Chapter 19
Alice
What had she done? What had she done? While she had succeeded in creating a distraction, it would likely kill her.
Alice should never, never have re-energized an Old Tech device without having first known what it could do.
As the robot's fingers tightened around her throat, Alice stared up into its eyes.
It was harrowing. When it looked back, she did not see violence or anger. She saw hunger. A deep, endless, powerful hunger.
It needed energy to live. And she was the last thing in the universe that could provide it.
For that reason it did not let its grip tighten so far around her throat that it snapped her head off. Just enough to lock her in place while it tried to suck her dry.
But Alice fought. Her eyes wide as she stared back at it, she slowed down the transfer as much as she could.
Not all Old Tech devices would try to kill Alice in an attempt to get at the energy they so desperately needed; but when they were solider robots, like this guy was, then it was only to be expected.
How she had not recognized that the apparently innocuous box next to the elevators was a soldier robot, Alice did not know.
But her mistake would cost her.
As the robot drained her energy, white and blue lines spread up from her neck and chest. She knew they were there. She could feel the cracks they formed. They travelled up over her skin, sinking into her lips and chin, and if she let them, they would sink all the way through her and she would crumble like stone.
But Alice fought.
She kept her eyes open, never blinking or shifting her gaze off the robot.
She understood its hunger. If the plight of being the last of the Old Ones was bad, then the plight of being Old Tech was worse. Built into their very being was a yearning for only one special type of energy. Nothing else would do.
It shifted her backwards, shaking her to the side, not enough to break her body, but maybe the robot reasoned that she needed encouragement to give up her energy.
The seconds ticked by, drew into minutes.
The robot did not release its hold. It never tightened it either, it just waited. Waited for Alice to give up what she had.
It was when she was close to finally succumbing that she saw the light.
It sliced right through the wall to her left. Bright and white, it was a powerful transport beam.
She had time enough to widen her eyes.
The beam locked onto the robot, encasing its body in the blistering hot energy and starting to break down its molecules within a fraction of a second.
But the light did not stop there, it travelled through and touched her too.
Alice had been through a lot today. Too much.
And it was about to get worse.
The robot gave a roar, twisting its head to the side, chunks of its face disappearing as the transport beam broke up its constituent parts.
It didn't lose its grip on her throat though.
‘Tell them they have to isolate the robot only, the robot only,’ someone screamed, voice flickering and desperate.
Alice was not so far gone that she could not tell it was John Doe.
The light moved and shifted through her, and Alice felt it try to take hold.
The robot screamed again, its face falling apart, chunks of it snapping over and disappearing up the tunnel of light.
‘Only the robot,’ John screamed again.
The beam pushed through her. Alice, using her last reserve of energy fought it all the way.
Because she knew what would happen next.
Just as before, when the beam from the Pegasus had snatched hold of her, it began to latch hold of her energy.
In half a second the white of the beam suddenly doubled in strength, then it tripled.
Alice's eyes twisted wide. She saw the robot finally disappear, the last chunk of its hand and foot breaking up and shooting up the beam.
She had no control of her body, no purchase on the ground, yet the beam held her in place, her limbs spreading wide as she fought to stop it from breaking her down.
There was a shifting moment of intensity as the light of the beam wavered, then it snapped to a color beyond the spectrum of visible light any soft-race could hope to see.
And Alice was transported away.