Chapter 20
20
- Arelion -
The beam from my gun goes right through Bari’s web-like body and hits the wall way down a corridor.
“If you insist,” Bari sighs.
“And you told the Bululg just now,” Maeve goes on, “that Arelion had arrived here. You’re the one they called ‘Source’.”
“After you left the ship, I went back out into space to see if he was coming,” the traitor robot says in her chipper way. “And it is the Bululg who own this place. I thought it only courteous to go through them.”
“This is taking too long,” Cerak says and changes into his battlebot configuration, the spikes gleaming with silver. White beams lance out from him and go straight through Bari’s body without making much of an impression.
“No!” I yell, too late.
Quick as lightning Bari reaches out with one spindly, barely visible limb and skewers Cerak through the middle. He drops to the ground in a shower of sparks.
“I hope Buroteo will soon be here,” Bari says as she withdraws the pointy limb from Cerak’s body. “I suggest you all simply accept that he won.”
I know her for what she is now. The Single Filament Construct is a well known concept, but I’ve never seen one before now. The threads that make her up are so thin they’re barely there at all, but they are extremely strong. Beams and bullets won’t do much damage. We don’t have any weapons that will work against this machine.
Except one.
Aliens are gathering in every corridor, slowly coming towards us. My ray gun has limited charges, and Cerak is clearly no good anymore. I hear Buroteo’s creaky voice barking commands somewhere. Our time has run out.
I pull Maeve to me and put my lips by her ear. “My love, you like fighting. Now beat her up .”
She looks up at me, deadly determination in her eyes. “All right.”
In a quick move, she swings her fighting stick through the air and hits Bari’s nearest leg with a soft tap as it passes through and severs the filament. Bari drops on one side, her leg suddenly cut in half.
“Bitch! I’ll kill you!” the cheerful, female voice yells. Thin, pointy limbs shoot out like spears, seeking soft flesh.
But Maeve moves fast. I’ve seen her fight with that stick before, and it’s an impressive sight. She makes it spin so fast it can’t be seen, and then she flicks a wrist and it cuts through Bari with little resistance. It dances with Maeve and knows her intentions better than she does, sometimes. It’s the kind of synergy that can only happen after a lot of training. And with a very special weapon. From the first time I saw it I suspected what it is, but now I know for sure.
Maeve reduces Bari’s legs to a heap of filaments, rendering the machine unable to walk.
“Shall we go?” Maeve finally asks.
“By all means.” I grab Cerak and carry him on my shoulder, surprised at how heavy he is. The hangar door is still unguarded, and we all run towards it.
Behind us, our enemies start shooting for real. They’re not concerned with whom they kill — they want us all dead now.
“Should not have thrown away your armor,” Cerak tells me, his voice weak.
“Agreed,” I wheeze as I run.
“And you really should leave me here.”
I don’t reply. Robot or not, I’m not going to abandon a friend in enemy territory.
The hangar is empty. As I expected, there’s no ambush. Bari would have led us straight into some prepared trap of Buroteo’s.
There’s only a couple of Bululg ships berthed. I hope that one of them is the one we captured some days ago.
Maeve and Tara run towards the closest one, and I have no choice but to follow. Flying is out of the question with Cerak placed so awkwardly on my shoulder.
Buroteo’s forces are gaining on us. Their shots are becoming more accurate, but none of them hit us.
“I’m going to stop,” I tell Cerak. “Let the others get a chance to escape. It’s me he really wants dead.”
“Don’t!” he says with surprising force. “My self-repair process is underway. I’ve been shielding you all with a force field since we entered the hangar.”
Ahead, Maeve has reached the Bululg saucer that I hope is ours. It opens, and she and her sister dive in.
I speed up and throw myself to the floor inside the airlock. Cerak hits the opposite wall, making a dent in the metal. He rolls fast towards the control room. “I think I can do this faster than Maeve.”
I close both airlock hatches and take a moment to check myself. There are no new injuries, which is a little bit of a miracle.
Maeve comes running back from the control room. “Open the airlock!”
I stare at her. “We’re leaving!”
She hits the hatch release. “We know the ship works now! We can get away!”
“Umm…” I begin, having no idea what’s going on.
She throws something out and closes the airlock again, and the saucer shakes as it moves fast away from the berth.
Maeve comes straight into my arms and hugs me tight. “I’m so sorry, Arelion!”
I spot something, so I grab her arm and stare at her wrist. There’s a small cut with a drop of fresh blood around the edge. “Ah. Now I understand.”
“It’s war,” she says and looks up at me with big eyes. “Please don’t hate me!”
I pull her in and embrace her, hard. “My little warrior.”
She collapses in my arms, small body shaking. “Arelion…”
“It’s all right, my love,” I tell her calmly. “It’s all over.”
We stand there for a while as the saucer picks up speed.
“Let’s watch the fireworks,” I suggest and pick her up, carrying her across my chest.
In the control room, Cerak is still in his spiky shape, connected to the ship.
Tara also has a tiny cut on the outside of her wrist.
“Double fireworks,” I observe. “Should be a real spectacle.”
“I hope we can get far enough away,” Cerak says tightly. “Any moment now.”
We all look at the main screen, where Xap Station is slowly growing smaller.
Suddenly the station is replaced by a white star, so bright it’s beyond the capacity of my eyesight to handle.
“I hate antimatter explosions,” Cerak says. “But any explosion you survive is a good one.”
The star fades fast, leaving nothing in its place. Xap Station has vanished completely, without any clue that it once existed.
“I wonder if someone else could…” Cerak says, limply rolling away from the console. He’s plainly out of energy.
Maeve takes the controls.
I kneel down at Cerak’s side. “Anything we can do, old friend?”
“For me? No organic can do much. Simply give me time to self-repair. It might be a while.”
I touch one of his spikes. “I had no idea you were a battlebot.”
“I didn’t necessarily want you to know. Being a fully functioning trash can has certain advantages.”
I take in his damage where Bari punched a hole in him. “I’m sorry if I sometimes treated you?—”
“No,” the robot cuts me off. “I give as good as I get. I hope our friendly banter will not change after this. You are, after all, an irrational organic. Also, your feathers look silly.”
I grin. “I think you’ll be all right.”
Getting back up, I glance at Tara. I see the resemblance, and she is an attractive female. But she lacks Maeve’s profound beauty. “Any chance you can fly this thing, Tara? I’d like to talk to Maeve.”
“Never flew this model of saucer,” Tara says. “But they say I’m a quick learner.”
She takes over the controls. Maeve gives her some instructions, then turns to me with a little smile on her lips. “Greetings, Supremacy.”
“Greetings,” I reply weakly, surprised by her addressing me like that. “Can I talk to you in private?”
“No,” Cerak says from the floor. “Do it here. With witnesses.”
I glare at him. “You have no idea what I’m going to say to her.”
“I have some idea of what you want to say. I may not be an organic, but I sometimes know what they think. And you muttered to yourself all the way from Gigori to here. Go on.”
I suddenly can’t hold back a laugh. Why not? “Very well. I’ll make a fool of myself in public. Maeve. My love. I’ve done some research about Earth. It appears that while Earthlings don’t always mate for life, they are familiar with the ideal of mating for life. And I have told you about the Eoan Mark and its meaning…”
Cerak groans loudly.
“Furthermore,” I go on, ignoring him, “we have been together now for several days, and I find that while we are sometimes at odds about certain?—”
“Oh good grief,” Tara says from the control panel. “Just ask! ”
I take Maeve’s hand. “Maeve. I love you. Will you marry me?”