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.And your chunky buddies over there haven't been idle."Jameson nodded toward the Carmpan."They've been getting the word out, in great detail, about what's going on here."The Carmpan in their room were all staring out at Lars.Looking at them, he felt an impulse to chant mad verse.Something about how no castrato ever sang so pure—? He had no idea where that was coming from.Now Jameson had plunged back into the tunnel beyond the blasted door, rejoining his armored comrades.There was another heavy explosion from that direction, and less deafening sounds of fighting, of weapons that wasted little energy in sound."God, how could they have landed here?" Dorothy shuddered, as if the thought of such human daring outraged her."If it was a surprise attack—and they knew just where they were going—getting the brain could knock the whole base out."Jameson and his people had left a considerable package of blasting materials behind.Lars, while his fellow prisoners demonstrated various emotions around him, stared at that pack, and poised with his muscles tensed.Now, he thought, now one of us is going to… he was afraid to look at Pat.But it was not Pat who made the move, it was Opava.Drawing a concealded handgun from inside his coverall, the soft man took aim at the pack of explosives, meaning to detonate it, to bring down the tunnel roof on Jameson and his people and save the master."A gun! He's goodlife! They let him keep a gun—"The first shot went wide, searing only rock, as Lars knocked down Opava's arm.They grappled and rolled over and over fighting, until someone clubbed Opava from behind.Naxos; he held one of the rock fragments from the tunnel's opening, and he swung it once more, hard."Damned… goodlife!" There could be no worse obscenity.Lars looked at Pat.All he could think was that it had not been her.There was no time to do more than exchange a look.Back out of the tunnel again came Jameson, followed by one or two of his people, all of them with weapons in hand, armor battered and smoking.Jameson reported in rasping gasps that his effort to blow up the berserker's brain had been foiled.The berserker's fighting machines had counterattacked at the last moment, enough of them to hold the breach.Now one of his people fired into the tunnel, as one of the guide machines appeared there.Lars seized Pat by the hand.Together they scrambled for what shelter they might find in the cell-corridor, There, was nowhere, really, to go.The two of them were cowering in his cell when an inhuman shape moved into the open doorway.It looked to Lars like a guide machine, but one of a somewhat different model than he had previously encountered, it showed some signs of battle damage.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlLars aimed at it the small sidearm he had taken from Opava—not that he had much hope that the berserkers would have given their goodlife pet a weapon with which they could be damaged.The machine said to him, in a surprisingly human voice: "Lars… the Remora program."His finger on the trigger quivered and relaxed.Still gripping Pat with one arm, Lars got to his feet."What do we do?" He felt air pressure drop again; a leak somewhere, or the berserker brain at last getting around to cutting off their life support.Pat was silent, as if she were holding her breath.A twin of the strange machine appeared, carrying a couple of spacesuits, which it tossed at the feet of the two humans."Hurry," it said to them.Lars, even as he struggled into his suit, went up and down the short corridor from cell to cell.He located Naxos and Dorothy Totonac, and told them tersely to obey the words and gestures of these new machines.Both of the other human prisoners obeyed dazedly, as spacesuits were tossed in front of them.Channith Defense Service, it said on the suits.Channith? Were was that? Lars had the feeling he ought to know…"Stand back!" It was Jameson, at the far end of the short corridor, raising a weapon at the machines that had brought the suits."No!" Lars shouted.Stull only halfway into his own suit, he hopped forward awkwardly, trying to stop the Adamant commander.Lars found suddenly that he had help.From somewhere the Carmpan—half of them now in spacesuits also—came to surround Jameson, somehow compelling him to lower his weapon.Jameson and his one surviving follower, who was badly wounded, joined the group of ED and Carmpan prisoners when they were once more conducted outside their cave complex, under a sky now mad with the ongoing fireworks of the attack.The blue-white sunlight was partially obscured by battle debris clouding nearby space.The prisoners were led by their new guide machines to one of the largest of the occupied repair docks, and into the monstrously huge berserker that waited there, most of its hull in a cavernous pit below ground level.The enormous berserker had sustained damage, and repair machines were furiously at work upon it, patching holes and loading weapons.If took a painfully, frighteningly long time to get inside, out from under the sky that still flamed silently with not-very-distant war.Once inside the great machine, the humans heard a wheezy human voice, coming from around them and ahead of them, "Kanakuru, you're there.Good.This is Hilary Gage.Tell them who I am."That voice had to be coming through air.But Lars thought the mikes on his suit weren't working right.He got his helmet open, inhaled air stale but breathable."Tell them who I am," the voice repeated."And what I am," it added."I… don't think I know.""You must know.The Carmpan tell me that it's been passed on to you, how I got into this.Unless…"Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlNow the Carmpan, easing themselves out of their own suits and helmets, surrounded Lars as they had earlier ringed Jameson.Each of them stretched out an arm, a hand.He felt the touch.Multiplied.And not of Carmpan flesh alone, but minds [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.And your chunky buddies over there haven't been idle."Jameson nodded toward the Carmpan."They've been getting the word out, in great detail, about what's going on here."The Carmpan in their room were all staring out at Lars.Looking at them, he felt an impulse to chant mad verse.Something about how no castrato ever sang so pure—? He had no idea where that was coming from.Now Jameson had plunged back into the tunnel beyond the blasted door, rejoining his armored comrades.There was another heavy explosion from that direction, and less deafening sounds of fighting, of weapons that wasted little energy in sound."God, how could they have landed here?" Dorothy shuddered, as if the thought of such human daring outraged her."If it was a surprise attack—and they knew just where they were going—getting the brain could knock the whole base out."Jameson and his people had left a considerable package of blasting materials behind.Lars, while his fellow prisoners demonstrated various emotions around him, stared at that pack, and poised with his muscles tensed.Now, he thought, now one of us is going to… he was afraid to look at Pat.But it was not Pat who made the move, it was Opava.Drawing a concealded handgun from inside his coverall, the soft man took aim at the pack of explosives, meaning to detonate it, to bring down the tunnel roof on Jameson and his people and save the master."A gun! He's goodlife! They let him keep a gun—"The first shot went wide, searing only rock, as Lars knocked down Opava's arm.They grappled and rolled over and over fighting, until someone clubbed Opava from behind.Naxos; he held one of the rock fragments from the tunnel's opening, and he swung it once more, hard."Damned… goodlife!" There could be no worse obscenity.Lars looked at Pat.All he could think was that it had not been her.There was no time to do more than exchange a look.Back out of the tunnel again came Jameson, followed by one or two of his people, all of them with weapons in hand, armor battered and smoking.Jameson reported in rasping gasps that his effort to blow up the berserker's brain had been foiled.The berserker's fighting machines had counterattacked at the last moment, enough of them to hold the breach.Now one of his people fired into the tunnel, as one of the guide machines appeared there.Lars seized Pat by the hand.Together they scrambled for what shelter they might find in the cell-corridor, There, was nowhere, really, to go.The two of them were cowering in his cell when an inhuman shape moved into the open doorway.It looked to Lars like a guide machine, but one of a somewhat different model than he had previously encountered, it showed some signs of battle damage.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlLars aimed at it the small sidearm he had taken from Opava—not that he had much hope that the berserkers would have given their goodlife pet a weapon with which they could be damaged.The machine said to him, in a surprisingly human voice: "Lars… the Remora program."His finger on the trigger quivered and relaxed.Still gripping Pat with one arm, Lars got to his feet."What do we do?" He felt air pressure drop again; a leak somewhere, or the berserker brain at last getting around to cutting off their life support.Pat was silent, as if she were holding her breath.A twin of the strange machine appeared, carrying a couple of spacesuits, which it tossed at the feet of the two humans."Hurry," it said to them.Lars, even as he struggled into his suit, went up and down the short corridor from cell to cell.He located Naxos and Dorothy Totonac, and told them tersely to obey the words and gestures of these new machines.Both of the other human prisoners obeyed dazedly, as spacesuits were tossed in front of them.Channith Defense Service, it said on the suits.Channith? Were was that? Lars had the feeling he ought to know…"Stand back!" It was Jameson, at the far end of the short corridor, raising a weapon at the machines that had brought the suits."No!" Lars shouted.Stull only halfway into his own suit, he hopped forward awkwardly, trying to stop the Adamant commander.Lars found suddenly that he had help.From somewhere the Carmpan—half of them now in spacesuits also—came to surround Jameson, somehow compelling him to lower his weapon.Jameson and his one surviving follower, who was badly wounded, joined the group of ED and Carmpan prisoners when they were once more conducted outside their cave complex, under a sky now mad with the ongoing fireworks of the attack.The blue-white sunlight was partially obscured by battle debris clouding nearby space.The prisoners were led by their new guide machines to one of the largest of the occupied repair docks, and into the monstrously huge berserker that waited there, most of its hull in a cavernous pit below ground level.The enormous berserker had sustained damage, and repair machines were furiously at work upon it, patching holes and loading weapons.If took a painfully, frighteningly long time to get inside, out from under the sky that still flamed silently with not-very-distant war.Once inside the great machine, the humans heard a wheezy human voice, coming from around them and ahead of them, "Kanakuru, you're there.Good.This is Hilary Gage.Tell them who I am."That voice had to be coming through air.But Lars thought the mikes on his suit weren't working right.He got his helmet open, inhaled air stale but breathable."Tell them who I am," the voice repeated."And what I am," it added."I… don't think I know.""You must know.The Carmpan tell me that it's been passed on to you, how I got into this.Unless…"Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlNow the Carmpan, easing themselves out of their own suits and helmets, surrounded Lars as they had earlier ringed Jameson.Each of them stretched out an arm, a hand.He felt the touch.Multiplied.And not of Carmpan flesh alone, but minds [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]