Anne McCaffrey Freedom 2 Freedom's Choice

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'I was dropped and I stay."
.%
Kris was not the only one who thought of leaving the KDL right out in the
open. An artistically scorched glyph took the bright new KDL-45's place, but
there were actually no other options, even if they could find a Farmer
facility big enough to house it.
The ship was not just a trophy, gathering dust, although how it would be used
was yet to be decided. Scott had approved Phase Two but who knew if the
admiral, who seemed to have taken charge of the military aspect of the High
Command, felt they should attempt Phase Three.
The KDL settled itself on the wreck, compressing its empty shell.
The Deski sentries would give enough advance warning of any landings .
. . should other transports be sent here . . . so that she could lift and
settle down a few fields over, and camouflaged from casual inspection. The
Catteni rarely looked around during the process of hauling out their
passengers and what supplies accompanied them. A
certain risk was taken, but Scott had come to agree with Zainal's
assessment of the Drassi: do as little work as possible and get back to base.
"You know someone might just think it was odd that there have been three ships
blown up in this area,' Leon Dane remarked at the end of the final debriefing,
'and decide it isn't worth visiting this sector of the vast
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Eosi-Catteni empire, and leave us alone." 'I doubt that,' Easley said with a
sad grin. 'According to the latest arrivals, Earth's resistance is growing
and the Catteni are still taking anybody they think might be saboteurs and
ringleaders into custody. We had a troop of Sea Scouts in the last group, and
all they were doing was holding their monthly meeting. We may end up with
more of Earth's population here . . . and wherever else they've been dumped
. . . than on good old Terra Firma."
'If we can maintain a good fresh start approach on Botany and ditch the
attitudes that made trouble back on good old Terra Firma,' Mitford said, with
good reason to doubt the ability of people to forget ingrained intolerance and
bigotry.
Serving time in the stocks right now were three men and a woman who had
revived an old prejudice in an hour-long brawl.
The injured would serve their sentences when they had sufficiently recovered.
'The more people we get in, the more trouble we acquire."
"We've got four continents . . . well, two, if we leave the Farmers
theirs,' Leon said. 'There's enough space for everyone, isn't there?"
"For some types, there's never enough space,' Sarah said.
"Too right,' Dane agreed, exhaling tiredly.
Once the excitement of procuring and hiding the KDL calmed down, Scott and
others of the High Command, military branch spent hours debriefing the latest
arrivals from Earth, trying to figure out what had happened from reports which
were necessarily incomplete. Not much news was broadcast any more in a world
which had had twenty-four-hour news bulletin coverage.
"Disasters every time of the day or night,' Kris had said.
"Do they do that on Catten or Barevi?" Sarah had asked Zainal when they were
all sitting around their table after the evening meal in Narrow.
"Tell everyone everything? No,' and Zainal chuckled at the notion. His grey
hair had grown so long now that he was wearing it in a pony-tail, a style that
suited him better than most.
Kris had offered to braid it - Amerind fashion, as she did her now much longer
hair- but he had declined. 'Only need-to-know is told." Then he gave a shrug.
'And evenings of lies about new worlds and brave Catten."
"Recruiting?"
Zainal considered the word, squeezing Kris's hand to indicate he was going to
figure that one out himself. 'Yes, to join spacearmy." He got a thumb's-up
for accuracy from the others at the table, their scouting partners and those
from Astrid's six-strong team.
They spent a lot of time together, learning how to drive the amphibious
machine so that anyone could. The mechanics had been all over it, too,
familiarizing themselves with its equipment, engines, systems, communications
and life-support. While Mitford was ranked a senior in the High Command
Committee now governing the settlers, he still had to get 'proper clearance'
to take such a valuable piece of machinery. He also needed Scott's clearance
to take Zainal away when he might just be needed.
For something, any damned thing, rather than let us function as a team,'
Mitford had ranted the previous night. They've got both bridges manned, and
the KDL working off solar power, and we still have the Deski perimeter
listeners, so little can sneak up on us down here. If they really needed him,
Marrucci could fly over in one of those atmosphere planes now that he's
learned how not to kill himself in it.
And it doesn't leave the sort of trail visible to the spy sat." Zainal wasn't
exactly reassuring on that count because he didn't know exactly how
sophisticated the new satellite was, just that it was on a full global orbit,
checking the surface of the world once every thirty-four hours. He was
positive that the reconditioned air-cushion Farmer vehicles would not show up
on the satellite since they ran on solar power. The amphibious vehicle might
possibly be visible - since it was no longer supposed to exist - so he had
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plotted a course and they would move only when the satellite was at another
point around Botany's globe.
It might take slightly longer to reach the coast but once in the water, he
thought that the Tub would be undetectable since water would not only cool its
exterior but mask its emissions.
Kris's hand was still slightly red but her feet had healed, even if she was
careful to keep a layer of fluff as an insole. And she dearly wanted to leave
Camp Narrow for Mitford's sake as well as
Zainal's. She tried to convince herself it was just the wanderitch that made
her restless because she didn't think she had a trace of precognition in her,
but she did very much want to leave.
To go explore the neighbour continent.
Fully accustomed now to its new form, Eosi Mentat Ix was bored.
It had returned to pleasures that its weakening husk had been unable to
perform, and now these no longer satisfied its seeking for unusual
experiences. The form had been relatively circumscribed, not having had the
training of the young originally chosen from that Bloodline.
That was when it remembered the animosity and bitterness of the
Catteni mind when it had been subsumed. And Ix accessed the memories.
A brief exploration would discover if the entity's suspicions had been valid.
Ix was somewhat startled to discover that a more powerful satellite had been [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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