Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [240]
The hydrogues didn’t know what had hit them. The doorbell mat triggered a hatch to open, just as Kotto had done on the small derelict sphere. The same principle on a much grander scale. On the other side of the same sphere, a second resonance doormat triggered the frequency, and another cavity formed in the hull.
From inside, the hydrogues’ ultradense atmosphere blasted out like a rocket jet. The warglobe tumbled, spun, and wheeled like an ancient Chinese firework. Huge pillars of condensed atmosphere spewed away.
The Roamers whooped and cheered. “Like a balloon that somebody let the air out of,” Jared said with a loud laugh.
“Exactly as predicted,” KR said.
Careening out of control, the first warglobe struck a glancing blow against one of the other alien ships, then ricocheted into space as its atmosphere vented. Inside, the hydrogues would probably die from the decompression. There was no way they could regain control, even if they survived.
Almost simultaneously, the second and third warglobes vented, sending two more of the alien spheres into reckless tumbles. Other warglobes now rose out of Theroc’s atmosphere and began to converge on their unexpected attackers.
Kotto saw them coming. “Uh-oh. Do we have enough membranes to deploy again, Jared?”
“We’ve got quite a few—we worked round the clock, remember? But those little mats are slow. Now that the drogues are warned, they can dodge them.”
“Dump them all anyway. It’ll be like dodging raindrops. The drogues can’t miss every one of them.”
The first opened warglobe still sputtered. Its atmosphere mostly drained, it continued spinning away, dark and dead.
The Roamer ships dispersed the rest of the doorbells.
“Okay, we’d better scatter,” Jared said.
“Be my guest.”
The clan vessels raced away, but the responding warglobes were faster. An electric bolt lanced out, vaporizing one of the seven Roamer ships. Kotto made a strangled sound. “Just keep flying!”
Jared worked the controls, dodging and spinning. “On the bright side, this beats using the Klikiss Torch to blow up an entire planet.”
“Pat me on the back later. Right now, use both hands to control the ship.” Kotto felt nauseated, but he didn’t dare vomit.
Even so, he was pleased his idea had proved effective. The resonance doorbell technology was easily copied, swiftly and cheaply manufactured. Finally the humans had a way to stand up against the enemy. He hoped he would live to see the end of the war, rather than die a hero here.
One of the pursuing warglobes slammed into several drifting adhesive mats, which immediately clung to its hull. Two new openings burst through the diamond shell, triggered by the vibrational pattern. The doomed warglobe crashed like a self-propelled wrecking ball into another hydrogue sphere, smashing the pyramidal protrusions and sending both warglobes in opposite directions.
“That’s five down!” Jared said with a loud hoot.
But more warglobes came after, and the Roamer ships could not fly away fast enough.
Kotto checked the statistics on his screens. None of their little cargo ships had any more adhesive mats to throw in the way of the pursuers. They had used them all. “This doesn’t look good.”
“A conundrum,” KR said.
But Jared was staring in amazement at what he saw across the dark blanket of space. “Hey, Kotto? What is that? It can’t be a comet. Look how it’s moving. By the Guiding Star, it’s faster than—”
A streaking sphere of ice, like a fingerpaint smudge of luminescent white, hurtled toward them, trailing a wake of mist behind it in a long, arcing tail.
The nearest warglobe opened fire behind them.
Chapter 123—CELLI
Half of the warglobes had pulled away from the forest to pursue the harassing Roamer ships. According to chattered reports over the communications systems, several of the giant diamond spheres had been destroyed. Destroyed!
Celli looked from Solimar to her parents in disbelief. “We shouldn’t underestimate anybody these days.”
Overhead, crackles of icewaves and blue lightning continued