Steel's armor was sawed open, and his arm bled, but the knight still stood tall. "Tis but a scratch," he said.
Little Twig, meanwhile, was trembling and hugging her father. Both halflings seemed shaken but unhurt.
Riff moved his gaze farther back . . . and his heart lurched. "Piston!"
The old gruffle lay on the ground, clutching his chest. A branch dug into his shoulder, piercing through his leather armor and into the flesh. Blood speckled the gruffle, and his eyes were narrowed in pain.
Riff ran and knelt by the aging, white-bearded engineer. "Piston, it's all right! I'm here. We'll take care of you."
"Piston!" Twig shouted, tore herself free from her father, and ran toward her wounded friend.
They all crowded around Piston, but the gruffle grumbled and waved them back. "Give me room! Give me room to breathe. Damn clods won't even let an old gruffle die in peace." He looked around him, grumbling. "Damn place to die, surrounded by flowers."
"You're not going to die, Piston!" Twig said, tears in her eyes. She turned toward her father. "Papa, fetch the doctor! Quick!"
The mayor nodded and ran off.
Riff was about to kneel by Piston, to keep comforting the wounded gruffle, when engines roared above.
He gasped. "What the hell?"
The HMS Dragon Huntress, thruster engines blasting, came flying down toward the town. The great, metallic dragon turned to face Riff, a creature of wrath, its headlights blazing like eyes . . . and blasted down dragonfire.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
GIGA'S FIRE
By the stars . . .
Riff leaped through the air, pulling the others with him. The Dragon Huntress hovered above, roaring its fire. The plasma rained down, slamming into the ground where Riff had stood only instants ago. The inferno tore through the soil, and the fallen tree and treehouse burst into flames.
"What the hell's going on up there?" Nova was shouting.
"Everyone back!" Steel cried, pulling curious halflings away.
Riff stared up at the Dragon Huntress. The ship hovered only a few feet above the trees, engines roaring, its cannon smoking. Through the windshield on the bridge, Riff could see a figure staring down at him—Giga.
Riff switched on his communicator. "Giga, what the hell's going on? The robot's dead! We killed it! Halt your fire and get out of here!"
No reply came through the speaker, but even from down here, Riff could swear he saw the android smiling.
The ship's cannon heated up again.
More plasma rained down.
Riff ran. The inferno blasted over his head and slammed into a havenwood behind him. The tree burst into flames. Halflings screamed inside the havenwood's treehouse and scurried out of the windows, only to find themselves trapped in the fire.
"Giga!" Riff shouted again. "Giga, get out of here!"
Everyone was running around him. Halflings screamed and scurried between the trees. Steel and Nova raced for cover, holding the wounded Piston between them. Twig cried out in horror as her father fired his shotgun at the Dragon Huntress.
The starship's shields were built to withstand the assault of enemy warships. The bullets ricocheted off its hull, then clattered back down to the ground. Several other halflings, the town guards, were firing their guns too, unable to hurt the ship.
The Dragon Huntress turned toward them and rained more fire.
The halflings screamed and scattered. One of the little guards was too slow. The flames grabbed him, and he fell, writhing, screaming.
Riff stared in horror.
He hit his communicator again, trying to dial Romy. "Romy! Romy, can you hear me? What's going on up there?"
No reply came from the demon either.
The Dragon Huntress turned in the sky again, this time toward a treehouse from whose windows several halflings were tossing stones at the starship. Plasma blazed out and slammed into the treehouse. The halflings screamed as the flames engulfed them.
Tears burning in his eyes, Riff aimed his plasma gun at the Dragon Huntress.
Forgive me, gods old and new, he thought.
"Shoot it down!" Riff shouted. "Steel! Nova! Help me shoot it down!"
Riff looked away and fired.
He heard Ethel's plasma slam into his starship. Into this home. Into the ship that still contained Giga and Romy.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
He saw Nova and Steel standing among the smoke and flames. The knight shot light from his blade, while the gladiator, who had finally tugged her whip free, cast electricity from the lash.
We're killing Giga and Romy. Riff's heart twisted. His eyes burned with tears. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I have to.
When he dared look back at the Dragon Huntress, he saw the weapons ripping into the hull. A hole gaped open by the airlock. Another hole punched through the wing. But the ship kept flying. It turned toward another havenwood and roared out plasma. Another treehouse burned. Halflings screamed, racing down the streets. Burning rope bridges fell from the trees. Soon half the town was ablaze.
Riff gritted his teeth.
"Nova, with me!" he shouted. "Climb with me."
He ran, not pausing to see if she followed. He reached a havenwood that didn't yet burn. He scurried up the rope ladder toward the top branches. As the Dragon Huntress roasted a treehouse across the road, Riff made his way along a branch. Nova walked alongside.
"Your whip!" Riff said.
She understood. She swung the lash. It grabbed the Dragon Huntress's landing gear and tightened.
Riff and Nova held the whip together. They swung. They climbed.
Nova reached the Dragon Huntress first, tugged the airlock open, and climbed inside. Riff followed. As the ship swayed around them, they raced upstairs and onto the main deck.
"Giga!" Riff shouted. He ran, stumbled, pushed himself up and ran again. The husks of the robotic isopods slid across the floor as the ship swayed. "Giga, what the hell's going on?"
Yet he thought that he knew.
The drones. The damn drones. They spread a virus through our ship and we never suspected.
Nova ran behind him. They raced down the hallway, up the stairs, and onto the bridge.
For an instant, Riff froze.
Giga stood before the windshield, her back to him. Her arms were raised, and she was laughing—a hot, cruel laughter, a laughter bubbling with joy, with bloodlust. Outside the windshield, the fires blazed. The town burned. More plasma blasted out from the ship, thrumming beneath Riff's feet and torching another tree.
"All life will burn!" Giga cried, voice high-pitched, twisted with joy. "All flesh will crumble! The Singularity rises!"
Riff snapped out of his paralysis. He raced toward the manual controls, grabbed the joystick, and tugged the starship up. The bridge lurched as the Dragon Huntress soared, leaving the town below.
Giga spun around toward him.
Her eyes, once dark and kind, now blazed with red light. A wicked smile covered her face, twisting into a snarl.
"Flesh," the android hissed in disgust and ran toward Riff.
"Giga, what the—"
She reached him. She swung her arm, backhanding him. She was strong. She was so strong, stronger than any living humanoid could be. Riff fell to the ground, seeing stars. Before he could recover, Giga grabbed him and lifted him into the air. He stood a foot taller and weighed almost twice as much as Giga, but the android held him up as if he were a doll.
"You will die, human." The android's snarl morphed back into a grin—a mad grin that showed all her teeth. Her eyes burned. "You will all die in fire."
She closed a hand around his throat and began to squeeze.
"Giga—" he managed, but then her grip cut off his voice, cut off his air. Blackness began to spread before him. The ship swayed around them, dipping toward the ground.
With a roar, Nova leaped forward. Her whip slammed against Giga's arm. The lash dug into the android, cutting her synthetic skin, exposing the metal innards. W
ith a screech, Giga dropped Riff and turned toward the ashai gladiator. The android screamed and kicked, driving her foot into Nova's throat. The gladiator stumbled back, gasping for breath. Giga leaped up, spun in midair, and delivered a second kick to Nova's chest, knocking her down.
Riff stumbled back toward the controls. The ship was blasting more plasma, even as Giga's attention was diverted. Riff grabbed the joystick again, pulling the ship away from the town. From the corner of his eye, he saw Giga deliver kick after kick, knocking Nova back against the wall. Blood filled the ashai's mouth.
With the ship flying away from Acorngrove, Riff left the controls and leaped toward Giga. Her back was turned to him, but even as she drove punches into Nova, the android thrust her foot backward. She caught Riff just as he lunged toward her. Her foot slammed into his stomach, and he doubled over. Before he could make another move, Giga kicked him again, knocking him down.
"Puny life forms." Giga laughed. "You move so slowly. I will easily kill you both. But not before I hurt you a little more. It's a wonderful thing—pain. Not something we androids can feel, but oh . . . you will feel so much of it."
Nova lay on the floor, blood in her mouth, gasping for breath. Riff struggled to rise to his feet. The world spun around him. Giga clutched his throat again, sneering. The android laughed.
"Goodbye, human."
Flames crackled.
A red figure rose behind the android, crowned with fire.
With a roar, Romy swung down one of the robotic isopods, shattering it against Giga's head.
The android screamed.
Riff gasped. Nova stumbled forward and swung her whip around Giga, tightening the lash, pinning the android's arms to her sides.
Giga thrashed madly, screeching, kicking, knocking Riff back.
Nova clicked the button on her whip.
Electricity crackled along the lash and raced across Giga.
The android screamed again, this time a scream of pain.
"Captain!" she cried. "Captain, please! It hurts! Please!"
He stared in horror as Giga fell, as the electricity raced across her.
"Turn it off!" Riff said. "Turn it off. You'll kill her."
"Good!" Nova spat out blood. "Damn bot's gone crazy."
Riff grunted and reached toward the whip. He clicked the button on the handle, switching off the electricity. Giga lay on the floor, moaning, smoke rising from her.
"Captain . . ." the android whispered.
"Nova, take the controls." Riff knelt and lifted Giga in his arms. "Land us back on the lot. I have to get Giga away from this ship."
As Nova sat by the control panel, Riff left the bridge, holding the limp android in his arms. Giga was moaning, eyelids fluttering. The whip had sliced up her kimono, revealing the pale, synthetic skin beneath. The lash still wrapped around Giga, pinning her arms to her sides.
By the time Riff reached the airlock, the ship had landed back on the lot. Still holding Giga in his arms, he managed to swing the door open, exposing the night. Ahead of him, the town still burned.
For a moment, Riff hesitated. If he carried Giga out of the ship, she would lose her wireless connection with the Dragon Huntress. Giga was no ordinary android, not an independent machine. She was a Human Interface, a part of the ship. Away from her home, she would shut down. He didn't know if she would ever wake again.
"All flesh . . ." she whispered. "All flesh must burn . . ."
Fresh tears budded in Riff's eyes.
So she must shut down.
He stepped off the starship into the night.
Giga let out a bloodcurdling scream . . . then went limp in his arms.
Riff walked into the darkness, carrying her lifeless body, his chest so tight he could barely breathe.
CHAPTER EIGHT:
HONORARY HALFLING
The fire raged around him. Piston could barely see. His blood kept dripping. The branch was still stuck in his shoulder. He was dying, he knew. Dying here on this damn planet of Haven, surrounded by damn halflings.
"Uncle Gruffle!" cried one of the little clods, a black-haired child. Or maybe an adult; all halflings looked like children to Piston. "Uncle Gruffle, you're hurt!"
As fire raged through the town, as branches snapped and rained, as flaming trunks crashed down, the halflings ran toward Piston. They crowded around him. They grabbed at his clothes.
"Let me be!" he roared, or at least tried to roar. His voice was but a rasp. "I'm dying, damn it. Let me die in peace."
"Uncle Gruffle, no!" they said.
Twig was among them, he thought. She was tugging at him, trying to drag him away. But she was blurred. They were all only smudges. All those damn halflings, all those pea-brained little clods with their allergy-inducing flowers and their ridiculous songs.
The Humanoid Alliance rejected us gruffles because of you, Piston thought, his mind a haze. They would have made us gruffles Top Tier members. Let us become a proud world like Ashmar and Earth. But they sat us with you halflings. They think us nothing but fools like you.
"Uncle Gruffle, please!"
"The trees are falling, Uncle Gruffle!"
"Lift him! Drag him to safety."
They were just tiny creatures, even shorter than gruffles and far thinner. Yet in numbers, the halflings somehow lifted him over their heads. They pulled him aside. An instant later, a flaming tree collapsed and hit the ground, missing Piston by centimeters.
"That was my tree!" he tried to say. "My death. You have no right. No right to . . . to save me."
Tears flooded Piston's eyes as his blood kept dripping. Ash rained from the sky. Burning scraps flew like fireflies. Yes, they were saving him. Saving his old worthless life. He had spent all night berating them, waving them away, grumbling and cursing their kind, but they were saving him.
They kept carrying him through the burning town. They took him to a garden and lay him down. Halflings in white tunics rushed forth. He roared as they tugged the branch out of his body, and he could only lie, weak, as they bandaged his wound.
They're not going to let me die in peace. His eyes watered. They're not going to let me die at all.
"Piston!" Twig said. "Piston, can you hear me?"
Tears ran down his cheeks into his beard. "Forgive me, Twig. Forgive me."
* * * * *
Dawn rose upon ruin.
Acorngrove, only yesterday a town of beauty and nature and wonder, had become a place of ash, of shattered homes, of shattered lives.
Dozens of fabled havenwood trees, renowned across the galaxy for their beauty, now rose as charred stumps. Dozens of treehouses, once dwellings of marvelous craftsmanship and beauty, were gone to the fire. Little but ashes, scraps of old photographs, and burnt furniture remained. Fourteen halflings had perished in the battle. By miracle alone, the number was not in the hundreds.
Cots stood in rows between the burnt trees, a field hospital. Riff walked among the beds, his own wounds bandaged, visiting the wounded. He made funny faces for the children. He spoke to mothers and fathers, vowing to help them rebuild their lives. With every bed he passed, his grief and guilt grew.
A robot from deep space hurt a few of them, Riff thought. But my own ship destroyed this town . . . the weapon I brought with me, a weapon far worse than anything these people had faced.
Mayor Doro came walking toward him, leaning on a cane. Bandages covered the old halfling's leg.
"You should rest, Captain Starfire." Ash still filled the halfling's white hair. "You too are wounded."
Riff stared down at the small humanoid. Doro's head barely reached Riff's belt, but the halfling stared up with strong, wise eyes, eyes undaunted by the terror.
"I don't need rest." Riff knelt before the halfling. "I'll help you rebuild. I'll clear out the burnt trees. Plant new gardens. Change bandages. Whatever it takes."
Doro's eyes narrowed. "We have many stout halflings to do this work. What I need you to do, Captain, is to find out what happened on your ship. W
hy it turned against us." The halfling stood on tiptoes, placed a hand on Riff's shoulder, and stared up into his eyes. "If this Singularity has the power to turn our own machines against us . . ." He shook his head sadly, scattering ash. "Go to your ship, Captain. Find out what happened. Bring me answers."
Leaving the field hospital, Riff walked through the ruins of Acorngrove. The charred bars of a fallen crib rose before him like a ribcage. A burnt doll lay slung across a fallen branch. Blood still stained an overturned turnip cart. Halflings walked around him, singed, some dazed and silent, others weeping. A few even pointed at Riff and muttered curses, blaming him for the destruction.
Finally Riff reached the starship lot. He walked between the halflings' small starjets and approached the Dragon Huntress. Piston had patched up the holes on her hull and smoothed out the dents. She looked good as new, but Riff knew she'd never be the same ship to him. She would always now be the ship that had turned against him, that had killed those Riff had come to protect.
He stepped into the ship and found Romy in the main deck. The demon sat on the couch, her arm in a sling, a doggy cone of shame around her neck.
She blinked at him, looking miserable. "Everything hurts."
Riff nodded and patted her shoulder. "You saved our lives yesterday, Romy. Thank you."
She sniffed. "I thought I would die, Captain. I thought we'd all die. Remember all those times you'd yell at me for wriggling through the air vents? Well, you can't yell at me again. It's the only way I managed to escape Giga and jump on her."
Riff shuddered to remember last night, remember the android—sweet, loyal Giga, one of his dearest friends—attacking him and Nova, nearly killing them, stronger than any human.
Boots thumped, and Piston came lolloping into the deck. Oil and soot covered the old gruffle, and ash filled his beard. A bandage wrapped around his shoulder where the branch had driven into him.
"The android's all chained up, Captain," the gruffle said, eyes dark. "Waiting for you in your quarters. Can't harm a soul." He winced and touched his bandage. "Not anymore. And those damn isopod robots that Romy thinks infected the android? Sealed up in that crate there." He pointed toward a heavy wooden box. "Can't harm anyone anymore either, them, though there might still be a few loose on the ship. Just found one lodged under the bathroom sink a moment ago."
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