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40 - 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 forty of nine sci fi stories by Paul Andersen.
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  Speaker 1: This sleepovox recording is in the public domain. Sagasso of
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  Speaker 1: Lost Starships, Chapter six. The highway curved between great looming
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  Speaker 1: walls of cragged old rock, a shadow tunnel, with the
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  Speaker 1: wind yowling far overhead, and the sun a disk of blood.
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  Speaker 1: Men's footfalls echoed from the cracked paving blocks to boom
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  Speaker 1: hollowly off time gnawed cliffs, and wring faintly in the ice.
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  Speaker 1: It was cold. Their breaths smoked from them, and they
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: shivered and cursed and stamped their feet. Donovan walked beside Helena,
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  Speaker 1: who was riding Watcher, his eyes narrowed against the searching wind,
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  Speaker 1: looking ahead and around, looking for the side track where
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the ambush waited. Dragabe was very near. Something moved up
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  Speaker 1: on the ridge, a flapping black thing which was instantly
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  Speaker 1: lost to sight. The Arzunians were watching there up ahead,
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  Speaker 1: the solitary tree they had spoken of, growing out between
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  Speaker 1: age crumbled fragments of the road. The highway swung west
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  Speaker 1: around a pinnacle of rock, but here there was a
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  Speaker 1: branch road running straight south into a narrow ravine. All
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  Speaker 1: I have to do is suggest we'd take it? They
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  Speaker 1: won't know till too late that it leads up a
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  Speaker 1: blind canyon. Eleanor leaned over toward him so that the
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  Speaker 1: long wind whipped hair blew against his cheek. Which way
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  Speaker 1: should we go? She asked, one hand rested on his shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't slacken his stride, but his voice was low
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  Speaker 1: under the whine of bitter air. To the white Helena, None,
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  Speaker 1: the double Yazunians are waiting up the other road, but
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  Speaker 1: Dragaba is just beyond that crag Dasil. How do know?
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  Speaker 1: Watcher's long, hairy ears cocked attentively, and the little eyes
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  Speaker 1: under the heavy bone ridges were suddenly sharp on his master.
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  Speaker 1: They wanted me to mislead you. I didn't say anything before,
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  Speaker 1: for fear they be listening somehow, as I hadn't decided,
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  Speaker 1: he thought greatly, because Valduma is mad. They love her.
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  Speaker 1: Helena turned and lifted her arm, voice ringing out to
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  Speaker 1: rattle and jeering echoes. Call um right forward toarch. Watcher
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  Speaker 1: broke into a trot, the ground booming and shivering under
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  Speaker 1: his huge feet. Donovan paced beside, drawing his sword and
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  Speaker 1: swinging it, naked in one hand. His eyes turned to
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  Speaker 1: the canyon and the rocks above it. The humans fell
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  Speaker 1: into a jogging run. They swept past the ambush road,
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  Speaker 1: and suddenly Valdumos on the ridge above them, tall and
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  Speaker 1: slim and beautiful, the hair like a blowing flame under
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  Speaker 1: her helmet. Bazzle, she screamed, bizzl, you triple trader. The
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  Speaker 1: others were there with her, men of Dragabish, standing on
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  Speaker 1: the heights and howling their fury. They had chains in
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  Speaker 1: their hands, and suddenly the air was thick with flying lynks.
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  Speaker 1: One of them smashed against Donovan and curled itself snakelike
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  Speaker 1: around his waist. He dropped his sword and tugged at
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  Speaker 1: the cold iron, feeling the breath strained out of him,
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  Speaker 1: cursing with the pain of it. Rocher reached down a
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  Speaker 1: hand and peeled the chain off, snapping it in two
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  Speaker 1: and hurling it back at the Arzunians. It whipped in
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  Speaker 1: the air, lashing itself across his face, and he bellowed.
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  Speaker 1: The men of Sarl were weltering in a fight with
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  Speaker 1: the flying chains, beating them off, stamping the writhing lengths
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  Speaker 1: under foot, yelling as the things cracked against their heads forward,
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  Speaker 1: cried Helena, charge, get out of it. Forward Empa. A
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  Speaker 1: chain whistled viciously for her face. She struck at it
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  Speaker 1: with her sword, tanging it on the blade, metal clashing
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  Speaker 1: on metal. Takahashi had his blaster at its few remaining charges,
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  Speaker 1: thundering to fuse the missiles. Other flames roared at the Uzunians,
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  Speaker 1: driving them back, forcing them to drop control of the
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  Speaker 1: chains to defend their lives. One forward, the columns shouted
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  Speaker 1: and plunged down the highway, while Duma was suddenly before them,
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  Speaker 1: her face distorted in fury, stabbing a spear at Donovan's breast.
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  Speaker 1: The man parried the thrust and hued at her. She
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  Speaker 1: was gone, and the Terrans rushed ahead. The rocks groaned.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan saw them shuddering above him, saw the first hail
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  Speaker 1: of gravel, and heard the hued grinding of strata trying
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  Speaker 1: to bury us. He yelled, We've got to get there.
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  Speaker 1: Watchers stooped, snatched him under one arm, and galloped. A
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  Speaker 1: bowlder whizzed by his head, smashing against the farther wall
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  Speaker 1: and spraying him with hot chips of stone. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: boom of the landslide filled their world, rolling and roaring
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  Speaker 1: between the high cliffs cracks. A zigzagged across the worn
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  Speaker 1: black heights. The crags shivered and toppled, Dust boiled across
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  Speaker 1: the road basil. Donovan saw Valduma again, dancing and leaping
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  Speaker 1: between the boulders, raising a scream of wrath and laughter.
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  Speaker 1: Moazek was there, sitting on the jut of rock, watching
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  Speaker 1: the hillside fall. Watcher burst around the sentinel peak. A
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  Speaker 1: line of Arzunians stood barring away to Dragabek, the sunlight flaming.
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  Speaker 1: After their metal watcher dropped, Donovan left it his axe
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  Speaker 1: in both hands and charged them. Donovan picked himself up
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  Speaker 1: and scrambled in the wake of his slave behind him.
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  Speaker 1: The Terrans were streaming from the collapsing dale out over
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  Speaker 1: open ground to strike the enemy. The rocks bounded and howled.
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  Speaker 1: A man screamed as he was pinned. There were a
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  Speaker 1: dozen buried under the landslide. Watch hit the Azunian line.
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  Speaker 1: His axe blazed, shearing on arm, whirling up again to
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  Speaker 1: crumble a helmet and cleave the skull beneath rearing. He
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  Speaker 1: knocked down two of them and trampled them under foot.
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  Speaker 1: A warrior smote at his flank. Helena, gripping one mighty shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: engaged him with her free hand, her blade whistling around
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  Speaker 1: his ears. They fell away from that pair, and the
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  Speaker 1: Terrans attacked them. Donovan crossed swords with one he knew, Maravich,
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  Speaker 1: the laughing half devil whose words he had so much
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed in earlier days. The Azunian grinned at him across
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  Speaker 1: a web of flying steel, His blades stabbed in past
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  Speaker 1: the Anson's awkward guard, reaching for his guts. Donovan retreated,
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  Speaker 1: abandoning the signs he didn't know for wild, whirling and
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  Speaker 1: hacking his iron, battering at the bright weapon before him,
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  Speaker 1: clash and clang of edged metal, leaping and dancing, Maravek's
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  Speaker 1: red hair wild in the rising wind, and his eyes
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  Speaker 1: alight with laughter. Donovan felt his backward step halted. He
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  Speaker 1: was against the high stone pillar and could not run.
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  Speaker 1: He braced his feet and hewed out a scream of
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  Speaker 1: cloven air and outraged steel. Maravech's soard went spinning from
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  Speaker 1: his hand. It hit the ground and bounced up toward
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  Speaker 1: the Arzunian's clutch. Donovan smote again, and the shock of
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  Speaker 1: iron in flesh jarred him where he stood. Maravich felt
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  Speaker 1: a rush of blood for an instant. Donovan stood swaying
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  Speaker 1: over the Arzanian, looking stupidly at the blood on his
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  Speaker 1: own hands, hearing the clamor of his heartbeat, and sucking
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  Speaker 1: a dry gasp into his lungs. Then he picked up
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  Speaker 1: the fallen being glave. It was a better weapon. Turning,
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  Speaker 1: he saw that the fight had become a riot, knots
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  Speaker 1: of men and un men, snarling and hacking in a
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  Speaker 1: craziness of death. No room or time here for wizard stunts.
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  Speaker 1: It was blood and bone and nerve against its kind.
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  Speaker 1: The Terrans fought without much skill in the use of
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  Speaker 1: the archaic equipment, but they had the cold courage blended
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  Speaker 1: of training and desperation. They knew better how to co operate.
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  Speaker 1: They battled away to each other and stood back to
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  Speaker 1: back against all comers. Watcher raged and trampled, smashing with
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  Speaker 1: axe and fists and feet, and hurled stones, his war cry,
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  Speaker 1: bellowing and shuddering in the hills, and Azunian vanished from
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  Speaker 1: in front of him and appeared behind with spear poised.
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  Speaker 1: The Danarians suddenly backed up, catching the ascilant and smashing
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  Speaker 1: him under his hind feet while he dueled another from
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  Speaker 1: the front. Helen's arm never rested. She swung to right
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  Speaker 1: and left, guarding his flanks, yelling as her blade drove home.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan shook himself and trotted wearily over to where attired
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  Speaker 1: of Azunians raged about a closely drawn ring of impies.
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  Speaker 1: The humans were standing firm, driving each charge back in
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  Speaker 1: a rush of blood, keeping the dead before them. But
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  Speaker 1: now spear were beginning to fall out of the sky,
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  Speaker 1: driven by no hand but stabbing for the throats and
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  Speaker 1: eyes and bellies of men. Donovan loped for the sharp
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  Speaker 1: edge of the hills, where they toppled, to the open
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  Speaker 1: country in which the fight went on. He scrambled up
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  Speaker 1: a rubbled slope and gripped a thin pinnacle to swing
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  Speaker 1: himself higher. She was there. She stirred on a ledge,
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  Speaker 1: the heap of spears at her feet, looking down over
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  Speaker 1: the battle, and chanting she sent forth the flying death.
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  Speaker 1: He noticed even then how her hair was a red
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  Speaker 1: glory about the fine white loveliness of her head. Bell dumer,
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  Speaker 1: he whispered as he struck at her. She was not there.
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  Speaker 1: He sat on a higher ledge and jeered at him.
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  Speaker 1: Come and get me, besil, darling, darling, come up here
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  Speaker 1: and talk to me. He looked at her as Lucifer
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  Speaker 1: must have looked back to heaven. Let us go, he said,
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  Speaker 1: give us a ship and send us home, and if
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  Speaker 1: you'll bring our overlords back in, she laughed aloud and
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  Speaker 1: so bad Valdumer, The empire means peace and justice for
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  Speaker 1: all races, oh, speaks. A scorn flamed at him. You
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  Speaker 1: don't believe that he stood there for a moment now,
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  Speaker 1: he whispered, No, I don't shooping. He picked up a
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  Speaker 1: sheaf of spears and began to crawl back down the rocks.
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  Speaker 1: Valduma cursed him from the heights. There was a break
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  Speaker 1: in the combat around the hard pressed Terran ring as
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  Speaker 1: the Arzunians drew back to pant and glare. Donovan ran
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  Speaker 1: through and flung his load, clashing at the feet of Takahashi.
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  Speaker 1: Good work, said the officer. We need these things here,
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  Speaker 1: get into the formation. Here we go again. The Arzunians
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  Speaker 1: charged in a wedge to gather momentum. Donovan braced himself
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  Speaker 1: and lifted his sword. The Terrans in the inner ring
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  Speaker 1: slanted their spears between the men of the outer defense.
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  Speaker 1: For a very long half minute they stood waiting the
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  Speaker 1: enemy hit. Donovan hewed at the nearest, drove the probing
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  Speaker 1: sword back, and hammered against the guard. Then the whirl
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  Speaker 1: of battle swept his antagonist away. Some one else was there.
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  Speaker 1: He traded blows, and the howl men and mettle lifted skyward.
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  Speaker 1: The Terrans had staggered a little from the massive assault,
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  Speaker 1: but had spitted itself on the inner pikes, and then
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  Speaker 1: swords and axes went to work. Ha clang through the
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  Speaker 1: skull and give it to him. Hi empire An sah
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  Speaker 1: ansar clatter and yell and deep throated roar. The Auzunians
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  Speaker 1: boiling around the solar line, leaping and howling and whipping
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  Speaker 1: out of sight, a habit which saved their lives but
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  Speaker 1: blunted their attack, thought Dunavan. In a moment's pause, Watcher
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  Speaker 1: smashed the last few who had been standing before him,
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  Speaker 1: looking around to the major's struggle, and poured the ground. Ready, Lady,
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  Speaker 1: he rumbled, I ready, Watcher, Let's go. The Denarian backed
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  Speaker 1: up to get along, running space agun toy, he warned,
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  Speaker 1: never mind fighting lady, oh, why. He broke into a trot,
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  Speaker 1: a canter, and then a full gallop. The earth trembled
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  Speaker 1: under his masts. Who he screamed, here we come. Helena
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  Speaker 1: threw both arms around his coroded neck. When they hit,
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  Speaker 1: it was like a nuclear bomb going off. In a
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  Speaker 1: few seconds of murder, Watcher had strewn the ground with
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  Speaker 1: smashed corpses, whirled and began cutting his way into the
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  Speaker 1: disordered main group of the Arzunians. They didn't stand before him.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly they were gone, all of them except for the dead.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan looked over the field. The dead were thick, thick.
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  Speaker 1: He estimated that half the little Terran force was slain
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  Speaker 1: or out of action. They must have taken three or
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  Speaker 1: four times a number of Arzunians to the Black planet
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  Speaker 1: with them. The stony ground was pooled and steaming with blood.
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  Speaker 1: Carrion birds stooped low, screaming. Helena fell from Watcher's back
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  Speaker 1: into Donovan's arms, comforted her, wild sobbing, hoarding her to
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  Speaker 1: him and murmuring in her ear and kissing the wet
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  Speaker 1: cheeks and lips. It's over, dear, it's over for now.
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  Speaker 1: We drove them away. She recovered herself in a while,
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  Speaker 1: and stood up, straightening her torn disarray, the mask of
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  Speaker 1: command clambing back over her face. To Takahashi, how are casualties?
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: He reported, It was much as Donovan had guessed, but
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  Speaker 1: he gave him half for it, didn't we How is that?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Wandered Cohen. He leaned against Watcher, not showing the pain,
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  Speaker 1: and jagged through him as they bandaged his wounded foot,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: except by an occasional sharp breath. The mort home with
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  Speaker 1: this cuttlery the way, and they have us damned parasite
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  Speaker 1: talents too. They're not quite sane, replied Donovan toneously. Whether
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  Speaker 1: you call it a cultural trait or a madness which
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: has spread to the whole population though a wild blood,
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  Speaker 1: tasty crew, two legged weasels, and with a superiority compact
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  Speaker 1: which wouldn't have let them be very careful in dealing
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  Speaker 1: with us. No discipline, no real plan of action. He
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: looked south of the rolling moorland. Those things, county, They
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  Speaker 1: may know better next time. Next time, If your sixty
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: men can defeed a planet, Donovan, said Takahashi. No, this
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  Speaker 1: is an old, dying race. The whole population in the
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  Speaker 1: city ahead, and most of it will flee in panic
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  Speaker 1: and take no part in any fighting. They aren't used
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  Speaker 1: to victims that fight back. If we can slug o
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: way through the spaceships they have there, space ships. The
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  Speaker 1: eye stared at him, wild with the sudden blaze of hope,
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  Speaker 1: men crowding close and leaning on their redden weapons and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: raising a babble of voices. Spaceships spiships whom yeah, Donovan
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  Speaker 1: ran a hand through his yellow hair. The fingers trembled
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: just a bit. Some ships. The first ones they merely
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: destroyed by causing the engines to run loose. But others
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: they brought here, I suppose by inducing the crew to
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: land and parley. Only they killed the crews and can't
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: handle the machines themselves. If they captured ships, said Helena slowly,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: then they captured weapons too, and even they can squeeze
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a trigger. Sure, but he didn't see them shooting at
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: us just now, did you. They used all the charges
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to hunt or jewel, so if we can break through
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  Speaker 1: and escape, they could still follow us. Recurringions, said Takahashi.
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  Speaker 1: Not if we take a small ship, as would have
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  Speaker 1: to anyway in mount guard over the vital spots and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Ozunian would have to be close at hand and using
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: all his energies to misdirect atomic floes. He could be
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: killed ill before any mischief was done, and out if
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: they'd even try. Besides, went on Donovan, his voice dry
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  Speaker 1: and toneless as a lecturing professors, they can only do
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: so much at a time. I don't know where they
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: get the power for some of their feats, such as
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: leaving this planet's gravitational well, it can't be from their
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: home metabolisms. It must be some unknown cosmic energy source.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: They don't know how it works themselves. It's an instinctive ability,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: but it takes a lot of nervous energy to direct
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to that flow. And I found the last time I
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: was here that they have to rest quite a while
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: after some strenuous deed. So if we can get them
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: tired enough, and the fight is likely to wear both
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: sides down, they won't be able to chase us till
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: we're out of their range. Takahashi looked oddly at him.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: You know a lot, he murmured, Yeah, maybe I do. Well.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: If the city is close, as you say, we'd better
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: march right away before our wounds stiffened bore the natives
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: get a chance to organize. We'g up carrying devices for
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: those too badly hurt to move, said Helen, walking wounded
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: contote them. The rest of us form a protective square.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: When that's slow us and a handicapp us, asked Donovan,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: her head lifted, the dark hair blowing about her proud features,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: and a thin, whimpering wind. As long as it's humanly possible,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: we're going to look after our men. What's the imperium
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: for if it can't protect its own? Yeah, yeah, I
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: suppose so. Donovan slouched off to join the savaging party
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that was stripping the falling Ouzunians of arms in armor
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: for Terran use. He rolled over a corpse to unbuckle
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the helmet and looked at the blood masked face of Corstuzan,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: who had been his friend once, very long ago. He
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: closed the staring eyes, and his own were blind with tears.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: What she came to join him? The Denarian didn't seem
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: to notice the gashes on his hide, but he was
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: equipped with a shield now and had a couple of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: extra swords slung from his shoulders. You got a good lady, Buss,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: he said. She fights hard. She will bear you strong sons.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Aha Valdooma could never bear my children. Different species can't breed,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And she is the outlaw darkness, the last despairing return
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to primeval chaos. She is the enemy of all which
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: is honest and good, But she is very fair. Slowly
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the humans reformed their army, a tight ring about the wounded,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and set off down the road. The dim Sun wheeled
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the horizon wood and section forty