MotherShip (9 page)

Guardian's attack was decided.

Jaric struggled against the wet, rubbery body, but that only caused the rope-like tentacles to tighten around him. A white-hot flash of pain in his side caused him to grunt, which tightened the monster's grip further.

He opened his eyes against the wall of pain and saw Becky's blue eyes staring helplessly at him in the low glow of the purple light.

“What's happening?” She mouthed wordlessly.

Jaric shook his head, indicating he didn't know. But all three of them could hear the sounds of a furious battle raging nearby and getting closer with each passing second.

It had to be Guardian. All alone against this elite squad of T'kaan warriors.

Suddenly other large forms wriggled closer to them.

Two of the tentacles slipped away from around Jaric's body.

It's reaching for a weapon,
Jaric thought.
They're going to kill us now.

Jaric had wondered all along why they hadn't died instantly. It was obvious the T'kaan had planned this trap very carefully. But now the time had come for them to die. Jaric felt a great sorrow inside his heart for what might have been. He looked longingly at Becky.

Blaster fire erupted like a firestorm all around them.

Two T'kaan fell while others fired back with a solid hail of tracers at the still invisible attacker.

Jaric felt the tentacles loosen a bit more.

He kicked backwards with all his might and then jabbed first with one elbow and then another. His left arm was free, but he was still held fast around his waist and his right arm by two strong tentacles.

The T'kaan holding him grunted with pain.

Jaric saw the curled end of a T'kaan blaster pointing at him. He slammed the back of his free hand into it just as it belched forth death.

Now the T'kaan screamed as the two remaining tentacles fell away and Jaric realized he was free.

Becky screamed.

Jaric launched himself and landed on the back of the huge T'kaan that held Becky. Tentacles reached for him as he punched and looked for a vulnerable spot. But there didn't seem to be any.

Just as the T'kaan was bringing his weapon up to fire, Jaric slammed his left fist into the jelly-like globule on top of its head—the T'kaan's optical organ.

The fanged mouth opened and roared in terrible pain.

Becky, kicking and fighting, fell from the flailing tentacles.

“Look out!” she shouted.

Jaric jumped, but it was too late. The blaster bolt struck him in his side, knocking him backward. It felt like his entire body was nothing but white-hot pain; he was on fire from the inside out. As his mind filled with this overwhelming ache, Jaric realized he couldn't remember how to breathe. With a flash of certainty, he knew he was dying as he lost consciousness.

Becky screamed again.

Suddenly, Guardian's form came leaping over the barrier the T'kaan were hiding behind. His shields had already failed. Only by racing at full speed, then diving and rolling to avoid as much of their fire as possible had he made it this far.

As he landed, a T'kaan fired a burst into his metal body.

Guardian sensed more of his inner systems fail as they went silent, but he did not feel any pain. As his legs finally crumpled, the robot turned and fired a burst into the T'kaan, killing him instantly.

Lying against the barrier, unable to stand on his damaged legs, Guardian fired again and again at the remaining T'kaan forms as they scurried around him. Holding his arm straight out as he fired the T'kaan blaster, he killed one after another with deadly precision.

But a final blast from one of the dying T'kaan sent his own weapon flying out of his numb grasp.

Guardian, the white robot, now lay completely helpless with all the systems that controlled his arms and legs damaged. His red eyes looked on emotionlessly as the last T'kaan came forward out of the darkness to finish him.

The huge mouth opened on its three-hinged jaw, sending the fangs out in a nightmarish pose. The T'kaan raised its weapon.

Three quick blasts fired.

But not from the T'kaan's weapon pointed at Guardian.

The T'kaan's body quivered a moment and then the huge worm-like form tensed. In surreal slow motion, it fell forward dead over Guardian's immobile body.

Kyle stood, blaster pistol in his hand.

“Kyle!” Becky shouted with relief.

“One of Guardian's shots wounded the one holding me. I finished him, pulling his own weapon out of its belt and using it. Then I grabbed mine from where he had stashed it,” Kyle said breathlessly.

“Just in time,” Becky said.

From the dark purplish glow, Jaric groaned as he tried to move. He looked up at Becky.

“Becky, help Jaric. Get him get back to Mother. We can't be sure that more T'kaan aren't coming,” Kyle ordered.

Holstering his pistol, Kyle grabbed two of the lifeless tentacles and dragged the huge T'kaan off of Guardian.

Guardian's red eyes glowed steady, but his white body was now blackened and marred. One of his arms was now missing below an elbow as wires hung out in charred disarray.

As Kyle bent to help him, Guardian raised an arm to stop him. The robot's internal diagnostics had managed to repair one of them enough to allow movement.

“Leave me.” Guardian's new code had forced the words as it calculated the remaining scenarios.

Kyle straightened as he shook his head. “You risked everything to come for us. I'm not leaving you. Even if Mother's programming says so.”

Kyle pulled the heavy robot to a sitting position with a gasp.

“I thought they made you outta some kind of light alloy, eh fella',” Kyle said, blowing out a huge breath. He steadied himself, took a deep breath, and in one motion hefted the robot against his own body for support.

Kyle started forward with an unsteady first step.

“Whatever you do,” Kyle panted. “Don't get in my way, Becky. I can't stop with this load.”

Kyle and Becky staggered under their loads, fighting up two levels until they were at the ground level. Several times, Kyle had to stop and drop the robot as his muscles screamed with exhaustion. He hoped he wasn't doing Guardian any further damage.

The last fifteen minutes seemed to last forever. But somehow through their sweat and struggles they made it to the main level.

Fixer3 and Fixer2 were waiting among the dead T'kaan.

But their familiar forms, which should have made him happy, instead brought back a sadness from the last level. There, Kyle had seen a crumpled tangle of metal and a familiar color from his childhood. It had been the remains of
his
Fixer, Fixer5. A stifled sob shook his body again with that recent memory, but he fought it off as he focused on Guardian and getting him safely back with Fixer3. With a mighty heave, he lifted the weight of Guardian's body against his body as Fixer3 assisted.

Still, he felt a sadness grip his heart that he hadn't felt in many years.

Once they were all inside her hull Mother lifted quickly and left this world far behind with a flash of her hyper-engines.

Hours later, her sensors detected more T'kaan ships heading for Nuevo Mundo. It was the most powerful squadron of ships she had detected since the final battle at Earth. She immediately changed course and as the squadron continued onward it became apparent they had not detected her. Two hours later there was still no signs of pursuit.

That squadron of battleships and cruisers were the reason why the T'kaan had kept the children alive and not killed them instantly.

No doubt the T'kaan had set up similar traps on several worlds, not knowing which one Mother and the children would pick next in their search. The battleships had waited in reserve, ready to be dispatched to whichever planet they were needed.

As long as the T'kaan kept the children alive, they knew Mother would remain close by and attempt to rescue them. That would have given the battleships time to arrive and finish her off.

Guardian had indeed saved all of their lives.

Mother directed the Fixers to his repair and even took this time to upgrade several of his internal systems, as well as expanding his memories and processing. She did this as a sort of reward.

But she noted with rising concern that the children were severely affected by this incident.

Mother tried to talk to them at first, but they refused. They only wanted to forget the horrific experience.

“It was a nightmare.” That was all that Jaric would tell her. “A nightmare come true.”

Becky and Kyle tended to Jaric's wounds personally in solemn silence. In fact, they even slept at his feet as he convalesced over the coming days.

They seemed almost afraid. Mother watched as Becky hurriedly applied the medicinal salve and then frantically worked the medi-scanner.

Mother scanned Jaric herself and quickly determined that his wounds, although serious and indeed very painful, were not life threatening. Jaric's life was not in any imminent danger.

“Please slow your efforts, Becky. Jaric will survive his wounds,” Mother told them.

Becky ignored her as she concentrated on the medi-scanner's results. Kyle came and stood beside her with silent stoicism.

“Please allow me to command Fixer3 to run a Level 2 scan upon Jaric's wounds,” Mother said.

“Leave us alone, Mother,” Becky said without looking up.

There was a surge in her circuits at Becky's words. Mother began analyzing them in context with not only the current surroundings, but in light of the recent traumatic encounter with the T'kaan. She determined that Becky and the children must be experiencing high levels of emotional stress.

The warship wished once again she could understand emotions. It was one thing to understand their factual meaning, but another to watch emotions in action within the children.

“You and Kyle must rest now. I will take care of Jaric along with the Fixers,” Mother said.

“Shut up, Mother!”

As Mother watched, Becky's hands began to shake uncontrollably. The young woman bowed her head, which caused her long blonde hair to fall around her face. Her sobs began, soft at first, and then louder.

Mother was confused. She had already assured Becky that Jaric would survive. Now these tears?

“Are you frightened?” Mother asked. She knew the children cried when they were frightened.

“N-no.” Becky wiped her tear-stained cheeks. “I'm happy. I'm just so glad it's over. And I'm thankful Jaric's alive.”

Humans cried when they were happy, too? As well as when they were sad or afraid. Humans seemed to cry in response to many emotions
.

“You are experiencing stress emotions, Becky. It would be better...”

“No!” Becky shouted at the optical viewer. “Kyle and I will take care of Jaric. We have to.”

Mother tried to make sense of these words. But could not.

Becky reached down and held Jaric's hand. She began crying again with soft, jagged breaths.

Jaric opened his eyes at the sound. He had been lying there silently, but now, as he looked from Becky to Kyle, silent tears streamed down his own eyes. His sobs were almost inaudible; only the glistening sheen on his ebony cheeks made his soft cries manifest.

“Don't leave me,” Jaric whispered.

Mother was almost shocked as Kyle, standing on the other side of Jaric's bed, bowed his own head and cried. But Kyle's sobs were loud and hard, as he had often cried in the past when he had awakened from nightmares as a small boy. His tears and cries poured out of his heart as he joined their sadness.

But unheard by the other two, Mother's sensors picked up the almost inaudible words that came from Kyle's trembling lips. “Fixer5, my little friend. I will miss you. I really will miss you.”

Kyle was crying for the loss of a robot as well as in sympathy with the others, while Jaric and Becky were crying because they were happy and sad about Jaric's wounds. She processed these facts and wondered. But she wondered most about Kyle's sobs for the little robot, Fixer5.

Jaric reached out and took Kyle's hand. There they all cried a long time with and for Jaric, or so they all thought. Becky eventually sat down and then put her face on Jaric's shoulder as her sobs grew quieter with time.

But Kyle stood the entire time, crying freely at first, though soon his sobs, too, began to soften.

All three cried for a full hour.

Mother was afraid to interrupt them. She knew that they were crying for more reasons than those Becky had stated. There must be more to this flood of emotions, she surmised, so Mother concentrated her processing powers on other tasks. All the while continuing to monitor the children.

There was so much more to the emotions here than what she perceived with her sensors. Mother was afraid for them.

Soon Becky made a palette for herself on the floor beside Jaric's bed and slept there all night. Kyle, too, would not leave the room, but he slept in the chair on the other side of Jaric.

Mother had the Fixers bring food to all three children in Jaric's room. They would not leave each other. Their reactions were strong the next few days, Becky even shouted at her again when she suggested that Kyle and she should sleep in their owns bed, as they were not getting their necessary sleep in this situation, and it could impact their health.

Their intense, illogical outbursts puzzled Mother as they rebelled against her simple suggestion.

In the end she left the children alone, providing them with whatever they required from her stores. It was so strange. But Becky and Kyle did not leave Jaric's side until over two weeks later, when he was able to walk.

Still, there was worse. She added the new data from the T'kaan trap. Mother's processors worked the data into billions of possible solutions. More and more of them resulted in disturbing scenarios.

The T'kaan fleet was growing faster than she had anticipated. Worse, she and the children could only expect the frequency and intensity of the T'kaan attacks to continue to grow more dangerous.

For the first time in many months, Mother considered presenting the entire facts about their futile search to the children. She considered telling them that the search was in vain, that they needed to travel far away from the dead human worlds.