Android Karenina

CHAPTER 9

WHEN THE “TROOPS” were dismissed, A

VRONSKY CHEWED ON THE ENDS OF HIS MOUSTACHE AS HE BARKED ORDERS AT HIS MECHANICAL CHARGES

Dolly clapped in appreciation, but A

Dolly opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say a word a terrible shrieking noise was heard from outside, and A

“Aliens!” shouted A

By the time A

Lupo hurtled out from behind the silo, teeth bared, ru

And then Witch Hazel, exhibiting absolutely none of the scattered, nervous energy Darya had observed in her before, suddenly came tearing at the Honored Guest from behind, catching it with a hard, ru

Darya Alexandrovna stood stupefied, and A

As the alien rolled off Tortoiseshell and clutched in evident agony at its burned undercarriage, a new sound welled up, as if from underground: a kind of humming… or, rather, a ticking… the alien shrieked again, blotting out the new sound for a moment, but in the next moment it returned, louder than before…

tikka tikka tikka

tikka tikka tikka

tikkatikkatikkatikkatikkatikka

And as they watched, a gigantic, long worm shot out from beneath the earth, like a slow-motion bullet fired from a Huntgun, and then loomed above them, a flat eyeless head topping a long, grey, segmented mechanical body following behind, the dread mechanical tikkatikkatikka still radiating from somewhere within.

The robots and the humans cowered together, staring wonderingly as this terrible machine.

But the Honored Guest did not stare-instead, it ran toward the prodigious worm, driven as if by instinct, bounding along in three great pumps of its lizard-like hind legs, and jumped on the back of the beast.

Their sounds then combined into one horrifying symphony: tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-tikka tikka tikka SHRIEK-

The alien, now astride the robot-worm like a cavalry officer, let out one last yowling war cry and spurred its mount with a knobby, reptilian knee. A terrible thought struck Vronsky, as the worm contracted along the length of its articulated body and then shot up into the air: They shall come for us in three ways, he recalled. This, then, was the second way: these worm-bots, too, were alien, sent to serve and protect the terrible lizard-men.

The sinuous machine, with its rider, arced smoothly over the heads of the astonished denizens of Vozdvizhenskoe, then disappeared into a new hole in the soil.

“Merciful Saint Peter,” said Dolly, and fainted to the ground.

When she awoke she was indoors, and Count Vronsky was standing over her and smiling. He told her that Antipodal in Android Karenina’s care was slowly being restored and revivified; that Lupo with his powerful olfactory sensors was prowling the grounds of the encampment, looking for more of the wormholes. Darya Alexandrovna was interested by everything. She liked everything about Vozdvizhenskoe more than she might have expected, but most of all she liked Vronsky himself with his natural, simple-hearted eagerness. Yes, he’s a very nice, good man, she thought several times, not hearing what he said, but looking at him and penetrating into his expression, while she mentally put herself in A