Foundation's triumph by David Brin

Author:David Brin [Brin, David]
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction - Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction - General, Seldon; Hari (Fictitious character), Life on other planets, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780061056390
Publisher: New York, NY : HarperPrism, c1999.
Published: 2000-05-10T14:00:00+00:00

3.

They knew something was desperately wrong before reaching the final stretch of twisty passageway where the Pride of Rhodia was berthed. Half a dozen human figures milled aimlessly outside the airlock--Sybyl and Horis Antic, along with Maserd’s two crewmen and a pair of Ktlinans. They stared at the walls, moving on a few paces, muttering and apologizing as they bumped into each other.

“We’d better get them aboard,” Maserd suggested

“And get out of here as fast as possible. I’m not inclined to hang around, looking for explanations.”

Both men ushered dazed humans toward the airlock. Fortunately, they seemed cheerful. Sybyl even cried out with joy, and tried to embrace Hari.

Once aboard, they saw one reason for the confusion. All of the lesser mechanoid robots that Kers Kantun had left aboard as nursemaids now lay broken and scattered on the floor. Jeni Cuicet sat amid a jumble of parts, smiling as she tried to fit them together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Two raiders from Ktlina bickered like small boys, fighting over a shiny eye-cell from one of the murdered machines.

“I’ll warm up the engines,” Maserd told Hari. “You get everyone together and accounted for.”

Hari nodded. The gentry class had been fine-tuning its tone of command for twenty millennia. When decisions had to be made without deliberation, one was better off going with a nobleman’s swift gut reaction. As Biron rushed forward, Hari nudged people aft toward the lounge, belting them in comfortable seats. His initial head count came up short by four. After hurrying to scour both ships, he found two more Ktlinans--a man and a woman--hidden in a storage closet, taking comfort in each other’s arms. With a few soothing words, he got them to join the others.

“Hey, Professor!” Jeni waved, cheerfully. “You should’ve seen it. Tiktoks fighting tiktoks. Just the sight of it made my head feel like it’d split!”

The young woman was brave and stoical, but Hari could tell that her fever was still bad, perhaps made worse by things she had recently witnessed.

I’ve got to find the antidote to this stuff Kers used to drug them, so Sybyl can give the poor girl some medical attention. But first priority had to be getting out of here!

Underfoot he felt the rising rhythms of well-tuned space engines. Maserd was playing his yacht like a musical instrument, skipping over the normal checklist and preparing for rapid takeoff.

That leaves two unaccounted for, Hari pondered, and turned just as someone’s shadow crossed the portal behind him. Mors Planch stood there, groggily pinching the bridge of his nose. While the others had received some sort of happy juice, Planch was thoroughly sedated by Kers Kantun. He shouldn’t even be awake, let alone walking around!

“What’s going on, Seldon? What’ve you done...with.?” my crew...my ship?”

Hari almost tried to deny that this had anything to do with him, but he could not bring himself to lie. It has more to do with me than I ever have wanted.

He took the dark spacer by his arm. “This way, Captain.

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