Page 76 of Alien Peacock

“Of course. You saved the lives of those Krunku by simply beating them up. I was about to murder them in a very bloody way. But then I made sure you picked Arelion’s ship to break into. And then I could keep a really close eye on him and report on his moves. I’m sure you understand that I would never be allowed to stay in his ship if I hadn’t been in your company. You were my cover, and it made my task so much simpler!”

“Traitor!” Arelion aims carefully and shoots.

20

- Arelion-

The beam from my gun goes right through Bari’s web-like body and hits the wall way down a corridor.

“If you insist,” Bari sighs.

“And you told the Bululg just now,” Maeve goes on, “that Arelion had arrived here. You’re the one they called ‘Source’.”

“After you left the ship, I went back out into space to see if he was coming,” the traitor robot says in her chipper way. “And itisthe Bululg who own this place. I thought it only courteous to go through them.”

“This is taking too long,” Cerak says and changes into his battlebot configuration, the spikes gleaming with silver. White beams lance out from him and go straight through Bari’s body without making much of an impression.

“No!” I yell, too late.

Quick as lightning Bari reaches out with one spindly, barely visible limb and skewers Cerak through the middle. He drops to the ground in a shower of sparks.

“I hope Buroteo will soon be here,” Bari says as she withdraws the pointy limb from Cerak’s body. “I suggest you all simply accept that he won.”

I know her for what she is now. The Single Filament Construct is a well known concept, but I’ve never seen one before now. The threads that make her up are so thin they’re barely there at all, but they are extremely strong. Beams and bullets won’t do much damage. We don’t have any weapons that will work against this machine.

Except one.

Aliens are gathering in every corridor, slowly coming towards us. My ray gun has limited charges, and Cerak is clearly no good anymore. I hear Buroteo’s creaky voice barking commands somewhere. Our time has run out.

I pull Maeve to me and put my lips by her ear. “My love, you like fighting. Nowbeat her up.”

She looks up at me, deadly determination in her eyes. “All right.”

In a quick move, she swings her fighting stick through the air and hits Bari’s nearest leg with a softtapas it passes through and severs the filament. Bari drops on one side, her leg suddenly cut in half.

“Bitch! I’ll kill you!” the cheerful, female voice yells. Thin, pointy limbs shoot out like spears, seeking soft flesh.

But Maeve moves fast. I’ve seen her fight with that stick before, and it’s an impressive sight. She makes it spin so fast it can’t beseen, and then she flicks a wrist and it cuts through Bari with little resistance. It dances with Maeve and knows her intentions better than she does, sometimes. It’s the kind of synergy that can only happen after a lot of training. And with a very special weapon. From the first time I saw it I suspected what it is, but now I know for sure.

Maeve reduces Bari’s legs to a heap of filaments, rendering the machine unable to walk.

“Shall we go?” Maeve finally asks.

“By all means.” I grab Cerak and carry him on my shoulder, surprised at how heavy he is. The hangar door is still unguarded, and we all run towards it.

Behind us, our enemies start shooting for real. They’re not concerned with whom they kill — they want us all dead now.

“Should not have thrown away your armor,” Cerak tells me, his voice weak.

“Agreed,” I wheeze as I run.

“And youreallyshould leave me here.”

I don’t reply. Robot or not, I’m not going to abandon a friend in enemy territory.

The hangar is empty. As I expected, there’s no ambush. Bari would have led us straight into some prepared trap of Buroteo’s.

There’s only a couple of Bululg ships berthed. I hope that one of them is the one we captured some days ago.

---