Part 30 (1/2)

”This is it,” whispered L'Wrona. Just around the corner, halfway down a long gray corridor, two blades hovered before a closed door. ”Sure?” whispered John.

The captain nodded. ”According to R'Gal-and this is all according to R'Gal.” He turned to his troop. ”With me,” he said.

They came around the corner, firing, a line of black-uniformed humans rus.h.i.+ng the blades.

Three commandos died in seconds, torn by perfectly aimed blaster fire; then the blades went down, blown apart by the return volley.

They were still skidding along the deck as S'Til slapped the blastpak against the door, then joined the others pressed against the wall.

The door disappeared in a burst of orange flame, the explosion reverberating down the long corridor. Charging into the room, the humans gunned down a pair of cybertechs trying to hide behind the long banks of equipment.

”Which one?” said John, looking around the big room as the rest of the force fanned back out into the corridor.

”Here,” said L'Wrona, leading him to a group of five yellow-colored machines standing slightly apart from the rest. Taking a flat metal device from his pocket, he set it atop a console, then knelt and snapped open the machine's inspection hatch. A glittering web of multicolored light greeted him, thousands of delicate strands busily maintaining Devastator's Devastator's s.h.i.+eld. s.h.i.+eld.

”Found it,” said the captain, gently fingering a connection. ”Pa.s.s me the suppressor.”

As John turned, reaching for the device, a blaster bolt snapped past his chest and plowed into the console, just missing his hand and shattering the suppressor.

Whirling, John drew and fired, destroying a third cybertech who'd lain hidden behind a machine housing.

L'Wrona and John stood for a moment, looking at the shattered bits of the suppressor.

”Now what?” asked the Terran.

”Manual override,” said the K'Ronarin. ”It's only temporary, though.” He looked at the time. ”It'll be enough for the boats.”

”What about the s.h.i.+p?”

”We can't wait here. We'll have to do that the hard way. Stay here, push this b.u.t.ton”-he indicated a red control-”when I say to.”

John nodded as L'Wrona walked to the end machine and stood, finger poised above a b.u.t.ton. ”Now,” he called.

Both men pressed at the same instant.

Unprotesting, all but one of the consoles died, lights winking off.

”And out,” said L'Wrona.

”Did it work?” asked S'Til, not taking her eyes from the corridor.

”We'll know soon,” said L'Wrona, glancing at the time. ”On to our secondary target.”

The small force moved out on the double, following L'Wrona back toward the lift.

The alarm was deafening, an alert fit for the end of the universe. The AI on s.h.i.+eld control glanced at telltale, then flipped a switch, tapped it, then flipped it again. The readout was unchanged. ”Captain,” he called, ”confirming s.h.i.+elds down. Someone's cut the fusion flow in s.h.i.+eld nexus seventeen.”

The warning was unnecessary. All Operations personnel were looking up through the armorgla.s.s-the blue glow that protected them was gone.

”Reaction force and repair party dispatched,” reported the senior security blade.

”Much it will help us,” said the AI captain. He moved to the gla.s.s wall. ”Why are we still alive?”

”Enemy withdrawing,” came the report a second later.

The battlescreen showed the two mindslavers moving off, replaced by a handful of smaller craft.

The captain hovered for a moment, immobile, not trusting his sensors. Finally he spoke. ”They're attacking us. In a.s.sault craft. They plan to seize this s.h.i.+p.” Finally convincing himself that it was true, he moved back into the center of Operations. ”Fusion batteries to open fire. All available security forces deploy to repel boarders.”

R'Gal told them they couldn't take the battleglobes' primary generating facility-too big, too well guarded But . . .

There were two primary feeds leading off a tertiary power nexus. That nexus, R'Gal had said, powered the gun and missile batteries in quadrants seven red through eleven yellow-the only quadrants that could accurately range in on the a.s.sault boats.

”And how long has it been since you've been aboard a battleglobe, R'Gal?” D'Trelna had asked.

”Irrelevant, Commodore,” the AI had said. ”I forget nothing.”

”And if they've changed the design?”

”They won't have.”

”Pull,” gritted L'Wrona, tugging on the thick floor plate. Grunting with effort, he, John and S'Til finally pried it loose. Sliding it aside, the three looked down into the conduit-and backed off, covering their eyes. Two thick crystalline lines blazed with blinding sunlight-energy feeding the guns.

”Do it,” said L'Wrona, rubbing his eyes.

S'Til dropped two blastpaks into the conduit.

”Run!” shouted L'Wrona, making for the access stairs.

”Blades!” cried a voice just as they reached the door.

They were swooping in from both ends of the corridor, blue and red bolts snapping at the retreating commandos.

A withering counterfire met the machines as S'Til and two squads covered the others. The corridor became bedlam: blasters shrilling, fusion bolts exploding into walls, floors, men and machines, commandos screaming, blades cras.h.i.+ng in flames.

Harrison and two troopers knelt in the doorway, firing at a trio of blades that had broken through the cordon. Hit, the blade to the left wobbled, turned and banked into the ceiling. The center machine retreated, accelerating through the showering debris of its companion. Dropping to floor level, the blade on the right kept coming and firing.

The trooper to John's left died, shot through the heart.

Cursing softly, the Terran aimed two-handed and held the trigger back, sending the rest of the chargepak tearing into the machine, then leaped back as the killer machine reached the doorway.

Smoke streaming behind it, the blade knifed through the other trooper, neatly decapitating her, then plowed into the ramp, a brief pillar of flame narrowly missing L'Wrona and the rest of the commandos.

The trooper's blood soaking him, John watched transfixed as the headless corpse stood for an instant, crimson geyser ebbing, then folded into a soft pile of clothes and cooling flesh.

S'Til and three troopers raced through the doorway, securing it behind them with a well placed bolt to the control unit.

”More of them right behind us,” she said to L'Wrona. ”No one else . . . .?” said the captain. S'Til shook her head.

There was a nearby shrilling of blasters-the door began to glow white.