The Deep Dark Well (25 page)

And then it was over, as
fast as it had started.  She brought her head up and looked into the hall. 
Bits of debris littered the floor.  Cautiously she poked her head around the
corner, rifle held at the ready.  She was greeted by the remains of a robot
scattered along the hall, several large sections and many smaller pieces.  The
door that she had used to enter the hall was gone, as were the other robots. 
Probably blown back into the room they were coming from. 

Walls and ceiling had
been scorched by the heat of the explosion.  She looked with new respect on the
small grenades she carried.  They gave one Pandora Latham quite a bit of
firepower, if she used it properly.  But all of the robots would know her
general vicinity by now.  So it was time to book.

Pandi jogged down the
hall, her eyes carefully scanning every corner, keeping a close watch on the
visor map.  Confidence filled her now.  She had defeated nine of the machines
sent to get her, and she wasn’t even close to being out of ammo.

*    *    *

As Pandi entered a large
room, getting her orientation, she thought of how she could move herself far
from this area of the station.  The room looked familiar, like another room she
had been in before.  Murals covered the walls, showing tall and slender
humanoids, not quite human, under a golden sun.  Tables and chairs sat in one
corner of the forty-meter square room, with a couple of doorways on the other
side.  Some of the murals on the walls near the tables had some kind of script
on them, something that looked to Pandi like Japanese or Chinese writing, with
scenes of people dining on exotic looking dishes of fruits and vegetables.

A restaurant.
  It had to be a
restaurant or cafeteria.  It had almost a European flavor to it, like the
sidewalk cafes she had sat at in Paris or Koln.  All it was missing was an
outdoors, and the high ceiling and bright lighting made it seem like a sunny
outside.  And if it was a cafe, it must be near to other public facilities,
possibly even a transport station. 

That was what she
needed.  A train car to take her swiftly away from here.  She could stop it at
several different stations, and make them guess where she had gotten off. 
Looking at the map, she could see that a number of large rooms lay ahead, but
nothing that looked like the configuration of a transport station.

“Computer.  Is there a
transport station near here?”

“Yes.  There is one
less than a kilometer from here,” answered the computer.  “I will indicate on
your map which direction to take.”

“Ok,” she said as she
strode off in the direction of the arrow on her map, heading for a large glass
or plastic door at the near side of the room.

The next chamber was
also very large, larger than the restaurant.  It looked like a promenade, with
windows and doors along each side, planters and benches in the center.  Her
curiosity got the better of her, as she moved to the side of the hall, looking
in at the displays in the windows.  Shops.  When could she ever avoid shops? 
In better times she might find areas like this and help herself to the wares. 
But for now all she would let herself do is look while she moved on.

There were windows full
of manikins clothed in styles strange and bizarre.  Colors of shining neon were
the most common.  The general shape was of the slender humanoids she had seen
in the restaurant murals. 
This must have been their area.

Other windows held
bottles that might been perfumes or lotions.  Strange gadgets filled other
windows, most compact, like trivee remote controls.  She was sure they did
other things than just control entertainment, though.  One window held what
looked like small weapons, such as one could carry concealed.  Another what
seemed to be book viewers, with small cartridges arranged around them, many
with pictures and script on their fronts.

“Vengeance’s robots are
coming,” warned the computer.

“From where?”

“From behind.  They
have been tracking you through the restaurant, and are about to enter this
hall.”

Damn
, she thought, but the
map didn’t give as full a view behind as in front, and there had been too much
hall behind her to fit in the display.

“They have stunners,”
said the computer.

“Stunners?” she asked,
as she started into a fast jog down the promenade.

“Weapons capable of
using sonic beams to stun the nervous system of the target.  You should be very
careful.”

“Short range weapons?”

“Unfortunately no. 
They have a range of over a kilometer.”

She looked down the
hall, seeing a good stretch ahead of her.  None of the doors to the stores had
opened as she passed, and she guessed they were closed for the duration.  But
the planters looked thick and sturdy.

Pandi hit the ground in
a roll, landing behind a planter, looking around it as she set the selector
switches on her rifle.  She waited a second or two before the first of the
robots walked into the promenade.  It took a position a couple of meters to the
side of the door, as a quartet of companions marched through and began to
spread out, searching the hall in sections.

Pandi aimed at the
closest, about seventy meters away, and squeezed the trigger.  The weapon
thutted quietly as it launched the low velocity projectiles toward the robot. 
She swept the rifle across the formation of robots, as it sent five projectiles
a second at the creatures.

The explosions of the
microgrenades burst along the wall, spreading pieces of robot and building
material across the edge of the promenade.  Within seconds they were all down,
no movement other than pieces of metal rolling or sliding across the floor. 
Her access to the computer had told her they were basic utility robots, not
combat models.  But she also knew combat models existed, and there were sure to
be some on the station.

A warning beep on the
rifle caught her attention.  A light on the ammo bar was lit up, showing she
only had a trio of remaining microgrenades.  She switched to minishapes as she
stood up and surveyed the damage.

“There are more
coming,” said the computer.  “Thirty-five to be exact.”

“From where those came
from?”

“Yes.”

Pandi gripped the rifle
tightly as she ran full speed through the rest of the promenade.  She turned at
the exit door, just as one of the following robots brought its weapon to bear. 
She sent a spray of minishapes into it across the long promenade, the weapon
pushing hard into her shoulder.  The robot went down as she went through the
door. 
One down, a million to go.
  The thought brought forth a short
laugh.  She wondered if there were enough weapons on the station for her to
defeat what was coming after her.  She did know there weren’t enough of her to
wield all of them if there were.

The next room was
another restaurant, laid out in the same manner as the last, with the exception
of heavy wall hangings of silken material.  Her map showed another large room
ahead, one that looked like a station.  No red dots shown in her view.  She was
home free.

The station was a
beautiful sight.  Not just because of the luxurious opulence of a transport
center matching the wealth of the surrounding area.  A car sat in the tube
running through the center of the long room.

Then she noticed the
large statue at the end of the station.  She thought it was a statue, until it
began to move.  The red dot appeared out of nowhere on her display.

“How come you didn’t
warn me about him?” she asked the computer as she brought her rifle up.

“The battle robot was in
stealth mode until you entered his range,” it replied.

Pandi squeezed and held
the trigger, sending and endless stream of minishapes into the breast of the
robot.  It continued forward, the bright flashes of explosions on its chest
plate.  Pandi checked for damage, releasing the trigger for a second.  There
were some small pits on the once smooth chest plate, but nothing else to show
for her efforts.

She switched fire to
the face, watching the flurry of explosions, but the robot slowed not a bit. 
The rifle stopped bucking in her hands, the display indicated she had run out
of minishapes.  Well, she thought as she switched the selector, it was still
far enough away to risk microgrenades, so she let it have the three she had
left in her drum, right in the head.  The explosions rocked the robot back
slightly, but it advanced through the cloud of smoke and fire, none the worse
for wear.

“Shit.”  All she had
now were ball rounds, and she didn’t have time to change drums.  She dropped
the rifle to hang from her neck by the strap as she pulled the EMP pistol,
leveled it at the robot, and fired.

Absolutely nothing
happened.  She checked the pistol to make sure it was charged.  Full.

“Dammit,” she said as
she ducked behind a support.  “Help me.  What can I do to stop that thing from
killing me?”

“If it meant to kill
you it would have done so.  It is under orders to take you alive.”

“No thanks,” she swore
as she pulled a grenade from one of her belt pouches, then another.  Quickly
she armed them with dead man switches, set to go off two seconds after she
released them.  She would much rather die than end up back in that sadistic
devil’s hands.  And she might just take the robot with her.

“Might I suggest you
throw them at the robot,” said the computer.  “It is under orders to take you
alive, and to allow no harm to come to you.”

She got the idea in an
instant.  Pandi twirled around the column, tossing the grenades in the
direction of the robot.  It reached out and grabbed the grenades as they came
at it, pulling them into its body.  Pandi dove back behind the column as the
grenades detonated. 

Uh oh, she thought as
pieces of column fell on her.  The computer’s idea might not have been the best
if she was crushed under masonry.  She grunted as some heavy pieces hit her in
the back and the suit impact armor went rigid.  Another bounced off of her
helmet, and she thanked whatever God there was that the hard hat was on her
head. 

She pulled herself out
from under fallen material, looking up to see that the central structure of the
column had weathered the explosion.  Cracked masonry had broken away, but the
hard alloy material in the center had taken up the impact.  Pieces of the outer
shell still clung to it.

Pandi checked herself
for broken bones and torn flesh, but the suit had protected her well.  Some
stiffness, but everything seemed to operate well enough.  She gingerly picked
herself up off the ground and moved around the column to see what was left of
the robot.

More than she would
have thought.  Essentially it was intact, with the exception of the gaping
holes torn in the armored chest of the creature, and the fused and melted ends
of the arms where once its hands attached.

“Next time we get to an
armory,” she said to the computer, “show me where the antitank weapons are.”

“Tanks?”

“Heavy weapons.  Rocket
launchers and such.  Are there any more of these things around here?”

“None within range of
my scan,” said the computer.  “But if they are in stealth mode there is no way
I could pick them up.”

“So it’s time to get
the hell out of this area,” she said, heading for the train tube.  The doors
opened as she approached, and closed soundlessly behind her.  She took a seat
by the door as she thought for a second.

“How do I start this
thing?”

“Simply state your
destination,” said a voice in the chamber.  The car computer, waiting for who
knew how long for someone to again take advantage of its service.

“Just move down the
line,” she ordered.  “Spinward.  Until I order you to stop.”

The car started to move
immediately, slowly at first, with no apparent motion.  Acceleration began to
pick up as it went through the first tunnel.  She knew the car would accelerate
with gee forces enough to crush her into a pulp if not for its compensators. 
She would make a fortune if she were able to just bring that technology back to
her time.  But there didn’t seem to be any way back.

Pandi pulled the nearly
empty drum from her rifle, placing it carefully in her backpack as she drew out
a new one.  It clicked easily into place, and the readouts on the rifle showed
that all loads were full.

Now the car moved out
into a huge chamber, much like those that had contained the magnetic field
generators and power transformers she had seen on her earlier ride.  But this
chamber was mostly empty space, thousands of cubic kilometers of it.  Mostly,
but not all.

It took her a second to
adjust to the scale of the great ships that were docked in this chamber.  Then
the scale took hold, even as her mind refused to believe in ships over twenty
kilometers in length.

“Are they functional?”
she asked the station computer.

“All of the ships in
this particular docking facility are fully functional, fueled and charged with
energy,” said the computer.