[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Admiralty could afford good lawyers. It could afford bail. It could afford to
bribe judges, or make deals with the government behind closed doors. For that
matter, it could afford jailbreaks if it was desperate enough to learn how I
got a Sperm-tube by the tail.
"Smallwood! You know we mean business. Come out before things get ugly."
Festina muttered, "Dipshits must take the same Bad Dialogue course as
starship captains." She raised her voice, and called, "This is Admiral Festina
Ramos. I order you sailors to stand down."
"No can do, Admiral," the Mouth yelled. "You aren't in our chain of command."
Something hit the dome's structure field. Maybe a sledgehammer. Maybe
something heavier. The dome shivered and rattled like tinsel paper, but held
solid.
"House-soul, attend," Festina said. "Dome field, one-way transparent, looking
out."
The dirt brown color of the dome field started to thin, like smoked glass
turning clear. Outside in the compound, Mouth and Muscle stood in tough-guy
poses, staring at us... or rather at the blank dome surface, which would still
be solid brown from their point of view. The Muscle held a whopping
donkey-dick of a gun, one he had to prop over his shoulder to fire. A bazooka?
Pity I couldn't link to the world-soul and look up weapons so illegal not even
planetary governments could own one.
"Don't worry," Oh-God said weakly. "This dome's as strong as they come. We
can hold out..."
The bazooka fired. A finger-sized missile burst out of its muzzle, flashed
through the air on a belch of smoke, and exploded against the dome's shell.
Boom. By which I mean BOOM. Blazing, blinding white. The dome field shuddered
and snapped with electric crackles.
"No problem," Oh-God said. His voice sounded like gargling.
Tic moved close to Festina and me. "Even if the dome field holds, we can't
afford to sit out a siege. Oh-God's condition is plunging by the minute. He
won't last much longer." Tic glanced at the dipshits outside. "Could we just
drop the dome and rush them?"
Festina shook her head. "Look what he's got," she said, pointing toward
Mouth. Twilight made it hard to see, but the man was holding a pair of
fist-sized matte silver balls, one in each hand. "Those are stun grenades,"
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Festina told us. "Same principle as a stun-pistol, but with a good wide field
of effect. If we try charging, those grenades will drop us in a second."
"What if one of us sneaks out the back?" I suggested. "Tic flies faster than
they can run. If he gets clear of the jamming field, he can call for help."
"And if they notice him leaving," Festina said, "they drop him with a stun
grenade. Then they've got a hostage."
"Do we have another alternative?" Tic asked. "Is it totally naive to throw
ourselves on their mercy? For Oh-God's sake?"
Damn right,I thought,totally naive. But was it? Yes, the dipshits had been
ready to crack open my brain; and I was sure they wouldn't mind roughing us
up, maybe just in revenge for me breaking Mouth's knee. But would they sit
doing butt-nothing and let Oh-God die? That was as good as murder, according
to the League of Peoples the Mouth and Muscle would be branded dangerous
non-sentients. Meaning they could never leave Demoth. Meaning if they tried to
leave Demoth, their hearts would magically stop the second they got out of our
star system.
Were these men really that devoutly loyal to the High Council? Loyal enough
to strand themselves on Demoth for the rest of their lives, running and hiding
from local police? Maybe. Or maybe they just didn't think that far ahead all
thought focused on their brain-blinkered mission and let tomorrow take care of
itself.
Muscle fired his bazooka again. The dome field jumped and crackled, fighting
to hold its structure. At the point of impact the field broke into a
crazy-quilt zigzag of colors, like a vidscreen with a three-year-old twirling
its control knobs. The jaggies only lasted a second, then damped down, as the
dome sucked up power to stabilize itself; but any fool could see the future
didn't look rosy.
"One more blast will do it," Festina muttered. "We're out of options." She
bent and scooped Oh-God from his cot. "Get to the back of the dome," she told
us. "When the field collapses, scatter and run. If we spread out fast, maybe
we won't all be in the daze-radius of the grenades."
They'll just hunt us down in their skimmer,I thought.Let's try something
else. "House-soul, attend," I snapped. "I'm a friend of Xé. Make a pinhole in
the dome's back wall."
It shouldn't have worked; Oh-God hadn't programmed the house-soul to
recognize my voice. Or to obey me, even if it knew who the blazes I was. But a
pimple of distortion pustuled up in the dome field like a bubble in glass,
then popped to open a pinprick puncture to the outside.
"Peacock," I said. "Get us out of here."
One moment there was nothing; then the peacock tube was there, mouth flaring
wide in front of me, tapering down to a thread that passed through the pinhole
then widened again, wisping up over the trees and off into the twilit sky.
This time, I reacted faster than Festina I shovedher into the tube. She had
Oh-God in her arms; he hollered, "Oh shi..." as they both vanished, like
cartoon figures sucked up by the hose of a vacuum cleaner.
"You're next," I told Tic. He looked like he wanted to argue; so I hit him
with a beautiful forearm sweep, knocking him clean off his feet and into the
Page 156
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Sperm-tail, light as a rag doll.
Outside in the compound, the bazooka fired again. As the missile struck
target, the dome field popped like a soap bubble, obliterated by the force of
the explosion. With nothing to stop it, the blast kept coming: the fire, the
thunder, a hammer of wind slamming me off my feet. The Peacock's mouth darted
forward to catch me... and then I was spilling down its gullet, spun out like
yarn from a spinning wheel, thin as a hair and a universe long.
I don't remember landing; I must have soaked up enough bazooka blast to black
out for a moment. Next thing I knew, Festina was crouched beside me, shaking
my shoulder. "Faye. Faye. Come on, Faye, talk to me."
"How about I say, 'Ouch.' "
"Better than nothing."
She sat back and gave me the once-over. As much as she could see in the
half-gray light. Why was she looking so precious keen at my face? The skin
felt tight and tingly, like I'd caught a wicked sunburn: scorch from the
explosion. Was that what she was looking at? Or was she just looking atme, her
eyes so worried-concerned, full of I don't know what...
Let it go. Stick with simple thoughts. Like whether I had any major hurts.
No, nothing serious. I could wiggle my fingers. I could wiggle my toes. I just [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
Admiralty could afford good lawyers. It could afford bail. It could afford to
bribe judges, or make deals with the government behind closed doors. For that
matter, it could afford jailbreaks if it was desperate enough to learn how I
got a Sperm-tube by the tail.
"Smallwood! You know we mean business. Come out before things get ugly."
Festina muttered, "Dipshits must take the same Bad Dialogue course as
starship captains." She raised her voice, and called, "This is Admiral Festina
Ramos. I order you sailors to stand down."
"No can do, Admiral," the Mouth yelled. "You aren't in our chain of command."
Something hit the dome's structure field. Maybe a sledgehammer. Maybe
something heavier. The dome shivered and rattled like tinsel paper, but held
solid.
"House-soul, attend," Festina said. "Dome field, one-way transparent, looking
out."
The dirt brown color of the dome field started to thin, like smoked glass
turning clear. Outside in the compound, Mouth and Muscle stood in tough-guy
poses, staring at us... or rather at the blank dome surface, which would still
be solid brown from their point of view. The Muscle held a whopping
donkey-dick of a gun, one he had to prop over his shoulder to fire. A bazooka?
Pity I couldn't link to the world-soul and look up weapons so illegal not even
planetary governments could own one.
"Don't worry," Oh-God said weakly. "This dome's as strong as they come. We
can hold out..."
The bazooka fired. A finger-sized missile burst out of its muzzle, flashed
through the air on a belch of smoke, and exploded against the dome's shell.
Boom. By which I mean BOOM. Blazing, blinding white. The dome field shuddered
and snapped with electric crackles.
"No problem," Oh-God said. His voice sounded like gargling.
Tic moved close to Festina and me. "Even if the dome field holds, we can't
afford to sit out a siege. Oh-God's condition is plunging by the minute. He
won't last much longer." Tic glanced at the dipshits outside. "Could we just
drop the dome and rush them?"
Festina shook her head. "Look what he's got," she said, pointing toward
Mouth. Twilight made it hard to see, but the man was holding a pair of
fist-sized matte silver balls, one in each hand. "Those are stun grenades,"
Page 155
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Festina told us. "Same principle as a stun-pistol, but with a good wide field
of effect. If we try charging, those grenades will drop us in a second."
"What if one of us sneaks out the back?" I suggested. "Tic flies faster than
they can run. If he gets clear of the jamming field, he can call for help."
"And if they notice him leaving," Festina said, "they drop him with a stun
grenade. Then they've got a hostage."
"Do we have another alternative?" Tic asked. "Is it totally naive to throw
ourselves on their mercy? For Oh-God's sake?"
Damn right,I thought,totally naive. But was it? Yes, the dipshits had been
ready to crack open my brain; and I was sure they wouldn't mind roughing us
up, maybe just in revenge for me breaking Mouth's knee. But would they sit
doing butt-nothing and let Oh-God die? That was as good as murder, according
to the League of Peoples the Mouth and Muscle would be branded dangerous
non-sentients. Meaning they could never leave Demoth. Meaning if they tried to
leave Demoth, their hearts would magically stop the second they got out of our
star system.
Were these men really that devoutly loyal to the High Council? Loyal enough
to strand themselves on Demoth for the rest of their lives, running and hiding
from local police? Maybe. Or maybe they just didn't think that far ahead all
thought focused on their brain-blinkered mission and let tomorrow take care of
itself.
Muscle fired his bazooka again. The dome field jumped and crackled, fighting
to hold its structure. At the point of impact the field broke into a
crazy-quilt zigzag of colors, like a vidscreen with a three-year-old twirling
its control knobs. The jaggies only lasted a second, then damped down, as the
dome sucked up power to stabilize itself; but any fool could see the future
didn't look rosy.
"One more blast will do it," Festina muttered. "We're out of options." She
bent and scooped Oh-God from his cot. "Get to the back of the dome," she told
us. "When the field collapses, scatter and run. If we spread out fast, maybe
we won't all be in the daze-radius of the grenades."
They'll just hunt us down in their skimmer,I thought.Let's try something
else. "House-soul, attend," I snapped. "I'm a friend of Xé. Make a pinhole in
the dome's back wall."
It shouldn't have worked; Oh-God hadn't programmed the house-soul to
recognize my voice. Or to obey me, even if it knew who the blazes I was. But a
pimple of distortion pustuled up in the dome field like a bubble in glass,
then popped to open a pinprick puncture to the outside.
"Peacock," I said. "Get us out of here."
One moment there was nothing; then the peacock tube was there, mouth flaring
wide in front of me, tapering down to a thread that passed through the pinhole
then widened again, wisping up over the trees and off into the twilit sky.
This time, I reacted faster than Festina I shovedher into the tube. She had
Oh-God in her arms; he hollered, "Oh shi..." as they both vanished, like
cartoon figures sucked up by the hose of a vacuum cleaner.
"You're next," I told Tic. He looked like he wanted to argue; so I hit him
with a beautiful forearm sweep, knocking him clean off his feet and into the
Page 156
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Sperm-tail, light as a rag doll.
Outside in the compound, the bazooka fired again. As the missile struck
target, the dome field popped like a soap bubble, obliterated by the force of
the explosion. With nothing to stop it, the blast kept coming: the fire, the
thunder, a hammer of wind slamming me off my feet. The Peacock's mouth darted
forward to catch me... and then I was spilling down its gullet, spun out like
yarn from a spinning wheel, thin as a hair and a universe long.
I don't remember landing; I must have soaked up enough bazooka blast to black
out for a moment. Next thing I knew, Festina was crouched beside me, shaking
my shoulder. "Faye. Faye. Come on, Faye, talk to me."
"How about I say, 'Ouch.' "
"Better than nothing."
She sat back and gave me the once-over. As much as she could see in the
half-gray light. Why was she looking so precious keen at my face? The skin
felt tight and tingly, like I'd caught a wicked sunburn: scorch from the
explosion. Was that what she was looking at? Or was she just looking atme, her
eyes so worried-concerned, full of I don't know what...
Let it go. Stick with simple thoughts. Like whether I had any major hurts.
No, nothing serious. I could wiggle my fingers. I could wiggle my toes. I just [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]