Bruce Bethke - Maverick

“So?”

Avery turned the robot slightly and pointed out a complex structure just below Mandelbrot’s “collarbone, “ in an area that had once been covered by an access plate but now bordered on the edge of an old blaster burn. “The Ea kept its long-term memory in seven non-volatile cubes, right here. I notice that he’s only got two cubes installed now. ”

. Derec sighed. He ’ s treating me like an ignorant kid again. “If you look a little closer, Dad, you’ll notice that the rest of his cube cage got blasted. This is the only way I’ve known him, and I just never bothered to repair the damage. ”

Avery bit back the urge to reply in the same tone. Don ’ t you think I can see that, Derec? Instead, he asked in a soft voice, “Am I to infer from that statement that you hung on to his other memory cubes?”

“Two of them; the rest were scrap. They’re in his offline library bay, down by his left hip. But I don’t see-”

Avery opened the library bay and extracted the two cubes. Then he made a sweeping gesture that took in the whole room. “This is a robotics lab, isn’t it?”

. Derec stood still for a moment, then he broke into a big smile. “Well, I’ll be. We’ve got all the parts and tools we need right here, don’t we?”

Avery nodded. “We should be able to recover his memories of Aurora. If we’re lucky and his automatic backup function was set up correctly, we may even recover his memories of the first battle with Aranimas. I figure it’ll take about a half hour to find out. An hour, tops. ”

. Derec smiled again and then spoke to the robot. “How about it, Mandelbrot? Do you want us to reinstall the rest of your memory?”

The pause was barely audible. “It would please me to operate at my full capacity again, Master Derec. ”

. Derec turned to Avery. ’, And we can do it without altering his personality?”

Avery began clearing space for the robot on the worktable. “I promise. We won’t knock one positron out of orbit. ”

. Derec reached a decision. “Okay, let’s get started. He stepped over to the worktable and began helping Avery clear it. With a discreet cough, Avery got his attention.

“. Derec? Why don’t you let me prep him while you catch a shower?”

“Oh, this is more interesting. I don’t need to shower right this-”

Avery coughed again and wrinkled his nose. Derec gave his father a surprised little look. “I do?” Avery nodded. “Oh. Well, say, Dad, why don’t you prep Mandelbrot? I’ll just, uh-” He jerked a thumb at the Personal and started backing toward the door.

“Good idea,” Avery agreed.

Maverick pelted hell-for-leather through the underbrush, ears flattened against the side of his head, legs pumping faster than he ever would have believed possible, his tail a bare five steps ahead of one extremely annoyed sharpfang. Spineberry branches raked his face. His breath, spiced with curses, came in raw, ragged gasps.

So what? Feel lucky you ’ re still breathing! He burst through a clump of sandleaves and nearly ran head-on into a fallen log. No time for finesse, lad, jump! Somehow he cleared the log, although the stump of a branch gouged an angry scratch across the left side of his ribs.

Lick it later, fool! His left rear leg buckled when he hit the ground, but he managed to recover in time to tumble and come up running. “Ki-yii!” he screamed in BeastTongue.

The sharpfang behind him responded with a throaty roar -It was closer now-and even angrier

“Spoor!” Maverick feinted right and then cut sharply left, ignoring the ache in his leg. An instant later the second sharpfang loomed into view dead ahead; with the brilliance of desperation, Maverick darted left again and hurdled the second sharpfang’s tail. The two lizards collided heavily and went down.

Dare I hope? He slowed slightly and looked over his shoulder.

No! Sharpfang minds were tiny things, capable of holding just one thought at a time. Both sharpfangs were focused on the kin; it didn’t occur to them that this was an excellent opportunity to fight. Within seconds, the lizards were back on their hind feet, but now they were both chasing after him.

Well, lad, at least you gained a few seconds ’ lead - The thought was cut off by a blood-curdling scream somewhere up ahead-a scream that dissolved into the happy growl of a feeding sharpfang. The third sharpfang! One last incredibly pained yelp slipped out from the sharpfang’s victim.

Maverick’s self-control slipped a moment. I hope that was WhiteTail. Then he felt guilty at that thought. I take that back. Don ’ t hurt the kid, OldMother. I hope that was LifeCrier!

He swerved left and suddenly found himself charging straight at a yawning gully. Trying to take it in a single bound, he came down a half -trot short and slammed into the edge of the far side. Whining like a pup, he hung on the edge, his hind legs scrabbling for purchase. Curse LifeCrier and his flea-bitten SilverSides nonsense! The two sharpfangs’ feet thudded closer.

Maverick’s right foot found something solid, and he flipped himself up over the edge and hit the ground running. And curse me and my bright ideas! With a clumsy crash, the sharpfangs fell into the gully. One of them roared in distress, and then they began slashing a passage up the side.

Maverick flattened his ears again, straightened his tail, and focused on putting distance between himself and the sharpfangs.

Up to a point, things had been going really well. After the pack had wiped out the WalkingStones, LifeCrier began leading the hunt every day, and Maverick had managed to make himself a permanent part of LifeCrier’ s hunting party. And after a week of practice, LifeCrier’s group was actually starting to hunt like a pack. This morning two of the younger kin had taken down a smallgrazer, and Maverick himself had surprised a smerp that was trying to hide under a log. They’d even managed to handle it intelligently when the point kin stirred up a small female sharpfang. The scouts got out of the way, the stupid lizard charged straight at the main body of the pack, and Maverick had time to draw his knife and try his under-the-chin trick.

It worked to perfection. He dropped the sharpfang with one blow, and for a minute there he’d had the undying admiration of the entire hunting party. LifeCrier even got out one of those stupid amulets and made a great show of hanging it around Maverick’s neck.

Then the pack was jumped by the three full-grown male sharpfangs that had been following the female he’d killed.

A new roar joined the chorus behind him. Maverick looked over his shoulder long enough to see that the third sharpfang, blood fresh on his face, had decided to join the party.

That does it! Maverick decided. If I get out of this alive, I ’ m going to head west and forget I ever heard the name PackHome. May the fleas of a thousand grazers infest LifeCrier ’ s ears!

Speak of the FirstBeast and he shall rise. Maverick burst through another patch of spineberries and almost collided with LifeCrier. The old kin pulled up short and gave Maverick a dumbfounded look as he sped past.

Against his better judgment, Maverick barked out a warning.,, Sharpfangs! Right behind me!” All three roared as if to reinforce the point.

“Wait up!” LifeCrier yelped.

Got to give the old boy credit, Maverick thought as he spared a moment to glance over his shoulder, he can really move when he ’ s motivated. In a few seconds LifeCrier had pulled up along Maverick’s right side and was matching his speed.