[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

necessary, but there was still a queue to exit the ship. He saw
Royal, further on in the line. Tavish didn't call to him. Royal
didn't look for him.
It was going to be an interesting year.
Midnight's landing pad hadn't changed. The
advertisements up on the walls just demonstrated newer
versions of personal air purifiers and sleeker transporters.
192
Spaces Escapes
by Angela Fiddler, Jason Edding
Tavish's return was somewhat mitigated by the new
hospital wing, visible from the hill as they stepped through
the controlled air flow. The unconditioned air of the colony
was dry enough that Tavish stopped a few steps from the exit
pathway and downed what remained in his water bottle.
The rolling hills to the west, rich with the symbiote
arochos, were a deep red and orange. Before he'd left, there
had been huge forests of stone trees. Arochos grew from the
stone like land coral, creating huge pillars of stone that
branched out like trees to gather in sunlight. Arochos had a
rudimentary photosynthesis ability. Behind him, the huge ship
with its slick lines and iced-over metallic sheen looked, rightly
so, as if it came from a different planet.
The Alpha Site was to the north, and somewhat
optimistically named. There were no other settlements on the
colony big enough to even have a name. Not yet, at least. But
the city was big enough now that the controlled air bubble no
longer contained it all. Considering how dry Tavish's lungs
were from standing just a few minutes in the raw,
unprocessed air, he didn't envy those who worked outside the
bubble and had to travel through the dryness every day.
Inside the bubble, what had been crowded when Tavish
had left was now stuffed tight. The original rows of buildings
had had some semblance of order six years ago. Now, the
rows were only dimly visible through the haze of shacks and
gravity-defying bridges. Any inherent order the streets once
had was gone.
Despite Tavish's best efforts, he ended up standing next to
Royal again, pushed by the ebb and flow of the stream of
193
Spaces Escapes
by Angela Fiddler, Jason Edding
passengers moving past him. Royal nodded at him, the frosty
glare gone. Tavish tried again.
"That was a crass way to end things," he said. "I'm sorry. I
thought I was better than that."
Royal nodded again.
"I really do want your help," Tavish continued,
encouraged. "Though I know it's almost an insult to your
abilities, being on the books as my assistant. You could run
the lab yourself if you had to."
The bleak look, for want of a better name for it, was back
on Royal's face. He shrugged.
From Alpha Site came a caravan of mismatched transports,
some small enough to hold only one or two people, others
huge multi-person behemoths. Tavish knew they kept well
back from the landing pad in case it became a crash site, but
the strain of travel was starting to catch up with him and he
was glad to see them none-the-less. With his father dead and
his brother ... unlikely to make a public appearance, what
with the bounty on his head and all, there were very few
people likely to come to meet him.
Royal squeezed his hand comfortingly, and Tavish was
grateful for it. He'd been about to say something to Royal,
something unimportant, if the ease with which it had slipped
out of his mind was any indication. He squeezed Royal's hand
back.
"You're thinking about your father," Royal guessed.
Tavish nodded. "And my brother."
Royal snorted. "You shouldn't be. You're here to solve the
world's problems, cure Black Lung and make Dose safe for
194
Spaces Escapes
by Angela Fiddler, Jason Edding
widespread distribution. If that doesn't scrub your name
squeaky-clean, nothing will."
"Here's hoping," said Tavish, but the queer feeling in his
belly intensified at the mention of Dose. His conscience was
clear as far as the practical application of Dose went; whose
wouldn't be? There were enough dangerous, black-market
drugs out there, all designed to make life easier for the poor
worker in the mines and the factories. The cost of addiction,
however, and the damage the black market drugs did to the
internal organs and the mind of the user was hideous. Dose
was a clean drug, non-addictive, government-controlled, and
impossible to abuse. Anything over the maximum was turned
into simple sugars by enzyme reactions. The enzyme was
only found in arochos, which was only found on Midnight. If
only Black Lung didn't strike one out of every five miners
digging for the raw materials necessary for making the
wonder-drug, Dose would be perfect.
Which was why Tavish had come back.
The first transport arrived, a sleek two-seater that looked
like it could get to the launch pad and back before the
lumbering multi-person transport had even cleared the city
boundaries. It was molded over two large wheels all black,
naturally and it looked more like an old Earth motorcycle
than anything else. When it came to a stop in front of them, it
braked so gently it seemed to hover in mid-air, defying [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

forum-gsm.htw.pl