Viella was too busy to notice when the stranger’s eyes opened and the glassy sheen was once again present. She would not have understood it for she saw this man go down in stun, and it was impossible for anyone to rise from stun after only a few minutes.
She fired at the lead toral and brought him down. She fired at the next and missed. It wouldn’t matter. There were too many of them.
The toral by the patrol craft dropped the man and turned toward Viella. Saliva from the excitement of the hunt dripped from his fangs. He dug his claws into the soft sand making ready to spring, to bring death to this creature.
Viella heard a noise behind her. When she looked over her shoulder she saw the stranger standing in the sand several feet behind her with his head moving from side to side taking in the present situation. He jumped forward and swept her up in his muscular arms as if she were a small child. He started running along the sandy bottom toward the patrol craft where the toral stood over the dead man’s body.
“Are you crazy? Let me down.” If this man kept running the toral would attack, knock them down, and rip them apart. Their only chance was for her to keep firing her phasor in hopes she could stun the five remaining toral before they got to her and the stranger, or before the phasor pack ran out of energy.
She shifted her position as much as she could trying to bring her phasor into the firing position, but the stranger’s physique was too broad and tall. She could barely get her hand with the phasor in it over his shoulder.
“Let me down!” she commanded.
The toral next to the patrol craft stood up and took a hesitant step back with a puzzled look, and then, when he realized the man wasn’t attacking, but escaping, he started the chase. The other four toral weren’t far behind.
With hands and elbows, Viella pushed herself up the man’s chest and turning in an awkward position looked over his shoulder. She could see the gleam from the toral’s fangs in the moonlight. He was no more than two lengths behind them and gaining. But the stranger did the impossible—he lengthened his stride and stepped up his speed. The lead toral was no longer gaining on them. The stranger increased his speed again, and soon he was outdistancing the toral, leaving them behind as if they were slow moving Gorian turtles. Viella looked to the walls of the gorge, and saw nothing but a blur. She tried to look forward, but the wind created by his speed was blinding and brought tears to her eyes.
She closed her eyelids and relaxed. “You’re an android,” she said with a sudden realization. “No living man could shake off a stun so quickly. No living man could outrun a toral. No living man could run this fast. No living man could see where he was going in this darkness”
She could feel the heat coming from his body as his muscles pumped like a machine racing through the gorge away from the dangerous toral. “If you are a machine, then why is there heat?” Then she remembered the Galaef’s men sinking shafts into the city park. That’s it, she thought. The Galaef and his scientists have created a new android in a secret laboratory, but for some reason the android malfunctioned and escaped.
Viella looked over the stranger’s shoulder for the toral, but they were no longer in sight. After another few minutes the stranger slowed down, came to a stop, and set Viella on the ground.
She was totally convinced of his mechanical endoskeleton and his artificial intelligence. There was no other explanation for his superhuman abilities and his constant stupor.
She looked up at him and smiled. “I have my own android,” she said. She took him by the hand and started walking along the sandy bottom of the gorge.