angel nudged over or smashed a lot of local architecture on its touchdown,
lying almost smack in the middle of Beroth. At Rick's command the combat teams
charged out to provide fire support for the Sentinels elements still trying to
disengage, now that Tesla's forces had abandoned them. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]