Mutiny on Outstation Zori Read Online Free Page B

multiplied and accelerated until the two combatants howled and yelped in protest.
    "Hey! Knock off the damn floorshow!" shouted a deep bass voice. The man who spoke wore fur knee boots and the tunic of an Imperial Admiral, cut ragged at the armpits. His white spiked hair shot out and up ten centimeters from his head like a snowy halo. His thin lips pulled back, exposing clenched teeth through which he snarled, "You unwiped asshole! I'll kick your head in!"
    His sparring partner swirled her long cape and caught the man in the face with its edge.
    He tumbled back, dropping his staff, as Zaxt shut down obstacle programming.
    "I win," the woman called. She approached Jamie and the bot with confidence, her smile flashing exhilaration. "Even if he did cheat by trying to spit in my face."
    She wore her light violet hair long and full in a shape similar to that of her cloak. Her green eyes danced with the afterglow of exertion and triumph. There were laugh lines at the corners of those eyes, and a dimple on the left—but not the right—side of the woman's face.
    Jamie watched as she clamped her staff into a rack along the wall next to the vator and moved with a minimum of effort like a mature and experienced feline. He decided she must be a replicate.
    "I declare a foul!" The fuzzy-headed man jumped back to his feet. "Nobody said anything about interference from a diplobot. And what about those weights you've got hidden in the corners of your cape, Devor? I claim the right of a rematch without hidden weapons."
    "Look who's talking, Karr," the woman breathed softly; her green eyes still dancing. "What about the partial absorption screen you used to protect your left side from my excellent thrusts with the electro-staff?"
    "You want to see excellent thrusts? I'll give you—"
    "Please!" Zaxt stepped between the quarreling figures.
    "Who's this," Karr wanted to know, gesturing at Jamie. "Another pushy Panic Inker?"
    Jamie began to seriously wonder what he had gotten himself into.
    "This," the silver bot answered, "is Clamber, co-pilot and scout."
    "Co-pilot?" Karr said in surprise.
    "Scout?" Jamie asked at the same moment.
    Zaxt explained. "For security purposes, the team is to be broken up into a balance of power. Kleg Karr's ship, The Silver Dagger , will be used for transport, but manned by Aura Devor's Qestan crewmen."
    "Now wait one juicy minute," Karr warned.
    The bot cut him off. "Surely, you didn't expect Mr. Werch to fund this mission, leaving you in control?"
    "Of course I did. What's with that?"
    Aura laughed, "Thought you'd get away with something, didn't you, Kleg?"
    "What exactly does a scout do?" Jamie wanted to know.
    The bot shrugged. "Navigate. Identify the team's destination. Look out for possible trouble."
    "I already see plenty of that."
    "What do you mean?" Kleg asked, suspiciously.
    "This isn't a team," Jamie said. "It's a...a miscellaneous collection of lone wolves. How are we supposed to function as a team, when there isn't even a clear leader?"
    "I'm the leader," Kleg insisted.
    "Not of my people," Aura replied dryly.
    "You see?" Jamie asked the glimmering robot.
    Zaxt uttered what passed as a bot chuckle. "Exactly, sir. Which is why the company requires a shakedown mission. Come, I'll show you." He, it, or h/it turned and walked across the paneled room to a plexed area where three HAVENset chairs sat wired to a makeshift control console.
    "We're going to play a HAVENset?" Aura asked, inspecting the familiar, yet modified device. "I thought that was addictive."
    "Only mildly," Jamie told her, from experience. She seemed to notice him for the first time, said nothing in response to his comment, and returned to examining the complex tangle of equipment.
    The HAVENset looked much like the one Jamie had used on Idyllis, except the three chairs were linked together by cables leading to the back of the programming unit.
    "I don't like it," Kleg said, crossing his arms.
    Zaxt snapped the system to life. "There's