02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
Hammadi had a slightly wild look in his eye. Kane could sympathise, the Bole
had that effect on him most of the time.
"It speaks."
"It's a machine which is programmed to reason."
Hammadi swallowed.
"Does it do anything else?"
"You might well ask - Watch."
Kane turned to the Bole.
"Extend your perambulatory mandibles."
From bitter experience, he had learned to be extremely precise in his
instructions.
Six, thin, tubular and flexible legs grew from the base surface. They had the
effect of raising the cube about two metres off the ground.
"Do you think you could contrive to manoeuvre across the remaining distance
between us and the target destination, without falling arse over head?"
"Affirmative."
The Bole started to tiptoe delicately through small boulders. Hammadi,
showing admirable prudence, placed Kane between himself and the Bole. His father
nodded approvingly, he was a chip off the old block. They followed at a discrete
distance. Kane had to admit to doing more tripping on the rough ground than the
Bole. He reminded himself that he wasn't endowing with millions of credit's worth of
delicate electronic components.
"Is it aiming for the entrance to the ship?"
Hammadi stared at the monster approaching the hull.
"It doesn't matter, we can enter at any point."
Kane raised his eyebrows and said nothing. The great curvature of the lower
hull was looming above their heads. It was like walking on the outside of one of the
asteroids in orbit. It was a long time since he had made a space walk, it was, in any
case, an exercise he tried to avoid.
The Bole advanced on the Ship with the grace of a stiff legged ballet dancer.
Kane sympathised with Hammadi, it looked like something which had escaped from a
nightmare. It had no head, six legs and no arms. The body was a half metre cube. Any
self respecting defence system on the Ship should have blasted all hell out of it long
before it could have approached so near. Kane drew confidence from the fact that the
Bole would have detected the readying of any defence systems. It showed no sign of
hesitation and he hoped it wasn't getting rash in its old age.
He wasn't quite prepared for the Bole's upper parts disappearing into the
surface of the Ship. The legs followed, two by two. The metal skin looked intact. The
Bole had melted into the surface and vanished. Kane stopped dead. Hammadi collided
with him.
"What happened to it?"
He had a love-hate relationship with the Bole, but that didn't mean that he
would like anything nasty to happen to it.
"Nothing - It's there, waiting for us on the other side of the Barrier."
Kane stared at the Ship's unbroken hull. Hammadi elaborated.
"The Entry Barrier,"
He stepped in front and followed the path the Bole had taken. His head
shimmered and lost definition and then his neck and shoulders, his body followed. He
was gone. The last thing to disappear were his feet, which walked forward. Kane
swallowed, hoped it wouldn't hurt, and wondered if he would ever be the same again.
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