Infinity's Shore (The Uplift Saga, Book 5) by David Brin

Author:David Brin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780553577778
Publisher: Spectra
Published: 2009-10-28T04:39:47.203000+00:00

Dwer

THAT NIGHT WAS AMONG THE STRANGEST OF Dwer’s life, though it started in the most natural way-bickering with Rety.

“I ain’t goin’ there!” She swore.

“No one asked you to. When I start downhill, you’ll take off the other way. Go half a league west, to that forested rise we passed on the way here. I saw good game signs. You can set snares, or look for clamette bubbles on the beach. They’re best roasted, but you oughtn’t trust a fire-“

“I’m supposed to wait for you, I s’pose? Have a nice meal ready for the great hunter, after he finishes takin’ on the whole dam’ universe, single-handed?”

Her biting sarcasm failed to mask tremors of real fear. Dwer didn’t flatter himself that Rety worried about him. No doubt she hated to face being alone.

Dusk fell on the dunes and mudflats, and mountains so distant they were but a jagged horizon cutting the bloated sun. Failing light gave the two of them a chance at last to worm out from the sand, then slither beyond sight of the crashed ships. Once safely over the verge, they brushed grit out of clothes and body crevices while arguing in heated whispers.

“I’m telling you, we don’t haveta do anything! I’m sure Kunn had time to holler for help before he went down. The Rothen ship was due back soon, and musta heard him. Any dura now it’s gonna swoop down, rescue Kunn, and pick up its prize. All we gotta do then is stand and shout.”

Rety had been thinking during the long, uncomfortable wait. She held that the fighter craft full of untraeki rings was the very target Kunn had been looking for, dropping depth bombs to flush his prey out of hiding. By that logic, the brief sky battle was a desperate lashing out by a cornered foe. But Kunn got his own licks in, and now the quarry lay helpless in the swamp, where frantic efforts at repair had so far failed to dislodge it.

Soon, by Rety’s reasoning, the Rothen lords would come to complete the job, taking the untraeki into custody. The Rothen would surely be pleased at this success. Enough to overlook Dwer’s earlier mistakes. And hers.

It was a neat theory. But then, why did the untraeki ship attack from the west, instead of rising out of the water where Kunn dropped his bombs? Dwer was no expert on the way star gods brawled among themselves, but instinct said Kunn had been caught with his pants down.

“In that case, what I’m about to try should put me in good with your friends,” he told Rety.

“If you survive till they come, which I doubt! Those varmints down there will spot you, soon as you go back over the dune.”

“Maybe. But I’ve been watching. Remember when a herd of bog stompers sloshed by, munching tubers torn up by the crash? Large critters passed both hulls and were ignored. I’m guessing the guard robots will take me for a crude native beast-“

“You got that right,” Rety muttered.

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