Read Online STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS by David Bischoff, Saul Garnell - Free Book Online Page A

Although his words were spoken overcarefully, they were not slurred, and his eyes were bright and aware, his feet steady. He looked down at the visitor fondly. “It’s not every day that we get a Feddy agent come to call.”
    Laura could not believe her eyes. “You’re drunk!” she said. “I have the life of one of your crewmembers at the end of a cocked gun, and you’re boozing?”
    Captain Northern grinned. “Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum, my dear!” He leaned on his doctor’s shoulder. “We must keep up appearances for our Feddy Friends, mustn’t we. Yes indeed. You”—he pointed a finger at her, chuckling—“have done me a most enormous favor, dear lady!”
    Laura glanced around suspiciously, expecting some sort of trick. But she could sense nothing wrong, even with her interior sensors clicked up full. “I have demands to make, Captain!” she shouted. “Do not joke with me! I want to bargain the life of this man for a large favor.”
    Dr. Mish shook his head sadly. Captain Northern whooped. “Oh dear, you mean you would really blow off the head of Napoleon Bonaparte?”
    Laura blinked. She’d heard that name before—long, long before.
    “You need not worry, mademoiselle,” said Napoleon Bonaparte. “They’ll just reassemble me. I’m just a robot, you see.”
    Dr. Mish signaled.
    Napoleon Bonaparte ducked with amazing speed. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, was the one to take the full force of the blast. It took Wellington’s right arm off, but his left arm knocked the gun from Laura’s hand before she could pull the trigger again. Bonaparte was on his feet, but Laura agilely dodged his attempt to grab her. She leaped for the gun lying on the floor, but somehow Bonaparte’s arm snagged onto her ankle. Automatically twisting as she fell, she managed to wrench free and land on her hands and feet.
    Robots! Of course! It all fell together, even Kat Mizel’s complaints about “tin generals.” The main body of the pi-merc boarding party must have been robots—much safer!
    But she had to get that gun, she knew—there was no way she could threaten anything or anybody and get her way with her bare hands.
    “Would you things get on with it?” she heard Captain Northern yell. “Grab her before she does anything silly!”
    Of course. If she could just get to the captain ….
    She dodged one of the robots and struck out for her destination. But the Bonaparte robot grabbed her from behind in an amazing jump. It put Laura in an astonishingly strong half nelson before she could get anywhere near Northern.
    “Jolly good show, Boney,” said the duke, wires trailing from his shoulder socket. “Did the admiral who beat you at Trafalgar teach you that?”

Chapter Eight

    “S tick her in the brig. We’ll interrogate her later,” Captain Northern said, smiling at the word “interrogate.” “We’ve got to supervise the unloading of the other ships.”
    By now three of the robots were restraining Laura; she had flailed about powerfully, so Patton and another robot had aided Napoleon.
    “Captain,” said the tall, white-haired man beside him, examining his clipboard. “My sensors show that the young lady is veritably riddled with artificial materials of an intensely sophisticated variety. I strongly suggest, if you’re going to incarcerate the young lady before any discussions with her, that a heavy guard be placed or even that she be medicinally rendered unconscious.”
    “A cyborg. Perhaps with a few tricks up her sleeves, you say. Curiouser and curiouser.” He capped his bottle and slipped it into the doctor’s voluminous side pocket. “Enough of that. Tell me, Doctor, are there any signs of anything dangerous inside her?”
    “No, I’ve checked that. Further, more detailed information can be derived at a later date.”
    “All I want,” Laura said, “is passage to Shortchild. Take me there, and I’ll spare your lives! Ouch!” she said as Patton increased pressure on one of her