Hidden Empire - Kevin J. Anderson [253]
Meanwhile, Margaret stared as the stone trapezoid crackled and fuzzed with static. Then the smooth rock faded away, suddenly replaced with another scene—an opening that gave her a view of a different place entirely, a new world.
"Louis!" she shouted.
The Klikiss robots converged toward the two archaeologists, their articulated arms extended. Louis swung the pickax from side to side. He looked over his shoulder at his wife, took a brief but significant gaze, like a snapshot in his memory. He memorized the determined face he had loved for so long, the inner beauty and the weathered features that had made her more attractive to him than any other woman he had ever met. "Go!" he shouted. "Just go!"
Margaret hesitated. "I'm not leaving you!"
"Well then, I'm coming right after you." The pickax slammed into Sirix's black body core with a loud clang, and the impact sent a jolt through Louis's arms, hurting his shoulders. The point of the digging tool left only a small scratch on the black carapace.
The Klikiss robot rocked back in surprise, then reached out with a segmented insectlike forelimb. Louis dodged, yanking the tool away and hefting it over his shoulder.
"Now, Louis!" Margaret called. Then, without hesitation, she stepped into the image that had been only flat stone moments before. The portal wall crackled—and Margaret vanished.
Elated to see that his wife had escaped, Louis hurled the pickax at the advancing Klikiss robot. It clattered against the dark casing. Sirix knocked it aside with his bloodstained limbs, and the pickax crashed to the floor.
Turning, Louis raced toward the trapezoidal portal wall where the window looked out upon a sanctuary. Another planet...somewhere foreign and far away.
But in front of his eyes, the stone window shimmered, then solidified again, sealing itself into a blank and impenetrable rock barrier.
Louis skidded to a halt, his heart sinking, despair etched across his face. "No," he moaned. He had not seen which tablet Margaret had pushed, didn't know what she had done to activate the system.
Sirix and Dekyk closed in on him now. Having seen Margaret escape, they would not give him the same opportunity. Deadly weapon arms extended from hidden openings in the robots' bodies, claws clacking.
Louis was cornered against the stone wall, trapped. He raised his hands in useless surrender, using his old lecturing voice. "Sirix, why are you doing this? We mean you no harm. We were just trying to help. We wanted to find the answers for you."
"We did not want the answers," Sirix said.
Louis, leaning against the cold and all-too-solid stone wall, did not understand. "But you said you had lost all your memories, that you didn't know what happened long ago."
"We did not lose our memories," Sirix said. The Klikiss robots fell upon the doomed archaeologist, their weapon-arms extended. "We lied."
TIMELINE
Ca.1940s Ildirans discover Klikiss robots on Hyrillka ice moons.
2100Peary, Balboa, Marco Polo—first generation ships depart from Earth.
2103Burton, Caillié depart.
2104Amundsen departs.
2106Clark, Vichy depart.
2109Stroganov departs.
2110Abel-Wexler departs.
2113Kanaka departs, last generation ship.
2196Kanaka leaves colony at Meyer rubble belt; becomes Rendezvous.
2221 King Ben crowned on Earth.
2230 Mage-Imperator Yura'h ascends.
2244 Ildirans encounter Caillié; Theroc established as colony.
2245 Ildirans come to Earth, search for other generation ships.
2247Kanaka found, settlers taken to Iawa.
2249 Compy OX returns to Earth. Thara Wen (fourteen years old) becomes first to take the green.
2250 Roamers begin skymining operations on Daym and elsewhere.
2254 Dobro experiments begin. First Klikiss ruins (Llaro) reported by Madeleine Robinson. Theroc officially declares its independence from the Hansa. King Ben poisoned; King George crowned.