Anderson, Poul - Murasaki by Anderson Poul

Anderson, Poul - Murasaki by Anderson Poul

Author:Anderson, Poul
Language: eng
Format: epub


Byrne grimaced. She had seen visuals taken from aloft by early explorers. If Holden hated the cruelty, she agreed, and regretted the infeasibility of putting a stop to it. How-ever, she suspected his resentment was of interference with his research. The more himatids for him to study, the better; and their numbers were shrunken.

Lightning flared among the clouds. A line squall swal-lowed vision as it swept up from the south bay.

Byrne re-treated to the cabin. Humans didn’t have Ihrdizuan skins. That rain would be downright painful, striking her. Let Hol-den endure it, since he chose. It roared on the overhead.

The boat pitched and rolled. She was immune to seasick-ness, but dank chill gnawed through her clothes. How had Holden’s wife enjoyed living, existing, in this environment, year upon year upon year?

The record showed the couple seldom taking a vacation among what amenities moonside offered. Well, maybe he wasn’t such a grouch in those days. But he should have seen how Farland was wearing her

down. Although no autopsy was done, it was obvious from the laconic statement he entered that her heart gave out. Why hadn’t she quit in time? Didn’t she notice? Did she choose to stay regardless? What for? She’d already lost her child. Did she love Malchiel that much? In God’s name, why?

When the storm had passed and Byrne went back top-side, the sky was half clear. Murasaki light blazed and shat-tered on waves still high. The wind had lessened and warmed, shifting easterly; now the ship yonder must tack across it. Given a thick atmosphere with a steep density gradient, a large bowl among hills often bred its own weather.. Byrne was hungry. She assembled a sandwich from her rations while she spent a little charge on a bottle battery to make some coffee. Just a little; Genjian wilder-nesses taught frugality. The trick was to flash a small amount of water to its boiling point under this pressure, then use that to extract the essence and heat the rest.

No sign of Holden yet. Damn him for’ a lead-plated boor. She squinted against the brilliance around her. Some-thing in the west, an extra turmoil,, a dark movement—Decision. She appropriated a length of line, rigged a safety harness, and climbed the crane. Doing that alone wasn’t the best idea in the universe, when the launch reeled through a good fifteen degrees of arc and the acceleration downward was almost as many meters per square second. The hell with it. If Holden caught her, she’d point out that he ha-bitually went partnerless. She had slung his optical around her neck. Raising it to her eyes, she magnified and amplified.

Yes, a whole school of calves, all sizes up to the one about which the others writhed, dived, made spyhopping-leaps. .. danced? It was much the biggest. Estimating distame as seven klicks, she deemed its length five meters. That was about as large as they got during their thirty-some Earth years of calfhood, she remembered.

Hold on. Wasn’t a black shape bound away from them, toward her? A wake roiled behind its swiftness.



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