Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [214]
'I'll figure something out. I alter my plans as necessary. Don't wait for me. If everything goes smoothly, I'll be right on your heels.'
'If everything goes smoothly?' Nikko said with a groan. 'When has that ever happened?'
Davlin turned to Orli. 'I need your backpack.'
She reluctantly shrugged the straps off her shoulders. 'My synthesizer strips?'
'I need them to save us all. Now the rest of you, go!' Davlin didn't stay to talk. Grabbing Orli's pack, he ran along the tunnels, following electrical conduits toward the central systems that had been installed more than a year ago by the EDF watchdogs. According to the tiny monitor lights and sub-station boxes, the power was still running, at least intermittently. The bugs had cannibalized some components from the barracks, and disregarded other pieces.
More Klikiss scuttled through the corridors, some of them had missing limbs or cracked shells from the battles outside. The air smelled of dust and bitter insect juices. If the main clash was indeed over, the victorious Llaro breedex would hunt down the last of the invaders, and eventually Davlin's presence would intrude upon the hive mind's awareness.
Then the bugs would intercept him.
Through a small window opening, he glanced outside. At the trapezoidal frame of the new transportal, the Llaro hive's strongest warriors tore apart four of the invading domates. The tiger-striped monsters squirmed and struggled, but were utterly overwhelmed. They fought, and they died.
Davlin didn't care which side won. Either way, he had very little time.
The EDF's old control and communications centre was a small alcove closed off with a chain-link gate. Davlin easily cut through the links and was relieved to see that the Klikiss had ignored this small intrusion into their ancient city. It simply hadn't mattered to them.
He dropped Orli's ragged pack on the hard, stone floor. By now the others should have gotten outside. He counted on that. If they didn't make it away swiftly, the Klikiss would turn on them.
Davlin pulled out Orli's synthesizer strips and unrolled them on the stone floor. Still functional.
He activated the tiny power source, hooked up the leads, and ripped open a cover plate on the intercom system to attach the wires. A few random notes whistled into the air, but none of the Klikiss seemed to notice. He worked by instinct. During his many missions as a Hansa spy, he'd been forced to learn how every common system worked. If Margaret Colicos's tiny music box had made enough of an impact to disturb the breedex, then Orli's much-more-sophisticated music should have a similar effect. Davlin would give the bugs their fill of it. He prayed it would be enough.
He called up the library of tunes the girl had stored in the strips' memory and set it to continuous repeat. Adjusting the volume to its maximum level, he began the Play cycle.
Startling melodies emerged from the intercom speakers mounted at intervals throughout the ancient alien tunnels. A Klikiss worker scuttled down the passageway toward him, but as soon as the music began, the creature turned, as if stunned and disoriented.
The synthesizer continued to play, the melody building, the notes captivating the Klikiss. Listening via all its minions throughout the subhive, the breedex should be reeling.
Davlin slipped back out through the chain-link gate, closed it, and sprinted away. It was time to find another way out of here.
One hundred and thirty-two
Adar Zan'nh
Zan'nh left behind emergency crews on each of Tal O'nh's five empty ships to effect necessary repairs and fly the much-needed battleships back to Ildira. In the meantime, the Adar needed to leave immediately. While Ridek'h and the blinded tal were taken to medical kithmen aboard his flagship, Zan'nh gave instructions for his warliners to fly to Ildira at maximum speed.
When they arrived, they found the faeros already there.
A dozen fireballs crowded the sky above the Prism Palace, swirling over the crystalline towers, setting the fountains and