new Barudii uniform. She's quite nice after all.
'Dorian?'
'Yes?'
'I'm…I'm sorry about hitting you in the passage way.'
'It's alright. I understand; after all-I was attacking you.'
'Yes, but for all you knew, the Vorn were coming in to harm your people. Anyway I would not have done it if I had known…'
'Known what? That I was a woman?'
'No…I mean if I had known you were so nice.'
Dorian smiled again, knowing he couldn't see her.
'Well, what do you think?' he said as he emerged from behind the partition.
'Just as I imagined.'
'What do you mean…imagined?'
'Nothing. Just a statement.' Changing the subject, she reached for one of the gadgets on a nearby shelf. 'You should take one of these,' she said handing him the object. 'It's an electromagnetic shield generator.' She raised her forearm to reveal the same apparatus fixed upon her uniform.
'When a stimulus such as weapon fire or an ignited blade comes within proximity of the field, it generates the polarity of the energy source reacting with that of the field and causes the deflector to respond. It's actually two fields separated by a magnetic field. Each field is polarized; one negatively and one positively.'
'Wonderful, I'll take two,' he said, still smiling at his hostess.
'Well, let's get you fully equipped and we'll load up this cart and take it down to the ship.'
'Do you think your people will be willing to attack the Vorn?'
'Personally, I think it's time we took the fight to them, and others feel the same way.'
Tiet nodded and they began loading weapons for the ship. When they had what they needed, Tiet pushed the cart back out of the chamber and up the passage they had come by, with Dorian at his side.
'We had better hurry before Orin rushes off without me.'
'I wouldn't mind.'
The comment pulled a quiet smile from his face again. He couldn't remember smiling so much. He couldn't remember having a reason to.
III
FROM his perch high above the public square, Vale scanned the identifying features of Castillian faces as the people congregated and moved through the area. He had still not located the target. It was unclear who these humans were, but their presence here and apparent aid to the Governor's target made them accomplices and therefore expendable under the Governor's guidelines. However, firing upon them would be tactically unsound, as it would alert his targets to his presence.
The carved stone balcony he was crouched upon had been easy to access once he came down to this level, and provided a superior targeting position from which to shoot. Person after person, feature after feature was scanned and rejected as negative matches. But wait, now one was continuing to match as the features blinked into place like a puzzle. A match, but the garment had been changed from that in the data clips. It was time to act.
The android hoisted up the repeating pulse cannon to clear the stone terrace and quickly shifted in to the best targeting approximation possible with such a cumbersome weapon. Fortunately, its dispersal pattern was complimentary to the inability to precisely aim the weapon. He tapped the arming switch, causing the weapon to hum to life.
'Look out!' someone yelled.
Many in the square turned to the direction one woman was pointing. Tiet also looked to see a familiar looking man clothed as the Barudii, with a large weapon aiming into the public area.
A wave of pulse fire showered down around them as Tiet turned to shield Dorian from harm. He caught her around the torso and pushed her toward the ground. Her electromagnetic shield pulsed to life several times as it intercepted negatively charged pulse blasts meant to take their lives. Rock sprayed away from the walls around them. As soon as Dorian was down, he leapt up and away from her. If he was the target then he wanted to draw the fire away from her. The trail of pulse fire followed as he evaded; leaping and twirling from object to ground to wall and away again.
Then the cannon fire paused a moment as others attempted to engage the culprit. Tiet paused to see the Aolene warriors firing pulse blaster pistols at the balcony and hurling spicor discs toward the assailant. The android dodged the discs as they exploded on the walls nearby, leaving behind smooth cavities of the rock. Vale took several blasts to the torso and the arms as he repositioned the pulse cannon and began to spray the Aolene combatants. Tiet took the brief respite to study their attacker:
How is he still standing?
Tiet saw the opportunity and quickly shattered what remained of the embattled stone balcony with a concentrated kinetic blast. The heavy stone erupted upward against Vale, catching his mechanical body between the large fragments of rock and the chamber ceiling, and then dropping all down to the public square below in a dusty heap.
The android came down like a discarded rag-doll onto the pavement below. Orin appeared with Estall on the other side of the public area. Everyone was regrouping, but no one understood what had just happened.
'Tiet!' cried Dorian from behind. But she was looking past him toward the heap of rubble. As he turned, Tiet could hear the sound of large rocks being tumbled. From beneath the heap of stones, an Orin Vale look alike was emerging. Orin saw it as well, but couldn't believe who he was seeing. Himself? A clone? Whatever this new monster was, it was far too powerful to be human.
Vale regained a standing position and quickly reassessed the situation. Target acquired, blinked across his data processor display. Tiet drew his father's blade and ignited it as he ran toward the mysterious aggressor. Vale also pulled a Barudii blade and the two engaged in fierce combat. HE'S so fast, Tiet thought as he tried to enhance his own speed with his psycho kinesis. Vale blocked a thrust from Tiet and quickly pushed his blade away, as he sent a deadly mechanical hand toward Tiet's chest; but the young human was a step ahead, having drawn a pistol with his free hand to take advantage of Vale's exposure. He quickly thrust the pulse weapon into the android's face and fired without hesitation. Vale tried to correct his movement and counter the pistol as it came into position, but was not quite fast enough. The blast caught him in the side of the head and sent him reeling backward.
After seeing this person climb out of the rocky grave he had created for him, Tiet wasted no time, and followed through with his ignited blade. Vale, having only a fraction of a second to recover from the pulse shot, countered the blade strike and whirled around Tiet, using the human as a fulcrum to get behind him. He smashed him in the back with an adomen packed elbow that knocked the young man to the ground gasping for breath. The android quickly brought his sword to bear on the target to deliver the deathblow.
Dorian intercepted, attacking the android to draw his blade away from Tiet. Several fast strikes were countered by the mechanical man as she furiously tried to defend her friend. Vale's blast-exposed cranium glistened in the available light as he parried blow after blow from the young woman.
Suddenly Vale was off the ground and flying backwards away from his opponents. He slammed into a wall as Orin released the android from his kinetic grip. Orin was at Tiet's side in a moment, lifting him up. He'd been dealt a hard blow and needed assistance to stand.
The Aolene were taking the initiative with the robot in the clear-firing pulse blasters at him. Vale retreated down a passageway to minimize damage and try to re-engage his target.
'We have to go now and take the ship into the rift!' shouted Orin. 'The Vorn obviously know we're here. There's no telling how many other androids have been sent to stop us.'
'My people will take the transports we have and engage the main complex as you suggested,' shouted Estall over the background noise.
Some of the Aolene had pursued the android but no word had come back yet concerning his whereabouts.
