Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi unslung his heavy slug rifle and aimed down the corridor. The tapping—more like a metallic scuttling—drew closer.

"See anything?" he whispered to Helen.

"No more than you. I heard it sooner, though."

"Those eyes can't pick up other wavelengths?"

"Not with the lights on. They're too bright and drown out the other wavelengths."

This was a long corridor, and their lamps penetrated only about a third of its length.

"If we turned the lights off, would you be able to see all the way down?"

He had been whispering before, but these words came out even softer, because he really didn't want to say them.

Her enhanced ears picked them up, though.

"Yes."

Negasi gulped, licked his lips, and whispered, "Everyone turn off their lights so Helen can see."

"Are you crazy?" Jeridan yelped.

"Do it," Nova said, turning off her own to make her point. Negasi turned off his too. With an anguished hiss, Jeridan followed suit.

The darkness was so absolute that it felt like a physical thing.

They heard the tapping draw closer. It sounded for all the world like some giant metallic spider scuttling along the durasteel deck.

For a long moment that's all they heard except for their own labored breathing. Then Helen's shriek cut the darkness.

"Turn on your lights! Turn on your lights!"

All of them switched on their lights at the same moment. Negasi blinked at the sudden brightness, then let out a choked cry to see what was rushing down the hall.

It was a good twenty meters away, just at the edge of the light they cast, but it still terrified him.

His hearing hadn't misled him. A metal spider the size of a large dog scuttled down the corridor at a sickening speed. The body, a flattened ball, had a pair of tubes sticking out of it that Negasi assumed were some sort of weapon.

He didn't give it time to conform his suspicions. He opened up with his slug thrower, the recoil of the rifle jabbing at his shoulder as he sent slug after slug at the metal spider.

At, but not into.

The thing darted to and fro, leaping up and then squatting down with blinding dexterity. Its back sparked briefly as one of his slugs made a glancing blow, but that was it.

Then it was the spider's turn.

Those twin guns opened up. Negasi and the rest leapt into the computer room. Jeridan cried out and fell just inside the door, clutching his side.

As Helen dragged the pilot further inside, Negasi reached around the corner and fired blindly down the corridor. The spider fired back and Negasi felt a burn on the back of his hand as whatever projectile it fired cut out a furrow of flesh.

He leapt back.

"Do something!" he shouted at Helen.

"I'm not a combat model!"

"Now you tell me!"

"We can't fight in the computer room!" Nova shouted.

Negasi fired another burst around the corner, the rifle jerking all over as his injured hand struggled to keep a firm grip, then pulled back and looked over his shoulder.

Helen was dragging Jeridan through the computer room and to an open doorway on the other side. Negasi's stomach twisted to see how much blood was left in their path.

Nova hurried over to help her.

That left Negasi all alone.

And suddenly he realized he wasn't hearing any noises from the corridor. The robot wasn't firing and it wasn't advancing.

No way did I actually destroy that thing. I'm never that lucky.

It's waiting for me to make a move. It's probably waiting just outside the doorway.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Negasi took a step back. Then another.

His mind raced. What to do? And where did that thing come from, anyway? He didn't recognize the model, and he was familiar with all combat mechs. Was it some new design from the Antari Syndicate? Or was it an old Imperium model?

But if it dated from the Imperium, why hadn't Nova and her crew come across it last time?

Then he didn't have any more time to think, because the thing leapt into view and scuttled right for him.

Negasi let out a burst as Nova screamed something in the background. A slug sparked off the thing's metal carapace but it kept on coming.

Surprisingly, it didn't fire back. Instead, two long steel mandibles sprang out from where the mouth would be if it actually was an insect and it leapt for Negasi.

Negasi yelped and ducked behind a bank of computers. It landed on top of the console, then leapt again for him.

Desperately he jumped back, holding his gun out as a shield. The thing missed him by a millimeter.

It scuttled toward him and he ran backwards, remembering that he couldn't fire in this place. One slug in the wrong spot and they would never be able to save the galaxy.

It tried to snip off a foot. Negasi did a little dance and kept both of them. Next it sprang at him, aiming for the throat. Its mandibles clamped down on his rifle and its spiky legs pressed against his chest. Only the tough material of his spacesuit kept him from getting perforated.

Even so, it was able to use the leverage to tear the rifle from his hands, the spider spinning in the air and landing on the ground with a clatter of spiky limbs. It dropped the rifle and came at him again.

"Oh, that's not good!"

Just then Helen dove in and gave it a kick to the side.

That did nothing, of course, except make it turn on her.

Helen backed off, the metallic spider rushing for her, clacking its mandibles. She was defenseless.

So Negasi tackled the thing.

While it was a robot, it was a lot smaller than him and the force of him landing on it buckled its legs and made it slam into the floor with a loud clank.

"Run!" he shouted.

The next moment, he shouted again, this time in pain. A jolt of electricity shot through his system. He let go and rolled away, too stunned to do anything more.

The spider rose up and scuttled for him. Negasi tried to get his arms and legs to work but only flailed like a Epsilonian octopus being cooked in a pot.

A hail of flechettes sparked off the robot's durasteel carapace. Nova stood in the doorway, unloading on the thing.

Nice that you're going against your own 'no shooting' rule.

He noticed that she had angled herself so that if she missed, the flechettes would only hit a bare spot on the floor. Typical.

Negasi got to his hands and knees and was suddenly pulled up by Helen. She was stronger than she looked, but not superhuman. Otherwise kicking that metal beast would have actually done it some damage.

Even the flechettes weren't doing much. The spider rushed for Nova, who ducked to the right and started running around the main bank of computers.

"Get in the other room and wait for me!" she shouted.

Negasi and Helen did as she asked, only stopping to retrieve Negasi's slug rifle.

As they got just inside the doorway, they saw her plan. Nova had opened up the door's panel. An external power supply lay on the floor. She hadn't had time to finish the job. Helen got to work on that right away.

He was surprised the robot hadn't fired on Nova with those twin guns it had. Then he realized it was just as cautious as she was. It must have been programmed not to fire inside the main computer room.

Which meant it was an Imperium model. How the hell was it still functional? And why didn't attack Nova's team the last time they were here?

Negasi leveled his rifle. Nova came around the corner with the spider just behind.

"Don't shoot!" Nova shouted.

But Negasi was a better shot than his former boss gave him credit for. He fired right in front of the spider, angling the bullet right so that it ricocheted off the durasteel deck and slammed into its belly.

The robot flipped onto its back.

With terrifying speed, the thing flipped over and came right for them.

"Get back!" Helen shouted.

Negasi leapt out of the doorway just as Helen hit the connection. The heavy durasteel door slammed shut.

Negasi let out a sigh.

Then he took a look at his surroundings. He was in some sort of control room. There were several workstations with screens and keyboards. Several cupboards and drawers would have been very tempting to him in any other situation, but right now he was too worried about the wide-open door he saw on another wall.

He rushed to it, got behind the doorway, and peeked out. A corridor ran several meters straight ahead with a closed door on either side, then turned left. Helen and Nova rushed up to his side.

"Help Jeridan," he whispered.

His best friend lay on the floor, clutching his side, eyes hooded with pain. He was surrounded by way too much blood.

Helen carried a First Aid kit, so she hurried over to him.

Giving the half-human, half-cyborg an appreciative nod, Negasi crept over to the corner where the corridor made a left turn.

Why am I sneaking? That thing can see my headlamp.

It must have a precise map of this entire station. It can ambush us at any time.

He peeked around the corner, leading with his gun.

The corridor ran to a four-way intersection after about ten meters, then continued off into darkness. Several doors stood to either side, some of them open.

No way I'm going to that intersection. That thing could be anywhere.

Then he had a horrible thought. It could probably open doors. How else did it move around the station?

And Nova had noticed an open door she thought had been closed before.

Then he had an even more horrible thought. There might be more of them.

Something brushed his side.

He leapt in the air and spun around. Nova.

He groaned. "Don't do that!"

"Shh."

"No point being quiet. Even our combat mechs have senses way more acute than any human, and this is an Imperium model."

"Any idea how to stop that thing?" Nova asked.

"I didn't get a direct hit with the rifle. Maybe enough shots will take it out."

"Maybe?"

Negasi bit his lip. "Yeah, I'm not too confident. Keep watch here for a minute."

He went back to the room and checked the door. Helen had been smart and wired it so that it could not be opened except from the inside. Good thinking. He hadn't thought of that until just now, and only because he had a moment's break.

Guess she really does think faster than all of us.

"How is he?" Negasi asked, hearing the trepidation in his own voice.

"I've stopped the bleeding and injected nanobots to fix the internal damage. I'm giving him some blood now."

She pulled out a blood packet from the kit.

Negasi looked at his friend. He was barely conscious, but at least his breathing sounded normal.

Helen gave him a reassuring smile. Negasi wasn't reassured.

"He'll be fine. Go get the other door closed."

Negasi hesitated, wanting to stay with Jeridan.

Then a shout and a burst of fire from Nova made him rush for the open door.