Robots vs. Fairies(50)
“You are the absolute best.” Okeke nodded toward the lake. “I’ll be over there.”
“Take your time.” Chances were, even when she got this working, Diplomat Foenicul would insist that she stay on the planet. Jela activated the controls and, for thoroughness, started a new calibration sequence. Who was she kidding? Even working for the devil, it was hard not to do her personal best. As her matriarch had always said, “Done right, or done over.”
A breeze brushed her cheek, and she closed her eyes to enjoy the sensation. She had an oscillating fan in her cabin, to try to mimic the randomness of natural air, but it wasn’t the same. This carried scents of loam and cinnamon and a salty tang of seaweed. As much as Jela loved engineering and space, she had hired onto the ship because of the planets she got to visit. If she’d known that the captain was taking this diplomatic gig, she’d have . . . what? Quit? And found another job doing what, exactly? It wasn’t as if the captain of any other ship would have been able to turn the job down safely.
Okeke screamed.
Jela’s eyes snapped open, her hand reaching for her blaster. At the shore, a giant squid monster thing had emerged, dripping, from the water and held Okeke in one tentacle.
Sal shouted something in her native language and fired her blaster at the thing. From within the monster’s mass of tentacles, a toothed beak emerged. The entire thing pulled itself closer to Sal, balancing impossibly on the dozens of writhing arms.
Across the lake, the mosaic wall became alive with activity as hundreds of citizens rushed to the top with spears and guns and braced themselves. Holy crap. This had not been in any of their pre-mission briefings.
Why the hell hadn’t Foenicul told them about giant squid when the citizens clearly knew about them?
Jela grabbed the interface visor from the console and shoved her arms into the control mitts. No way was that thing getting any of her team. She toggled the system to full power and then—
Then she was looking out the eyes of the giant robot. The system translated the patterns of her brain and muscular intentions into movement. She stood, rising fifteen meters above the ground. She’d give a lot for a weapons system on this, but a Diplomatic Personal Surrogate didn’t come equipped with such things.
But a club would work. She strode forward, ground trembling beneath her feet, and snatched up the case containing the satellite booster.
The squid-thing paused in its advance on Sal and turned its beak toward Jela. Or, rather, toward the giant robot. It seemed to have forgotten that it still held Okeke in one tentacle. She had one hand free and was slamming a rock against the tentacle.
Jela rammed the squid-thing with the case. It tumbled back, seemingly stunned. She needed it to drop Okeke. There was no telling what was vulnerable on this thing, but mouths tended to have a lot of nerves in them. Charging forward, Jela thrust the case at its beak.
It reeled, tentacles flailing. Okeke’s head whipped back and forth with the movement. With the case pulled back for another swing, Jela hesitated. She had to get Okeke out of the thing’s grasp before it hurt her, but each tentacle seemed to have a mind of its own.
Fine then. She’d threaten the tentacle that held Okeke. And, after all, it wasn’t like this was Jela’s actual body. Although the diplomat would have her head if the giant robot were permanently disabled. With the case still raised, she ran the giant robot directly into the squid-thing and brought the case down in the center of the mass of tentacles. Six of them wrapped around the case, anchoring it. She let go and used both hands to grab the tentacle holding Okeke. Toggling the power to full, she pulled her hands apart.
The squid-thing thrashed, trying to shake her loose, but she just bore down harder and tried to tear the tentacle off.
Finally it let go of Okeke, who dropped to the ground and rolled clear. The rest of the tentacles wrapped around the giant robot and pinned it. She tried to pull it free, but each time she got loose from one tentacle, another wrapped around her. Crap.
She wasn’t going to get free of them, so she had to figure out a way to stun them all at once. The junction where they all connected and where the beak was . . . there had to be a brain in there. In theory. With nothing else to try, Jela pitched the giant robot over, so that its mass fell toward the squid-thing. They both tumbled to the ground with the squid on the bottom.
The tension holding her released just enough that Jela was able to wiggle an arm free. She was perfectly safe, but she had to get the giant robot loose because the mission required— What the hell was she doing?
She knew what would happen if the Consortium got a foothold here. First it would be mining rights. Then it would be logging rights. And then water. And then labor . . . until nothing was left but the shell of a planet. Everyone who lived here would be clamoring to get a job with the Consortium, because that’s where the money was. The Consortium would strip their culture away until they were a shadow people.
It was one thing to think about that in the abstract, on the ship, and another to see the world and its mosaic-graced city.
On the ship, anything they did ran the risk of being blamed on her crew, but here? A giant squid had nothing to do with them. Even if she was blamed for using the robot without authorization, that fault wouldn’t hit anyone else.
She let the giant robot go limp, and the squid-thing wrapped its tentacles around the arms. The thing’s horny beak slammed into the exoskeleton, seeking a way into the nerve center. Electronics would do just as well, and if she bent the head, just so . . . some of those connections would be exposed.