Latest / Blood on My Jets / Blood on My Jets - Algis Budrys

Transcript

Blood on My Jets - Algis Budrys · Blood on My Jets

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Blood on My Jets by Algus Boutris.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Ben Tucker. Blood on
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: My Jets by Algus Boudras, Chapter one, Rocket rows the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: joy street of three planets. It's got neon lights, crummy dives,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: cheap hotels, and women to match. Every man who's ever
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: rowed a ship into space knows about rocket Row. It
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: runs along the far side of Flushing Spaceport, down toward
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the sound. The new Shanghai was full of dock workers
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and crewmen on liberty. It was noisy. I sat on
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a barstool and watched the fog, trying to infiltrate the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: open door. It didn't have a chance against the tobacco
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: smoke that rolled out to meet it outside. The streets
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and alleys would be choked with wet, creeping darkness, full
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of quiet at footsteps, and the cops would find empty,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: pocketed corpses behind the ash cans in the morning. But
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: none of that was any of my business. I was
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: sick and tired of fog. The real kind, the kind
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: that grow on Venus, and I was sick of the
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: thought of blood. I'd seen too much of it soaking
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: into the hot mud, and some of it spilled by
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: my guns. I wanted to forget the night and fog
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that gave cover to every kind of dirty deal a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: man could imagine. I wanted to pull the corners of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: my world together until all that was left was the drink,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the barstool, and me. But it wasn't going to work
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: out that way, because I was in the New Shanghai
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: on business, and my kind of business was the dirtiest, lousiest,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: most thankless racket in the world. The bartender moved up
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to where I was sitting of another one Ash. He asked, yeah, sure, Ming,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I said, you still make the best stingers in the system.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's because you don't brew your own gin quby
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Ash couldby. He laughed. He shook up the drink and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: poured it in my glass. How to go on Venus,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: it went? I said. Ming was one of the few
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: people who admitted knowing I was a dio, a detached operative.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: It was a crummy job, but it suited me. We
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: were the hired gun rabble of the system thrown together
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: into the damned as police force there ever had been.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Spatial expansion hadn't really gotten under way until after the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: terot Martian War, and after it ended, every would be
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: big shot there was had realized that all he really
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: needed to set himself up as a pocket sized dictator
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: with some salvaged gear from the mess the war had
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: left a crew that wasn't too particular and a good
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: looking piece of territory in the practically limitless areas of space.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Most of them had picked slices of Venus. There were
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: few in the asteroids hooked up with renegade marties, and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: one or two that had actually grabbed sections of Mars.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Sending regular law enforcement officers or marines after each one
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: of these boys would have been physically impossible. Earth government
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: had come up with a cuter idea. It was a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: lot more economical to fight one big, decisive battle than
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: to endure a series of inconclusive skirmishes. There were a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: lot of US boys out in space, most of us
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: just drifting from one port to the next, picking up
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: a living by our wits and by our skill with
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a gun. Some of us Earth government had quietly picked
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: out the ones they considered trustworthy, sworn us in and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: turned us loose with a few standing orders and a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: lot of dependence on our discretion. Whenever something brewed between
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: two of these minor warlords, we'd come flocking in and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: hire ourselves out to whichever side we felt had slightly
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: more justice. Sometimes we wound up shooting at each other,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: but you couldn't even be sure that, since most of
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: us didn't know beyond a guess or two who the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: other dios were. Usually, though, we had enough brains to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: pick the right side, and we'd make sure that was
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the one that came out on top. It was a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: process of a nation, actually. The warlords were helped to
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: knock each other off until eventually those who remained either
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: proved themselves to be strong leaders, which was what frontier
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: planets needed, or else megalomaniacs, in which case it paid
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: to devote a full scale military campaign to them. It
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was a highly informal system, but it had worked. It
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: was tough on us, but it wasn't any harder than
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: freelance grifting had been. It left an awful lot to
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: personal discretion, and we paid ourselves out of whatever came
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to hand, but there hadn't been any big totalitarian regimes
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: lately either. Yeah, I did pretty well, I repeated. Mink
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: puckered his mouth and winked. I used to try and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: figure out how he did it, standing behind his bar
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: all day, never going out, never talking much except to
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a few people like me. But I knew for sure
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that he could have told me exactly how much I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: had made on that Venus job and the gimmick I'd
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: pulled to get it past customs too. But that was
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: why I was in here. Something was up, something big.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I wanted to find out what it was before every
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: grifter and chiseler in the system tried to cut a
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: piece of it for himself. I got a note in
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: my mailbox today, I said, casually. Yeah, he asked, just
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: as quietly. Must have been put there as soon as
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I touched down this morning. Somebody wants me to go
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to work for them. They're paying high, too high. Maybe
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you hear anything about a big job coming off somewhere,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Ming grinned, if you mean that little letter from trans Soolar. Yeah,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I know about that. He got serious and moved closer.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: But that's all I know. Nobody else knows, even that much.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Sure something's cooking, but nobody knows what it is. He
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: broke off. You got company, boy, have you got company?
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I looked in the back bar mirror. A girl had
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: come in the doorway and was walking toward me. Her
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: dress tightened and intriguing places. Her face was as much
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of a treat, high cheeked, brown eyed, with a small,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: all up, tilted nose and a full mouth. It was
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: framed by short, curly hair the color of new copper wire.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I liked it, so did the spacemen and the dock
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: workers sitting at the bar. One or two half rose
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: to invite her to join them, but they sat down
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: again when they saw who she was headed for. There
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was something about that hare. I had seen it before somewhere.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: The guy next to me got up and slid out
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: of the way. I let my eyes stay on the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: bottles on the back bar until she sat down beside me.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I gave me a look. He nodded and moved down
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the bar ash The voice was low but crisp. It
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: had whispers and murmurs in it, too, and I knew
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: i'd heard it before. I'm pat mac kay. I turned
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: my head and looked at her, her dress tied as
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: paint from him to bodice, was mysteriously loose in the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: sleeves ruffles at each shoulder hid bulges that mother Nature
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: never put there. They looked more like twin shoulder holsters.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: They were. And the last time I'd seen her she
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: was seventeen eighteen, maybe in a ball gown, her hair
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: long then curling around her shoulders, and the voice hadn't
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: been as controlled or as crisp, but she'd been saying,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: you're a good dancer, mister Holcombe. Not much on the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: light conversation, but a good leader. I'd swept her around
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: another couple and kept my cheek away from hers. The
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: academy is geared to the production of good leaders pat
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: good conversationalists, on the other hand, are born, not made.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: She laughed, a giddy party laugh from a girl who
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: dated academy boys exclusively, who loved the glitter and pomp
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: of graduation ceremonies, who hung around the academy all she could,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: who had been to graduation balls before and would certainly
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: be to a number of them again. Before she managed
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to separate all the black and silver uniforms she had
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: danced with and found herself a man from inside one
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of them, an academy drag, a number, and a score
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of little black books like Harry, Oh, pardon me, it's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: graduation night, like mister Thornston, you mean, And she looked
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: up at me, raking my face with the green eyes.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: If you will, you're jealous, mister Holcombe, she said, breaking
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: out her best little teas manner. Maybe I knew she
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: was trying to get me angry. She was getting there
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: fast too. Well. Now, if you displayed some of mister
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Thorston's other gifts, I could forget about the conversation, She said, lightly,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: meaning you'd like me to dance you out on the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: terrace and make a pass at you. Maybe she was
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: daring me. I danced her out on the terrace and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: found a darker corner. She looked up at me, her
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: eyes a little surprised, but her lips were parted. I
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: tightened my arms and kissed her. It started gently, just
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: a kiss, sneaked in between dances, but her arms were
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: growing tighter too, and her fingers were hooking. We held
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: it while I listened to the blood running in my ears,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: until we broke apart. Both was dropping our arms standing
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and looking at each other, dragging air down our throats,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: ash you. She started to say something and broke it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: It sounded a little too much like a movie heroine,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, she was holding the pose a
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: little too long. Too Well, she's a kid, she's doing
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it the way the grown ups and the movies do it,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I told myself. But I danced her out here for
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a purpose. Maybe she didn't deserve it, but I was
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: sick to death with little bits of fluff that hung
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: around drinking and borrowed glamour, getting the big play from
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: boys like Harry Thorston. I reached out and grabbed. Now
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: comes the part you've really been asking for, I said.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I crouched, bent her over my knee and brought my
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: hand down hard, three times in all, putting everything I
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: had into it. Now, I said, letting her get up,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe you'll quit bothering guys who worked all their lives
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to get in a spot where they could go out
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and be of some help and the only job they
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: ever wanted. The TSN think you stack up worth a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: damn beside the only thing that counts. She just stood there,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: tears of rage in her eyes. I was never sure
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: whether it was what I'd done or what I said
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that had her so mad. But the last thing I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: heard her say as I walked away was damn you,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Ash Holcombe, damn you for being such a snobbish stuck up.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Well maybe I was wrong, and maybe I wasn't. I
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: didn't know as much in those days as I should
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: have either. But it was too late now, too late
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: by a war and a hundred revolutions, too late by
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: all the men who had gone down before my guns,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: too late by years of loneliness and bitterness. But if
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it was too late, why did I remember it all now?
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: With Thorston up in the asteroids, a little king in
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: his own right, with me in the new Shanghai, a
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: white ray burn splashed through my hair, with the Academy
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: a dim thing behind both of us. And Pat? Why
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: was Pat here? What had she done through the years
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: while I fought my way from one end of the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: system to the other and Harry took the easy way
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: out during the war? Hello, Pat, I said, I haven't
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: seen you in a long time. Well what else was
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I going to say? I don't know what she had
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: expected me to say. She kept her face in profile,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: and didn't let me see what it was showing. I'm
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: here on business. I hear you're a good man these days.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: For the job I've got, She twisted the words like
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a knife. All right, if she wanted it that way,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: she'd get it. So they tell me, I said fifteen
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: thousand for a month's work. She said it quietly, without
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: any build up. Maybe she figured fifteen thousand didn't need one.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I sat there for a minute, not saying anything, but
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: thinking hard. What kind of a setup was she offering me?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Was this the big job that was floating around. There's
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: usually a sure way to find out when someone offers
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you a blind deal. Argue. Maybe they'll get mad or
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: scared you won't take it and spill something. No thanks,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I said, She frowned. Don't try hackling with me, Ash,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I can get somebody just as good for less. I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: don't doubt it. You could probably get three. That's why
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I don't want any part of it. It's sucker bait.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: She looked at me for the first time, mouth twisted.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Since Wind is a hired gun like you, turned down
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that kind of money. The job's worth it, believe me.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: That hit me, but I couldn't afford to get touchy,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: probably is, but would stand or pay at three thousand
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: a month plus bounties and commissions. This little errand of yours,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be, must break so many law as
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: it could land me in a death house, I said,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: watching her eyes. It didn't add up. Nothing add it up.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Why she picked me in the first place. I had
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a reputation as one of the better gunnies. Sure, but
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: there were at least twenty guys I'd never draw against
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: if I could help it, and four or five of
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: them were available because she had known me and this job.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: What kind of hanky panky was going on at these prices?
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I watched her eyes acquiring dangerous highlights. The temper that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: went with her hair was beginning to stir. Do you
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: want to get in on the biggest deal that's ever
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: been pulled off in space? Or don't you? She said?
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Or are you going to chicken out? She added contemptuously.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I let it slide off my shoulders. I don't know,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: I said. I wanted to get a chance to really
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: talk things out with her, and this wasn't the place
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: for it anyway. This is no place to talk to business.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Walk out of here. As if I'd turned you down
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and go up the street. I'll catch up to you. Okay.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: She got up and walked out. Sorry, honey, I called
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: after her, loud enough for everybody to hear. A snicker
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: went up. I cut it off with a look at
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the characters lined up against the bar, and got back
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: to my drink. I finished it casually, put it down,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: paid and walked slowly to the door. I let everybody
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: get a good look at me. Turning down the street
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: in the opposite direction from the one Pat had taken.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I ducked into the first cross street and moved swiftly
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: over to the alley the perilel the street that Pat
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: was on. I was thinking all the way. Being a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: do O was one thing, Getting into something solo was another.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I could get killed for all I knew, and maybe
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: by a lawman's gun. That was a risk I ran
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: on every job, but in this case I didn't even
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: know yet what was going on. The smart thing to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: do would have been to pass the word to my
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: SBI contact, but that would take too much time. There
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was nothing I could do but dive into this mess
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: head on and hope I'd have time to yell for help. Later,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I was about to turn into another alley that ran
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: back to the main street when I heard the coughing
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of a sorrow air gun and the faint sizzle of
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a colt in reply. Instantly I was running silently up
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: the alley. One hand unzipped the chest of my coverall,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and the other one dove in and grabbed the butt
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: of the heavy sturmy. That's my favorite man killer. I
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: reached the mouth of the alley and stopped abruptly in
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the shadows. A man lay in the middle of the street,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: unnaturally flat against the concrete slab the street lamp up.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The block was dark, its base surrounded by shattered glass.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: The Sorrow went into action again from the roof of
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: a building across the street. I saw the slugs chipped
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: cement from the railing of a flight of steps four
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: doors up. A pale blue flare winked from behind the railing,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and the man with the sorrow ducked, but was up
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: again as another gun raked the stairs from a spot
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: on my side of the street. I didn't like that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: set up one bit. The stirmy in my hand went whoomp,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and the man on the roof sailed out over the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: street and landed with a crunch. The other gun cut
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: off abruptly. Two colt beams probed for it from the stairs,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and that clenched it. It was Pat, all right, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: somewhere she'd become a fair hand at street fighting. Ay Pat,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I yelled and ducked away from the storm of bullets
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the other gunman flung at me. The result was what
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I had hoped for. The man had exposed himself to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Pat's fire by shooting at me. The colts sizzled viciously,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and the burst of sorrow noise stopped in mid clip.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: A gun clattered on cement. I poked my head cautiously
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: around the corner. Silence blanked rocket row, and then was
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: tempered by a scuffing noise. Up the street, a leather
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: belt was being pressed against the side of a building
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: by the weight of a body that was sliding slowly downwards.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I spotted a glowing dot. That was a tunic smoldering
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: around a colt burn ash. Yeah, ok, I grinned. She
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: sounded a little worried. I sprinted across the street at
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: a weaving run and dove behind the stairway. What happened,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I asked. I don't know, but I've got an idea.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I got about a hundred yards up the street when
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I spotted this guy tailing me. I yelled and he ducked.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: At the same time, this other fellow started running toward
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: me across the street. I burned him down and ducked
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: in here just as the bird on the roof opened up.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: That's it until you came along, I swore. I didn't
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: go for three men gunning one girl. I looked over
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the top of the railing. One or two people were
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: starting to come out of doorways. Maybe we'd better get
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: out o here, I said. We ran up the street
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to another alley. She reholstered her guns on the way,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: revealing a lot of what the dress advertised. We stopped
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: inside the alley and caught our breaths. Well anyway, I said,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I know what you're in this for. She looked up sharply.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: What you need money to buy some underwear with? She
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: slammed her hand into my face. I ducked back and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: stood there blinking. Look Holcombe, As far as I'm concerned,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the deals on fine. Thanks for helping me out back there, too,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: but just thinks no further payment, and no kidding around.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: This is a business deal. Have you got that straight?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Or do I burn you down where you stand and
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: find another boy? She meant it. I looked down at
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: her hand and one of the colts was in it. Okay,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I hadn't meant that crack as a pass, but as
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: long as the question had come up, it was all
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: right by me to have it settled right here. But
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: put that thing away before I make you eat it.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: She grinned suddenly and put the gun back. I'm sorry, Ash,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: but it's the best way I've found to establish a
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: clear cut business relationship partners. She stuck out her hand
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and I took it. Deal. A siren rose and died
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: on rocket row. Pat jumped back. Damn it, she said.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: She sought a glance up the alley. We'd better split up,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: she said, Look, Ash, she said hastily. I'll get in
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: touch with you. Meanwhile, do what I tell you to
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and don't waste time askin me why. I'll tell yo later.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: All you have to do now is take the job
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Transoler is going to offer you. That's all. Take that
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: job and start to carry it out. I'll be in
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: touch with you somewhere along the line, she looked down
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: toward the alley's mouth. I followed her glance and saw
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: shadowy figures of men running by. They'll be here in
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a minute. I've got a car a couple blocks away.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I'll see you ash Yeah, hurry up, I added. As
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the first of the cops came warily into the alley,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I pulled my gun and ducked behind a barrel. As
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: she started to run, the cop yelled and came after her.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: I snapped a shot over his head, and that drove
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: him into cover. Over the shouts that rose, I could
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: hear her footsteps fading out. I followed her, cautiously, sliding
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: from behind one ashcan to another, keeping the cops down
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: with an occasional shot. I made it out of the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: alleen into the street, then ducked into a doorway, kicked
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the lock loose, took the stairs two at a time
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to the roof, and got away over the housetops. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: all the time I was wondering about pat, the job
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: that Transolar was going to offer me, and how she
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: had known about it. End of chapter one, chapter two
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of Blood on My Jets by August Boudras. The LibriVox
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: recordings in the public Domain read by Ben Tucker, Chapter two.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Mort Weedman was the same Captain Weedman who had left
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: an arm in the cockpit of a K class Scout
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: bomber that he had flown through a formation of Marty's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: while he almost bled to death. He looked very military
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: in his blue and silver uniform. It wasn't a TSN uniform,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: of course, but even a transolar express rig makes an
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: old soldier feel better. He was another old friend of mine.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Like Thorston, the three of us had been touched by
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: the war, each in our own separate ways. Mort was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the one who didn't just feel a yearning for space,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: who didn't just ride on a t S in uniform
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: because it was the one available way. Mort had loved
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the teas in itself, with a pride in the traditions
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: that guys like Thorston and me hadn't quite had. He'd
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: been a better officer because of it, and the only
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: one who couldn't have stayed. And as we'd gone our
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: separate ways, so our ways of thinking had changed. Thorston well,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: he had taken his choice, and some day I might
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: have to go into the belt and do something about it.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: But Mort's attitude hurt. He didn't have any respect for me.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: He couldn't have for a man who had resigned his
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: commission and become a planet hopper. He stood at the
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: window in his office, his phony arm tucked into a pocket,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: his mustache moving up and down as he talked to me.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know why they picked you, Ash, he said.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I leaned back in my chair. I don't either, unless
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: maybe it's because they couldn't find anybody else with my qualifications,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: or maybe it's because they can trust me and they
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: know it. I was getting pretty mad. Weedman was the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: right guy, but I was getting sick of being offered
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: jobs without being told what they were. Two and two
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: days was a little too much. Weedman turned round. Don't
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: get edgy, Ash, I've got my orders. They came down
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: from the top brass, and I'll carry them whether I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: approve or not. But don't get me sore. I'm authorized
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to offer you ten thousand dollars plus expenses for one
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: trip to Titan and back. You'll be carrying extremely valuable cargo,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and you'll be expected to deliver it intact. Do you
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: want the job or not? I didn't answer him right away.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: What was wrong with him? There was more than just
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: dislike writing his voice. I don't get I stalled like
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: you've said, why me and why Titan? There's nothing out
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: there besides the asteroid belt is full of Marty's to
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: say nothing of Thorston and his crew in his right
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: mind would try to make that trip without a convoy.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Weedman flushed for your information, he said, there's a small
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: scientific staff and a bubble on Titan. They need a
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: new charge for their power pile, and we've got the
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: shipping contract. Our problem is to get it to them
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: without Thorston or the Martians learning about it and grabbing
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: it up. That's why we dug you up. We need
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: somebody who can fly it out to them and fight
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: off raiders at the same time. You're still the best available.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: So that was the big job, No wonder there were
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: so many phony things going on for God, for country
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and for Transsolar huh, I said, watching the blood leave
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: his face. Now, why should I help you pull your
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: fat contracts out of the fire. What's it to me?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: If a bunch of technicians don't get their damn fuel.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The stuff would be worth plenty to either Thorston or
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: the Martys. Living in the asteroids isn't fun. I've done it,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and it takes power to maintain a bubble. Believe me,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: they'll throw everything they've got to keep a ship carrying
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a charge from making it past them. I must have
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: sounded pretty nasty about it, because Weedman actually yanked that
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: murderous motorized artificial arm out of his pocket. He pulled
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: up his shoulders and looked at me like I was
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: something floating down a sewer, but he kept his voice even.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: All right, Ash ten thousand plus expenses, you'll be given
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: a new kind of ship. It's a model we picked
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: up from a manufacturer who had his contract canceled by
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the TSN. She was originally designed for armed reconnaissance, and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: we've installed the weapons called for in the original specifications.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: She'll outfly anything with jets on it and stand off
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a cruiser given room to maneuver. Does that soothe you?
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Or do you want a convoy too? He added scornfully.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: I lit a cigarette and pretended to think it over. Actually,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of course I was going to take the job. I
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have anyway, but there were two additional reasons why
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't turn it down. There was pat of course,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and her orders. Most important, though, had been the fact
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that the message to report the Weedman that I'd found
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: in my mailbox at the spaceman's hiring hall had borne
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a slightly different Post Office cancelation on the stamp than
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the usual. The tea in United wasn't quite formed the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: way it was on the regular stamp. It wasn't apparent
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: unless you looked for it, but it was as good
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: as a big red sign that spelled out Official United
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Terrestrial Government Business Act as directed within. Because that's what
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: it meant. Sounds better than I expected, I admitted, all right,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: when do I go? Weedmen didn't show any expression to
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: indicate disappointment or satisfaction. He simply said, tonight after we
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: check over the details. The ship's equipped with standard TSN controls,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and you'll have lots of time to test her flight
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: characteristics once you get out in space. What happens if
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: she explodes? Don't I get to test her first? No,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: there isn't time, and it would be a dead giveaway.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: For the first time I saw something like satisfaction on
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Weedman's face. Then if she explodes, well, Frankly Holcombe that's
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: your problem. I spent the afternoon being briefed. One thing
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: was off my mind. If I had official orders to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: take this job, then the SBI would be keeping a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: tab on me. It made a difference knowing that no
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: matter what kind of a mess I got into, somebody
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: would at least know what had happened to me, and
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: most important why. I was given a company flight suit
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and a hip rig for my Sturmi. I put those
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: on and was taken to within a block of the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: port in a shuttered car. Not going all the way
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to the spaceport was my idea. The reason I gave
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Weedman was good enough. There was no sense putting up
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: neon markers to indicate that I was up to something special.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But I had better one than that. I had to
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: give Pat a chance to get in touch with me.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: It didn't work out that way. I began walking down
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: toward the transolar revetment using a short cut sheet, looking
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: around for Pat. It was a she had had some
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: kind of a tail on me, and I was expecting
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: to see her step out of almost any of the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: doorways I passed. Instead, I heard something back up the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: street the way I had come boot soles whispered on concrete.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I turned around and looked buried in shadow. I couldn't
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: see anything. I turned back around and kept on walking,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and I heard a holster being unsnapped. I stopped to listen,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and there was only silence. I moved and somebody slipped
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a safety catch. I leaped suddenly to my right. My
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: shoulders touched the wall of a house. My hands blurred forward,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: one locking on my holster and holding it down, the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: other scooping the stirmy out and clear of the leather.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Then blurring again as I shot my hand as far
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: away from me as I could, fired down the street
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and spun myself away from the building. I fired again
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: in the street lamp above. My head smashed into bits.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Then I was in a deep doorway, crouched waiting while
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: ribbons of light cut creases in the wall where I'd been.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: That was how it began. There were in less minutes
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of silence, and then someone would drag a heel or
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: kick a step. There'd be the kick of my gun
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: against my palm, and once the count on their side
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: dropped from five to four, a dot of light flickered
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: from behind a high gutter and rock chipped off a
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: wall near my head. I ducked, kissed the sidewalk with
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: my belly, slithered down a flight of steps to a
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: basement alcove, rolled over and slid behind the stone on
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the way down. I fired back, and I heard a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: rasp of metal on stone, Not the momentary rake of
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a belt buckle or button, but a gun dragging its
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: muzzle against curbing. While the man who fired had kicked
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: his life away in the gutter, I heard it drop
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the last inch to the street. I knew they'd be
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: flinking me pretty soon. I heard cloth whisper as two
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of them slipped off to each side. The fellow they'd
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: left behind began firing from all angles, weaving back and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: forth to cover them. He put too much pattern in
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: his weave, though, and that was his mistake. The pattern
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: broke and became random as the gun spun out of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: his hands before he could even realize there was a
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: shot coming two. I rolled away from behind the steps,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: crouched and patted away on the balls on my feet.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: My boots had special sponge soles on them, but even so,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: a lance of blue slashed down the street against my calf.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I plowed into the sidewalk, furrowing my brow and tearing
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: meat off the knuckles wrapped around my gun. I tried
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: not to catch my breath too loudly as I dragged
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: myself behind the ornamental outcrop of the banister on the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: next flight of steps. My leg felt like there was
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a railroad spike driven into it, and my knuckles were
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: numb and stiff. I worked my fingers to keep them
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: from freezing up on me, even though jolts of pain
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: came up and hammered at the backs of my eyes.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: My face felt wet and itchy. I lay there, waiting
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I got one more of them. He decided I was
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: dead and poked his pale face out against a black wall.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: The face vanished in a burst of red, and he
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: sprawled back. I chuckled. There wasn't much I could do
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: but chuckle. The one guy left had me cold. I
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: had no idea where he was, but he'd seen the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: flash of my gun. I couldn't shift position fast enough
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: or quietly enough to get away. All I could do
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: was lie there. He took a chance and jumped me.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: I ever heard him coming. A gun bounced off my
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: head and I went under but not before I looked
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: up and saw that it was Pat herself. End of
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: chapter two, chapter three of Blood on My Jets by
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Algus Boutris. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker, Chapter three. I remember lying on
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: my back for quite a while before I wanted to
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: open my eyes. I knew I wasn't on the street.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: The air was warm and heated, and I was on
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: a bed or something like it. My leg was giving
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: me hell where it had been burned, but I could
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: feel the pressure of a bandage. I couldn't tell about
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: my hand and face. They felt as if something had
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: been done about them, too, but I couldn't find out
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: for sure without looking or touching them, and I didn't
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: want to do that yet. Why the hell had Pat
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: jumped me? I couldn't figure it. I opened my eyes
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and she was standing over me, a gun dangling from
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: one hand. I threw a look at my watch and
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: saw i'd bent out half an hour at most. What
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the hell I began? She cut me off with a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: gesture of the gun. Shut up, she said, wearily, You'll
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: have plenty of time to start lying later. She grimaced
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: with tired disgust. I shook my head, but I knew
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: better than to go on talking. There was anger working
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: its way into the hurt look in her eyes. I
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: got up, ignoring the feeling in my calf, and noticed
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: several other things. I'd been lying on a low couch.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: My flying boots were unzipped so that I couldn't move
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: faster than a shuffle. The coveralls were loose round my
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: waist where my harness had been. I pressed my left
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: upper arm against my ribs. As far as I could tell,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: they hadn't found my insurance policy. A little single shot
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: burner hidden between two of my ribs under a strip
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: of what looked like skin. There was colodian on my
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: face and tape on my knuckles. Happy, she asked, uh, huh,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I'm Prince Charming. You're snow white, and as far as
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I can add up, somebody's fresh out o doors. What's
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: going on around here? Anyway? You double crussed me. That's
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: what happened. We made a deal and you sold out
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: on it. She was working herself to boiling mad clear through,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and then explained why she looked at me the way
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: she had. I shook my head again, trying to clear it.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I was getting mad myself. Look, Pat, I can take
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: just so much mysterious crap and no more, I said,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: feeling the blood starting to work itself into my face.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I got in from Venus after winding up one of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the prettiest insurrections you ever saw. I got my belly
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: full of the sound of guns and the smell of death,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and all I wanted to do was relax and spin
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: the dough. I made. No sooner do I take my
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: first drink of decent liquor in six months than you
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: walk up to me and start the goddamnedest mess I've
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: ever been in. All Right, we made a deal. As
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: far as I know, I've carried out the orders you
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: gave me. I got the job for Transolar, and I
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: started it. Nobody but you and I know there's something
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: funny going on, though. I suppose the cops are starting
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to suspect, seeing as I've killed five men in two
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: days and helped you knock off two more. Now, let's
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: get a few things straight around here. I've been shot at, slugged,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: and generally treated like a supporting star in a cloak
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and Dagger movie. Either I get some fast answers, or
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: I start slugging. I've been moving forward as I talked,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: getting madder and madder and closer to being ready to
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: die for that gun and rip it out of her hand.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: She was starting to lose some of her determination. The
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: gun muzzle was dipping. I reached out my hand. The
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: gun was centered on me again in an instant, but
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the fire was gone out of her eyes. Hold it, ash,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: she said, you sound too mad to be lying, but
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: you haven't convinced me yet. Just stay put a minute.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: You want to know what's going on. You should have
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: a pretty fair idea by now, she went on, still
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: keeping the gun on me. I'm after that power pile.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: You're supposed to fly out to Titan Harry needs it.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I should have known, I suppose. Well, maybe she won
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: still space struck. Thorston played rough, and he had some
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: strange friends, but so far he hadn't earned a full
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: scale visit from the TSN. It didn't mean as much
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: in this case, though. He would have been a tough
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: nut to crack sitting out there in the asteroids with
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a good sized fleet behind him. Still, but that was
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: for another time. I let her see by my face
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: that the subject wasn't closed, and then I went on, yeah,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: keep talking, who jumped you on rocket roll last night?
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Why were you trying to pot me a while ago?
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Because God damn it, I don't know what to think.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: She said, those were SBI men last night. I knew
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: they were trailing me, but I thought i'd gotten rid
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of them before I contacted you. Maybe I did. Maybe
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: they picked me up again when I went back out
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: on the street. Anyway, we killed them, but the SBI
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: knows damn well who did it. We did enough yelling
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: back and forth to let all of New York City
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: know who it was. That had been a dumb play,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: all right. I didn't have time to curse my stupidity,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: though I didn't care one bit for the idea of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: me having shot a SBI man. It was his own fault,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: but it wouldn't help my record any all right, I said,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: So they were SBI men, that's tough for them. Why
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: haven't we been picked up? I've been hiding out all day.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: But how did you get away with walking in transolar
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and broad daylight and coming out again? If you didn't
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: make some kind of deal. She was gnawing on her lip,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: damn it. Give me reasonable explanation, and I'll forget the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: whole thing that sent me off. I knew why I
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: hadn't been picked up, all right. They were waiting for
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: me to blow this steel open for them. Maybe if
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I did that, they'd forget I killed one of them.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: I'd have to do a really good job, though, But
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I wasn't doing too much reasoning right then. I'd been
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: mad all night, But that was nothing to what I felt.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Right then. I could feel a big red ball of
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: pure rage building up inside me. My fingers started to tremble,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and my vision got hazy. I swung out my hand
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and slapped the muzzle of the gun as hard as
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I could, and to hell with what it did to
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: my bomb hand. The gun went spinning away, to making
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: skin off her fingers as it went and crashed into
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: a wall. I swung my hand back and slapped her
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: across the face. She fell back and hit the floor.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: She lay huddled in a corner, looking up at me,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: her eyes wide and her mouth open with surprise. You'll
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: forget the whole thing, huh. All I have to do
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: is explain away some half baked idea that came into
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: your head, and you'll forgive me? Is that it? I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: reached down, grabbed her shoulder, pulled her to her feet,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and held her there. Her mouth was still open and
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: she couldn't get any words out of her throat. You're
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: going to forgive me for getting me into a deal
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: that involves killing SBI man. You're going to forgive me
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: for having a guy that used to be a buddy
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: of mine hate my guts. I suppose you're going to
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: forgive me for slapping my face. And I'm going to
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: get your gracious pardon for having to fight it out
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: for my life tonight against five guns. That's just fine?
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Is that supposed to cover getting shot and knocked around
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and slugged I all back and slapped her again? And
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: that's for pointing a gun at me twice? I live
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: by a gun, and I expect to die by one someday,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: but not at the hands of a woman who can't
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: fight a man on his own terms and has to
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: keep him off with a gun after she gets herself
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: into a mess. All right, you know how to use one,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: but so help me. You wave one of those things
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: at me again and I'll ram it down your throat.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Caddy cornered. I pushed her away, and she slammed back
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: against the wall. One more thing, I said, have you
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: ever heard of the SBI fooling around making deals with
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: a guy that's killed one of their men? Not on
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: your life. They're a tough crew and a smart one.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: If they thought I had anything to do with that
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: fracas last night, I'd be on my way to a
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: federal gas chamber right now. If I was lucky enough
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to live through the working over, they'd give me use
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: your brains. She stood against the wall, staring at me,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: making sounds in her throat. One of her cheeks was
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: starting to puff. I started for her again. Her eyes
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: got even wider. Ash. Her voice was high and frightened.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Somehow it cut through the deadly anger in my chest
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: and made me stop. Ash Please, Ash I. She put
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: her hands up to her face and stood there sobbing
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: into the My nails were digging into my palms. I
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: opened my hands and saw blood running over my knuckles
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: where the tape had torn away. There was some of
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: my blood on her dress where I'd grabbed her shoulder. Ash. Please,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, it it's just that I didn't know what
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: to think. I don't know how it got over to her,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: but then I had my arms around her, and she
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: was digging her teeth into the cloth of my shoulder
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and sobbing. Pat, why do you have to be this way?
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Why can't you? I was saying, stroking that red brown hair.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: She wasn't a tough, self assured woman who could gun
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: a man down without blinking. She was a soft, hurt,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: crying girl, mumbling through tears, her body shaking. I wasn't
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: a guy who'd fought his way through a war in
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: countless battles since either. She pulled her face away from
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: me and looked up. Her eyes were wet, but she
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't scared anymore. I looked down at her. I started
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to say something, but she stopped me. I had it coming, Ash,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: she said, softly. I didn't trust you. I should have
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: known better, she half smiled. I haven't met too many
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: people who could get worked up over not being trusted.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I couldn't look at her. I was going to have
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: to turn her over to the SBI some day, and
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: I couldn't look at her. Ash. Remember the night you
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: spanked me, Remember what you did? First? I felt her
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: hand on my face, turning in. Then she was kissing me,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: her lips soft and fresh, her wet face under my glance,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: her long lashes down over closed eyes. Her arms moved
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: on my back, and her body was as light as
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: a dream in my arms, my own eyes closed. End
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: of chapter three, Chapter four of Blood on My Jets
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: by August Boutris. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker, Chapter four. Flight cover alls are
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: designed to be air tight when fully zipped. Hoods with
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: transparent face plates and oxygen leads can be hermetically sealed
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to the collars, and every ship has emergency plugins for
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the oxygen tubes. In combat, all spacemen keep their hoods
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: thrown back like Mackinaw hoods, so that if a hole
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: is blown in the hole, they can slip the hoods
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: on and plug into the emergency oxygen supply. Struggling into
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a full dress spacesuit is too complicated a job to
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: entrust to the few frantic minutes that spell the difference
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: between life and death. And meanwhile, the coveralls are far
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: more comfortable in flight. Besides, anyone who had seen what
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a spacesuit does to a figure like Pats will agree
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: that it's a dirty shame. While Pat was climbing into
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: her outfit, I was outlining the plan we'd have to follow.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: As long as I was going to go along with
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: this offer of hers temporarily, at least, I might as
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: well do it right. I got into a cab accident
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: or something. I said. That accounts for the shape I'm in.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: You're an old friend of mine, and since I'm in
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: no condition to fly and fight at the same time,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I'm taking you along as co pilot. Weedman will stick
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: me for your pay. Of course, I'll make sure he
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: does that way. There won't be much kick about you
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: coming along, especially if I make it a both or
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: neither proposition. When we get out in space, you show
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: me how to get to Thorston's bubble and the asteroids,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: and that's it. We deliver the pile charge, shoot back
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: out into space, fake the signs of a big battle,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and yell for help over the radio. There'll be a
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: squawk about you being a woman then, of course, But
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: hell us space bombs are supposed to be devil make care,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: aren't we. It was a great little plan, all right.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: If we give SBI the location of Thorston Space and
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't hold up delivery of the pile charge any
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: longer than it would take to salvage it. Meanwhile, space
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: would be rid of Harry. Sounds like it'll work all right,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: she said. I wish I was sure the SBI didn't
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: have anything big on me. It'll be a bad enough
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: stink as it is, she grinned. But we'll make out.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Weedman was out at the field, fuming over the fact
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: that I was an hour and a half late. He
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: surprised me, though he didn't boggle over taking Pad along
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: once I gave him a story about being lightly hit
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: by a car and having to take my friend along.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Padd had had a tight cloth strapped across her breasts,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: her hood, over her face, and I had gotten her
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: into the ship fast. Okay, okay, who gives a damn
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: what happens to you, as long as the job's done,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Weedman said, But I couldn't believe him somehow when he added,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: I don't even care who does it personally. He slipped
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: an envelope into my pocket. Something for you, he said.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Don't open it until your past mars, and don't let
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: your friends see it for a while. Anyway, he chuckled
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: and surprised me by doing it. He looked secretly happy
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: over something, as if he knew about something awful that
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: was going to happen to me. You'll have some sweet
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: explaining to do to your friend, Holkom. I'd love to
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: see it. But there was still that note of something
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: more than laughter, more than most feelings in his voice.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't say more than that. He just shoved me
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: into the ship and slammed the hatch. I kept watching
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: him in the starboard screens as we can checked off
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: the instrument board. He was a little figure at the
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: edge of the field, staring wistfully up at the ship,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: his mechanical arm in his pocket. I couldn't wait until
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: we were past Mars to open the letter. Of course,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: we'd be too close to the belt by then. I
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: read it while Pat was at the controls. Welcome. I
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: don't know exactly why, except that you're the best there is,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: I guess. But you've been picked for this job. As
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: you may have guessed, Transolar Express is a blind for
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: some pretty big government bureaus. This isn't a ship the
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: TSN canceled, of course, it's a top secret job built
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: according to the specifications laid down by the Titan Labs.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: When you hit Titan, turn the ship over to the
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: technicians there and they'll install the additional equipment that's part
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: of your cargo of pile fuels. The rest of your
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: load really is fuel, but it's not meant for the
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: Titan pile. It's just for the engines and the ship.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: When it's ready, you'll fly the ship to God knows where.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: You won't refuse. I know because I wouldn't either if
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: I'd been given the chance to fly the first ship
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: into hyperspace. Luck Weedman. When I'd understood, I went back
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: to the engine room and took a look at the drive.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Then I went to the cargo compartment and stood looking
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: at the hatches. They were sealed, welded shut. I went
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: back up forward and waited until Pat had to leave
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: the controls for a few minutes. The minute she dropped
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: through the hatch, I was over at an emergency tool kit,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: and a few seconds later I was ripping off bulkhead
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: panels with a screwdriver. I got a fast look at
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: banks of dials and instruments, and slapped the panels back
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: up before Pat got back. Then I went down to
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: my cabin and just sat on a bunk, staring at
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: the wall, that cocky little bastard, that frozen faced terrier
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of a man, cursing me with all his heart, because
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I was getting the chance he'd have had if he
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: hadn't given his right arm too soon, and he had
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: wished me luck. I was proud then of being an
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: earth man, of being a fighting man, of having earned
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the right to get my name in the history books.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I stood there, a big dumb check ass. All of
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: a sudden it had hit me. I'd been asking a
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: lot of questions lately and getting only partial answers. Now
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I had all the answers, and I hated every one
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: of them. The misdirection in lying on Wheatman's part was
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: clear as a bell. It had been designed to get
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: me off Earth and headed for Titan without anybody knowing
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the real reasons, even me. They knew that if the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: real secret ever leaked out, every renegade and pirate in
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: the system would swarm down, battling to the death to
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: get their hands on the ship. So they pulled the
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: purloined letter gag. They hid the ship and its mission
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: and plain sight. They sent me off in her to
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: deliver the engine parts to where the hyperspatial drive could
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: be assembled, and from there I'd be able to fly
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: her to whatever star they chose, ghosting along in the
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: universe where the speed of light, as we knew it,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: was not the fastest speed a ship could hit. They'd
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: given me a good excuse too, pile fuels a big
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: enough cargo to justify using me in a special ship,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: but not so big that I couldn't handle the opposition
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: I'd get from the Belt gangs, who'd fight for it, sure,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: but who'd try a lot less hard and discourage a
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: lot easier than they would if they knew what was
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: really up. The only trouble with that was what they
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: didn't know. Sure, what else could it be? Earth was
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: thick with two bits, sneaks and spies who sold information
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to anybody with the price. Even Earth Government thought enough
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: of them to cook up this big production. One of
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: them must have dug deeper than any one thought. Thorston
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: knew that was a cinch. He knew so well that
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: he hadn't even wanted a chance of fight out in
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: space where the drive might get shot up. He'd sent
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Pat out to decoy me into him. I stood there, cursing,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: my big fists closed into sledges. Pat Pat, that beautiful,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: wonderful actress, Pat, who was deaf with a gun and
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: arson for me with her lips. All my life. I'd
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: been getting mad at people and things during the war.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: I was crazy mad at Marty's afterwards. I was mad
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: at anybody who wanted to push other people around. I
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: got mad at Pat because I thought she was plaguing
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: me for a sucker. And Pat had taught me what
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: hatred could do. She had given me love to replace it.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Anne played me for a sucker. I stood there, Ash Holcombe,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: the toughest man in space, maybe not the smartest, No,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: not the smartest, the dumbest, the stupidest chump who had
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: ever fallen for the oldest gag in history, And nobody
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: knew about it. Back on Earth, they were sure they
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: had gotten away with it. Even Weedman, weedman with the
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: grin mort weedmen who had gone helling around in a
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: hundred dives with me, who didn't need obvious signs like
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: long hair or breasts to spot a woman's figure. He
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: thought everything was all right too. He was probably shaking
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: his head with envy back on Earth, thinking of all
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the fun I'd be having in hyperspace. Nobody knew the
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: mess the system was in except me, and nobody could
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: do anything about it now except me. That thought knocked
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: me out of the raging mood i'd been working myself into.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: I couldn't afford to lose my head. I've been wondering
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: how Thorston was going to work a rendezvous right in
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: the middle of the Belt with renegade Martys that had
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: held out from the war, swarming all over the place,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: just waiting for a prize like this. The answer was simple,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: He'd work out an alliance with them. Probably the Martys
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: thought they could use it to reconquer the system. If
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I knew Harry, he had other plans, but they were
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: probably just as bad. What in the hell was I
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: going to do? One more thought hit me. That was
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the worst one of all, because it held out an
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: impossible hope. It was all right to picture Weedman getting
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: a boot out of me, taking a woman along. Under
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: ordinary circumstances, that might have been true, but this was
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: too big, too important. There were two alternatives. Weedman must
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: have known I was a d O. I could assume that,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: but knowing how important the job was, Weedman wouldn't have
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: let Pat come along no matter what. If he hadn't
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: thought she and I were working together, and that one
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: stopped me cold. Was she or wasn't she? End of
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: chapter four, Chapter five of Blood on My Jets by
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Algus Boutras. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter five? What was Pat doing?
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Tied up with Thorston? She was a high grade operator, now,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: as far from the immature teas I'd known at the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: academy as I could imagine. Where'd she learn to handle
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: a gun like that? Where'd she got in the experience
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: that let her handle a job this size by herself?
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I couldn't answer that, not any of it, and it
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: was driving me nuts. I stared over at the control banks,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: at the forward screen, watching the stars and beating my
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: brains out. We'd been out in space for two days,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: and I hadn't dared to try and find out. You
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: don't when you're alone with the woman you love. She
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: was standing next to me, and I looked up at her.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: The coveralls gave a pretty good indication of what lay
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: beneath and it was top grade. Not that her figure
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: was that spectacular. She had something more than figures on
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: a tape measure. There was a precision, a slim freshness,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and freedom to the way one curve flowed into another.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: It sounds silly, but the way she held herself reminded
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: me of a thing I'd seen once, a rocket transiting
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: the sun, fire sparkling from the shimmering hull and the
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: milky way behind it. I finally caught what I was
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: trying to phrase. She looked as if she was poised
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: for flight. She grinned down at me. Like it, she asked, chuckling.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Her green eyes crackled with light, and there were little
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: demons in her laugh. I tried to think of a
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: clever comeback, but I couldn't. I just said, yes, I
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: did like it, and I hated it at the same time.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: The ship was fast, but space is big. I had
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: a week to plan my next moves while we worked
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: our way through the area between Earth and Mars's orbit
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: where the TSN kept the raiders down. But the week
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: went by and I didn't think of anything. I'd be
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: working over the control board and then I'd look up
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: and she'd be smiling at me. I'd raise an eyebrow
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: and she'd stick her tongue out. We shared cigarettes. I'd
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: take a drag, hand her the butt, and she'd cuff
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: me when I blew smoke in her face. Hey goon,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: she'd say from behind the plotting board. Do you hear
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: the one about the ladies sociologist who wandered into Bessie's
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: place on Venus? I taught her original verses to the
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Song of the Wandering Spacemen. Then she taught me the
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: verses she knew. We crossed Mars's orbit. I couldn't think
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: of any way to find out what I'd been killing
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: myself over, except to ask, ever hear the do o's?
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: I asked, quietly, what che in chlorophyll? Tablet's kierum? She asked.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: I laughed so hard that I cried. I don't think so,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: I answered automatically, and got busy checking the breech assembly
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: on one of the ship's rocket launchers. Lay off that
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: ape face, pat said, we won't need it. How Come,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: if anybody comes round looking unfriendly, just give em this
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: on the radio, she said, and whistled off a recognition signal,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: and Martian I turned slowly away from the launcher. Thorston
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: did have a deal with the Martys. What was more,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Pat was in on it. She had to be. She
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: looked at my face. What's the matter, lump something you ate?
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Sit down, Pat, I said, pointing to the navigation table.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: Go on, sit down, I yelled. She turned white. You
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: know what kind of a ship this is, don't you?
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: I said, feeling like I was a hundred years old? Sure,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: she nodded. She was beginning to get it. You weren't
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: supposed to know about that. I didn't, not until we
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: were spaceborne, didn't she realize? Couldn't she see what she
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: was doing to me? Pat? Do you know what'll happen?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: If the Marty's get this drive? They'll be able to
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: hit Earth and Venus with everything they've got, coming out
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: of nowhere and going back into hyperspace when they're through.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: The TSN won't stand a chance against them, she shrugged.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: They probably would if they ever got it, but they won't.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Harry's going to assemble the drive, install it in his ships,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and then we'll take off. The Martys will be stuck.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you just mentioned taking off? Where to?
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: She looked up at me. Harry says there's another planet
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: out in hyperspace, somewhere circling another star. He says people
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: can live on it. Her eyes were shining, and I
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: remembered a girl on a terrace back at the Academy
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: with a dream in her voice that I'd been too
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: dumb to recognize. He does, does he can? He prove it?
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: How do you know what he's really going to do?
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Because he told me, she flared, He's going to bypass
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: the fumbling bureaucrats who run things on Earth and take
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: mankind out to the stars. Man kind Ash, the toughest,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the strongest men in space, and their women. Space belongs
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: to us, Ash, not to those earth bound lilies. And
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: whose speech are you repeating? I said, getting more and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: more mad every minute? Thorston's yes, all right, if you
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: think so goddamn much of him, Suppose you tell me
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: where he is to you now? I asked, he's my husband.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: She didn't even hesitate. I started for her before I
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: could even think of words for the double crossing. She
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: came off the navigation table like a coiled spring. She
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: had a gun in her hand. Ash, get back. I
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: don't want to hurt you. Ash, can't you see why
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: do you think I'm the kind who I kept coming? No,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I said, I can't see why. I'm not built so
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: I could see why. And yes, I do think you're
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: the kind. I don't know why I had to pick you,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: she screamed. Then maybe I remembered something, Maybe I found
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: something out after it was too late. She was crying,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: but she was bringing the gun up at the same time.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: I didn't care. I didn't care if she pulled the
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: trigger or not. I told you, I said, between my teeth.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: She had the gun aimed right at me. Her face
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: was gray and her hand was shaking. I told you
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: the last time, would i'd do if you ever pointed
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: a gun at me Again. My voice was coming out low,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: but it had absolutely nothing in it. It was just
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: words coming out one by one. The gun muzzle was
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: shaking badly. She put up her hand to steady it.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: I she said. There were tears running down her cheeks
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: in a steady, wet stream. She should have pulled the trigger.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: I think she should have, but she didn't. I smashed
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: my fist against the gun and it was out of
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: her hands, crashing into metal somewhere Ash. She screamed and
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: raked her nails across my face. She kicked up her
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: knee and fire exploded in my groin. I fell forward,
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: slamming her down on the deck, and threw my entire
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: dead weight across her shoulders. I didn't have to. Her
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: head had hit the deck, and she lay unconscious, blood
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: seeping out through her hair. She didn't talk to me.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: She lay on her bunk, her chest rising and falling
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: under the straps. I buckled around her. I tried to explain,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: to make her understand somehow, Pat, I've got a responsibility
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: to the people I work for. I've spent the last
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: ten years keeping characters like Harry Thorston from taking over
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: this system. It's a rough job, and it's a dirty one.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: I can't help that. I don't like it, Pat, it's
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: got to be this way. She wouldn't talk to me,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: she wouldn't listen. I walked out of her cabin, locking
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the door behind me, locking a door and forgetting what's
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: on the other side, or two different things. I went
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: up to the control room and set a course for Titan.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe once we got out there, I'd be able to
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: convince her it was a lousy hope. I didn't even
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: understand her. She was like something I'd never seen before.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: How could she be like she was? How? God damn it? How?
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: End of chapter five Chapter six of Blood on My
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Jets by Algus Boutras This LibriVox recordings in the public
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: domain read by Ben Tucker. Chapter six. Titan lay ahead
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: of me, pursuing its track around Saturn. My ship drove
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: toward it, flaming out fuel and reckless amounts as I
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: poured on the acceleration. I had to get there fast.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: We'd already missed our rendezvous time with Thorston by two days.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: He was going to figure out what happened, must have
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: done so already and would be hot behind us. I
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: had to land, get the engines installed, load supplies, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: take off into hyperspace before he hit. It was a
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: race against time. I built up velocity to a point,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: no sane skipper whatever, dream of leaving just enough fuel
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: to break with, knowing I wouldn't need it to get back.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Part of me sat in the control room plotting curves,
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: charting fuel consumption figures on a graph, watching the black
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: line rise hour by hour to the red crayon slash
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: that meant I had done all I could, and part
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: of me was down in the can with Pat. But
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: if I'd let the two parts mix, no ship in
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: the system had ever hit the speed I begged out
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: of my ship's heaving engines. No human being had ever
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: traveled as fast before, tracing his track across the white
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: stars and the blue fire of his jets. If I
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: made it to Titan in time to get into hyperspace,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: I would have Pat with me. There'd be stars to
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: look at, and the worlds that circled them. Star on
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: star marching past. The ship whirled after spinning world fair
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: against the stars, and a million things to see. A
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: thousand lifetimes to live out there where other beings lived.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Was adventure enough for both of us, and enough of dreaming.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe she'd forget Thorston. Maybe some of the things she
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: had said had been lies. Maybe the whisperings and darkness
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: were true. If I could get to Titan in time,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: I might as well have walked. I knew there was
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: no hope. Before I finished landing. Titan was an empty moon.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Where the Project Bubble had been was a circle of
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: fused concrete around a mess of melted alloys, A corpse
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: in a TSN space lay on its back and stared
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: at it saturn. I looked down at it, cursing, my
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: shoulders slumping under the weight of my helmet, and I
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: heard the voice on the command frequency. Hey you you
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: down by the bubble. The voice was weak and getting weaker. Yeah,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: I shouted into my mic. Welcome. Yeah, for Christ's sake,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: where are you? You're right about one hundred yards. Start
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: walking over here. I'll talk you in. I started off
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: at a lope, kicking my way over the rough ground.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: That voice was pitifully weak. I found him curled around
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: a rock, his head and arms supported on a rifle
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: that was leaned against stone. Welcome, Yeah, he couldn't even
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: turn his head to look at me. I'm Foster, Lou Foster,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: commanding Marine Guard Detail. I remembered him, the one who
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: filled a practice football with water. Yeah, Lou, how's it?
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: No damn good at all, Ash, I've been waiting for
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: you thorst and yeah, our old class mate Harry the
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: horse about thirty four hours back. You been in that
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: thing all this time? Sure? Snap? If you breeze shallow
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and don't drink anything, helps to have a couple of
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: spare tanks. He can still try to chuckle. Well, hell guy,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: let's get you over to my ship. No, can't do rush,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: No sense to it. I was training to hear the
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: words now. Even with his set right next to mine,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: I knelt down and touched helmets with him. Listen, Ash,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: he's got the stuff, the diagrams, the charts, the figures, everything.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: He's even got the tech detail to put it together
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: for him. All right, Lou, it figured, But can the
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: act come on? Boy? Over my shoulder, you go and
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: down to the can with you. Let me lay. God,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: damn it, you trying to move me. I didn't walk
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: over here. I got flung when the dome let go.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: He was screaming, Sorry, Lou, it's all right. He bubbled
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: a chuckle. I see, by my infallible little tears and
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: instruments that I'm going to run out of breathing material
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: in a couple of minutes. Sorry by me. Luck to Yash. Yeah,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: but he didn't strangle. He didn't choke in his helmet.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: There was still air in his tanks when he died.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: I went back to my ship and sat behind the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: control board smoking a cigarette. I rubbed a hand across
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: my tired eyes and wondered what I was going to
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: do next. Thorston had thought of everything. He couldn't have
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: found technicians to assemble to drive anywhere else, so he'd
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: come out here and kidnapped them. I was an elementary move,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: obviously planned far in advance. I'd been running a useless race.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: I would have realized it long ago if I hadn't
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: been half crazy about Pat. She laughed at me when
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: I told her about it, but she laughed in a
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: peculiar way. I could have told you, she said, laughing.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Ash Hulcombe, the big undercover agent heading like mad for Titan,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: and what does he find? I found, lou Foster, Pat,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: I said, feeling the steel in my voice slicing upward
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: in my throat. That wasn't anybody's fault, she said quickly.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: He happened to get in Harry's way. Go tell Andrea Foster,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: I said, stop it, Ash. You can keep bringing up
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: horrible examples, but it still doesn't mean anything compared to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: travel to the Stars. What was wrong with the way
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: it was going to be done? I asked, But she
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: was pulling her protective shell of mockery around her again.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: Oh stop it ash, You're licked, and now you're trying
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: to justify it by claiming foul the way losers always have.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: But the last thing she said as I slammed out
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: of the cabin was this time you got the spanking ash.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Now stop crying about it. But somehow she didn't sound
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: as happy as she'd probably expected. I took the ship
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: back out into space, finally heading sunward. All I could
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: do was hope i'd get within radio range of a
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: TSN ship before Thorston found me. But that didn't happen.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: I wasn't anywhere near the belt when I had to
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: sit and watch Thorston's fleet come flame at me out
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: of space and surround my ship, sliding into tight courses
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: that held me on a deadly and invisible leash, and
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I could feel things crumbling inside me. All the principles
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the academy had built in and love and fear, remorse, friendship, bravery,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: none of it meant anything. They were things that human
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: hearts and minds were capable of. But when yesterday's love
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: is today's revulsion, when friends are deadly enemies, when all
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: the world thinks of you as just another space bomb,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: what then? I had the destiny of the system riding
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: in the holds behind me, and nobody really knew or
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: cared that I'd break my heart to keep it safe.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: They were my eyes, but they weren't altogether normal. As
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: I stared out of the control room screens at the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: waiting fleet, they kept their distances. They all had their
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: launchers pointed at me, and on a few of the
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: old T class rack mounts, I could see the homing
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: torps lying in wait on the flat upper decks. I
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: went back to Pat's cabin. She was sitting up in
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: her bunks, sting at me. Fire lay buried deep in
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: her eyes, but she kept her face smooth. Okay, Pat,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I said, Thorston's got his crew in a globe around me.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: He wants this ship. Should I give it to him?
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: What I was saying didn't match my voice. I was
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: tired and mad, and I couldn't look at her. I
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: could feel my lower teeth sliding back and forth against
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: my upper ones. No, I know you too well, Ash,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: she said, not the way you'd give it to him.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: She pushed herself up and stood in front of me.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Her eyes kept getting wider and wider, Ash, You're crazy
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: if you think you can fight your way out of this,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: her voice broke, You know you don't have a chance.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: I've seen Harry's fleet in action. This is one ship
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: ash one ship. Her entire body was radiating urgency. She
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: was standing stiff legged, every muscle quivering, trying to get
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: her words through the desperate red haze that was building
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: up in front of my eyes. I couldn't see her
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: very clearly, but I could see well enough to laugh
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: at her fight. I said, fight, I've had fighting, all
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: the fighting I'm ever gonna do. I've been fighting too much,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: too often. I had a name and a friend once,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: and I had a girl once too. Now all I've
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: got is a job and some orders and a conscience. Maybe. No,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna fight. I threw my head back and
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: laughed again. I reached out and grabbed her arm. Come on,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have a grand stand seat. I pulled her
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: up the companionway and into the control room and threw
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: her into the co pilot's seat. I pulled out my gun.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Reach for those controls, I said, and I will blow
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: your hand off. She sat in the chair, her face gray,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: staring out at Thorston's fleet. I reached over and switched
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: the radio to Thorston's frequency. Thorston, yes, holcome. His two
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't quite the same voice it had been. It was
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: even clipped, used to commanding a crew that didn't enjoy
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: being commanded. I've got Pat, I said, heaping my gun
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: on her. Let's stick the relevance he's hulcomb. How much
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: for the ship he'd given himself away? I could have laughed, No, Thorston,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: let's keep it where I wanted. How much for Pat?
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: There was a pause on the other transmitter. I was
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: playing my cards right. Thorston had me and the ship,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: but I had his wife, and I was swinging the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: scales my way. Why should he offer to pay me
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: now a bluff? No, he had a better one in
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the ships with their launchers ready. Why should he be
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: willing to dick her for the ship? Because she was
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: in it? That was why. If I refused to give up,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: he could always blow me out of space, or take
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: the ticklish chance of trying to disable the ship without
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: wrecking the engines. But he wasn't going to do that.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Pat was worth too much to him. Thorston, you heard me,
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: how much for your wife? He cursed me. His voice
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: was a lot lower than it had been. I've got
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: a gun on her, Thorston. Suddenly he sighed, all right, Holcombe,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: you win, but not as much as you'd think. I'll
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: make a deal. I laughed at him, still keeping my gun,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: pointed at Pat with a rock's steady hand. What am
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: I supposed to think you've been doing? Thorston? It was
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: getting to be too much for me. I could feel
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: all the pressure that had built up in the last
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: ten days starting to come to a head, ready to explode.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: And to hell with who the piece is hit? Oh no, Thorston,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: No deals, no bargains, no sellouts, no compromises. I'm up
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: to hear on double crossing and criss crossing. I hired
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: out to you and Transoler, and before that I hired
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: out to anybody who had money or a chance for
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: me to get some, and all the time I was
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: hired out to earth government. I've had too many jobs, Thorston.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: My gun's been on the line too long. There're too
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: many oaths and too many loyalties. Too much of my
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: honors been spread from one end to the system to
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: the other. Now I'm quitting the towel's going in, and
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: from now on it's me that I fight for. I
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: had the mic up against my mouth and I was
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: yelling into it. I know what you're gonna offer me, Thorston,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: I know what I'd offer. You want the girl and
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: the ship, You want one as bad as the other,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: but you won't settle for half. So you're offering me
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: my life and a free ride to Earth. Well you're
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: can take that deal and shove it Earth. Who the
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: hell would want to live on the Earth? You'd leave
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: after you and your marty friends got through with it. No, Thorston,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: it's no bargain. It's the heads. You win tails. I
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: lose proposition, no matter how you slice it. I laughed again,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: enjoying it because it was going to be my last laugh. Holcome.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: He must have guessed what I was working myself up
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: to do, because there was sheer desperation in his voice.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: But I cut him off. Shut up, Harry, I told
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: you I was quitting. You know the racket I'm in.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: You don't just quit it. You go out with your
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: hand on the wheel and your jets full on. And
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: here I come. I fed flame into my port side
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: jets throwing the mic away from me. As I grabbed
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: the controls, the ship arked over, singing her death song
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: and snapping stanchions and straining plates in the angry howl
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: of the converters. In the drum fire of jets that
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: coughed and choked as fuel poured into them, but which
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: opened their throats and bellowed just the same ash. That
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: was pat Holcomb, that was Thorston. But I was pure
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: metal jacketed fire borne death, howling silently toward the sleek
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: cruiser that was Thorston's flagship, the best known and most
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: feared silhouette in space. The gates of hell opened in space.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Every ship in the hemisphere ahead of me vomited fire.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: As the ones behind me and beside me lanced out
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: of the way of the arrowing missiles. There was no
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: way for Thorston to avoid me. Fire blossomed at the
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: throats of his jets, and the flagship shot forward. I snarled,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: twisted the wheel, and kept my nose pointed for his bridge.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: Proximity torps began exploding all around me. They weren't doing
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: Thorston a bit of good either they hit me or
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: without air to carry the shock. They were as good
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: as not there at all. Here's your hyperspatial drive, Harry,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: I howled, here it comes compliments of ash wholcomb hired gun.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: Suddenly a missile exploded up under my bow. It was
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: a clean hit. The ship screamed, escaping air and shuddered
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: bucking upward. It wasn't just stanchions ripping loose now or
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: buckling plates. It was snapping girders and metals spewing out
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: into space like teeth from a broken mouth. The trouble
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: board winked solid fire at me. I didn't care about that.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: The ship was unhurt, and the only place that counted
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: her engine room, and the stern jets kept firing. But
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: I was bent over the wheel, sobbing in pure white hot,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: frustrated rage because I was going to miss. I'd been
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: slammed up off my trajectory high enough to miss, and
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Thorston's ship was firing. Every tube had to drive herself
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: down and away behind a protective screen of other ships.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: I could hear the hysterical relief in Thorston's laugh over
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: the radio. I could hear something else too. It hadn't
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: mattered what Pat did once I'd swung the ship into line,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have pulled it out of the collision course myself.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: It had taken an atomic rocket to blast me out
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: of the way. But it was different now. I was
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: folded over the wheel, blood running down my chin from
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: my bitten lip, my knuckles aching as I tightened my fists.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: Pat said, ash, I'm sorry, There was a sob in
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: her voice. But you won't give up, she stumbled on.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: You'll never give up until you inherit. You're both dead,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't stand losing both of you. I never
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: knew what she hit me with, but the back of
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: my skull seemed to explode inward, and I slid out
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: of the seat to the deck. I started crawling toward her.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: She sobbed, but she hit me again. End of chapter six,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Blood on My Jets by August Boudras.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: Ben Tucker. Chapter seven, the fleet had scattered back to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: the hundreds of hidden berths among the far flung asteroids.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: I came awake and a pressurized burrow dug out, and
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: the particular rock Thorston had chosen for himself and his crew.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: I'd been dropped in a corner and searched down to
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: my shorts. There wasn't anything on me that I could
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: use for a weapon, except now. I caught myself before
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: there was even a quiver in my left arm. Now
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't a time to press against my ribs, to try
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: to feel the almost imperceptible bulge of the single shot
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: capsule between my ribs. I groaned and let my eyes
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: flicker open. How's it ash? I looked up. Thorston was
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: standing a few feet away from me, looking down from
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: under his spreading black eyebrows. I put my hand up
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: to my head. Crummy, she hits hard. Harry chuckled. He
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't a specially big man, but he was large enough.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: He had deep black eyes under his brows, an aristocratic
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: nose that had been broken, a slightly off centered mouth
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: whose lower lip was tighter on one side than the other,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: and a firm jaw. His hair was black, almost as
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: black as mind, and as short. He hadn't changed much.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: His voice started in the pit of his stomach and
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: worked its way up. When he chuckled, the sound was
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: almost operatic, deeper than I remembered it. Why shouldn't I
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: kill you, Holcombe? He said. I climbed to my feet
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: and looked into those probing eyes. Go ahead, give me
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: half a chance, and I'll kill you. He laughed. The
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: old school tie, he said. His voice dropped an octave. Relax, Holcombe,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: You're alive for the time being. Come on, let's get
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: some food. He reached out and slapped me on the back.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Thorston's mess Hall was another pocket in the asteroid. It
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: was connected to the burrow i'd been in by a
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: tunnel in the rock, and as we walked down it,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: I'd had a chance to get quick looks into branching
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: corridors and other burrows that were machine shops, arsenals, ration dumps,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: and living quarters. Just before we turned into the mess hall,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: I caught a glimpse of an airlock hatch at the
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: end of the tunnel. That was where Thorston's ship had
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: to be, and my own too. Unless I missed my guess,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: as long as I had a functioning mind, I was
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: going to use it automatically. A map of as much
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: of the layout as I had seen was filed away
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: in my brain. The mess hall must have been the
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: largest single un the entire chain of burrows that honeycombed
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: the asteroid. It was lit by clamp on units like
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: the rest of the place, but the lamps were spread
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: a little farther apart, so it was darker. Even so,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: I could see that most of the space was filled
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: with men sitting at long mess tables. Quite a setup,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: isn't it, Holcombe Thorston asked, leading me toward a table
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: that was slightly set apart from the others. Looks like
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: an improved standard TSN base, I said. Thorston chuckled again.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: He must have liked the sound of it. In many ways.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: That's more or less what it is, he said, sounding pleased.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: We got to the table and stopped. All the other
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: mess tables ran into end from the far side of
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: the burrow to this. Thorston's table was set at right
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: angles to the others, and a separate chair that was
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: obviously his, was placed so he could look over all
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the other men. The table had a snow fresh cloth
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: on it and was set in high polished silver. Heavy
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: napkins lay beside each of the places. I glanced down
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: at the other tables. They were bare boarded, but that
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to make much difference to the men sitting
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: at them. But all of that took about half a
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: minute's looking. What stopped my eye cold was Pat, dressed
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: in an elaborate gown, seated at one end of Thorston's table.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: Stop staring, Ash, Thorston said, the laughter running under his
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: words like a whisper of a river. Let's not keep
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: our hoosess waiting. Hello Pat, I said, as I walked
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: over to the chair that Thorston indicated was mine. I
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: was sitting next to her. She half smiled, but her
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: eyes were uncertain. Hello Ash. She glanced quickly over toward Thorston,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: who had reached his own chair. Thorston stopped next to
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: the chair and laid his hand on its back. It
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: was a signal attention. A parade ground voice near the
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: door wiped out every other sound in the hall. There
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: were close to six hundred men in the mess hall.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: All of them were suddenly on their feet, snapping two.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: The sound of boots on rock thundering through the burrow.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: The men faced each other across the long tables, staring
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: straight ahead. The successive crashes of sound died out. I
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: stood casually next to my place. Pat was the only
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: seated person in the hall. Thorston stood where he was,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: his hand still on the chair, looking out over his men.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: The silence held. All right, men, let's eat, Thorston said casually.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: There was another roll of sound through the hall as
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: six hundred men sat down and long platters of hot
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: food were rushed out to them by table orderlies. Thorston
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: and I sat down, and the three of us at
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: the table faced each other. Enjoy the show, I asked Thorston.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: He came back with a peeved look. It was my
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: turn to chuckle, but I had enough sense to keep
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: it inside. I was right back to not being sure
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: of what to think as far as Pat was concerned.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: How much of our affair had been pure bait? And
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: how much of it did Harry know about? He motioned
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: to a waiting orderly, who stepped forward and poured wine
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: into the crystal goblets beside our plates. Thorston reached forward
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: and picked his up a toast Holcombe. The black eyes
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: bored into mine. I picked up my glass. Thorston turned
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: toward Pat and raised his glass. I looked at her.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: Her face was pale, and her eyes were oddly urgent.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: She couldn't seem to take them off Thorston's face. To
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: my wife, Thorston said, and drained his glass. I drank
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: out of my own. It was good burgundy, cold and
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: dry in my mouth, and warm as it came down
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: my throat. I set the glass gently down. If Thorston
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: was expecting me to react, he was disappointed, but he
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: was laughing, the sound echoing through the burrow, none of
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: the men paying any attention to it. I looked at
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: Pat another toast. Thorston's glass had been refilled to Ash
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: Holcombe higher gun an angel of death. He was laughing
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: at me and at Pat. He knew her guessed, and
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: death was lightly hidden by his laughter. Don't do it, Holcombe.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: Thorston's voice was ice. I looked at my hands. They
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: were hooked into talons, and I realized there wasn't the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: muscle in my body that wasn't tensed and ready to
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: cannon me across the table. I could even hear the
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: snarl rumbling at the base of my throat. I looked
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: to the side. A man with an open holster flap
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: was standing there, his eyes locked on me. Do what, Harry,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: I asked, casually propose another toast. He looked uncertain for
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: a moment. Then the smile and the laugh came back on,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: and Thorston was Thorston again. He didn't know about the
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: chained lightning that was running in my arteries instead of blood.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: He was a dead man as he sat there, and
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: he didn't know it in a way that was funny
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: enough to me to keep waiting a toast. It certainly
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: is a night for toasts, isn't it. Thorston murmured. Pat
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: hadn't moved and stopped looking at him. I didn't know
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: if she looked at me when I was ready to
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: go for Thorston's throat, but I didn't think so. Now
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: she smiled. I wonder how much it cost her, because
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: her lower lip was gray where she had it between
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: her teeth. I had my glass refilled. I nodded toward
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: Pat and gave Thorston the Academy toast. Here's just space
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: and the academy to stars, to the men that walk them,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: and to the flaming ships that fly. I looked at
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Thorston for the first time since I had raised and
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: it was my turn to laugh. He was gray, and
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: somehow smaller in his throne like chair. He stared across
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: the table at me, and then let his eyes fall hesitantly.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: He spread the fingers of his hand and looked at
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: the pale circle where the ring had been, And incredibly,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: he laughed. Score one for the opposition. He chuckled, nice
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: going ash, I laughed with him, keeping it on a
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: casual plane. I'd done what I wanted to hit him
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: where he lived. Now, if I could give the conversation
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: a nudge in just the right direction, I might be
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: able to start him talking about his plans. I was
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: that much closer to an outside chance to do something
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: about them. What happened, Harry? I asked, how'd you get
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: from the t s end into being the top man
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: in the belt? He bit? While Pat and I sat there,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: Pat nervously shifting her glance from him to me, and
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: me not daring to look at her because of the
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: things I'd say to myself. He told his story. The
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: orderlies brought our dinner, putting dishes down and taking them away,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: as he told between mouthfuls, they don't talk much about me,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: I guess, he began, it's a pretty ordinary story. Anyway.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: I was in the war with my own squadron. We
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: ran into some bad luck combined with a set of
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: orders that got mixed up. I lost my men. I
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: lost a leg too. He leaned down and slapped his
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: right thigh. It rang with metal. I didn't enjoy that.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: While I was in the hospital, they brought charges against me.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: I wasn't given time to prepare an adequate defense, and
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: they threw several paragraphs of the book at me. I
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: was dropped a rank in grade and slated for duty
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: at a procurement office. I got my break. Then the
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: Martys under Coal hit the Moon. At practically that time.
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: I remembered that they had gotten a toe hold and
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: established a forward base. An Earth had started getting hit
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: with atomic missiles. All of a sudden, anybody who could
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: walk or be carried into a ship was tossed into
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: a raggle tackle fleet. The tisen dretched up that included me.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: He grinned only. They made two mistakes. The first one
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: was in thinking I still owed Earth any kind of debt.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: The second was the bigger one. They gave me a
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: crew raked out of every brig and detention barracks and
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: the fleet. I guess they didn't think I was fit
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: to command anything else. He grinned. Pat was in a
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: wasp unit attached to the base. I took her along.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: He waved his hand at the men in the mess hall.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: Some of my original crew are still with me. I
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: simply headed for the Belt and sat out the war.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: The boys didn't mind one bit. We had plenty of stores,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and they knew nobody would bother us while there were
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: more important things going on afterwards. Well we've done all right,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: he had. Some of the freight lines bribed him, some didn't.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Uncounted millions and rare minerals were scattered among the tumbling
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: rocks of the Belt, but nobody dared to mind them.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: He'd given refuge to the stragglers from Mars's broken navies
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: and built a kingdom on blood and loot. I know
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: what I'm called back on earth, he said, I'm a butcher,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: a brigand all the names are there. Even another fighting
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: man like Hugh Holcombe thinks I'm a renegade and a
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: traitor to humanity for throwing in the Marty's well. They're blind. Holcombe.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: His open palm came cracking down on the table. They
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: can't see that Earth is rotten to the very marrow
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: in its misshapen bones. That any system that would do
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: to a man what it did to me is based
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: on stupid bungling the war, Holcombe, you were in that,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: you know it was the most useless piece of imperialism
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: the system has ever seen. He was staring intently into
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: my face. I did him the favor of keeping my
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: expression blank. But if he expected me to nod, he
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: was going to wait a long time. I couldn't help
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: thinking of Mort Weedman. Mort left an arm on Mars.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: He wasn't bitter about that, and he didn't think it
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: had been a useless war. It had been the Martys
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: for system bosses or us, and they wouldn't have been
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: gentle overlords. But Thorston was going on, and now he
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: had gotten to the part I wanted to know. There's
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: gotta be a change, Holcombe. Humanity isn't fit to go
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: out to the stars the way it is. It's not
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: ready for the hyper spatial drive. It's not going to
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: get it. I was beginning to understand, most important, I
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: could finally understand what was wrong with Thorston. I could
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: see the Messiah complex building up in front of my eyes.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: The laugh, the easy, chuckling, self assured laugh, the laugh
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: of a man who was never wrong and knew it.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: I've got the drive, Holcomb, and I'm going to use it.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: I'll be the stander bearer of the human race among
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: the stars. There won't be any fumbling and bumbling. No
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: bureaucrats Hulkemb, no splinter groups, no special interests, no lobbies.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: The dream was like a banner in his eyes. Nobody
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: but you, right, I said, right. The palm went down
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: on the table again. The wine was beginning to loosen
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: him up. His voice was losing the first fine edge
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: of control. And I finally understood about Pat. She was
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: looking at Thorston and the same dream was playing on
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: her face. That was all she saw. That and the
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: man she couldn't see, the gray rockets bellowing above the
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: burning cities. Have you got the drive? Damn right? Those
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: technicians I lifted from Titan or working on your ship
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: now than a test flight and after that a whole fleet,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: my fleet equipped with the drive and ready for the jump.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: There's a planet out there, Holkmb. The Titan project found it,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: a planet, Holcombe Earth type. Do you think I'd let
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: those idiots on Earth have it that locked it up.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: He was completely paranoid. Pat was still looking at him,
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: lost in the dream. She couldn't be bought, and she
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: couldn't be taken, but she could be in love. Maybe
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: as a man. I stacked higher up with her than
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Thorston did, but I couldn't rival the dream. Seems to
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: me a thing like that will take more supplies than
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: generations of intercepting freight would give. You. Where'll you get
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: your equipment, I asked, I'd timed it right. A lot
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: of Burgundy had gone down, followed by sault Herne and Chabris.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: That's where my Martian friends come in, he said. Pat
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: leaned forward. This was a part she had never heard before,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: and answered to a question nobody but an old hand
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: at Expeditionary Forces would ask. The Martys think that they
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: are going to get the system back someday, he laughed.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: They've been trying to persuade me to help them for
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: a long time. Now, well I'm going to. After my
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: fleet has the drive, we'll invade Earth. Then the TSN
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: won't be able to stand up to us, not when
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: torps start coming out of nowhere. Picture it all of
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: Earth busy fighting us off all its attention on the
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: invasion and on nothing else. Then, when the fighting is
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: going nicely, my men and I will rate a few
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: choice supply dumps I've had spotted for a long time.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: We'll load up on equipment and supplies and take off,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: leaving some badly disconcerted Martys to finish their little revolt
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: any way they want to, with no Earth for them
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: to conquer what it ripped out of me. Pat was
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: sitting there, her mouth open to the same stunned question
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: written on her face. Thorston laughed his omnipotent laugh again. Certainly,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: didn't you know, hulcom? Ordinarily, of course, a hyperspatial ship
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: will take off from a planet on standard atomic drive
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: and cut to her hyperspatial engines when it's out in
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: deep space. But it's possible to take off directly into hyperspace.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: The only trouble be that the warp changes a hundred
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: cubic miles of adjacent mass to set matter ce ta
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: you mean, Contratorine? That was Pat tense faced. I couldn't
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: say anything. I sat there staring at Thorston, calm laughing,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: deliberate bringer of death to a world in its billions,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: because cet atoms in contact with normal matter react violently.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: A hundred cubic miles detonating instantaneously would leave a ring
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: of dust where Earth and Moon now swung. There will
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: be no cancer of humanity in space, Thorston declared. I
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: jumped for him. One slug caught my shoulder. The other
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: plowed through the muscles of my back. I lay bleeding
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: among the broken glass and dishes on the table. Thorston
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: swung a rabbit punch at my head and laughed. End
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: of chapter seven. Chapter eight nine of Blood on My
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: Jets by August Boudras. This LibriVox recordings in the public domain,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: read by beIN Tucker. Chapter eight. The cell was small,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: dark and damp. There were stitches across my back, under tape,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: and attraction splint in bandages on my shoulder. Let's forget pain, pain,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: Let's forget it, forget it. I lay on my belly.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: I'd been on my belly for most of a week,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: and for most of a week I had thought of
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: how it would be to dig my finger nails into
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: my side, rip loose the phony skin over my ribs,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: and fire that one shot in the Thorston's guts. All
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: I needed was a chance here in the cell, and
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: a corridor somewhere alone with him, surrounded by his men.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: Chance of life or no, that wasn't what counted. I
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: wasn't saying myself any more. There were two people in
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: the universe, Thorston and me, and room for one a chance, Lord, God,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: a chance. But all I had was dampness and darkness.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: I was fed twice a day, or something like it.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: It was almost time for my next meal, but that
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't the important time. It was the helpless week behind me,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: the week in which Thorston's kidnapped technicians had had time
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: to assemble the ship's engines. The test flight was due,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: and after the production of engines for the other ships
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: in Thorston's fleet. If I was going to do anything,
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: I had to do it now. I dragged myself up
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: the side of the cell, leaving meat from my fingers
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: on the rough stone. I staggered over to the wall
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: beside the door and waited. Time went by hours or minutes,
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: and a sound of feet came down the tunnel leading
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: to my cell. I couldn't use my back muscles, but
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: I tense them now, feeling stitches give way. Tumblers clicked,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: and the door was opened. I kicked it shut and sprang,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: wrapping my hands around a dimly seen throat, a thin
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: and soft neck. Ash. Pat's voice was half choked under
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: my grip. Pat. I opened my hands and she stumbled free,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: but not for long, because an instant later she was
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: pressed against me again, her mouth over mine. We stood
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: together in the darkness and in hunger. Finally she moved
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: her lips away, Ash, Ash, you can stand, She was
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: sobbing with relief. Yeah, um on my feet. Can you
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: fight nothing bigger than you? I said, what's going on?
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: He's crazy? Ash. That plan of his I'd never heard
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: it before, only told me, was that he was going
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: to take humanity out to the stars. He said he
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: didn't trust earth government to do it. Yeah, I know,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: for that dream, I would have done what you did too.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't love him, Ash, He I don't know. He
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: was his dream somehow, And in spite of it all,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: he was a better, stronger man than any one I
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: ever knew, except you. Ash. That was good enough. That
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: was good enough to give her everything I had or
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: could get, And that made my spot even worse. It
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't just that she was going to get hurt, but
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: she was the most important one of them all. I
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: couldn't even stay with her here in the cell, but
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: she knew that too, and there was more to her
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: coming here than that. Ash. They finally finished assembling the
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: drive in your ship. They've finished repairs on her bow too.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: They're going to run tests in a few hours. Everybody
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: sleeping except for the maintenance crew, and they're scattered through
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: the base. Ash. I think we can get out of
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: here if we don't run into any guards. We can
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: make it to the air lock. There'll be a few
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: suits in a locker there. We can make a run
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: for the ship. Her voice was urgent and full of
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: hope and bitterness for the desertion of a dream, A sick,
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: tainted dream, but her dream for so many years at
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: Thorston's side. And I knew, for the first time in
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: weeks that Earth had a chance. I knew too, that
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: Pat and I. I could have kissed her then, but
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: I had to be a damn fool I didn't. The
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: tunnels and corridors were empty, the machine shops and storage
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: rooms were dark, and the doors to the bunk rooms
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: were closed. We reached the air lock. All I had
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: to do now was get into a spacesuit and open
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: the lock. The ship lay beyond it. Then I heard
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: Harry's laugh. He stood behind us, holding a slim handgun,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: running out people. He asked, bribing that orderly, wasn't bright, Pat.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: He not only gets to keep his money, but he
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: gets a promotion from me. That's the way I operate.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: That's my justice, Pat and I had turned half way
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: round watching him carefully. Justice Pat flared. Worry some more
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: about Earth, worry about the universe. Teach them your justice again?
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: The laughter I will, Pat, But the laughter broke. Pat.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: You're my wife. You know my dream. You shared it.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: Why did you do it? Yes, she knows your sick dream, Harry,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: I said, shut up. Ash. He said quietly, don't die
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: with your mouth open. He fired. But I was on
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: the floor of the tunnel. Ash. That was Pat's voice.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: But I was rolling and tearing at my side. Get back,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: Pat Thorston shouted. I was up on my knees, the
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: single shot gun in my hand. I charged forward. He
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: brought up his gun. The noise had awakened everybody in
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: hearing distance. Doors were opening, men were running. I pointed
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: the slim tube at his belly and jammed my thumb
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: down on the firing stud. He screamed, cupping his hand
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: over the smoking hole I'd punched in his stomach. His
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: knees bent, and he sank backwards, toppling. Finally, as he
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: lost his balance, he opened his mouth, choking, and blood
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: welled over his chin. One last shred of laughter bubbled
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: up through his throat, and someone down at the other
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: end of the tunnel fired at us. He missed me
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: as I crouched over Thorston's body. Ash. I had Thorston's
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: gun in my hand, but I didn't fire back. I
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: spun around and looked at Pat, crushed back against the
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: tunnel wall. Pat. She slid down the wall and huddled
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: on the floor. Pat. I bent down beside her. It
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: was bad. Her voice was thick. How long have I got?
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: Five minutes? Ten? I knew I was lying. It was
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: less Ash, You heard what he said. I was in
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: a wasp unit. Space was my dream too. Always. I
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: wanted to tell her I knew now, knew a lot
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: of things. But there was no use in holding a
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: dying woman kissing her and caressing her tumbled hair for
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: one last time. No use at all when a world
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: depended on not taking time for those things. I put
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: Thorston's gun in her hand. Can you still shoot? Pat?
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: Her fingers tightened on the butt, and her eyes met
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: mine just once more before she turned her head. She
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: was a beauty to watch, sprawled on the tunnel floor,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: not looking at anything but targets over the notch of
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: her sights, calm and skilled while she covered my retreat.
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: As her heart beats slowed, she caught her eyes to
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: the tunnel, weaving a fan of death that marched down
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: the corridor, encompassing and moving beyond huddled and broken men.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: I clamped on my suit helmet and spun the airlock controls.
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: I snapped one quick look back at her, then the
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: airlock hatch thudded shut behind me. In a moment, I
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: was on the surface of the asteroid and running for
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: the ship. Chapter nine Earth lies ahead of me, green
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: and safe. The muted atomics behind me have brought me
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: back from beyond Venus, where the split second jump into
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: hyperspace through me. Let mort Weedman have his farther stars
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: or any one else who cares to try. I've had
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: all I want from the new drive. I gave Pad
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: a funeral pyre, and now the lonely asteroids have a
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: star of their own. End of Chapter nine. End of
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: blood O My Jets by August Boudrus