The Sam Gunn Omnibus by Ben Bova

Author:Ben Bova [Bova, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Published: 2011-04-21T07:00:00+00:00

THOSE MOTHER-HUMPING, SLIME-SUCKING, illegitimate sons of snakes from Rockledge! Now I know what they’re up to, and why they’ve got an agent on board!

We passed the point of no return two days ago.

Today the main food freezers crapped out. All three of ‘em, at the same time. Bang! Gone. Sabotage, pure and simple. Nineteen months more to go, and all our food is thawing out!

I wish I was an Arab, or even a Spaniard. Those people know how to curse!

It makes perfect sense. We die of starvation. That’s all. Those bastards from Rockledge murder us—all except their own agent, who waits until we’re all dead, then sends a distress call back to Earth where Rockledge has a high energy booster all set and ready to zoom out to rescue their man. Or woman.

Or maybe they let the poor sucker die too. Dead spies tell no tales. And you don’t have to pay them.

Oh hell, I know that doesn’t make any sense! I’m starting to babble, I’m so pissed off.

All three food freezers shut down. We don’t know exactly when because there was no indication on the Christmas Tree of the main control console. All the goddamned lights stayed clean green while our food supply started to thaw out.

It was Erik who noticed the problem. Bright-smiling, genial, slowwitted Erik.

I was showing off the command center to Jean Margaux, our high society lady from Boston’s North Shore. (She pronounces it Nawth Showah.) She’s the one who got jealous the first night about my zero-gee antics with Sheena and Marj. What the hell, if I’m naming names I might as well name all of them.

Jean is the tall, stately type. Handsome face; good bones. Really beautiful chestnut-colored hair, and I think it’s her natural shade. Not much bosom, but nice long legs and a cute backside. She likes to wear long slim skirts with slits in them that show off those legs when she moves.

Cool and aloof, looks down her nose at you. It’s not as if she gives the impression that her shit don’t stink; she gives the impression that she doesn’t ever shit. But touch her in the right place and she dissolves like a pat of butter in a rocket exhaust. She turns into a real tigress. All it takes is a touch, so help me—and then afterward she’s the Ice Queen again. Weird.

So I’m showing her the Christmas Tree, with all its red and green lights, only there wasn’t a single red one showing. The ship was humming along in perfect condition, if you could believe the monitor systems. Alonzo Ali was on duty at the command console; Lonz is not only my first mate, he’s a Phi Beta Kappa astronautical engineer and navigator from the International Space University.

So Erik comes into the command center with a puzzled frown on his normally open, wide-eyed face.

“There are no windows,” Jean was saying. Coming from her, it sounded more like a complaint than a comment.

“Nope,” I said. “With the ship swinging through a complete revolution every two minutes, you’d get kind of dizzy looking out a window.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.