(eng) Pam Uphoff - The Directorate 06 by Fort Dinosaur

Author:Fort Dinosaur [Dinosaur, Fort]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

28 Jumada 1405 yp

World EM 0925

"We're in trouble." Nighthawk sounded appalled.

"Oh, the cannibal world people." Ebsa looked over at her. "Do you think this could serve as neutral territory? Maybe we can actually talk to them. Prevent . . . well, not that I believe half the lurid tales in circulation . . . but perhaps we can coexist."

Nighthawk looked at him in astonishment. "Are you sure you're a Oner?"

Ebsa grinned. "Err, yes, pretty sure. And now that I think on it, I do recall hearing that the Helaos had dimensional travel of the conventional sort. Instead of just caroming across the multiverse, occasionally merging with other worlds."

Nighthawk stared across at the other hill. "It's only been two and a half years since the merge. I need to let Dad know that they have their gates working again . . . and maybe we can get invited back to their base and see for ourselves. This could be an excellent data collecting and diplomatic coup."

On the far hill, the Helaos soldiers pulled weapons out of racks, revved their engines, screamed loudly enough to be heard over the engines, and charged toward them.

Ebsa sighed. "Or not."

Ra'd shrugged. Checked his two rifles and slung the 12mm.

"Guys, look, the Empire is not at war with Helaos. We can't just kill them. Avoid them, yes. Collect intel, definitely. Stun them if they attack us, sure. But give them cause to attack us? Either here, or on a larger scale? No. Starting a war is definitely above my pay grade."

Ra'd snorted. "Fine. If they get nasty, we stun them."

A soft glow surrounded them. Ebsa looked at Nighthawk.

"Yes. It's a soft physical shield, slows things down gradually, so I don't kill any idiots who run straight at us."

Ebsa nodded and raised an energy shield. "In case they have lasers."

"Do they have any magic?" Ra'd had the muzzle of the 10 mm low and unthreatening, but his stance was confident and assertive. "And if not, do they realize what it is?"

"That's an interesting point. Why don't we act like everything we do is tech driven?"

Nighthawk raised her eyebrows. "And this is a force field? Where's the generator?"

"In the crawler." Ebsa straightened his shoulders and stiffened his spine as the Helaos roared up the slope, and split to race around them, around the crawler, and spin to toss dirt at them and finally drive into Nighthawk's shield and bog down.

A flick of power from Ra'd and the engines died abruptly.

A couple of curses—from context, the language wasn't anything Ebsa'd ever heard—then silent appraisal.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. We are a scientific expedition from the Empire of the One. I am Ebsa Clostuone Montevideo."

"They may not speak English," Ra'd murmured.

"That world they merged with was English speaking. They ought to have retained the language from the person they merged with." Nighthawk kept her voice down, but the leader of the soldiers grinned.

"Oh, so you're the people we had trouble with. Well, well. You killed millions of Helaos, and you are going to pay for that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.