Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [228]
"There's more to come," Jess warned. "Count on it."
With hydrogues and wentals colliding all around them, no one expected the immediate threat to come at them from below. On her knees, peering through the soap-bubble hull, Tasia cried out, "Shizz, Jess--Klikiss robots after us! Lots of them."
From the alien metropolis, a swarm of black machines cracked open their armored carapaces, spread their wings, and activated propulsion systems. They flew after the escaping ship like a swarm of metal locusts.
Smith Keffa's face contracted with fear as the Klikiss robots closed the distance, their multiple articulated limbs extended. "They're coming to kill us. Damn machines! Leave us alone."
The first black robot slashed past, and skittering mechanical claws ripped the wet membrane. Jess used his fluid control to instantly seal the breach and re-form the protective film as fast as the robot swept by, but dozens more attackers buzzed closer. The ship was already flying upward at the greatest speed Jess could attain. There were so many of them. So many.
Jess shouted to the elemental voices in his head, demanding help, but the wentals sang back, We are unable to assist. The battle is joined, and the hydrogues are fierce.
Another Klikiss robot slammed into the bubble and somehow held on with its burring, slicing claws. The healing membrane immediately closed against the deadly atmosphere, but the robot worked its bulk through the bubble wall, like a bizarre and horrific baby being born.
Belinda screamed. With a wild cry, Keffa pushed off the bubble wall and flailed forward to tackle the heavy robot. The force of his leap drove both him and the robot out through the membrane with a hollow pop. As soon as they passed into the superdense atmosphere, the man was crushed to a splatter-smear of flesh and blood. The robot spun away, falling as it tried to reorient itself.
Now only six captives remained, and more Klikiss robots surrounded Jess's ship. The escape bubble rose toward the upper atmospheric layers, but not nearly fast enough. The black robots swarmed higher, their beetle wings flapping, their propulsion systems driving at high speed.
Unable to do anything more himself, Jess again pleaded with the wentals. In his head, the elemental voices answered, The robots are not our primary enemies.
"They're my primary enemies right now! If you don't do something, we're going to die." After an interminable pause, the wentals grudgingly agreed.
Diamondlike water vapor condensed out of the moisture-laden slipstreams. Living wet fog folded around the flying robots, individual packets of mist that began as gauzy cocoons, then condensed into bubbles of water. Within moments, the pursuing robots were encased in what looked like giant raindrops. The black machines struggled inside the blobs of liquid, and then, in a snapping instant, the water cocoons froze solid, encapsulating the robots. The nodules of ice dropped away like hailstones.
Tasia and Robb hurled smug insults at the robots. The other captives sat in shock. Belinda huddled with her eyes closed, as if counting the seconds until they could be far from there.
Jess shot their ship through the highest layers of the atmospheric battlefield, and the gaseous air grew thinner. "We're almost to the edge of space."
Before the wental ship could escape into orbit, a group of six already corroded warglobes gave chase. "Shizz, don't the drogues have bigger problems right now?" Tasia said.
Jess answered, "In us, they see an enemy they believe they can destroy. Hold on!" He sent the bubble into a wild pinball spin.
"Still think this is easy, Tamblyn?" Robb held his stomach as if he were about to vomit.
The half dozen warglobes followed the escaping bubble, lumbering closer as if to roll over the ship with brute force. No matter how much speed he urged from the wental vessel, Jess lost ground. He could not avoid all six hydrogue spheres. They would be on him in moments.
"We came so close," Tasia groaned. "Dammit, we came so close!"
Finally the ship tore free of Qronha 3's atmosphere and