Dramocles: An Intergalactic Soap Opera Read Online Free PDF

suggests itself at the moment,” Snint said. “I believe we must wait.”
    “I’ve half a mind to take my ship back to Crimsole.”
    “That is not presently possible. This morning all our ships were taken to the Royal Repair Yard for modernizing and refurbishing, a gift from our host.”
    “Damnation!” cried John. “It’s a well-honed generosity that cuts to the bone. Snint, we must stand together.”
    “Of course. But to what purpose? We are powerless without Rufus on our side.”
    “Or Haldemar and his Vanir barbarians.”
    “Haldemar was wise to stay home. But that’s the advantage of being a barbarian. You don’t have to put your head in a noose for the sake of civility. For now we must wait. Come, my dear John, shall we stroll along the river?”
    They departed by the main door.
    In the antechamber, Dramocles heard a rustling sound behind him. He turned away from the peephole and found his computer standing near him.
    “I’ve told you not to sneak up on me that way,” Dramocles said.
    “I have an urgent message for you, Sire,” the computer said. He held out an envelope. On it Dramocles could see written, in his own handwriting, Destiny–Second Phase.
    Dramocles took it. “Tell me, computer,” he said, “how did you get this? Why are you delivering it now? And how many more do you have?”
    “Do not seek to know the workings of heaven,” said the computer.
    “You won’t answer me?”
    “Can’t, let us say. Just be happy you got it.”
    “Every mystery conceals another mystery,” Dramocles grumbled.
    “To be sure: that’s nature’s signature, and art’s,” the computer replied.
    Dramocles read the message. He shook his head as though in pain. Something like a groan escaped him.
    “Sounds like a tough one,” the computer said.
    “Tough enough. But even tougher for poor Snint,” Dramocles remarked, then hurried off to the War Room.

 
    9
    The planet Lekk was only a third the size of Glorm, but it had sufficient density to give it 1.4 Glorm’s gravity. Because of this your feet always hurt on Lekk, but in compensation you had less distance to travel. Only an eighth of Lekk was land. There were no large continents, and only one or two good-sized peninsulas. The rest was smallish islands scattered haphazardly throughout the ocean. The indigenous Lekkians, a humanoid people, numbered barely twenty million. Their numbers had remained small throughout history, perhaps because of their custom of exposing at birth all children born without a sixth finger. They were a short, swarthy race of human stock who grew tomatoes and cucumbers and held political meetings in town halls all over the planet trying to decide what political system would suit them best. Since they never agreed, it was anarchy most of the time. Snint of Lekk was an elected king, empowered to talk with foreigners, but to make no agreements until the Generalitat had considered the issue.
    The Lekkians lived mostly in villages, with an occasional small city here and there to provide university services. They had no standing army, since they had not figured out how to protect themselves from one. They were frequently rude to visitors from other worlds, but they were not violent.
    Dramocles closed the report. He was in the War Room. Standing beside him was Rux, his Sberrian mercenary general, commander of Dramocles’ main strike force.
    “Now is a most auspicious time to seize the planet,” Rux stated in his cold way. “The orbital relationships of Glorm to the other planets ensure economical orbits for our spacecraft. This is the best strategic advantage we’ve had for thirty years or more.”
    “Thirty years? I wonder.…”
    “Sire?”
    “Nothing, Rux, just a private conjecture.” Dramocles looked at the crumpled envelope in his hand. Within it, on a sheet of yellowed paper, written in his own hand, were the words Take Lekk now!
    “The time’s right,” Dramocles said. “If ever time’s right for such a