Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [111]
“Yes, but what did we lose in the process?” Purcell said.
The grazer picked up speed, puttering away. It was by no means a swift piece of machinery, but it covered the ground faster than the Klikiss robots could scuttle on their clusters of fingerlike legs.
Inside the pressurized vehicle, Cesca slid open her faceplate, and as soon as Purcell had a chance, he removed his own helmet. Cesca noticed the sweat streaming down his long face.
The rear viewer showed the robots staggering to a halt in a group. One of them held a large piece of insulated plating ripped from the back of the grazer. The robots stood over the plate like hunters inspecting a fresh kill.
“What was that, Purcell? What did they manage to break off?”
He kept driving in a straight line, bent over the steering yoke. He glanced aside for only a second to see the image, then froze. “Oh, no. That’s the insulation cowling over the engine. It protects our moving parts from the intense cold. Kotto designed it himself.” An edge of renewed panic sharpened his thin voice.
“Can we make it back to base?” Cesca said.
His eyes were round beneath heavy eyebrows. “Are you kidding? That’s almost a day’s journey under good conditions.”
“Then how far can we go without it?”
“We’ll have an accurate answer soon enough. Without the insulation, our machinery won’t function long in this intense cold.”
Far behind them now, the four robot pursuers gave up the chase and turned back toward the ice tunnels.
Purcell hunched over the driving yoke, winding their way up to higher ground. Already, the engine coughed and groaned, as if throwing a tantrum about the severe environment in which it was being forced to perform.
“Our radio still works, doesn’t it?” Cesca said. “We’d better warn the base.”
“Yes. We’ll get a clear signal as soon as we’re out of the shadow here.”
The grazer lurched and stuttered, but Purcell talked to it, pleading. He gently coaxed the controls, and the vehicle continued to inch forward. With painful sluggishness, the damaged grazer managed to reach the top of the higher rise, and then, with a shudder, the engines seized up. Components ground together and froze solid. Their lubricants had turned to cement.
Sniffing the cold reprocessed air inside the grazer, Cesca caught the smell of smoke. “Shut everything down! If we catch fire in here, we’ll use up our spare oxygen.”
“We’re not going anywhere anyway.” As Purcell deactivated the systems, Cesca found a fire extinguisher and sprayed foam dispersant in the smoldering rear compartment. They were safe from immediate danger, but stranded.
Cesca looked forlornly out the viewing windows. They had managed to get far enough away that the robots paid them no heed. In the distance, she saw more machines moving about at the tunnel opening. The Klikiss robots reminded her of hive insects, like the bees a few Roamer families kept in order to sell fresh honey at exorbitant prices.
Purcell pushed himself back from the control seat. “No use, Speaker Peroni. The engines are dead. Machinery simply can’t work unprotected in this cold.”
Staring at the distant black forms marching about by the ice tunnels, she said, “I wish the robots had that problem. Why did they attack us? Roamers have never had any contact with Klikiss robots, never. Jack Ebbe was tinkering with long-dormant systems. Could it have been an automated response, the robot’s equivalent to a reflex action?”
“Or maybe they were expecting someone else to wake them,” Purcell said. “Prince Charming, maybe?”
Using battery power, Cesca activated the comm systems and transmitted a warning to the Jonah 12 base. Back inside the domes, workers sounded the alarm and recalled all grazers while sending out a rescue vehicle to retrieve Cesca and Purcell. “It might take us a while, Speaker. You’re a long distance off.”
“We’re fine, as long as the robots don’t notice us sitting up here.” She did not feel at all comfortable about being exposed, but they had no other way of getting back. They