Escape 1: Escape From Aliens (8 page)

“Let’s run! The faster we can get to the Command Bridge the fewer surprises Diligent can pull on us.”

“Right,” she said, breaking into a decent jog as he headed for the next pressure wall and hatchway a hundred feet ahead. She signed to him. “
But what if the Command Bridge hallway is blocked by more robots like that one?
”

That was a future he had been worrying about even as he challenged Diligent to leave and head for another Collector ship. He signed back to her. “
Then we use a magfield disruptor on the robot. Or robots. While dodging those pincer arms!
”

They went through the open hatchway in sequence, with Bill first followed by Jane. He sped up their run, aiming for the next pressure wall a hundred feet ahead.

“Star Traveler!” he called. “How far is it to the access hatchway for the Transport Chamber?”

A low hum sounded. “The access hatch lies at the end of the next hallway section. Do you wish me to fill the Transport Exit Chamber with normal atmosphere? It is presently airless, as is standard for spaces that open to space.”

“Yes!” called Jane, her look warning him to let her do the talking to the AI. “Please fill the chamber with normal atmosphere at normal pressure. Even though we will continue to wear our vacuum suits as a precaution, we prefer normal air to be present in any ship spaces we transit.”

“It will be done,” the AI said quickly. “All other ship spaces which you may transit will also contain normal air at standard pressure, according to the requirements of Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship.”

“Thank you,” Jane said with a gasp as she met his all-out run pace. “We have vital information for Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster, information which he does not wish to learn but which is vital to the survival of all bioforms on board this vessel.”

“Understood,” the AI said after a low hum. “I had wondered why you did not convey this vital information to the Crèche Master by way of normal ship comlink communications. It puzzles me that any bioform would not wish to learn information vital to its survival.”

Bill bit his lip as he jumped through the open hatchway and kept running for the far pressure wall. Its closed hatch would give access to the Transport Chamber, according to his memory and to what the AI had said. He hoped Jane would not get herself wrapped up in a logic loop with the AI. Who was clearly capable of curiosity, speculation and inference. He slowed as the closed hatchway loomed before him.

Jane skidded to a stop beside him. “Star Traveler, my companion and I are equally puzzled by the Crèche Master’s refusal to accept our information. We hope that meeting him directly, in the flesh, will change his mind.”

Bill pointed his red cube at the hatchway. It swung out toward them as easily as the last one had opened. Moving to the right side of the opening he aimed his red laser tube at the hangar-sized room. Jane did the same, covering him from the left. He saw three spacecraft parked on the floor of the hangar-like room. Like the collector pod and the starship, their shape was that of an elongated teardrop. They measured a hundred feet long, as best he could guess from his vantage point. No one moved in the red-lighted chamber. He held up a closed fist when Jane began to walk through the open hatchway. She stopped.

“Star Traveler,” he called over the suit radio. “Are there any bioforms present in the Transport Chamber?”

“No bioforms are present,” the AI said with a low hum.

“Are there any mobile robots like the one that sought to block our access to this hallway?”

Another low hum sounded. “No mobile robot is present in this chamber.”

Jane gave him a sharp look. It was the look of an officer telling her enlisted to follow her lead. “Star Traveler, are there any mobile robots in the hallway that leads from this chamber to the Command Bridge Chamber?”

“Yes,” the AI said. “There are two such mobile robots in the hallway. They are located in front of the hatchway that allows entry to the Command Bridge Chamber.”

Damn
. He’d hoped using ASL would keep Diligent from thinking of using more robots to block access to him. Course, if the Alien could think of using a single robot to block them from accessing the hallway leading to his chamber, it could just as easily think of using more robots outside its bridge. He just hoped the Alien did not have other automated surprises waiting for them somewhere ahead.

“Thank you,” Jane said. “We will be cautious when we approach the entry to the Command Bridge Chamber.” She looked to Bill, her look inviting a response.

“Forward,” he said, jumping into the Transport Chamber and side-stepping to the right even as he swept the hangar space with his two tube weapons.

“Right.”

Jane copied his move and stepped to her left.

He scanned the square room. The three teardrop transports faced the left wall, which would presumably open to space once air was removed from the chamber. Each transport stood on three struts that held it ten feet above the floor. The foot of each strut ended in a curved piece of metal, something like a short ski. All three spacecraft were silent, not moving and not doing anything threatening. He liked that. Looking to the right he saw the side wall was gray metal like every other part of the starship. The side wall rose up twenty feet then began to curve, making the roof above them into a dome. From which shone ten bright red lights. He was getting tired of seeing and moving in red light. Once they took over the Command Bridge he was going to make damned sure every light on this ship glowed yellow! He gestured to Jane to follow him. Breaking into a jog he ran to the right side wall, then ran parallel to it. Ahead he saw the far wall of the hangar chamber. It had no oval door in it. But there was a rectangular hole in the floor that butted up against the far wall. In seconds he stood at the edge of the hole. Pointing his laser tube downward, he leaned over and scanned below. A solid metal ramp lay below him. To his right the ramp connected with the floor of the hangar. It went down at a twenty degree angle, disappearing under the hangar floor to where it must give access to the hallway that would take them forward to the nose of the craft and to the entry door of the Command Bridge. With a nod to Jane, who had put her back against the hangar wall and gone to sentry alert, her tubes covering the space behind him, he moved right, turned and began walking slowly down the ramp.

“Nothing below,” he called over the suit comlink as his feet felt the vibration of Jane’s boots behind him, as she followed him down the ramp.

They stood facing another oval door that must act as a pressure hatch. He pointed his red cube at the hatch. The eight foot high door slid left into the pressure wall. Repeating their sheltered scan of the space beyond, Bill jumped into the new space with both tube weapons aimed forward. Jane followed him, moving to his left.

“Looks empty to me,” she said. “What next?”

They stood in a large hallway that looked the same as the Engine hallway. Twenty feet wide it was along with being twenty feet talk. Gray metal gleamed everywhere. A metal ramp lay twenty feet ahead, leading upward to the deck they had been on.

Jane moved up beside him, her manner thoughtful as she stared ahead. “Looks like Diligent has given up on making the ship mind try to hurt us.”

“Looks like,” he agreed. Bill ran for the ramp. Jane followed. They ran up the ramp, coming out into a continuation of the long access hallway. With weapons aimed forward, they walked toward the next pressure wall hatch. His mind buzzed as he thought over the options available to them. While taking the direct route as fast as they could still seemed like the best option for getting to the Bridge and a final confrontation with Diligent, still, the smarmy-sounding cockroach was an Alien. Greedy it was, as shown by its love of capturing defenseless people on primitive planets for sale to rich Buyers. Arrogant it was, based on what it had said so far. Cowardly it was, since it had stayed inside the Command Bridge Chamber and had not come out to confront them. Which told him the giant bug must be able to go without food for several days. They controlled the other hallway route leading to the Command Bridge. Just ahead, according to his memory of the holo, lay small chambers that opened onto the hallway. They had been labeled as Habitat Chambers in the holo. Which he took to mean crew staterooms. Might be interesting to check one out later. Not now, though. The longer they waited for the final confrontation the more time it gave Diligent to think up another surprise. He slowed his running, jumped over the hatchway sill and continued his fast run along the hallway. A thump behind him said Jane followed.

“You didn’t stop and make a staged entry,” she called his way. “Why not?”

Why not indeed? Small unit tactics called for doing a staged entry for every access point that might be controlled by an enemy unit. But the hatches were open on the pressure walls that divided the hallway. And though he saw small oval doorways now dotting the hallway, still, he could see ahead as he approached each new section. The hallway was empty of people, according to the ship AI. And according to what his own eyes, ears and nose told him. “Speed,” he said, foregoing the secrecy of ASL. “Speed is essential to getting to the entry point for the Command Bridge Chamber. Diligent is surely watching us from spyeye vidcams. It knows we are coming. And it knows just where in the ship we are at any time. So running fast through the hatchways cuts down on the time he has to plan a surprise. Beyond the mobile robots already waiting for us.”

Jane followed him through the next hatchway, at a run with her tube weapons pointed forward. “Understood. Uh, my memory says this hallway will begin to curve to the right after the next pressure wall. That hallway stretches for more than a hundred feet on our side. My memory of the other access hallway says it curves inward too. To meet our stretch of curving hallway. At some point we’ll come into the view of those robots.”

Bill nodded, feeling the sweat on his back as his tension built. The tube suit he wore was easy to wear but it didn’t keep him from sweating. He slowed as they came to the last pressure wall. The hatchway was open. Beyond it lay the curved hallway leading to the entrance to the Command Bridge. He stopped running, then walked slowly forward, staying to the right of the hatchway rim, and out of sight of anything beyond. Jane copied his movement while covering his back. He leaned left and looked past the hatchway rim into the hallway.

Nothing. No robot. No giant cockroach. He stepped over the hatchway sill and then moved right to hug the inside wall.

“Stay with me against this inside wall. It will reduce our exposure to any weapons fire from the robots.”

Jane moved up behind him. He felt a touch on his backpack. “The last robot did not fire on us.”

“Maybe because I killed that tube before it could fire.”

“Maybe,” she said calmly. “Or that tube could have been its vidcam eye.” Jane pulled on his pack to signal a stop. He stopped. “Star Traveler, are the two mobile robots ahead of us identical to the one that tried to block our access to the Transport Chamber?”

“They are,” the AI said quickly.

“What is the function of the black tube on top of each robot?” she said over the suit comlink.

A short hum sounded. “It is a high power laser intended for cutting and welding metal,” the AI said. “The two robots are normally used for ship repairs. They respond to verbal and electronic commands from the Crèche Master or from a crewmember. The first robot’s firing on your violated Protocol Seven. ”

Jane took a deep breath. “Can you stop those other robots from firing their lasers at us?”

“I cannot. They are controlled by Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster.”

“Thank you for the information,” Jane said calmly. She pushed on his pack. “We will be cautious in our approach to the Bridge entry.”

Bill moved forward at a fast walk, counting his paces. In his mind he built an image of a curving hallway that ran for at least a hundred feet. At one end sat two pincer and laser-armed robots. At the opposite end were him and Jane. He eyed the curve of the hallway before him. A thirty degree curve. Modest. But it matched the curve angle of the transport ship’s bulbous nose. And also the curve angle of the starship nose in the ship holo. Which left him to calculate the number of paces before he and Jane would come into a line of sight view of the guardian robots. Forty-three feet, or paces, would bring them into the view of the robots. Or so he thought.

Twenty feet passed. The hallway stayed empty.

Thirty feet. He leaned forward and then outward to his left. Nothing to be seen.

At forty feet he stopped, gestured back to Jane to stop, then he unslung the empty canteen from his neck. Leaning forward, he tossed it ahead and down the hallway. It hit the floor and rolled.

“Zirzap!”

A green laser beam hit the canteen just when it reached a distance of five feet ahead of him. Most of it vaporized in a flare of yellow flame and plasma gas. But the green streak left an impression of its incoming angle on his eyes. Mentally he calculated backward.

“Damn!” Jane said harshly.

Bill kept silent even as he realized a ceiling spyeye vidcam was conveying his every move to a watching Diligent. He moved his right boot ahead a foot, laid his back against the inside wall of the hallway, and slid forward.

Nothing changed in his view of the curving hallway.

He repeated his forward slide three times. Until he reached what he thought was forty-four feet since they’d entered the hallway. Shifting his white taser tube to his right arm, he reached back with his left hand.

“Your canteen!”

The sound of water splashing echoed in the hallway. Then his fingers felt the woven fabric of the canteen strap. “Here,” Jane whispered.

He grinned at how they whispered. They could have yelled and it would have made no difference. Bill leaned his red laser tube against the metal wall. Gripping his white tube taser with his right hand, he slung the canteen strap over its front tip. Then he moved the end of the white taser tube out into the hallway.

“Zirzap!”

Green light vaporized the canteen. The tip of the white taser also vaporized. But again, the green light beam gave him an exact angle to backtrack on.

He dropped the dead white tube, went belly down on the metal floor, grabbed his red laser tube and aimed it forward. Keeping his body parallel to the inside wall, he lifted the red tube up, held it before his helmet and sighted along it.

“Stay where you are!” he called back to Jane.

Before she could answer he pushed against the inside wall with his feet and stuck his head and the laser out into the hallway.

Three things happened nearly instantly.

He saw the gray metal body of a mobile robot with its laser tube pointing their way. The tip of the black tube glowed redly thanks to the last shot.

Bill adjusted his laser tube’s angle and fired upward at the black tube.

“Zap!” sounded as the echo of his laser blast vaporizing the black tube came back to him from the robot.

He rolled to his right, aiming for the protection of the curving wall.

“Zirzap!”

A green laser beam hit the spot where his head had been.

“Fuck!” Jane gasped. “You got one laser but the second robot has us targeted!”

Bill knew that. He’d seen the second robot’s position just beyond the first robot. Both robots sat within a few feet of each other, blocking access to the oval door that led inward to the Command Bridge Chamber. He looked back over his shoulder to Jane. Whose black hair was sweat-pasted to her forehead despite the air cooling of her suit helmet. She met his gaze, her expression concerned.

“Bill?”

“Not to worry. Got a different plan for the second laser.” He looked up at the ceiling, then gave it the finger. “Diligent, I’m coming for you! Star Traveler, kill all gravity in this hallway!”

In seconds they felt weightless. Pressing a hand to the floor, Bill pushed lightly and let Newton’s Third Law move him up toward the ceiling of the hallway.

“Bill!” cried Jane from below. “Be careful! It will see you!”

“Sure it can,” he muttered, pointing his red laser tube ahead of him very, very slowly, so his body would not go into a counterspin. “But the cockroach can’t tell a robot how to aim its laser when that robot is floating in mid-air!”

With a soft kick of his right foot against the inner hallway wall, he propelled himself out into the middle of the hallway. In less than a second he would be in view of the two robots, one of which was still deadly.

Just as his rise up brought him into contact with the hallway ceiling twenty feet above the floor, Bill’s left eye saw past the hallway wall’s curve and caught sight of the two robots.

The closer one with the dead laser was tilted on its side and floating two feet above the floor.

The robot beyond it floated just above it. Its black laser tube was clear of any obstruction. The black tube shifted up toward him.

“Zap!”

The green beam of Bill’s laser met the laser tube just after it fired at him.

“Zirzap!”

Green laser light passed over his head and hit the hallway ceiling above him. The back of his neck felt pain. Which told him some of the laser beam had bounced off the ceiling and down through the clear suit fabric, hitting his bare skin.

“Shit!”

He winced, then kicked at the ceiling with his right boot.

“Star Traveler!” Jane yelled. “Restore gravity in this hallway to one-half of ship normal.”

Just as his fall downward sped up he felt the grip of Jane’s hands on his shoulders. They held him upright as his boots swung down and hit the metal floor. He automatically went to the crouch he’d learned in chute training.

“Your neck Bill! It’s really red!”

Feeling a bit of shock from the pain, he stepped back out of sight of the two robots and leaned back against the hallway wall. Meeting Jane’s dark brown eyes, he gave her a grin.

“No sweat. My suit is still intact. And so are you. Now, we head for the entry!”