“We’re not going to fight them,” I said. “But we’re not going to run right away, either. What have we got if we are forced to fight?”
Everyone stared at me for a second before turning back to their screens.
“We’ve got an operable main battery,” Gorski said. “Unlike our last ship. And we’ve managed to build a number of missiles that will fit the tubes on this cruiser.”
I looked at him with my eyebrows raised high. “You’ve been busy,” I said.
He nodded proudly. I looked around the group. Welter was standing at the helm with his fingers uplifted, twitching almost. He wanted to work that board in combat, I could tell. Gorski wanted to fire his new missiles. The fact he’d put them into the Macro tubes showed he’d gained some level of control over the ship’s weapons system. I suspected he only knew enough to open the external ports and allow our brainbox-driven missiles to launch on their self-guided path.
Major Sarin was looking at me now, waiting calmly for my next order. She didn’t look anxious to do any killing-but it was hard to tell with her. She guarded her feelings, rarely letting them show on her face.
Sandra just looked worried. She didn’t like any of this. I could hardly blame her, she’d already died in combat twice that I was aware of. Maybe she wasn’t certain I could pull off a third miracle and find some new alien technology to put her cells back together today.
“How long do we have until they get in firing range?” I asked.
“Hard to say,” Gorski replied. “That depends on their armament, which we haven’t seen yet.”
“Assume they have the equivalent of two Nano-ship lasers each.”
Gorski tapped for a half-minute. “I’d say we have three hours in that case.”
I nodded. “We’ve got every marine living or dead we could find aboard now, correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“In three hours,” I said, “we’ll be out of here. I’m not going to destroy another biotic people’s fleet just because we can’t talk to one another. They are naturally assuming we are a damaged Macro vessel. I’ll try to convince them we aren’t, but if it comes down to it, we’ll run rather than fire on them.”
Gorski raised his hand with his palm open. “Hold on, sir,” he said. “I didn’t say we had three hours to sit around. They are building velocity. They could follow us through the ring. We have to start moving much sooner if you want to avoid a fight.”
“How long?”
“Less than an hour.”
I sighed. “All right. Has anyone seen Marvin?”
Sandra had seen him, of course. She knew exactly where he was. She had, in fact, belled him like a cat. I realized I should have done that sooner, but just hadn’t gotten around to thinking of it. She had put one of the transponders on him she’d put on me long ago in happier times-back before the Worms, Centaurs and Macros had managed to kill ninety percent of my marines.
I followed Sandra through the ship. To my surprise, I had to struggle to keep up. Even wearing my powerful exoskeletal battle suit over my vacc suit, enhancing my muscle contractions and magnifying them, I found it hard to keep her behind in my range of vision. She leapt and sprang like a cat. I recalled watching a documentary on red kangaroos once. At full gallop-or whatever you called a kangaroo’s gait when it was hopping like mad-each bound took them a good thirty feet. Sandra reminded me of a kangaroo moving through steel passages in flying leaps.
We found Marvin pretty fast, and I had to smile grimly at his reaction. He was definitely disturbed by our approach. We found him in a data closet full of flexible hosing-similar to the one we’d made into a love-nest so recently. His primary arm was probing the tubes. He had one open, and looked to be doing some kind of exploratory surgery on the glowing contents. Liquid spilled on the decks like oily blood. Three of his four cameras were canted at various angles, staring at the open tube. But the fourth eye was on lookout, staring at the hatch behind him as we crashed it open.
The dish his brainbox floated upon spun around and all the cameras came up to look at us. Two focused on Sandra and two on me. He dropped the cable and snaked his probing arm back into his brainbox with surprising speed. It definitely reminded me of a guilty start. I was sure we’d caught him red-handed at something, but I simply didn’t have time to waste finding out what it was.
“Marvin,” I said. “We require your help.”
“What assistance do you require?”
“Come with us to the bridge, Marvin,” I ordered. “Now.”
One of Marvin’s camera eyes drifted first to my sidearm, then to Sandra’s. The second and third cameras stared at our faces simultaneously. The fourth camera squirmed around behind him now, looking at the tubes he’d been cutting into. He hesitated and seemed reluctant to leave his work.
“I require another half-hour to complete my current project.”
I was burning to inquire as to the nature of his project, and to give him a sharp order to follow me or else, but I’d learned what worked best with Marvin: cold logic.
“If you do not come immediately, this ship and all of us aboard her face destruction. A new enemy has moved against us. We have very little time.”
This got him moving. His self-preservation circuits were in prime condition. His flying dish tilted and he levitated out of the room. We followed him as he made his way toward the bridge. As we went, three of the four cameras watched us, looking over his shoulder in effect. Only one looked ahead to guide him on his path.
“What is required of me?” Marvin said in a voice that should have had a whiny cadence to it, but I guess he wasn’t programmed for that.
“I need you to translate for me. You can talk to the biotic beings we call the Worms. They are the beings who built the ships approaching us now. We must talk to them, and stop them from attacking this vessel.”
“Few determined enemies can be argued out of their aggression. I would suggest you destroy them instead.”
“There are too many. Your translations must be precise or your continued existence is in jeopardy.”
His manner changed after that. I noticed his extra cameras now studied airlocks, hatches and exits as we passed them. Was he considering bolting on us? I wouldn’t put it past him. I glanced toward Sandra and she nodded back. I could tell she had noticed the same thing. He was clearly storing details of his environment, mapping the ship for purposes of escape.
“Sandra here will accompany you everywhere you go, Marvin,” I said.
A camera swung back to study me, then Sandra. “This is the female I modified,” he said.
“About that, robot,” Sandra began.
I lifted a hand. “Later,” I said. “Let’s talk to the Worms and survive the next few hours first.”
Sandra looked pissed, but fell silent. I could tell by the look of smoldering anger and determination in her eyes, she was going to keep Marvin on a tight leash. That was exactly what I wanted. I only hoped she could keep from tearing him apart if she got him alone.
On the bridge, people eyed this newest incarnation of Marvin doubtfully.
“Hook him up to the sensor input,” I told Major Sarin. She did it, but she didn’t seem happy about it. No one really trusted Marvin now. If I didn’t need him so much I would have switched him off and put him in a storage container until I reached Earth.
Marvin accepted a silvery, hair-thin nanite wire. He touched it to his brainbox, and it adhered as if it had been soldered there. So strange, this living, smart metal we used without a thought now. I supposed new tech was always like that. Strange at first, then natural and indispensable once you were familiar with it.
“Marvin, can you transmit a hailing call to the Worm ships?”