Mission Earth 10 - The Doomed Planet by L. Ron Hubbard

Author:L. Ron Hubbard [Hubbard, L. Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781592125876
Publisher: Galaxy Press, LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART EIGHTY-SEVEN

Chapter 6

The Grand Council hall had changed somewhat in the last two hours. The Master of Palace City had been busy. Some of the diamond-studded banners had been recovered from the baggage of dead Apparatus troops. The portrait of Cling and his two elder sons had come down and in its place was one of Mortiiy as a young man in the full-dress uniform of a Fleet officer. Some Palace City guards had returned to duty and stood about like statues in blue and violet. Servants of ex-Lords were scurrying about, clearing up the remains of the repast.

Heller had gotten a drink of sparklewater, eaten a sweetbun, washed his face and changed to a golden Lord’s tunic that the master had dug up, but he had girded it with his officer’s belt and sidearms.

He took his place now on the dais. The Countess Krak sat down on a small stool to the side and slightly behind his chair. She sat there as though in mourning, suffering and silent.

The crowded place was in a hubbub. Even more people seemed to have been added. Heller was about to hit the table with the butt of his gun when, suddenly, four trumpets blared and a cymbal crashed. It startled him. He looked over at a small balcony where the master was standing. The fellow winked! He had been watching Heller’s hand. Heller suppressed his desire to laugh. He muttered to himself, “Well, like Mortiiy, I’ve got to realize those days are over.” And he put the gun in its holster.

“Gentlemen,” he said into the suddenly silent room, “this Officers’ Conference is reopened. We have several subjects to take up. I shall reserve until the last the disposal of the planet Blito-P3. Right now I wish to finalize the matter of the Earth girl and the catamites.”

There was an instant rushing snarl, a wave of hate and ferocity from the more than two thousand people assembled.

The Homeview crew was on the job and the backfeed viewers on the far wall showed the reactions of the mobs in the streets. In the night-lighted thoroughfares on this side of the planet and the sunlit ones elsewhere, the reaction was instant hate.

“Oh, dear,” muttered Heller to himself. “I’ve got to play this very, very cool.”

An Army general at the table roared out in a parade-ground voice, “We have discovered that this Earth girl is posing as the Hostage Queen of Flisten, right here in Palace City!”

“We demand immediate action!” shouted the most senior official of the Domestic Police.

“Kill the Earth girl!” shouted the people in the room.

“Execute the catamites!” screamed the jammed crowds in the streets.

“Madison, Madison,” muttered Heller, “what have you done! Earth is about as popular here as a carload of skunks.” He made a signal toward the place the master had been standing: another man was there now but the cymbals crashed.

Heller put on a very stern face. He would have to play this expertly. Into the silence, he said, “I was afraid

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.