Joan D Vinge - Lost in Space by Joan D Vinge

Author:Joan D Vinge
Language: eng
Format: epub

Metal clanged on metal; the robot's body shuddered like a human's, but it did not give way as the spider-things mounted a savage, single-minded attack from the other side of the doorway. Don heard the wrenching squeal of metal, as teeth that could rip a starship open like a can of tuna tore into the robot's back. He tried to get his feet under him, desperate to get away from the door and what lay beyond it, but his body seemed to have turned to rubber.

Abruptly there were hands under his shoulders, lifting him up, helping him stand. He turned, and saw Judy, her eyes shining with relief and —

"Let's move!" Robinson called. The lights went green, the door slid open; and suddenly there was no time for him to say anything to Judy, even if he could have found the words.

Judy let him go, and they ran for it with the rest.

Chapter Fourteen

ITIaureen and PenriL| sat at the com of the ]upiter Two, powering up the ship's drive. Behind them Will fought virtual monsters, heaving invisible spiders off the back of his sim, as the real robot fought real monsters at the other end of their link. Its holographic form around him was already flickering in places, as the real-time damage to the robot mounted.

"Will," his father shouted from the Proteus's airlock, "can you get the robot in here?"

More spiders clung to its hull, burrowing through its body in their mindless urge to destroy the living flesh it was keeping from them. Will grimaced as if he could actually feel its pain, and shook his head. "I can't move him without letting the spiders into the ship!" The robot was crawling with them, inside and out; they were pushing through gaping rents in its body, furiously trying to reach the humans in the airlock.

"Leave him behind," his father ordered, and Will could barely see the emotion on his face.

"I'm sorry…" Will whispered his final words to the robot, and began to disengage the simbot's controls.

* $ *

On board the Proteus, a spider squeezed through the robot's ruined body, flinging itself with monomaniacal bloodlust toward the airlock door.

"Seal it! Now!" Robinson shouted, and Don hit the button with his fist. The door was still closing as the first monster reached them. The spider thing lashed out, grazing Smith's back with its taloned whip, just as the door dropped down.

The alien baby leaped from Judy's arms with a shriek of terror, landed on Smith, and launched itself toward the rear of the chamber. The door sealed shut, lopping off the alien's tailhook. It dropped with a mucasoid splat to the floor in the sudden silence of their profound relief.

Smith rubbed his back, glaring at the trembling form of the alien baby huddled again in Judy's arms. "This tiny horror scratched me."

Don pressed the stud on his jacket with an unsteady hand, finally retracting the blast shield and his helmet. He looked down, his heart beating like a fist against his ribs as he stared at the severed appendage still twitching on the floor.

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