But he doesn’t want to assume she’s accounted for every single risk. He motions upward, so she can see the internal security barriers that would descend from the ceiling to shut them both in. If Noemi were not quick enough, one of those barriers could crush her. Abel begins walking backward, the better to look out for her.
She raises one dark eyebrow, trying to joke despite her obvious tension. “Shouldn’t you watch your feet instead of mine?”
“The grid’s pattern is static and stored in my memory. I could walk through the store blindfolded.”
“Of course you can.”
Noemi keeps following him. Even within this strange wavelength of light, he can see the faint sheen of sweat on her skin. But she doesn’t look exhausted. An unfamiliar energy has her in its grasp, and he cannot tell if it’s more fear or exhilaration.
He finds the T-7 anx easily. Noemi tries to take it from the shelf herself, realizes how heavy it is, and steps back so Abel can handle it. She’s learning his abilities compared to her own limitations. Excellent.
As they begin inching out again, they pass a zone containing deep-space rations, foodstuffs that will keep for indefinite periods of time in deep space, which are piled onto pallets. “Should I grab some more of these?” Noemi picks up a single packet. “We have rations on board, but is there enough for twenty—no, eighteen days?”
“Yes, we have enough.” That is the second time she’s mentioned this seemingly arbitrary time limit, without explanation. “What happens in eighteen days?”
All the lights in the store blaze on at once. Noemi gasps. Abel’s grip on the T-7 anx remains constant but he immediately shifts his visual input to normal human frequencies. They both look around and find they are no longer alone.
Two mechs stand in front of a newly opened side door—a Charlie and a Queen. These models work security as well as combat, and they are both clearly primed for action. Each wears the skintight gray armor of a military-issue mech; each has a weapon holstered to the side.
But Abel immediately recognizes an aberration in their behavior. Although two thieves have been found in the store, the Queen and Charlie are only focusing on Abel himself. The subtle tilt of the Queen’s head suggests she’s scanning him in-depth.
Then, unexpectedly, the Queen smiles and turns to the Charlie. “The Abel model has been located. Mansfield desires its return.”
I’ve been found, Abel thinks, and the surge of hope within him feels like the sun is rising inside his skin. Father found me at last.
17
BEHIND THE GUNS OF HER FIGHTER, NOEMI HAS KILLED seventeen Queen models and nearly thirty Charlies. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have her ship or her blasters now.
But the mechs don’t even look at her. To them, Abel’s the only thing that matters.
Both the Queen and the Charlie come closer at the same moment. Like Abel, they step over the invisible lines of the laser grid without any difficulty. As the mechs circle around them, the Charlie tilts his head and squints as though he were studying Abel through a microscope even as he aims his blaster directly at Noemi. The Queen says to Abel, “Explain your absence.”
“My absence is due to my abandonment near the Genesis Gate, as Professor Mansfield knows,” Abel says.
“How can you have returned after so long?” the Queen says.
Abel hesitates, as if he doesn’t want to say the rest. But his programming must ask him to comply. “The Daedalus and I were found by my new commander.”
Noemi’s never been close enough to see a Queen’s eyes before. They’re pale green, so pale as to be unsettling. The Queen model fixes those unblinking eyes on Noemi’s face. But the Queen says only, “No unauthorized humans are allowed in Mansfield’s presence.”
“Then our business here is finished.” At no point has Abel set down the T-7 anx. “Please send greetings to Professor Mansfield. Tell him I… I have missed him.”
Noemi startles. What is Abel doing?
“You are to come with us,” the Queen says, frowning. “Mansfield himself desires your return.”
Abel shakes his head. “And I would like nothing better than to be reunited with him. However, he programmed me to have exceptional loyalty to my human commander. At the moment, Mansfield is not my commander. Noemi is.”
“You will accompany us on the journey back to Earth,” the Charlie says. “You must obey Professor Mansfield, no matter what.”
Noemi sees something in Abel’s expression she’d never expected to find there: sadness. “If he were here, I would obey his every word. But he was the one who tied me completely to my human commander. You’ve told me his wishes, but you have not transmitted a direct order. Therefore, you lack the authority to override Mansfield’s programming.”
The Queen considers that, then nods. “Then we will liberate you from your commander.” She turns to the Charlie and says, “Kill her.”
Terror lances through Noemi like a sword made of ice—
—but then the Charlie does what every soldier does before firing his weapon for the first time. He looks down to check the controls.
It’s not even a second. As fast as a blink. But Noemi takes off that instant.
She ducks behind a pallet of rations—puny shelter the Charlie can blast through within seconds—but that doesn’t matter, because she went straight through the lines of the laser grid.
Alarms go off, blaring so loudly her ears hurt, flashing red lights in a staccato rhythm that’s almost a strobe light. In the first beat, Noemi sees the overhead security barriers start sliding down. She hurls herself toward the main entrance—there’s just enough time to skid through—
“No!” Abel shouts. He doesn’t want her to get away—wants her to get caught, or to die—
His body slams into hers so roughly that it propels her farther forward, just past the doors. The Charlie and Queen are right behind them, but the security barrier slams to the floor, catching the Charlie’s forearm and crushing it.
Noemi’s never seen an injured mech this close before. It’s torn skin and torn wire; blood and mesh mixed together, both real and unreal at once. The fingers twitch unnaturally fast, until the hand goes limp. A thin line of black smoke pulls up from the barrier’s edge. She blinks in horror, than grabs the blaster he dropped on the floor.
From the corner of her eye, she sees movement and realizes the Queen is pulling her own blaster. But Abel grabs Noemi, swinging her behind him as he stands looking down at the Queen. He still has the T-7 anx tucked under his other arm.
“You are shielding the Genesis officer,” the Queen says, tilting her head.
“As my programming requires.” Abel backs up, Noemi just behind him, until they’re back at the lift. He pauses, and she realizes he means for her to climb on his back again. As soon as she has, he jumps inside, still holding the T-7 anx, just as capable with only one hand free.
As he climbs, she says the only thing she can think of. “You think fast.”
“So do you,” he says. “You realize, of course, that the authorities have been alerted.”
“I figured I’d rather take my chances with the local authorities than with the Queen and Charlie.”