Alan Burt Akers [Dray Prescot 07] Arena of Antares (pdf)
Alan Burt Akers [Dray Prescot 14] Krozar of Kregen (pdf)
James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 06] Trapped
James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 04] Hunted
Dean Cameron Candace Steele 01 PÄšâomienne Pragnienie (nieof.)
How to Talk to Anyone_ 92 Little Tricks Driver_ Janine
Foster, Alan Dean Spellsinger 7 Son of Spellsinger
Foster, Alan Dean Catechist 03 A Triumph of Souls
Alan Dean Foster Damned 1 Call to Arms
Alan Dean Foster SS4 The Moment Of The Magician
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
think. That's why I've come back. You've had plenty of time to think."
"Actually there hasn't been time for long stretches of contemplation this past
year, what with all the fighting and unifying and exploring."
"Don't tell me I've wasted this trip, Ethan. I mean, I'm glad I was able to
show up in time to help out and rescue the lot of you and save the planet and
all that, but that's not why I'm here. I'm formal head of the family du Kane
now. I don't have to ask anyone's permission for anything. I know what I
want."
"You always knew what you wanted, Colette." He smiled affectionately. "Ten
minutes after you were born I'm sure you were telling the doctors how to
handle you."
Her eyes glittered. "I had to. It probably took two of them to carry me.
Ethan, I
need someone to share my life. You're the only man I ever met who accepted me
for what I am. Whether it was the situation or what doesn't matter. You liked
me for myself. I need a companion and a helpmate. I need& I need you. I've
never needed anything else in my life.
"So I put all my business on hold and crossed a few hundred parsecs to ask you
Page 149
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the same question you said no to a year ago. I thought that maybe after
another year on this world you might be ready for some permanent luxury and
relaxation. I
won't make too many demands on you." She dropped her eyes and for the first
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Fo...%20-%20The%20Deluge%20Drivers(1
987)[UC].html (217 of 238) [10/15/2004 12:54:18 PM]
deluge time he had to strain to make out what she was saying. "I still love
you, even if you don't love me. But if you'll give me a chance, I promise you
I'll do everything I can to make it work between us. If it's a submissive
woman you want or even a fully equal one, then there's no chance. I wasn't
brought up that way. Blame it on my family, my father if you want to." She
lifted her face and stared into his again.
"But if you say yes, I guarantee you'll never have to sell so much as a pocket
communicator again and you'll lead the kind of life most people only dream
about."
"Colette, I& "
"Whatever you're going to say, give it another minute. It's cost me plenty,
both financially and emotionally, to do this. I'm not going to beg. If you say
no this time, I promise you'll never see me again. But if you say yes, boy, if
you say yes, you'd better mean it. I can't stand anything that's tenuous or
halfway. It's all or nothing, Ethan. No partial commitments."
He turned away from her to stare past the
Slander scree
, letting his gaze rove beyond the harbor gate to the vast ice ocean. Was
there anything more he could do here? Anything else he could accomplish for
the Tran? If he accepted, he would lose his freedom, but Maxim Malaika had
taken care of that by sticking him with a permanent position at Brass Monkey.
So if he was so worried about his freedom, why had he taken that post? Because
it offered the prospect of being able to retire in ten years instead of twenty
or thirty? Hell, Colette was offering him the chance to buy and sell people
like Malaika.
Wouldn't he be in a better position to aid the Tran and their development as
the titular head of one of the Commonwealth's most powerful commercial
families?
All right, so what if Colette was no raving beauty? So what if there was
enough for two of her? She might be ample but she wasn't unattractive. And how
much did physical beauty have to do with living with another person for the
rest of your life anyway? He was no tridee star himself. Life was what you and
your mate made of it and you couldn't, shouldn't, prejudge it according to
other people's perceptions of what was good and what was bad, what was
attractive and what was ugly.
When he turned back to her he found those remarkable eyes waiting for him.
They were pleading even as she couldn't plead aloud. He glanced across to
September, found the giant smiling paternally and nodding slowly.
"What the hell. Of course I'll marry you."
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Fo...%20-%20The%20Deluge%20Drivers(1
987)[UC].html (218 of 238) [10/15/2004 12:54:18 PM]
deluge
She threw herself into his arms. The impact nearly sent both of them over the
side of the skimmer. "Very sensible," she told him. Then she gave him a quick,
firm kiss and hugged him to her so hard he thought his ribs would crack.
A few of her soldiers smiled and decorously looked elsewhere. The Tran on the
icerigger labored under no such cultural restraints. They let loose with a
farrago of appreciative growls and roars.
Finally she released him, still intact, and turned toward Yingyapin. "That's
settled, then."
Page 150
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"There's just one qualifier."
She looked back sharply. "What's that?"
"I don't want it to be a Tran ceremony."
She looked puzzled, not understanding, while Skua September burst out
laughing.
"Done. Now let's take care of this slime that thinks it can make an inhabited
world its private development. Want anyone else to come with us?"
"Cheela Hwang should come along to represent the science staff. And Hunnar and
Elfa. Also a young Tran named Seesfar, who I think deserves to see that we're
not all motivated by self-interest." He unsnapped the beamer from his belt.
"I'll leave this with Ta-hoding. With the firepower you've brought along, I
won't need it."
"All right." She looked past him. "Roger!"
Iriole came over and saluted.
"You know what's going on here?"
The soldier jerked his head in September's direction. "I have been briefed."
"What do you think about it?"
"If I may be allowed to say so, ma'am, it stinks."
"You're allowed to say so and you're quite right. We're going to make a few
citizens' arrests. We're going to shut this operation down. I saw that they
finally put in a deep space communications system at Brass Monkey. When we get
back
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Fo...%20-%20The%20Deluge%20Drivers(1
987)[UC].html (219 of 238) [10/15/2004 12:54:18 PM]
deluge there I'm going to get on the horn. I know the counselor for this whole
volume of space. We'll have a peaceforcer brought in to haul the rest of these
maggots off-
planet in comfortable cells." She shoved a clenched fist into the air.
"Tran-ky-ky for the Tran!" Then she added in a softer tone, "That felt pretty
good.
In business you can't always be sure you're doing the right thing. No such
uncertainty here. It's a nice feeling."
Hunnar, Elfa, Seesfar, and Cheela Hwang were brought aboard, the Tran
marveling at the prospect of flying not across the ice but through the air.
"Roger and his people will take care of things up here," Colette informed
them.
"Why don't you go below until the arguing's over?"
"I'd rather stay outside," Ethan told her.
"No way. I'm not having my prospective husband's head shot off just after he's
accepted my proposal."
"It'll be all right. They've only got a few hand beamers over there. When they
see how badly we've got them outgunned, I don't think there'll be much
fighting. You might have more trouble with their Tran allies. They're
stub-bom."
"I remember that much. No offense," she told Hunnar and Elfa through her suit
translator.
'There is no offense in truth," he replied. "We are stubborn." He smiled,
displaying sharp canines.
XV
Bamaputra did not look toward the harbor as he turned up another of the steep
switchbacks that led up the mountainside away from Yingyapin. He did not have
to.
Antal's monocular had already revealed the unexpected presence of long weapons
on board the unmarked skimmer. The new arrivals were obviously in league with
his enemies on board the ice ship. His foreman had assured him there was no
way they could win a pitched battle against well-disciplined people carrying
rifles. All they could do for now was retreat to the installation and seal
themselves inside the mountain.
Page 151
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Corfu accompanied them, wailing and raging at an interfering fate and
wondering why they didn't stay and fight. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
