Alan Dean Foster Icerigger 2 Mission to Moulokin

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the shuttleport did not look up in awe when the shuttle's braking engines
fired and it settled snugly into its berthing pit, tight as a snail
withdrawing into its shell.
As the engines died, the internal supercooling ele-ments built into the skin
of the delta-winged atmos-pheric craft went to work. Soon hull and engines
them-selves were cool enough to touch.
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Alan Dean Foster - Mission to Moulokin
Suspensors moved out from waiting bays. Business-like words were exchanged
between the shivering shuttlepilot and the landing crew. Packages and crates
began to move from concealed storage bins into the shuttle, while in return
the tiny ship gave birth to a multitude of smaller sealed shapes.
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Local handicrafts were traded off for knives and lamps and stelamic weaponry.
Fragments of poor qual-ity but still immensely valuable green ozmidine bought
radios and tridees and hand communicators.
Ethan thought back to the immense volcano known to the Tran as
The-Place-Where-The-Earth's-Blood-
Burns and the cavern filled with ozmidine they'd discovered inside. He
wondered what whoever was dominating the local trade would have thought of
that breath-taking deposit of the ultraprecious green gem.
Nearby, Hellespont du Kane began chatting cheer-fully with the physician the
starship captain had thoughtfully sent down in the shuttle to attend his
unexpected, famous passenger. Colette stood watch-ing him, responding
perfunctorily to September's gruff and somewhat obscene good-bye and Williams'
more polite, deferential one.
Then there was nothing else to do, no one else to talk to, and Ethan found
himself walking over. She moved to meet him.
Several silent moments passed. Perhaps the fact that his mind was now made up
enabled him to match her stare more resolutely.
"How's your father?" he finally said lamely.
"As well as can be expected." She had to force her-self to blunt her natural
sharpness. "I keep trying to get him to consent to a body switch& he refuses
additional revivifications. He won't do it. I don't think it's a death wish.
The psychostics say it's not. But he won't agree to it even when he's senile,
let alone during his occasional bursts of full lucidity. Keeps telling me it's
time I took over, that he's held the reins long enough."
"You are ready to take over, Colette." Ethan spoke softly yet with enthusiasm.
It was extremely difficult to sell Colette on herself. "I know how the
merchant families work. I have to. I work for one myself."
"Ready or not, I have to." Her reply was so soft it was hard to believe it
came from her. "What do you have to do, Ethan?"
He smiled. It wasn't easy. "I'm sorry, Colette. Truly lam."
"First they say they're telling the truth, then they always say they're
sorry."
"Colette& " Ethan fought for words. "I'm not a teller, I'm a told. You were
raised, trained to give or-ders.
I've matured learning to take them. Advice I can offer, but never orders. I
don't think I'd be any good at it.
I'd mess up any executive position you gave me, and then you'd be forced to
cover for me. You'd have to explain me to my colleagues, the really qual-ified
executives and compusymbs." He shook his head dolefully. "I couldn't handle
the kind of snickering I'd be subjected to. And I won't accept a life as an
inef-fectual parasite."
"You have a peculiar conception of what being mated means." She sounded almost
desperate without appearing to beg. "You could do whatever you wanted to,
anything at all. Travel, hobbies& it doesn't even have to be with me." The
gaze lowered just a little. "You could& even have other women on the side, if
you so desired. I'd fix it so you could afford the best." She looked up again.
"You're a good man. You could do what you wish, so long as you& " she
hesitated, "came back to me."
"No, Colette. I have something I have to see through, here."
For an instant something flared in her eyes. "It's that muscular teddy bear,
isn't it?"
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Alan Dean Foster - Mission to Moulokin
"No." Ethan's denial gained strength from his hon-est, obvious surprise.
"Elfa's not a factor. I don't know what she sees in me, but she's a member of
another race."
"That hasn't stopped people in the past," she coun-tered accusingly.
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"It stops me. Where Elfa Kurdagh-Vlata is con-cerned, any interest other than [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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