Abene waved a hand. “We’ve almost got it.”
I reminded myself I was still pretending to be a SecUnit under contract, and put the countdown in the feed with no additional commentary. Then I collected Wilken’s weapon and harness and went to stand by the hatch.
Hirune looked around, picked up the emergency kit from where Miki had left it, and limped over to stand beside me. She was unsteady on her feet and still clearly a little out of it, but having been carried off by a combat bot once, she was obviously ready to call it a day.
Abene pushed to her feet. “Yes, there! Copy that trajectory, Miki.” Miki acknowledged and followed Abene as she strode to the doorway. “Some sort of structure launched from the engineering pod and is heading toward the tractor array. The missing combat bot must be aboard it, and it means to destroy the array. Those orders must have been in the encrypted transmission Wilken and Gerth sent.”
That’s great! And I will care about the fucking tractor array once I get us on the fucking shuttle! Watching my own countdown, I pulled three inputs forward, my drone, Miki, and the diggers. No wait, I needed my own camera, too. Four inputs. Oh, and the suit audio from the shuttle. Five inputs. I had the drone do a quick check of the foyer and the access to the lift junction, making sure it was clear. I said, “We need to move fast. We don’t know where the other combat bots are.”
Abene nodded and gripped Hirune’s arm. Hirune whispered, “Where are we going?”
Abene shushed her. “Back to the shuttle. It’s all right.” Miki patted Hirune’s shoulder.
I hit the release for the hatch and stepped out. The fast walk to the lift junction made every nerve in my human skin itch. The drone scouted ahead of us, scanning, but I irrationally expected the bots to leap out from around the next corner.
We reached the junction and I sent the drone ahead in my invisible lift. Abene and Miki talked on the feed, occasionally making a reassuring comment to Hirune. They could be plotting to sell me for parts and I couldn’t spare the attention to listen in. Outside the diggers neared the curve of the geo pod. They would need to follow the trough between it and the habitation pod to avoid being spotted by the shuttle.
The lift reached the junction nearest our docking area and the drone zipped out. I sent it on a quick scouting pattern, up and down the access and through into the decontam room, then up to get a view of the shuttle’s lock. The scan was clear, and I told the drone to return to the lift junction and hold position.
The lift returned and I got the humans inside. (And Miki, but at the moment I was classing it with the humans.) I directed the diggers to speed up a little. I wanted us to spend as little time in the access corridor to the shuttle as possible. If the combat bots decided we were putting their mission at risk, they’d come after us and they knew they could catch us there. As I started the lift, I sent Abene the diggers’ video so she’d have some idea of what the shuttle was about to see, and told her, “When I unlock your feed, connect to Kader and tell him to make sure to get everyone off the shuttle.”
“I will.” She nodded sharply and squeezed Hirune’s hand, and tapped Miki’s feed.
The lift reached the junction and I was out as soon as the doors slid open. I moved toward the decontam room, the humans behind me, and I sent the diggers over the curve of the habitation pod and straight in toward the shuttle.
On board, through my connection to the evac suits on the flight deck, I heard Vibol say something in a language I didn’t have loaded, and Kader say, “We’ve got something approaching, unknowns are approaching—”
Distantly, from somewhere below the flight deck, Gerth shouted, “What? What direction?”
I opened Abene’s feed connection, and told her, Now.
She made the private connection to Kader and said, Kader, listen. No questions, don’t tell anyone I’m here. You must get everyone off the shuttle into the facility now, at once. Do whatever you must, pretend to be in a panic, but get everyone off. Your lives depend on it.
Through Abene’s feed, I heard Kader trigger an emergency evacuate order that blared across the team’s feed and the shuttle comms. Gerth had started up to the flight deck and snarled, “Stop, stop where—”
I thought she might trap Kader and Vibol in the cockpit, and we’d be back to a hostage situation. But Kader, who must have taken the “pretend to panic” advice to heart, sent the vid of the approaching diggers from the shuttle’s sensors into the feed and screamed for the others to get out.
I reached the corridor and had a view of the docking chamber as the shuttle’s hatch cycled open. Brais staggered out, a semi-conscious Ejiro leaning on her. Miki ran to help them, Abene hanging back with Hirune, and I followed.
I told one digger to let go of the facility’s surface and dive at the shuttle’s nose, where the forward sensor would have the best view. Abene was in Kader’s feed but with no cameras I got nothing but a confused jumble of impressions.
(I found out later from Gerth’s armor cam that the sudden sensor view of something large coming at the shuttle had made Gerth jerk backward out of the flight deck access. Vibol, taking Kader’s performance as evidence that the shuttle was about to be torn apart, grabbed Kader and dove past Gerth with him tucked under her arm, using the lighter gravity in the access to keep from slamming into the bulkhead. When they hit the corridor floor, they stumbled in the heavier gravity, staggered, and bolted for the hatch.)
Anyway, Kader and Vibol flung themselves out of the hatch, and Gerth, in her powered armor, strode out after them. I was standing to one side of the shuttle hatch by that point, so all Gerth saw was the others, confused and panicked, with Abene and Hirune, and a one-handed Miki holding up Ejiro.
I scanned her armor and found the right code. (It was a much quicker process now that I knew where to look.) Just as she brought her projectile weapon up, I sent the command.
Her armor froze in place, and I stepped around into view. Her expression as she realized what had happened was gratifying. If she had been using her scan, she would have detected me just outside the hatch, but even with the feed, even augmented, humans can only think about one thing at a time.
Abene said, “Now we must get back on the shuttle!”
The others demanded answers and she explained rapidly as she shooed them toward the hatch. I tuned it out to check on all my other inputs. Without my orders, the diggers had gone dormant and stopped where they were. Two were still on the surface of the habitation pod, and the one that had lifted off to dive at the shuttle had landed on the atmosphere pod. Then I checked the drone, which I had left in the lift junction to watch our backs.
It started to respond with a scan of the area, then the transmission cut off abruptly. I felt the connection drop, the drone going out like a light.
I said, “Abene, Miki, bots!” I crossed the room, pulling Wilken’s projectile weapon off my back.
Abene yelled, “Aboard, now!”
I reached the doorway and started to pull explosive packs off Wilken’s harness, arm them, and toss them down the corridor. I still had Miki’s camera as an input and I backburnered it, but I was peripherally aware of the humans scrambling, getting the wounded Ejiro and Hirune through the lock, and Abene telling Miki to pick up Gerth and carry her in. It was about that time when the combat bot slammed around the corner and the first explosive charge went off.