(eng) Mike Resnick - Birthright 01 by The Soul Eater

Author:The Soul Eater [Eater, The Soul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER 12

The Deathmaker raced silently through the void, two years out of port.

Three times in the past twenty Standard months it had set down: once to purchase most of the components for the entropy weapon, once to ship those components to Belore, and once to close out a number of bank accounts while fueling up. Now the ship was headed back to Northpoint, where the remainder of Lane's money was tied up.

It had been a long trip. Twice Lane thought he had come across the Dreamwish Beast, but both times he was mistaken. Even the Mufti was bored, so much so that Lane had already given it a pair of hundred-day Deepsleeps. He wished that there were a less tedious way of getting his hands on his remaining funds, but the economic capitals of the Democracy didn't have much financial truck with the frontier worlds, especially those that refused to deal in credits, and mere was nothing to do but pick up the money in person. So he spent hours each day going through his rigorous anti-boredom routines and rituals, and tried to ignore the nightmares that had long since spilled over into his waking hours.

Elsewhere, important things were happening. The Democracy was starting to crumble around the edges. The credit had to be backed with uranium, then platinum, and finally on faith alone; and it was becoming obvious that there was not an abundance of faith to be found. A strike of the Federated Miners had brought the human-controlled section of the galaxy almost to a standstill for more than a month before the beleaguered government yielded to their demands. A cure had finally been discovered for eplasia, a blood disease that had cropped up three centuries back and become quite widespread. Two hundred seventy-eight more life forms, including Sillyworms, had become extinct, and one hundred sixteen new ones had been discovered on the frontier.

Of all this Lane was ignorant, nor would he have cared about it had he known. Lane had no more interest in governments than they had in him. None of his money was tied up in credits. Diseases became important to him only after he contracted them. The miners didn't affect him directly. As for the extinct animals—well, as long as new species kept replacing the old ones, he wouldn't be hurting for work.

In fact, he wasn't hurting for work right now. The Vainmill Syndicate had twice gone to the vast expense of contacting him in space and requesting certain species for their museums. He had replied affirmatively to both requests, but as yet hadn't gone to work on either of them.

His sole concern now, as it had been for more than two years, was the destruction of the Dreamwish Beast. First he had to get the weapon assembled—he had already dubbed it the diluter—and then he had to use it on his intended victim. Then he would pick up the pieces of his career, scrap the weapon for what money he could

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