Paingod and other Delusions by Harlan Ellison

Author:Harlan Ellison [Ellison, Harlan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ereads.com
Published: 2008-06-01T21:00:00+00:00

They had charted the positions of the fifty “forts” during the first pass at the planet. Whether they were, in fact, forts was entirely supposition. At first they were thought to be natural rock formations—huge black cubes sunk into the earth of the tiny planet; featureless, ominous, silent—but their careful spacing around the equator made that unlikely. And the recon ships had brought back confirmation that they were created, not natural. What they were, remained a mystery.

Lynn Ferraro stood with Drabix and stared across the empty plain to the enormous black cube, fifty meters on a side. She could not remember ever having seen anything quite so terrifying. There was no reason to feel as she did, but she could not shake the oppression, the sense of impending doom. Even so, she had resolved to say nothing to Drabix. There was nothing that could be said. Whatever motivated him, whatever passions had come to possess him in his obsession about this planet, she knew no words she might speak to dissuade him.

“I wanted you here,” he said, “because I’m still in charge of this operation, and whatever you may think of my actions, I still follow orders. You’re required to be in attendance, and I want that in the report.”

“It’s noted, Commander.”

He glanced at her quickly. There had been neither tone nor inflection revealing her hatred, but it trembled in the air between them.

“I expected something more from you.”

She continued staring at the black, featureless cube in the middle of the plain. “Such as?”

“A comment. An assessment of military priorities. A plea to spare these cultural treasures. Something…anything…to justify your position.”

She looked at him and saw the depth of distaste he held for her. Was it her Amicus status, or herself he feared and despised? Had she been repelled less by his warrior manner, she might have pitied him—

Once said, long ago: There are men whom one hates until that moment when one sees, through a chink in their armor, the sight of something nailed down and in torment.

“The validity of my position will ensure you never go to space again, Commander. If there were more I could do, something immediate and final, I would do it, by all the sweet dear souls in Hell. But I can’t. You’re in charge here, and the best I can do is record what I think insane behavior.”

His anger flared again, and for a moment she thought he might hit her a second time, and she dropped back a step into a self-defense position. The first time he had taken her unaware; there would be no second time; she was capable of crippling him.

“Let me tell you a thing, Amicus, Friend of the Enemy! You follow that word all the way? The Enemy? You’re a paid spy for the Enemy. An Enemy that’s out to kill us, every one of us, that will stop nowhere short of total annihilation of the human race. The Kyben feed off a hatred of humankind unknown to any other race in the galaxy…”

“My threshold for jingoism is very low, Commander.

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