Emperor of Gondwanaland Read Online Free PDF Page B

meant for such long-range work. Yet one freak shot scorched the hand of Topps, the meekest among us.
    A deep and furious rage came upon me then, and I shouted, “Up with our own lasers, lads, and hole the bastards below the waterline!”
    The men fell to with a will. Four beams—much more powerful than those of the pistols—concentrated on one spot, causing the water to steam and boil.
    Soon the beams ate through the hull. The Cockerel canted thirty degrees and began to sink.
    Fanzoii jumped into the water. Some started to swim our way.
    Then did I violate my own code irreparably. I have never fully trusted myself since.
    With a thickness in my throat I said, “Fire on any who approach—to kill.”
    The men complied.
    When the carnage was over—and there were never any screams or cries, only the hiss of the beams biting—my men and I felt as one, that we would retch and never stop.
    Our only casualties were Belgrano’s bruised limbs and Topps’s burned skin. Both took painkillers and proclaimed themselves well.
    We winched the cutter aboard, and set sail from the tainted bay.
    If any Fanzoii escaped to Encantada Island and there prospered, I cannot say. I have never been back after that fateful voyage.
    Night fell. Merino regained consciousness in my cabin, on the bunk where we had laid him. After he took a meager meal, he remained seated at my table, myself opposite him, in a reprise with variations of our earlier encounter.
    How different those two sessions seemed at that moment! My bright and well-appointed quarters contrasted immensely with that dank and unhealthy cave of his that now lay beneath the waves. Security and goodwill flourished here, in place of danger and suspicion. Yet a whiff of the Cockerel ’s malaise lingered, seemingly immune to being exorcised.
    Merino sat with a gray blanket wrapped around his hunched shoulders. He sipped now and again at a small tumbler of medicinal brandy. He had not spoken during his meal, and I had not forced him.
    Now, however, without prompting, he began to tell me the true story of his voyage, holding my eyes with his own tormented ones.
    “There was no storm,” he commenced. “Or rather, there was a storm, but it came later, after the real damage had already been done.
    “We sailed from Saint Ursula as I told you: ten men, the Sanctus, and myself, with the Fanzoii as our cargo, our goal the Nameless Land, where we indeed hoped to plant a colony. Was there ever a more misguided venture, with a less capable fool in charge?
    “I was truly ill-fit for the rigors of months at sea. At home I had whatever I fancied. At sea I was cast back on my own resources. They proved limited indeed. Books held no interest for me, nor did the petty details of managing the ship and crew. I began to chafe under the dull monotony of the trip. The sameness of the food, the company, the sights.
    “One daily sight was that of the Fanzoii taking their exercise on deck. Sadler had advised me to let them rot in the hold, but I contended that they were our charges, and could hardly function as colonists if mistreated. So we let them come up five at a time under guard, to take light and air.
    “After a while, I began to notice one Fanzoy in particular. You will hardly need to be told that it was Tess. She seemed more vibrant than rest, almost human. And then there was her sinuous way of carrying herself, which gradually grew more and more attractive to me.”
    Here Merino coughed, sipped his brandy, and resumed speaking.
    “I have always been a womanizer, I fear. It was so easy to indulge, in my privileged position. There were always women—of my own class or lower—who were willing to satisfy my lusts.
    “On the voyage, there were none. And it was maddening.
    “I resisted the evil urge to sleep with the Fanzoy Tess as long as I could. Perhaps you, or another strong soul, would never have succumbed. I can only recount what I did—did deliberately, but with no foreknowledge of the