Alastair Reynolds by Stories (26 merged)

Author:Stories (26, merged) [Stories (26, merged)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I pulled myself through a curtain of trembling pink water. Air pressure in the corridor contained the amniotic fluid, even though Martinez had blown a man-sized hole in each airlock door. Ruptured metal folded back in jagged black petals. Ahead, caught in a moving pool of light from their helmet lamps, Sollis and Martinez made awkward, crabwise progress away from the ruined door. Sollis was supporting Martinez, doing most of the work for him. Even in zero gravity, it took effort to haul another body.

“Help her,” Norbert said faintly, shaking his weapon to loosen the last of the pink bubbles from its metal. Without waiting for a reaction from me, he turned and started shooting back into the water, dealing with the remaining robots.

I caught up with Sollis and took some of her burden. All along the corridor, panels were flashing bright red, synchronized to the banshee wail of an emergency siren. About once every ten metres, the ship’s persona spoke from the wall; multiple voices blurring into an agitated chorus. “Attention. Attention,” the faces said. “This is the Voice of Nightingale. An incident has been detected in culture bay three. Damage assessment and mitigation systems have now been tasked. Partial evacuation of the affected ship area may be necessary. Please stand by for further instructions. Attention. Attention …”

“What’s up with Martinez?”

“Took some shrapnel when he put a hole in that door.” She indicated a severe dent in his chest armour, to the left of the sternum. “Didn’t puncture the suit, but I’m pretty sure it did some damage. Broken rib, maybe even a collapsed lung. He was talking for a while back there, but he’s out cold now.”

“Without Martinez, we don’t have a mission.”

“ I didn’t say he was dead. His suit still seems to be ticking over. Maybe we could leave him here, collect him on the way back.”

“With all those robots crawling about the place? How long do you think they’d leave him alone?”

I looked back, checking on Norbert. He was firing less frequently now, dealing with the last few stragglers still intent on investigating the damage. Finally he stopped, loaded a fresh clip into his slug gun, and then after waiting for ten or twenty seconds turned from the wall of water. He began to make his way towards us.

“Maybe there aren’t going to be any more robots.”

“There will,” Norbert said, joining us. “Many more. Nowhere safe, now. Ship on full alert. Nightingale coming alive.”

“Maybe we should scrub,” I said. “We’ve lost Nicolosi … Martinez is incapacitated … we’re no longer at anything like necessary strength to take down Jax.”

“We still take Jax,” Norbert said. “Came for him, leave with him.”

“Then what about Martinez?”

He looked at the injured man, his face set like a granite carving. “He stay,” he said.

“But you already said the robots—”

“No other choice. He stay.” And then Norbert brought himself closer to Martinez and tucked a thick finger under the chin of the old man’s helmet, tilting the faceplate up. “Wake!” he bellowed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.