"Maverick" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bethke Bruce)

Chapter 3. Aranimas

The assault team leader licked his lips nervously, as if punishment could be inflicted by hyperwave. “Yes, Master?”

Aranimas fixed the figure on the viewscreen with a glare from both eyes. “I am still waiting for your report. How many robots have you taken? Have you been able to capture the traitor Wolruf, or the human Derec?”

The assault team leader’s right eye twitched rapidly, and he licked his lips again. “Actually, Master, we have encountered some, ah, difficulties, and, ah-”

Aranimas leaned in close to the video pickup, and dropped his voice to its most forceful pitch. “How many robots have you taken?”

With a fearful glance at his portable communicator, the team leader blurted it out. “None, Master. ”

“What?”

The team leader smiled helplessly. “We arrived too late. They’re all gone. That static we intercepted was the sound of every last robot on the planet teleporting out. Apparently the natives-they call themselves Ceremyons-could not tolerate the robots. So the robots left. ”

Aranimas spat out several choice curses in his clan’s dialect. When he’d recovered some control, he glared at the viewscreen again. “Did they leave any artifacts? Buildings, parts, or tools?”

“Sort of. ” The team leader turned his video pickup around to capture what he was seeing: a vast lake of liquid metal, crowned with two intersecting parabolic arches. The resolution was poor, but the arches appeared to be jets of silver liquid. “The natives say it’s a work of art; they call it ‘Negative Feedback. ’” He turned the video pickup back on his face again.

Aranimas grumbled and rolled his eyes in counter-rotating circles. “One more chance, then. Have you located the traitor, or the humans?”

The team leader’s expression brightened. “Yes, Master. ”

Aranimas waited a few seconds. When no further information was forthcoming, he said, “Where are they?”

“They left orbit three days ago and are headed in the general direction of Quadrant 224. ”

Aranimas grumbled again. “Not what I was hoping for. But very well, collect your team and return to the ship. ”

The team leader licked his lips once more and again blinked nervously. “Actually, Master, we have a little problem with that. ”

Aranimas’ pale face flushed green with anger. “What now?”

“The natives are soaring creatures; they obtain lift by inflating their bodies with large amounts of raw hydrogen. ”

“So?”

“While attempting to extract information, I ordered the shuttle gunner to hit one of the natives with a low-wattage beam. I expected merely to burn the native; instead, it exploded with considerable violence. ”

“And the shuttle was damaged?”

“Not exactly, Master. ”

“ Not exactly?”

“Master, the surviving natives have sealed the shuttle inside some kind of impenetrable force globe. It doesn’t appear to be damaged, but we can’t get to it. Could you send the second shuttle to extract us?”

Aranimas’ heavy eyelids popped wide open, and his face turned a deep, angry green. “Bumbling fool! You can rot there for all the times you have failed me!” He slammed a bony fist down on the horseshoe console, blanking the team leader’s face off his viewscreen. “Scanners! There is a ship in Quadrant 224; find it for me. Helm! Prepare to leave orbit immediately, maximum speed. ” Orders given, he blanked all the screens except one, and through that screen stared out at the glistening starfield in Quadrant 224. Somewhere out there, perhaps one of those tiny points of ninth-magnitude light, was the quarry he had been chasing for so long.

“I swear,” he whispered, talking solely to himself, “I have not come this close only to be cheated again. ”