Free Z14 by Jim Chaseley Page B

Third, Grand Overlord of Boram Bay, Emperor of Deliverance,” said the Captain, reeling off Chester Boram’s utterly unofficial, but equally unopposed, title in a monotone.
    “Oh,” I said. Very interesting indeed. “Why?”
    “No idea. Now, up you get, you’re coming with us.”
    I had never had to do what a human demanded before. “No,” I said, deciding now would be no different. “I’d have to be seriously malfunctioning to go with you. At least here I know what the odds are. Tell his Royal Overlordness that I’ll give him a call sometime.”
    “How about we just take you, or shoot you?” said the captain. Many of his men had relaxed after the initial moment where they surrounded me, but now they tensed up again and became more alert.
    “It seems obvious Boram wants me alive and I doubt I’d be any good to him much more damaged than I already am…” I said, waving my stump at him.
    The captain sighed. “Give it up, you’re beaten.”
    “You’re right. I’d better self-destruct then,” I said. I changed my voice to mimic a tinny, badly synthesised and annoyingly nasal female human, “Warning, code nine self-destruct sequence initiated. All friendly units please retire to a safe distance of twelve miles. Ten…Nine…”
    “Obvious bluff,” said the captain.
    “…Skip a few. Three. Tw – ”
    “Alright. Shit. Just go you crazy fucker!”
    “Countdown paused,” I said, before switching back to my usual voice. “Good idea. Nice meeting you.” I got to my feet, keeping my rifle trained on the captain. Even if they did fire, I could register the tiny movement of any one of their fingers and squeeze my own trigger in the same tenth of a second. Dodgy weapon or not, the Captain would have known he might not live to report my apparently unwanted death.
    “I’m going to engage my jetpack now,” I said, “Don’t be startled.”
    “Get on with it,” said the Captain.
    I took off, using minimal thrust, and half hovered, half flew back to where I’d first been ambushed by the plasma troopers. I landed, managed to awkwardly clutch my plasma rifle and the other discarded one to my chest, with my one good arm, and then I took off again.
    I started the journey back to Lothar’s bunker, leaving a city senselessly but brightly burning in the night behind me. Mission accomplished, after a fashion. I’d found out what had happened, but not a hint of why – but knowing the Overlords were involved raised the stakes somewhat. I’d be sure to put that call through to the 'Emperor’ pretty soon.
    And then there were the plasma rifles; clearly rushed into production. Maybe I’d get time to take one apart and see how it worked, or maybe I was just carrying dead weight. Hah, in a world now full of cyborgs that weren’t hampered by pseudo-morals and inefficient inner-wrangling, and human soldiers who could seemingly now hold their own against ‘us’; in that world, maybe it was me that was the dead weight.
    Oh for the love of lubricant, no. Of all the useless human emotions, please, no – don’t let me feel self-fucking-pity! I did a clumsy, over-burdened loop-the-loop and a few barrel rolls in the cool night air, just to remind myself that I was still alive. I was alive! “I am alive!”

Chapter Thirteen
     
    After messaging Lothar and giving him an E.T.A. to the bunker, I spent the rest of the return flight from Jolly Meadows stubbornly ignoring every single query that crossed my processors. Since Melon fell out of the sky, everything I had done had been based on, or had resulted in, incomplete data. I was hardly acting like a logical machine; I was rushing around like a confused human – and a pretty over-excitable and flappable one at that. So, I would not process a single question more until I had some answers. Instead, I considered what potential methods I had for gaining pertinent data. I had four untapped leads, so it was time to logically analyse them, pick one and follow it up.
    Lead