A Company of Heroes Book Four: The Scientist by Ron Miller

Author:Ron Miller [Miller, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2014-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

The Amber Princess was cruising among the Isles of Langerhans, the miniature archipelago just off the southern coast of Tamlaght, when Captain Basseliniden decided to take on fresh water. No one had ever bothered to name the individual islands since there had never been any particular reason to do so: the Isles of Langerhans were for the most part barren, scrub-covered rocks inhabited only by a few handfuls of desperate-looking goats. The two or three larger islands, however, possessed springs that made them occasionally convenient, though no ships ever lingered longer than necessary. The Tamlaghtan Navy had, however, taken the trouble to number the individual islets on their chart, more or less in descending order of size. The Amber Princess was anchored only a dozen yards from the flinty flanks of islet No 3 and a crew had rowed ashore in a longboat laden with empty casks. Rykkla decided to join them, not out of any desire to be useful but simply because she wanted to get off the ship for a few hours.

After the crew had pulled the longboat safely onto the shingly beach, she accompanied the men as they followed a sparkling stream to its source: a small pool bubbling from beneath a large rock. Leaving the men to their work, Rykkla strolled a hundred yards or so further inland. There was little to see: waist-high grey-green scrub that seemed as dry and brittle as ashes and half a dozen goats that stared stupidly at the intruder. The animals were half-starved, drab-looking things that were too unattractive to be interesting.

Rykkla continued her walk, though it was becoming increasingly difficult to safely navigate the broken landscape, covered as it was with shattered, sharp-edged rocks of all sizes. She mounted the largest of these that she could find, in order to gain a vantage point from which she hoped could see what she could see.

The isolated boulder, as it turned out, was the highest point on the islet and from even its slight elevation she could see water all around. To the south floated the Amber Princess. Below her, the beach, the spring and the men were invisible. To the east, west and north were several other islets, some only a few miles distant, others little more than a discrepancy in the level horizon. Between where she stood and the limits of the islet was only more of the confused mixture of spiky brush and jagged rocks. Atop dozens of the latter were perched the ubiquitous goats, looking like some sort of bizarre war memorials.

Suddenly, out of the corner of one eye, she detected a flash of unexpected movement and color, so subliminal that her head turned in surprise before she was even aware that she had seen something. What could it have been? She looked carefully in the direction in which she had detected the movement, scanning intently, but there was nothing.

Rykkla saw that the rock on which she was perched was part of a ridge that ran back in the direction from which she had come.

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