Three of the soldiers opened fire through the bars, trying to concentrate on that awful eye and the open mouth. The Megaptor clung on with its hind legs and one of its gigantic forepaws and brought the other one back, then slammed it forward. The bars bent as easily as if they had been made of saplings. The black claws closed around one of the soldiers, piercing his body effortlessly. He screamed and jerked as blood spurted. The Megaptor hauled him out, bit at him, then tossed the body back inside as it reached in for more, murderously swiping at the men with a forepaw now dripping scarlet.Over the screams and the firing, Jasper shouted into his mic, “Alex! We need you!”“On my way, Major,” Alex replied. Eliza thought she had never been so happy to hear a computer’s response in her life.The Megaptor appeared to be unstoppable. It turned its attention from the windshield to the roof, rending it with teeth and claws until, with a protesting groan, the roof at the rear of the bus peele
The Megaptor was hungry, and the small things that had peppered his skin stung a little. He was angry with his prey for being so elusive; he had not been fed all day. Normally prey was soft and juicy and easy to eat, but this prey hid in a strange box and had been so hard to catch. This box was very large, but the Megaptor had seen them leap into it, so it knew they were there. It roared, angrily, but could not smell their fear. Could not smell them at all, only the metal of the box. Fresh irritation made him bite and scratch vigorously again at the large box. Then, all at once, the box was no longer beneath him. Nothing at all was beneath him, and as he started to fall, somehow he understood that it was a long, long way down.Once they had lost the unwelcome stowaway and confirmed with Gibson that there had been no further casualties, Eliza changed out of the few ratty strips of cloth that was all the Megaptor had left of her dress and decided it was time to take care of their new gu
Five star general? Jasper reached for the pearl again, enjoying the smoothness of it as he held it in his fingertips. "The princess, in my dream... she wore a pearl just like this around her neck.""Noted, sir," Alex replied properly.Eliza entered, and she was smiling."How's the converter?""He was in fairly bad shape, but the regenerator helped. He's so cute! And a real charmer. I have to tell you, you have onboard competition."She smirked at him, hands on her hips, as she stood by his chair.Jasper reached up and took her by the hand."I'm fine with competition," he replied, running his thumb over her fingers. "But I'm still waiting for your answer.""The mission is not over yet, Major," she replied professionally, although she made no attempt to remove her hand. "There's still the whole 'top secret' part to come. Or is your perfect memory failing you again?"Jasper tugged gently on her arm, pulling her down into his lap. She settled in, draping her arms around his neck."Come on
General Noïntan Okto-Bar awaited them in the Alpha Space Station control room. The room was familiar to Jasper and Eliza. This was the nerve center of the station, and nearly every square inch of space except for the floor was covered with screens. Monitors of a variety of colors set against a black background displayed everything from the temperature of any given locale on the station to the number of inhabitants, from the chemical makeup of gases and liquids in the various districts to which doors were locked. From here, systems could be monitored and overridden if necessary. Life or death decisions were made by dozens of expertly trained technicians every second.It was dizzying to look upon, even for spatio-temporal agents like the two who now entered. But they were used to the technology on display inside. What bothered them was what else was on conspicuous display this time: troops.Jasper and Eliza exchanged glances. Something was definitely afoot.Jasper was really starting to
Commander Filitt walked through the station briskly, but he was not heading to his meeting with the Security Council. Not yet, anyway. There was something he needed to follow up on.The area was secured, but his clearance permitted him entry. He ascended in a small lift that was tight quarters for him and two KTRONs. At least he was not forced to make small talk. In so many respects, robots were superior to living beings, even humans, he mused.He emerged from the lift and went down another corridor, which was dark save for blue lighting along the floor. The corridor ended at the door of a single room. Filitt keyed in his code and the door slid open. The two K-TRONs waited outside for their commander as he entered.A K-TRON captain was stationed just inside the room, perfectly motionless, carrying his weapon untiringly. The room, like the corridor outside, was dimly lit, and the figure at the end of it was swathed in shadow. Its stats were monitored on a screen. It sat slumped in a ch
"Stay on backup," Jasper ordered Eliza."Yes, sir," she replied.The two were twenty feet behind Commander Filitt as he entered, but on Jasper's command, Eliza dropped back into the corridor while the major continued to follow the commander into the ceremonial hall. A crowd of extraterrestrial dignitaries who comprised the membership of the station's Security Council stepped forward to shake the commander's hand as he entered. Filitt was the picture of calm military decorum as he looked each of them in the eye—or what passed for it— and firmly shook whatever appendage was proffered.As the commander made his way to the podium, Jasper and Okto-Bar followed. Gravely, not a hair out of place, Filitt lightly jogged up the steps and stepped behind the podium, taking a moment to look out at the sea of alien faces turned up to him. Okto-Bar stood off to the side, while Jasper took up a position beside and slightly behind the man he was guarding. He busied himself with scanning the crowd, ale
Three squat aliens, all about four feet tall, stood in front of Eliza. Their stubby, four-fingered hands were in the air, and their small, beady eyes were wide as they stared down the lengths of their elongated, trunklike muzzles at Eliza. They were brown and wrinkled and stooped, with sparse hair sticking up here and there.Eliza had drawn her weapon, startled at having someone come up behind her, but now she lowered it, and they lowered their arms.“Nice to see you again,” one of them said. He had a smudge of blue around his eyes.“Agent Eliza,” the second chimed in. This one, too, had markings around his eyes, except his were burgundy-colored.The third Doghan Daguis, whose markings were yellow, completed the sentence. “As resplendent as ever.”“What the hell are you doing here?” Eliza snapped.“We go where work calls—”“—We can speak over five thousand languages—”“—which can come in handy—”“—at a party like this,” the first finished. The second one added, “Need our services?”El
Jasper's gaze darted from the screen to the crowd and back again. The red warning light was flickering faster now, and the adrenaline was kicking in.“Eliza? Dammit, I need to know the attackers’ identity! Who is it?”“I’m sorry, Major, but I cannot read their DNA,” Eliza replied.“What?” exclaimed Jasper. That simply couldn’t be. The Intruder XB982 was programmed with the DNA of every known sentient life form. Eliza couldn’t possibly—The far wall of the reception hall exploded. Cries of terror went up as several of the guests were knocked off their feet. Jasper stared, stunned at what he was seeing.A dozen slender, gray-robed figures suddenly poured into the hall. Beneath their hoods, their blue-eyed, bone-white—pearl-white, Jasper realized—faces were set in expressions of determination. They lifted something that looked like gracefully fashioned glass or ceramic vases, except instead of being carried upright, they were held so the opening faced forward. In their bulbous lower part