[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I knew time was running out for us. Neither the
Eternal Lover nor the
Fortune Favors had shown up back on Smithbright's Planet to report success.
Someone was waiting for them, knew where they were going to be (or could
easily follow where they went), and had either realized by now or would soon
realize that their hired guns weren't coming home. When he or she realized
that, other ships and other killers would probably come after us.
We needed to move, to get away so that we could disappear. Our hunters knew
who they were after, but they didn't know who we had become. If we could hide
these new identities, we could escape.
And now maybe there were survivors on the
Lover
. Terrified of another confrontation with people who wanted to kill us,
watching the time race past us faster than the speed of light, we uncoupled
the
Reward
from the
Fortune Favors and limped away from the origami point we needed toward the
dead
Lover
. Up close it looked undamaged; the moleibond hull had held against the worst
we'd been able to do. Inside was another story. Our final attack had destroyed
most of the systems, including the air filtering system, but not the
temperature control. The atmosphere was bad, and the smell of death and
putrefaction so overwhelmed us that after one breath we wore our faceplates
down and breathed the recycled air in our suits.
Badger and I searched the ship's med room and found another nightmarish
storage and torture chamber like the one on the
Fortune Favors
. The refrigeration unit had died, though, and the bodies stored along the
walls were decaying quickly. I will never erase the sight from my memory. I
averted my eyes and hurried to the back, but the image of those piles of
bloated and rotting meat, which had once been men and women with hopes and
dreams and futures, seared itself into my brain.
For most of the remaining victims, we arrived too late. Of the fifteen that
had hung on the wall waiting to become meals, only five still breathed when we
pulled them down.
The dead we left. The living we carried to the
Page 114
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Reward
. And the fact that even five survived created another problem for us, another
delay.
I had four medichambers on the
Reward
. That was eight less than the number the ship would have carried if I ever
took passengers, but because I'd never used the ten extra berths, it was two
more than I
had ever needed before. Two of my medichambers were in use the first wounded
victim and Fedara
Contei filled them. All five of these latest rescuees had to be chambered;
none of them would live without immediate attention. The two worst Badger and
I loaded into our empty chambers. Our first rescuee wasn't healthy enough to
give up her space yet, and I had no intention of letting Fedara Contei out of
her prison until Badger and I were alone with her. If she got out of control,
only he and I would suffer; I was determined on that point.
So Badger and I went into the
Lover three more times, and salvaged three medichambers. We spent one
heart-pounding minute while we made sure each medichamber was empty. Ten
minutes each to unhook
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Lisle,%20Holly%20-%20Hunting%20The%20Corrigan's%20Bl
ood%20(v1.0).html (150 of 231)8-12-2006 23:45:40
Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood the supply lines and power, secure
the cables, and unbolt the chambers. An hour each to fumble them from the
Lover's med room through corridors and the gravdrop and more corridors and
into the
Reward's
med room. Stumbling and swearing in the gravityless
Lover as the mass of each unwieldy box threw us into walls and ceilings and
smashed our fingers and bruised our bodies; a slightly better time in the
reduced gravity we'd given ourselves aboard the
Reward
. Ten minutes each to reconnect the supply lines and the power.
The healthy survivors cycled the dying ones through the available chambers
while we worked, giving each ten or fifteen minutes at a time, making sure no
one died.
I could feel the next hunters coming. They were at my back, following my
trail; they would reach me soon.
We dove into the origami point as the
Hope's Reward used Storm Rat's ID switcher to change all our ID
programming in hyperspace; we emerged after another hellish traverse of
eternity as the
Merry Widow
, captained by Adana Gantrey and Brian Darkman, with a weary cargo of
pleasure-passengers who wanted to book cruises home. I got the hail from the
traffic controller at Baileys Irish Station, welcoming us in.
No call sounded sweeter in my entire life.
We met with the survivors before they disembarked.
"You know you can't tell anyone what happened to you," I said.
They hadn't known.
I said, "There are more of them out there, maybe a lot more." I handed out
lists of USAG members.
"Some of these people are just like the ones who wanted to kill you. Maybe the
rest of them aren't [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl akte20.pev.pl
I knew time was running out for us. Neither the
Eternal Lover nor the
Fortune Favors had shown up back on Smithbright's Planet to report success.
Someone was waiting for them, knew where they were going to be (or could
easily follow where they went), and had either realized by now or would soon
realize that their hired guns weren't coming home. When he or she realized
that, other ships and other killers would probably come after us.
We needed to move, to get away so that we could disappear. Our hunters knew
who they were after, but they didn't know who we had become. If we could hide
these new identities, we could escape.
And now maybe there were survivors on the
Lover
. Terrified of another confrontation with people who wanted to kill us,
watching the time race past us faster than the speed of light, we uncoupled
the
Reward
from the
Fortune Favors and limped away from the origami point we needed toward the
dead
Lover
. Up close it looked undamaged; the moleibond hull had held against the worst
we'd been able to do. Inside was another story. Our final attack had destroyed
most of the systems, including the air filtering system, but not the
temperature control. The atmosphere was bad, and the smell of death and
putrefaction so overwhelmed us that after one breath we wore our faceplates
down and breathed the recycled air in our suits.
Badger and I searched the ship's med room and found another nightmarish
storage and torture chamber like the one on the
Fortune Favors
. The refrigeration unit had died, though, and the bodies stored along the
walls were decaying quickly. I will never erase the sight from my memory. I
averted my eyes and hurried to the back, but the image of those piles of
bloated and rotting meat, which had once been men and women with hopes and
dreams and futures, seared itself into my brain.
For most of the remaining victims, we arrived too late. Of the fifteen that
had hung on the wall waiting to become meals, only five still breathed when we
pulled them down.
The dead we left. The living we carried to the
Page 114
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Reward
. And the fact that even five survived created another problem for us, another
delay.
I had four medichambers on the
Reward
. That was eight less than the number the ship would have carried if I ever
took passengers, but because I'd never used the ten extra berths, it was two
more than I
had ever needed before. Two of my medichambers were in use the first wounded
victim and Fedara
Contei filled them. All five of these latest rescuees had to be chambered;
none of them would live without immediate attention. The two worst Badger and
I loaded into our empty chambers. Our first rescuee wasn't healthy enough to
give up her space yet, and I had no intention of letting Fedara Contei out of
her prison until Badger and I were alone with her. If she got out of control,
only he and I would suffer; I was determined on that point.
So Badger and I went into the
Lover three more times, and salvaged three medichambers. We spent one
heart-pounding minute while we made sure each medichamber was empty. Ten
minutes each to unhook
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Lisle,%20Holly%20-%20Hunting%20The%20Corrigan's%20Bl
ood%20(v1.0).html (150 of 231)8-12-2006 23:45:40
Lisle, Holly - Hunting the Corrigan's Blood the supply lines and power, secure
the cables, and unbolt the chambers. An hour each to fumble them from the
Lover's med room through corridors and the gravdrop and more corridors and
into the
Reward's
med room. Stumbling and swearing in the gravityless
Lover as the mass of each unwieldy box threw us into walls and ceilings and
smashed our fingers and bruised our bodies; a slightly better time in the
reduced gravity we'd given ourselves aboard the
Reward
. Ten minutes each to reconnect the supply lines and the power.
The healthy survivors cycled the dying ones through the available chambers
while we worked, giving each ten or fifteen minutes at a time, making sure no
one died.
I could feel the next hunters coming. They were at my back, following my
trail; they would reach me soon.
We dove into the origami point as the
Hope's Reward used Storm Rat's ID switcher to change all our ID
programming in hyperspace; we emerged after another hellish traverse of
eternity as the
Merry Widow
, captained by Adana Gantrey and Brian Darkman, with a weary cargo of
pleasure-passengers who wanted to book cruises home. I got the hail from the
traffic controller at Baileys Irish Station, welcoming us in.
No call sounded sweeter in my entire life.
We met with the survivors before they disembarked.
"You know you can't tell anyone what happened to you," I said.
They hadn't known.
I said, "There are more of them out there, maybe a lot more." I handed out
lists of USAG members.
"Some of these people are just like the ones who wanted to kill you. Maybe the
rest of them aren't [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]