Childe #10 - Other by Gordon R. Dickson

Author:Gordon R. Dickson [Dickson, Gordon R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Political
ISBN: 9780812515992
Google: TQrLycTKmHgC
Amazon: 0812515994
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1994-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Dressed once more, Bleys hesitated for a moment over the wide three-meter band of cloth that was the cummer bund, then wrapped and pinned it again around his waist. If by chance he was caught doing what he planned, he pre ferred to appear a slightly insane hotel guest, rather than a prowler. Back in the dimness of the lounge, he brought from one trouser pocket the small device, lost in his hand as it had been in Dahno's, which produced the blue privacy bubble. He had borrowed it from Dahno at the end of (heir talk, earlier, with this climb in mind. The device's controls were simple: a single stud, placed to slide in a groove, with three positions—one for off, one for on, and a third for hold. Bleys slid the switch to on. A bubble began forming around him, growing and enclosing his whole body. He re alized then that it would keep on growing unless he stopped it and slid the stud even farther to hold. The bub ble ceased growing. He thumbed the switch back to off, the bubble vanished, and he stepped once more out on to the balcony, after putting the device back in his pocket. He had trained himself to measure distance by a nearly automatic counting of his strides; and he had counted them both on the way to and from the Council meeting room. Now, looking along the side of the building, he estimated the room's balcony to be distant some three-quarters of that side; and indeed, at a distance, he thought he could identify the precise balcony. Bleys glanced around the dim, empty lounge. No one was likely to come looking for him for some hours at least. He looked down. There were only a few vehicles on the traffic way. The sky was clear. Neither one of Newton's moons had risen, but the stars were brightly visible. He put one hand on the top railing of the balcony and stepped over it with his right leg on to the step-back that ran beneath. On this climb he would travel facing the hotel wall, which would make the trip even easier. He reached up with his right hand and hooked his fingers into the cut tings of the fascia above him. Bleys hesitated, one hand on the balcony, one on the fascia. Both balcony and fascia were cold and hard to his touch. The trafficway was far below, and it, too, would be unyielding, cold and hard. The night air about him now felt colder, though the evening could hardly have cooled so quickly. Bleys looked at the stars. They seemed remote, now, at their full astronomical distance; not only from him, but from each other. They no longer reached out to him like old friends, warming and welcoming in their community. They were specks of alien illumination, nothing more. He looked along the way he would go, and an uneasi ness niggled at him. It did not seem

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