Footsteps in the Sky Read Online Free PDF

contract, and you have no choice. There will be plenty of time to learn the native language shipboard. You have been very well paid up until now, and we have gotten no return for our money. This is where we get it. And, really, I think you will find our compensation reasonable. Hazard pay includes extended medical benefits.”
    For “extended medical benefits” read “extended lifespan”, Alvar realized, suddenly more interested than ever. That he had considered only in his most optimistic dreams. He was a poor boy from the windowless, inner core of the Santa Fe Arcology. Only a series of lucky breaks had gotten him out of those rat holes and onto a starship. Was the Virgin about to smile on him again? Surprising, if so, considering his opinion of most virgins.
    â€œGo down to the briefing tables,” the old man went on. “You will see Doctor Tembo. He will begin your course of training and introduce you to your co-commander and crew.” Vilmir motioned once again with his hand, a movement of less than a centimeter. It was the clearest dismissal Alvar had ever seen.
    â€œVilmir spoke to you himself. Very impressive.”
    Jenemon Tembo was short and round. He had mild blue eyes, an impressive nose, and skin the color of coffee with cream.
    â€œI was impressed.”
    Tembo nodded, and his eyes took on a narrower focus, as if his mind had suddenly flipped to another topic. It had.
    â€œSey’er Washington, you are not carrying a plague, I trust?”
    Alvar shook his head ruefully. “No. I’m hung over. I let my drunk doctors expire, probably for the same reason that taking a plague isn’t my style. The idea of those little bugs in my blood isn’t comfortable.”
    â€œYou’re an anachronist,” Tembo observed, condescendingly. “Drunk doctors are perfectly safe. You’re right about plagues, though. Since they are illicitly designed, they are often badly designed. And they mutate. I’m sure you heard about Singapore.”
    â€œNo. I just got off ship a few months ago. Missed twelve years of history, and I haven’t even started catching up.”
    â€œNo? It seems that a bacteria tailored to carry hallucinogenic alkaloids mutated into something poisonous. Killed twenty million people.”
    â€œJesus! No, I missed that all right.”
    Tembo didn’t answer: he spread his hands flat on the fiberwood table and glanced up at the door. Alvar followed his gaze.
    â€œAlvar Washington, this is Teng Shu, a captain in the colonial peacekeepers.”
    â€œGood to meet you, Sey’er Washington,” said Teng Shu.
    Teng stood fully a hundred and eighty centimeters tall, just below his own one-eighty-three. Her hair, bound in a tight queue, was black glass fiber. By contrast, her skin was the whitest he had ever seen. Brown but nearly yellow eyes bounded by slight epicanthic folds regarded him with the same unwavering severity. This austere strength was reflected in her clothing; a chocolate brown shirt and pants. The only unmuted item of her outfit was a silver belt buckle shaped like an ancient Chinese ideogram that Alvar did not recognize.
    Teng’s handshake was very strong. Her loose clothes concealed a fit figure, but Alvar guessed it was more than fit. The handshake revealed calluses as hard as hullmetal on her hands. He had heard of the peacekeepers and their reinforced physiologies. Was she one such?
    Alvar did not doubt it in the least. Prickles ran along his spine. Teng could kill him with her bare hands in an instant. She probably had orders to do so, under the right circumstances.
    â€œVery pleased to meet you, I’m sure,” he said, bowing.
    This was one woman he would not even try to seduce.
    Teng screeched and bared her teeth. She bent and nipped him lightly on the neck, then allowed her full lips to mold there. Then her harsh breath exploded against his carotid. She flung herself back with a wild cry, and