The City of the Sun: Daedalus Mission, Book Four (The Daedalus Mission) by Brian Stableford

Author:Brian Stableford [Stableford, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: science fiction, space opera, sci-fi, space travel, arthur c. clarke
ISBN: 9781434449689
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2012-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

“I don’t know.”

I looked out at the expanse of the plain. There was a great deal of tall grass hereabouts, with a multitude of ragged bushes and twisted trees breaking through in clumps. It looked desolate and empty, except for small birds in the branches and high in the sky.

The dew was already rising.

I took out another tube of tasteless but nutritious mush, and began squirting it through the filter. In the meantime I walked the length of the ship, covering much the same ground as I had the previous night, but seeming to see it better now. I blinked the sleep from my eyes and tried to gather my senses, with my hopes somewhat renewed. When I got back to the fire the others were all awake, and the Servant was coaxing the fire back to life in order to make more tea. I passed by, determined to further the investigation. I paused here and there to sort through the debris littering the ground—the useless remnants of cannibalized machines. There was no shortage of rubbish, but most of it would only interest archaeologists excavating the site in a thousand years time. They could have a fine old time identifying every last nest of printed circuits with the aid of a microscope. I wanted artifacts slightly more recent then these. Arrowheads that were not city arrowheads...tools made out of large bones, that could only have come from beasts like the oxen....

But I was wasting my time. I had made the trip for nothing.

“All right,” I said to the Servant, finally. “Let’s go home.”

We mounted up and set off on the long ride home. My legs were stiff and we hadn’t gone far before I began to ache. The Servant, as he had the day before, urged his mount forward to take the lead, and when I tried to come up level with him he edged away. Mentally cursing him I coaxed my own animal sideways, trying to get closer.

The animal responded, as always, to the pressure of my hands and heels, but all of a sudden was halted in mid-stride.

I was catapulted forward. With neither saddle nor stirrups my position was precarious enough without sudden stops. I went head-first in an inglorious swan dive over the beast’s head. The tip of one of the coiled horns caught my right leg just above the knee and I felt both the plastic of my suit and the cloth of my one-piece being ripped. I twisted slightly in flight and came down on my left shoulder, rolling over to avoid breaking either my neck or my back. The fall shook me up badly.

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