Carnelians Read Online Free PDF

sending his strong man to beat up his new bouncer.”
    To her unmitigated surprise, Tide laughed. “Yeah, well, his bouncer got in a few cracks of her own.” He jumped up and stood there, offering his hand to help her up.
    Aliana ignored his hand as she climbed to her feet. “He trying to prove a point or what?”
    Tide shrugged. “I was supposed to bring you to the sweet house after I knocked you out.”
    Great. Just great. “So why didn’t you knock me out?”
    “Girl, you throw a fist like a Balzarian she-devil. Your training is crap, though.”
    “Don’t got no training.”
    “You should.” He pulled his jacket back into place, his huge biceps flexing. “Is this really what you want, to be a bouncer?”
    She crossed her arms, making her far less impressive biceps bulge, too. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” In other words, it was better than the alternatives.
    He glanced at the motley crowd, which was dispersing now that they realized no one was about to die. Then he turned back to Aliana. “Are you a provider?”
    Heh. Strange question. Providers were small and pretty, neither of which came close to describing her, besides which, if she was a provider, she sure as blazes wouldn’t be here. “Why would you ask something like that?”
    “Your hair, eyes, skin. The coloring is exotic, like a provider.”
    “If I was a provider, Tide sweetheart, I wouldn’t be chewing the air with you.”
    He smiled as if she was funny. “I’ll talk to Harindor, see if I can get you some training.”
    “Yeah, sure.” She didn’t believe he’d do chug-chits for her, but he didn’t seem so bad now that he’d quit trying to toss her around. As for her “exotic coloring,” well, that was nuts.
    So what if she had metallic skin, eyes, and hair, all gold? It meant nothing.

IV: Direct Words

    You hunt us as your prey
    You assault and enslave
    You force us bound to stay
    For pleasures that you crave
    —From “Carnelians Finale”

IV
Direct Words

    Seen from outside, the Orbiter space station was a giant dark orb stark against the backdrop of interstellar space. Inside, the hollow sphere was a wonderland.
    The interior consisted of two hemispheres. In the morning of the station’s thirty-hour day, its Sky hemisphere glowed in a coral-hued dawn as the Sun Lamp appeared on the horizon. The great yellow light traveled across Sky on its disguised track until it reached the opposite horizon and Sky blazed with a fiery sunset. The horizon separated the Ground and Sky hemispheres, with grass on one side and a dimpled blue surface on the other. You could cross from land to sky in one step.
    With a diameter of four kilometers, the Orbiter rotated once every ninety seconds, creating “gravity” for anyone on its inner surface. Its rotation axis pierced its north and south poles, both of which lay on the horizon. The pull of the gravity was at right angles to that axis, so the ground was flat at the equator, but walking toward either pole was like climbing a slope that became steeper and steeper. The gravity decreased as the slope increased. Bio-architects had landscaped Ground into hills that matched the incline, until at the poles, they became vertical cliffs with zero gravity. If you were moving, a Coriolis force pushed you sideways; the faster you moved, the greater the push, nothing too serious, but enough to make some those unfamiliar with the effect dizzy.
    Airborne robots patrolled the lower gravity areas, where a misplaced step could cause a fall. Hikers who fell onto Sky from the steeper mountains could slide with ever increasing weight down a slope of several kilometers. If you were careful, though, you could easily walk on either hemisphere. Sometimes the Sky filled with people relaxing or playing sports.
    Parkland covered the flatter regions of Ground, meadows of cloud grass that rippled in the soft breezes of the always perfect climate. The spires of City rose in their center, a place of ethereal