Berserker Prime by Fred Saberhagen

Author:Fred Saberhagen [Saberhagen, Fred]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780765345431
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2005-01-10T05:29:11+00:00

been able to spot no more than two. By midmorning, the last pair seemed to have somehow evaporated.

The last human guard had scarcely disappeared from the hostage quarters when the young Huveans, who had been watching the situation carefully, began to convince themselves that they had been thrown on their own resources.

But one of the Huveans still considered himself bound by an oath of honor not to attempt an escape.

The more aggressive youth snapped at the more passive: “What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation on real paper?”

The stickler for honor seemed to be looking at him from atop a distant hill. “Try to remember, that when we volunteered we took a solemn oath”

“We were all a lot younger then.”

“It was only a few standard months ago!”

“Even so. Look around you, open your eyes! That was in a different world, that place where people took solemn oaths and worried about their honor. In this world, where you’re living now, all bets are off, you bloody fool. Wake up and live!”

Another put in: “I would hardly call this an escape. It seems to me we’ve been deserted.” Someone noted that if the stickler for honor was really determined to honor his pledge not to escape, it was probably going to cost him nothing, since everyone on the planet was soon going to be slaughtered anyway.

The first decisive act of the rebellion was to rid themselves of the distinctive robes they had been made to wear since the start of their confinement.

Their own Huvean-style clothes had been put away in storage, even before they arrived on Timber, and in any case, would have been no help in passing as Twin Worlders. Minutes later, by raiding a supply closet, an eager searcher came up with a stack of shirts and trousers worn by the maintenance supervisors who directed the crews of robots. Footwear was also available.

Doing their best to look casual in their new garments, they came drifting, singly and in pairs, out of the rooms in which they had spent most of their confinement.

A certain door, through which none of them had been allowed to pass, was now totally unguarded. It opened at a simple touch, and no alarms went off.

Reggie nodded, looking straight ahead. “Beyond that next gate ought to be the street. It seems that we can walk.”

“I’m getting out of here,” a colleague murmured.

And another: “I’m with you. The war’s on, there’s no use waiting around to be shot.” They came to the last gate, of solid metal. Beside it stood a robot, one of the standard manshapes. It knew them at once, of course, despite the change in clothing. And it was ready to deal with an attempted Page 113

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