Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance) (19 page)

"And it looks like a he."

"I'm not naming it!"

Tish nearly fell forward against the hull as
the side of the warbot lifted up and flew forward without any
resistance.

"Hang on!" Arthur yelled, with one hand
holding onto the edge of the warbot, and the other grabbing her
around the waist.

She held on tight to his arm, her magnetic
boots snapping off the hull. The bots whistled at them through
their helmet speakers as they guided it forward with ever
increasing speed.

The stop came just as quick, flattening Arthur
and Tish against the side of the warbot. They each moved away from
the dark skin as quickly as possible.

Violet appeared in the opening of the
shattered side again, clicking fast. Tish glanced nervously about.
She didn't see anything, but she had an underlying feeling it was
going to be only a matter of time. That something was about to
happen.

She reached up and grabbed Violet, lifting her
out of the warbot. She cringed at the damage to the shell. No time
to fix it.

"We'll set it right in the middle of the
breach so all of the warbot is available to all parts equally," she
heard Arthur say while she set Violet at the edge of the
opening.

"Go in. You need to organize things from
below," Tish told Violet.

Violet eyed the crater with one eye while
looking at her with the other. Tish repeated the request while also
concentrating on what she wanted the little bot to do.

With a chirp Violet slid over the side and
down into the crater. As she did small white versions of the bots,
some of whom couldn't be much bigger than the tip of a finger,
swarmed out of the cracks and gashes. They stopped near Violet on
the bottom, a multitude of different sizes and colors, with all
eyestalks staring up at her.

"Get ready to make some fast repairs," Tish
said down at the small army waiting. A chorus of chirps and beeps
answered back.

"They're ready!" Tish said, backing away from
the edge while turning, trying to ignore a building buzzing in the
back of her head.

Just in time to see an arm come loose from the
body of the warbot while the head swiveled towards her.

"Look out!" Arthur shouted.

There weren't many places to go. They were out
in the open. Tush ducked, but not as far as she wanted. The
spacesuit prevented it. The arm of the warbot scraped along the top
of her helmet, shoving her head to the side.

Crimson was in front of her in a flash with an
arm outstretched. Tish gratefully took it, letting her feet come up
off the hull.

Not that it would do much good. If the thing
was recovering, it was much too near.

Crimson stopped on the other side of the
crater, twittering excitedly. Tish looked back to find the warbot
not behind them like she thought it would be. Instead, only the arm
and head appeared to be moving.

An arm trying to reach to the other side of
its body where Arthur still stood.

"All together now," Arthur said, breathing
harshly into the microphone in his helmet. "Push!"

Along with him, the three other bots pushed
the warbot fully over the hole in the hull.

Only, it wasn't sinking.

Tish let go of Crimson, attaching her feet
back to the station hull. They had to tie it down, get it down to
where the repair bots could do some good. And the debris floating
around the edge might do it.

She pointed to a long cable, "Crimson, grab
the cable. We'll use it to tie it into the hole."

Crimson flew unerringly towards the long
length. At first Tish thought she might have to tell her what to do
with it, but Crimson seemed to know by herself. She flew over the
warbot, dropping down on the other side. The cable caught on the
shoulder of an unresponsive arm. As it was tightened, the warbot
dropped into the hole.

The black and white bot appeared from the
other side with another length of severed cable. Snowy was slower,
struggling with a cable much bigger than the others.

"We need to tighten this. It's not down far
enough," Arthur said to someone on his side. In response the other
side of the warbot dipped down.

The warbot arm arced into the sky towards
Snowy as the bot began its descent on the other side.

"Over here, Snowy. Anchor it on my side," Tish
called.

Snowy veered, dropping down in front of her,
the cable nearly wrapping itself around the warbots head in the
process. With her feet firmly planted, she pulled at the length
until she was sure the magnets on the bottom of her boots were
going to separate from the hull.

The warbot sunk further. A flurry of pleased
whistles sounded from below them.

At least, she assumed that's where they were
coming from. It felt right.

Snowy welded the end of the cable to the hull
while the warbot arm flailed in the air. Tish forced herself to
look away from the bright flashes of welding sparks, the pain going
from the back of her eyes to the buzzing at the back of her
head.

With another cable the moving arm of the
warbot was pinned down, but the strength of its attempts to move
almost took Tish and the bots on her side off their
feet.

Two bots landed on either side of Tish,
surprising her so much she almost let go of the cable she was
trying to hold steady so Snowy could weld it down.

"What are you two doing?" Rachel's voice
demanded.

Tish bent slightly back finding a small cloud
of bots descending all around them. In the middle of them floated a
round maintenance pod.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

"IT'S ABOUT TIME someone go here," Tish called out, her heart
rising on seeing something familiar and safe. "Welcome to the
fun."

"You're our evac?" Arthur asked.

"Evac? No, the bots insisted on coming. You
need help?" Rachel asked.

"Warbots are taking apart this area of the
station," Arthur said.

The pod shifted closer, coming down on
Arthur's side. Rachel said, "We found the remains of two warbots
drifting in space. I assume those are your handiwork."

"That was Violet," Tish said. She moved
forward to grab another cable, but three bots beat her to it. She
backed away as a flurry of sparks burst from the warbot's
side.

"What are you doing with that thing?" Rachel
demanded. "We need to get out of here."

"Using it as raw material to repair the
defense systems," Tish heard Arthur say.

But her attention was no longer on her two
coworkers. It was on the bow of a large freighter exiting the
central transit tube. And the burst of lights against the backdrop
of space beyond. So many of them.

Any other day she would assume the flashes
indicated the arrival of standard freighters, passenger ships, and
other civilian spacecraft. Today she didn't get that feeling at
all. Several bots stopping to look up into the dark sky did nothing
to ease the dread welling up inside her.

"New arrivals," Tish said, interrupting Arthur
and Rachel.

"Probably grain-tubs from Vorstogen," Rachel
said. "They're about due for another big shipment to the inner
worlds."

"On the exit side of the station?" Tish
asked.

"Control, we see a large number of hyperspace
exits," Arthur said. "Confirm identities."

Tish waited, tense, for the response. The
silence after a short 'Standby' lingered a little too long for her
liking.

Director Stemski's voice came on the line.
"Time to head for cover. We have a pirate invasion in
progress."

"We need to get out of the area," Rachel said,
the pod settling on the surface of the hull.

"No, we need to finish repairs. Bots, what
other areas do we need to repair?" Arthur asked. A few bots left
Tish to move around the warbot as if to join him.

"Space Patrol?" Tish asked weakly, trying to
remember how many flashes she'd seen.

"There are three small ships stationed at
Redpoint One. Not enough to fend off this many," Arthur
said.

A string of profanities came from
Rachel.

"That was uncalled for, Ms. Henderkito,"
Arthur shouted.

"I know what they are after. The freighter is
the Midguard Arrow."

"That does it, we're finishing this. Bots,
repairs!"

Tish looked down at the ship. It appeared like
any other large freighter, not that she'd seen many. "What so
important?"

"Other than a rumored full cargo of precious
metals and Argison crystals?" Rachel asked. "Not much, other than
it's also supposedly contracted to carry advanced military
weaponry."

"Only rumors, but if she's carrying any of it
we don't want them falling into pirate hands. It would finance them
for years," Arthur added.

Which would mean even more pirate trouble.
Bigger ships, more ships, and mercenaries attracted to the influx
of funds. She didn't like how much they already had. Redpoint One
would never be safe.

If the helmet hadn't been on, she'd be rubbing
her buzzing head even more. It made it hard to concentrate on what
she knew she needed to do. She needed to think, figure out what
area needed to be repaired next so that Redpoint One could defend
itself.

Although, the bots were doing most of the work
now that they had so many reinforcements. A hole appeared in the
side of the still warbot, one eyestalk peeking out before
disappearing back inside. With it, all movement from the warbot
stopped.

One warbot down, who knew how many more
inside.

A flash against the far side of the station
startled her, setting the bots into even more frantic motions. She
knew it shouldn't be possible considering she was standing in
zero-gravity, but it felt like a rumble went through the hull of
the station. The sleek form of a small pirate vessel flew close
overhead and down the side of the lumbering freighter.

"Time to get under cover," Arthur said.
"Rachel, we'll need to crowd into your pod."

"Are the self-defense systems up yet?" Tish
heard herself ask in a voice that sounded distance.

"We've started the process. It's the best we
can do right now. All engineers are moving into the area," Rachel
said as she maneuvered the pod to the hull.

Tish automatically started walking towards the
pod, but stopped outside it before getting in. Suddenly she knew
they could do so much better. She blinked her eyes several times,
trying to clear her vision and head.

And then it all became clear. She knew what
needed to be done. She just needed the raw materials, more than
what she still carried in her belt. She turned around, looking for
anything with a variety of raw materials, but only saw the large
warbot and the bots working to take it apart and use its
parts.

There had to be material somewhere!

Then she remembered. She looked down to
Crimson to find not only her, but several other bots including
Snowy and the black and white one looking up at her. As if
waiting.

And with a certainty she knew they were
waiting.

"The two warbots we destroyed with the energy
arc. We need the bodies. Snowy and Spot," and she pointed to the
white and the black and white bots, "take a few other bots with you
and fetch them as fast as you can. Follow Crimson and
I."

A group of bots took off back the way they'd
come. She hoped the warbots hadn't drifted too far away from the
station. Time was of the essence.

"Have an idea?"

Tish jerked, swiveling around to find Arthur
standing next to her. "I have one more thing to repair."

"Are you sure about that?"

At least he wasn't trying to talk her out of
it. Instead his face through the helmet visor appeared tense and
waiting, his eyes intent on her face.

Waiting for her to answer.