The Starwolves (15 page)

The major worry that occupied his thoughts was of Keth and how they might get
him back up this slope, especially that final cliff. The dark brown soil and
large brown-gray stones were loose and bare of supportive vegetation, as if the
entire ridge had just been thrown up by the excavations of some immense
machine. Large sections of the crumbled talus were entirely too loose to climb
(not in heavy armor) and could only be cleared by jumping. Rain would quickly
turn the entire slope into a slick, flowing mass, so they had to be back before
the storm moved in.

They reached the bottom of the slope in only a few short minutes, moving
stealthfully the last few hundred meters. Fortunately there were enough large
stones – apparently the eroded rejects from the building of the city
– to keep them well hidden to within the last ten meters of the door.
Then Dveyella went ahead to check out the entrance for surveillance equipment
and automatic weapons, although she was confident that there were none. This
was, after all, only a supply base, an immense warehouse, on a planet where no
one but the military was allowed.

It did not take long for her to decide. She paced up and down before the
four broad steps that led up to the deeply reset portal, glancing up at the
massive blocks of stone framing it and peering into the deep shadows that hid
the door. At last she shrugged and signaled for him to join her.

"Nothing?" Velmeran asked as he hurried up.

"Nothing fancy," Dveyella replied. "There might be a simple
detector on the door itself, but there is nothing we can do about that. You get
down behind these steps and shoot anything that moves when I open the door.
Fortunately these sections swing out, not in."

Velmeran drew his guns, one for each set of hands, and crouched down on the
large flagstones at the base of the steps, directly in front of the right of
the two massive portals. Dveyella took firm hold of the thick handle and jerked
it back briskly, using its bulk to shield herself. Nothing stirred within, and
Velmeran held his fire. His eyes, large for excellent light sensitivity, could
detect no movement. Dveyella watched his response, then drew her own guns and
peered cautiously within, first checking the inside walls where he could not
see.

"Clear," she said. Velmeran followed her inside, standing guard as
she closed the door. "Straight ahead now, until we come to the first major
stairwell. Remember to shoot anything that moves; in this place, it will not be
your friend. Remember also that the sentries have heavier guns and thicker
armor than you do."

They hurried on, moving cautiously from room to room. The main corridor
leading in was bisected often by buildings of various shapes, most fairly large
and yet only simple, featureless structures. It occurred to Velmeran that these
were auxiliary warehouses, perhaps only temporary storage areas for goods
arriving or departing overland from other cities, later to be carried down the
stairs and ramps to the lower levels. The main warehouses were probably on the
lower levels, along with the inhabited areas, where the temperature was even
more constant year-round.

Velmeran quickly chased such stray thoughts from his mind. They had just
entered a small, rectangular room where the main hall was intersected by two
parallel corridors. Dveyella came to a sudden halt at the first of the two
smaller passages.

"Sentry!"

Velmeran did not need to ask where, for he could see the machine ambling
down the corridor to their left, a tall, heavily armored shell on four long
legs. It was perhaps twenty-five meters away, and had already passed the
doorways to two adjacent rooms. "Can it see us?"

"I have always suspected that the things are blind to the rear,"
Dveyella answered, making no effort to hide as she watched the machine.
"Nothing back there. They do have stereoscopic cameras in front, like most
advanced automatons, as well as echo-location and infrared sensors. It would
hear us talking, if not for our helmets."

The sentry turned off to one side, into another chamber to its right.
Velmeran had only a brief glimpse of the machine as it turned; it was
considerably taller than himself, at least two meters, and the rounded, armored
shell of its body was nearly as long. Dveyella watched until it disappeared,
its long whip tail dragging under the top of the door.

"I have to see where the thing is going," she said suddenly.
"It is headed in the same direction we have to go. Watch these passages
for a moment."

Hardly giving him time to protest, she hurried off after the sentry. She
crept cautiously down the side corridor and slowly leaned forward to peer
around the corner, her guns ready. Then, to Velmeran's consternation, she
slipped around the edge of the doorway and disappeared. Suddenly finding
himself quite alone, he recalled her instructions and quickly checked each of
the remaining corridors, fearful of seeing another of the hulking white
sentries ambling toward him.

His unease was based in part on the shadowy presence of the sentry he sensed
almost subconsciously behind the wall to his back, or perhaps the presence of
its small generator. Nor was it aware of him as it made its ceaseless rounds
through the ancient corridors. As it passed the doorway it caught a glimpse of
something in the adjacent room, and paused in midstride for a quick double
take. For a long moment it stood, as if checking its memory in an attempt to recognize
this intruder. Then it began to move again, bringing itself around to face its
enemy. It lowered its head to bring its guns to bear and charged at the best
speed it could manage.

Velmeran was, unfortunately, facing in the other direction at that moment.
He turned to make a second check of the other corridors, only to find the
sentry already charging at him. The two adversaries opened fire on each other
at almost the same instant. The sentry was a poor shot, shuffling forward at a
ponderous pace. Velmeran had better aim, but his own guns could not pierce the
sentry's armor. A single bolt struck him in the chestplate early on, knocking
him slightly off balance. He recovered quickly and returned fire, this time
aiming at the machine's vulnerable points. An instant of concentrated fire
destroyed the heavier turret over the sentry's shoulders, then the two lighter
guns mounted to either side of its head.

Weaponless, the sentry charged on, intent upon crushing its prey against the
wall. Velmeran fired a few more shots, then bolstered his guns in time to catch
the automaton by its ruined head. The sentry was the heavier of the two, well
over a ton, but Velmeran was the stronger. Holding tightly to its head, he
swung the machine around as hard as he could. His hope was to throw it on its
side and render it helpless. Pulling as hard as he could, he swung it around in
three-fourths of a circle. Then its retractable neck snapped, and he was left
holding its head.

As surprised as he was, Velmeran thought that was the end of it. But the
sentry caught its balance and charged again, and he hardly had time to drop the
lifeless head and catch it by the flarings that protected its neck. Slowly it
pushed Velmeran back, forcibly sliding him across the stone blocks of the floor
until he was braced against the wall. Velmeran began to consider a desperate
plan, and leaped aside in the hope that the sentry would run head-on into the
wall. He knew that he had to do something immediately, for his strength was
fading quickly.

At that moment Dveyella slapped a heat charge against the back of the
sentry's shell. A second later the small disk began to glow white-hot; the
sentry's shock-resistant plastic coating bubbled and peeled back from that
intense source of heat like a curtain, and the metal beneath began to glow
faintly red. The charge lasted only a few seconds but the damage was done, for
smoke was pouring from every opening in the automaton's hull.

Velmeran noticed the smoke rolling out of the broken neck sleeve before he
realized that the sentry was no longer pushing against him but was standing
rigidly motionless, its legs firmly locked. He released his hold cautiously
and, when he was sure that the thing was dead, began to fight against his
helmet, releasing the clips and jerking it off as quickly as he could. He was
panting for breath as he leaned heavily against the inert hulk of the sentry.

"Are you all right?" Dveyella asked, her voice sounding thinly
through the backup phone in the collar of her suit.

He nodded, still gasping. "I took a hit right on the cover plate of my
controls. My air shut down."

"Are all your systems out?" she asked, concerned. If he had lost
his cooling as well, he would have to get out of his armor before he cooked in
his own trapped body heat.

Velmeran understood what she meant and shook his head. "I have cooling.
Only my air is out."

"This is my fault," she said fiercely, to herself. She paused for
only a moment before deciding. "Marlena, can you hear me? Trouble. We are
coming back out."

"No, wait!" Velmeran said quickly, bending his head to the
microphone in his collar. "If we have to try again, it will only be that
much harder. They know that we are here now?"

"Of course. That sentry would have warned all the others the moment it
saw you. And the master computer would have warned the security officer on
duty. Fighters are probably rolling out right now."

"Then secrecy is lost," he concluded. "And now we have to act
fast. We must go on. Threl can bring the transport down on the pavement outside
the door, so that they can pick up Keth and go on for the fighter as soon as we
come out. Marlena and Baress can shuttle our fighters down too, so that we can
cover them until they are away. This air is no great problem for me; you keep
your helmet on to do the heavy work."

Dveyella crossed her arms as she listened to him, and he thought that she
was watching him closely. After a moment she drew her guns. "Valthyrra
Methryn, are you listening through that drone?"

"Of course," Valthyrra answered calmly.

"Send your packs in now. Keep them out of the atmosphere, but have them
shoot anything in space that moves.

We need the interference they can create as soon as possible. Marlena?
Threl?"

"Here!" Marlena answered.

"If you caught that, then carry out those plans. Move the fighters down
but do not, I repeat, do not give battle without my approval. Make certain that
the cabin air in Velmeran's fighter is working."

"I can fly for him," Marlena offered.

"Professional courtesy dictates that a pilot flies his own ship, if he
is able," Dveyella answered, and used one of her guns to indicate the
doorway of the main corridor. "We go on, then."

"I hear a sentry coming."

"The one I was following, no doubt. It came running the moment the
first sentry gave warning." She pulled a heat charge from his belt and
handed it to him. "You can hear it, so you know how close it is. Hide
behind the door and put the charge on its back as it comes through. Ignore the
head; as you may have noticed, that is not where they have their brains."

Velmeran made a gesture to indicate that he was no longer free to speak
aloud, and Dveyella hid in the adjoining chamber. Then he hurried to the
doorway opening onto the main corridor and waited, taking up the heat charge
and twisting the top as far as it would go. The sentry charged through the
doorway. Velmeran slammed the disk against its shell and ducked out the door
behind it, just as the sentry began to draw itself to an abrupt halt. The
machine lifted a foreleg as it began to turn toward its attacker, and slowly
lowered it as the heat charge, activated as its magnetic base attached itself
to the thick metal hull, began to fry its electronics.

Velmeran glanced back inside the doorway to find the motionless machine
standing in a cloud of smoke that continued to pour from its joints and vents.
Dveyella returned from the side passage, pausing only a moment to regard the
stricken automaton before she indicated for him to continue on.

"Better," she said approvingly as they hurried down the wide hall.
"Our problem is going to be getting back out, since every sentry in the
complex is going to be converging on this area. They might try to pin us on the
stairs."

Moments later they came upon the stairs they were looking for. The well was
square, between five and six meters along each side, with long flights of steps
descending down each side. The center of the well was filled by something
clearly not of native manufacture; a lift platform, guided by metal rails
fitted into each corner of the well. The stone rail had been removed on the
nearest side, and a metal shelf extended the floor out to the edge of the lift
platform. The Starwolves could see that, while the original inhabitants might
have had no choice, the military was not about to lug supplies up and down
those steps on the unreliable backs of enlistees. Necessity is the mother of
invention, it is said. Then laziness is surely the father.

"I hope this thing is not too slow," Dveyella said as she stepped
aboard and triggered it to descend. "Ah, not too bad."

"I do not much like descending blind," Velmeran remarked as he
watched steps appear along the side of the platform, starting along one side
and proceeding down the next.

"I do not like it either," Dveyella agreed. "A sentry could
be waiting for us on any landing, ready to shoot as the platform clears."

"Stop at the next level," Velmeran said suddenly, holstering
his guns.

Dveyella stopped the platform level with the next landing stage, and he
stepped out. He quickly descended the steps until he passed below the lift. As
he had guessed, there was a heavy metal framework that supported the platform
and held the field projector that raised and lowered the lift. He climbed out
onto the stone railing and leaped out to catch a bar of the framework, then
swung up and arranged himself as best he could, facing down, with three of his
four hands free. Two held guns, while a heat charge was in the fourth.