Mindship (v1.0) by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

“Something’s moving down there. Captain.” Wells pointed through the windscreen that curved down to meet the floor of the skimmer. “See it?”

The Captain grunted something in reply. The skimmer tilted and arced toward the stretch of white-and-gray hillside Wells had indicated.

“There, Captain.” Marka said. Her hand went past Wells’s shoulder. “It just ducked behind those boulders.”

“I see it,” the Captain said. “Wells, contact Ryork. Tell her we’re heading down, and tell her where we are. I think we’ve just spotted our dinner.”

Kilgarin leaned forward to peer past the Engineer’s bulky shoulder. Below, the snow-covered plain drifted into the foothills of a ridge of glacial mountains, sparkling in the noon sunlight. The skimmer was moving in a slow circle over a grouping of crystalline rocks midway up the hillside, dropping lower with each pass. Kilgarin tried to find the object of everyone’s interest, but could see nothing in the glare of the snow. “What is it?”

“An animal,” Marka said. “Weren’t you watching?”

“I was asleep,” Kilgarin said.

“There it is again.” Wells shouted. Kilgarin jerked his head around and followed the Engineer’s jabbing finger. Against the white, something black darted. It had no definite shape—none that Kilgarin could make out—but it moved like something alive. As be watched, Kilgarin saw it jump behind a crag, appear on the other side, make a short hop to another rock, and vanish once more.

“You think we should try to capture that thing, Captain?”

“Not capture, Kilgarin. We’re going to kill it.”

“But why? We don’t know if it’s edible—it might turn out to be poison—”

“That’s what our survey lab is for, Kilgarin.”

“Yes, Captain,” said Kilgarin. He braced himself as the skimmer tilted into a shallow dive. There was a moment of vertigo, a sense of weightlessness, and then the floor moved up against his buttocks, the brace against his neck, the skimmer skidded, jerked, and stopped. They were down.

“Fellow Oberon,” the Captain said to Marka, “will you pass forward the weapons?”

She complied, and the Captain distributed the hand weapons to Wells and Kilgarin. He gave the light rifle to Marka, first flipping the safety into the off position. “Just aim that weapon in the general direction of what you’re shooting, press that stub—there, by your thumb—and the rifle’s finder will do the rest. You know how to work your handgun, Kilgarin?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good. It’s a bit cold out, so I suggest we activate our climate suits before leaving the skimmer. Ready? Wells, will you lead?”

The Engineer pushed the windscreen up and back over the roof of the skimmer and dropped through the opening to the ground a meter below. The others followed, the pink crust of snow crunching under their feet as they moved away from the skimmer, toward the cluster of rocks farther upslope. The Captain passed Wells and struck out at an angle to the others, circling around the crystal boulder they’d seen the creature duck behind. He moved lithely, his thin frame graceful even under the heavy material of the climate suit. Kilgarin studied him with

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.