Read Trade World Saga 1: Manual Interpretation for Free Online

plodding trek back to the university. His fingers, his hands, hurt like hell but there wasn't much he could do about it.
    He came to a roadway with signs that showed he was very close to the car. Andrew continued his walk 'til he found his old Ford. It started easily but never met any vehicles on the roadway, since it was early in the morning. As he drove closer to the grounds, he noticed how the buildings still appeared the same. The few students that were up at this hour looked so young and innocent…nothing had really changed but everything seemed different.
    I'm the only thing that has changed, Andrew thought exhaustedly as he parked and walked toward his quarters. Heading to his room like a homing pigeon, only half conscious, he opened the door, took a luncheon packet from his shelf and downed the contents after gulping water for a minute. He had to refresh himself instead of immediately going to sleep and then went gratefully back to bed. There he took off his shoes and climbed on top of the sheets, still fully clothed. He trembled with teeth chattering for a minute or two as the adrenaline wore off and the fatigue and stress bore in and then fell deeply asleep.
    "Andy. Andy. Wake up. What's the matter with you? Come on. Wake up!"
    "Huh. What? What do you want? Leave me alone. Let me sleep, will you?" Andrew said as he forced open one eye to see, who the hell, was shaking him.
    "Good grief, Susan, leave me alone. I just want to sleep," Andrew said, even though he was now awake enough to feel the pressure of nature and probably couldn't have gone back to sleep easily anyway.
    "Why weren't you at the seminar yesterday? I called and still you didn't answer so I came on by your room. You know how important yesterday was; we were supposed to narrow down our synthesist proposal. Everyone's angry and worried. How are we going to get our Synthesist degrees if you don't help co-ordinate our project?" Susan went on, "What's the matter with you anyway? You look terrible. What happened to your poor hands?"
    All Andrew's ordeals came flooding back to him and he sat up in the bed as if struck. He bolted up to a sitting position.
    "My God…Andy. What's the matter with you? Are you sick? Do you need me to take you to the infirmary? All the color just drained out of your face," Susan said anxiously.
    "No. No, I'm OK. I'm just a little shaken up." Andrew really looked at this girl closely for the first time as a person. She was tall and slim with short brown hair and flashing green eyes. Not very pretty, but so alive and energetic that she had a stronger presence than he noticed before when she had worked with him briefly this year as a materials science specialist.
    Andrew reflected, "Look, stick around 'cause I want to tell you something you won't believe. Let me go take a shower and clean up and then you can treat me to breakfast. OK."
    "All right," Susan said slowly, "but it will have to be lunch because you slept through breakfast."
    "Better yet. I'll meet you down in the cafeteria in a half hour after I'm presentable again," Andrew said and couldn't help smiling when he saw the concern written on Susan's face.
    "OK. I'll also call off our group hunt for you. We thought you had panicked because you hadn't found the group proposal topics yet for our synthesist degrees. This had better be good," Susan emphasized. "You sure you're okay?"
    She looked once more over her shoulder, he nodded, and she went out.
    Andrew began to feel alive again only with the refreshing sting of the shower against his skin. Removing his facial hair and clean clothes helped wash away most signs of his ordeal. He would have thought he imagined the whole affair if it wasn't for the severely bruised left arm and sore fingers. The arm was quite sore but still slightly mobile. Andrew rolled up his sleeve, and rubbed an athletic balm on the bruised area and then headed out to meet Susan.
    When he got to the door, he noticed the belt and one of the remaining water