HAWK

CHAPTER FOUR: SELVA (2/7)

Kas had been so caught off guard that she nearly lost her footing and slipped from the ladder, but her well-trained reflexes kept her focused.

She landed on the floor with cat-like elegance and sprinted towards the X1 with eyes of steel, the machine locked sharply in her vision. It was staring at her, deadly and unmoving. She propelled herself from the floor and extended her right leg at a side angle as she soared through the air, aiming the edge of her carbachrome plated boot at the X1's shiny dome head. The attack connected and Kas felt a jolt of pain hit her ankle first and then her knee. Both hurt like hell and she was powerless to prevent the awkward spin that dragged her back to the floor. She landed with a heavy thud but managed to maintain her momentum and rolled back over her shoulder, turning it into something like a landing. Unarmed, underprepared and with her right leg now throbbing with pain, Kas looked up at the X1 towering above her and ran the fingers of her left hand back through her mohawk.

If this guy means business, there's not much use in running...

But the X1 didn't budge. It just looked down at her, its head cocked to one side, inquisitively.

'Are you hurt?' came the synthesised voice.

And male as well. Typical...

Kas didn't say anything but bit down on her teeth, the sinews in her cheeks rippling below distrustful eyes.

'Do you require first aid?' he tried again. This time Kas decided she would talk back. Whatever the killbot's game was, it might be best to keep him talking until she was up to speed.

'I'm fine,' she said.

'You appear to have damaged your ankle.'

'You appear to be talking. What's up with that?'

'I have been modified.'

Kas considered this. The first thought that occurred to her was that the hound that had licked Hik back in Chantos had also uploaded a firmware patch that included a language update. But she immediately discounted this theory when she deduced it surely wasn't possible for a bio-mech to so easily bypass the X1's security. She should know; it had taken her weeks of planning and custom modifications to her ship's control panel to hack him herself. If it was possible for a metal dog to just come along and lick him, well... the Federation really needed to look into that.

She was about to ask him exactly who modified him when the journey's second surprise presented the answer.

The thunk of metal hitting metal rang from above and Kas turned to see the hatch to her sleeping quarters was now wide open. A little upside-down face emerged from the hole and peered out like a wild animal that had established itself in a comfortable new shelter.

Mechanic Worm.