Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [94]
His Juggernaut targeted the engines of more hijacked Mantas with a broad jazer spread, knocking at least seven offline. But that was all he could do.
Feeling angry, ashamed, and helpless as he ran away, Lanyan gripped the arms of his command chair and watched as the compy-controlled battleships continued seizing the Grid 0 fleet.
54
TASIA TAMBLYN
When the Klikiss robot dragged EA out of the environment cell "for analysis," Tasia shouted herself hoarse. She argued and threatened and pleaded, but the black robot ignored her, and the little Listener compy could not resist.
"I am sorry, Tasia Tamblyn." Then EA was gone.
Robb held Tasia for a long time while she shuddered in fury and dismay. She had learned to always be tough, but here, bottled up with the other captives, she felt naked and barely capable of maintaining her façade. EA was one of the only threads connecting her to the outside.
"The Klikiss robots and the hydrogues--it's like an alliance between Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frankenstein," she said, halfway between a sob and a snarl.
"No human imagination could come up with anything as evil as those robots." Smith Keffa wrapped his horrifically scarred arms around his chest, hugging himself. "Monsters!"
Keffa was gaunt and haggard. During their endless, pointless waiting, he had told his story. He'd been a down-and-out Hansa merchant slipping from system to system, making just enough profit to put some fumes of stardrive fuel into his tanks. The Hansa paid little attention to runners like him, nor did they notice when people like Keffa disappeared. He certainly didn't know how long he'd been in captivity. Forever, he said.
When he'd gone to rendezvous with a "business associate," he'd found his partner's ship dead in space. Then Klikiss robots had chased after him. Though Keffa tried to flee, his tanks were already drained and so his ship stalled. Klikiss robots dragged him off to the hydrogue experimentation chambers.
Fighting nausea, Keffa told of how the robots had sliced off patches of his skin with the tools in their articulated arms, cut deep into his muscles, taken samples of his marrow, apparently on the orders (or whims) of the drogues. He hated the black machines.
"Those monsters aren't my favorite thing in the universe, either," Tasia said, "but if they return my compy intact, maybe I won't tear them to pieces."
Robb tried to offer encouragement. "I don't think they'll hurt EA. We met another compy--called itself DD--apparently taken captive by the robots. They kept him intact, but we haven't seen him in a long while."
For an interminable time--a month? an hour?--she pressed her hands against the colored wall, trying to make out details through the murk of the dense atmosphere. Tasia kept watching, waiting, hoping. Finally she saw the great black shape leading her small compy through the Escher-esque streets. EA! They were returning to the preservation cells. Tasia moved from place to place, looking for a better view.
The black machine approached, then loomed on the other side of the membrane. The prisoners shrank away, but Tasia waited defiantly. The Klikiss robot pushed EA like a doll through the barrier, then followed. "Your compy is flawed. Her programming is damaged."
Tasia stood her ground. "What did you do to her?"
"Humans have interfered with the base routines. We cannot free EA from the restrictions, nor can we restore her to a normal condition. This one is worth no more than a human. Therefore, we will treat EA as an inferior captive."
Even though the Klikiss robot meant its announcement as an insult, Tasia heard it as good news. "She's sure as hell welcome with us!"
The alien robot withdrew into the membrane until its large form was swallowed back into the hellish outside environment. Tasia came forward to put her hands on EA's small, hard shoulders. "Did they harm you? Dissect you?"
"They analyzed