The Engineer Reconditioned by Neal Asher

suit straps. There was no AG in the shuttle but the device seemed heavy. No one said anything more for the long five minutes.
    Talist matched the ponderous spin of the Box then carefully manoeuvred the Junger to a cavity in the wall of wreckage.
    "You all know what is expected of you. We want the CTD as near to the ship AI as you can get it. Just get in there and get the job done. Any trouble and I want to know about it right away." Trouble started when they were halfway into the ship on their suit jets.
    "What's that? Something moving above you, Artris," said Sheena. Artris's weapon strobed and slagged wreckage, blew it into vacuum. The sound over the radio was like a diesel engine starting. Nearby something silver and spidery darted aside. Davis opened up, a line of flashes down a structural member, a blur of movement, and a silver leg spiralling through vacuum. Golem; without the hindrance of artificial skin, metal skeletons. One landed on Artris and he managed to yell before his breath gusted out through his smashed visor. He hung in vacuum struggling for breath he would not find as the Golem efficiently completed its task by opening up his suit from neck to crotch. Davis got it when it used Artris as a launch platform to come at him. Spewing molten metal it fell past him.
    "What's going on in there!? What's happening!?"
    "Golem. Got Artris. Shit! Over there! Move!"
    The static from weapons fire drowned out anything else. They opened up their suit jets and traversed the corridor of wreckage at lethal speed. More Golem appeared out of the tangled metal. Subliminally Davis saw Sheena impaled on a stanchion, her blood a candy floss cloud all around her. He fired in bursts. Metal splashed like solder. Ceramal ship's skeleton retained white heat, sometimes warped. The CTD
    was a heavy pain against his ribs. Jan screamed as a skeletal silver hand slammed him to a halt. Even over the suit radio Davis heard breaking bone. Spinning in mid flight he hit that Golem once and it released Jan. Out of control the boy slammed into a metal wall.
    "I've got a leak! I've got a leak!" he had time to yell before a Golem came running past on magnetic feet and kicked the helmet from his head. Davis tumbled through the air, his suit warning bleeping as a laser flashed across his legs. He was in a chamber near the centre. As he got himself under control he saw a ship's runcible below his feet. It was operating when it should have nowhere to open to. Perhaps that was where the dark-skinned Golem was going with the silver ovoid of the ship AI: nowhere. Davis aimed at them but did not fire. The Golem stared at him, perhaps expecting to die. Davis glanced at the CTD
    display as it told him in glowing letters that it was armed and how so very little time he had left to live. Talist was probably halfway back to the Samurai even now. Davis released the straps and kicked the device away. So the runcible might be open on nothing and no one ever came back from that. But who was to say no one ever survived? To the best of his knowledge no one survived a CTD blast at this range. He slammed on his suit jets and followed the Golem and the AI through the cusp. He entered blackness on the edge of white-hot light.
    "You know, we really should think of a name for you," said Abaron as he released the girl's safety straps. She smiled at him and sat on the edge of her seat.
    "How about Jane?" she suggested.
    "Hah!" Abaron surprised himself with that bark of laughter. But then in the last few hours he had been surprising himself a lot. He had never before felt so alive.
    "Chapra, what do you think?"
    "Think about what?"
    "A name for our friend here. She suggests 'Jane'."
    "Sounds fine to me. Have you got those packs ready yet, Tarzan?"
    "Sorry?"
    "Never mind."
    Abaron looked down at the two packs. He had tried to cover every conceivable bet, but there was so much they could not take. He put the packs next to the airlock then turned back to the girl. "I think it might