Page 109 of On a Rogue Planet
He looked like someone had whacked him over the head with a sonic hammer.
“You will honor your agreement,” Xander said darkly. “We beat the maze. The Antikythera is ours.”
Another flash of light and they were caught in a teletransportation beam.
As they reappeared in the teletransportation room. Mal took a second to find her balance. Xander was beside her and surprisingly, so was Krypto.
Forge was the only one in the room, no obedient servants at the console. He stared at them before his gaze moved to the mechanism. “It’s so perfect. I can’t let it go.” He drew a small energy pistol from his pocket.
Time slowed for Mal. She saw Forge aim the pistol at Xander. He was the Technomancer, he’d know all the points where a Centaxian cyborg was vulnerable.
Then, many things happened all at once.
Mal shoved forward. The pistol fired. Xander shouted. The teletrans beam flashed. A big body knocked Mal sideways.
She slammed into the floor, her temple hitting the ground. Dark splotches crowded her vision. She had to be hallucinating because she was certain she could hear Dathan swearing.
“Malin!” Xander used his remaining arm to help her sit up. His fingers probed her head. “How many fingers?”
She looked at his long lean fingers. “Eleven.”
“Very funny.” He shoved his face in close to hers. “What were you thinking leaping in front of me like that?”
She gingerly touched the tender spot on her scalp. “That I really didn’t want you to die.”
The fight drained out of him, his face softened. “Same for me, Malin. That’s why I—” his voice broke and he cleared his throat “—I do not like watching you leap in front of weapons.”
She patted her chest and stomach. “I don’t seem to have an energy burn.”
“Because your new dog is even more crazy than you are.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw Krypto sitting beside her, a laser burn etched on his armored paneling. “Good robot dog.”
“You two okay?”
Mal blinked and stared up at Niklas. Behind him, Dathan stood, one hand propped against the wall and a pistol trained on Forge, who was kneeling on the ground. “I thought I imagined hearing Dathan’s creative cursing.”
A small smile crossed Nik’s mouth. “Apparently teletransportation doesn’t agree with him.”
“I still feel like I’m going to toss up my dinner,” Dathan grumbled.
Forge moved, his gaze skittering around the room.
Dathan narrowed his eyes at the Technomancer. “Don’t move. And remember, you crazy asshole, you’re in the line of fire if my dinner does reappear.”
Niklas crouched in front of Mal and Xander. “You guys look terrible.” His gaze skimmed Mal’s torn dress and bleeding calf and feet, then Xander’s missing arm.
Mal leaned her head against Xander’s chest. Now that they were safe, exhaustion slammed into her. “You try and beat a crazy man’s technomaze filled with robots out to kill you and see how you come out of it.”
“Point taken.”
She tipped her head back to her cyborg. “Hey, where’s the Antikythera?”
A strange look passed over Xander’s face.
“What?” she said.
“I…dropped it.”
