Approaching Omega by Eric Brown Read Free Book Online

thousand years' wear and tear. A random laser strike was hardly going to penetrate its steel carapace and do it lasting damage.
    It turned its laser on the approaching figures and opened fire. Emecheta dodged the vector, but Latimer was not fast enough. He felt the heat of the laser sear through the padding of his EVA suit, scorching his thigh on the way through. To his amazement he was still running.
    Then Emecheta reached the drone and kicked out, and where laser fire had failed, the brute efficacy of a boot worked wonders. The rifle flipped from the drone's grip and hit the far bulkhead. Latimer sprinted towards the opening in the hatch, Emecheta after him.
    He ducked through, cursed as the raw steel edge snagged at his suit. He tore himself free and stood. When he looked behind him, Emecheta was squirming though the gap. He went back and hauled the Nigerian out by the arms, and together they stumbled towards the upchute.
    Laser fire lanced through the aperture after them. They made the chute, stabbed the controls, and turned in time to see the mutilated upper-half of what had once been a woman struggle through the gap.
    They rose towards the circular hatch high above them, and Latimer realised that he had locked it what seemed like hours ago now. He snapped the clasp on his helmet and called out for someone to open the hatch. The plate halted and he reached up with his pistol and slammed it into the underside of the hatch, creating a sound like all the drums in the universe.
    Below, he made out the figure of the once-human as it paused, lifted its laser rifle and took aim. Beside him, Emecheta held his pistol at arm's length.
    "May God take pity on me," he whispered, and fired.
    The shot hit the woman between the eyes, and above them the hatch sprang open to reveal the frightened face of Jenny Li.

Five
    "Cyborgs," Emecheta said, peeling away his EVA suit and casting it across the room.
    Latimer sat against the wall, holding a cold salve to his blistered thigh. He breathed hard and listened to Emecheta. Li passed him a beaker of iced water and he drank gratefully.
    "You wouldn't believe what it's like down there!" the Nigerian was saying. "I hope that's the closest I ever come to hell, my friends."
    Renfrew looked across at Latimer, as if for an explanation. "Ted, what happened?"
    Latimer shook his head. He decided to keep quiet about the suspected cause of the destruction: they had enough to worry about, right now. "Don't know whether it happened at the time of the impact, or as a direct result of it later. Central's lost sight of its prime directive — to serve us."
    "But I thought Central was down?" Li said.
    Latimer shrugged. "My guess is that its programming was knocked out a thousand years ago, and since then it's reprogrammed itself. Evolved."
    Renfrew said: "It found so many units of organic matter in the hangars and used them. Experimented with them."
    The silence stretched, and then Li asked the question that Latimer had been loathe to ask himself: "The thing is... are we safe? I mean, will the cyborgs come after us?"
    Emecheta said: "So far they've only attacked us when we invaded their territory. They've shown no desire to come after us. Maybe we're okay for the time being."
    "For the time being?" Li asked, staring at him. "You mean, until they evolve and need to expand, take over all the ship?"
    Latimer cut in: "We don't know they'll do that. I think we're okay for now."
    "What about the other sleepers?" Renfrew asked. "Those in hangars Two and Five? The success of the mission depends on their survival."
    Latimer looked up. "You don't think I hadn't thought of that?" he asked, despair opening up inside him like physical pain.
    Renfrew shrugged. "So what do we do?"
    "Maybe the sleepers in Two are okay," Emecheta said. "They might've been saved by the fact that the hangar was blown off the deck. I reckon the drones and roboids have no way of getting to it."
    "And hangar Five?" Latimer said.
    He thought of