Excerpt of Intergalactic Witness Protection
Orion looks up at me with a
half-smile. “I… knew… you’d come through… Because… I
needed you.”
A warmth moves through my circuit to
know that I have accomplished my mission.
Then movement captures my visual
receptor, and I turn to see that the giant piece of roof that landed
on the Venetian is beginning to move.
I turn my focus back to my crew.
“You need to get up. I can’t move you, and she’s already
stirring-”
Like my words have preyed up a
miracle, Orion pulls himself, his arms moving upwards and bringing
his torso after him.
Then he turns to where Killa and
Nicholas have fallen, Nicholas protectively half-covering Killa with
his body.
Further evidence that my captain was
right in thinking there are feelings shared by them, and further
reason for me to bring those feelings to surface.
Orion winces at the thought of the
coming pain of not only moving, but also of dragging his crew on
board.
The rubble above the Venetian shakes
some more, and Orion crawls painfully toward Nicholas and Killa.
“I’ll join you in a moment,” I
say.
He looks up, startled. “The old
med-bot?”
I nod, even though we both know how
much I hate the form of the relic of a previous age. It isn’t easy
to operate, either, because its circuits are so ancient.
All the same, I search the
electronic pathways on the ship to find the dull hum of the half-dead
medical bot hanging limp in the first-aid lab.
I
lift one med-bod leg, causing
it to creak wildly. When was the last time this was oiled? Nicholas
would know, since it’s his duty to do regulatory
upkeep with the technology.
Which means it has probably been a
while.
If I were human, I’d be tempted to
leave him here and just save Orion and Killa.
But I’m not human, and am quite
determined, in fact, so I force the decaying body all the way to the
front hull of the ship, where Orion is trying to drag Killa up the
bridge while on his hands and knees himself.
It would be very easy to just lift
the hull and blast off without the lazy good-for-nothing…
Behind Orion, rubble goes flying up,
and the Venetian stands up, her hand reaching for her holster.
My calculations compute that if she
stuns Orion, and it’s just me against her, she’ll take my crew
all too easily after dismantling me.
So I need to reverse the algorithm.
Clunking over Nicholas’s
unconscious form, I pound toward the Venetian and lunge forward. My
clunky form hits into the Venetian’s much frailer body, and we go
down hard. Thankfully, I’m metal, and feel no pain.
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