Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [176]
Tasia groaned. ‘We're not likely to find a friendly fuelling station in that Klikiss city.'
‘One problem at a time,' Robb said with a resigned sigh. ‘Let's do what we can to repair the engines and the hull, and we'll work on the fuel problem in parallel. I just wish I had some clue where to start.'
Tasia climbed back up into the Osquivel's spacious cockpit. ‘I'll deal with getting the weapons systems online. That's a problem I can tackle. No telling when we might have to blast some bugs.‘
They barely slept during the next day and night, taking turns at watch. Nikko kept himself busy and quiet, weighed down by the conviction that his parents, along with the rest of the Roamer detainees, were dead.
As darkness fell again, Tasia sat on a rounded brown boulder near the fringe of emergency lights around the crash site. Deeper in the canyon the shadows were thick and black. Out there, she could hear a rattle of something slithering through the rocks. The darkness grew deeper, closing in around her, making her jumpy. Tasia had a wide-dispersal flare in one hand, a twitcher in the other, and a heavier projectile gun at her hip. She would rather have been inside the wrecked ship and comfortable on her bunk, preferably with Robb beside her. Yes, comfortable.
Often, though, the most uncomfortable thing was the right thing to do. She sat on the hard rock, guarding against any approach from out of the night. Even with the shipboard weapons partially repaired, the three of them could never have held off a full force of the bugs.
She heard continued noises, another skitter of pebbles. From far off came a strange warbling chirp and she looked up, then heard the definite approach of footfalls, something much larger than a rodent. A rock clattered against another. Loose dirt trickled down the steep side of the canyon wall.
She sat motionless, waiting until the last minute, her hand sweaty on the twitcher. If the Klikiss were coming, the little stun weapon wouldn't do much, but she would open fire as soon as she was sure of her target.
A dry piece of underbrush cracked, and she heard a whispery sound, much closer than she had expected. Tasia didn't wait any longer, knowing the three of them would have to be very lucky indeed to survive this. She covered her eyes and activated the wide-dispersal flare, hoping to dazzle them long enough so she could fire. ‘Robb, Nikko - I could use some help over here!'
The flare's harsh light burst out. Though Tasia had shielded her dark-adapted eyes, she struggled to make out the shapes, expecting to see an army of hideous creatures swarming down upon them. Shouts seemed to come from all sides, and Robb and Nikko ran to join the fight. Too many shouts, too many voices.
Instead of monstrous bugs, though, she saw a dark-skinned man and a shaggy old hermit accompanied by two others. They wore standard-issue colony jumpsuits that were a bit worse for wear. The dark-skinned man covered his eyes. ‘Don't shoot.'
‘We're friendlies, dammit!' The older man cursed. ‘I didn't expect anything so dramatic. Sheesh! We're escapees from the colony.'
Robb and Nikko came running from the wreck. The dark-skinned man's eyes adjusted quickly, and he stepped forward. ‘I'm Davlin Lotze. We saw your ship crash, picked up your emergency signal, and pinpointed your beacon before somebody silenced it.'
Nikko stopped and stared at one of the other men. ‘Dad? Dad!' He nearly tackled Crim Tylar.
‘Nikko! What the hell are you doing here?'
‘Rescuing you. We came to rescue all the Roamers on Llaro!'
‘But it didn't turn out exactly the way we'd planned,' Tasia added.
Crim's face looked bleak. ‘That's for sure.' Nikko hesitated, as if realizing that he didn't want to ask any more questions.
Davlin spoke in a clear, businesslike manner. ‘I don't think the Klikiss know where you are yet, but it would be best if we got to safety before daylight.'
One hundred and nine
Admiral Sheila Willis
Even if Chairman Wenceslas insisted there was a war going--< on, Rhejak was where Admiral Willis