Sold - For a Spaceship by High Philip E

Sold - For a Spaceship by High Philip E

Author:High, Philip E. [High, Philip E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780575110502
Publisher: Gateway
Published: 2011-09-29T05:00:00+00:00


SEVEN

THE disturbance grew, drawing closer as it increased. Jets of water spurted upward, something black appeared like the back of a whale and began to creep slowly towards the shore.

Sundah estimated its size as about eight metres long and three wide and knew that it was not a fish. It was like the pictures he had seen of submarines but this had no superstructure.

Another vessel appeared beside the first, another behind that and then a third beside the second.

He waited. The vessels were still ninety metres from the shore and he wanted to hit them hard and accurately.

By the time the three lead vessels were two metres from the shore, there were fourteen others behind them.

Sundah held his fire. Above him was a curiously staccato sound like hundreds of miniature motor cycles which he rightly concluded was some sort of air cover.

He was shaking slightly now, sweat ran in little lines down his face but his mouth was set and determined.

He watched the leading vessels—there were now an additional ten—touch the rocky shore and begin to rise from the water.

With controlled haste, he picked up the rifle with the grenade and took careful aim. He realized there was no need, the target was a bare forty metres distant—close enough to be dangerous to himself.

He had no clear recollection of squeezing the trigger or the brief thud of a recoil-less rifle.

A hole appeared briefly in the back of the lead vessel, then there was a flash and an enormous column of water and smoke shot skywards.

He had a quick impression of one of the other vessels being lifted clear of the water, turning completely over and vanishing before everything was lost in spray and smoke.

When the smoke cleared, he saw that four vessels had vanished and that a fifth was sinking rapidly.

He squeezed the trigger and the weapon stuttered its flashless hate at the remaining vessels. He raked the entire line skilfully from one end to the other, changed the magazine and repeated the performance.

He was switching to the third magazine, when the entire post, complete with sandbags, fell in on top of him. He found, when he regained his breath, that he could still breathe and had limited vision between two fallen sandbags. His legs, however, were completely pinned and he was unable to move.

He was not to know as he lay there that his attack had been far more devastating than he could possibly have conceived.

Although large predators had not survived on land, the sea abounded with them. Things which a thousand years of solar radiation had changed in countless ways. Sharks—as big as motor torpedo boats—prowled the deeps like wolves. There were things big enough to bite small coastal steamers in half. Things which were virtually floating stomachs, drifting like undersea islands covered in grasping tentacles. There were hordes of smaller, more vicious things which were all teeth, violence and fury.

To hold such creatures at a safe distance, the invader used repellents, sonic and electric. Vessels never travelled singly, bitter experience had taught that the minimum safety factor was five vessels.



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