Tags:
Fiction,
General,
Science-Fiction,
adventure,
Fantasy fiction,
Space Opera,
Interplanetary voyages,
Life on other planets,
Women,
Space ships,
People With Disabilities,
Interplanetary voyages - Fiction,
Space ships - Fiction,
Women - Fiction
hands together in a
thunderclap. "All... all," he said, getting up and drawing a
circle in the air around an adult male, an adult female, and
three children. He pantomimed beating the male, and
shoved the food bowls away from the female and children
with his foot. Most of the fur-faced humanoids shuddered
and one of the children burst into tears.
"All punished for one person s curiosity? But why?" Keff
demanded. "By whom?"
For answer Brannel aimed his three-fingered hand at
the mountains, with a scornful expression that plainly said
that Keff should already know that. Keff peered up at the
distant heights.
"Huh?" Carialle said. "Did I miss something?"
"Punishment from the mountains? Is it a sacred tradition associated with the mountains?" Keff asked. "By his
body language Brannel holds whatever comes from there
in healthy respect, but he doesn't like it."
'Typical of religions," Carialle sniffed. She focused her
cameras on the mountain peak in the direction Keff faced
and zoomed in for a closer look. "Say, there are structures
up there, Keff. They're blended in so well I didn't detect
them on initial sweep. What are they? Temples? Shrines?
Who built them?"
Keff pointed, and turned to Brannel.
"What are . . . ?" he began. His question was abruptly
interrupted when a beam of hot light shot from the peak of
the tallest mountain in the range to strike directly at Keffs
feet. Hot light engulfed him. "Wha--?" he mouthed. His
hand dropped to his side, slamming into his leg with the
force of a wrecking ball. The air turned fiery in his throat,
drying his mouth and turning his tongue to leather. Humming filled his ears. The image of Brannel's face, agape,
swam before his eyes, faded to a black shadow on his reti-nas, then flew upward into a cloudless sly blacker than
space.
The bright bolt of light overpowered the aperture of the
tiny contact-button camera, but Carialle's external cameras
recorded the whole thing. Keff stood rigid for a moment
after the beam struck, then slowly, slowly keeled over and
slumped to the ground in a heap. His vital-sign monitor
shrieked as all activity flatlined. To all appearances he was
dead.
"Keff!" Carialle screamed. Her system demanded
adrenaline. She fought it, forcing serotonin and endorphins into her bloodstream for calm. It took only
milliseconds until she was in control of herself again. She
had to be, for Keffs sake.
In the next few milliseconds, her circuits raced through
a diagnostic, checking the implants to be sure there was no
system failure. All showed green.
"Keff," she said, raising the volume in his implant. "Can
you hear me?" He gave no answer.
Carialle sent her circuits through a diagnostic, checking
the implants to be sure there was no system failure. All
showed green except the video of the contact camera,
which gradually cleared. Before Carialle could panic further, the contacts began sending again. Keffs vitals
returned, thready but true. He was alive! Carialle was
overjoyed. But Keff was in danger. Whatever caused that
burst of power to strike at his feet like a well-aimed thunderbolt might recur. She had to get him out of there. A
bolt like that couldn't be natural, but further analysis must
wait. Keff was hurt and needed attention. That was her
primary concern. How could she get him back?
The small servos in her ship might be able to pick him
up, but were intended for transit over relatively level
floors. Fully loaded they wouldn't be able to transport
Keffs weight across the rough terrain. For the first time,
she wished she had gotten a Moto-Prosthetic body as Keff
had been nagging her to do. She longed for two legs and
two strong arms.
Hold it! A body was available to her: that of the only
intelligent man on the planet. When the bolt had struck,
Brannel, with admirably quick reflexes, had flung himself
out of the way, rolling over the stony ground to a sheltered
place beneath the rise. The other villagers
Eric Jerome Dickey
Caro Soles
Victoria Connelly
Jacqueline Druga
Ann Packer
Larry Bond
Sarah Swan
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Anthony Shaffer
Emma Wildes