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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 50: Brown 211
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 184
Derek did not wait; this thing had demonstrated a very effective ranged weapon, and it might have something more deadly. He dove behind a duct and started moving in a course that would avoid a straight line of sight between the robot and himself, and began considering options.
He didn’t really have any.
Oh, he had weapons--but would they be any good? The laser did significant damage at fairly long range, but against a machine he would probably have to get several hits and in critical places. His drugged darts would be useless against a robot. He might be able to entangle it in his chain, but odds are against being able to disable it that way--it struck him that it was probably strong enough to carry an unconscious bear. A knife wasn’t going to help either. He needed an option.
He darted between some packing crates, and jogged around to be out of sight. Of course, he couldn’t count on the robot being reliant on sight the same way he was. It apparently was designed to track and capture animals. It would have ways of detecting which way they went.
Design. If you were building a robot, there were always dangers that it would go off program. You would need--well, if you were smart, anyway--an emergency shut-off. It would have to be easy to access even if the robot were berserk, and function quickly, but designed such that it was unlikely to be triggered accidentally or by the robot’s own actions.
It would be on the back of the machine, out of the way, probably either recessed or covered, possibly both. Because the indigs were short, it would be relatively low--not more than three feet off the ground, and if the machine had the ability to extend its legs not more than four feet when it was at maximum height.
That meant he had to get behind it. How?
He quickly scaled one of the packing crates. It might see him here, but at least he had an advantage. It was coming. He would have to drop behind it, find the button or switch or whatever it was, and deactivate the machine before it could drug him again.
Well, if he failed there was always the next world.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #440: Changing Worlds. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
