The Master of Chaos by Terry A. Adams

Author:Terry A. Adams [Adams, Terry A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101635599
Publisher: Daw Books, Inc.
Published: 2018-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

Then they were there, a new world broad before them: Like a feast, Michael thought, watching Hanna’s intent face. And he stood by her place in Control and felt regret for what would be finished today, the honeymoon. Past now.

Hanna had no time for regret. She was worried.

GeeGee had moved in slowly, broadcasting a simple speech Hanna had recorded in Ellsian. It said: “I am the friend of Rubee and Awnlee of Ell, she who traveled with them: an alien, a visitor, a guest. As gifting I bear the story of the Journey of Rubee. I will have great honor if you will speak with me.”

Hanna liked this speech. It was dramatic, it was designed to provoke curiosity (a fact the Uskosians would recognize and approve), and it was courteous. Hanna had spent some time concocting it. Uskos should fall at once into a frenzy of welcoming.

Instead there were flat acknowledgments in harsh-sounding voices that had the half-familiarity of a dream, followed by a command for the travelers to do exactly as they were instructed. There was no threat, but also there was no welcome, not even the most formal of courtesies. When GeeGee landed at last—it took a long time to get permission to land—they were directed to a desert, a place of dried watercourses in a red-brown land. And an escort of Uskosian vessels landed with them, gently as a fleet of butterflies, surrounding the Golden Girl.

They went through GeeGee to the starboard lock, and Hanna went out with the others behind her. The sky was vast and opalescent and a cold wind came from it. There were sharp stones on the rusty soil, splintered by heat and cold, and scrubby plants that bent in the wind. Five streamlined vessels flaunted gaudy insignia in an arc in front of Hanna; the others had landed behind her, to GeeGee’s port side, completing a precise circle with GeeGee small and impotent at the center. Between GeeGee and the ring of aircraft a single Uskosian waited, a spot of vivid color in the gray wind. Hanna led her little party toward him. He stood without moving; even the stiff fabric of his bright blue uniform did not sway in the wind.

The humans came up to him and stopped. When they did, other Uskosians came out of the other vessels, so colorfully garbed they might have been sifted through a prism. Hanna looked around and saw that her party was surrounded.

She said to the blue-clad being in Ellsian, with all the courtesy Uskos had taught her: “I am she who was the companion of Rubee and Awnlee of Ell, and was present at the end of their journey. I have news of them, though grievous news.”

The being did not answer at once. There were pouches and a slackness in his face that showed he was about Rubee’s age, and there was something of Rubee’s stateliness in him. The advancing Uskosians in their bright uniforms stopped. It was wrong, all wrong; a Polity

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