Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [192]
Purcell’s voice came out as a squawk. “What are we supposed to do against them? You saw what they did to the base!”
“And we can’t let them do any more. Those were our people they slaughtered. Once they get off Jonah 12, we’ll have no way of stopping them.”
Nikko said nervously, “I’ve done some foolish and ambitious things before, Speaker Peroni, but even I would never tackle a thousand Klikiss robots.”
She still felt cold and empty, bearing the burden of so many more deaths, so much unprovoked slaughter, and she intended to do something, before it was too late.
“I don’t know what we ever did to anger those robots, but I have never seen my Guiding Star so clearly. Whatever they’re doing, we can’t let them succeed. Do you have any doubt that we’ll pay for it in the long run? We can nip this in the bud—and it’s got to be the three of us. If we just run, the robots will be long gone before we can return with reinforcements.”
Purcell turned his long face away, looking sick. “I never said you weren’t right, Speaker. I just said I didn’t like it. How are we supposed to stop them?”
Her smile felt as cold as the temperature outside. “Purcell, we had an idea when the robots were attacking the base. It seemed too drastic, and there wasn’t enough time. Now, though, I can’t think of anything more appropriate.”
The black machines remained intent on their own plans, far away. Nikko deployed his ship’s most sensitive sensors to keep watch, but none of the robots came to investigate, allowing the three of them time to prepare. As the acting administrator, Purcell described the details of the Jonah 12 base, sketched out the locations of all possible resources, and explained what they had to do.
When they were ready, Nikko flew the Aquarius to the perimeter of what had been the mining base, skimming only a few meters above the stippled ground to keep out of sensor range. He landed gently out of sight, beyond the lip of a crater, kicking up a dust of hydrogen and methane ices.
“The Klikiss robots might have detected us,” Purcell cautioned.
“If they’re even bothering to watch.” Nikko scratched his lank, dark hair. “They seemed awfully preoccupied with those ships when I flew over.”
“They aren’t worried about us,” Cesca said. “They knew where our grazer was stranded all along, but they didn’t even bother to come looking.”
Though her suit heaters were turned to maximum levels, Cesca still felt a chill as she walked beside the two men. They crept over the crater’s rise, closer to the expanded site of the mining base. Here, not long ago, she had stood watching Jhy Okiah’s wrapped body as it launched out into space to roam among the stars. Now everyone else at the base was dead too.
The three spied on the construction complex, trying to determine what the robots were doing. Cesca used a focused line-of-sight communication beam so that no signal would bleed over for the robots to intercept. “I never expected something quite this...drastic. There’s nothing left of the base, nothing recognizable at all.”
Purcell made his assessment. “They’ve taken our processed metals and dismantled our machinery, ripping components out and reassembling them.”
“The ships look almost ready to launch,” Cesca said.
The administrative engineer looked at the glowing small-pile reactor. The shielded power plant was a standard design, a proven workhorse for centuries. “They’ve ramped up the reactor to expand its output, but it was never designed to tolerate so much. Kotto would have a fit. That pile wasn’t meant to run at such levels for any length of time. That’ll make our job easier. The reactor’s got to be halfway unstable already.”
Cesca could easily see Purcell’s troubled expression through his faceplate, but she was smiling. “Then let’s make it all the way unstable. Still think you can coax the plant to melt down?”
“Shizz, Speaker Peroni, the way that pile’s jury-rigged we’ll be lucky if that