Read Betrayer of Worlds for Free Online

beginning
now.
Without Nessus’ help, Louis would never get home. “Explain what I am to do,” he said.
    Nessus led the way to
Aegis
’ tiny relax room. Fresh-from-the-autodoc euphoria would fade soon enough; when it did, Louis would realize he was ravenous. And Nessus wanted a drink bulb of warm carrot juice. No matter that his biochemistry could extract little nourishment from any terrestrial food. He found the beverage soothing.
    His spirits
needed
soothing.
    Louis looked all around as they walked, peering down cross corridors and peeking into the occasional open hatch. He bounded more than walked, scarcely able to contain himself—until he skidded to a halt.
    Louis gaped at a darkened hatch window. He touched a cheek, still staring, as though convincing himself the reflected image was truly him. Hard living and a recent lack of boosterspice had started him down the path to looking his true age. “I . . . I look
young.
Maybe twenty.”
    Nessus had hoped Louis would not make that discovery so soon. It only added to the necessary explanations. “This particular autodoc also rejuvenates.”
    “A Puppeteer ’doc, then.”
    “We prefer Citizen.” Nessus extended a neck briefly, pointing down the corridor, and resumed walking in that direction. Warm carrot juice sounded better and better. He said, “But this is not a Citizen autodoc; in fact, Carlos Wu built it. Yes, Louis, your father. It is the most advanced autodoc ever built by your people or mine.”
    Most advanced
failed to do the unit justice. Carlos had accomplished something truly revolutionary. Nessus knew for a fact this autodoc had rebuilt Sigmund Ausfaller after the man had had half his chest blasted away. It rebuilt Ausfaller a second time from a heavily irradiated, all-but-carbonized husk. And Ausfaller claimed this autodoc had once rebuilt Beowulf Shaeffer from a severed head.
    That was why Nessus had custody of the precious device, why the Hindmost had agreed to allow it off Hearth.
Aegis
carried copies of Hearth’slargest medical libraries. Had he located Carlos, Nessus would have pressed the human to reprogram its nanites to also heal Citizens. Alas, that effort must be undertaken without benefit of Carlos’s genius. Just as far more pressing concerns must be addressed without benefit of Beowulf.
    “How did you come to have the ’doc?” Louis asked. “Citizens, I mean.”
    “For complicated reasons, Carlos and Beowulf had to abandon it.” Yet another incomplete truth. “It was later acquired, at great expense, from criminals.” A huge lie.
    They came to the relax room and Nessus motioned Louis inside. As Louis piled a tray with foods from the synthesizer, Nessus brooded about the many falsehoods this autodoc had evoked.
    He had once spent most of a year searching Fafnir for the autodoc. To complete the search Nessus had had to ignore an urgent recall to Hearth and then lie about why he had been detained. The wonder was that he had ever found the device. Shaeffer had hidden it underwater, off the coast of a tiny, nameless, and unpopulated coral island.
    Many years later, so that Nessus could deliver the autodoc to Hearth’s scientists, he had invented a fable about a Fafnir crime syndicate offering the autodoc for sale. The story served a second purpose, because crooks did not give receipts. He had needed an explanation for some of the General Products wealth he had redirected. Always for the benefit of Hearth and herd—as
he
perceived it.
    Louis gave his complete attention to a plate of potatoes and seared meat. He paused before tackling a cheese omelet. “Then why doesn’t it look like the ’docs I’ve used?”
    “It was a prototype, Louis. Your father was short and he had sized the autodoc for himself. When it came under Citizen control, we replaced the intensive care cavity.” Longer, wider, and deeper, the cavity would now physically accommodate any human, even the tallest Belter or Wunderlander. Someday it would be