matter,” Cortez said. “Plasma beams won’t have a chance of cutting through that trawler’s hull. How do you feel about ramming?”
“Generally against,” 8724 said.
“Hey, here’s a suggestion,” Hackenthrush said, tapping the last of both tequila pouches onto his outstretched tongue at the same time. “How about we run away?”
“They took out both rockets, sir,” Loy reminded him.
Hackenthrush grunted. “I know that, rookie… but we’ve still got a superluminal drive, don’t we?”
Cortez slapped her palm against her own forehead. “Son of a… where the hell is my head today? Superluminal engine still online, ship?”
“With your requested destination charted, yes.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Cortez asked. “Hit it.”
“I’d like nothing better,” 8724 said. “But alas…”
“What’s the problem?” Loy asked. “You said it was online.”
“And it is. But the battery lost the capacitor charge as collateral damage from the first explosion. It will take approximately one hour to recharge the battery to the point I can initiate the jump to superluminal. –I hate to be rude, but the robotic gentleman is getting quite insistent. He is giving us ten more seconds to surrender.”
“Guess we’re back to ramming,” Loy said.
“Nobody’s considering surrender as a viable option, then?” 8724 asked.
“I am,” Hackenthrush said. “And I’m all for it.”
“Ship, give me audio to the little bastard,” Cortez said.
A moment later, the video image of Igon reappeared in the CRT, with sound. “…two seconds,” the robot was saying, “…one second…”
“All right, robot,” Cortez said, “you want me. You got me. I surrender.”
“You do?” Igon asked.
“You do?” Loy asked as well.
“Know when I’m licked,” Cortez said to both of them.
On the CRT, Igon nodded cautiously. “Well, okay then.”
“Meet me at the airlock?” Cortez asked.
“I was just gonna suggest that.”
“Bet you were.”
Igon pointed a stubby single-knuckled finger at her. “No tricks. Bring my body, and the data.”
Cortez let her arms slide behind her, and out of sight of Igon, began tapping commands on the underside of her robomechanical arm. “Do I look like a kid, silly rabbit?”
She tapped a last key and her palm holoflat lit up.
INITIATING ROUTINE CONTINGENCY FIVE - BASTARD ROBOT CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD. ROCKETSHIP CONTROL RELAY: TRANSFERRING BOOTY ONE DATA PACKAGE FROM ROBOTIC DEVICE TO SHIP’S BRAIN SECONDARY MEMORY.
Junior Officer Loy drew her service raygun and leveled it at Cortez.
“Oh, now you remember you’ve got a gun?” Cortez asked.
“I can’t let you turn yourself over,” Loy said.
Cortez jogged her head at the CRT screen. “I don’t, the crazy robot there will blow us all up.”
“I will, too,” Igon said.
Cortez smirked at Loy. “See?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Loy said.
Hackenthrush raised a finger. “I beg to differ.”
“Quiet, the adults are talking,” Cortez snapped back at him. She turned to Loy. “Listen, you don’t understand what’s going on here. You’re gonna just have to let me do this and trust it’ll all work out.”
“Trust you?” Loy shook her head. “You’re our prisoner, and I have a duty...”
Cortez nodded. “And so do I.”
And then her robomechanical hand was flashing out and grabbing the barrel of Loy’s raygun. Before the Junior Officer could react, Cortez twitched her wrist and sent forks of electricity dancing over the raygun and into Loy’s hand.
Loy’s eyes rolled to white as she convulsed and collapsed to the deck.
On the CRT screen, Igon let out a laugh.
Cortez tossed Loy’s raygun down next to her. “Shut up, robot.”
“Hey there, now, missy,” Hackenthrush said, getting to his feet. “You can’t just–” Cortez shot eye-daggers at him and he collapsed back into his commander’s chair. “Carry on, then,” Hackenthrush said, avoiding Rikki’s accusing stare.
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