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No Plagiarism!ynHOGPkoAnoIgAl5FxQJposted on PENANA "I've always prided myself on seeing things the way they really are," Eugene Botkin said. "That's the curse of being a Technopath. You can't quit analyzing your data."
The leathered old face seemed composed in the predawn dimness as he spoke. His sapho-stained lips were drawn into a straight line with radial creases spreading upward.
A robed man squatted silently on sand across from Botkin, apparently unmoved by the words.
The two crouched beneath a rock overhang that looked down on a wide, shallow sink. Dawn was spreading over the shattered outline of cliffs across the basin, touching everything with pink. It was cold under the overhang, a dry and penetrating chill left over from the night. There'd been a warm wind just before dawn, but now it was cold. Botkin could hear teeth chattering behind him along the few soldiers remaining in his force.
The man squatting across from Botkin was a Szgany who had come across the sink in the first light of the false dawn, skittering over the sand, blending into the dunes, his movements barely discernable.
The Szgany extended a finger to the sand between them, drew a finger there. It looked like a bowl with an arrow spilling out of it. "There are many Seppanen patrols," he said. He lifted his finger, pointed upwards across the cliffs that Botkin and his men had descended.
Botkin nodded.
Many patrols, indeed.
But he still didn't know what this Szgany wanted and this rankled. Technopath training was supposed to give a man the power to see motives.
This had been the worst night of Botkin's life. He had been at Tiraq, a garrison village, buffer outpost for the former capital city, Mur Eldhe, when the reports of attack began arriving. At first, he'd thought it to be a raid, a Seppanen victory.
But report followed report---faster and faster.
Two legions landed at Mur Eldhe.
Five legions---fifty brigades!---attacking the Duke's main base at Mat E'trov.
A legion at Oftsaania.
Two more battle groups at Di Zlars.
Then the reports became more detailed---there were Imperial Sordoi among the attackers---maybe two legions of them. And it became clear that the invaders knew just exactly what weight of arms to send where. Exactly! Superb intelligence.
Botkin's shocked fury had mounted until it threatened the smooth functioning of his Technopath abilities. The size of the attack struck his mind like a physical blow.
Now, hiding beneath a bit of desert rock, he nodded to himself, pulled his torn and slashed tunic around him as if warding off the cold shadows.
The size of the attack!
He'd always expected their enemy to hire an occasional flitter from the Guild for probing raids. That was an ordinary enough gambit in this kind of House-vs-House warfare. Flitters landed and took off regularly on Dyuna to transport the spice for House Romanov. Botkin had taken precautions against random raids by bogus space lighters. For a full attack they'd expect no more than ten brigades.
But there were more than two thousand ships down on Dyuna at the last count---not just flitters, but battle cruisers, scouts, monitors, crushers, troop-carriers, dump-boxes....
More than a hundred brigades--ten legions!
Why, the entire spice income of Dyuna for 50 years might just cover the cost of such of such a venture.
Wouldn't it?
I underestimated what the Baron was willing to spend on attacking us, Botkin thought. I have failed my Duke!
Then there was the matter of the traitor.
I'll live long enough to see her garroted! he thought. I should've slain that Bala Garrasaid sorceress when I had the chance. There was no doubt in his mind who had betrayed them---the Lady Alexandra. She fitted all the available facts.
"Your man Gustav Vasa and part of his force are safe with our smuggler friends," the Szgany said.
"Good."
At least Gustav will get off this hell planet alive. We're not all gone.
Botkin glanced back at the huddle of his men. He'd started the night just past with 300 of his best. Of those, an even 20 remained and half of them were wounded. Some of them slept now, standing up, leaning against the rock, sprawled on the sand beneath the rock. Their last 'majigger, the one they'd been using as a ground-effect machine to carry their wounded, had conked out just before dawn. They had to cut it up with phasguns and hide the pieces, then worked their way down into this hiding place at the basin's edge.
Botkin had only a rough idea of their location---some two hundred kilometers southeast of Mat E'trov.. The main traveled ways between the Barrier Wall's s'yetche communities were somewhere south of them.
The Szgany across from Botkin threw back his hood and stillsuit cape to reveal his sandy hair and beard. The hair was combed straight back from a high, thin forehead. He had the inscrutable blue-in-blue eyes of the spice diet. Both beard and mustache were stained at one side of the mouth, his hair matted there by pressure of the looping catchtube from his nose plugs.
The man removed his plugs, readjusted them. He rubbed at a thin scar beside his nose.
"If you cross the sink here this night," the Szgany said, "you mustn't use your barriers. There's a break in the wall...." He turned on his heels, pointed south. "....there, and its open sand down to the erg. Barriers will attract a...." He hesitated. "....wurm. They don't often come in here, but a barrier will bring one every time."
He said wurm, Botkin thought. He was going to say something else. What? And what does he want of us?
Botkin sighed.
He couldn't recall ever being this tired. It was a muscular weariness that energy pills were unable to ease.
Damn those Sordoi to the 7th Hell!
With a self-accusing bitterness, he faced the thought of the soldier-fanatics and the Imperial treachery they represented. His own Technopath assessment of the data told him how little chance he had ever to present evidence of this treachery before the Oval Conclave of the Paarlament where justice would (?) be done.
"Do you want to go to the smugglers?" the Szgany said.
"Is it possible?"
"Yes, but the way is long."
"Szganys don't like to say no," Ukrainia had told him once.
Botkin said: "You haven't told me whether your people can help my wounded."
"They are wounded?"
The same damned question every time!
"Yes, you fool, they are wounded!" Botkin thundered. "That's beside the..."
"In unity and peace let us be, friend," the Szgany cautioned. "What do your wounded say? Are there those amongst them who can see the water need for your tribe?"
"Who speaks of water at a time like this?!" Botkin demanded. "We...."
"I understand your reluctance," the Szgany said. "They're your friends and tribesmen. Do you have water?"
"We don't have enough."
The Szgany gestured to Botkin's tunic, the skin exposed beneath it. "You were caught in-s'yetche, without your suits. You must make a water decision, sir."
"Can we hire your help?"
The Szgany shrugged. "You have no water." He glanced at the group behind Botkin. "How many of your wounded would you spend?"
Botkin fell silent, staring at the man. He could as a Technopath that their communication was out of phase. Word-sounds were not being linked up here in the usual way.
"My name is Eugene Botkin," he said. "I can speak for my duke. I will make promissory commitment now for your help. I wish a limited form of help, preserving my force long enough only to slay a traitor who thinks herself beyond revenge."
"You wish our siding in a vendetta?"
"The vendetta I'll handle myself. I wish only to be freed of my responsibility to my wounded that I may attend to it promptly."
The Szgany scowled. "But how can you be responsible for your wounded? They are their own responsibility. It's the water that's at issue, Eugene Botkin. Would you have me take that decision away from you?"
The man put a hand to a weapon hidden beneath his robe.
Botkin tensed, wondering if there was betrayal here.
"What do you fear?" the Szgany demanded.
These people and their disconcerting directness! Botkin spoke cautiously. "I have a price on my head."
"Ah-h-h-h." The Svobod removed his hand from his weapon. "You think we have Byzantine corruption. You know us not. The Seppanens have not water enough to buy toys for the smallest child among us."
But they had the price of Guild passage for more than two thousand warships, Botkin thought. And the size of that price still staggered him.
"We both fight Seppanens," Botkin said. "Should we not share the problems and ways of meeting the battle issue?"
"We are sharing," the Szgany said. "I've seen you fight Seppanens. You're good. There've been times I'd have appreciated your arm beside me."
"Say where my arm might help you," Botkin said.
"Who knows?" the Szgany asked. "There are Seppanen forces everywhere. But you still have not made the water decision or put it to your wounded."
I must be careful, Botkin told himself. There's a thing here that's not understood.
He said: "Will you show me your way, the Dyuni way?"
"Stranger-thinking," the Szgany said, and there was a sneer in his tone. He pointed to the northwest across the clifftop. "We watched you come across the sand last night." He lowered his arm. "You keep your force on the slip-face of the dunes. That's bad. You have neither stillsuits nor water. You won't last long."
"The ways of Dyuna don't come easily," Botkin said.
"Truth. But we've slain Seppanens."
"What do you do with your own wounded?" Botkin demanded.
"Does a man not know when he's worth saving?" the Svobod asked. "Your wounded know you have no water." He tilted his head, looking sideways up at Botkin. "This is clearly a time for water decision. Both wounded and unwounded must look to the tribe's future."
The tribe's future, Botkin thought. The tribe of Romanov. There's sense in that. He forced himself to the question he'd been avoiding.
"Have you word of my Duke or his son?"
Inscrutable blue eyes stared upwards into Botkin's. "Word?"
"I mean their fate!" Botkin snapped.
"Fate is the same for all," the Szgany said. "Your Duke, it is said, has met his fate. As to the Lekom-or-Goeb, his son, that is in Brunn-Ke hands. Brunn-Ke has not said."
As if I had to ask him! Botkin thought.
He glanced back at his men. They were all awake now. They had heard. They were staring out across the sand, the realization in their expressions: there was no returning to Eser for them, and now Dyuna was lost.
Botkin turned back to the Szgany. "Have you heard of Grady Ukrainia?"
"He was in the great house when the barrier collapsed," the Szgany said. "This I've heard---nothing more."
She dropped the barrier and let the Seppanens in, he thought. I was the one who sat with my back to a door. How could she do this when it meant turning also against her own son? But who knows how a Bala Garrasaid sorceress thinks....if one dares to call it thinking.
Botkin tried to swallow in a dry throat. "When will you hear about the boy?"
"We know little of what happens in Mat E'trov," the Szgany said. "Who knows?"
"You have ways of finding out?"
"We might." The Szgany rubbed at the scar beside his nose. "Do you have knowledge of the big weapons the Seppanens used, Eugene Botkin?"
The cannonballs, Botkin thought bitterly. Who could've guessed they'd use something as archaic as that in this era of barriers and phasguns?
"You refer to the cannons they used to trap our people in the caves," he said. "I've got theoretical knowledge of such rudimentary weapons."
"Any man who retreats into a cave which has only one opening deserves to die," the Szgany said.
"Why do you ask about these weapons?"
"Brunn-Ke wishes it."
Is that what he wants from us? Botkin wondered. He said: "Did you come here seeking information about the big guns?"
"Brunn-Ke wished to see one of the weapons for himself."
"Then you should just go take one," Botkin sneered.
"Yes," the Szgany said. "We took one. We've got it hidden where Tuss-Ul can study it for Brunn-Ke and where Brunn-Ke can see it for himself if he wishes. But I doubt he'll want to: the weapon is not a very good one. Poor design by Dyuni standards."
"You took one?" Botkin asked.
"It was a good fight," the Szgany said. "We lost only two men and spilled the water from more than 100 of theirs."
There were Sordoi at every gun, Botkin thought. This desert madman speaks casually of losing only two men against Sordoi!
"We would not have lost the two save for those others fighting alongside the Seppanens," the Szgany said. "Some of those are good fighters."
One of Botkin's men limped forward, looked down at the squatting Szganys. "Are you talking about Sordoi?"
"He's talking about Sordoi," Botkin said.
"Sordoi!" the Szgany said, and there seemed to be glee in his voice. "Ah-h-h, so that's what they are! This was a good fight indeed. Sordoi. Which legion. Do you know?"
"We don't know," Botkin said.
"But you know they're Sordoi."
"Who am I?" Botkin asked bitterly.
"You are Eugene Botkin," the man said matter-of-factly. "Well, we would've learned it in time. We've sent three of them captive to be questioned by Brunn-Ke's men."
Botkin's aide spoke slowly, disbelief in each word: "You captured Sordoi?"
"Only three of them," the Szgany said. "They fought well."
If only we'd had the time to link up with these Szganys, Botkin thought. It was a sour lament in his mind. If only we could've trained them and armed them. Great Mother, what a fighting force we'd have had!8964 copyright protection136PENANAci61hYihIa 維尼
"Maybe you delay because of worry over the Lekom or-Goeb," the Szgany said. "If he's truly the Lekom or-Goeb, harm cannot touch him. Do not spend thoughts on a matter which is unproven."8964 copyright protection136PENANAhPbWEIqFNg 維尼
"I serve the......Lekom or-Goeb," Botkin said. "His welfare is my concern. I've pledged myself to this."8964 copyright protection136PENANAebA3Pi3pIh 維尼
"You're pledged to his water?"8964 copyright protection136PENANArwOctnITUy 維尼
Botkin glanced at his aide, who was still staring at the Szgany, returned his attention to the squatting figure. "To his water, I am pledged."8964 copyright protection136PENANAEuPLTt26ad 維尼
"You wish to return to Mat E'trov, to the place of his water?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAGW5e2qhUqN 維尼
"To....yes, to the place of his water."8964 copyright protection136PENANARVlExV6cUr 維尼
"Why did you not say at first it was a water matter?" The Szgany stood up, seated his nose plugs firmly.8964 copyright protection136PENANANCOi6kkuQ6 維尼
Botkin motioned with his head for his aide to return to the others. With a tired shrug, the man obeyed. Botkin heard a low-voice conversation arise among the men.8964 copyright protection136PENANApkK3D9isAo 維尼
The Szgany said: "There is always a way to water."8964 copyright protection136PENANAYlnjN85wwz 維尼
Behind Botkin, a man cursed. Botkin's aide called: "Botkin! Arkady just died."8964 copyright protection136PENANALszxHzNdNc 維尼
The Szgany put a fist to his ear. "The bond of water! It's a sign!" He stared at Botkin. "We've got a place nearby for accepting the water. Shall I call my men?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAzd1poXo0Zz 維尼
The aide returned to Botkin's side, said: "Eugene, a couple of them men left wives in Mat E'trov. They're----well, you know how it is at a time like this."8964 copyright protection136PENANAqvVqKCDqSc 維尼
The Szgany still held his fist to his ear. "Is it the bond of water, Eugene Botkin?" he demanded.8964 copyright protection136PENANAy4u3XVpyfz 維尼
Botkin's mind was racing. He sensed now the direction of the Szgany's words but feared the reaction of the tired men under the rock overhang when they understood it.8964 copyright protection136PENANAieM44hiWXM 維尼
"The bond of water," Botkin said.8964 copyright protection136PENANABEfjDn79VZ 維尼
"Then let our tribes be joined," the Szgany said, and he lowered his fist.8964 copyright protection136PENANAYcPvSc1SVl 維尼
As if that were the signal, four men slid and dropped down from the rocks above them. They darted back under the overhand, rolled the dead man in a loose robe, lifted him and began running with him along the cliff wall to the right. Spurts of dust lifted around their running feet.8964 copyright protection136PENANAoYfV0kgIQ2 維尼
It was over before Botkin's tired men could gather their wits. The group with the body hanging like a sack in its enfolding robe was gone around a turn in the cliff.8964 copyright protection136PENANA6Vd3rirtGv 維尼
One of Botkin's men shouted: " Where they going with Arkady? He was......"8964 copyright protection136PENANAjF278JNA6F 維尼
"They're taking him to----bury him," Botkin said.8964 copyright protection136PENANAmZOYH5d3sf 維尼
"Szganys don't bury their dead!" the man barked. "Don't you use any tricks on us, Eugene. We know what they do. Arkady was one of..."8964 copyright protection136PENANAII4oM4Y4Ow 維尼
"Heaven was sure for a man who died in the service of Lekom or-Goeb," the Svobod said. "If it is the Lekom or-Goeb you serve, as you have said it, then why raise mourning cries? The memory of one who died in this fashion will live as long as the memory of man endures."8964 copyright protection136PENANAedQ2Zldr4J 維尼
But Botkin's men advanced, angry looks on their faces. One had captured a phasgun. He began to draw it.8964 copyright protection136PENANAJ5X2jhjBC0 維尼
"Stay where you are!" Botkin barked. He fought down the sick fatigue that gripped his muscles. 8964 copyright protection136PENANAQOQnepbe24 維尼
"These people respect our dead. Customs differ, but the meaning's the same."8964 copyright protection136PENANAZPgOe0NUCA 維尼
"They're going to render Arkady down for his water," the man with the phasgun snarled.8964 copyright protection136PENANAbwO7IHRVvJ 維尼
"Is it that your men wish to attend the ceremony?" the Szgany asked.8964 copyright protection136PENANAkOkSDMAbu3 維尼
He doesn't even see the problem, Botkin thought. The naivete of this Szgany was frightening.8964 copyright protection136PENANAKAcv9aCWqY 維尼
"They're concerned for a respected comrade," Botkin said.8964 copyright protection136PENANAY9ZgiWqlyj 維尼
"We'll treat your comrade with the same reverence we treat our own," the Szgany said. "This is the bond of water. We know the rites. A man's flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe."8964 copyright protection136PENANAfPLjIf4GZm 維尼
Botkin spoke quickly as the man with the phasgun advanced another step. "Will you now help our wounded?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAYALCYjt54a 維尼
"One does not question the bond," the Szgany said. "We'll do for you what a tribe does for its own. First, we must get all of you suited and attend to the needs."8964 copyright protection136PENANA8ctaFnUKG7 維尼
The man with the phasgun hesitated.8964 copyright protection136PENANA7dwncEHGxL 維尼
Botkin's aide said: "Are we buying help with Arkady's----water?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAJfaFfh0qX9 維尼
"We're not buying," Botkin said. "We've joined these people."8964 copyright protection136PENANAfGtmYZQrz1 維尼
"Customs differ," one of his men muttered.8964 copyright protection136PENANAAz8mMJB42v 維尼
"And they'll help us get to Mat E'trov?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAPCvoUO30oj 維尼
"We'll kill Seppanens," the Szgany said. He grinned. "And Sordoi." He stepped backward, cupped his hands beside his ears and tipped back his head, listening. Presently, he lowered his hands, said: "An aircraft comes. Hide yourself beneath the rock and stay motionless."8964 copyright protection136PENANAvqwSJmUwZz 維尼
At a gesture from Botkin, his men obeyed.8964 copyright protection136PENANAzzL0WAw12b 維尼
The Szganys took Botkin's arm, pressed him back with the others. "We'll fight in the time of fighting," the man said. He reached beneath his robes, brought out a small cage, lifted a creature from it.8964 copyright protection136PENANAXYDmtqeADY 維尼
Botkin recognized a tiny bat. The bat burned its head and Botkin saw its blue-within-blue eyes.8964 copyright protection136PENANAG5lrgsoPYS 維尼
The Szganys stroked the bat, soothing it, crooning to it. He bent over the animal's head, allowed a drop of saliva to fall from his tongue into the bat's upturned mouth. The bat stretched its wings but stayed on the Szgany's opened hand. The man took a tiny tube, held it beside the bat's head and chattered into the tube; then, lifting the creature high, he threw it upward.8964 copyright protection136PENANAg77tPi8YCj 維尼
The bat swooped away, beside the cliff and was lost to sight.8964 copyright protection136PENANASSaKPX21DY 維尼
The Szgany folded the cage, thrust it beneath his robe. Again, he bent his head, listening. "They quarter the high country," he said. "One wonders who they seek up there."8964 copyright protection136PENANAaTQ1lZBfPR 維尼
"It's known that we retreated in this direction," Botkin said.8964 copyright protection136PENANASvkwGW7Vb1 維尼
"One should never presume one is the sole object of a hunt," the Szgany said. "Watch the other side of the basin. You will see a thing."8964 copyright protection136PENANAcG5dr993Vh 維尼
Time passed.8964 copyright protection136PENANAvQGNb668sS 維尼
Some of Botkin's men stirred whispering.8964 copyright protection136PENANAnDshzeqjia 維尼
"Remain silent as frightened animals," the Szgany hissed.8964 copyright protection136PENANAW4n2FNeN37 維尼
Botkin discerned movement near the opposite cliff---flitting blurs of tan on tan.8964 copyright protection136PENANASNQYsQn4cZ 維尼
"My little friend carried his message," the Szgany said. "He's a good messenger---day or night. I'll be sad to lose that one."8964 copyright protection136PENANAoFLdHT36P0 維尼
The movement across the sink faded away. One the entire four-to-five-kilometer expanse of sand nothing remained but the growing pressure of the day's heat---blurred columns of rising air.8964 copyright protection136PENANATySeINuvnj 維尼
"Be most silent now," the Szgany whispered.8964 copyright protection136PENANAZrusITUzfH 維尼
A file of plodding figures emerged from a break in the opposite cliff, headed directly across the sink. To Botkin, they seemed to be Szganys, but a curiously inept band. He counted six men making heavy going of it over the dunes.8964 copyright protection136PENANAqMRqzsf7Bp 維尼
A "thwok-thowk" of ornimajigger wings sounded high on the right behind Botkin's group. The craft came over the cliff wall above them---a Romanov 'majigger with Seppanen battle colors splashed upon it. The 'majigger swooped towards the men crossing the sink.8964 copyright protection136PENANAV4B4LwQh3J 維尼
The group there stopped on a dune crest, waved.8964 copyright protection136PENANA7N3VE0b7vr 維尼
The 'majigger circled once over them in a tight curve, came back for a dust-shrouded landing in front of the Szganys. Five men swarmed from the 'majigger and Botkin saw the dust-repellant shimmering of shields and, in their motions, the hard competence of Sordoi.8964 copyright protection136PENANADzZufgCX1V 維尼
"Aieeee! They use their stupid barriers," the Szgany beside Botkin hissed. He glanced towards the open south wall of the sink.8964 copyright protection136PENANAMb72N7bbbj 維尼
"They're Sordoi!" Botkin whispered.8964 copyright protection136PENANA0x0p2NzTgZ 維尼
"Good."8964 copyright protection136PENANA5G0qxncmq3 維尼
The Sordoi approached the waiting group of Szganys in an enclousing half-circle. Sun glinted on blades held ready. The Szganys stood in a compact group, apparently indifferent.8964 copyright protection136PENANAHduTV3CNHb 維尼
Abruptly, the sand around the two groups sprouted Szganys. They were at the ornithopter, then in it. When the two groups had met at the dune crest, a dust cloud partly obscured violent motion.8964 copyright protection136PENANA0x9eXQLgn1 維尼
Presently, dust settled. Only Szganys remained standing.8964 copyright protection136PENANAjhU6qd9pZs 維尼
"They left only three men in their 'majigger," the Szgany beside Botkin said. "That was fortunate. I don't believe we had to damage the craft in taking it."8964 copyright protection136PENANAEonjQ5k8bZ 維尼
Behind Botkin, one of his men whispered. "Those were Sordoi?"8964 copyright protection136PENANAOqX1E5T8ot 維尼
"Did you notice how well they fought?" the Szgany asked.8964 copyright protection136PENANAi3hkQ4q2di 維尼
Botkin took a deep breath. He smelled the burned dust around him, felt the heat, the dryness. In a voice to match that dryness, he said: "Yes, they fought well, indeed."8964 copyright protection136PENANA93U1zqYqyY 維尼
The captured 'majigger took off with a lurching flap of wings, angled upward to the south in a steep, wing-tucked climb.8964 copyright protection136PENANAEDracIbOfd 維尼
These Szganys can handle 'majiggers, too, thought Botkin.8964 copyright protection136PENANA1BVWEKvJ2M 維尼
On the distant dune, a Szgany waved a square of green cloth: once---twice.8964 copyright protection136PENANAGt0ZGjTQ5E 維尼
"More come!" the Szgany beside Botkin barked. "Be ready. I'd hoped to have us away without more inconvenience."8964 copyright protection136PENANA2Sq1ZImOAQ 維尼
Inconvenience! Botkin thought.8964 copyright protection136PENANAjioo3rjqXr 維尼
He saw two more 'majiggers swooping from high in the west into an area of sand suddenly devoid of visible Szganys. Only eight splotches of blue---the bodies of the Sordoi in Seppanen uniforms---remained at the scene of violence.8964 copyright protection136PENANAAjJXkdGuWM 維尼
Another 'majigger glided in over the cliff wall above Botkin. He drew in a sharp breath as he saw it---a big troop carrier. It flew with the slow, spread-wing heaviness of a full load---like a giant bird coming home to roost.8964 copyright protection136PENANAIHWETBo3IZ 維尼
In the distance, the purple finger of a phasgun beam flicked from one of the diving 'majiggers. It laced across the sand, raising a sharp wall of dust.8964 copyright protection136PENANAl0qA9UQqCY 維尼
"The cowards!" the Szgany beside Botkin snapped.8964 copyright protection136PENANAEIvSugKPxG 維尼
The troop carrier steeled towards the patch of blue-clad bodies. Its wings swept out to full reach, began the cupping action of a quick stop.8964 copyright protection136PENANA9YpnEU6evE 維尼
Botkin's attention was caught by a flash of sun upon metal to the south, a 'majigger plummeting there in a power drive, wings folded flat against its sides, its jets a golden flare against the dark silvered gray of the sky. It plunged like an arrow towards the troop carrier which was unbarriered because of the phasgun activity around it. Straight into the carrier the diving 'majigger plunged.8964 copyright protection136PENANAXgu9saLAHr 維尼
A flaming roar shook the basin. Rocks tumbled from cliff walls all around. A geyser of red-orange shot skyward from the sand where the carrier and its companion 'majiggers had been---everything there caught in the flame.8964 copyright protection136PENANAGnXvfuPIKp 維尼
"It was the Szgany who took off in the captured 'majigger, Botkin thought. He deliberately sacrificed himself to get that carrier. Great Mother! What are these Szganys?8964 copyright protection136PENANAvQYHKC0ZIx 維尼
"It was a reasonable exchange," said the Szgany beside Botkin. "There must've been three hundred men in that carrier. Now, we must see to their water and make plans to get another aircraft." He started to step out of their rock-shadowed concealment.8964 copyright protection136PENANA3A8ztE7DJL 維尼
A rain of blue uniforms came over the cliff wall in front of him, falling in low-suspensor slowness. In the flashing instant, Botkin had time to see that they were Sordoi, hard faces set in battle frenzy, that they were unshielded, and each carried a knife in one hand, a stunner in the other.8964 copyright protection136PENANAi9xoWmKBkj 維尼
A thrown knife caught Botkin's Szgany companion in the throat, hurling him backwards, twisting his face down. Botkin had only time to draw his own knife before blackness of a stunner projectile felled him.8964 copyright protection136PENANAa7BmpLl23d 維尼
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