The Cylon Death Machine Glen A. Larson

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about five fights.
"How is he?" Apollo asks Leda, who's now strokingVickers' throat with her strong but thin-fingered
hands,helping him to breathe while Thane's chemical dosage is still in effect.
"He's all right. It's a short-span paralysis."
She's talking gently to Apollo. Why? Because she's attracted to him? Or because she wants him lulled so
thatshe can put her escape plan into operation? Boomergently removes a small electronic pack out of
Thane'sother jacket pocket. Delicately he holds it up for Apolloto see.
"Look at this."
Thane makes no move toward Boomer, but instead states calmly:
"Don't touch the switch. It's a hand mine."
You can see on Boomer's face he has no intention oftouching the switch.
"You don't use the stuff on your own troops," Apollosays angrily.Wolfe moves to Thane's side. They
make a formidable pair: a thick-chested roughneck who'd be a giant if not forhis height and the cool lean
specter with death trapsconcealed all over his body.
"We're not barge-lice," Wolfe growls.
"Or grid-rats," Thane says softly, but with menace.
"Oh yes we are," I say, stepping between them and Apollo. "Lice and rats. Better yet, just bodies. We
werepicked for this drop because we're expendable."
"Nobody'sexpendable," Apollo says. I resist comment-ing, no, you probably aren't as the
commander's sonyou've probably already mapped a way out. Actually, Apollo's presence is comforting.
So long as he's with us,and alive, we can be sure Adama'll dispatch a rescue force.Anything happens to
him, the commander's not likelyeven to drop us rations. "You were picked," Apollo continues, "by a
computer that didn't give an electronic damn about grid-barges, rats, lice, or warriors." Well, atleast he's
got us all neatly classified. "You're here to do a job on the Cylons" he hands Thane back his kit; Thane
replaces it in his pocket "and not on each other. Stowyour gear. And fasten your harness. We're on
count-down."
A comforting rumble goes through the ship as we nearlaunch point.
CHAPTER NINE
"Killer" Killian was not the type of colonial warrior who ever contemplated his own death in battle. A
tough thick-muscled man, he looked like the grizzled veteran of many combats that he was. Nobody ever
noticed the shrewdnessin his eyes because his face was so dominated by a bushymustache.
He pressed his shoulders back against his seat as he awaited the signal to launch his viper. If anyone had
toldhim that this was his last launch and that in a fewmoments he would be dead, he would have just
touchedthe end of his mustache with a stubby finger andshrugged. He might have commented that if his
numberwas up, it was up, and then gripped his throttle a shademore tightly.
Over the commline the command came: "Let's fly!"Killian's viper, escort to the expedition shuttle,
slammeddown the launching tube with a great roar.First Centurion Vulpa was beginning to doubt whether
any information of value could be extracted from Cree.
So far the human vermin had been able to stand up totorture well, responding only with his name and an
interminably large amount of numbers.
"Entry tracks," a technician announced.
"How many?" Vulpa asked.
"Two."
"Describe."
"One large. What the humans call a shuttlecraft. Theother a fighting ship, a viper, flying escort for the
shuttle,it appears."
"Any indications of their origin?"
"No."
Vulpa considered allowing the ships to land, but therewere too many unknown factors. If the shuttle
containeda rescue force or an assault team, the possibility of lossesto his own understaffed garrison of
troops was too strong. He would order the cannon to annihilate them, to wipe no, that was impossible.
Dr. Ravashol and a crew of hisprecious creations were up at the pulsar installation forrepair and
maintenance. It would be a mistake now to alert Ravashol to Vulpa's modifications of his invention, even
though he suspected Ravashol already knew aboutthem. No, better to destroy the intruders through more
conventional means.
"Activate a destroyer shell-fighter with full warhead."
The shell-fighter was a variation of the new type ofCylon pilotless craft that could be guided by
personnel inordinary fighters. The difference in the warhead-equipped model was that it was constructed
from thebarest minimum of components. Since the entire shipexploded along with its target, there had
been no need to waste material. When he had still been a member of Imperious Leader's general staff,
Vulpa had ordered thedevelopment of the destroyer shell-fighter because of the heavy losses that were
being sustained, losses that wereout of all proportion to the firepower of their under-equipped human
adversaries.
He ordered his command pilots to guide the warheadfighter toward the shuttle, while themselves
engaging theescort viper and destroying it.To Apollo the dense cloud cover of the planet belowthem
looked spectral. Gray and smooth-surfaced, it seemed to conceal eerie mysteries. Its appearance only
increased his natural caution. Looking over his shoulder,he crisply gave orders to Boomer:
"Get a navigational fix before we penetrate the cloudcover. We don't know what to expect on the
surface. It could be pitch black, as it was when you and Starbuckwent after Cree. No telling what the
ground surface is like. Snow powder, pack ice, perhaps more di-ethene cloudsthan
Starbuck, in the copilot seat, interrupted:
"Cylons low on the starboard quarter!"
Apollo ordered a quick scan. There was a Cylon patrolformation just in back of another ship which the
scanner indicated as unpiloted. The ship also lacked most of thefamiliar features of the normal Cylon
fighter.
"What is it, do you think?" Apollo asked Boomer.
But the odd hollow sound of Thane's voice answered:
"It's not really a ship at all."
"Thane! How'd you get there?"
"I got tired of being harnessed back in that cabin.Thought I'd visit."
"You know you're not allowed
"This isn't the time to quote your stupid regulations atme, Captain. That ship out there, what your
inefficientscanner describes as a ship, is actually a weapon. A guideddevice whose nose contains a
solenite warhead, withsufficient power to blow this shuttle to bits. Tiny bitsdisintegrating to nothing. I
would assume that itsguidance system is set on a course for us."
Thane spoke all this so calmly, so dispassionately, thatApollo was not sure whether or not to believe
him. He wasdescribing their deaths, and he did not seem at all to careabout the fact that he would die
too.
"Employ evasion maneuver," Apollo ordered Star-buck, who immediately reset the shuttle's course. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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