John Carter Read Online Free PDF

“After years of tireless research, I present to you—”
    â€œI’m sorry, Princess.” He swept right past her. “Your presentation will have to wait.”
    â€œFather? What’s happened?”
    Kantos shot her a look: not now .
    Tardos Mors ascended to his throne and sank heavily into it. The council members swarmed around him, all talking at once in low voices. Something had happened with Zodanga…Dejah caught the words “last chance” more than once.
    Finally Tardos spoke up. “I know the terms set by Sab Than! What I want to know is, can we afford to reject them?”
    â€œThe eastern border is a wasteland,” Kantos said grimly. “Sab Than has burned through our defenses with his new weapon. The borderfolk have been massacred.”
    Dejah’s eyes grew wide. Urgently, she swept the cover off the table, revealing a complex, sophisticated machine.
    Her father and the Council paid her no heed. “Our best troops and fleetest ships have proven useless,” Kantos Kan continued. “And now comes word that our last remaining squadron has been lost.”
    Tardos lowered his head. “ Helium is lost. My people, my world…I have failed them all.”
    â€œNo, my Jeddak. You haven’t.”
    All eyes turned, then, to Dejah. She reached for the device, powered it up with a hum.
    Kantos frowned. “My lady, you have not seen the Zodangan weapon. It radiates the most intense, baleful—”
    â€œBlue light?”
    As she spoke the words, Dejah flicked the final switch…and a beam of pure blue light stabbed down to the floor, glinting harmlessly off the ornate tiles.
    Tardos rose from the throne. The council members moved with him, toward Dejah and her machine. They stared at the blue beam, keeping a cautious distance from it.
    Dejah cleared her throat. “When I read our reports on Sab’s weapon, I knew: somehow that idiotic brute had discovered it first.”
    â€œDiscovered what?”
    â€œThe Ninth Ray. Unlimited power.”
    The blue beam began to flicker, to play against the tiles, illuminating dust motes in the air. Hope filled Tardos’s eyes. Even Kantos began to nod.
    â€œSab uses it only for slaughter,” Dejah continued. “But think what we might accomplish with such power. Transforming the deserts…restoring the seas…”
    The council members crowded closer, examining the machine, peering at the beam from different angles. Tardos turned to the admiral. “Is that what you saw, Kantos?”
    â€œIt looks very close.”
    â€œGive it time,” Dejah said. “It will work.”
    Then something strange happened. From the corner of her eye, Dejah thought she saw a quick movement in the group of council members—almost like a flash of blue lace, arcing out to strike the machine. She turned in alarm—just as a surge ran through the device, shorting it out. Sparks flew. The blue beam swung wildly for a moment, and everyone shrank back in fear. Then the beam died, and the machine sat silent, smoking slightly.
    The council members all turned their attention to Dejah, their expressions a mixture of disappointment and confusion. She closed her eyes in despair.
    â€œEveryone leave us,” Tardos Mors said. “Now.”
    Kantos left last, throwing Dejah a pitying look. The giant doors slammed shut.
    Dejah stood across the smoking device from her father. She tried not to cringe as he touched a severed wire, fidgeted with it briefly.
    â€œIt was working , Father.” She struggled to keep the quaver from her voice. “And then something happened…some sort of sabotage…?”
    She trailed off. Even to her own ears, it sounded like a weak excuse.
    â€œDejah,” Tardos said slowly. “Ever since you were a little girl, you—you’ve always met the expectations placed on you. Exceeded them, in fact…”
    She looked up at him sharply.