Free Star Road by Matthew Costello, Rick Hautala Page A

superstructures and configurations that suggested—to the imaginative, anyway—Earthlike insects.
     
    When these insects were through, even a vehicle as large as a World Council troop ship would disappear. Every atom. Where all the mass and energy went was anyone’s guess.
     
    And now, from both sides of the Road, the Road Bugs started swinging up and over the glowing edge of the Road, scuttling toward the stranded vehicle, IMT-9.
     
    And the stranded pilot of the vehicle?
     
    It didn’t look like he had a chance.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    9
     
     
    GAGE
     
     
     
     
    Gage.
     
    Ivan Delgato kept repeating the name in his mind even as the SRV and its captain came closer.
     
    Gage Mitchell.
     
    A mantra to remind him of who he was now.
     
    Got to make sure I respond to that name naturally. And convince her that I’m... what?
     
    Some digital supervisor doing his first on-site inspection? A manager for a mining operation, checking on output?
     
    Good luck pidling any of that off, he told himself. Just keep your mouth shut, and you might be fine.
     
    And what about his SRV’s breakdown?
     
    The trip just begun—and then the damned induction core failed.
     
    Sabotage?
     
    Could be. There were plenty of people who would love to see his mission fail and for him to disappear ... forever.
     
    Better—and more permanent—than Cyrus Penal Colony.
     
    Now, he watched the Road Bugs ... ten, eleven of them begin ripping at his ship, pulling it to pieces, cutting, slicing, and then the piece was gone.
     
    Not much damned time.
     
    He saw the approaching SVR on his screen, pulses already erupting from its main gun.
     
    Bugs began flying off the road, exploding in a flash of light, then vanishing.
     
    Whoever’s manning the turret gun is good...
     
    But the Road Bugs kept swarming toward him from both sides of the Road. Even with the gunner picking them off almost as fast as they appeared, it was only a matter of time until they made their way into the innards of the ship, to him.
     
    Every blazing flash of his own pulse cannon ignited the Road Bugs, who then exploded in rippling lines of color, leaving behind twisted scraps of metal that other Road Bugs quickly stopped to ingest.
     
    Now, though, he could hear them working in the back. Soon the SRV’s big guns would be useless.
     
    No good that close.
     
    Then they’ll come straight for me.
     
    His breathing seemed loud inside the EVA helmet. The faceplate fogged around the edges, the compressed air inside not warmed up yet. The fringes of his vision took on the colors of a prism.
     
    He kept his eyes on the gunner whose pin-point accurate pulses were keeping the Road Bugs in check.
     
    Still too many, though.
     
    Adrenaline surged through his system. All he could do was pick off any bug that came into his limited range. That, and wait, sitting there like bait in a trap, waiting to be eaten.
     
    A vibrating shudder ran through his vehicle, shaking him side to side.
     
    “You feel that?” The SRV’s captain voice in his ear, crystal clear inside his helmet.
     
    “Yeah—trouble docking?”
     
    “That wasn’t us.”
     
    The Road Bugs. Must be a bunch in the rear now.
     
    “How long?” Ivan asked.
     
    “Docking in ... thirty seconds.”
     
    He took a breath, waiting.
     
    “On my mark in three ... two ... one ... mark!”
     
    Another sickening rattle.
     
    That might not be soon enough.
     
    In the strange quantum void of the Star Road, he didn’t hear the sound, but something—the Bugs?—was shaking his entire ship. He flipped on his external rearview.
     
    And saw a Road Bug—bigger than any he’d ever seen—flanked by several others. He watched it take a huge bite out of the rear of his IMT.
     
    The thing. A monster.
     
    Responding to the others getting blown away?
     
    Then: Hurry.
     
    What little air was left inside the vehicle rushed out...
     
    He watched the giant Road Bug’s jaws close down from top, bottom, and both sides.