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"And it doesn't fit. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with any known
human characteristics. It's some new trait. Or traits."
"I wonder if it has anything to do with the mind arrays?" Serena Half
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Moon said.
"So do I," Hith Mun Alter replied. "So do I."
TERRA
Thargos the Hunter stared in pop-eyed disbelief at the screens in his lander
that monitored the Terran Wide Web He didn't need the translations that
droned automatically into his skull, and finally he turned them off. They
were a needless distraction and he wanted, needed, to think.
The Terrie government obviously had applied a full disinformation spin to the
visit. "Routine talks," they said. "A mid-level Alban official," they said.
He'd watched the arrival of what had to be the largest space vessel ever
built. Nice ride for a mid-level official, he thought. But when the
recording modules had caught a brief glimpse of that same official as he
entered the Confed chairman's domains, together with his retinue, he'd
understood. And his eyes had bulged.
The mid-level official turned out to be the pack lord himselP. And in his
retinue walked both the Terran boy, Jim Endicott, and the Alban agent, Korkal
Emut Denai.
Everything he'd feared had now come to pass. He had failed in every one of
his efforts, and now the pack lord had personally brought the boy home. Of
course, that could not be the prime reason for his presence. Thargos tried to
imagine a reason sufficiently urgent for the pack lord not only to risk his
life by running the blockade surrounding
Alba, but to leave Alba in the midst of the greatest crisis in his empire's
history.
He ticked off what he knew: first, Alba had guarded Terra for several years,
for reasons yet to be determined, but involving one Delta and some sort of
technology controlled by Second, Delta had been searching for Jim Endicott,
had found and shortly thereafter Delta had vanished.
Third, Alba had great interest in this unknown Terrie boy, who had worked of
piloting as recently as a few clawfuls of days ago while the
Hunzzan blockade. Now the pack lord at incomprehensible to himself and his
people, had come with the boy to Terra.
So the answer, while shadowy in detail, was shockingly its overall shape:
since the existence of the Albagensian was at stake, only something absolutely
crucial to Alba's would bring Hith Mun Alter here.
And somehow, maybe only by blind luck, Thargos the was the only Hunzzan agent
in a position to do anything
For a moment his thoughts turned to his own situation. ideas of security were
laughably primitive. His own largest he possessed, was parked in a sub
aquatic pen at the of the Confed Island, disguised by its entry codes as an
anonymous visitor from a distant Terran undersea community. He:] excellent
communications set up with his ship hidden on with coded messages riding
piggyback on various Terran feeds to their satellite.
But he'd left the last nuke aboard his spacecraft. His contained only mundane
weaponry, perhaps sufficient to his escape if need be, but certainly not
powerful enough one of the Alban cruisers now swarming in
close orbit Terra. He didn't even want to think about what kinds of might be
aboard the monstrous Alban ship that had pack lord here.
He didn't know enough, but in some ways he knew too Very well, construct a
fallback. His second goal must be to this planet and return to his own ship,
which would at greatly expand his capabilities.
That might be tricky. But goal wasn't. He spoke softly but clearly.
"Send to the mother ship that Hith Mun Alter, the packlbrd! on Terra and
meeting with the Confed chairman. Current mates of Alban naval strength in
Sol System are two squadrons and a half, and one gigantic ship of
capabilities. I recommend immediate attack in force on System.
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Advise optimum strategy as multi fleet engagement the strategic goal of
destroying Sol System's sun." .... Sun-poppers. The time for half measures
was over. Whatever advantage the pack lord sought here would not survive in
the blinding flare of a full-blown nova. In fact, nothing would survive,
nothing at all.
He waited for a good amount of time until the reply was relayed to him.
Hunzzan High Command agreed with him. So Hunzza would arrive with as much
power as it could muster. The ETA would be in seven Terran days.
Seven days until the utter destruction of Sol System and every living thing in
it.
That outcome suited Thargos just free.
he first things to come down from the great Alban ship were gigantic trans
matter disks. As soon as they were set up, they began to disgorge an endless
stream of scientists and the equipment they had brought with them, machines
not even dreamed of by Terran technology.
It went very quickly. Many of the problems had been solved by feverish work
on the voyage from Alba to Terra. The remaining riddles were quickly
unraveled through frantic cooperation between Alban and Terran scientists.
The first test was ready to go just about the time Hith
Mun Alter stepped from his quarters aboard the Albagens
Pride through a trans matter disk into Serena Half Moon's office. "We have
problems," he said without preamble. "With the test?"
"No. That seems to be on schedule. But the schedule may be too lengthy now."
"Um? Why is that?"
He gestured his frustration. "We have a clear feed from Alba.
The blockade shields are down, so they can transmit again."
"Is that bad?"
"Yes. The three Hunzzan blockading fleets have vanished. The high est
probability is they are headed here. Somehow they found out, Serena, and now
they're coming. Damn it to the Seven Cold Hells!"
She raised her head. "How much time?"
"I don't know. We have ships searching for those fleets. they find them
we'll know more. Five of your days, maybe six.
less. I've ordered every Alban unit able to' move to converge "Will they be
in time?"
'tlo knows? Even ffthey are, will they be enough? We onlyl of three
Hunzzan fleets. There may be more. They ma)
"Can your ship protect us?"
"No. Not against an attack of that size."
"I see." She scrubbed at her eyes. "The test commences an hour."
"It had better work. Even if it does, it may not be though. They'll
be coming with sun-poppers." "Sun-poppers?"
"Fo destroy your star. I'm a prize. Hunzza may believe prize worth
destroying a system for. I might believe that, too," "Can we evacuate the
systemg".
He stared at her. "Nventy billion people?"
"I'm sorry. Of course it's impossible." She sighed and
"Let's go watch the test. Do your people pray?." "Some do. I
haven't. Not in a long time." "Me either. But I will now. I'll pray it
works." It didn' thy me?" Jim said. "I gave you everything
Everything I knew."
Serena Half Moon smiled at him. Her smile around the edges, as if gravity
pulled too hard at the her mouth. When she finally spoke, she kept her tones
soft and soothing. "Nobody's blaming you, Jim. You didn't so you couldn't
tell us." 'Tell you what?" "Lord
Endicott--Jim."
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"Yes, Hith?"
"It's the Plebs. Serena's people rounded up several and we hooked them up.
Nothing happened. At first we thought it was some flaw in the linkages, but
there was no flaw. The linkages should have worked perfectly. But they
didn't. They didn't work at all."
"Do you know why not?"
Serena turned away. "Yes. Your real mother was wiser---or more careful--than
we imagined. The links cannot work without the conscious agreement of the
individual participants. Each and every Pleb must give informed consent to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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