Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata Read Free Book Online Page A

shot across the luminous white street, moving almost faster than her eye could track. A moment later she heard the harsh buzz of tiny mechanical wings furiously drumming the air. “It’s a camera bee.”
    â€œSooth,” Zia said.
    Devi added, “It looks like it’s gone crazy.”
    The bee darted back and forth above the glowing street, diving recklessly into groups of ados, slipping past their swatting hands, doubling back to buzz their noses, sending some of the more timid youths screaming for cover. Camera bees were handled by remote operators . . . so who was handling this one?
    â€œLook out!” Devi yelped, as the bee darted in their direction, bearing down on them with buzzing wings. Zia shrieked and dove aside, while Devi ducked, a split second before the bee blazed past him, almost grazing his ear.
    Jem rose to the defense. Balancing on Devi’s shoulder, the dokey stood on its hind legs and growled at the bee, as if challenging it to come back.
    It did.
    It zipped to a stop, flipped over and darted toward them again—only this time it was aimed at Skye.
    She glared at it, silently swearing that she would not be made the butt of any dumb ado joke. No one was going to laugh at her for jumping out of the way.
    As the camera bee bore down on her, Skye stood her ground.
    Zia was picking herself up from the luminous street. “Oh no,” she muttered. “You’re not playing chicken?”
    Ord was getting nervous too. “Bad thing, Skye,” it murmured. “Leave. Leave now. Please Skye?”
    She didn’t answer. Ord stopped talking too. It crouched on her shoulder, perfectly still as the bee zoomed down on them. Then, a moment before it should have hit her or darted aside, Ord’s tentacle shot into its path . . . and the bee disappeared, the buzz of its wings instantly silenced.
    Skye flinched. Had Ord whacked it out of the air? She looked down, expecting to see it skittering across the ground, but there was no sign of it. “Where . . . ?”
    Ord unrolled its tentacle, and the thumb-sized bee tumbled to the illuminated street, its wings motionless, and probably broken.
    Jem leaped off Devi’s shoulder to sniff and growl at the little machine. Nudging the dokey aside, Devi leaned down to pick up the camera bee. He held it up to his eye. “If we get the ID number, we can find out who it belongs to.”
    Watching him, Skye had a sudden urge to laugh. “It would be pretty funny if the camera was still on.”
    Devi’s eyebrows rose. “Say hi,” he suggested, shoving it in her face. She shrieked and slapped his hand away . . .
    . . . just as a deep voice boomed up the street. “Hey Skye!”
    Her eyes widened. She whirled around, telling herself it was not him. It couldn’t be. Not Buyu. She’d already had the misfortune of running into him once today. She couldn’t have crossed paths with him again. Not twice in one day.
    But a single glance down the street was enough to assure her that this was indeed the worst of days, for there was Buyu, forcing his ungraceful way through the crowd, receiving many hearty pats on the back—along with a few dirty looks—as he passed. “Skye!” he called again. “Sorry about the camera bee. I was doing some stunts with it, but it got out of control.”
    â€œBuyu,” Zia sniffed. “So it was him.”
    Ord saw him coming too, and hissed. Skye had never seen the little robot flee anything before, but it picked that moment to slip off her shoulder.
    Apparently, Jem had been waiting for just such an opportunity. As soon as Ord touched the ground, the purple and gold dokey launched itself at the robot.
    â€œLook out!” Skye yelled, as the dokey landed on Ord’s head.
    Jem’s fox-like muzzle darted down, biting a chunk of tissue from the base of one of Ord’s tentacles. Zia yelped. Devi roared, “Jem! Stop it. Stop it!”
    The