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39 - Nine Sci-fi Stories by Poul Anderson by Poul William Anderson · Nine Sci-fi Stories by Poul Anderson

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty nine of nine sci fi stories by Paul Anderson.
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  Speaker 1: The Sleepovox recording is in the public domain. Sagesso of
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  Speaker 1: Lust Starships, chapter five. It was a strange little army,
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  Speaker 1: Thount Donovan, as strange as any the galaxy had ever seen.
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  Speaker 1: He looked back the old ruined highway, went down a
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  Speaker 1: narrow valley between sheer cliffs of eroded black stone, reaching
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  Speaker 1: up towards the deep purplish heaven. The sun was wheeling westerly,
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  Speaker 1: a dull red ember, throwing light like clatted blood, and
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  Speaker 1: the dreariness of rock and ice and gaunt gray trees.
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  Speaker 1: A few snowflakes, borne on a thin chill wind, drifted
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  Speaker 1: across the path of march. A lonely bird, cruel beaked
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  Speaker 1: and watchful, hovered on great black wings far overhead, waiting
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  Speaker 1: for them to die. The men of the Imperial Solar
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  Speaker 1: Navy walked close together. They were haggard and dirty and bearded,
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  Speaker 1: clad in such rats it articles as they had been abled.
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  Speaker 1: The Savage, armed with the cruelly forged weapons of a
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  Speaker 1: vanished age, carrying their sick and wounded and rude litters.
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  Speaker 1: Ghost World Ghost Army marching through an echoing, windy solitude
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  Speaker 1: to its unknown weird and men's faces were still brave,
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  Speaker 1: and one of them was singing. The sun burst banner
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  Speaker 1: of the empire flapped above them, the one splash of
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  Speaker 1: color in the great murky landscape. Luck had been with
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  Speaker 1: him of a sort game. Animals had appeared in more
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  Speaker 1: abundance than one would have thought the region could support
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  Speaker 1: deer like things, which they shot from meat to supplement
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  Speaker 1: their iron rations. It stumbled on the old highway and
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  Speaker 1: followed its arrow straight course southward. Many days and many tumbled.
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  Speaker 1: Hollow ruins of great cities lay behind them, and still
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  Speaker 1: they touched on Luck, wondered Dunovan. I think it was intentional.
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  Speaker 1: I think the Azunians want us to reach Dragovich. He
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  Speaker 1: heard the scrape of brutes on the slanting hillside behind
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  Speaker 1: them them, and turned round her face Helenor. He stopped
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  Speaker 1: and smiled. There had been a slow, unspoken intimacy growing
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  Speaker 1: between them as they worked and struggled together, not many words,
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  Speaker 1: but the eyes of each would often stray to the other,
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  Speaker 1: and a hand would brush over a hand, as if
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  Speaker 1: by accident. Tired and hungry and road stained, cap set
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  Speaker 1: askew on, tangled hair, skin reddened by wind, and blued
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  Speaker 1: with cold. T was still good to look on. Why
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  Speaker 1: are you walking so far from the road, she asked, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: serving as outwider, maybe, he said, resuming his stride. She
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  Speaker 1: fell into step beside him. Up here, you get a
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  Speaker 1: wider view. You think we have much further to go, Basil,
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  Speaker 1: he shrugged. Would never have come this far without you,
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  Speaker 1: she said, looking down at her scuffed boots. You and
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  Speaker 1: watch her and Takahashi. Maybe the Empire will send a
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  Speaker 1: rescue mission. We don't come back, he suggested, No doubt
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  Speaker 1: they will, but they can't find one little star in
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  Speaker 1: this immensity. Even thermer couples wouldn't help. The nebula diffuses
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  Speaker 1: radiation too much, and they'd be blundering into the same
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  Speaker 1: trap as we helenor looked up. No, Basil, We've got
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  Speaker 1: to fight our way clear alone. There was a long
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  Speaker 1: stretch of thicket growing on the hillside. Donovan went along
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  Speaker 1: the right of it, cutting off view of the army.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he said, You and those boys done there
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  Speaker 1: made me feel I like kinder toward the Empire. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, Wei. She took his arm it's a question
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  Speaker 1: of unifying the human race ultimately, this whole region of stars,
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  Speaker 1: and oh, the beasts were suddenly there in front of them,
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  Speaker 1: leaning black things which snarled with mouths of hunger. One
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  Speaker 1: of them circled toward the human's flank, the other crouched.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan yanked his sword clear. Get behind me, he snapped,
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  Speaker 1: turning to face the approaching hunter. No back to back.
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  Speaker 1: Helen's own blade rasped from its sheath. She lifted a
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  Speaker 1: shout for help. The nearest animal sprang for her throat.
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  Speaker 1: She hacked wildly. The blade twisted in her hand and
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  Speaker 1: scraped the mud face. Jaws clamped on the edged steel
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  Speaker 1: and let go with a bloody howl. Donovan swung at
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  Speaker 1: the other beast. The blow shuddered home, and it screamed
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  Speaker 1: and writhed and snapped at his ankles. Whirling, he turned
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  Speaker 1: on a thing which had launched itself at Helena. He hewed,
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  Speaker 1: and the animal wasn't there. His blade rang on naked stone,
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  Speaker 1: Her weight crashed against his back. He went down, and
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  Speaker 1: the teeth clamped on his shoulder. Helena swung. The carnivore
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  Speaker 1: raised its head to snarl at her, and she gripped
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  Speaker 1: the sword in both hands and stabbed it. Threshed wildly, dying,
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  Speaker 1: spewing blood over the hillside. The other wounded creature disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: Helena bent over Donovan held him close, her eyes wild.
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  Speaker 1: Are you hurt, Buzzle, Oh, Buzzle, are you hurt? No,
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  Speaker 1: he muttered, The teeth didn't have time to work through
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  Speaker 1: this heavy jacket. He pulled her head down against his
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  Speaker 1: Bazil Bazil. He rose still, holding her to him, her
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  Speaker 1: arms locked about his neck, and there were tears and
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  Speaker 1: laughter in her voice. Oh Buzzle, my darling, Elenor, he murmured,
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  Speaker 1: I love you, Helena. When we get home, I'm you
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  Speaker 1: a fellow. I'll retire instead your house and ansa, Oh, Basil,
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  Speaker 1: I never thought it could be so glad. The massive
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  Speaker 1: thunder of feet brought them apart. Watcher burst around the thicket,
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  Speaker 1: swinging his giant axe in both hands. Are you work, Buss,
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  Speaker 1: he roared, Yes, yes, we're all right. Couple of those
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  Speaker 1: damned wolf like things which have been plaguing us the
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  Speaker 1: whole march gone back. Watcher will join you soon. The
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  Speaker 1: Denarian's ape face split in a vast grin. So you
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  Speaker 1: take a female buss cried, good, good, We need lots
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  Speaker 1: of little Dunovans at home. Get on back your busy
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  Speaker 1: body and keep that gathering mouth shut. Hours later, Helena
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  Speaker 1: returned to the army where it was making camp. Donovan
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  Speaker 1: stayed where he was, looking down at the man where
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  Speaker 1: he moved about, gathering words and digging fire pits. The
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  Speaker 1: blazes were a note of cheer and a thickening mrk Elenor.
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  Speaker 1: He thought, Helena, She's a fine girl, wonderful girl. She's
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  Speaker 1: what the thinning family, blood and eye myself need. But
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  Speaker 1: why did I do it? Why did I talk that
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  Speaker 1: way to her just then? And the strain and fair
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  Speaker 1: and loneliness. It seemed as if I cared, But I don't.
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  Speaker 1: She's just another woman. She's not fell Doomer. The twilight murmured,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw the dim sheen of metal beside him.
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  Speaker 1: The men of Dragabak were gathering. They stood tall and
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  Speaker 1: godlike in a helmet and ringman and night black cloaks,
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  Speaker 1: leaning on swords and spears, death white faces, cold with
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  Speaker 1: an ancient scorn. As I looked down on the human camp,
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  Speaker 1: their eyes were phosphorescent green in the dark. Donovan nodded,
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  Speaker 1: without fear or surprise or anything but a sudden, great weariness.
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  Speaker 1: He remembered some of them from the days when he'd
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  Speaker 1: been alone that bowed the ship with the invaders while
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  Speaker 1: his men cowered and rioted and went crazy in the
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  Speaker 1: stern sectors. But oh, Morzak Oboda the'goyan questazen davleca, he said,
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  Speaker 1: well and back again. Lduma walked out of the blood
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  Speaker 1: hued twilight, and he took her in his arms and
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  Speaker 1: held her for a long, fierce time. Her kiss was
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  Speaker 1: as cruel as a swooping hawk. She bit his lips
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  Speaker 1: and he tasted blood warm and salt where she had been.
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  Speaker 1: After which he turned in the circle of his arm,
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  Speaker 1: and he faced the silent men of Dragabek. You were
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  Speaker 1: getting near the city, said Mozak. His tones were deep,
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  Speaker 1: with a chill ringing of struck steel in them. It
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  Speaker 1: is time for the next stage. I thought you saved
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  Speaker 1: some of us, deliberately, said donovan Us. Valduma's lip caressed
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  Speaker 1: his cheek. Dim bezzle them. You don't belong there. You
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  Speaker 1: are with Olzun and me. You must have projected that
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  Speaker 1: game where we could spot it. Went on Donovan shakily.
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  Speaker 1: You've kept us them alive and enabled us to march
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  Speaker 1: in your city and the last inhabited city left to
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  Speaker 1: your race. You could have hunded them down as you
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  Speaker 1: did all the others, made sport of them, with wild
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  Speaker 1: animals and falling rocks and missiles shooting out of no where.
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  Speaker 1: But instead you want them for something. What is it?
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  Speaker 1: You should have guessed, said Morseer. We want to leave
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  Speaker 1: our zun leave it. You can do so any time
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  Speaker 1: by yourselves. You've done it for millennia. We can only
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  Speaker 1: go to the Barbarian fringe stars. Beyond them, it is
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  Speaker 1: a greater distance to the next suns than we can
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  Speaker 1: crossanate it. Yet, though we have captured many spaceships and
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  Speaker 1: have them intacted Jagobik, we cannot operate them. The principles
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  Speaker 1: learned from the humans don't make sense. When we have
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  Speaker 1: tried to pilot them, it has only brought divester. But
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  Speaker 1: why do you want to leave? It is a recent decision,
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  Speaker 1: precipitated by your arrival, but it has been considered for
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  Speaker 1: a long while. The Sun is all this planet, exhausted
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  Speaker 1: in the lives of a few remnants of a great
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  Speaker 1: race flicker in a hideous circumscribed to drapness. Sooner or
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  Speaker 1: later the humans will find our way here in strength
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  Speaker 1: too great for us. Before then we must be gone.
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  Speaker 1: So Donovan spoke softly, and the wind whimpered on his voice.
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  Speaker 1: So your plan is to capture this group of spacemen
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  Speaker 1: and make them your slaves, to carry you where out away.
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  Speaker 1: Galdoona's clear, lovely laughter rang in the night. To seize
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  Speaker 1: another planet and build us strength afresh. She gripped his waist,
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  Speaker 1: and he saw the white gleam of her teeth out
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  Speaker 1: of shadow. To build a great army of obedient space
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  Speaker 1: going what he is, and then to hunt between the stars. Hunt. Look,
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  Speaker 1: here was the head closer, his eyes a green glow,
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  Speaker 1: the vague sheen of naked steel in his hand. You've
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  Speaker 1: been polite long enough. You have your gents to rise
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  Speaker 1: above the human scum that spawned you and be one
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  Speaker 1: of us. Help us now when you can be with
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  Speaker 1: us till you die. Otherwise who takes that crew anyway?
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  Speaker 1: And you'll be hounded across the face of this planet.
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  Speaker 1: And aye, I welcome back, Buzzil Donovan. We'll come back
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  Speaker 1: to the old king race, Come with us, Come with us,
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  Speaker 1: lead the humans into our ambush, and be the lord
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  Speaker 1: of stars. They circled about him, tall and mailed and
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  Speaker 1: beautiful in a shadow light, leering, whispering voices, ripple of
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  Speaker 1: dark laughter, the hunters playing with their quarry and taming it.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan remembered them, remembered the days when he had talked
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  Speaker 1: and smiled and drunk and sung with them. The lucifer
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  Speaker 1: like intoxication of their dancing and darting minds, a wildness
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  Speaker 1: of magic and mystery and reckless wizard sport, a glory
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  Speaker 1: which had taken something from his soul and left an
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  Speaker 1: emptiness within him. Morzech Maravich Huboda Zegoayenne. For a time
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  Speaker 1: he had been in the consort of the gods. Basil
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  Speaker 1: Balduma laid sharp knelled fingers in his hair and pulled
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  Speaker 1: his lips to hers. Basil, I want you bick. He
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  Speaker 1: held her close, feeling the lithe savage strength of her,
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  Speaker 1: recalling the flamelike beauty in the nights of love, such
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  Speaker 1: as no human could ever give. A whisper was thick.
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  Speaker 1: You got bored last time and send me back? How
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  Speaker 1: long will I last now, as long as you wish, Basil,
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  Speaker 1: forever and forever. He knew she lied, and he didn't care.
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  Speaker 1: This is what you must do, Donovan, said Morser. He
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  Speaker 1: listened with half his mind. It was a question of
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  Speaker 1: guiding the army into a narrow cul de sac where
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  Speaker 1: the Ouzunians could perform the delicate, short range work of
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  Speaker 1: causing chains to bind around them for the rest. It
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  Speaker 1: was thinking. They hunt the intrigue, and they whittle down
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  Speaker 1: their last few remnants with fighting among themselves, and they
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  Speaker 1: prey on the fringe stars, and they capture, leaving humans
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  Speaker 1: to hunt down for sport. They haven't done anything new
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  Speaker 1: for ten thousand years. Creativeness has withered upon them. And
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  Speaker 1: all they will do if they escaped the Nebula is
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  Speaker 1: carry ruin between the stars. The mad Yes, a whole
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  Speaker 1: society of psychopaths gone crazy with the long racial dying.
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  Speaker 1: That's the reason they can't handle machines. That's why they
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  Speaker 1: don't think of friendship, but only of war. That's why
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  Speaker 1: they carry doom within them. But I love you, I
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  Speaker 1: love you, I love you. Valdooma the Fair, oh Valduoma
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  Speaker 1: the Fair. He drew her to him, kissed her with
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  Speaker 1: a terrible intensity as she laughed in the dark. Looking up,
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  Speaker 1: he faced the blaze that was Morzach. All right, he said,
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  Speaker 1: I understand tomorrow. Aye, good, good, well done, Oh Basil.
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  Speaker 1: Basil whispered Valduma, Come come away with me now. No,
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  Speaker 1: let's suspect I have to go down to them, although
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  Speaker 1: come looking for me. Good night, Bezel, my darling, my
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  Speaker 1: varther until to morrow. He went slowly down the hillside,
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  Speaker 1: drawing his shoulders together against the cold, not looking back.
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  Speaker 1: Helenor rose, and he approached her camp fire, and the
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  Speaker 1: flimmering light made her seem pale and real. Have you been, Basil?
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  Speaker 1: You look so tired just walking around. I'm all right.
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  Speaker 1: He spread his couch of stiff and stinking animal hide.
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  Speaker 1: Had better turn in, eh, But he slept little. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section thirty nine.