Gordon R. Dickson by Other

Author:Other [Other]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-30T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

25

THEY WERE ON Newton. Well, almost on Newton, because the ship was descending very slowly. Possibly, it was merely a careful descent; but in any case, Bleys and all his people were jammed in the exit lounge together with a scattering of passengers from Cassida.

One of these, with his face almost against the lower part of Bleys’ chest—somehow he had evaded the Soldiers’ cordon about Bleys, and Bleys had signaled Henry not to make an issue of it—was a middle-aged businessman; running a little to fat, and bald on top in such a curious way that it looked almost as if he wore a tonsure, sadly at odds with the expensive gray business suit that attempted to disguise his weight by its tailoring.

“We ought to be down soon, don’t you think?” he said anxiously, trying to see either around or through Bleys’ body—a manifest impossibility—and out the nearest window at the ground below.

“I think so,” replied Bleys.

“I just hope we’re down soon,” the businessman said, nervously. “I’ve got a very important appointment with a lab here.” Evidently, nervousness was making him chatter, any words at all to fill in the interval before the ship grounded. “I hope they’re taking good care of my luggage. It’s one large piece, but it holds some very, very”—he checked himself, obviously on the edge of what he thought would be indiscretion—“papers and things like that,” he wound up.

At this point, the ship touched the ground with a minute shudder; the port opened, and Soldiers began to step through it. For once Bleys held back, and Toni, passing out ahead of him from the relative dimness into Newton’s late afternoon, looked suddenly and sharply back over her shoulder.

“Dahno’s here!” she said.

Bleys followed her out a second later into the tinted daylight that was unique to Newton, situated as it was in orbit about Alpha Centauri B, the somewhat orange-colored star which shared its system with Alpha Centauri A—Cassida’s sun—as well as with the small star known on Old Earth as Proxima Centauri. The light, unusual though it might be, showed him that Dahno was indeed here.

But it was Dahno with an unusual difference. There was none of the usual good humor or friendliness to be seen about him. It was astonishing how that cheerful face, simply by dropping its grin and hardening its features, could take on such an ominous and dangerous look.

Dahno’s size, of course, helped in making him appear so dangerous. But the face was one that Bleys had seen only once before in his acquaintance with this half-brother of his. That was when Bleys had still been a child. They had met face to face for the first time, and Dahno had defined their relative positions in the known universe by knocking Bleys, half-unconscious, to the ground with a casual backhanded flip of his massive right hand.

Now that same face, and the almost belligerent way in which Dahno stood—dwarfing all those around him and with his legs placed a little wide, his

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