Story: The Lethe, pt. XVI

The team quietly and rapidly moved out into the hallway. Samuelson and Dobbins took the lead. Skylar took the rear, with Ella and Zhang in between. The met no resistance until they reached the main hallway. As they rounded the corner, they ran into two more purple-eyed guards.
Before they could pull their blasters, Samuelson fired, dropping both androids. They moved rapidly down the hall. Just as they neared the door, an alarm began to sound. Their escape had been discovered. They quickly fled out the door and into the wooded area.
They traveled for several minutes, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the security station. Once they had covered sufficient distance, Dobbins ordered a halt and handed his blaster to Zhang. “Reprogram it, Lieutenant. Then do the same to Mr. Skylar’s. We’ll need all the firepower we can get. Once that’s done, we’re going to find the Control Center. We need to contact the Hyperion and have a ‘talk’ with the Mayor.”
Zhang took the blasters and Ella’s scanner, and quickly reprogrammed the other two blasters. Just as he had finished, the scanner began quietly but insistently beeping.
“That’s a proximity alarm,” Ella said. “There are androids drawing near.” She grabbed the scanner and swung in a semi-circle to help the scanner get better readings. “Captain, there are androids approaching us from every direction we could go, all within 200 meters! We’re trapped.”
“Trapped? How could they know where we are?” asked Skylar.
“They must have used the Lethe’s sensors to locate us,” Samuleson surmised.
“How many androids, Commander?” asked Dobbins.
“Ten, maybe fifteen,” replied the psychiatrist.
“We can take them, sir,” said Samuelson. “Let’s blast them.”
“At ease, Mr. Samuelson,” Dobbins ordered. “We’re not in a good position tactically, and there will be more coming. We need to get somewhere that will cause them to lose track of us for a while. That means getting around other humans for a while so that we’re not easy targets for the ship’s sensors.”
“They’ve got us pinned in, though,” observed Skylar. “How do we get through their line and into town?”
“We could overload one of our blasters and cause it to explode,” suggested Samuleson. “That would create a large hole in their line.”
“And draw every android to that spot,” countered Skylar.
“Yes,” said Dobbins thoughtfully, “which would be exactly what we want.”
“Captain?” Ella asked, confused.
“I think you have a plan, don’t you, sir?” added Samuelson.
“I do,” Dobbins replied, smiling.

Five minutes later, as the android line solely closed in on the team, an explosion tore through the forest near one side of the android lines. As the trees crashed to the ground and dirt sprayed upwards, the androids all left their slowly-closing circle to make for the location of the explosion. As they arrived at the location of the explosion, they found a two-meter-deep crater, the scattered pieces of some destroyed security androids, and no sign anywhere of the away team. If, however, the androids had looked behind them, they would have seen five shadowy figures quietly and swiftly making their way through the forest and into town.