Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [204]
Tasia yelled into the echoing corridor, as if the Klikiss could understand her. 'Hey! Would it help if I told you we hate the black robots, too? I could tell you stories that would make your exoskeletons crawl. We should be allies in a common cause!' The bugs patrolling the passageways did not pause, apparently ignoring Tasia's statement.
Robb said, 'You know, I've actually been in worse situations. And gotten out of them.'
'Me too. But getting into deep shizz isn't a habit I'd like to continue.'
Orli peered out into the interconnecting hallway. By now only a few traces of the old EDF base remained on the curved stone walls: pipes, electrical conduits, intercoms, and lighting systems that had been rigged up by the original colonists.
Two strange newbreeds walked into view with a stuttering gait. Briefly, before the pale creatures were gone, Orli glimpsed fleshy faces and shifting features that had a bizarre, indefinably human quality. None of the other Klikiss even had a hint of a face. The newbreeds seemed curious about the prisoners, and also somehow sad. A Klikiss warrior marched along behind them and, with a staccato hissing and clicking, chased the newbreeds away.
As if visiting a relative in a hospital wing, Margaret Colicos arrived with her compy beside her. 'DD! Margaret!' Orli reached her hand through a gap in the web-barrier.
The Friendly compy stopped at her small cell, his optical sensors gleaming. 'I am pleased to see you alive and well, Orli Covitz.'
'Alive and well? The Klikiss are going to kill us all.' Orli doggedly clung to a spark of hope. 'Do you know where my synthesizer strips are?'
'I do,' DD volunteered brightly.
Margaret stopped in the corridor. 'Since the recent fissioning, there's a new breedex. It still knows who you are, Orli, but it also understands more about humans, now that it has incorporated so many attributes of the colonists.'
Davlin was listening at the second cell down the tunnel. 'That's a good thing, isn't it? If the Klikiss understand us--'
'Not good enough.' Margaret kept her attention on Orli. 'That means the breedex is less susceptible to previous distractions. I am afraid the music you play on your synthesizer strips won't be enough to eliminate you from… consideration, after all. It still has great power, but the breedex has heard it before, and humans are no longer as special to it as I once was. We are all in danger.'
Farther down the tunnel, Davlin pressed up against the sticky bars. 'Margaret, you can help us get out of here. Bring us tools, Klikiss weapons - something to give us a fighting chance, at least.'
'What do the bugs want from us, anyway?' Nikko said. 'They already killed my mother, killed all the colonists! Isn't that enough?'
'How long are they going to hold us?'
'Can you find some food? Water?'
As everyone began to shout at once, Davlin raised his voice, cutting through the noise. 'If the hive has already fissioned, aren't we safe for now?'
Margaret said, 'The expansion phase has accelerated, and the new-generation breedex will fission yet again, as soon as possible.
The subhive continue to grow. These Klikiss intend to destroy all rival breedexes in the coming hive wars. Therefore, it must reproduce again, and it wants to incorporate you, your memories and knowledge, to give it an unexpected advantage over the other subhives - a weapon they won't suspect. The domates will come to gather us for the next round. Soon.'
Orli reached through the rubbery barricade toward the compy. 'DD, help me - convince her to help all of us.'
'You don't need to convince me,' Margaret said. 'Even if I could get you out of those cells, we wouldn't get far with so many Klikiss around. We'd certainly never get out of the hive city.'
'Listen to me,' Davlin said. 'If we escape, we can take you and DD away from here. We can take you home.