Retread Shop by T. Jackson King

Author:T. Jackson King [King, T. Jackson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SciFi
ISBN: 9780445206748
Google: hOdKHAAACAAJ
Publisher: Warner Books
Published: 1988-01-15T19:45:17+00:00

An hour after their rescue of Amadensis they were all in the TAL, ready to depart, ready to escape. But up in orbit, Ding do-wort had other ideas.

“Melisay, Billy, Partners—we must check out the other two TALs,” said the barking voice of the flying squirrel. “We can’t leave anyone if they’re alive. Will you check the other groups and see if there are any survivors?”

Pilot-Captain Ding do-wort could not command those on the surface, but he knew she was right. Billy also knew she was probably frantic at the thought two of her junior husbands might be lying dead at the feet of an automaton. The Apprentice looked over at Melisay, sitting in the co-pilot seat next to the praying mantis form of Namidun ka-tun the Ketchetkeel. Four brown eyes looked back while the Tellen bear’s sucker-tipped fingers nimbly fed instructions into the NavMentat console.

“Ding—we’ll go!” Melisay answered. “But power up Star Riches—we may be followed out of this gravity well by planetary defenses yet to awaken.” The decision made, the black and white-striped form of his friend, of someone like him without species or Clan support, brought the TAL up on its belly jets and angled the lander toward the quadrant where Dorkan da-sub had landed.

A smoking pyre of blue smoke guided them in without need for a df signal.

Billy, watching an Imager screen from his accel chair near the XF laser by the rear loading ramp, saw alien bodies scattered randomly about the other TAL. The golden fur of the Hecamin female dominant was a glaring contrast to the lavender thorax of an automaton as both lay dead, entwined from a last battle. The blue angular limbs of Dorkan da-sub were scattered near the burning remains of its own laser mount, while the snake-like bodies of four Dok’aah lay in pieces, sliced by laser beams. The surrounding concrete of the landing field was laser-scorched by Kokseen vengeance. The Mycron-made TAL, he saw, also burned, its wing pylons broken, the central lifeglobe blasted apart. It was obvious there were no survivors.

“Help! Assistance! Help us—the Kokseen are killing us!”

Billy looked up to the front past the quiet shapes of the survivors from his group. Tsorell trill-aa stood midways in an accel harness. Thinking of the call, he wondered if Solaquil was dead or alive. The Hunter in him wished to see an orange salamander form splayed out on the ground, very dead.

“Coming, Partners. We have your transponder signal. Prepare to board by the rear loading ramp,” Billy heard Melisay respond. Namidun ka-tun chittered something to the panda he couldn’t make out. The protruding green globes of its two eyes looked back at him from the cockpit nacelle.

“Billy, Tsorell—will you help again?” asked Melisay. “We need someone to operate the XF laser to cover Solaquil’s retreat and someone to help the survivors on board.”

Billy sat frozen, fearful and angry at being asked to risk himself for aliens, for weird creatures who had never given him a break on-board the Retread Shop. Especially now that he knew Hekar was coming, that he would soon see his own kind.

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