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blue panne velvet.
Ross brushed at his trousers. "I've heard a lot about Picarefy."
Timka sat up, rubbed bare feet into the shaggy gray carpet. "Wait till you
learn to know her."
Skeen came in, looked around, snorted and dropped on the divan beside Timka.
"Pic, what the hell?"
"I thought I'd try house beautiful for a while." There was laughter in the
voice that came, it seemed, from the air in the center of the room. "Don't
worry, Skeen, I won't expect you to conform."
"Conform?" Tibo strolled in, glanced at Ross, settled on the rug by Skeen's
feet; he smiled up at her, dropped his hand on her booted instep.
Chuckle from Picarefy. "Wear beautiful robes, burnish her body, maybe even
comb her hair."
Snort of indignation from Skeen, soft laughter from Tibo. His hand moved up
her leg to her knee. "Pic, oh, Pic, don't waste your imagination on her, play
with me instead."
Ross kept his mouth shut during that exchange, but his yellow eyes (so like
Skeen's) flicked from face to face: detached mysterious Timka, annoyed and
amused Skeen, relaxed enigmatic Tibo. He lingered on Tibo, curious about the
man he'd heard so much about, wondering how these two strong personalities
managed to exist in any kind of harmony, wondering too how he could insinuate
himself into the project they were working now; he needed more than freedom,
he needed funding.
He was sitting with his shoulder to the door so he didn't see Lipitero until
she was well into the room. He stiffened, fear rapidly replaced by wariness.
Though he maintained an outward calm, he changed his position so he was ready
to fight or run, whichever seemed indicated.
Lipitero moved past him and settled into a deep soft chair, its pale green
velvet waking an answering green light in her crystal eyes. She smoothed her
flightskins and smiled at him. "Relax, Rostico Burn, I'm not Rallen."
She turned to Skeen. "The way he's acting suggests we'd better not take him
with us." Sliding her hands along the chairarms, she considered Ross. "Annoy
them that much, did you? I wonder how. We'll have to talk. I need to know
every nuance of your relationship with them."
The stiffness smoothed out of him. He gave her a broad grin. There was a tinge
of artificiality to him. but a naive artificiality that offended no one, that
invited others to share the game with him; he seemed to be saying, you know
it's a game and I know it's a game, have fun with it. "What do I get for
scraping my brain for you?"
Skeen sniffed. "I could always dump you into a lifeshell and let you find your
own way to a Pit."
"I thought I already paid my passage."
"The price has just gone up."
"Not fair. Not kind."
"Isn't, is it."
"Hmm. Illusions die one by one." He smiled with practiced charm, rubbed his
thumb against his first two fingers. "Duty is fine, but enthusiasm is gold and
glory."
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Timka stirred, raised herself on her elbow, examined the two faces, so alike
and so unlike. Skeen was looking vague, sleepy. Timka waited to see how she'd
jump; Ross' position was a lot shakier than he knew. Skeen was generous and
unconcerned about power plays as long as you didn't push her. Now that they
knew where to find Rallen (and didn't really need his help talking with the
Rallen Ykx), Skeen could easily dump him at the nearest freeport and let him
make his way how he could. As the silence stretched on, she watched him become
aware of this. Here in Picarefy, Skeen's will was law and there was no appeal.
His eyes slid from Tibo who was studying the far wall, to Petro who wasn't
interested, to Timka who gave him a feral grin like the cat she sometimes was.
Abruptly, Skeen grinned at him. "Rev up your enthusiasm," she said, "with
thoughts of banking my goodwill." The smile vanished. "Or the opposite." She
didn't wait for an answer, but got briskly to her feet. "Pic, how we doing?"
"Coming up on Teegah's limit. No pursuit." A pause.
"There's some fuss back around Pillory, no shape to it, no sense of
direction."
"Good. I think we thank you for that, Petro. um, don't take chances. Pic. What
do you think about going a couple AU farther before we hit the insplit?"
"Hard on fuel." A pause. "We'd have the comet cloud to mask us. I think it's
worth the cost."
"Do it." Skeen ran a hand through her hair, began pacing about the room,
stepping over Lipitero's feet, circling her chair, touching the icicle moire
on the walls, kicking at the gray shag of the rug, wandering about looking at
the appointments of the room. "This place is dead. Pic, are you going to get
in some plants or something?"
"I'll think about it," Picarefy murmured, "you might be right."
"You better believe it." Skeen continued to wander a while longer, poking into
things, clicking her tongue against her teeth, whistling at times, lovely
liquid trills. The others watched her without saying anything to her or to
each other. Finally she ambled back, flung herself down beside Tibo, her
shoulders braced by the divan's side, her head pushing against the seat
padding, one leg drawn up, the other a black line scrawled across the rug.
"So. Ross. Tell us about Rallen."
PART III: THE WORLD
Rallen Tuzeykken. Rallen Firesky.
Sun: Nepoyol
Planets:
1. NAMELESSS. a blob of molten rock smaller than a mid-size moon, close enough
to Nepoyol to spend most of the time brushing his corona.
2. NARAZAT. the dark sister, twin to Rallen, though much hotter, marginally
habitable, some life, mostly fungal and bacterial, heavy clouds, infested with
microscopic plant and animal forms which turn the clouds almost black.
3. RALLEN. 0.9 g diameter - 12,783 km.
continents: i. IZAKALA ZIGA - eastern hemisphere, mostly north of the equator.
ii. TALAHU ZIGARU - eastern hemisphere, south of the equator, subcontinent
size, but too large to be classified as an island.
iii. TANUKA ZIGA - western hemisphere, long irregular land mass straddling the
equator.
islands:
i GALASSIT KISKUR - major island chain, four great islands, half a dozen
large, several midsize and a scatter of small islands. Situated close to
Talahu Zigaru.
ii a scatter of smaller islands, sown seme through the various oceans, most
though not all uninhabited, a few developed as vacation resorts, those close
enough to the continents to make soaring to them possible and reasonably safe.
4. ASTEROID BELT. as far from Rallen as Rallen is from the sun, most of the
asteroids are stone, but there are several rich iron sources, also some lodes
of light metals. If the development problems could be overcome and a means of
getting offworld could be constructed or acquired, a number of Rallen's
resource problems would be removed or lessened.
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5. EGGEN. gas giant, very close to star size, impressive ring system.
A HISTORY OF THE YKX OF RALLEN FIRESKY.
The Kinravaly speaks:
This we know. There was a homeworld called Ysterai. There were three colonies
planted from Ysterai. Keelava, Tozeed, Tovazh. Tovazh was a world in the
middle of emptiness, a way station more than a colony, a place for studies the
Elder Kinra considered too dangerous for Ysterai. A fourth colony was planned [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]