“I am Nerbros Eser,” he said.
“I’m Savitri Guntupalli,” Savitri said.
“You’re the leader of this colony,” Eser said.
“No,” Savitri said.
Eser’s eyestalks jiggled at this. “Where are this colony’s leaders?” he asked.
“They’re busy,” Savitri said. “That’s why they sent me out to talk to you.”
“And who are you?” Eser said.
“I’m the secretary,” Savitri said.
Eser’s eyestalks extended angrily and almost banged together. “I have the power to level this entire colony, and its leader sends his secretary to meet me,” he said. Clearly any hint of magnanimity Eser may have been planning in victory was flying right out the window.
“Well, they did give me a message for you,” Savitri said.
“They did,” Eser said.
“Yes,” Savitri said. “I was told to tell you that if you and your troops were willing to get back into your ships and just go back where you came from, we’d be happy to let you live.”
Eser goggled and then emitted a high screee, the Arrisian noise for amusement. Most of his soldiers screed along with him; it was like a convention of angry bees. Then he stopped his scree and stalked right up to Savitri, who like the star she is, didn’t even flinch.
“I was planning to let most of your colonists survive,” Eser said. “I was going to have this colony’s leaders executed for the crimes against the Conclave, when they helped the Colonial Union ambush our fleet. But I was going to spare your colonists. You are tempting me to change my mind on that.”
“So, that’s a no, then,” Savitri said, staring directly into his eyestalks.
Eser stepped back, and turned to one of his guards. “Kill her,” he said. “Then let’s get to work.”
The guard raised his weapon, sighted in on Savitri’s torso, and tapped the trigger panel on his rifle.
The rifle exploded, shearing vertically in the plane perpendicular to the rifle’s firing mechanism and sending a vertical planar array of energy directly upward. The guard’s eyestalks intersected that plane and were severed; he fell screaming in pain, clutching what remained of his stalks.
Eser looked again at Savitri, confused.
“You should have left when you had the chance,” Savitri said.
There was a bang as Jane kicked open the door of the administration building, the nanomesh suit that hid her body heat covered by standard Department of Colonization police armor, same as the others of us in our little squad. In her arms was something that was not standard Department of Colonization issue: A flamethrower.
Jane motioned Savitri back; Savitri didn’t need to be told twice. From in front of Jane came the sound of Arrisian screams as panicked soldiers tried to shoot her, only to have their rifles shear and erupt violently in their arms. Jane walked right up to the soldiers, who had begun to wheel back in fear, and poured fire into their midst.
“What is this?” I asked Zo?, when she directed us into the shuttle to look at whatever it was she wanted us to look at. Whatever it was, it was the size of a baby elephant. Hickory and Dickory stood next to it; Jane went to it and started to examine the control panel on one side.
“It’s my present to the colony,” Zo? said. “It’s a sapper field.”
“Zapper field,” I said.
“No, sapper,” Zo? said. “With a ssss.”
“What does it do?” I asked.
Zo? turned to Hickory. “Tell him,” she said.
“The sapper field channels kinetic energy,” Hickory said. “Redirects the energy upward or any other direction the user chooses and uses the redirected energy to feed the field itself. The user can define at what level the energy is redirected, over a range of parameters.”
“You need to explain this to me like I’m an idiot,” I said. “Because clearly I am.”
“It stops bullets,” Jane said, still looking at the panel.
“Come again?” I said.
“This thing generates a field that will suck the energy out of any object that goes faster than a certain speed,” Jane said. She looked at Hickory. “That’s right, isn’t it.”
“Velocity is one of the parameters a user may define,” Hickory said. “Other parameters can include energy output over a specified time or temperature.”
“So we program it to stop bullets or grenades, and it will do it,” I said.
“Yes,” Hickory said. “Although it works better with physical objects than with energetic ones.”
“Works better with bullets than with beams,” I said.
“Yes,” Hickory said.
“When we define the power levels, anything under that power level retains its energy,” Jane said. “We could tune it to stop a bullet but let an arrow fly.”
“If the energy of the arrow is below the threshold you define, yes,” Hickory said.
“This has possibilities,” I said.
“I told you you would like it,” Zo? said.