Mother lostcontact with Guardian as he reached the first underground level-just as the T'kaan began firing at him.

Guardian realized he had lost communication with the lifeblood of his essence. The faint glow of intelligence that was Mother faded immediately with the neural connection as the ma.s.sive concrete structure of the complex interfered along with the edge of the T'kaan dampening field.

Now his new programming took over. Guardian's battle algorithms were his instincts. He still could not think. He did not have Artificial Intelligence as Mother had, but he was so close. For the first time in his short existence, he realized he almost was.

The blistering bolts from the T'kaan blasters shook his first, unborn thought away before it could be fully formed.

Crouching, his red eyes glowing brightly in the dense darkness, he reached forth with his sensors to locate the T'kaan warriors. He found them, even though they still tried to hide themselves with the sensor blinds. Mother had tweaked Guardian's and her own sensors to account for this new defense.

Guardian stepped forward directly into a hail of blaster fire. The T'kaan's accurate fire blossomed overhis personal shield, dropping its strength with each blow. Finding each enemy by following their tracers, he returned fire and dropped them one by one as he moved quickly and methodically inside.

Twisting his metal body as he now broke into a full run, Guardian's accurate fire took its toll on the enemy. Yet his personal shield strength dropped precipitously as he took his own share of direct hits.

Still, his one mission, his one instinct, drove him forward in the face of impossible odds. Odds that would have daunted any living, self-aware warrior.

Soon the clicking of T'kaan tusks and their guttural shouts filled the entire floor as reinforcements crawl-walked to take their positions in the darkness.

Guardian emptied first one a.s.sault blaster and then another, each time dropping the weapon to allow Fixer5 to reload. As he unholstered the last one and began firing, Fixer5 handed them directly into his metal grasp. The diminutive robot scrambled behind the quickly moving form of Guardian, barely keeping up with the larger robot's erratic attack as it moved from one position to another, presenting a constantly moving target.

The hailstorm of laser fire increased until the very room became fully lighted in brief flashes as if by lightning from a thunderstorm. The red flashes of the T'kaan weapons crossed the green flashes of his own weapons and lit the room.

One by one, the T'kaan worm warriors fell dead.

Guardian stood with his weapons pointed but silent. His sensors now detected no more live T'kaan on this level. He turned and found the entrance to the next lower level behind a mound of dead T'kaan. He stepped over them without a glance and made his descent.

Far above, Mother had never felt so helpless. She determined that she must never allow the children out of her sensor range again. But even as the thought occurred, she knew how futile it was.

The children were seeking greater freedom every day. She now allowed them to fly the human fighters parked in her main hangar bay in mock dogfights. One day soon, they would fight from them.

Mother felt a chill in her circuits.

Suddenly, faintly, far below the ground, she sensed the familiar readings of more blaster fire.

The T'kaan were chargingen ma.s.se at Guardian as he entered the next level.

He knelt, to make himself a smaller target, and fired until the a.s.sault blasters in each hand were empty.

He dropped both and reached back even as Fixer5 handed him two fully recharged ones. The T'kaan's fire was so thick around him now that Guardian's sensors began to give him false readings.

Fixer5 took a direct hit just as it handed Guardian another loaded blaster. The diminutive robot stumbled backwards, sparks leaping from its body. With a sudden jerk, the small robot became deathly still.

Guardian knew Fixer5 was now inoperable-destroyed.

His internal algorithms told him he would follow the fate of Fixer5 if he did not move now. As his personal shields buckled, he emptied the a.s.sault blaster in his left hand band and began firing the last fully loaded one. In a blur of motion he drew a blaster pistol. With both weapons firing, he charged the mainT'kaan position.

Leaping and twisting to avoid the merciless fire, he jumped right into the middle of all of them.

They were so close that as they died, their still convulsing bodies fell into him as he moved ever forward.

Relentlessly, Guardian fired until the last two charged pistols were in his hands. Seconds later, he was emptying their last charges.

The last T'kaan fell writhing in its death throes at his metal feet.

Guardian threw the now useless pistols away. He began his self-diagnostics, attempting to make any internal repairs that he could. Guardian found his shield strength would not rise above thirty percent although most other circuits were still functional. His body was scarred and carbon-scored by multiple hits, but his arms still functioned. As he stood, he stumbled momentarily-there was damage to both legs.

Guardian focused repairs on them.

Bending over carefully, he picked up the curly shapes of two T'kaan blasters. They were shaped so their tentacles could easily wrap around the body of the weapon. Guardian found them awkward to hold and hard even to place his forefinger on the trigger. But he finally found a grip that would suffice.

He held three weapons at the ready in his left hand while he pointed one forward, ready to fire. He tested his legs. All major joints functioned acceptably now, but if he took many more hits they would be damaged beyond his ability to repair-he would be immobile.

Alone now, he found the main stairwell and began making his way down.

As he reached the third level, his sensors finally detected the familiar forms of the children.

There were about a dozen T'kaan, all within three meters of the children. Guardian began running through every possible battle scenario-hundreds were completed in less than a second. Two parameters guided each scenario-first, he must rescue the children and ensure they were not damaged, or that there was minimal damage. Second, it did not matter if he was damaged or even destroyed in the attempt.

The robot rose slowly, scanning with his sensors to make sure no other T'kaan were present. His processing activity rose to a peak as he calculated several hundred more scenarios. Suddenly, his eyes glowed a steady red.

Guardian's attack was decided.

Chapter Twelve.

Jaric struggledagainst the wet, rubbery body, but that only caused the rope-like tentacles to tighten around him. A white-hot flash of pain in his side caused him to grunt, which tightened the monster's grip further.

He opened his eyes against the wall of pain and saw Becky's blue eyes staring helplessly at him in the low glow of the purple light.

"What's happening?" She mouthed wordlessly.

Jaric shook his head, indicating he didn't know. But all three of them could hear the sounds of a furious battle raging nearby and getting closer with each pa.s.sing second.

It had to be Guardian. All alone against this elite squad of T'kaan warriors.

Suddenly other large forms wriggled closer to them.

Two of the tentacles slipped away from around Jaric's body.

It's reaching for a weapon,Jaric thought.They're going to kill us no w.

Jaric had wondered all along why they hadn't died instantly. It was obvious the T'kaan had planned this trap very carefully. But now the time had come for them to die. Jaric felt a great sorrow inside his heart for what might have been. He looked longingly at Becky.

Blaster fire erupted like a firestorm all around them.

Two T'kaan fell while others fired back with a solid hail of tracers at the still invisible attacker.

Jaric felt the tentacles loosen a bit more.

He kicked backwards with all his might and then jabbed first with one elbow and then another. His left arm was free, but he was still held fast around his waist and his right arm by two strong tentacles.

The T'kaan holding him grunted with pain.

Jaric saw the curled end of a T'kaan blaster pointing at him. He slammed the back of his free hand into it just as it belched forth death.

Now the T'kaan screamed as the two remaining tentacles fell away and Jaric realized he was free.

Becky screamed.

Jaric launched himself and landed on the back of the huge T'kaan that held Becky. Tentacles reached for him as he punched and looked for a vulnerable spot. But there didn't seem to be any.

Just as the T'kaan was bringing his weapon up to fire, Jaric slammed his left fist into the jelly-like globule on top of its head-the T'kaan's optical organ.

The fanged mouth opened and roared in terrible pain. Becky, kicking and fighting, fell from the flailing tentacles.

"Look out!" she shouted.

Jaric jumped, but it was too late. The blaster bolt struck him in his side, knocking him backward. It felt like his entire body was nothing but white-hot pain; he was on fire from the inside out. As his mind filled with this overwhelming ache, Jaric realized he couldn't remember how to breathe. With a flash of certainty, he knew he was dying as he lost consciousness.

Becky screamed again.

Suddenly, Guardian's form came leaping over the barrier the T'kaan were hiding behind. His shields had already failed. Only by racing at full speed, then diving and rolling to avoid as much of their fire as possible had he made it this far.

As he landed, a T'kaan fired a burst into his metal body.

Guardian sensed more of his inner systems fail as they went silent, but he did not feel any pain. As his legs finally crumpled, the robot turned and fired a burst into the T'kaan, killing him instantly.

Lying against the barrier, unable to stand on his damaged legs, Guardian fired again and again at the remaining T'kaan forms as they scurried around him. Holding his arm straight out as he fired the T'kaan blaster, he killed one after another with deadly precision.

But a final blast from one of the dying T'kaan sent his own weapon flying out of his numb grasp.

Guardian, the white robot, now lay completely helpless with all the systems that controlled his arms and legs damaged. His red eyes looked on emotionlessly as the last T'kaan came forward out of the darkness to finish him.

The huge mouth opened on its three-hinged jaw, sending the fangs out in a nightmarish pose. The T'kaan raised its weapon.

Three quick blasts fired.

But not from the T'kaan's weapon pointed at Guardian.

The T'kaan's body quivered a moment and then the huge worm-like form tensed. In surreal slow motion, it fell forward dead over Guardian's immobile body.

Kyle stood, blaster pistol in his hand.

"Kyle!" Becky shouted with relief.

"One of Guardian's shots wounded the one holding me. I finished him, pulling his own weapon out of its belt and using it. Then I grabbed mine from where he had stashed it," Kyle said breathlessly.

"Just in time," Becky said.

From the dark purplish glow, Jaric groaned as he tried to move. He looked up at Becky. "Becky, help Jaric. Get him get back to Mother. We can't be sure that more T'kaan aren't coming,"

Kyle ordered.

Holstering his pistol, Kyle grabbed two of the lifeless tentacles and dragged the huge T'kaan off of Guardian.

Guardian's red eyes glowed steady, but his white body was now blackened and marred. One of his arms was now missing below an elbow as wires hung out in charred disarray.

As Kyle bent to help him, Guardian raised an arm to stop him. The robot's internal diagnostics had managed to repair one of them enough to allow movement.

"Leave me." Guardian's new code had forced the words as it calculated the remaining scenarios.

Kyle straightened as he shook his head. "You risked everything to come for us. I'm not leaving you.

Even if Mother's programming says so."

Kyle pulled the heavy robot to a sitting position with a gasp.

"I thought they made you outta some kind of light alloy, eh fella'," Kyle said, blowing out a huge breath.

He steadied himself, took a deep breath, and in one motion hefted the robot against his own body for support.

Kyle started forward with an unsteady first step.

"Whatever you do," Kyle panted. "Don't get in my way, Becky. I can't stop with this load."

Kyle and Becky staggered under their loads, fighting up two levels until they were at the ground level.

Several times, Kyle had to stop and drop the robot as his muscles screamed with exhaustion. He hoped he wasn't doing Guardian any further damage.

The last fifteen minutes seemed to last forever. But somehow through their sweat and struggles they made it to the main level.

Fixer3 and Fixer2 were waiting among the dead T'kaan.

But their familiar forms, which should have made him happy, instead brought back a sadness from the last level. There, Kyle had seen a crumpled tangle of metal and a familiar color from his childhood. It had been the remains ofhis Fixer, Fixer5. A stifled sob shook his body again with that recent memory, but he fought it off as he focused on Guardian and getting him safely back with Fixer3. With a mighty heave, he lifted the weight of Guardian's body against his body as Fixer3 a.s.sisted.

Still, he felt a sadness grip his heart that he hadn't felt in many years.

Once they were all inside her hull Mother lifted quickly and left this world far behind with a flash of her hyper-engines.

Hours later, her sensors detected more T'kaan ships heading for Nuevo Mundo. It was the most powerful squadron of ships she had detected since the final battle at Earth. She immediately changed course and as the squadron continued onward it became apparent they had not detected her. Two hours later there was still no signs of pursuit. That squadron of battleships and cruisers were the reason why the T'kaan had kept the children alive and not killed them instantly.

No doubt the T'kaan had set up similar traps on several worlds, not knowing which one Mother and the children would pick next in their search. The battleships had waited in reserve, ready to be dispatched to whichever planet they were needed.

As long as the T'kaan kept the children alive, they knew Mother would remain close by and attempt to rescue them. That would have given the battleships time to arrive and finish her off.