Great Sky River Read Online Free PDF Page A

have salvaged some fraction of the true Fanny. From the cooling brain they could have extracted
     her knowledge, tinted with her personality. She would have been stored in the mind of a Family member, become an Aspect.
    The Mantis had left not even that.
    The suredeath. Tonight, in the final laying-low of Fanny, there would be no truth to extract from the limp hollowed body which
     Killeen saw so forlorn and crumpled before him. The Family could carry none of her forward and so it was almost as though
     she had never walked the unending march that was humanity’s lot.
    Killeen began to cry without knowing it. He had left the valley with the Family before he noticed the slow-burning ache he
     carried. Only then did he see that this was a way that Fanny still lived, but all the same it was no comfort.

TWO
    Shadows stretched long and threatening, pointing away from the hoteye of the Eater. Its harsh radiance cast fingers across
     the stream-cut plain, fingers reaching toward the onstruggling human tide.
    Each windgouged rock, though itself dull and worn, cast a lively colored shadow. The Eater’s outer ring was smoldering red,
     while the inner bullseye glared a hard blue. As disksetting came and the Eater sank to the horizon, it drew from the least
     rocky upjut a tail of chromatic ribbons. Shifting shadows warped the land, stretching perspectives. The seeing was hard.
    So it was a while before Killeen was sure. He blinked his eyes, jumping his vision through the spectrum, and barely picked
     up the wavering fern-green pip.
    “Heysay,” he called. “Ledroff! Give a hard lookleft.”
    The Family was spread through a canyon shattered by some ancient conflict. No one was closer than a klick. They slowed, glad
     to pause after the hours of steady, fearful flight.
    “For what?” Ledroff called.
    “See a Trough?”
    “No.”
    Killeen panted slowly, smoothly, not wanting the sour sound of his fatigue to carry to the others. Ledroff’s response was
     slow and minimal. Killeen knew that if Fanny had been speaking, Ledroff would have been sharp and quick. By Family tradition,
     they would choose a new Cap’n as soon as they found safe camp. Until then, Killeen was point and called their maneuvers. Ledroff
     understood, but that didn’t stop his grumbling.
    They had paused to conduct a quick service for Fanny, concealing the body in a hastily made cairn. Then they had run long
     and hard. They could not go much farther. Killeen had to find shelter.
    “Jocelyn? See anything?”
    “I… maybe.”
    “Where?”
    “A little thing… could be a mistake…” Strain laced her thin voice.
    “Can you cross-scan with me?”
    “I… here…”
    A quick picture flared in Killeen’s right eye. Jocelyn’s overlay showed a sputtering blip.
    “Let’s find it,” he said.
    “Naysay,” Ledroff said sternly. “Better we sack in the open.”
    “And shut ourselves down?” Jocelyn asked, disbelieving.
    “Safer. Mech will naysay it’s us.”
    “We’re too tired,” Killeen said. He knew Ledroff would have been right, if the Family wasn’t played out. Mechs usually couldn’t
     find a human in a powered-down suit. They scented circuits, not skin.
    “Trough? Found Trough?” Toby sounded fuzzy from daze-marching.
    “Could be,” Killeen said. “Let’s look.”
    Ledroff shouted, “Noway!”
    But a chorus of assent drowned him out. Ledroff started arguing. Which was what you’d expect when a Family marched without
     electing a new Cap’n. They all needed to rest and think.
    Killeen ignored Ledroff and loped in long low strides over the nearest hill. It took teeth-gritting effort to achieve the
     flowing smoothness but he knew the following Family would take note. Without thinking about the matter clearly he understood
     that, worn to a brittle thinness, the Family needed some display of strength to give confidence, to regain their vector.
    Ledroff came up behind. Killeen’s eyes automatically integrated Jocelyn’s display