Part 17 (1/2)

Creben raised an eyebrow. 'Oh yes?'

The Doctor held up his circuit. 'This tells us that the disintegrator hasn't been fired.'

Then the other droid did it,' Creben countered smoothly. 'It probably obliterated the Schirr body in the control room too.'

'Nah,' Frog buzzed. 'Marshal Haunt said that was resonance resonance or something. Vibrations from the takeoff.' or something. Vibrations from the takeoff.'

'No. Shel said that,' Polly ventured before she could stop herself. She found herself feeling a little guilty to be kicking a man when he was down and bleeding, but she felt things should be set straight. 'Your marshal just agreed with him.'

'You got a problem with Haunt's decisions?' Joiks screwed up his flattened nose. 'Jesus, what is it with you women?'

'I don't got a problem with Haunt, 'Frog announced.

Joiks laughed unkindly. 'You ain't a woman, Frog, you don't count.'

'Please,' the Doctor said, cutting across their bickering. 'I am sure you wish to report this, er, victory to your Marshal, and I suggest you enquire as to whether the other Kill-Droid's disintegrator has been used. In the meantime, I must return to the control room, quickly.' He looked beseechingly at Shel.

'Will you not tell them, sir, that Marshal Haunt gave us such instructions?'

Shel looked at the Doctor dumbly for a few moments before recovering himself and nodding slowly. 'There's m... much to be done,' he agreed.

'You need a medic,' Frog said, rattling Creben's tin with one hand and placing the other gently on Shel's injured arm. He pulled away from her, gripped his wound more tightly. 'I'll go with them, Creben,' Frog continued, undaunted, 'and patch up Shel. You and Joiks get back to Haunt and the others with the good news.'

Two of us for two of them,' said Creben, staring at the fallen robot.

Joiks snorted. 'That's profound, man.'

Creben shrugged. 'Simply an observation.'

'What you saying, that we drew here today? The squad's down by two but we didn't lose more than they did so that's OK?'

'We're alive. So that's that's OK. Now do you want to tell Marshal Haunt we took out the droid or should I?' OK. Now do you want to tell Marshal Haunt we took out the droid or should I?'

Joiks glared at Creben for a few moments. Then he raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke into it. 'Marshal. Met a droid in the bullring. Hit status terminal, confirmed. No one down...'

Polly turned and helped the Doctor along the rough stone of the pa.s.sageway. Shel and Frog followed on behind. The Doctor's brow was furrowed in fierce concentration as he walked. Not for the first time, Polly wished she knew what he was thinking.

II.

'Pretty strange request, ain't it?' Ben watched Roba and Tovel struggle to lift the panel of thick frosted gla.s.s from the droid's heavily-armed torso. 'This is that trophy you mentioned, is it?'

'Gonna look pretty cool stuck up on the wall back at the dorm,' Roba remarked with a huge grin, his teeth white and s.h.i.+ny.

They'd gone wandering on through the tunnel - Ben with a slight limp - until Haunt had come through once again on the communicator, telling them that the other droid was just sc.r.a.p metal too. She'd ordered them to remove the Kill-Droid's gun panel, then retrace their steps back to where they'd split up from the others. Tovel and Roba had become so bleedin' jolly they didn't even question what G.I. Jane might want the thing for.

'Weighs a bit,' Ben gasped as he helped Tovel and Roba s.h.i.+ft the scorched unit.

'It sure is heavy.' Roba looked at Tovel gravely. 'Guess the civilian can't cope. We're gonna have to carry it without him.'

'Reckon we can handle that, Roba?' Tovel asked with mock nervousness.

Roba shrugged. 'All we can do is try.'

Together the two of them easily hefted the gun panel and guffawed as Ben reached up for it, still trying to do his bit.

'Oh, very funny,' said Ben sourly.

'Y'know, Roba, this is just like lifting stretchers again,' said Tovel.

'You still got the knack,' Roba told him with a throaty chuckle.

Feeling himself flush, Ben spoke without thinking. 'Aren't you a bit jolly considering what's just happened to your mate?'

The atmosphere dipped suddenly below freezing. Ben shut his eyes, wis.h.i.+ng he could keep his big trap shut sometimes.

'If she's dead,' Tovel said slowly, 'then we we got the thing that got got the thing that got her.' her.'

We hope, Ben thought to himself.

'S'right. We did what we came here to do.' Roba shot Ben a glance. 'You don't think that's something to celebrate?'

'Course I do, Ben said, looking at the floor. Who was he to tell these blokes how to deal with their grief?

'Didn't know Lindey too well,' Tovel admitted.

'Me neither,' Roba said. 'Some other place, some other time, I'd have liked to.' He smiled. 'Used to see a girl who fought in the Zero-Gs. Fit is not the word. The moves she could pull...'

'What about you two,' asked Ben. 'You know each other, right?'

'Both in the Peacekeeper Volunteers,' said Roba. 'When Beijing Minor went down we were putting out the fires for weeks.'

Ben didn't have a clue if this was a great victory or a crus.h.i.+ng defeat. 'I remember Beijing Minor going down. In the third round, weren't it?'

It was the wrong thing to say. Roba dropped his side of the panel and turned on Ben. One shovel-like hand swatted him back against the wall.

'All right, leave off!' Ben protested.

'There were thirty in our unit when we hit Beijing,' Roba hissed. 'Three of us made it back off-world. When Morphiea claimed responsibility for torching the planet, me and Tovel signed up to go AT Elite. Anti-Terror, man. To fight back. To take them.' He let Ben go and turned away. them.' He let Ben go and turned away.

Tovel had watched all this coolly. 'Pretty sweet story, isn't it?'