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motors screeched and wailed as they overheated and the deadly red glow crept
toward his shoulders.
The image of Becky in his near-term memories began to blur.
The giant robot communicated rarely. As his motors screamed and his circuits
went dead one by one, Guardian sent a last, short message to Mother-his
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companion, his friend.
Even with his internal circuits melting, he bent his robotic frame one last
time, every ounce of processing power on two things-to push the engine back
into place...and to remember Becky s image. With his last effort, Guardian
sought to achieve these two last goals-forever.
The engine suddenly lurched into proper position and the heat sinks
automatically reclamped.
Immediately the red-hot surface of the huge engine began to cool. The
gargantuan task was finished.
But Guardian did not remove his melted hands. And the ruby indicators no
longer gleamed in his eyes.
Fixer remained still, his visual sensors locked on the lifeless Guardian now
frozen to the engine in his last act of heroism. As the engine cooled,
Guardian s hands remained attached- permanently fixed onto its outer surface-
as if a statue in memory of his sacrifice. Fixer s optics zoomed onto the
metallic face and noticed that extreme heat had changed/melted Guardian s face
ever so slightly- a single, frozen metallic tear dripped from his right eye.
But more important, it seemed as if the corners of the robot s mouth curved
ever so slightly in an eternal smile of the most profound and subtle
happiness.
Mother felt another odd stirring in her circuits, and saved it for future
reference. She saw the image of
Guardian and knew he was now nonfunctioning.
Dead?
Her systems reported the engine s cooling, and that her shields were now
on-line and slowly strengthening. She quickly looked at Guardian s last
message and stored it.
It was a single word: Becky.
Mother drove hard and avoided another salvo from the frigates providing close
support for the Great
Horned ship. She destroyed the last of the Hunters as they attacked from the
rear, but now she had to deal with these last escorts before her final attack.
Her engines roared as she set them to full speed.
She was almost on top of the Great Horned ship, flying just above its outer
surface. Her sensors told her the frigates were holding their fire because of
her close proximity. But her sensors also informed her that the frigates were
closing into point-blank range-they would fire on her then.
But Mother fired her hybrid weapon deep into the Great ship s hull first.
A massive hole opened. The impact of Mother s point-blank range caused a huge
layer of the ship s hull-essentially its skin-to fold backwards in a great
wave.
Huge amounts of debris exploded from inside, along with the strange, purple
fluid that no other species except the T kaan had ever seen.
She stretched her sensors inside the ship, even as she maneuvered away from
the incoming fire from the frigates. The frigates missed her and struck the
ship they were trying to protect.
Mother began priming her weapon for one last shot, but she needed to determine
a vital section in which to target in order to destroy the Great Horned ship
once and for all. She only had seconds in which to search as her sensors
stretched forth across the armored skin and then deep into the creature-ship s
wound.
The answer came even though she had not been able to make a sensor lock.
Mother began relaying the crucial data to Rawlon as her long-range sensors
revealed he was even now making his final approach upon the other Great Horned
ship.
Mother s sensors now revealed that she could enter the creature-ship via a
large opening underneath the horned prow. Once inside, a deadly angle would
present itself toward the center of the gargantuan creature and the heart of
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its life signs which her sensors registered inside it. This precise angle
alone would enable a single shot to destroy the ship completely, but to obtain
the angle she had to be inside the armored skin of the creature so her sensors
could lock onto it.
Mother and Rawlon would have to be inside each ship before they fired in order
to get an accurate lock.
We ve lost theStarfire and the Firestorm, Curja reported curtly.
Rawlon growled angrily. But even as the word of the destruction of the two
cruisers sank in, the Kraaqi
Admiral began reading the message just sent from the MotherShip. His eyes
narrowed at the crucial data just supplied, and his fists clenched with his
iron resolve.
The Thunderer, his flagship, reeled from another T kaan salvo-more direct
hits.
Shields are failing! Curja shouted.
On the viewscreen the Great Horned ship increased speed.
The T kaan Great ship is powering its hyperdrive engines. It is preparing to
retreat. Curja turned expectantly.
We can t let that happen. Order the remaining battleships and cruisers to
fire on my mark. But not the
Thunderer. Rawlon began punching the controls on his console, sending
specific coordinates for each ship to target on the Great Horned ship.
Range? Rawlon growled.
Two hundred kilometers. Curja turned. Prime range.
Fire.
The two other Kraaqi battleships fired along with the three remaining
cruisers. The huge T kaan ship that filled their viewscreens seemed to lurch
upwards as the five holes erupted.
Sensors. Damage assessment, Rawlon commanded.
The Kraaqi officer worked the controls at his station. There is damage.
Curja paused, still working the dials and controls. Damage is minimal-the
ship is still functioning. He looked up from his console. Their hyperdrive
engines are off-line, but I don t know for long. I already detect repairs
being applied.
Rawlon growled under his breath. The Thunderer is now the only ship I have
that still has a functioning hybrid weapon. He nodded stoically.
Send word to Trakam-he has command of the Kraaqi fleet now. Rawlon looked
down. What s left of it, he whispered, so that nobody heard.
Rawlon stood and walked to the center of the bridge. Standing there, his right
hand gripping the rapier s handle still in its scabbard, he looked at what was
before him.
Several stations were already destroyed; main power was still off-line,
evidenced by the red glow of the emergency lighting. Half of his bridge crew
was missing, wounded and taken to medical-or dead.
You have been the best crew any Kraaqi Captain ever commanded. Rawlon gazed
proudly at them all.
The Thunderer shuddered from another direct hit.
Engines still functioning, but we have no more shields, sir. We have just
lost hull integrity in sections
B-Seventeen through Twenty-three, Curja reported diligently.
Order
Abandon Ship
, Curja. All non-essential personnel. Rawlon thought a moment. No, all
personnel will evacuate. But first, pass all Engineering controls over to the
Bridge.
Rawlon walked back to his command chair. He looked again at his brave crew.
I want all of you evacuated in exactly ten minutes. But first, we need to
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steer the Thunderer down the throat of the T kaan ship before us.
Mother suddenlybanked hard to port, missing another salvo from the pursuing
frigates. Her super-weapon, the hybrid, was almost primed and the enemy still
had not sensed her next move.
That was good.
Her sensors registered that the T kaan Great Horned ship was powering its
hyperdrive engines. It looked like the T kaan finally realized that the puny
humans and their allies might possibly win after all.
But it was too late-for all of them.
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