Omega Games by S. L. Viehl Page A

again. “This color indicates this unit is in battle mode.”
    I looked at the other drednocs. All of their halos glowed purple. “Are you expecting a confrontation? ”
    “This unit cannot expect,” it told me. “Current operational modes were included in programmed orders to escort Terran female designated Resa to Omega Dome.”
    Mercy had put them all in battle mode before we’d left her dome. I needed to discover what my host feared enough to surround me with four drones ready to kill something. “Is there a threat-identification protocol in your current program?”
    “Affirmative.”
    “Define identification parameters,” I said.
    “Pass code required.”
    I had no idea what code Mercy had used to safeguard the information, or why she felt a need to do so. “Cancel previous inquiry.”
    The drone’s halo turned green for a moment as it processed my request. At the same time, I heard a hissing sound and turned toward the air lock we were passing in time to see a reptilian being launch itself at us.
    It hit the drednoc I had been questioning, which fell sideways in front of me, its grapplers slipping on the oily, scaled hide of the attacker. I jumped back, colliding with the drone behind me, and then I was snatched up and held above the fray.
    “Put me down,” I ordered. The drone ignored me.
    The attacker, a huge Tingalean, punched one of its stunted arms through the fallen drednoc’s armored chassis. Its limb went through the alloy as if it were worn cloth. With a twist it seized and ripped out the drone’s command core. The drednoc instantly shut down and became inert.
    The being looked up at me and bared two dagger-long fangs dripping with poison. Its eyes were black and lidless, which made the dark blood rimming them easy to spot. Only a serious head injury caused that sort of bleeding, even in reptilian life-forms.
    “I am a healer,” I said in a calm, clear voice. “Stop this and I will help you.”
    Purple light filled the access way as the drone holding me wrapped its extensors around me. The other drones converged on the Tingalean from either side, but it slithered out from under them and struck at the tripod of my drone, trying to unbalance it.
    “Stand down,” I called out to the drones. “It may be hurt.”
    The drednocs did not respond to my command but raised their weapons. Pulse fire struck the reptilian in the back, and it screamed before it reversed itself and darted back into the air lock. The door panels slid shut before the drones could follow. After several fruitless attempts to open the air lock doors by the other drones, the drednoc holding me carefully set me down on my feet.
    The drednocs formed a triad around me and their inert comrade. “These units are programmed to protect Terran female Resa,” one of them said.
    “You could have defended me without hurting the Tingalean.” I had never seen such a display of hostility, especially from the reptilian. Although their poisons made them some of the deadliest beings in the galaxy, Tingaleans were a notoriously placid, nonaggressive species, who dedicated themselves to remaining as neutral as the Jorenians. “Have there been other attacks like this?”
    “Unknown,” one of the drones replied.
    “Well, who was it attacking?” I asked. “You, or me?”
    “Unknown.”
    There were far too many damn unknowns on this planet.
    “Signal Mercy,” I told the drednoc who was responding to me. “Relay what happened here.”
    “Affirmative,” it said. “Does Terran female Resa wish to return to Mercy House?”
    “No.” I stood and went to the air lock, but the door panel remained jammed shut from the inside. “Take me to—”
    Something overhead moved, and bright, hot beams of light sliced down from a maintenance hatch, skewering each of the drednocs. Their emitters burst and sparked as they shook, unable to move, impaled by the light.
    I looked up, but the intensity of the light made it impossible to see what had pinned