Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [216]
The rammer’s bridge doors opened. The Soldier compies turned slowly, as if mechanically coming to attention. Tasia reeled when she saw three towering Klikiss robots scuttle onto the command deck.
The black robots turned their headplates toward her. They paused for a moment of analysis, as if considering how much trouble she might still cause. The foremost beetlelike machine spoke. “These rammer vessels will not be used against the hydrogues. We have taken possession of them for our own purposes. Your Soldier compies are now loyal to us.”
Chapter 110—DEL KELLUM
By damn, the compies have gone berserk!” Del Kellum stared at the frantic reports that flickered across the control screens. He turned from one emergency to another, confused and enraged at the same time. “What set them off? Did somebody overload their programming with caffeine? Shizz, I can’t believe this! I thought their cores were erased before we put them to work.”
“They were, Del!” one of his assistants said. “Completely wiped.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
One of the smelter supervisors sprinted in as if something was chasing him. He ran so fast in the low gravity that he couldn’t stop himself in time and ricocheted off the wall; he had to scramble to regain his balance. “Del, I’ve got another report! The Soldier compies kept overloading Smelter G until the auto-crucible split open. The entire facility is melting down as we speak!”
“Casualties?”
“Our ten workers managed to get into a couple of grappler pods in time. The whole smelter’s just a hardening globule of slag—including the Soldier compies they left behind.”
Kellum grabbed the smelter supervisor by the front of his embroidered shirt. “Where’s Zhett? Has anybody seen her?”
“I’ve been running from crazy robots and molten metal, Del—”
Kellum went from one station to another. The situation was insane, but he would try his damnedest to get control of it. “Kotto Okiah left yesterday with his crazy doorbells, didn’t he? Two days ago? Maybe he could help our engineers reprogram those compies—or at least shut them down. Can we get him back here in time?”
“No way, Del. He’s halfway to Theroc by now.”
Kellum fumed at the various screens, studying the red flashes and the repeated alarms. “They’re wreaking havoc everywhere!”
One of his assistants studied the reports. “Seems to be only the Soldier models. The other compies haven’t shown any erratic behavior.”
“Thank the Guiding Star for that. But those Soldier compies are equipped for combat. They’re more than we can handle.”
“It’s not only the compies, Dad. It’s the Eddy POWs, too!” Zhett appeared at the doorway, looking extremely shaken up. Her long hair was tangled, her face and hands streaked with grime. Most of all she was flushed with anger. “It’s Fitzpatrick and his cronies—they triggered it.”
Kellum hurried toward her, opening his arms to embrace his daughter. “What happened to you, my sweet?”
She was too furious for a hug. “He tricked me, Dad.” Were those tear tracks on her cheeks?
Kellum tried to smooth her hair. “Explain yourself—but be quick about it.”
She told him how Fitzpatrick had tricked her, then locked her into a cargo storage area. Kellum sensed that she was leaving out significant parts of the story, but his anger was directed toward the EDF detainee.
Zhett sounded more incensed than hurt. “It took me half an hour to reactivate and communicate with the compies outside, so they could cut their way through the door and let me out.” Her nostrils flared. “He stole the cargo escort, Dad. He’s long gone.”
An avalanche of explanations tumbled together in his mind. “The Eddies did this to us? You think it was a diversion? Unbelievable! Look at the mayhem, the property damage. Who knows how many casualties they’ve caused!”
“That didn’t stop Fitzpatrick from manipulating