"Start down!" he ordered into his collar mike.
The platform started again. Velmeran watched the steps closely, waiting for a white rectangular head to appear over the rail near the corner landings. He did not know if the sentries could elevate their guns very high, although he did remember that the cameras were inset and not able to rotate very far up. He hoped that he could drop a heat charge on the machine before it saw him; he did not care to get into another shooting contest with a sentry.
"Hello, and welcome to beautiful Bineck," Valthyrra's voice, radiating the commercial enthusiasm of a tour guide, announced over their corns. "The weather at your location is threatening, turning to openly hostile at any given moment. I must also inform you that two wings of seven fighters each are taking off from the main base. Your twenty minutes have just begun."
"This will be cutting it close," Dveyella remarked.
"My packs will not be in time to intercept those fighters," Valthyrra continued. "They will have to be your problem. We will get anything else."
Velmeran thought that he could see the bottom now, a square of pale gray stone far below. Five levels were past and the sixth opened beside him, so he was now halfway down. Then he saw an indistinct shape lean out over the railing far below, more than halfway down from where he was.
"Something on the stairs," he warned. "Just passing the second level, I would guess."
"A sentry?" Dveyella asked.
"It really did not look like a sentry's head," he replied. "I believe that it was too small for a sentry, and there were no guns. Whatever it was, I am going to put a bolt through it if I see it again."
"If it is something hidden with a gun, you should know that the two larger, rounded things on your belt are explosives," she offered.
"They are?" Velmeran sounded surprised. "Then I will use one of those if it tries to ambush us as we get nearer. It is dark under here, and it might not see me until too late."
"Reverse ambush," Dveyella agreed. "But do not use the explosive if you get too close, since you have no helmet. Try throwing it from a fourth of a level up."
"I will thank you not to," a third voice said suddenly. "If you two have come to collect me, I would prefer that it be alive."
Velmeran nearly fell out of his perch. "Keth? Is that you?"
"Of course it is."
"Stay at the third landing," Velmeran instructed. "We will collect you there. Do you have a gun?"
"No, nothing. I have been listening to you since you landed. When that first sentry attacked you, the one guarding my door took off at a run. Since he was really the only thing keeping me in that room, I kicked open the door and headed straight for the stairs."
"Why did you not tell us you were coming?"
"I have ho helmet," Keth replied. "And the echoes carry far in these old halls. I was afraid that one of the beasts might hear me."
"You would hear it," Dveyella pointed out.
"Not if it was standing still."
"What does this do to our schedule?" Velmeran asked.
"Barring further incident, we might actually be out of here in another ten minutes," Dveyella answered. "In realistic terms, we might just be ready when those two wings of fighters descend upon us."
After another half a minute, Velmeran had Dveyella stop the platform a short distance above the third level so that he could climb out. Keth looked up and saw his pack leader hanging facedown from the framework beneath the platform, his legs and free arm braced wide against parts of the structure, rather like an ironclad spider in a tubular steel web. Keth was at first inclined to laugh, but the expression his pack leader wore warned him against it. Velmeran threw Keth a gun, then quickly lowered himself from the frame and swung out to the landing stage. Dveyella quickly brought the lift down low enough for them to step on, and immediately started back up. When Keth tried to return the gun, Velmeran indicated for him to keep it and pointed up.
"Since you and I have no helmets, we are going to have to be on guard," he said. "If any of those monsters pokes its head over the railing, shoot it."
"Remember that the design of this type of sentry is such that it can rotate its cameras straight down," Dveyella added. "And since its smaller guns are mounted on the sides of the cameras, it can shoot what it sees."
"Is that one?" Keth asked, pointing at the rectangular shape that appeared over the edge of the railing a level up.
Velmeran nodded. "I believe so."
"Oh," Keth said, and began shooting. His aim was surprisingly good, considering that he had seldom practiced with such a weapon. His second and third shots caught the sentry under the chin before it had a chance to draw back its head. "Did I hurt it?"
"I do not believe so," Velmeran said. "No parts feH off. Do we stop?"
"No, we have to get closer," Dveyella answered. "Swat that thing back every time it shows itself."
That did not work so well. The sentry had the advantage, and that advantage increased as the lift platform rose toward it. A moment later it returned and opened fire, and this time the three Starwolves were forced to leap off the platform into the stairs for cover. Velmeran tried to return fire, but it could see him clearly now and shot first.
"Now what?" he asked.
"We do not have the time to spare," Dveyella said as she pulled off her helmet. "Levels are about forty to forty-five meters apart, or three full revolutions of the stairs. If I can climb near enough, I can jump diagonally up from below the sentry to its level."
"I believe I know what you have in mind," Velmeran said. "Will it work?"
Dveyella shrugged. "If you cover me."
A moment later they were climbing the stairs as fast as they could, leaving Keth behind to watch the lift. The climb became more dangerous as they drew nearer to the sentry, since it was soon able to shoot beneath the overhanging ledge that had protected them farther below. Still, they were able to climb to the run directly below it. Then Velmeran climbed two more flights, keeping behind the cover of the solid stone rail, until he was only two flights below and directly across from the automaton.
The sentry knew that they were up to something. It bent its head down as far as it could, trying to scan the shaft with infrared. Just then Velmeran fired on it, shot after shot slamming into its head, blowing out one camera and the gun beside it. The sentry retracted its head and staggered back. Dveyella leaped as hard as she could against the stubborn pull of real gravity, seeming almost to fly up the narrow shaft. Seven meters up she caught the railing where Velmeran stood and flipped herself atop it. Velmeran shot again, driving the sentry back a second time and blowing out its other camera in the process. Dveyella launched herself directly at the blinded automaton, taking advantage of its confusion.
Velmeran hurried to join her, leaping across the shaft as well, only to find the sentry standing by itself as thick smoke poured from its vents. Dveyella stood beside the doorway in the middle of the landing, cautiously peering down the dimly lit corridor.
"Another coming fast," she said, panting in the poor air. "Keth?"
"Already on my way up," the older pilot responded over com.
"The machinery beneath the lift is unprotected, and we are still only halfway up," Velmeran said. "You are winded, so this one is mine. Take the lift up four flights and wait for me."
"Do you have something in mind?" she asked.
"Nothing fancy. The sentry will think that we are on the way up, so this should be easy."
"I could watch," she offered.
Velmeran quickly placed a hand over his collar mike. "I would prefer that you watch Keth. I do not trust him alone with a gun. He might try something that he would do well to leave alone."