AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What happened then?”
“Pat and I shot them full of holes, but they kept coming.”
“You don’t say,” Carter said. “How did you stop ‘em?”
“Guthrie did it. I haven’t had the chance to ask him, but he hinted at it. He said something about them going their separate ways. No telling what that means.”
“Hmph. A robot with a sense of humor,” Carter said. “I think that robot’s alive.”
“Yeah, so do I.”
The cort singleton regarded them. As they watched, it smiled at them.
“I think...” Billy began.
“So do I.”
The cort on the singleship touched a button and the ship shot toward them. Billy pulled back on the yoke in the same instant and the cort’s ship shot beneath them. The impact jarred them and an orange ball of flame spread out and diminished to nothing.
“That was close,” Carter said. “How strong is that window?”
“Not that strong.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Here,” Billy said. “Let’s switch. I’ll shoot and you guide us. It drives like a dirigible anyway. The controls are basically the same.”
“Let me at it, then.”
The two men switched stations and more singleships hove into view and buzzed close by. Billy began shooting at them and the two men watched as one after another became puffs of light and smudges of dust.
“Nice weapon, that,” John Carter stated.
“It’s the best laser there is. Diamonds from the Kimberly Mine, South Africa.”
“What’s the power source?” Carter asked.
“A miniature Tesla Coil to ramp up the voltage by a few million. The eletricity is turned into coherent light and focused through the diamonds, and...POW!” Another singleship vanished in a puff of flame.
A different type of ship hove into view. This one moved more slowly, with deliberation.
“What’s this?” Carter asked.
“I dunno. Reminds me of something.”
“The way it flies?”
“Yeah. Reminds me of...someone, I think. The way he used to walk. Never mind. It couldn’t be.” Billy moved the targeting cursor over the object and kept it there with continual small adjustments, ready to slag the thing.
It moved closer and slowed. Another one came in behind it, making that same weird, duck-waddle approach.
The two ships hung beside each other. As they moved closer, Billy and John Carter could begin to make out the figures of two men.
“No,” Billy said.
“ ‘No’ what?”
“I mean...it’s not possible.”
