Free The Diamond Deep by Brenda Cooper Page B

to the machine.
    Ix would protect stability and not individuals. Onor heard Colin’s earlier words inside his head, a truth he’d resisted. But it was true in this case . The machine would sell them for the Fire ’s future if it had to.
    â€œStay quiet,” Ix told him.
    Ix must be telling them all to be quiet. He needed a human. Colin. “Patch me through to the others.”
    To his surprise, Ix did so. He could immediately hear Colin swearing, and the hard, fast breath of five other people full of fear.
    â€œStay calm!” Onor commanded. “Ix is going to lock them in if it can. Get out. Then we can plan.”
    Colin immediately backed him up. “Joe, Lisle, use the lock closest to you.”
    That was the lock closest to all seven of them. It would only hold two at a time, and the two Colin had named were the closest to it. They were also the closest to the robot.
    â€œMarcelle,” Onor hissed.
    â€œWe could go across to the other lock.” Her voice was shaky and high, but brave.
    It was a better idea than waiting. Only one machine was focused on them. Splitting up felt right. “Now,” he urged.
    Marcelle pushed off, a stiff humanoid form with a bubble head and nothing like the powerful legs of the machines that had entered their space. Even though he knew her as a warrior, in this moment Marcelle looked vulnerable. Prey.
    Onor bent down, crouching sideways against the wall, and followed her through nothing.
    She didn’t stop to attach her hook but just grabbed the line and started pulling along it.
    â€œHook in,” he urged her.
    â€œNo. It might follow us.”
    Colin’s voice. “She’s right. You might need to float free. Good luck.”
    One mistake could leave them untethered.
    Onor’s arm hurt all over again, heating as it chafed. He drove forward with it anyway, the whole motion like swimming. His helmet bumped Marcelle’s boot. “Sorry.”
    â€œIt’s okay.”
    Heavy breathing sounded in their helmets, fear breathing from the four who hadn’t followed them. A scream stopped all other sound, strangled, then stopped abruptly. Ix had cut the voice off.
    Onor’s fear grew.
    It was almost impossible to look backward in the bulky suit. It would slow him down. “What’s happening?” he whispered through his teeth as he pulled along frantically after Marcelle. “What just happened?”
    Colin’s voice sounded high. “It ripped . . . ripped—”
    Onor took another long pull along the line, felt blood running slowly into the arm of his suit, hot and wet.
    Silence went by for so long Onor was afraid whatever happened to the screamer had also happened to Colin. Onor pictured a suit cut in pieces, pulled harder. Colin’s voice vibrated in his ear again. “It . . . we lost two. Just go. Don’t look back.”
    Oh my. This was so much worse than fighting humans through the Fire . So much scarier. Colin again, his voice choppy. “Good luck.”
    â€œI’ll try.” Colin. Colin afraid. There was no way to know what he faced, no way Onor could slow down.
    â€œCan you follow us?” he asked.
    â€œI am.”
    Ix, very brief. “Go to the airlock. Get out.”
    Now Onor could only hear his own breathing. Marcelle’s had silenced as much as Colin’s. The machine had cut them all off from each other again. He cussed.
    His breath came fast and uneven. He knew better. He took two deep breaths, tried to recenter.
    Looking ahead wasn’t too hard. The lock was further away than it should be. He took even more control of his breath, paid more attention to the way the line slid between his gloved fingers.
    He couldn’t tell if he was faster or not.
    It seemed surreal, the two of them moving along the line, Colin catching up. Every once in a while he could feel the pull of Colin’s arms, a tightness in the line that disappeared and reformed. He only