Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [178]
Anton knew that if he didn’t launch the vessel soon, the Klikiss machines would simply overwhelm them with their numbers and batter away until they shredded the hull, one armored plate at a time.
Vao’sh did his best to gather his wits. He leaned over to the controls as if it required an enormous effort, then gestured to one small grouping. “There...that is the one.”
Anton understood the mechanism for activating the engines, and hammered at the button sequence. The robots converged behind the ship as well; when the exhaust blasted from the rear cones of the shuttle, one of the machines was thrown backward, scorched.
“Good! That’s one down,” Anton said. “Only a couple hundred more to go.”
He looked at the gauges, where lights and graphs played across the screens. When it looked as if the chambers had heated up properly, he activated the next sequence. Outside, the Klikiss robots grasped the landing gear and began to bend and tear out the struts. The ship lurched, unbalanced.
The clanging continued. More and more machines closed in.
“Here goes nothing.” Anton punched the launch controls, and the ship shuddered. The engines roared, and finally the whole craft rose and accelerated, horizontal to the ground. Gathering speed, it burst across the floor like a massive projectile, mowing down six Klikiss robots that stood blocking the hangar opening and the freedom of the Marathan sky.
One robot remained clamped to a torn section of landing gear. Anton flew out of the structure and pulled the ship into a gradual ascent, with the robot still dangling behind them. Rough turbulence from the shifting temperatures of Maratha’s dayside made for a bumpy ride that rattled and shook the vessel. As they continued to ascend, the lone robot could no longer hold on. Its articulated arm broke off, and the beetlelike shape tumbled in the air until it shattered into glossy black pieces far below.
Exhausted and feeling an avalanche of terror sweep over him, Anton leaned back in the pilot’s chair and let out an insane whoop of victory. “We’re out of here, Vao’sh! We made it! We got away from those bastards.”
They shot up into the bright day sky, straining to reach the edges of the atmosphere and the open vastness of starlit space. He hoped he could figure out the navigation systems and the controls. He couldn’t tell how much fuel their engines held or how far this craft could take them. One problem at a time.
He looked over at Vao’sh in the second seat, but the rememberer did not seem exhilarated. The colored lobes on his face had turned a cadaverous gray. Waves of trembling wracked his entire body, as if he could barely control the sobs.
“We have escaped,” Vao’sh said in a weak, croaking voice. “But I am alone. Completely alone. No Ildiran has faced such solitude and survived.” He slumped backward and closed his large, expressive eyes. “I do not know how much longer I can endure.”
Chapter 88—NIKKO CHAN TYLAR
Once Jess Tamblyn gave him the task, it took Nikko only five days to track down where Speaker Peroni had gone to ground. She had sent out messengers from Jonah 12, and the Roamer system of rumors and messages passed the word.
The second trader whom Nikko encountered on his random stops told him where the Speaker might be found. In exchange, he asked the trader to spread the news that Roamers could again bring skymines to Golgen, which the wentals had purged of all hydrogues. Nikko wouldn’t be surprised if one or two facilities had already been launched for the gas giant.
Now, as the Aquarius passed the dark outskirts of the Jonah system, he sent out a call to the miners at the settlement, but received no response. “Hello down there? Is anybody hearing me? Is Speaker Peroni there?”
Puzzled, Nikko detected anomalous heat and energy signatures where the base should have been. Strange modulated bursts came across the comm spectrum, but over frequency windows the Roamers rarely used. He swallowed hard. What if another raiding party of Eddies had discovered Jonah