Timothy Zahn - Cobra 2 - Cobra Strike

VIP免费

2024-11-28 0 0 462.01KB 131 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt

COBRA STRIKE

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and

any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises 260 Fifth Avenue New York, N.Y. 10001

First printing, February 1986

ISBN: 0-671-65551-5

Cover art by Vincent Di Fate

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed by SIMON & SCHUSTER TRADE PUBLISHING GROUP 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y.

10020

Chapter 1

The whine of Troft thrusters drifted in through the window on the late-summer breezes, jarring

Jonny Moreau awake. For one heart-wrenching moment he was back in the midst of the Adirondack war;

but as he tipped his recliner back to vertical the abrupt stab of pain in elbows and knees snapped

him back to the present. For a minute he just sat there, gazing out the window at the Capitalia

skyline and trying to bring his brain and body back on-line. Then, reaching carefully to his desk,

he jabbed at the intercom button on his phone. "Yes, Governor?" Theron Yutu said.

Jonny leaned back in his chair again, snagging a bottle of pain pills from the desktop as he did

so. "Is Corwin back from the Council meeting yet?"

The image jumped to another desk and Jonny's 27-year-old son. "Haven't gone yet, Dad," he said.

"The meeting's still an hour away."

"Oh?" Jonny squinted at his watch. He'd have sworn the meeting was scheduled for two . . . sure

enough, it was just a few minutes past one. "Felt like I'd slept longer," he muttered. "Well. You

all set to go?"

"Pretty much, unless there's something new you want me to bring up. Hang on—I'll come in there and

we can talk."

2 Timothy Zahn

The screen went blank. Flexing his elbows experimentally, Jonny eyed the pain pills. Later, he

decided firmly. His arthritis would ease some as he started moving around again, and the drugs

invariably left his brain fuzzier than he liked.

The door opened and Corwin Jame Moreau strode into the room, the inevitable comboard tucked under

his arm. The boy—the man, Jonny reminded himself— had taken to the world of politics with a zest

the older Moreau had never been able to generate. More and more Corwin reminded Jonny of his own

brother Jame, working up through the ranks of the Dominion of Man's highest political power.

Fourteen years ago Jame had been a trusted aide to a member of the Central Committee itself. What

was he now, Jonny often wondered—aide, designated successor, a Com-mitte himself?

Jonny would never know. It was one of the few results of the Troft Corridor closing that he was

still able to wholeheartedly regret.

Setting his comboard on a corner of Jonny's desk, Corwin pulled up a chair. "Okay, let's see. The

main points you wanted me to present were the exclusivity clause of the new trade agreement with

the Hoibe'-ryi'sarai—" the Troft demesne-name flowed smoothly from Corwin's tongue— "the need for

more Cobras to be shifted to spine leapard duty in the outer districts, and the whole question of

whether Caelian is really worth hanging onto."

Jonny nodded, feeling a twinge of guilt for once again skipping the Council duties a governor

emeritus was supposed to perform or at least put up with. "Lean on the latter two especially—I

don't know how the spine leopards figure out their numbers are down, but their breeding rate sure

shows that they know somehow. Make sure even the densest syndics understand that we can't take on

a full-scale spine leopard resurgence and also make any headway on Caelian without lowering the

standards at the Cobra factory."

COBRA STRIKE 3

A frown flickered across Corwin's face. "Speaking of the academy...." He stopped, looking

uncomfortable.

Jonny closed his eyes briefly. "Justin. Right?"

"Well ... yes. Mom wanted me to try and get you to change your mind about using your Council veto

on his application."

"To what end?" Jonny sighed. "Justin is smart, exceptionally stable emotionally, adaptable, and

with a strong desire to serve his world this way. You'll forgive a father's pride, I trust."

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt (1 of 131) [2/1/2004 3:36:32 PM]

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt

"I know all that—"

"More to the point," Jonny inturrupted, "he's 22 years old and has been wanting to be a Cobra

since he was 16. A period, you'll notice, in which he's had ample opportunity to mull over exactly

what a few decades of Cobra gear does to a man." He raised his hands slightly as if offering his

body for inspection. "If that hasn't dampened his resolve—and the tests show it hasn't—then I'm

not about to veto his admission. He's exactly the kind of man we need in the Cobras."

Corwin waved a hand in a gesture of defeat. "I almost wish I could argue with you, for Mom's sake.

But I'm afraid I have to agree."

Jonny looked out the window. "Your mother's had a lot of this kind of pain in her life. I wish I

knew how to make it up to her."

For a long moment the room was silent. Then Corwin stirred, reaching for his comboard. "Spine

leopards and Caelian it is, then," he said, standing up. "You going to be here or the therapy room

when the meeting's over?"

Jonny looked back at his eldest son, grimacing. "You had to bring that up, didn't you? Oh, all

right; I'll go make the torturers happy. What's left of me will be back here by the time you're

through."

Corwin nodded. "Okay. But be nice to them—they're just trying to do their jobs."

4 Timothy Zahn

"Sure. See you later." Jonny waited until the other had closed the door behind him and then

snorted. "Their jobs, indeed," he muttered under his breath. "Bunch of experimentalists poking

around with human white-rats." All in hope that they could come up with a therapy that would

someday be able to help the rising generations of Cobras.

One of whom was going to be his own son.

Sighing, Jonny gripped the arms of his chair and got carefully to his feet. He would get outside

to his car on his own, and without his pills, even if it killed him. The old man, as he was fond

of saying, wasn't helpless yet.

Even with traffic in the Cobra Worlds' capital as dense as it was these days, it would be only a

ten-minute drive to the Dominion Building for the Council meeting. Corwin nevertheless gathered

together his magcards and other paraphernalia as quickly as possible, hoping to get there early

enough for some cloakroom soundboarding with the other Council members. His father had left for

his therapy session, and Corwin was about ready to leave himself, when his mother came in.

"Hello, Theron," she smiled at Yutu. "Corwin, is your father still here?"

"He just left." Corwin felt his muscles tense in anticipation of the confrontation he knew was

ahead. "He'll be coming back after his physical therapy."

"What did he say?"

Corwin consciously unclenched his jaw. "Sorry, Mom. He's not going to block it."

The age lines framing her features seemed to deepen. "You'll be casting the vote," she said, her

meaning clear.

"Let me restate it, then: We are not going to block it."

"So that's it, is it?" she said coldly. "You're just going to let them condemn your brother to—"

COBRA STRIKE 5

"Mother." Corwin stood up, gesturing to his chair. "Sit down, will you."

She hesitated, then complied. Corwin pulled up a guest chair to face her, noting peripherally that

Yutu had apparently just discovered something that needed to be done in Jonny's office. Sitting

down, Corwin took a moment to look—really look—at his mother.

Chrys Moreau had been beautiful when she was younger, he knew from old pictures and tapes, and

even with the assorted physical changes of middle age she was still strikingly attractive. But

there were other changes, not all of them explained by simple maturation of viewpoint or even a

response to her husband's long illness. She seemed to smile less these days, and to move with the

restricted motions of one deathly afraid of knocking something over. This business with Justin was

part of it, that much Corwin knew ... but there was more, and so far he hadn't found the right

words to open up that section of his mother's thoughts.

Nor was this time going to be any different. "If you're going to give me the old arguments why Jus-

tin should be a Cobra, please don't bother," Chrys began. "I know them all, I still don't have any

logical counters for them, and I'll even admit that if he weren't my son I'd probably agree with

them. But he is my son, and irrational as it may seem, I don't think it fair that I should lose

him to the Cobras, too."

Corwin let her finish, though her words represented no new ground either. "Have you asked Joshua

to talk with him?" he asked.

Chyrs shook her head minutely. "He won't. You should know that better than anyone else."

Despite the seriousness of the moment Corwin felt a brief smile touch his lips at the memories

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt (2 of 131) [2/1/2004 3:36:32 PM]

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt

evoked. Five years older than the twins, he had nevertheless been successfully ganged up on more

times than he cared to remember. Their unshakable loyalty to each

6 Timothy Zahn

other even in the face of parental punishments had made for equally unshakable alibis. "Than I'm

afraid it's out of our hands," he told his mother gently. "Legally—not to mention ethically—Justin

has a perfect right to choose his life's work. Besides, the political fallout of such a nepotistic

veto would be awfully messy to clean up."

"Politics." Chyrs turned her head to stare out the window. "I'd hoped your father would be

finished with it when he retired from the governorship. I should have realized they wouldn't let

him escape that easily."

"We need his wisdom and experience, Mom." Corwin glanced at his watch. "And speaking of that, I'm

afraid I'm going to have to go give the Council its monthly dose now."

A shadow briefly crossed Chrys's face, but she nodded and stood up. "I understand. Will you be

coming by for dinner tonight? The twins have said they'll be able to make it."

And it would be the last time until Justin's Cobra training was over that they'd all have a chance

to be together. "Sure," Corwin said, walking her toward the door. "I'll be talking to Dad after

the meeting, so I'll just come with him when we're finished."

"All right. Around six?"

"Fine. See you then."

He walked her to her car and watched as she drove off. Then, with a sigh, he went to his own car

and headed for the Dominion Building. Why, he wondered, did the internal problems of his own

family always seem more insurmountable than those facing three entire worlds? Probably, he thought

flippantly, because there isn't anything the Council can do anymore to surprise me.

He would afterward recall that thought and its unfortunate timing ... and wince.

Chapter 2

The Council of Syndics—its official title—had in the early days of the colony been just that: a

grouping somewhat low-key of the planet's syndics and governor-general which met at irregular

intervals to discuss any problems and map out the general direction they hoped the colony would

grow in. As the population increased and beachheads were established on two other worlds, the

Council grew in both size and political weight, following the basic pattern of the distant

Dominion of Man. But unlike the Dominion, this outpost of humanity numbered nearly three thousand

Cobras among its half-million people. The resulting inevitable diffusion of political power had

had a definite impact on the Council's makeup. The rank of governor had been added between the

syndic and governor-general levels, blunting the pinnacle of power just a bit; and at all levels

of government the Cobras with their double vote were welt represented.

Corwin didn't really question the political philosophy which had produced this modification of

Dominion structure; but from a purely utilitarian point of view he often found the sheer size of

the 75-member Council unwieldy.

Today, though, at least for the first hour, things went smoothly. Most of the discussion—including

the

Timothy Zahn

points Corwin raised—focused on older issues which had already had the initial polemics thoroughly

wrung out of them. A handful were officially given resolution, the rest returned to the members

for more analysis, consideration, or simple foot-dragging; and as the agenda wound down it began

to look as if the meeting might actually let out early,

And then Governor-General Brom Stiggur dropped a pocket planet-wrecker into the room.

It began with an old issue. "You'll remember the report of two years ago," he said, looking around

the room, "in which the Farsearch team concluded that, aside from our three present worlds, no

planets exist within at least a 20-light-year radius of Aventine that we could expand to in the

future. It was agreed at the time that our current state of population and development hardly

required an immediate resolution of this long-term problem."

Corwin sat a bit straighter in his seat, sensing similar reactions around him. Stiggur's words

were neutral enough, but something explosive seemed to be hiding beneath the carefully controlled

inflections of his voice.

"However," the other continued, "in the past few days something new has come to light, something

which I felt should be presented immediately to this body, before even any follow-up studies were

initiated." Glancing at the Cobra guard standing by the door, Stiggur nodded. The man nodded in

turn and opened the panel ... and a single Troft walked in.

A faint murmur of surprise rippled its way around the room, and Corwin felt himself tense

involuntarily as the alien made its way to Stiggur's side. The Trofts had been the Worlds' trading

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt (3 of 131) [2/1/2004 3:36:32 PM]

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt

partner for nearly 14 years now, but Corwin still remembered vividly the undercurrent of fear that

he'd grown up with. Most of the Council had even stronger memories than that: the Troft occupation

of the Dominion worlds Silvern and Adirondack had occurred only 43 years ago, ulti-

COBRA STRIKE 9

mately becoming the impetus for the original Cobra project. It was no accident that most of the

people who now dealt physically with the Troft traders were in their early twenties. Only the

younger Aventinians could face the aliens without wincing.

The Troft paused at the edge of the table, waiting as the Council members dug out translator-link

earphones and inserted them. One or two of the younger syndics didn't bother, and Corwin felt a

flicker of jealousy as he adjusted his own earphone to low volume. He'd taken the same number of

courses in catertalk as they had, but it was obvious that foreign language comprehension wasn't

even close to being his forte.

"Men and women of the Cobra Worlds Council," the earphone murmured to him. "I am Speaker One of

the Tlos'khin'fahi demesne of the TroFte Assemblage." The alien's high-pitched catertalk continued

for a second beyond the translation; both races had early on decided that the first three

parasyllables of Troft demesne titles were more than adequate for human use, and that a literal

transcription of the aliens' proper names was a waste of effort. "The Tlos'khin'fahi demesne-lord

has sent your own demesne-lord's request for data to the other parts of the Assemblage and the

result has been a triad offer from the Pualanek'zia and Baliu'ckha'spmi demesnes."

Corwin grimaced. He'd never liked deals involving two or more Troft demesnes, both because of the

delicate political balance the Worlds often had to strike and because the humans never heard much

about the Troft-Troft arm of such bargains. That arm had to exist—the individual demesnes seldom

if ever gave anything away to each other.

The same line of thought appeared to have tracked its way elsewhere through the room. "You speak

of a triad, instead of a quad offer," Governor Dylan Fairleigh spoke up. "What part does the

Tlos'khin'fahi demesne expect to play?"

Timothy Zahn

"My demense-lord chooses the role of catalyst," was the prompt reply. "No fee will be forthcoming

for our role." The Troft fingered something on his abdomen sash and Corwin's display lit up with a

map showing the near half of the Troft Assemblage. Off on one edge three stars began blinking red.

"The Cobra Worlds," the alien unnecessarily identified them. A quarter of the way around the bulge

a single star, also outside Troft territory, flashed green. "The world named Qasama by its

natives. They are described by the Baliu'ckha'spmi demesne-lord as an alien race of great

potential danger to the Assemblage. Here—" a vague-edged sphere appeared at the near side of the

flashing green star— "somewhere, is a tight cluster of five worlds capable of supporting human

life. The Pua'lanek'zia demesne-lord will give you their location and an Assemblage pledge of

human possession if your Cobras will undertake to eliminate the threat of Qasama. I will await

your decision."

The Troft turned and left ... and only slowly did Corwin realize he was holding his breath. Five

brand-new worlds ... for the price of becoming mercenaries.

He wondered if the Troft had any idea of the size snakepit he'd just opened.

If the alien didn't, the Council certainly did. For the better part of a minute the room was

silent as an isolation tank as each member apparently tried to track through the tangle of

implications. Finally, Stiggur cleared his throat. "While we of course have no intention of

replying to this offer today, or even to fully discuss its relative merits, I would nevertheless

appreciate hearing whatever initial reactions you might have."

"I, for one, would like a little more information before we listen to any hard-wired-reflex

comments," Governor Lizabet Telek said. Her perennially gravelly voice gave no clue to her own

reaction. "Something about these new aliens would be nice for

COBRA STRIKE

starters—bio specs, tech level, specifics of their alleged threat; that sort of thing."

Stiggur shook his head. "Speaker One either doesn't have any more data or won't give it away

free—I've already pressed him on that. I suspect the former, personally; there's no particular

need for the Tlos demesne to buy what would be little more than abstract knowledge to them. Same

goes for information on these five alleged worlds the Pua demesne's offering, before anyone asks."

"In other words, we're being asked to sign an essentially blank agreement?" one of the newer

syndics asked.

"Not really." Governor Jor Hemner shook his head, the movement looking risky on one so frail.

"There are lots of intermediate possibilities, including buying the Baliu's data or sending our

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt (4 of 131) [2/1/2004 3:36:32 PM]

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt

own survey team out to take a look. Standard Troft trade procedure assumes we'll come up with

these suggestions ourselves. What I'm worried about is whether setting a precedent of this kind is

a good idea."

"Why not?" someone else spoke up from Corwin's side of the room. "It's the fear of the Cobras that

keeps the Trofts friendly, isn't it? How better to show them that kind of caution is good policy?"

"And if we lose?" Hemner asked stiffly.

"The Cobras haven't lost anything yet."

Corwin glanced at Governor Howie Vartanson of Caelian, wondering if he'd comment. But the other

merely curled his lip slightly and kept silent. Politicans from Caelian tended to adopt that low-

profile position when they came to Aventine, Corwin had noticed; but the point, he felt, ought to

be made. Subtly, if possible.... "I'd like to point out," he spoke up, "that one or more new

planets would enable us to solve the problem of Caelian without depriving the 19,000 people there

of the right to their 'own' world."

"Only if they'd be willing to leave," Stiggur said;

Timothy Zahn

but the mention of Caelian, as Cowrin had planned, seemed to bring the members' thoughts to the

current stalemate between the Cobras and that strange world's hostile ecology. "Fluid genetic

adaptation," the official reports elegantly called, it. The Caelians' own term was considerably

cruder: Hell's Blender. Every species on the planet, from the simplest lichen to the largest

predator, seemed mindlessly determined to hold onto his ecological and territorial niche against

all efforts to dislodge it. Clear some land and soak it with vegebarrier, and within days there

would be a dozen new plant variants attempting to reclaim it. Build a house where a thicket had

been, and before long the local fungi would be growing on the walls. Create a city, or even a

small town, and the displaced animals would find their way in somehow ... and not only the small

ones. A world under perpetual siege, Corwin had once heard Jonny call it. Only the Caelians

themselves knew how—or why—they put up with it.

For another long moment the room was again silent. Stiggur looked around, nodded at what he saw.

"Well. I think we can safely agree with Governor Telek that considerably more information is

needed before we can even consider acting. For the moment, then, you're to keep this proposal a

secret from the general populace while you work out the various pros and cons for yourselves. Now,

then—one final item and we'll be adjourned. I have a list of Cobra applicants awaiting final

Council approval." The twelve names—an unusually high number—appeared on Corwin's screen, along

with their home towns and districts. All the names were familiar ones; the Cobra Academy screeners

had sent in their test results nearly a month ago. Justin Moreau was the seventh one listed.

"Do I hear any votes against these citizens becoming Cobras, either individually or as a group?"

Stiggur asked the standard question. A couple of nearby heads turned in Corwin's direction;

clamping his jaw tightly,

COBRA STRIKE

he kept his eyes on the governor-general and his hands in his lap. "No? Then this Council affirms

the decision of the Cobra Academy officials, and hereby directs them to begin the irreversible

stages of the Cobra process." Stiggur pushed a button and the room's screens blanked. "This

Council session is adjourned."

Irreversible stages. Corwin had heard those words at least twenty times before at these meetings,

but somehow they'd never sounded so final. But then, he'd never heard them applied to his own

younger brother before, either.

Justin Moreau let the car roll to a stop in front of the house, feeling the tension in his

shoulders translate along his arms to a brief white-knuckled squeeze on the wheel. The word had

come by phone only an hour ago that the Council had given final approval to his application.

Tomorrow the surgery would begin that would finally and firmly set him down in his father's

footsteps ... but tonight he would have to face his mother's pain.

"You ready?" Joshua asked from the seat next to him.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Opening the door, Justin got out and headed toward the house, his

brother falling into step beside him.

Corwin answered Joshua's knock, and despite his tension Justin found himself enjoying the

inevitable half-second it took their older brother to figure out which was which. Even among

identical twins Joshua and Justin were unusually hard to tell apart, a fact that had caused untold

confusion throughout their lives. Family and close friends were generally able to manage the

trick, but even with them a secret swap of tunics could sometimes go undetected for hours. They'd

pulled such stunts innumerable times when they were younger, a game they'd given up only after

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%20Cobra%20StrikeUC.txt (5 of 131) [2/1/2004 3:36:32 PM]

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Desktop/Timothy%20Zahn%20-%2Cobra%20StrikeUC.txtCOBRASTRIKEThisisaworkoffiction.Allthecharactersandeventsportrayedinthisbookarefictional,andanyresemblancetorealpeopleorincidentsispurelycoincidental.Copyright©1986byTimothyZahnAllrightsreserved,includingtherighttoreproducethisbookorportionsthereofinanyform.ABaenBooksOriginalBaenPublishingEnterprises260FifthAvenueNewYork,N.Y.10001Firstprinting,February1986ISBN:0-671-65551-5CoverartbyVincentDiFatePrint...

展开>> 收起<<

Timothy Zahn - Cobra 2 - Cobra Strike.pdf

共131页,预览5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！

Timothy Zahn - Cobra 2 - Cobra Strike

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: