with its comrades. As he ran, Rem-9 couldn’t help but wonder if the redundant bridge was in the hands of the aliens, if he was racing into a trap. Could they have learned enough of human technology to operate the Gladius? He couldn’t be sure, of course, but he would put nothing past them.
He slowed as the entrance came near and approached with extreme caution. The security doors yawned wide. He listened for a moment, hearing movement inside. Then mumbled cursing.
The mech lieutenant quickly identified the source of the sounds. He rounded the corner and advanced on the militia General. Steinbach was bent over a control board, inserting his codekeys into the slots beneath the board and fiddled with the controls. He moved with quick, fluttering motions that displayed his state of high tension. The mech noted the bodies of several multi-tentacled aliens on the floor, a variety that he had not previously encountered. He wondered if they could be technicians, as they didn’t look to be effective combatants. Perhaps these were the types that had flown the Stormbringers against the human forces.
When Steinbach looked up, it was into the dark muzzle of a huge plasma cannon. He squeaked, staggered back.
“You are away from your assigned post,” Rem-9 said.
A rapid series of emotions flickered across Steinbach’s face. Shock, rage, frustration, then calculation and finally a welcoming smile. “Lieutenant! You have survived! Excellent!”
The mech stared at him with fixated optics.
“I couldn’t know if anyone was left alive in the wake of these aliens. I’m glad you’re here, I need your help and your guns to fend off the aliens that are sure to try to retake this bridge.”
“What happened up on the main bridge?” asked Rem-9.
Steinbach’s face fell. “It was awful. A fierce struggle. Hundreds dead on both sides. I was one of the few survivors, knocked out and left for dead beneath a pile of aliens and Mai Lee’s simians. Not, mind you,” he added hurriedly, “that I was in any way working with that witch and her band of renegades. But when humans face aliens, one must choose one’s own kind to stand with.”
The mech was not able to nod, his neck being constructed of rigid materials. But he was capable of sarcasm. “The way you stood with the rest down at the spaceport?”
Steinbach blanched, but quickly recovered. “Look, I panicked. It’s one thing to stand shoulder to shoulder against a normal, human foe. It’s quite another to hold before an onslaught of vicious, seemingly invincible aliens.”
For a fraction of a moment, Rem-9 was almost taken in. “But you have not operated like a man in a panic, General,” he said quietly, nudging Steinbach in the chest with the muzzle of his weapon. “You operate like a man with a plan.”
“I didn’t say I lost my mind entirely,” complained Steinbach, waving for him to remove his offending weapon. Rem-9 didn’t budge. “Besides, all that is history now. All that matters is that we take over the ship and get rid of these damned aliens. I can be very useful there.”
“Yes, the codekeys,” said Rem-9, nodding to the slots at the base of the control boards.
Steinbach appeared startled. “Ah, yes. We must power up the ship and escape to warn the Nexus.”
Rem-9 began to reply, but at that instant, there was a rustling sound out in the corridor. Without hesitation, the mech vaulted the control board. He crouched beside Steinbach, leveling his weapon on the entrance.
The aliens came in a rush. Rem-9 scattered the first wave of killbeasts with several powerful gushings of energy from his weapon. The attack lulled somewhat. Occasionally, a culus dashed through the entrance and got in close. The mech obligingly tore them appart bare-handed.
“We will never take the Gladius back to the Nexus. I insist you direct the pistol you have concealed behind your back at the entrance and help me in defending this position.”
“But don’t you see?” Steinbach sputtered. “They’re a genetically superior species. We can’t win.”
Rem-9 stopped firing for a moment, his optics swung up in honest surprise. “Why do you say that?”
“Isn’t it obvious? They can rip us apart. Any one of their various types could kill any one of us.”
“I reject your theory. I have slain many in hand-to-hand combat. Even if they could defeat me, I would not consider them genetically superior beings.”
“But it’s not just that,” Steinbach sputtered. “It’s their entire attack, their entire approach. No band of humans could drop onto a planet and just openly assault an indigenous species the way they have. They breed so fast, they are so technologically competent.”
Rem-9 shrugged his massive shoulders. During their conversation, he had made good use of his weapon killing several more aliens. Those that got in close gave him a workout with his grippers. “Your arguments are absurd. Genetic superiority is determined solely by which species survives. No other determiner is worthy of consideration.”
“That’s just the point! There must be a hundred thousand of them left down there on the surface. Even if we kill all those on the ship, what are we to do with all those aliens down there?”
“Kill them,” said the mech simply.
“But what if we can’t kill them all?”
Again, Rem-9 looked at him in incomprehension and surprise. He attempted to explain the situation to Steinbach once again. “If there are a hundred thousand, and we kill only ninety-nine thousand of them, then we lose. On the other hand, if we kill them all, we’ve won. I suggest you continue firing your weapon.”
Steinbach threw a few shots at the entrance, scoring no hits. “We must run. We must salvage what we can.”
The aliens gathered themselves for a final suicidal assault, but couldn’t overcome the mech’s firepower, blinding speed and strength. A heap of smoldering bodies choked the entrance.
“They seemed desperate.”
Steinbach snorted. “Not as desperate as us. Come, let us ready the engines for flight while we have the time.”
The mech brushed him away from the control boards and grabbed both the General’s wrists in one, massive gripper. He plucked Steinbach’s pistol from his hands like a father removing a dangerous tool from the hands of his young son. “You are not worthy of being armed. You are more likely to shoot me than the enemy.”
Steinbach complained bitterly, but Rem-9 ignored him. He bent over the control board and began making adjustments. He reported his situation to the Governor.
“Things have not gone well here,” Droad told him on the phone. “The aliens haven’t let us rest. They now carry weapons from the crew. We have to do something before we’re all killed.”
“I suggest we flush the ship, as Mai Lee desired, but in such a way that we may survive,” said the mech.
“No, no!” hissed Steinbach at his side. “If you release radiation while the core is hot you’ll disable the ship! None of us will escape!”
Droad’s tiny image smiled. “I overheard what the good General had to say. I think that is an excellent idea. This ship is the only way out of the system, and therefore the only threat to the rest of the Nexus.”
“I agree.”
“What is your plan, then?”
“I have been unable to gain control of the laser turret. The situation suggests that the aliens now have control of it. A heavy knot of their communications patterns are emanating from there as well.”
“That makes sense. We have been unable to do anything with the laser from the main bridge, either. In fact, the skald has done little else but try to operate it, to our surprise. No one suspected him of such technical knowledge. For a time we tried to restrain him, but once we realized his task was futile, we let him try. I believe he has completely lost his mind.”
“It leads one to wonder what horrors he endured during his stay in the nest,” said Steinbach. “Horrors we should all be escaping now.”
“I believe we need to rejoin our forces,” Rem-9 told the Governor. “Before releasing the radiation, I will seal off the connecting corridors between the bridge areas and the laser turret. We can meet there and retake the laser control center.”
Droad nodded. “I believe the turret is relatively close to the hold.”
Five minutes later, the mech made the final preparations for releasing a deadly blast of radiation into the ship. Steinbach was almost beyond self-control.
