Fall of the White Ship Avatar by Brian Daley

Author:Brian Daley [Daley, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Literary, General, Science Fiction, 0345329198, 9780345329196
ISBN: 9781462061662
Google: MPRcuAAACAAJ
Amazon: B0064SVFUG
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2011-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

"Don't forget what I'm telling you, boys: the fangs are showing, and you're not a very big bite, I think."

Then the cab was lifting away over Avalon, which was coming alive with light as dusk came on. "More news updates?" Floyt proposed.

"Let's take a break and let the programs rummage around some more. What d'you say we abolish pain out in that big formal garden?"

They each got another meltdown and wandered out across the obsessively faultless garden, which ran down a gentle slope to a picturesque pond. A bare, pristine-white flagpole stood there, flying Earth's globe-and-olivebranch in Floyt's honor, though he had no idea how the hotel had found one and gotten it up there on such short notice.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (183 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

[Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR

The sward was blue-green, softer than fleece; Floyt couldn't name any of the flowers, shrubbery, or trees. Spica's glow still brightened half the horizon, and Avalon looked like a photon refinery, some huge petrochemical plant pumping out splendor.

They paced along beside an intricately detailed wall topped by big, jagged sawteeth. "When there are enough shares represented, the meeting will be convened, Alacrity?"

"Yes." Alacrity looked up to where several of Nirvana's sister planets had already appeared. "And then we get ferried up to the Ship, and if we live through that, things really start to boil. This Sibyl Higgins—

I just don't know how she's gonna change the equation, here."

"It would seem to me, Alacrity, that anything that changes the status quo could very plausibly work in your favor." My god! If he proves the causality harp wrong there'll be no living with him! But no; I'd welcome that kind of exasperation.

"True enough, Ho. Now, I figure that if we stay alive long enough to get there and start intriguing without any more surprises—"

A sound—a full, contralto bellow, actually—had been rising in the background. "Tim-ber-rrr!"

Something heavy and metallic bonged down on the wall right by the spot where they stood, with a death-toll sound like the universe's time was up, breaking off the top of one of the sawteeth, knocking fragments and dust every which way.

CHAPTER 16—PUT 'ER IN THE LONGBOAT TILL SHE'S SOBER

Alacrity was hugging the turf, the xanthous eyes wide. Floyt, aside from shielding his face, had stood his ground.

"Goddammit, Ho, geddown!"

"Why? Are assault troops generally in the custom of crying ' Timber!' when attacking, in your experience? Or, for that matter, 'Yoo-hoo!'?"

Alacrity grudgingly shook his head no, but "Yoo-hoo!" was undeniably what that same rich, sultry, high-decibel contralto was calling out.

"You win; you're right." Alacrity stopped trying to recall where the Captain's Sidearm was and scrambled to his feet. The thing that had crashed down on the wall sawteeth was a thin, snow-white cylinder that looked troublingly familiar until Floyt placed it: a flagpole just like the one in their own garden, only its red, white, and blue flag displayed a coiled-rattlesnake emblem. The voice sounded file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (184 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

[Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR

louder, lilting and huskily coy.

"Yoo-hoo! Neighbuhs! Ay!" There was a piercing fingers-in-lips whistle.

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