Love-child fic Part 6

The crate was open!

"Heero!" I ran for the cargo hold, yelling for my partner at the top of my lungs. Was he in there? Had he opened it? The monitor had only shown the crate... If he hadn't opened it then how the hell had it opened? "Heero!"

"What?" His voice, behind me. "Duo? What is it?"

"The crate's open!" Reaching the cargo door, I turned the handle. Still locked!

"What?!" His hand grabbed mine as I reached for the lock. "Don't open it! We need to go in prepared!"

Right. What was I thinking? I moved my hand away from the lock and turned to face Heero.

And my mouth went dry. It took me a moment to find the words I needed.

"Where are your clothes?"

"I was in the shower," Heero shook his head, freeing the wet strands that stuck to his face. I reminded myself to keep my gaze level with his. "I heard you yell and just jumped out." He gave the door a worried frown. "I'll go dry off. Why don't you see if the cameras can pick up anything in there?"

I nearly said that the cameras weren't in the bathrooms before I caught myself.

The hold. The crate. Possible danger. Right.

"I'll do that."

"I'll be right back."

It took me a moment to realize that to look at the cameras I needed to be either in my bedroom or back on the bridge. Fortunately Heero had already disappeared back into the bathroom, so I didn't have to worry about the view.

Not that it in itself was anything to worry about. Heero had definitely grown up very nicely...

Crate, I reminded my libido as I reached the bridge. It won't do any good to hope to ogle Heero again in the future if we don't make it through the present.

I sat down in my chair and punched up the cameras for the hold. We were only three hours out from L4- if anything did go wrong hopefully help could get to us...

The crate was empty. Not a trace of anything inside other than padding. The lid was halfway across the hold- our scanner a smashed mess on the floor. Something had blown the lid off- but what? I scanned the room with the cameras looking for a clue.

"Anything?" Heero leaned over the back of my chair.

"Nothing. Lid's off. Looks like something came out- but I can't see anything."

"All the lights on?"

"Every one." I scanned the hold again.

"Wait." Heero reached out and put his hand over mine where it rested on the camera control. "Go back. Up above the door..." The camera moved back, giving us a clear shot.

There was something over the door. Something metallic with long spider like legs...

"What the hell is that?"

"Looks like it's waiting for someone to come in." Heero's hand tightened on mine.

I swallowed hard. If Heero hadn't stopped me...

"What is it?"

"Some kind of robot," Heero leaned closer to the screen. "Definitely high tech." He tapped the screen with a gloved finger. "The main body's just a box- the appendages though..."

"What's that?" Something glinted at the end of one of the legs.

"A needle." Heero growled. "What do you bet that's got some kind of drug inside?"

I frowned at the screen. "I don't get it. Why was Stan sending a robot like this to someone? He deals in spare parts- and why did it wake up so early?"

Heero snorted. "I have a feeling that," his finger tapped the screen, "is meant for you."

For me?

"What? Why?" I looked away from the screen to find Heero glaring at me.

"Duo, you said yourself the man always propositions you!"

"Well, this seems kind of extreme for a date."

"I don't think a date is what he had in mind." Heero huffed.

"It can't be that." I looked back at the screen. "It can't. Stan's a part guy, true, but he's not the kind of engineer that could build something like that. He's more into vehicles- not robots-"

"Maybe he got some outside help." Heero leaned away. "I'm going to send a message to Quatre, ask him to look into the delivery address, tell him what's going on- and ask him to have a crew ready to help us with that thing."

"We could just open the hatch," I suggested and then frowned. "Unless it's managed to secure itself to that corner." I looked at it again. Some of the appendages did have claws- we'd have to assume it could hold on to the ship... "Guess spacing it might be out."

"Not reliable anyway." Heero headed for the comm equipment. "It might also be able to attach itself to the outside of the ship."

That wouldn't be good either.

I listened to his fingers fly across the keys as I watched the thing hanging over the door. It did seem pretty advanced for Stan- maybe the package was supposed to go to a rival? I'd heard of robot assassins before, but they were supposed to be very unreliable and easy to track. There was no way that thing was meant for me, no matter what Heero said.

One of the appendages moved, spiraling down to the door. What was it doing? It touched the lock, moving back and forward over it rapidly.

Ah crap.

"Heero?"

"Yes?"

"I think it's trying to break out of the hold."

Before I could move, Heero ran to the door to the bridge, closed and locked it. "Can you close the other doors from here?"

"Shouldn't we just try to stop it? I don't want that thing roaming around my ship."

"Stop it how?" Heero asked as he went back to the comm center.

That made me pause. If it was an assassin type robot, it would no doubt be shielded. That meant no guns- never a safe idea on a ship anyway. I keyed in the locking system and watched all the doors in the hallway close.

"We could try and crush it somehow."

"Good idea. With what?" The sound of the keyboard stopped. "Message sent. I hope Quatre gets it soon."

I watched as the cargo door slid open. "Me too. It just cracked the lock."

"Broke it?"

"No- it managed to unlock it." I watched as the robot skittered down the hallway, stopping at the first door past the cargo hold. "It's trying to break into the kitchen now."

"It will take a while for it to make its way down here." Heero leaned over my shoulder again. "Weapons?"

"I have this," I reached under the console and yanked out the stun stick. "Think it will work?"

"Can we boost the charge?"

"Sure." I knew what he was getting at. If we could disrupt it's shielding, then we had a good chance.

"Only one?"

"Only one," I gave him an apologetic glance.

"Where is it?"

I looked back at the screen. The thing had moved past the kitchen and was sliding into Heero's room. "I think it's getting faster at unlocking the doors."

"If it has a learning program built in, I'm not surprised."

"Crap."

"Smashing it?"

"Right." I looked around the bridge. Most of the heavy stuff was in the engine room. Nothing leaped to mind.

Heero was frowning. "You work on boosting the charge. I'll see what I can do."

I turned my attention to the stick, flipping open the small panel on the bottom. I kept one eye on the monitor, watching as the robot, now moving at a much faster pace, slid out of Heero's room and into mine. The locks were no longer even slowing it down.

This was not good.

The comm unit beeped. "Quatre," Heero said behind me. "He got the message and is working on tracking down the address. He says he can't get a ship out to us in less than an hour."

"We'll be nearly on L4's doorstep by then."

"And that thing will be in here with us." Heero's fingers flew across the keys. "I'm updating him on the situation."

"Find anything to bash it with?"

"I loosened one of the jump seats." Heero waved a metal chair seat at me. "That's the best I can do."

I looked at the screen. "Hopefully it will work, because it's coming this way." I got up from my seat, the stun stick in hand. "Right by the door?"

"Right as it comes in." Heero agreed and took up position. "Aim for the center body."

I focused my attention on the door, taking deep breaths. "Bet you didn't think shipping with me would be this exciting, did ya?"

Heero chuckled a little. "Oh, I knew it would be exciting, I just wasn't picturing fighting tentacled robots in deep space."

The door slid open.

TBC...

 

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