The Complete Adventures of Sam Hall by Poul Anderson

Author:Poul Anderson [Anderson, Poul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2015-09-27T21:00:00+00:00

The fire died down again. The ground no longer shook. Motion had ceased at the far side of the spacefield all over the spacefield. The dead lay thick and the living were in flight.

Fraser wormed to intercept Mahoney. “Pat!” he called through what radio noise remained. “Pat, come here, lemme get you safe.”

Mahoney kept on crawling. Fraser threw his arms around him. The man’s recycler tank dug painfully into his own bruised side. Mahoney struggled and damned him in a lunatic voice. “Pat, don’t throw yourself away, let’s get out of here, get some help for you …”

“ATTENTION, INSURRECTIONISTS!”

The stars trembled with that sound. Mahoney stiffened, then sagged back into Fraser’s embrace. Fraser lurched to his feet and began carrying the hurt man away. He was in easy shot of the Vega’s guardians, but he didn’t care any more.

“ATTENTION, YOU GANYMEDEANS! THIS IS ADMIRAL SWAYNE.”

Must be using the main transmitter, broadcasting at full amplitude. So what? I’ve got to get Pat to a medic.

“YOU HAVE BEEN THROWN BACK IN TOTAL DEFEAT. ANY FURTHER ATTEMPTS WILL BE MET BY THE SAME FIREPOWER. YOU MAY PERHAPS HAVE SOME IDEA OF FORCING YOUR WAY INTO AURORA. DO NOT TRY. YOU WOULD ONLY SUCCEED IN WRECKING THE CITY. AND YOU WOULD KILL ITS CIVILIAN POPULATION. ALL OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN SEQUESTERED. IF THE CITY IS BREACHED, EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN THE DAMAGED SECTION WILL DIE.”

Silence clapped down. It reached past the field and the plain, Ganymede and Jupiter, out of the whirlpool in Andromeda and beyond. Nothing lived but Fraser’s rasping lungs and the blood that bubbled in Mahoney’s gullet.

Then the Jehovah voice came back. “ASSEMBLE BETWEEN THE CITY AND APACHE CRATER. IF YOU DO SO, YOU WILL NOT BE FIRED ON. WE ARE HOLDING OUR ARTILLERY FIRE UNTIL WE SEE WHETHER YOU OBEY THIS ORDER.”

There was no strength left in Fraser. He stumbled on somehow, past the moonships and around the junkyard where Hoshi’s men had encountered Swayne’s defense. The seepage from Mahoney’s suit was less, pressure had dropped, stop, slap a patch on, you idiot.

“I AM PREPARED TO HOLD DISCUSSIONS WITH YOUR LEADERS, PROVIDED YOU WAIT AT THE DESIGNATED PLACE. MEANWHILE YOU MUST ADMIT THAT YOU ARE BEATEN. THE VEGA CAN BE READY TO LIFT WIITH AN EMERGENCY CREW IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. YOU CANNOT GET ONTO THE SPACEFIELD IN A YEAR. ACCEPT YOUR DEFEAT, GANYMEDEANS!”

Fraser laid Mahoney down, and hunted in his repair kit.

Another pause came, a stillness so absolute that he heard the hiss of cosmic radio interference in his earplugs. He bent close, trying to see if Mahoney moved. Eyes stared back at him, full of reflected starlight. A froth of blood had formed on the mouth and around the nostrils. Nothing disturbed it.

Fraser held his breath and listened for the other man’s. All he heard was the seething between the galaxies.

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