Lawrence Watt-Evans: Realms of Light

He listened to me calmly, then said, “I’msorry, Mis’ Hsing, but I take my orders from Mis’ Nakada. If hedoesn’t want to go, then we aren’t going.”

“But he’s going to get himself killed!”

“That’s his privilege.”

“Death isn’t a privilege, you blue-eyedfool!”

“I hardly think racial epithets are calledfor, Mis’ Hsing.”

I glared at him, and was about to saysomething else, when the old man came up behind me. He had Singhwith him.

“What’s going on?” Singh asked.

“You are about to earn yourself a lucrativeposition with Nakada Enterprises,” Yoshio told him.

“He is?” I asked.

“He is. And you, Mis’ Hsing, are about toearn your fee and a generous bonus.”

“How?” I asked.

“By serving as my bodyguards while I put anend to this insurrection.”

I looked at Singh. “Has he told you what’sgoing on?”

“No,” Singh said.

“There is a severe software problem,” the oldman said, before I could speak. “I am going to deal with it. Youtwo are going to defend me while I do it.”

“Defend you from what?” Singh asked.

“Floaters, probably,” I said. “Maintenanceequipment, household security systems, that sort of thing.”

“Precisely,” Grandfather Nakada said. “Mis’Hsing has her own weapon, but I believe Captain Perkins can provideyou with a sidearm, Mis’ Singh. The ship will be using its ownarmament, such as it is, to assist us.”

“It will?” Perkins asked.

“The ship has armament?” I asked.

“It does, and it will.”

Perkins and I exchanged glances.

“My personal floater will also be aiding us,as it has not been compromised,” the old man added.

“You’re sure of that?” I said.

“I am.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“There is a service tunnel beneath mypersonal apartments.”

“I’m sure there is. So what?”

“I will show you when we get there.”

Again, I looked at the others, but theyseemed just as unenlightened as I was.

“We should go, before Shinichiro can preparefurther defenses.”

I suspected it had all the defenses itneeded, but I didn’t see any point in arguing. I was either goingto go with the old man now, or I was going to quit entirely.

And I didn’t think it was too late to quit.The Shinichiro upload might let me go; I sure didn’t think my oddsof survival were any worse if I told Grandfather Nakada toflush his job.

But I didn’t. I checked to be sure my gun wasloaded and powered up, and then I said, “Let’s go.”

We went.

Singh and I came out the airlock door first,so that the old man would be behind us, harder to see. He had aholofield up to hide his face, but we didn’t think that would foolanyone for long, especially not in the daylight. The sun was low inthe west, but still brighter than I liked; I blinked. A lot.

There were long black shadows stretchingacross the landing field, looking ominous and alien.

The blue-and-silver floater was waiting forus, and the four of us, three humans and the floater, moved downthe ramp in a group.

The cloud of floaters had surrounded theship; now a couple of dozen of them came swooping around tointercept us. I tried to look innocuous, and hoped the others wouldfollow my lead.

“Hold your fire,” the old man whispered.

“Excuse me,” Shinichiro’s voice said from oneof the larger floaters, one with a red-velvet finish and a singlegleaming, copper-colored hand. “Where are you going?”

“Mis’ Nakada ordered us off the ship,” Isaid. “He told us to go to his quarters and wait there. Care topoint us in the right direction?” I kept walking as I spoke; thefloater turned to keep pace with us.

“Mis’ Hsing, your employment is done,” itsaid. “You should leave.”

“Tell the old man,” I said. “It’s his ship,and he ordered us off.”

“Please identify yourselves. I do notrecognize two of you.”

“This is Minish Singh,” I said, pointing aswe walked. “He used to work for Seventh Heaven Neurosurgery. Andthis is Zarathustra Pickens; he was involved in my little quarrelwith your grand-niece Sayuri awhile back.”

The floater’s camera lens swiveled, and thenthe upload said, “Father, that’s very clever. Who am I reallyspeaking to on the ship?”

The old man didn’t answer it; instead hetapped me on the shoulder and said, “Fire. Then run.”

I didn’t need to ask what he meant; I broughtthe HG-2 up, pointed it at the big red floater, and pulled thetrigger.

I hadn’t had a chance to brace for therecoil, and the gun jerked in my hand as it locked on the targetanyway, so it wasn’t pointing quite where I’d expected and Iprobably wouldn’t have been ready anyway. It knocked me off myfeet. I hit the ground as the floater exploded, and kept rolling.I’d shot the thing at close range, and the HG-2 was designed totake out anything you’d find living in a gravity field up to threegees, so I’d expected some shrapnel, but apparently that floaterhad been carrying something combustible. It went off like a bomb,spraying glass and metal and plastic in all directions.

Hell, maybe it was designed to, as adefensive measure.

The blast left me slightly stunned; my earswere ringing and a sort of blurry after-image had me half-blinded.I rolled until I was on my belly, arms guarding my eyes, and I laythere for a moment while my symbiote started repairing thedamage.

When the rattle of falling debris ended Iuncovered my face and looked around.

The explosion had taken out several otherfloaters, but there were still plenty-but as I watched, most of theones nearest the ship made fizzing noises and fell. I didn’t seeanything, but I felt my scalp tighten and the skin on the back ofmy hands crawled, and I guessed it was some sort of electromagneticpulse from Ukiba .

The blue-and-silver one that was supposed tobe on our side was zigzagging, trying to knock away more.

And Singh had scooped up Yoshio and slung himover one shoulder, and he was running toward the door the old manhad aimed us at. He was holding his passenger in place with onehand, and the other was waving the gun Perkins had supplied, but hewasn’t firing. He probably didn’t know how the thing worked.

There was blood on the plastic surface of thelanding field, but I didn’t know whose. The explosion must have cutsomeone up, I thought, but whether it was the old man, or Singh, orme, I couldn’t tell right away.

The surviving floaters, other than ours,seemed to be disorganized at first, drifting about aimlessly, butas I got to my feet they began to reorient themselves, heading forSingh and his burden.

I took a step while I checked my gun, thenbroke into a run, following the others.

Singh batted a small floater aside, butdidn’t use his weapon the way it was meant to be used. I wasgaining on the big man; he wasn’t in great shape and he wascarrying a passenger, which more than compensated for his longerlegs. I could hear him panting, and I could hear the old man sayingsomething, but I couldn’t make out the words.

A big black floater with a golden badgeemblem was approaching-a security bot. Singh wouldn’t be able toswat that one away. I lifted my gun and said, “The blackfloater.” I saw how close to Singh it was, and added, “Minimizecollateral damage.”

I heard the gun whir slightly as it readieditself. Then I squeezed the trigger.

I don’t know exactly what sort of round thegun had selected, but it was a tracer-I saw the red streak as itpunched a neat hole through the center of the security floater.Then I was sitting on my ass again; the HG-2’s recoil was more thanI could handle while running no matter what it fired. I got back upas the black floater hit the ground; it hadn’t just dropped, it hadveered off at an angle, still under power but no longer controlled.It bounced, hit again, then scraped along, twisting over onto oneside.