Read Book 3 - Star's End for Free Online

like it in the display
tank.”
    “I’m sure. Let me know when I can stop realtiming.
This is my second link in eight hours.”
    “Right. Will do.” The man on the far end seemed
impressed.
    Clara’s voice broke in. “Are you all right, Moyshe?
The strain getting heavy? We can bring you out.”
    “I’m okay. For a while. I remember what I am. Just
be ready to hit me with that needle.”
    At Stars’ End
Danion
had lost half her native,
trained mindtechs because they had stayed in link too long, or had
been mindburned by sharks breaking through the defensive fire
screen. The best guess was that the former had become lost in the
special interior universe of the linker. Dozens occupied a special
hospital ward where doctors and nurses had to handle them like
newly born babies.
    Their bodies lived on. Their minds, it was hoped, might sometime
be retrieved.
    In all the history of the High Seiners no lost linker ever had
been recalled.
    The Starfishers were living on hopes these days. Stars’
End had been one, for weapons capable of shattering shark
tides.
    BenRabi did not understand how the Seiners had hoped to
accomplish what generations of madmen, fools, and geniuses had
failed to do. Stars’ End was a fortress unvanquishable.
    It was a whole world, Earth-sized, that was a fortress. Or
planetary battleship. Or whatever. It could be approached by
nothing. The technologies of its defenses were beyond the
imaginations of any of the races aware of its existence. Its
builders had long since vanished into the abyss of time.
    Generations of men had lusted after the weapons of Stars’
End. Thousands had died trying to obtain them. And the fortress
world remained inviolate.
    Why had the Seiners been convinced that they would have better
luck?
    “You were right, Linker. Computer says they’re
pulling out. Going to let you off realtime now. We can handle it
from here without.”
    “Thank you, Gun Control.”
    The sense of drain stopped abruptly. BenRabi’s universe
reeled. Chub reached in and steadied him. “Time to break,
Moyshe man-friend. You losing sense of reality and orientation in
space-time.”
    “I’m not lost yet, Chub.”
    “You all say so. No more you can do here,
man-friend.”
    The crackle of reality beginning to fall into shards rose from
benRabi’s hindbrain. It pushed a wave of terror before it.
Chub did nothing to soothe him.
    “Clara! The needle. I’m coming out.”
    He slapped the switch beneath his left hand.
    They were waiting for him. The agony persisted for only a few
seconds.
    That was bad enough. He screamed and screamed. It got worse
every time.
     
----

----

Four: 3049 AD
The Main Sequence
    They put him into Hospital Block this time. He was under
sedation for three days.
    Two people were at his bedside when the doctor came to bring him
out. The thin, pale, blue-eyed woman with the nervous hands was
Amy. The little oriental with the presence of an iceberg was
benRabi’s friend Mouse.
    Amy would sit for a minute, picking at her jumpsuit, shifting
this way and that. She would cross and uncross her legs, then would
rise and pace around for a minute before sitting again. She did not
speak to Mouse. Most of the time she deliberately tried to distance
Storm from herself and Moyshe. It was almost as if she saw Mouse as
a competitor for benRabi’s affection.
    The men had shared missions under fire. Sometimes they did not
like one another much. Their backgrounds were day and night.
Centuries of prejudice had erected walls between them. Yet an
indestructible bond had been forged and hammered on the anvils of
shared peril. They had guarded one another’s backs and saved
one another’s lives too often to let go.
    Mouse waited without moving, with the patience of a samurai.
    He was a dedicated Archaicist. He had just encountered his own
ancient heritage and, in imagination, was trying the samurai role
for size. The code and conduct suited the warrior within him.
    But it did nothing for the libertine.