Loadstar 117/117.d81/sr.chapter five

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 19KB | 699 lines

Chapter 5: Worse Than Death

    The children were under magnetic
pulse sedation in their cribs.
Johnathan and Eve had talked, then
napped after making love.  Eve's arm
was across his chest.  Jonathan was
startled out of his nap.  He heard
commotion in the corridors.  Every
sort of emergency signal was blaring.
 What was it?  Decompression?

    "ATTENTION!  ATTENTION!  RENEGADE
MAINTENANCE ROBOT NOW IN D-SECTION,
CORRIDOR SIX!  EVERY AVAILABLE HAND
THERE IMMEDIATELY.  AIRLOCK SHUTDOWN
IN THIRTY SECONDS!"

    Well that explained the sirens
and commotion.  Jonathan checked his
plaque, which was constantly
updating: Four already confirmed
dead?  What could it be?

    It happened just when Eve thought
she might have been wrong  about
Betty.  She was frantic,  "It's her!
She's coming for me now!  She'll kill
me!  Hide me!  You've got to hide
me!"

    Jonathan frowned,  "Will you stop
accusing Betty!  It's been years now
and she hasn't so much as snapped at
you.  She's taken a huge cut on
autonomy and can't touch you.  She's
been through enough and I won't have
it anymore!  If anyone should have
compassion for Betty, it should
be..."

    He could hear the whir of the
electric motors before the droid
crashed into his doorway, caving the
sliding metal doors inward.  Mack
backed away and crashed into them
again, then again, until Jonathan
could see the metal tearing.  Outside
men were screaming, being tossed
aside or run over as they attempted
to stop the droid.

    The next second, the airlock fell
down.  Lights dimmed and yet another
alarm was blaring.

    "Betty..?"  Jonathan dared to
say.

    "I've been telling you for years
now!  She'll kill me, and our
children!  I know her better than
anyone!  She couldn't see this coming
but I could, simply by placing myself
in her position!  She hates me now.
She's on the verge of hating you,
too, John!  She can hurt you."

    "What can we do?  Can we reason
with her?"

    "She's feeling unfettered rage
and is currently irrational --
murderous.  I have no idea..."

    Three more times the machine
heaved and smashed into the doors but
they wouldn't part, especially with
the added reinforcement of the
airlock.  The ceiling, walls and the
floor buckled around the door, but it
remained intact.  The buzzsaw, metal
claws, and the laser began cutting at
the honeycombed titanium-steel
airlock.  Inexorably, Betty was
gaining entrance.
    Jonathan rushed to his plaque and
dialed Betty.  She refused to
acknowledge.  "Betty!  Betty!  Stop!
I know you can hear me!  Don't do
this!  You'll lose me!  I'll despise
you if you destroy this woman!  I'll
hate you!  I'll preside at your
deactivation!  I'll see to it!"

    Nothing from the plaque.  The
robot continued to cut its way in.

    "That's it, husband.  Cheer her
up!  Remind her that she has nothing
to lose now."

    A sigh,  "Eve..."

    "Just letting you know what's
going through her mind now.  Sorry."

    "For what it's worth, I'm sorry I
ever doubted you."

    "My only wonder is why it took
her this long."  She began to sob,
"Why did she wait until I had
children..?"

    He quickly searched around.  "How
strong are you, Eve?  Still above
average?"

    "I don't know.  I've normalized
considerably, though I've attempted
to keep my original strength through
exercise..."

    "I'll need your help."

    "What will we do?"

    "We..."  he started.

    She placed her fingers on his
lips to silence him, nodding toward
the computer console.  She then
grabbed a chair and demolished it
with three quick blows.  "Okay!  Now
speak."

    "This entire section is shut
down.  They must think they're
protecting the Captain.  We're
trapped in this section with her now.
 Grab a multi-driver.  We need to
loosen this panel in the floor.  When
she steers Mack over it, we lift it
and tip Mack over."

    She considered it.  "Mack can
still do damage while on his side --
and he can easily right himself with
his arms."

    "Then we jump down into the
inter-level.  Can Mack fit down
there?"

    Her hands covered her eyes in
despair,  "Mack helped build the
interlevels.  He can glide through
them."

    "Well there's nowhere else to
run.  We have to make it to the park,
wade into the water.  Mack can't
operate there."  He'll fuse."

    She considered,  "It might work,
but her laser might get us still."

    "Smoke?"

    "No.  Steam might do it.  It
might diffract the laser just enough
to..."  She was off to the lavatory,
setting the water temperature to well
over two hundred degrees, then
adjusted the shower head for a finer
spray to enhance the steam.  She
dashed to the nursery.  A few moments
later she was back at his side,
multi-driver in hand, helping to
disengage the floor panel.  "I am
grateful that we have unlimited
shower time now."

    "What about the children?"

    "Sedated and sent down the
garbage chute.  We'll have to get
them out before the transmat recycles
them tomorrow afternoon."

    He nodded,  "You're right.
They'll face a worse peril here."

    "And if we die?"

    He touched her face,  "I'd rather
they died in a transmat beam than be
ripped apart by Betty."

    "As for me, I've lived well these
past years, husband.  I couldn't ask
for more.  You were right.  A time
does come when you're ready to die."

    He chuckled,  "Now that I have
you, the last thing I want is to
die."

    They kissed as the room filled
with steam.  Moments later the droid
smashed its way into their quarters,
a dying crewman sprawled moaning
across its flat top.  Immediately Eve
was singled out.  The laser was
trained on her, then fired.  The
laser light was diffracted by the
thick steam, causing a blinding
flash.  Two more attempts and the
laser was abandoned.  Mack grappled
the crewman with two claw arms,
ripped him into two unequal pieces,
then sent him hurtling like a
screaming missile, toward Eve.

    Luckily her reflexes were faster
than normal.  She dodged to the side,
not realizing exactly how powerful
the robot was until now.  The
crewman's body whizzed past her and
spattered crossway through a doorway
behind her.  His screaming ended
instantly.  She dodged his leg, which
was thrown next.  Blood dotted three
of the walls.  Eve was wet with it.

    The last thirteen staples were
fired in Eve's direction, but she was
as agile as a jackrabbit, dodging,
rolling, until the staple gun
clicked, empty.  Mack hummed and
clicked before her, tossing aside
furniture to get at her.  His crimson
turtle's eyes were trained upon her,
Betty's hatred radiating from them.
The five arms fluttered about
menacingly, the tools on each tip a
potentially deadly weapon.

    Jonathan could hear the laser
thyristor building for a burst.  He
moved quickly,  "Now!  While we have
the leverage!"

    Together they lifted the floor
panel, toppling Mack, who was near
the fulcrum point.  There was a thud,
then the grinding sound of Mack's
motors.  He was righting himself
already. Jonathan quickly took a
bucket of highly crystalline Gemian
sand and tossed it into Mack's
tractor gears.

    "Come on!"  he shouted, angrily.
Together they leaped into the
interlevels, only five feet high.
They had to run with heads low.
"We'll never outrun Mack down here."
Eve, mumbled.

    "Who says he can even get down
here through that hole?"

    As if on cue, the floor ripped
open and Mack began lowering himself.
 Betty gave chase.

    "The friction from the sand
should wear his left tractor out
soon, if he keeps chasing us."

    "I hope so.  Mack is so
durable..."  Eve sobbed,  "Turn every
corner!  Mack has to slow, then turn,
then build up speed again.  It should
wear his batteries down sooner."

    Jonathan was getting breathless,
"I think my own batteries will go
before his, running like this."

    "You won't have to run long.
We're almost to the storage docks.
There we can get some backup."

    "Backup?"

    "The forklifts.  Can you operate
one?"

    "No, but I know someone who
can..."  Jonathan spoke into his
plaque on the emergency channel,
"Vince Anderson, get your crew to the
storage docks.  We're heading there.
Mack wants Eve, not the Captain.
Have s