Jim Baen's Universe Vol 2 No 1 by Eric Flint

Author:Eric Flint [Flint, Eric]
Format: epub
Published: 2009-10-01T03:00:00+00:00

And with no further ado the half dozen halfwits charged down the slope, capering and cavorting like so many tots in a toy store.

"I'll take that one!" cried the first, pointing to a huge, smoke-belching factory bearing the proud logo I. G. Sprechenindustrie.

"I'm for General Words!" hallooed the second.

"I've a yen for Nouns R Us!" hollered the third.

"Me for Microspeak!" cried the fourth.

By the time the fifth and the sixth added their bits to the round, they were too far off to hear. But, judging from the directions they were taking, I thought the fifth had set his aim for the huge International Business Mots complex and the sixth seemed to be wavering between General Linguistics and LTVerbs.

"Idiots!" screamed Magrit. "Morons!"

"Them, too?" asked ?.

"Now what?" wondered Gwendolyn.

"Save the runes," moaned the rune. "Save the runes. Look! Over there! See what I mean!"

In the distance, we saw a long train of wagons hauling up before a huge stockade. Within the barbed wire compound I could see a bunch of grimy barracks and what looked like smokehouses. With the nonchalance of long habit, burly guards were herding little runes out of the wagons and through the gates.

"What are they handing the runes?" asked Gwendolyn.

"They say it's soap!" cried Γ. "But it's a trick! It's a trick!"

Suddenly, one of the smokehouse chimneys belched a great plume. Γ shrieked. "They're melting us down! They're melting us down!" It clutched Magrit's leg.

"Save the runes," it moaned, "save the runes."

I could see it coming a mile away. I tried to whisper sweet reason into her ear but the old witch was getting her dander up. And who was there to help me advance the voice of sanity?

Gwendolyn? Hah! Hah! The Agitatrix herself!

"You know," mused the damned lady wrestler, "maybe Les Six have the right idea. And besides, what else have we got to do?"

A moment later she was striding off. "I'm for that one!" she announced, pointing to a great ugly heap of a factory called UmlautMobil.

"As for us," said the witch, "it's the stockade. Let's see what these bums are up to."

"Us?" I cried. "Us? What have I got to with this madness? I'm an intelligent amphibian— the pinnacle of evolution! What natural selection hath wrought!"

Unheeding, Magrit waddled down the slope. I would have jumped off her shoulder and hid somewhere but I hate to walk and, besides, where was there to hide? Not a mousehole in sight.

Behind me, I heard Γ moaning: "Save the runes, save the runes."

I twisted my head and glared back. "Fuck the runes! And the horse they rode in on!"

Turning around, I could see the stockade looming larger and larger.

"Save the salamander," I moaned. "Save the salamander."

3

Well, there's good news, bad news, and terrible news.

The good news is that Magrit landed a great job almost as soon as we walked into the door of UmlautMobil. She was shooting for some kind of low level chem lab job, but the company president wouldn't hear of it. No, no! Seems that humans

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