"This is where I left them," Captain Brooklyn mumbled, crouching behind a stack of storage containers.
Ontarii joined her, scanning the cargo bay for the enemy. There was nothing to see.
"Could they have left, headed back toward the bridge?" The cargo bay was empty of life.
"They could have walked through the wall and swam through space for all I know," she said, her flippant tone setting his teeth on edge.
"What's with you?" He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around to face him. "Where's this attitude coming from? You practically order me to help you, then bite my head off whenever I ask you a question. What's gotten into you?"
"Don't touch me," she said, pulling away from his grasp. "I might need your help, but that doesn't mean you get to paw at me with your filthy fish hands."
"Fish hands? Listen here, you—" Ontarii froze, his words drying up. The FIDOs were creeping through the cargo bay, their shoulder weapons revealed, red lights winking in readiness.
"No, you listen to me," the captain said, not realizing the robots were on the scene.
Ontarii slapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late.
The blue displays that comprised the FIDOs' faces turned red, and they turned in Captain Brooklyn's direction.
"Intruder alert," they said in unison.
Ontarii pulled the human female behind him, then risked raising his hand around the storage container. He released a blast of bioelectricity and it hit the closest one, causing smoke to rise from the display. The robot tumbled to the floor, deactivated.
The remaining FIDOs wasted no time retaliating. The two behind the fallen one let their lasers blast.
Ontarii grabbed the human and rolled sideways, right before the containers in front of them melted enough to allow the laser beams to pass through.
Well, there goes that theory.
They ran to hide behind a neighboring stack of storage containers. The FIDOs were definitely not Hareema.
Ontarii released another blast of bioelectricity. It hit another FIDO and dropped it.
"I need a chance to recharge," he said, dragging the captain with him as they retreated behind another bank of storage containers. "You've got to create a diversion."
"What do you mean?" The captain's face was unbelieving. "I can't go out there. I'll be burned to bits by their lasers."
"You don't have to stay out there. You just need to run past them, make them turn in your direction, then dive behind those containers." Ontarii pointed to a bank of containers on the other side of the bay. "That should buy me enough time to sneak behind them, recharge, and blast them both."
"Please don't make me," she said, her eyes filling with tears.
Ontarii frowned. Nothing this woman had done since he'd met her would have made him expect her to break down, especially not when their lives were on the line.
"I'm sorry," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Then he shoved her, hard, pushing her in the direction of the containers. "Now go. RUN!"
The human captain ran forward, putting on a burst of speed that distracted the two FIDOs.
Ontarii took his chance, creeping down behind the robots and taking shelter behind a support beam. He watched as the human dove behind a stack of containers, narrowly avoiding the robots' lasers.
It felt like hours before his energy recharged to sufficient levels, but finally he was ready to fight again. It was his last chance to take out the FIDOs though. If he only got one, the other would be able to laser him before he could hit it. He had to take a risk and try to blast them both at once.
Taking a deep breath, Ontarii extended both hands in front of him and released as much of the energy as he could. Twin blasts arced from his palms and into the enemy robots. Both displays shorted out, and the robots fell to the floor, out of service.
"You got them!" The human ran toward him, grinning at the smoking robot bodies in front of them.
Ontarii walked up to one of the FIDOs and gave it a kick. The display screen face stayed blank. “They’re down for now, but I’m not sure how long it will last.”
“How can we turn them off for good?”
