Free Sean Dalton - Operation StarHawks 03 - Beyond the Void by Sean Dalton - [Operation StarHawks 03] Page B

his shoulder pressed against a small bulkhead rib. That would hide him until X was almost on him. Maybe. He hugged the wall, trying to flatten himself as much as possible.
    The footsteps halted again and stayed quiet for so long that Kelly’s nerves were screaming by the time X finally started coming. Kelly tensed himself. Just as X came even with him, Kelly sprang, grasping the wrist of X’s knife hand and stepping in close to land a couple of hard chops to the throat and ribs while X was still reacting.
    He heard a grunt and grasped a thatch of wiry hair. Kelly brought up his knee as he pulled X’s head down. There was a satisfying thud and X sagged. The knife clattered upon the floor. Kelly hobbled back, his knee aching, and looked for the knife. He couldn’t find it in the gloom.
    His quarry lay facedown on the floor, but Kelly had already determined he was human. Cautiously he knelt, wishing the light were better, and reached through the gloom for X’s shoulder. X, however, snaked out an arm and grabbed Kelly by the throat, heaving him over in a fierce roll to his back. Suddenly, not quite sure how it had happened, Kelly found himself on the bottom and X on top. X was throttling him. Kelly thrashed and did his best to pry X’s fingers off his throat. His ears roared; the gloom began to swim around him. Kelly brought up the circuit interrupter to X’s carotid and zapped him with it.
    It was a low voltage current and couldn’t do much harm, but it startled X. His grip loosened, and Kelly kicked him in the stomach, thrusting him back. Kelly scrambled up, heaving for breath. His throat felt like mashed gristle.
    â€œNow, you blob-lover, try some of this—â€

----
12

    Â 
    The blast shook the corridor and a wave of heat and debris came belching toward Kelly. He dived to his stomach. Coughing, he buried his face until it rolled past him. Then he got to his feet and hurried forward through the settling dust. What in the five galaxies had Caesar done?
    He found himself crunching over small bits of robot almost before he realized it. The corridor walls were buckled. A severed power cable snaked about, crackling dangerously. Flames flickered on what remained of the ceiling.
    The actual area of destruction wasn’t that large, but it was thorough. The explosive gel Caesar was so fond of hadn’t done this. Maybe one of the warbots had exploded. Kelly frowned, kicking a metal foot out of his way. No chance of salvaging these bots for weapons.
    And there was no chance that this would pass unnoticed.
    A short distance ahead the access hatch slammed open. Kelly dropped to a crouch, aiming his launcher.
    Just in time, however, he recognized Phila’s dark curly head and held his fire. With her came the shrill whoop of an alert siren.
    â€œCommander!â€

----
13

    Â 
    Holborn scuttled along the corridors, veering and stumbling and chuckling softly to himself. This was his chance, his one perfect chance. He would show them, his great, indifferent masters, that he wasn’t just a servile worm to be used and then discarded.
    He found his former laboratory more by instinct than by any conscious seeking. The lights came on. He looked around, seeing nothing changed, nothing touched. His breath sobbed in his chest. He wiped the perspiration from his face with unsteady hands. Tears of joy ran down his cheeks. Now, now, now was the time to do it, the perfect time, while Maon was occupied with defeating Kelly’s attack.
    Holborn laughed, rubbing his hands. He staggered to the vault. It took him three tries to unlock it. He kept forgetting the sequence, and his hands were unsteady. But at last the massive door slid open with a faint hiss of released air. A cold, stale odor rolled out over him. Breathing deeply of it, Holborn drew himself fully erect and entered.
    He opened one of four chests and from the ice inside withdrew a tiny vial of amber liquid.