Compulsory by Martha Wells

Author:Martha Wells [Wells, Martha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781645241720
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2023-07-27T23:00:00+00:00

I kicked the stabilizer wall to shove me into the lighter gravity well so I could slow down. I hit the vertical support, slid down, kicked off again and landed on the housing just above Sekai. HubSystem sent a command to my governor module that should have made my whole body, the inorganic parts and the soft human bits, feel like it had been set on fire from the inside out. If my governor module hadn’t been an inert lump of metal.

Hah.

Sekai looked up at me, eyes wide. Her bubble helmet had cracked (that’s what safety equipment from the lowest bidder gets you) and her face was tear-streaked. I hooked one hand around the edge of the housing and leaned down to reach for her.

I thought she was too afraid of me to take my hand. I mean, there’s an energy weapon built into my forearm, so it wasn’t as if I couldn’t see her point. Then MedSystem’s feed told me the chance of her being stunned from the impact was 80%. I initiated a secure link between my armor and her suit, and said, “We have forty-five seconds to get out of here before we both die.”

It may not have been the best thing to say under the circumstances but it worked. She gasped and shoved upward to grab my arm. I pulled her up against my chest, just as the blade cycled and dropped down toward the collector. Released heat and radiation washed over my armor and her suit. Sekai made an “eep” noise. I wanted to make an “eep” noise too but I was busy. I said, “No, just look up and hook your harness to my armor.”

I felt her shaking through the suit but she fumbled the clips into place and got them fastened. Now I was free to climb and focus on Phase II of this stupid thing I had just done. I’d hacked HubSystem when I’d first been shipped here for this contract so it wouldn’t notice my borked governor module. Now I needed to make it forget what it had just seen me do. No, not forget it, I realized as I swung around the side of the housing for better handholds. I needed to make this look like HubSystem’s idea.

By the time I slung us both up onto the platform, I’d wrestled HubSystem into submission and it was convinced it had ordered me to rescue Sekai. SafetyResponder28 had arrived and was issuing belated warnings. I set Sekai on her feet as the other humans grabbed her. I filtered out the crying on the comm and pulled up the management feed that I wasn’t supposed to have access to. Good, the supervisors were puzzled that HubSystem had directed a SecUnit to save a worker, but figured it was a productivity issue. Sekai and the others would be hit with fines for almost clogging the collectors with her burning body, but it was better than being dead. I guess.

Vena and Elane tried to pull Sekai away, but she turned back and stumbled toward me.

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