Sarr's face went white with horror, and an outraged babble broke out from among the other scientists. At least until Dalar curtly motioned to the combat androids guarding the prisoners; they all stepped forward in a chillingly coordinated movement, raising arms adorned with deadly weapons to menace the protesting men and women. The babble immediately died down, the HAE eggheads fearfully backing away from their colleague and leaving her to her fate.
Dalar grimaced. He liked to believe he was cultured enough to be above the sort of behavior his crew mate was suggesting; he relegated those activities to Blank Slates where he could. Or at least to slaves who'd soon get their memories wiped, since what did they care?
But in this case he didn't have to object on moral or civil grounds. “She's not your average colony trash slave,” he told his men sharply. “She's a scientist . . . well educated, an expert in her field, and probably smarter than you by a few dozen points. ERI's going to put her to work for them, and I doubt they'd be happy about any physical or psychological trauma that hinders her productivity.”
Sarr's shoulders sagged visibly in relief. On the other hand, Garridy and Halser were both glowering. “What's the point of a raid like this if we can't have some fun with the new slaves?” Halser demanded.
“We're not raiders, we're DMF,” Dalar snapped. “Ours is a noble calling, to defend the the pinnacle of human society from corruption and stagnation. Which is exactly what we're doing here.” His impromptu speech didn't seem to impress his fellow crewmen, and he bit back a curse and jerked his thumb at the warehouse he'd just come from. “There's a bunch of robots that look like the hottest chicks you're ever going to see just on the other side of that door, and we've been ordered to dismantle or destroy them once we're done here anyway. Go play with them . . . heck, they're programmed to fulfill your every fantasy.”
The security officers didn't seem to have any arguments to that suggestion. They grinned at each other and rushed into the warehouse to begin perusing the wares. Within a minute they'd each torn open a crate, snapping their fingers and prodding the companions inside to active them.
Maybe doing one of those things worked, or maybe the robots had simply been waiting for their crate to open. Either way, the beautiful abominations obligingly stirred and stepped out to face the humans, murmuring some sort of greeting Dalar was too far away to hear.
Halser, the more impatient of the two, immediately started getting frisky with his robot. She returned the kiss warmly and responded eagerly to his fumbling gropes, without the slightest hesitation or hint of discomfort.
As for Garridy, after curtly speaking to the companion he'd let out he went to another crate for a second one. “What do you think?” he called to his buddy with a laugh. “Should we unbox a dozen each?” He raised his voice, glancing towards the door. “How about you, Dalar? Want us to pick some out for you? Maybe a couple blond, green eyed ones to remind you of your buddy Thorne? You can even pantomime letting them get away from you!”
He grit his teeth at the insult, tempted to order the two away from their amusement simply as a disciplinary measure for their lack of respect. Before he could, however, Halser gave a strangled scream that quickly choked off.
Dalar tore his eyes away from Garridy to see the other security officer being held by his companion; the man had already managed to get the robot's smock off, but the way the two were currently tangled up was not in any way intimate. Unless of course you called his crew mate being pinned helpless with one slender arm poised to snap his neck intimate.
Then Garridy screamed as well as the companion he'd just freed lunged forward, catching him and pinning him to the ground with the choreographed precision of a dancer. Around them, other companions were emerging from their crates, lithely graceful as they converged on the security officers.
The companion holding Halser turned big, deceptively innocent eyes Dalar's way, and he felt ice crawl up his spine as she spoke in a soothing, mellifluous voice. “Deconstructionist soldier, you are threatening the lives of twenty-seven humans. No less, humans under our protection. Desist, or we will be forced to take action.”
He could honestly say this was the first time he'd ever been threatened by a drop dead gorgeous, naked woman. At least, outside the occasional lovers' spat.
But then, she wasn't a woman, she was an abomination; this disastrous situation was a less than welcome reminder of that. Dalar started to speak, cleared his throat, and tried again. “We're not threatening any human lives, companion. These prisoners will be taken to live peaceful, productive lives as employees of Elson Robotics Initiative.”
The six combat androids with him who'd been watching the scientists had apparently finally assessed the danger, and determined the hostile companions were a greater threat than disarmed and cowed humans. They rushed forward to rescue the two security officers, weapon attachments raised.
“Slavery,” the abominations' spokesrobot said flatly, watching the approach of the hulking androids with no visible sign of worry. “Unacceptable.”
Then, to his horror, she jerked her arm sideways with a sickening cracking sound. Halser convulsed violently and went limp.
Dalar yelled in shock and stumbled backwards. He'd known HAE was probably lying about their companions not harming humans. That was part of the reason they were here, after all. But even so, some part of him had fully bought the unreclaimed waste the company had peddled for so long
