“I see three different types of weapons, but I don't know how to use any of them.” With the largest weapon, Dante wasn’t even sure which end a person should hold. It looked like a snow globe on a skateboard.
“Must I do everything?” Ter snarled.
“If you want it done right, possibly,” Dante said, mangling one of his father’s favorite sayings. That earned him a few minutes of silence. Then Ter told him to find something, but he used descriptive terms that made the translator buzz with untranslated terms.
“You need to use simpler words. I don’t know which weapon to pick up.”
“You are useless,” Ter snarled.
“I’ve heard that since I was four years old, so I’m starting to think the universe might agree. However, I still don’t know what weapon to use.”
That inspired more cursing before Ter said, “The end has a flat plane that has been evenly curved inward.”
“A dish shape?”
“Dishes come in as many different shapes as sentient creatures have mouth forms,” Ter snapped.
“Um, dish-shaped means round and then pressed down in the middle to form an even curve.”
“Fine! Dish-shaped. Find the dish-shaped tool! Pick it up before I come down there and personally introduce the dish shape to any orifices that might be large enough for me to introduce the dish shape into them. Do you have it? Have you picked up the dish-shaped weapon?”
“Yes. Got it.” Dante stayed quiet and respectful as Ter explained the basic function and firing of the weapon based on the instructions he had found in the computer.
Dante hoped the Kowri started panicking a little, enough to do something about the mines, because he was starting to think that he and Ter did not make a great tactical team.
If Divashi expected them to save the ship, she might be one disappointed goddess. Maybe she realized she had backed the wrong horse and she had help on the way, but until someone (hopefully Regi) could arrive, he listened to Ter, armed himself, and moved toward the hull to do what he could to protect the ship and all the idiotic Kowri inside who didn’t know they were about to die.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dante leaned his weight into the bar securing his side of the force field, waiting until the heavythunktold him it had attached. While Kowri might have exceptional technology, Dante sided with Ter, who ranked their intelligence somewhere in the range of an invertebrate dirt-eater for not evacuating until the mines had shut down atmosphere generators. It meant families were trapped in their living spaces, which had very little air circulation capacity, and rescue teams had to get them out one apartment at a time.
Dante stepped back as the blue light flickered, casting long shadows in the dim corridor.
“Confirmed attachment,” Nioti said. “Sending signal.” The door on the other side of the force field opened. Three Kowri adults and two children, one in his father’s arms, stood on the other side.
Heershi manipulated the robot until it stretched out a claw with a space suit, piercing the forcefield without letting the atmosphere inside escape. The father not holding the child stepped forward, his ears all flat against his head. “Where do we go?”
“Not toward the hull,” Nioti said. “Mines have pierced the structure, and we don’t know what further damage the outsider weapons might do. The godless Ter, family to Dante a’Divashi has secured Fulgent 4B.”
The youngest child started to wail, and Heershi moved the spacesuit carrying robot to the far side of the corridor so Danteand Nioti could clomp past the evacuating family. The magnetic boots made walking difficult. However, Ter warned that gravity could fail, and no one wanted to risk being flung into a wall.
“How many more families do we have on this level?” Dante asked.
“Twenty-six,” Nioti said, her voice as brittle as Dante’s nerves. Dante silently cursed Kowri arrogance.
Dante looked up. “Divashi, I appreciate the disaster, but if you could send some opportunity, a little help, you know, I’ll take anything at this point.”
“What are you doing?” Heershi screeched.
“Praying,” Dante answered. He held down the release mechanism for the forcefield.
“What... But... Do not attract the attention of the Lady of poisons!” Heershi yelled.
“Why not? We already have the disaster.”
Heershi spluttered before he snapped, “Focus on the task.”
The current task involved holding a button down, which didn’t require much attention.
