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03 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter three from the Spaceport gates. Exchanging brief greetings with
0:05
Speaker 1: the guards, I took a last look at the Karsa.
0:08
Speaker 1: For a minute, I toyed with the notion of just
0:10
Speaker 1: disappearing down one of those streets. It's not hard to
0:13
Speaker 1: disappear on Wolf if you know how. And I knew,
0:17
Speaker 1: or had known once loyalty to Tara. What a Terra
0:21
Speaker 1: given me except a taste of color and adventure out
0:24
Speaker 1: there in the dry towns, and then taken it away again.
0:27
Speaker 1: If an earth man is very lucky and very careful,
0:30
Speaker 1: he lasts about ten years in intelligence. I had had
0:34
Speaker 1: two years more than my share, and I still knew
0:37
Speaker 1: enough to leave my Terran identity behind like a worn
0:39
Speaker 1: out jacket. I could seek out, recall, settle our blood feud,
0:43
Speaker 1: see Julie again. How could I see Julie again as
0:47
Speaker 1: her husband's murderer? No other way? Blood feud on Wolf
0:51
Speaker 1: is a terrible and elaborate ritual of the code Duello.
0:55
Speaker 1: And once I stepped outside the borders of Terran law,
0:57
Speaker 1: sooner or later Rakhal and I would meet, and one
1:01
Speaker 1: of us would die. I looked back, just once at
1:04
Speaker 1: the dark rambling streets, away from the square. Then I
1:08
Speaker 1: turned toward the blue white lights that hurt my eyes,
1:10
Speaker 1: and the starship that loomed huge and hateful before me.
1:14
Speaker 1: A steward in white took my finger print and led
1:16
Speaker 1: me to a coffin sized chamber. He brought me coffee
1:19
Speaker 1: and sandwiches I hadn't after all eaten in the spaceport cafe.
1:23
Speaker 1: Then got me into the sky hook and strapped me
1:25
Speaker 1: deftly and firmly into the acceleration. Cushions tugged at the
1:29
Speaker 1: garranson belts until I ached all over. A long needle
1:32
Speaker 1: went into my arm, the narcotic that would keep me
1:35
Speaker 1: safely drowsy all through the terrible tug of interstellar acceleration.
1:40
Speaker 1: Doors clanged, buzzers vibrated. Lower down in the ship, men
1:44
Speaker 1: tramped the corridors, calling to one another in the language
1:47
Speaker 1: of the spaceports. I understood one word in four. I
1:52
Speaker 1: shut my eyes, not caring. At the end of the
1:55
Speaker 1: trip there would be another star, another world, another language,
1:59
Speaker 1: another life. I had spent all my adult life on wolf.
2:04
Speaker 1: Julie had been a child under the red Star, but
2:07
Speaker 1: it was a pair of wide, crimson eyes and black
2:09
Speaker 1: hair combed into ringlets like spun black glass that went
2:12
Speaker 1: down with me into the bottomless pit of sleep. Some
2:16
Speaker 1: one was shaking me, Ah, come on, cargo, wake up, man,
2:19
Speaker 1: shake your boots. My mouth foul tasting and stiff, fumbled
2:23
Speaker 1: at the shapes of words. Wahaven woy what. My eyes throbbed.
2:29
Speaker 1: When I got them open, I saw two men in
2:30
Speaker 1: black leathers bending over me. We were still inside gravity.
2:35
Speaker 1: Get out of the skyhook you're comin with us? Wha,
2:40
Speaker 1: even through the layers of the sedative that got to me.
2:42
Speaker 1: Only a criminal under interstellar law can be removed from
2:45
Speaker 1: a passage paid starship once he has formerly checked in
2:47
Speaker 1: on board. I was legally at this moment on my
2:51
Speaker 1: planet of destination. I haven't been charged. Did I say
2:57
Speaker 1: you had snapped? One man shut up, he's doped, the
3:01
Speaker 1: other said, hurriedly. Look. He continued, pronouncing every word loudly
3:05
Speaker 1: and distinctly. Get up, now, come with us. The coordinator
3:10
Speaker 1: will hold up blast off if we don't get off
3:12
Speaker 1: in three minutes, and operations will scream come on please.
3:16
Speaker 1: Then I was stumbling along the lighted, empty corridor, swaying
3:20
Speaker 1: between the two men, foggily realizing the crew must think
3:22
Speaker 1: me a fugitive caught trying to leave the planet. The
3:25
Speaker 1: locks dilated. A uniformed spaceman watched us fussily regarding a chronometer.
3:30
Speaker 1: He fretted the dispatcher's office. We're doing the best we can.
3:34
Speaker 1: The Space Force man said, can you walk, Cargo? I could,
3:38
Speaker 1: though my feet were a little shaky on the ladders.
3:40
Speaker 1: The violet moonlight had deepened to mauve, and gusty winds
3:44
Speaker 1: spun tendrils of grit across my face. The Space Force
3:47
Speaker 1: men shepherded me, one on either side, to the gateway.
3:50
Speaker 1: What the hell is all? This is something wrong with
3:52
Speaker 1: my pass? The guard shook his head. How would I know?
3:56
Speaker 1: Magnuson put out the order take it up with him me,
4:00
Speaker 1: I muttered, I will. They looked at each other, Hell
4:04
Speaker 1: said one. He's not under arrest. We don't have to
4:07
Speaker 1: haul him around like a convict. Can you walk all
4:09
Speaker 1: right now, Cargle. You know where the Secret Service office is,
4:12
Speaker 1: don't you? Floor thirty eight? The chief wants you and
4:15
Speaker 1: make it fast. I knew it made no sense to
4:17
Speaker 1: ask questions. They obviously knew no more than I did.
4:20
Speaker 1: I asked anyhow are they holding the ship for me?
4:23
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be leaving on it, not that one,
4:26
Speaker 1: the guard answered, jerking his head toward the spaceport. I
4:29
Speaker 1: looked back just in time to see the dust dimmed
4:31
Speaker 1: ship leap upward, briefly whitening in the field of searchlights,
4:35
Speaker 1: and vanish into the surging clouds above. My head was
4:38
Speaker 1: clearing fast, and anger speeded up the process. The HQ
4:42
Speaker 1: building was empty and the chill silence of just before dawn.
4:45
Speaker 1: I had to rout out a dozing elevator operator, and
4:48
Speaker 1: as the lift swooped upward, my anger rose with it.
4:51
Speaker 1: I wasn't working for Magnuson any more. What right had
4:54
Speaker 1: he or anybody to gram me off an outbound starship
4:57
Speaker 1: like a criminal. By the time I barged into his
4:59
Speaker 1: office eye I was spoiling for a fight. The Secret
5:03
Speaker 1: Service office was full of grayish pink morning and yellow
5:06
Speaker 1: lights left on from the night before. Magduson at his
5:09
Speaker 1: desk looked as if he'd slept in his rumpled uniform.
5:12
Speaker 1: He was a big bull of a man, and his
5:14
Speaker 1: littered desk looked as always like the track of a typhoon.
5:17
Speaker 1: In the salt flats. The clutter was weighed down here
5:20
Speaker 1: and there with solidopic cubes of the five Maguson youngsters,
5:23
Speaker 1: and as usual, Magduson was fiddling with one of the cubes.
5:26
Speaker 1: He said, not looking up, sorry to pull this at
5:29
Speaker 1: the last minute. Race. There was just time to put
5:31
Speaker 1: out a pull order and get you off the ship,
5:33
Speaker 1: but no time to explain. I glared at him. Seems
5:37
Speaker 1: I can't even get off the planet without trouble. You
5:40
Speaker 1: raised hell all the time I was here, But when
5:41
Speaker 1: I try to leave, what is this anyhow? I'm sick
5:44
Speaker 1: of being shoved around. Magduson made a conciliating gesture, wait
5:49
Speaker 1: until you hear he began and broke off, looking at
5:51
Speaker 1: someone who was sitting in the chair in front of
5:53
Speaker 1: his desk, somebody whose back was turned to me. Then
5:57
Speaker 1: the person twisted, and I stopped cold, blinking and wondering
6:00
Speaker 1: if this were a hallucination and I'd wake up in
6:02
Speaker 1: the starship's skyhook, far out in space. Then the woman cried, Race, Race,
6:08
Speaker 1: don't you know me? I took one dazed step and another.
6:13
Speaker 1: Then she flew across the space between us, her thin
6:15
Speaker 1: arms tangling around my neck and I caught her up,
6:18
Speaker 1: still disbelieving. Julie, Oh Race, I thought i'd die when
6:23
Speaker 1: Mac told me you were leaving tonight. It's been the
6:25
Speaker 1: only thing that's kept me alive, knowing, knowing I'd see you.
6:28
Speaker 1: She sobbed and laughed, her face buried in my shoulder.
6:32
Speaker 1: I let her cry for a minute, then held my
6:34
Speaker 1: sister at arm's length for a moment. I had forgotten
6:36
Speaker 1: the six years that lay between us. Now I saw them,
6:39
Speaker 1: all of them printed plain on her face. Julie had
6:43
Speaker 1: been a pretty girl. Six years had fined her face
6:46
Speaker 1: into beauty, but there was tension in the set of
6:48
Speaker 1: her shoulders, and her gray eyes had looked on horrors.
6:52
Speaker 1: She looked tiny and thin and unbearably frail under the
6:55
Speaker 1: scanty folds of her fur robe, a dry town woman's robe.
6:59
Speaker 1: Her wrists were manacled the jeweled, tight bracelets, fastened together
7:03
Speaker 1: by the links of a long, fine chain of silvered
7:05
Speaker 1: gilt that clashed a little thinly as her hands fell
7:08
Speaker 1: to her sides. What's wrong, Julie, where's Rakhal? She shivered,
7:14
Speaker 1: and now I could see that she was in a
7:16
Speaker 1: state of shock. Gone, He's gone, That's all I know,
7:20
Speaker 1: And oh, Race, Race, He took Rindy with him. From
7:24
Speaker 1: the tone of her voice, I had thought she was sobbing.
7:27
Speaker 1: Now I realized that her eyes were dry. She was
7:29
Speaker 1: long past tears. Gently I unclasped her clenched fingers and
7:34
Speaker 1: put her back in the chair. She sat like a doll,
7:36
Speaker 1: her hands falling to her sides with a thin clash
7:39
Speaker 1: of chains. When I picked them up and laid them
7:41
Speaker 1: in her lap, she let them lie there motionless. I
7:44
Speaker 1: stood over her and demanded, who's Rindy. She didn't move
7:48
Speaker 1: Our daughter, Race, our little girl. Magnuson broke in his
7:52
Speaker 1: voice harsh, well, Cargo, should I have let you leave?
7:55
Speaker 1: Don't be a damn fool. I was afraid you'd tell
7:58
Speaker 1: the poor kid she had to live with her own mistakes,
8:00
Speaker 1: growled Magnuson. You're capable of it. For the first time,
8:04
Speaker 1: Julie showed a sign of animation. I was afraid to
8:07
Speaker 1: come to you, Mac. You never wanted me to marry.
8:09
Speaker 1: Recall either, water under the bridge, Magison grunted, And I've
8:14
Speaker 1: got lads of my own, Miss Cargle, missus He stopped
8:17
Speaker 1: in distress, vaguely remembering that in the dry towns. An
8:19
Speaker 1: improper form of address can be a deadly insult. But
8:22
Speaker 1: she guessed his predicament. You used to call me Julie. Mac.
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Speaker 1: It will do now you've changed, he said quietly. Julie,
8:29
Speaker 1: then tell Race what you told me, all of it.
8:32
Speaker 1: She turned to me. I shouldn't have come for myself.
8:36
Speaker 1: I knew that Julie was proud, and she had always
8:38
Speaker 1: had the courage to live with her own mistakes. When
8:41
Speaker 1: I first saw her, I knew this wouldn't be anything
8:43
Speaker 1: so simple as the complaint of an abused wife or
8:46
Speaker 1: even an abandoned or deserted mother. I took a chair,
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Speaker 1: watching her and listening. She began, you made a mistake
8:53
Speaker 1: when you turn recall out of the service. Mac, in
8:56
Speaker 1: his way, he was the most loyal man you had
8:58
Speaker 1: on Wolf Agneson had evidently not expected her to take
9:02
Speaker 1: this tack. He scowled and looked disconcerted, shifting uneasily in
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Speaker 1: his big chair. But when Julie did not continue, obviously
9:09
Speaker 1: awaiting his answer, he said, Julie, he left me no choice.
9:13
Speaker 1: I never knew how his mind worked. That final deal
9:15
Speaker 1: he engineered. Have you any idea how much that costs
9:18
Speaker 1: the service. And have you taken a good look at
9:20
Speaker 1: your brother's face, Julie, girl. Julie raised her eyes slowly,
9:24
Speaker 1: and I saw her flinch. I knew how she felt.
9:27
Speaker 1: For three years, I had kept my mirror covered, growing
9:29
Speaker 1: an untidy straggle of beard, because it hid the scars
9:32
Speaker 1: and saved me the ordeal of facing myself to shave.
9:36
Speaker 1: Julie whispered, Pracaus is just as bad, worse. That's some satisfaction,
9:42
Speaker 1: I said, and Mac stared at us, baffled. Even now,
9:45
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was all about, and you
9:48
Speaker 1: never will, I said, for the hundredth time we've been
9:51
Speaker 1: over this before. Nobody could understand it unless he'd lived
9:54
Speaker 1: in the dry towns. Let's not talk about it. You talk, Julie,
9:57
Speaker 1: what brought you here like this? What about the kid?
10:00
Speaker 1: There's no way I can tell you the end without
10:02
Speaker 1: telling you the beginning, she said, reasonably. At first, Recall
10:06
Speaker 1: worked as a trader in Shansaw. I wasn't surprised. The
10:10
Speaker 1: dry towns were the core of Terran trade on Wolf,
10:12
Speaker 1: and it was through their co operation that Terra existed
10:14
Speaker 1: here peaceably on a world only half human or less.
10:19
Speaker 1: The men of the Dry Towns existed strangely poised between
10:22
Speaker 1: two worlds. They had made dealings with the first Terran ships,
10:25
Speaker 1: and thus gave entrance to the wedge of the Terran Empire,
10:28
Speaker 1: and yet they stood proud and apart. They alone had
10:32
Speaker 1: never yielded to the Terrannizing, which overtakes all Empire planets.
10:35
Speaker 1: Sooner or later, there were no trade cities in the
10:38
Speaker 1: Dry Towns, and earthmen who went there unprotected faced a
10:41
Speaker 1: thousand deaths, each one worse than the last. There were
10:45
Speaker 1: those who said that the men of Shansaw and Da'elon
10:47
Speaker 1: and at Karin had sold the rest of Wolf to
10:49
Speaker 1: the Terrans to keep the Terrans from their own door.
10:53
Speaker 1: Even Racall who had worked with Terra since boyhood, had
10:56
Speaker 1: finally come to a point of decision and gone his
10:58
Speaker 1: own way. And it was not Terra's way. That was
11:02
Speaker 1: what Julie was saying. Now he didn't like what Terra
11:05
Speaker 1: was doing on Wolf. I'm not so sure I like
11:07
Speaker 1: it myself, Manguesen interrupted her again. Do you know what
11:11
Speaker 1: Wolf was like when we came here? Have you seen
11:13
Speaker 1: the slave colony, the idiot's village? Your own brother went
11:16
Speaker 1: to Shansaw and routed out the lists and recall helped him.
11:20
Speaker 1: Julie reminded him, even after he left you, he tried
11:23
Speaker 1: to keep out of things. He could have told them
11:25
Speaker 1: a good deal that would hurt you. After ten years
11:27
Speaker 1: in intelligence, you know I knew it was, although I
11:31
Speaker 1: wasn't going to tell Julie this one reason why. At
11:33
Speaker 1: the end, during that terrible explosion of violence which no
11:36
Speaker 1: normal Terran mind could comprehend, I had done my best
11:39
Speaker 1: to kill him. We had both known that after this
11:42
Speaker 1: the planet would not hold the two of us. We
11:45
Speaker 1: could both go on living only by dividing it unevenly.
11:48
Speaker 1: I had been given the slow death of the Terran zone,
11:51
Speaker 1: and he had all the rest. But he never told
11:55
Speaker 1: them anything. I tell you he was one of the
11:57
Speaker 1: most loyal Maca grunted, Yeah, he's an Abel, go ahead.
12:02
Speaker 1: She didn't not immediately. Instead, she asked what sounded like
12:05
Speaker 1: an irrelevant question, Is it true what he told me
12:09
Speaker 1: that the Empire has a standing offer of a reward
12:11
Speaker 1: for a working model of a matter transmitter. That offer's
12:15
Speaker 1: been standing for three hundred years. Tarran reckoning one million
12:18
Speaker 1: credits cash. Don't tell me he was figuring to invent one.
12:22
Speaker 1: I don't think so, but I think he heard rumors
12:24
Speaker 1: about one. He said, with that kind of money he
12:26
Speaker 1: could bargain the Terrans right out of Shansaw. That was
12:29
Speaker 1: where it started. He began coming and going at odd times,
12:32
Speaker 1: but he never said any more about it. He wouldn't
12:35
Speaker 1: talk to me at all. When was all this about
12:38
Speaker 1: four months ago? In other words, just about the time
12:41
Speaker 1: of the riots in Charin. She nodded. Yes, he was
12:45
Speaker 1: away in Charin when the ghost wind blew and he
12:47
Speaker 1: came back with knife cuts in his thigh. I asked
12:49
Speaker 1: if he had been mixed up in the anti Terran rioting,
12:52
Speaker 1: but he wouldn't tell me. Race I don't know anything
12:55
Speaker 1: about politics. I don't really care. But just about that time,
12:58
Speaker 1: the Great House in Shansaw chained. I'm sure Recall had
13:02
Speaker 1: something to do with that. And then Julie twisted her
13:05
Speaker 1: chained hands together in her lap. He tried to mix
13:08
Speaker 1: Rindy up in it. It was crazy awful. He brought
13:12
Speaker 1: her some sort of non human toy from one of
13:14
Speaker 1: the lowland towns Charin. I think it was a weird thing.
13:18
Speaker 1: Scared me, but he'd sit Rindy down in the sunlight
13:20
Speaker 1: and have her look into it, and Rindy would gabble
13:22
Speaker 1: all sorts of nonsense about little men and birds and
13:25
Speaker 1: a toy maker. The chains about Julie's wrists clashed as
13:29
Speaker 1: she twisted her hands together. I stared somberly at the fetters.
13:32
Speaker 1: The chain, which was long, did not really hamper her
13:35
Speaker 1: movements much. Such chains were symbolic ornaments, and most dry
13:38
Speaker 1: town women went all their lives with fettered hands. But
13:41
Speaker 1: even after the years I'd spent in the dry towns,
13:43
Speaker 1: the sight still brought an uneasiness to my throat, a
13:46
Speaker 1: vague discomfort. We had a terrible fight over that. Julie
13:50
Speaker 1: went on. I was afraid, afraid of what it was
13:53
Speaker 1: doing to Rindy. I threw it out and Rindy woke
13:55
Speaker 1: up and screamed. Julie checked herself and caught it vanishing
13:58
Speaker 1: self control. But you don't want to hear about that.
14:01
Speaker 1: It was then I threatened to leave him and take
14:03
Speaker 1: Rindy the next day. Suddenly, the hysteria Julie had been
14:06
Speaker 1: forcing back broke free, and she rocked back and forth
14:08
Speaker 1: in her chair, shaken and strangled with sobs. He took
14:11
Speaker 1: Randy oh Race, he's crazy, crazy. I think he hates Rindy.
14:15
Speaker 1: He he Race. He smashed her toys. He took every
14:19
Speaker 1: toy the child had and broke them one by one,
14:21
Speaker 1: smashed them into powder, every toy the child had. Julie,
14:25
Speaker 1: please please, Magnuson pleaded, shaken. If we're dealing with a maniac,
14:29
Speaker 1: I don't dare think he'd harm her. He warned me
14:32
Speaker 1: not to come here, I'd never see her again. But
14:34
Speaker 1: if it meant war against Terara, I had to come.
14:36
Speaker 1: But Mac, please don't do anything against him. Please please,
14:39
Speaker 1: He's got my baby, He's got my little girl. Her
14:42
Speaker 1: voice failed, and she buried her face in her hands.
14:45
Speaker 1: Mac picked up the solidopic cube of his five year
14:47
Speaker 1: old son and turned it between his pudgy fingers, saying, unhappily, Julie,
14:51
Speaker 1: We'll take every precaution, but can't you see we've got
14:54
Speaker 1: to get him. If there's a question of a matter
14:56
Speaker 1: transmitter or anything like that in the hands of Tara's enemies.
15:00
Speaker 1: I could see that too, but Julie's agonized face came
15:03
Speaker 1: between me and the picture of disaster. I clenched my
15:06
Speaker 1: fist around the chair arm, not surprised to see the
15:08
Speaker 1: fragile plastic buckle crack and split under my grip. If
15:11
Speaker 1: it had been Racall's neck. Mac Let me handle this, Julie.
15:16
Speaker 1: Shall I find Rindy for you? A hope was born
15:20
Speaker 1: in her ravaged face and died while I looked race.
15:23
Speaker 1: He'd kill you, or have you killed? He'd try, I
15:27
Speaker 1: admitted the moment Recall knew I was outside the terran zone.
15:30
Speaker 1: I'd walk with death. I had accepted the code during
15:33
Speaker 1: my years in Chainsaw, but now I was an earth
15:36
Speaker 1: man and felt only contempt. Can't you see Once he
15:39
Speaker 1: knows I'm at large, that very coat of his will
15:41
Speaker 1: force him to abandon any intrigue, whatever you call it conspiracy,
15:45
Speaker 1: and come after me first. That way we do two things.
15:48
Speaker 1: We get him out of hiding and we get him
15:50
Speaker 1: out of the conspiracy, if there is one. I looked
15:53
Speaker 1: at the shaking Julie and something snapped. I stooped and
15:57
Speaker 1: lifted her, not gently, my hands, biting her shoulders. And
16:00
Speaker 1: I won't kill him, do you hear? He may wish
16:02
Speaker 1: I had. By the time I get through with him,
16:04
Speaker 1: I'll beat the living hell out of him. I'll cram
16:06
Speaker 1: my fists down his throat. But I'll settle it with
16:08
Speaker 1: him like an earth man. I won't kill him, hear me, Julie,
16:11
Speaker 1: because that's the worst thing I could do to him.
16:13
Speaker 1: Catch him and let him live. Afterward, Magduson stepped toward
16:17
Speaker 1: me and pried my crushing hands off her arms. Julie
16:19
Speaker 1: rubbed the ruses mechanically, not knowing what she was doing.
16:23
Speaker 1: Max said, you can't do it, Cargle. You wouldn't get
16:25
Speaker 1: as far as Delawn. You haven't been out of the
16:27
Speaker 1: zone in six years. Besides, his eyes rested full on
16:30
Speaker 1: my face. I hate to say this, Race, but damn it, man,
16:33
Speaker 1: go and take a good look at yourself in a mirror.
16:35
Speaker 1: Do you think I'd have ever pulled you off the
16:37
Speaker 1: Secret Service? Otherwise? How in hell can you disguise yourself now?
16:40
Speaker 1: There are plenty of scarred men in the dry towns,
16:43
Speaker 1: I said, Rakau will remember my scars, but I don't
16:45
Speaker 1: think any one else will look Twice, Magnuson walked to
16:48
Speaker 1: the window. His huge form bulked against the light, perceptibly
16:52
Speaker 1: darkening the office. He looked over the far away panorama,
16:56
Speaker 1: the neat bright trade city below, and the vast wilderness
16:58
Speaker 1: lying outside. I could almost hear the wheels grinding in
17:02
Speaker 1: his head. Finally, he swung around Race. I've heard these
17:06
Speaker 1: rumors before, but you're the only man I could have
17:08
Speaker 1: sent to track them down. And I wouldn't send you
17:10
Speaker 1: out in cold blood to be killed. I won't now
17:13
Speaker 1: Space Force will pick him up. I heard the harsh
17:16
Speaker 1: inward gasp of Julie's breath and said, damn it, No,
17:19
Speaker 1: the first move you make, I couldn't finish. Rindy was
17:22
Speaker 1: in his hands, and I knew Recall he hadn't been
17:24
Speaker 1: given to making idle threats. We all three knew what
17:27
Speaker 1: Recall might do. At the first hint of the long
17:29
Speaker 1: arm of Terran Law reaching out for him, I said,
17:32
Speaker 1: for God's sakes, let's keep Space Force out of it.
17:35
Speaker 1: Let it look like a personal matter between we're callin' me,
17:37
Speaker 1: and let us settle it on those terms. Remember he's
17:40
Speaker 1: got the kid. Magnuson sighed again. He picked up one
17:43
Speaker 1: of the cubes and stared into the clear plastic, where
17:46
Speaker 1: the three dimensional image of a nine year old girl
17:48
Speaker 1: looked out at him, smiling and innocent. His face was
17:50
Speaker 1: transparent as the plastic cube, mac acts tough, but he
17:54
Speaker 1: has five kids, and he is as soft as a
17:57
Speaker 1: dish of pudding where a kid is concerned. I I
18:00
Speaker 1: know another thing too. If we send out space force
18:03
Speaker 1: after all the riots, how many Terrans are on this planet?
18:06
Speaker 1: A few thousand, no more? What chance would we have
18:09
Speaker 1: if it turned into a full scale rebellion? None at
18:12
Speaker 1: all unless we wanted to order a massacre. Sure we
18:14
Speaker 1: have bombs and disc guns and all that, but would
18:17
Speaker 1: you dare use them? And where would we be after that?
18:20
Speaker 1: We're here to keep the pot for boiling over, to
18:22
Speaker 1: keep out of planetary incidents, not push them along to
18:25
Speaker 1: a point where a bluff won't work. That's why we've
18:27
Speaker 1: got to pick up Recall before he gets out of hand.
18:31
Speaker 1: I said, give me a month, then you can move in.
18:33
Speaker 1: If you have to, Recall can't do much against Terra
18:36
Speaker 1: in that time, and I might be able to keep
18:38
Speaker 1: Rindy out of it. Manguson stared at me hard eyed.
18:42
Speaker 1: If you do this against my advice, I won't be
18:44
Speaker 1: able to step in and pull you out of a
18:45
Speaker 1: jam later on, you know, and God help you if
18:48
Speaker 1: you start up the machines and can't stop them. I
18:51
Speaker 1: knew that a month was it much. Wolf is forty
18:54
Speaker 1: thousand miles of diameter, at least half unexplored mountain and forest,
18:59
Speaker 1: swarming with non human and semi human cities where the
19:01
Speaker 1: Terrans had never been. Finding recall or any one man
19:05
Speaker 1: would be like picking out one star in the Andromeda nebula.
19:08
Speaker 1: Not impossible, Not quite impossible. Max's eyes wandered again to
19:14
Speaker 1: his child's face deep in the transparent cube. He turned
19:17
Speaker 1: it in his hands. Okay, cargle, he said, slowly, So
19:21
Speaker 1: we're all crazy. I'll be crazy too, Try it your way.
19:26
Speaker 1: End of Chapter three