SAVANNAH SAID TO Kenneth under her breath, "When we get there, order them to appear as though they are inactive. And then-"
Kenneth interrupted her, "I get it. When those people come in, it's a shooting match. We just have to make sure we don't get hit."
Savannah hadn't thought of that. She worried more for Unquill's safety than her own; he made a larger target.
From what she could remember, the hangar had only two big nets, together with the skycraft that had entered Hensen's base. The skycraft had crashed into the first net while the second...the second?
Savannah couldn't figure out why a second net had been installed.
A cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
Unless Hensen planned for a second ship crashing in much the same manner as the skycraft had.
That thought vanished from her mind as she saw a tube extend from the bottom of the ship. It came to rest in front of the assembled robots. Looking at the size of the tube, Savannah realized she must have misjudged the size of the ship. The tube looked tall enough to accompany someone twice Unquill's size and wide enough to fit a pick-up truck in sideways.
As she looked at the tube, it changed color. The air around it grew hazy. Savannah had time enough to think, force field, before three larger-than-life people slid down the tube.
They fell downward with their arms crossed over their chests. To Savannah, they looked like athletes from the Winter Olympics sliding down a long white luge. Their bodies looked like oversized bullets.
The first giant emerged at the tube's end. The two force fields crackled as they met each other, the one protecting the tube from the elements while the other protected the hangar. The giant who stepped out of the tube wore the same black uniform, two stripes running diagonally across the chest that Savannah had noticed earlier.
This woman, with a stocky frame Savannah wouldn't have believed had she not seen it for herself, had so much hair falling from her head that she had tied it back in two large ponytails. Dark circles gathered under the woman's eyes. Savannah experienced a moment of pity for the giant woman.
The second person to slide out proved to be a giant man. The man, improbably, was larger than the woman. Unlike the woman, he appeared cheerful despite all indications that he had been alive for quite a long time. His hair was so white that Savannah saw light reflect off it. He moved in a slow, plodding manner, as though the journey down the ship's tube had taken a lot out of him.
Perhaps it had, Savannah reflected.
His smile looked too perfect for her.
She couldn't reason out why it felt wrong to such see perfection in another person's grin. Nor could she shake the feeling that he grinned for the sole purpose of showing off his teeth.
The third man, smaller than the old man but still taller than the woman, looked grumpy as he emerged from the tube. He brushed the side of his face with the back of one hand. His surly expression, together with a left hand that gave a single twitch above the weapon attached to his right hand, caused Savannah to distrust him from the first.
Kenneth noticed this as well. He spoke to Mr. Cheerful first. He said, "Okay, we're here. What do we do next?"
Mr. Cheerful's baleful stare remained unchanged. "Proceed up the transit tube. I should notify you, citizen Hester, that you are under arrest for crimes not yet committed against humanity."
Unquill took a deep breath behind Savannah.
Savannah felt his body shaking.
She herself didn't feel steady on her feet.
Unquill said, "I understand." The two words carried a lot of weight.
Then Kenneth suddenly spoke up.
"Robots, activate and neutralize intruders."
The woman with two ponytails took a step back, her eyes wide.
The four robots all came to life at once, firing instantly as the members of the Black Brigade struggled to assess the situation. The surly man got a shot off just as a blue beam of energy struck him in the chest. His own shot struck a robot square in its chest, which showed no ill effects from the blast.
The three members of the Black Brigade slumped to the floor, unconscious. Thuds echoed through the hangar.
Savannah grimaced. She hadn't expected them each to hit the deck quite so hard. "Okay, let's board that ship."
Unquill, frowning, said, "There's one more person on board. By now, he's busy contacting his superiors about what has happened. We'll have to use the same tactic he did to board the ship."
Kenneth patted a robot on the shoulder. "Let's just send these guys up there."
Unquill, who had never seen a robot ascend a transit tube, raised no objection. "All right, it's worth a try. Though I can't promise you what will happen."
Kenneth grinned from ear to ear. "Robots, board the ship and neutralize everyone you find."
The robots replied as one. "We will comply."
FROM HIS POSITION in the ship's cockpit, Winnow Unpo saw the robots fire upon his crew mates.
Such a thing had never been done before.
Neither citizens nor robots had never fired upon the Black Brigade.
In his training class of days past, he had heard about previous enemies of humanity who had accepted their imprisonment with good cheer, certain that, by accepting their fate, they ensured the future good of humanity.
Winnow had never questioned the council's decisions, not even when such decisions negatively impacted his life.
However, much to his surprise, Unquill Hester had chosen to question.
Winnow thought the two children must have influenced him.
Such things had been known to happen: citizens from other ages often had unpredictable effects upon those members of the Constabulary responsible for their safety.
It had to have happened here, or else Unquill would not have permitted a transgression so egregious as assaulting the council's own security force.
That, to Winnow, confirmed the council's decision to brand Unquill as they had.
He had only one solution left to him, then: to destroy the four robots and apprehend all three citizens.
While the Yesterday had energy weapons at its disposal, they would merely be absorbed into the force field protecting the hangar.
He needed projectile weapons if he wanted to get through.
He had only one aboard the ship: a detachable fusion bomb that doubled as the ship's self-destruct.
Winnow could fire the weapon into the hangar, but doing so would destroy the three citizens in addition to the four robots and his own shipmates. He would also have to get a considerable distance away from the blast if he himself wanted to survive it.
He opened a line of communication with the council, asking permission to go ahead with the plan.
As he did so, he saw one of the children pat a robot on the soldiers.
All the robots said something.
Winnow knew an order had been given.
The robots moved towards the tube.
Slow as they were, seconds passed in which Winnow waited, studying the control to detach the tube from the ship.
The council responded: a short message gave him permission to bomb the facility.
He didn't hesitate.
He entered a sequence into the ship's computer authorizing it to release the fusion bomb from its underbelly.
Metal parts moving beneath him sent a vibration shivering throughout the ship.
He glanced back at the screen to see robots entering the transit tube, as he'd predicted.
He pressed the control to detach the tube at once.
He blinked when nothing happened.
He pressed the control again, this time with greater urgency, spying a female-shaped robot in the tube, heading upwards.
An orange error message appeared on the screen before him.
The transit tube would not detach.
Winnow recognized at once that he had no way of leaving the area if the tube penetrated the base's force field. The computer would not release the tube, for to do so would leave it hanging in the air. The tube would then burn up in the heat of the atmosphere. Intentional destruction of United Solar Government property wasn't usually permitted.
Winnow entered his override code into the computer, then pushed a button halting deployment of the bomb.
He waited for several long, painful seconds while the computer processed his override command.
The bomb shook at the bottom of the ship, coming to a stop just short of being released from the clamps that held it in place.
The computer produced a buzzing error sound, one Winnow had not heard before.
The ship refused to detach the tube, even after he'd given his override command.
He watched the robots ascend the tube with growing disquiet.
He had a feeling that the council had gave him permission to blow himself, his crewmates and everyone on the base to atoms but would not allow him to escape so that he could tell the tale.
EVEN AS the robots came into the ship, found their way into the cockpit and fired upon him, Winnow Unpo experienced a gnawing inner discomfort at not being sure if he was valued by the council or not.
If he wasn't valued, the entire Black Brigade wasn't either.
That was a thought he didn't want to contemplate.
Fortunately for him, he slipped into unconsciousness before his brain processed that line of reasoning.