He holstered his hand weapon and handed her his long weapon. “Hold this,” he said.
“Tim,” she said again.
“It will be fine,” he said. “Cover me without looking like you’re covering me,” he added.
“Right,” she said.
He thought he heard irony in her tone and might have smiled in other circumstances. In this one, he paced carefully forward, his hands in clear sight. The large avian watched, its head lowering as he drew closer.
He passed within inches of that deadly beak and half expected it to stab into his back and he stepped under the body. He stopped by the leg, then knelt down and studied the device.
“You seeing this?” he said, in his comm.
“Most curious,” Trac said.
“Curious good or curious bad?” Tim asked. He cautiously touched it, his fingers sliding along a surface that appeared to be smooth.
“I’m not sure yet. Zoom in on that section,” Trac said suddenly.
Tim did as requested, also focusing his human thoughts on the spot. It was the only place that wasn’t perfectly smooth.
“I think there is a port here,” Tim said, finally. He touched the small indentation with the tip of his finger. He extended an access cable toward it, half expecting to get a jolt from it, but it slid in. After the obligatory “handshake,” he started sensing data. “I can’t read it,” he said to Trac.
“Veirn’s fragment is attempting to translate it,” Trac said. “But I am assuming that the goal is to remove the device?”
“That is my belief,” Tim said.
“Based on my experience with similar devices, a surge of power should do the job.”
Or hurt the avian, Tim thought ruefully. And make it mad while he was kneeling inches from its claws.
“I think the canines are coming back,” Riina said, “using the high ground.”
Tim checked. She was correct. Their heat signatures were moving across the surface of the debris that circled them.
“Faint heart,” said Lt. Dish, “never won fair lady.”
He looked up, where he imagined the ship to be. “What?”
“Just do it,” Trac said.
It wasn’t Tim’s imagination that there was humor in his tone. Easy for him.
He sent the surge, without a countdown. If he stopped to think, his heart would be faint.
A small puff of smoke emerged from the device. There was a click and it fell off at Tim’s feet.
“Androcles and the Lion,” Lt. Dish said, now.
This time he didn’t ask what. He waited. The air came alive as the big bird’s wings moved, sweeping the area with a wind that swirled the dirt, then it lifted off, the force of it almost knocking him onto his back.
He instinctively covered his head as the legs and claws brushed his shoulder. The ground debris seemed to rise, too, swirling like a small storm. The avian cried out as one of the canines leapt from its perch and landed on its back.
The other canines tried to join the attack, but the avian was rising too quickly. Several fell, landing not far from Tim. T’Korrin rose, crying out as Tim spun to face this new attack. His hand weapon was pulled and his back toward Riina.
One of the canines howled, shifting as if in pain, then rolled to its feet and barred its teeth at him. But as it paced toward him, it showed signs of injury. Two of the canines moved feebly, more seriously injured he concluded.
He reached Riina, took the long weapon she held out, noted that she then deployed her weapons as well. He felt an odd reluctance to further injure the canine, which made no sense.
