Michael Mc Collum - Antares 02 - Antares Passage

VIP免费
2024-12-22 0 0 470.76KB 188 页 5.9玖币
侵权投诉
ANTARES PASSAGE
A Novel By
Michael McCollum
Sci Fi – Arizona, Inc.
Third Millennium Publishing
An Online Cooperative of Writers and Resources
PROLOGUE: THE BIRTH AND DEATH OF
A STAR
The star was a relative newcomer to the galactic scene. It had begun life as a vast cloud of interstellar
hydrogen which over the millennia had collapsed in upon itself, pulled together by gravitational attraction.
As the cloud coalesced, the gas at its center grew hotter. After awhile, the interior began to glow with a
visible light. Then one day, the temperature at the cloud's center reached the level where hydrogen fuses
into helium. On that day, a new star blazed forth to illuminate the blackness of the interstellar night.
For millions of years the star shone with a luminosity equal to that of several thousand of its lesser
brethren. Indeed, the star's radiance made it a beacon visible across the length of the galaxy. However,
such profligacy is not without its costs. Where smaller suns took as long as 10 billion years to consume
their available supplies of fusible hydrogen, the giant star managed the same feat in less than a single
gigayear. About the time the first apelike prehumans ventured forth onto the savannas of Africa, the star
ran low on hydrogen fuel, and as quickly as it had flamed alight, the nuclear fire at its heart was snuffed
out.
The end of fusion brought with it a resumption of the contraction that had molded the primordial cloud.
As the core fell inward, its temperature rose precipitously. Within seconds, the temperature at the star's
center reached the point where helium fuses into carbon. The nuclear fire flamed anew, this time powered
by the helium ash of the previous cycle. Since the new fire was hotter than the old, the star wasted energy
even more lavishly than before. It expanded as well, providing a larger surface area from which to radiate
the vigorous new energy to surrounding space. Along with the expansion came cooling of the star's
outermost layers, and a change in color. Where before the star had radiated a brilliant blue-white light, its
visible surface was now a bright yellow-green color.
The star continued on the quick burning helium-carbon cycle until the time when the first agricultural
settlements began to appear on Earth. Then, having depleted its supply of helium, the inner fire failed,
triggering yet another cycle of contraction and heating. This time it was the turn of the carbon atoms to
provide the star's new source of energy. Once again, the new fuel produced more energy than previously,
forcing the star's surface to expand to provide sufficient area to radiate the heat. By the time the star
stabilized at 400 solar diameters, its hue had shaded down from yellow-green to a deep red-orange.
The star was well into its dotage when the first human telescopes were turned its way. The first starships
to arrive at the star made note of this fact a few centuries later when they recorded more neutrinos than
expected pouring forth from the star's fiery interior. It was obvious even then that the star had not long to
live. Still, a stellar lifetime is a very long time, and no one truly expected the end to come as quickly as it
did.
At 17:32 hours on 3 August 2512, the star exhausted the last of its carbon fuel. Within seconds, the old
cycle of contraction and heating began again. This time things were different, however. For now, the
star's core was rich in iron, and iron cannot be fused to produce energy. Rather, fusing iron nuclei rob
energy from their surroundings. With its core hopelessly chilled by iron fusion reactions, the star gave up
its ages-old fight with gravity. The core began its final collapse.
As billions upon countless billions of tonnes of matter fell inward, they gave up the potential energy they
had stored through the millennia. This "energy of position" reappeared as heat, causing the temperature at
the center of the star to rise rapidly toward infinity. Some of this heat was radiated into the middle layers
of the star's atmosphere; which, unlike the core, were still rich in unburned hydrogen. A furious
thermonuclear reaction resulted. In the blink of an eye, the star began to produce as much energy each
second as it had previously radiated away in its entire lifetime.
The end came quickly as the star exploded in the most titanic explosion ever witnessed by human beings.
CHAPTER 1
It was high noon when the commercial shuttle touched down at Homeport Spaceport. Even so, the
Antares Nebula was clearly visible in Alta's deep purple sky if one knew where to look. It had been
three years since the nova had first burned bright in the Altan heavens, and while Antares was no longer
the eye-searing spark it had once been, the supernova's power and its relative proximity assured that it
would be visible in daylight for several years to come.
Fleet Captain Richard Arthur Drake unstrapped from his seat and stood to remove his kit bag from the
shuttle's overhead baggage compartment. Around him, four dozen fellow passengers did the same. Then
each man and woman queued up in the shuttle's center aisle and waited patiently for the landing bridge to
be maneuvered across the shuttle's wing and attached to the midships airlock.
Drake was of medium height, with a lean, muscular figure. His hair, which he wore in the close-cropped
style of a military spacer, was black with a touch of gray around the edges. A tiny network of worry lines
emanated from the corners of his green eyes, and a whitish scar cut one of his eyebrows into two unequal
sections. As he moved slowly down the aisle, he did so with the smooth motion of one who has learned
to maneuver under widely varying conditions of acceleration and gravity.
The crowd was slow to disembark. As each passenger reached the storage lockers just forward of the
midships airlock, he or she would stop and sort through the carry-on luggage, blocking the aisle in the
process. Normally, Drake would have found his patience running short at the continued delay. Not
today. After six months spent breathing the reconstituted effluvium that passed for breathing gas aboard a
starship, he was more than happy to merely stand and inhale deeply of the virgin air that wafted in
through the open airlock.
Eventually, he found himself across the landing bridge and inside the terminal building. He threaded his
way through the waiting crowd and was about to board a slidewalk for the main terminal building when a
familiar voice called out: "Richard!"
Drake turned at the sound and was nearly overwhelmed by the fragrant bundle of femininity that flew into
his embrace. Arms wrapped around his neck and warm lips pressed hungrily against his mouth. He
responded in kind for long seconds before breaking free of his assailant with a grin.
"Excuse me, Miss, but do I know you?"
"You'd better know me," Bethany Lindquist replied with mock severity. "We've got a date at the altar,
remember?"
"Do we?" he asked. "The last time I asked, you said that you didn't want to set a date because..."
"You knew what I meant! Now stop teasing me before I forget that you ever asked me."
"Yes, Ma'am, except as I remember, you asked me.”
"Then your memory is faulty, sir. Now then, aren't you happy to see me?"
"You know I am, Beth. Here, stand back and let me look at you.” Drake thrust his fiancée out to arms'
length and feasted on the sight of her. Bethany was nearly as tall as he was, with a well-proportioned
figure and an easy, graceful stance. Her heart shaped face was framed by shoulder-length auburn hair.
Her green eyes had a slight slant to them that complemented her high cheekbones. She was smiling
broadly, which produced dimples in her cheeks. After long seconds of mutual inspection, he pulled her
close again and sighed. "My God, you're more beautiful than I remember!"
"Thank you, kind sir. May I say the same about you?"
"You may. How the hell did you know I was coming, anyway?"
"I have my spies."
"I'll bet you do. But seriously, how did you know? I didn't know myself which ship I would be on until a
few hours before I left Felicity Base."
"First of all, they're holding a Parliamentary briefing concerning the Helldiver Project at the Admiralty
tomorrow. I knew you would be attending."
"That's supposed to be a secret."
"Not to me. I'm an invited participant."
"You are?"
She nodded. "I'm the official representative of the terrestrial ambassador, remember?"
"Ah, yes. Now I remember why we can't get married. Something about your duty to your uncle..."
"Hmmm, do I detect a hint of annoyance in your tone, m'love?"
"More than a hint," he muttered.
"How sweet!"
"Don't change the subject. How did you know I'd be on this shuttle?"
"My uncle told me."
"How the hell did he know?"
"He has an office on Parliament Hill now. He hears things."
"He could have been wrong, you know. What if I hadn't come through that door just now?"
Bethany shrugged. "Then I would have met every arriving ship for the next month if I'd had to.” She
snuggled close and kissed him again. "Oh, Richard, it's so good to have you home!"
"Good to be home," he replied with his nose nestled in her fragrant hair. After a long moment in which no
one spoke, they released each other by mutual consent. Drake sighed deeply and said, "Well, shall we go
in search of the rest of my luggage?"
"Suits me," Bethany replied.
They avoided the slidewalk, preferring to walk arm in arm down the long concourse. Drake found himself
whistling under his breath. As they walked, he became aware of the warmth of her beside him, and of the
general acuteness of his senses. He watched the bustle around him with newly sharpened vision.
Overhead were several large holoscreens. Some were used to display launching and arrival information;
others directed travelers to various destinations within the spaceport, while still others displayed the latest
news concerning the recently completed election. Drake ignored the latter. He'd had all the "news" he
cared for on the long flight down from Felicity Base.
They came to the end of the concourse and turned left into the main section of the spaceport terminal
building. A large holocube stood at the point where several slidewalks spilled their loads into the
cavernous terminal. Inside the cube stood a creature from out of a nightmare.
#
The basis for interstellar travel was established by Bashir-ben-Sulieman in 2078. Sulieman, an
astronomer working out of Farside Observatory, Luna, spent his life measuring the precise positions and
proper motions of several thousand stars. After two decades of work, he reluctantly concluded that
existing gravitational theories did not adequately explain the placement of various stars within the galactic
spiral arm of which Sol is a member. Sulieman became convinced that space is not only curved locally
around planetary and stellar masses as Einstein had maintained, but that it is also folded back upon itself
in long lines stretching across thousands of light-years. He theorized that these foldlines originate in the
massive black hole that occupies the center of the galaxy, and that they stream outward in complex
patterns along the spiral arms. He further theorized that whenever such a foldline encounters a star, it is
focused much as a lens focuses a beam of light; and if that focus is sufficiently sharp, a weak spot, or
foldpoint, appears in the fabric of the space-time continuum.
Twenty years after Sulieman's revelation, scientists positioned a spaceship within one of the two
foldpoints known to exist within the Solar System and released copious quantities of energy in a precisely
controlled pattern. The energy release caused the ship to be instantaneously transported along the foldline
to the system of Luyten's Star, some 12.5 light-years distant from Sol.
There was no holding the human race back after that. Over the next several centuries, the leakage of
population into space became a flood. The pattern of the migration was determined almost entirely by the
shape of foldspace, as the aggregate of foldlines and foldpoints came to be called. While some stars
were found to possess only a single foldpoint, others were endowed with two, three, or more. The
biggest, most massive stars were found to be especially fertile centers of foldpoint production; and
therefore, the systems of these stars became the crossroads of interstellar travel. The red-orange
supergiant star Antares was the champion foldpoint producer throughout human space. Its six interstellar
portals made Antares the linchpin of a network of related star systems known collectively as the Antares
Foldspace Cluster.
When Antares exploded on 3 August 2512, the immediate effects were felt far beyond the confines of
the Antares system. The release of so concentrated a burst of energy jolted the very fabric of space-time;
and with it, the structure of foldspace for hundreds of light-years in every direction. In some systems,
foldpoints underwent radical changes of position, while in others; foldpoints appeared where none had
previously existed. In still other star systems, preexisting foldpoints disappeared without a trace.
The F8 dwarf star known as Valeria had been doubly unlucky. Situated 125 light-years from Antares,
the Val system was what foldspace astronomers called a cul-de-sac, a star with but a single foldpoint.
When Antares exploded, Valeria's foldpoint had simply disappeared. Thus, it was that the human colony
on Valeria IV (Alta to its inhabitants) had found itself isolated from the rest of human space for a century
and a quarter. Then, early in the year 2637 (Universal Calendar), Antares had burned bright in the Altan
sky, signaling the arrival of the leading edge of the nova shockwave. Simultaneous with the passage of the
nova shockwave, Valeria's foldpoint had reappeared high in the system's northern hemisphere.
#
"What's this?" Drake asked Bethany, gesturing toward the display.
"Part of the government's 'Know Thy Enemy' campaign," she replied. "They've got them in most public
places. Push the button and it will spew out all manner of interesting facts. Here, listen.” As she spoke,
she stepped forward and pressed a stud that jutted from the base of the holocube. The image came to life
and seemed to peer down at them. At the same time, a sonorous voice began to speak.
"The creature you see before you, sir or madam, is a Ryall, and the mortal enemy of all humanity..."
The image in the holocube was that of a creature designed along the lines of a six-legged centaur. The
legs were short, less than half-a-meter in length, and culminated in wide pad like feet. Their shortness was
amply compensated for by the creature's forebody – a vertical torso topped by a long, flexible neck that
carried the alien's head to the height of a man's. The head was wide at the back, showing considerable
cranial bulge, and narrow at the front where a toothy snout jutted forward some fifteen centimeters. The
eyes were set wide apart, such that the creature had trouble looking straight ahead. In the hologram, its
head was cocked to one side, as though scanning the faces of passersby. The mouth was partially open,
showing two rows of conical teeth and a triply forked tongue. On top of the head were two flaps of skin
stretched taut by rigid, spike like projections. Of nostrils or any equivalent, there was no sign.
Two heavily muscled arms attached to the forebody at the same point as the neck. The creature's hands
consisted of four slender fingers flanked by two opposable thumbs. At the opposite end of the main
body, a meter-long tail dragged the ground. The Ryall's hide was scaled, the scales shading from
gray-green on top to light beige beneath.
The lecturing voice continued. "... Although the Ryall bear a passing resemblance to both terrestrial and
Altan reptiles, they are neither. Indeed, they do not fit particularly well into any of our normal taxonomic
categories. They are warm-blooded and the females suckle the young – although on a mixture of blood
and nutrients rather than milk. In spite of these mammal-like traits, they also lay eggs. Note the vestigial
webs between the fingers of each hand, and again between the short digits on the feet. The Ryall evolved
as aquatic animals and did not leave the water for the land until quite recently in their past. Experts tell us
that they were forced from the water by another sentient race on their home world, a race the Ryall call
the swift eaters. It is this incident in their history that we believe makes them so territorial that they have
attacked us without provocation. That being the case, the only thing left for us to do is..."
Drake did not wait to find out what the narrator had in mind. He nudged Bethany and said, "Come on,
we've better things to do than listen to this."
She glanced at him and smiled slyly. "Maybe we can ask the taxi driver to take a shortcut into town."
#
The return of their star's foldpoint should have been front-page news throughout the Valeria system. In
fact, no one noticed. For a foldpoint is a difficult object to find under the best of circumstances, and after
125 years of isolation, the Altans had stopped looking. Therefore, it came as something of a shock when
an unidentified starship materialized high above Val's ecliptic and immediately began thrusting for deep
space.
Despite their surprise, the Altans lost no time in dispatching a ship to investigate. What it discovered was
a battered warship bearing the markings of the Grand Fleet of Earth, and a crew of corpses. Somewhere
in its travels, the Earth fleet blastship had been badly mauled in battle and abandoned by its surviving
crewmembers. After that, it had jumped blindly from foldpoint to foldpoint under the control of a
radiation-damaged autopilot, eventually ending up in the Val system.
With evidence of fighting beyond the foldpoint, the Altans had hurriedly organized an expedition to scout
the situation. The expedition's first destination had been the Napier system and the colony world of New
Providence. It had been from New Providence that Alta had originally been colonized. What the Altan
expedition found was an ancestral home abandoned by its inhabitants. It had not been difficult to discover
the reason. All the while the Altan ships were in the system, their outside radiation monitors had chattered
wildly. New Providence and the whole Napier system had been made uninhabitable by the radiation from
the nearby Antares Supernova.
The discovery that New Providence was a dead world had saddened, but not surprised, the Altans. A
number of astronomers had warned them that the fifteen light-years that separated Napier from Antares
was insufficient to protect the system from the full fury of the supernova. What had surprised the Altans
was the condition in which they found most of New Providence's cities. The steady rain of high-energy
photons and charged particles was deadly to all forms of life, but should not have materially affected the
concrete, stone, and steel that comprises a city. The Altans had expected to find a world of abandoned,
but pristine, municipalities.
What they found instead were horizon-to-horizon ruins bearing the unmistakable signs of nuclear
bombardment. Shocked at the sight of widespread destruction, the Altans had dug through the ruins,
searching for clues to what had precipitated the fighting. What they found had been the biggest surprise of
all. For, contrary to the explorers' expectations, the New Providentials had not fallen to fighting among
themselves. They had been attacked by a race of centauroid aliens, the Ryall.
Shortly after learning of the aliens' existence, the Altan expedition had departed the Napier system for the
neighboring system of Hellsgate. New Providence had established a second interstellar colony in the
Hellsgate system. According to the records, the Altans found in the ruins, it had been to this second
colony that New Providence's refugees had fled.
The Altan ships had entered the Hellsgate system and quickly made contact with the inhabitants. They
discovered that Sandar (the colony planet in the system) had been at war with the Ryall for more than a
century. Before the Altans were finished, they were given the opportunity to view the war at first hand!
#
Richard Drake was jolted awake by a low-pitched hooting from somewhere outside. His first thought
was that it was the cry of a night hunting calu beast. Then, as he came more awake, he remembered that
there had not been a calu sighted in Homeport in more than a century.
"What is that?" he asked softly in the blackness.
Bethany stirred beside him, stretching as she came awake. After a moment's silence, she said, "I must
have fallen asleep. What time is it?"
Drake glanced at the disembodied red numerals that floated in the darkness where he remembered the
nightstand to be. "Nearly twenty hundred. What's that noise outside?"
Bethany sat up in bed and listened. "Oh, that's just the space raid siren. They announced a drill this
morning on the news."
"How do you know it isn't a real raid?" he asked.
"Hmmm," she responded. "You don't think the Ryall would have the bad taste to launch an attack during
a scheduled drill, do you?"
He laughed. "I'm sure they would if they could. However, they would have to get past the Sandarians
first. Since we haven't heard of any major Ryall successes in the Hellsgate system, I think we're safe for
the time being."
"Depolarize the window, Richard. I want to let the night in."
"Where's the control?"
"On the nightstand, beside the clock. The large round knob next to the light switch."
Drake fumbled for the control, found it, and turned it full in the clockwise direction. As he did so, one
whole wall of the bedroom disappeared as the floor-to-ceiling window went from 100% opaque to fully
transparent.
Beyond the window lay a clear, calm night. Across the Tigris River, the lights of Homeport shone
brilliantly in subdued colors, while Antares hovered low in the western sky. The nova shed a light the
color of a mercury vapor lamp and suffused the countryside with a pale silver glow. Directly in front of
them, nova light reflected from the surface of the river to produce a broad band of silver across which a
small pleasure boat moved upstream in silence.
Bethany rolled onto her stomach and propped her head on a pillow. "Isn't the night beautiful, Richard?
Look what the nova's done to the river!"
Drake reached out and let his fingertips trace the soft curves of her spine. "You're the one who is
beautiful."
In the distance, the soft ululation of the siren slowly drifted down toward the limits of audibility.
"I guess that's it," she said. "I wonder how much use these drills will be if we're ever raided for real?"
"Not much," he replied. "They're mostly to get people in the proper mood. If you are rousted out of bed
in the middle of the night to seek shelter, you're more likely to put up with the extra inconveniences a war
economy requires."
"I always suspected as much. Not to change the subject, but are you hungry?"
"Famished," he replied
"Then opaque the window and turn on some lights. I will make us a snack. We can eat out on the
balcony and watch the nova set."
"If that is your wish, my love."
"It is. Hurry, it will be down in an hour."
Drake rolled over and reset the window control, followed by the overhead lights. They dressed quickly.
Bethany busied herself in the kitchen while he set the table on her balcony. Fifteen minutes later, they
were enjoying a late supper of roast beef, cril greens, and coffee. The coffee was nothing like the bitter
Earth original, but rather an Altan product that the founders of the colony had decided was the closest
local substitute. As they ate, they watched Antares sink toward the western horizon.
They watched in silence for long minutes before Drake turned to Bethany and asked, "Will you marry
me?"
"It seems to me that I've answered that question more than once," she replied.
"No," he persisted. "I don't mean marry me someday. I mean marry menow, this very minute! We'll call
up city hall and register our vows, then roust the nearest city magistrate out of bed."
"We shouldn't have to roust anyone out. It's only 20:30 hours."
"Even better. We'll have the whole thing over in an hour."
Bethany caressed his cheek with her hand. "I'll do it if you insist, Richard, but I would rather wait. I've
had a lot of time to think about it these last six months, and I've decided I want a big church wedding."
He shrugged. "Fine. I'll see if I can't reserve a church for next weekend. Surely, the boss will give me
the time off if I tell him why I want it. You can invite your uncle and friends, and I will invite everyone at
the Admiralty who has ever spoken to me. We will even throw in fifty or so strangers to fill out the
crowd. I guarantee a minimum attendance of two hundred!"
She laughed. "You don't understand, Richard. I don't want a big wedding in a church. I want a
wedding in a big church!"
"You're right, I don't understand you."
"It's simple really, darling. I have decided that I want to be married in Notre Dame Cathedral. You
know, the one in Paris, France."
"You want to be married on Earth?"
She nodded. "I thought it would be a nice touch."
"I'm not sure Notre Dame exists any longer."
She shrugged. "Then Westminster Abbey, or St. Peter's Basilica will do just as well. Or even the Little
Chapel by the Road. Just as long as we're married on Earth."
"Has it occurred to you that we may never find Earth again?"
"I have confidence, Richard. We'll find it because we must." Bethany got up and stretched. "Now then,
if you are through eating, sir, I think it's time we went back to bed."
"What about the nova? There are still fifteen minutes before it sets."
"We can see Antares anytime, and it isn't every night a woman receives a proposal of marriage."
"Or avoids it so skillfully," he said, glancing one last time at the setting star. When he turned his attention
back to the table, he discovered that he was speaking to an empty balcony. Lifting a napkin from his lap,
he dropped it on the table, stood, and followed her inside.
CHAPTER 2
Except wind stands as never it stood.
It is an ill wind that blows no one good.
– Thomas Tusser, 16th Century Poet
#
There had not been a single inhabitant of Alta – or of the entire Valeria system, for that matter – whose
life had not been drastically changed by the Antares Supernova. When the nova first burst bright in the
Altan sky, it had transformed the darkness of Alta's night into an eerie daylight as it flooded land and sea
with harsh blue-white radiance. Most Altans had been initially enchanted by the phenomenon, although
mothers had often complained that their children refused to sleep with the nova light peeking around the
edges of their curtains.
Then had come word of the restoration of the foldpoint. The news had been greeted with universal joy
as the pent-up frustrations of The Long Isolation were released. The celebration had gone on for days
and a new spirit of enthusiasm and hope had surged throughout the system. For months, it had seemed
that Alta was on the verge of prosperity unknown in its history.
Slowly the nova had faded from its period of maximum brilliance. While it did so, Alta had eagerly
awaited the return of its expedition to the Napier and Hellsgate systems. The day had finally come when
the first of the expedition's ships returned home, bringing with it news of the Ryall threat. The public
mood had shifted almost overnight. Optimism turned suddenly to horror; enthusiasm was quickly
transformed into fear. Night after night, the news services vied with each other to broadcast the most
graphic views of the destruction of New Providence's cities. No longer was the supernova regarded as
Alta's personal good luck charm. For most Altans, Antares had become the visible symbol of an
uncertain and dangerous future.
If there was anyone who still had reason to be thankful for the nova in Alta's sky, that man was Clarence
Whitlow. Whitlow was the hereditary terrestrial ambassador to Alta, the fifth member of his family to
hold that post. It was the job of the hereditary ambassadors to act as though nothing had changed when
the supernova isolated Valeria from the rest of human space. As far as Whitlow and his predecessors
were concerned, it was their job to represent Earth's interests on Alta. The fact that they had had no
instructions from home in 127 years was a matter not worthy of comment.
To Clarence Whitlow had fallen the lonely task of keeping an important tradition alive. That tradition
held that Alta was part of a larger whole, a community of worlds built on the twin principles of tolerance
and mutual respect. For thirty years, he had lived the fiction that Earth was still a factor in the affairs of
Alta. It was a fiction that made him a comical figure to his friends and neighbors. As for official
Homeport, save for a small yearly stipend voted by Parliament, he had been virtually ignored during his
time as terrestrial ambassador.
The coming of the nova had changed all of that. Among the ships trapped in the Val system in 2512
were three heavy battle cruisers of Earth's Grand Fleet. Part of the agreement by which the first
terrestrial ambassador had ceded these three ships to the fledgling Altan Navy had been that all
succeeding terrestrial ambassadors would have a say in their use beyond the Val system. To enforce the
agreement, Whitlow's great-great-grandfather had retained certain security codes needed to operate the
cruisers' jump engines. Clarence Whitlow, in turn, had used his possession of these codes to force a
promise from Parliament that he would be consulted on all matters of interstellar policy. They had further
agreed that Whitlow would have the right to send a personal representative along on any future
interstellar expeditions.
For Clarence Whitlow, at least, the Antares Supernova had been an unmixed blessing.
#
Clarence Whitlow stood behind his oversize, onyxwood desk and stared out the window that adorned
one wall of his office. Whitlow was a frail, white haired man who walked with a noticeable stoop. The
stoop was the result of a progressive bone disease that the doctors had been able to arrest, but not to
cure. His bent posture, along with his soft features, had led many an opponent to underestimate him over
the past three years. Those who had done so had found that an iron will resided inside the stooped form.
Whitlow let his gaze sweep across the scene in front of him. Across a wide tree-lined boulevard was the
black cube that housed the Altan Industrial Council. Next to it, in a structure every bit as imposing, was
headquartered the Free Labor Association. On either side of the two were other buildings, each of
which held the legions of special pleaders that have congregated around governmental centers since the
days of Babylon. If Whitlow looked over the tops of the buildings of Lobbyist Row, he could just make
out the ugly pile of stone and mortar that was the home of Alta's Parliament.
Not for him this morning were the foreground details of government, however. Instead, he lifted his gaze
above the concrete-and-marble of the government district, past the panorama of Homeport itself, to the
azure mountain range that bulked up in the distance. To Whitlow's eyes, the Colgate Mountains were the
most beautiful on Main Continent; and that, as much as their proximity to the capital, had been the reason
he had chosen to make his home in their foothills for most of his life. There had been many times over the
past three years when he had wished that he was back in the mountains tending his roses.
Clarence Whitlow was jolted from his reverie by the sudden buzzing of the intercom on his desk. He
passed a hand through thinning white hair and returned to his seat. Leaning forward, he keyed the
摘要：

 ANTARESPASSAGE ANovelBy MichaelMcCollum  SciFi–Arizona,Inc.ThirdMillenniumPublishingAnOnlineCooperativeofWritersandResources  PROLOGUE:THEBIRTHANDDEATHOFASTAR Thestarwasarelativenewcomertothegalacticscene.Ithadbegunlifeasavastcloudofinterstellarhydrogenwhichoverthemillenniahadcollapsedinuponitself,...

展开>> 收起<<
Michael Mc Collum - Antares 02 - Antares Passage.pdf

共188页,预览38页

还剩页未读， 继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

相关推荐

更多
立即下载
分类：外语学习 价格：5.9玖币 属性：188 页 大小：470.76KB 格式：PDF 时间：2024-12-22

开通VIP享超值会员特权

  • 多端同步记录
  • 高速下载文档
  • 免费文档工具
  • 分享文档赚钱
  • 每日登录抽奖
  • 优质衍生服务

作者详情

相关内容

更多

热门标签

人际关系 配电装置 动力学连接体 力的合成 高考理综 全宋诗作者索引 公务员考试
/ 188
评分 收藏
分享
立即下载 VIP免费下载
客服
关注