Linesman (A Linesman Novel) by S. K. Dunstall

Author:S. K. Dunstall [Dunstall, S. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-06-29T22:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

EAN LAMBERT

WHEN THEY CAME out of the eternity of the void, Ean was on the floor. He couldn’t breathe. Guards yelled at him, and the only reason they didn’t touch him was because Radko stood over him and protected him. Abram must have warned her because she didn’t touch him.

“Let him recover.”

“What’s he making that noise for? Shut him up.”

He was still singing a single note.

“It’s how he copes with the jumps.”

The guard didn’t believe her. “No one gets affected by the jumps.”

Ean gasped for air and tried to stand up. He tripped over the rope that chained him.

“Just move,” the guard ordered.

Finally, Radko loaded Ean onto the back of the guard in front of him—his name was Losan—and they resumed with a shuffling walk that had more to do with the timing of line eleven’s beats than anything else.

“I can’t breathe,” Losan said, and they had to stop and let Ean down. Losan stood, hands on his knees, gasping for breath, and no matter what the guard said, neither he nor Ean could move for two minutes.

“Maybe if I just lean on you,” Ean said, finally, and they resumed their eleven-beat shuffle.

Losan did it hard. By the time they reached the holding cell, he was gasping harder than Ean.

“Crazy,” one of the guards who’d escorted them said. “Enjoy the loony—both of them—but don’t kill him, or Admiral Varrn and Tarkan Heyington will have your blood. Oh, and Admiral Varrn wants their uniforms. He thinks they might be useful.”

“Wonderful,” the new guard in charge said. “Why do we always get the dreck jobs?” He surveyed the prisoners. “I’ll unlock you one by one. Fold your shirt and pants and put them over here. Boots and belts there. If you try anything, I’ll shoot.”

He didn’t mean he would shoot, exactly, because he took care to remove his weapon and place it on the desk at the other side of the room. There were four other guards with blasters, which they held ready.

He started at the front of the line and unlocked one leg at a time, so that even while removing their uniforms, they were still always fastened to at least one other person.

Ean just lay on the floor, glad to be stationary, and tried to get his breathing under control.

As he stabilized, the music of the lines crystallized. This ship had the strongest lines of the five. Line one was almost as strong as Captain Helmo’s line one. Maybe, if he listened hard enough, he could hear what was going on through the ship, like he sometimes could on Michelle’s ship.

The stronger the line, the better he could hear it. Which meant, he supposed, that he would always be able to listen in on line one on Michelle’s ship—Abram wouldn’t be happy. There was a knack to it. Each ship had its own signature sound, and each line had its own tune. Together, the two made a unique music for each line. All you had to do was concentrate on the right music and let the rest fade into background.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.