The Third Science Fiction Megapack by Fritz Leiber

Author:Fritz Leiber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, short stories, space opera, dumarest
ISBN: 9781434449528
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2012-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

THE EINSTEIN-ROSEN HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETY, by George S. Walker

A light spring rain fell in Mount Tabor Park. After midnight, the only light filtering through the rain came from the city around the park and the lamps around the reservoirs. For an instant, a black sphere two meters in diameter hovered in a clearing. It exploded with a clap of thunder that shook water high into the air from surrounding evergreen trees.

A person dropped to the ground from where the sphere had been, crouched to peer through the rain in all directions, then ran deeper into the forest.

* * * *

Justin was in the room he called the feed-and-breed room when the outer door to his office opened with a chime. He frantically pushed the small animal he was holding back into its cage. Tossing his long black hair back from his forehead, he stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

A young blonde in a camouflage sweatsuit smiled at him. She stood in front of the workbench he used as his reception counter. In her arms she held a very broken-looking notebook PC.

“Can you fix this?”

“Umm…” The laptop looked like it had been hit by a truck. The young woman, about his age, was pretty.

“Your sign downstairs said Computer Consulting and Repairs,” she said.

“Some are more repairable than others.”

“When I turn it on, it beeps a bunch of times.”

“That’s a POST death beep. Power On Self Test.”

“Oh.” She looked disappointed.

“Do you need the data off the hard drive? I might be able to recover that.”

She handed him her laptop.

“How did this happen?”

“I sort of dropped it.”

“Off a building?” Both hinges were broken and the LCD glass was cracked. The ribbon cable between the clamshell halves was exposed.

Something fell with a crash in the feed-and-breed room.

“Excuse me for a second,” said Justin. He strode to the door and opened it partway, blocking her view.

One of the birdlike dragons, the one he’d just put in its cage, flew out.

Justin’s head whirled to look at the woman. Her jaw had dropped, and she stared at the little creature flapping around the room on leathery wings. Damn.

“I’ve never seen…” the woman breathed.

“Just like the Discovery Channel,” Justin said, hoping she thought they were common, and not an endangered species. All he needed was for a total stranger to report him to the feds for importing and raising exotics.

“What is it?”

“Draco patagonius. It’s not mine,” he lied. “I’m pet-sitting for a friend.”

“It’s from Patagonia? Is this one just a hatchling? It’s not much bigger than a sparrow.”

“No, it’s a year old.” He tried to entice it to land on his arm.

It fluttered around the room, finally landing on the workbench right in front of the woman. Its pale green neck arched up toward her face, the tongue flickering in and out.

“It’s sooo cute. Does it breathe fire?”

“Of course not. But he bites.”

“What does he eat?”

“Besides fingers? Cockroaches are a favorite.”

Smaug’s wings were folded up now, and he hopped on top of the broken computer, prying at the keys with the claws at the front of his wings.

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