McCollum - GIBRALTAR STARS Read Online Free PDF Page A

asked.
    “Not as bad as projected,” the technician replied over the intercom. “We can take this for hours without reaching maximum safe dose.”
    “Well, we only have about three more minutes,” she replied, eyeing her chronometer.
    Below them, the crater fell behind and the camera swept over new destruction. Where things had tended to topple over in the direction of the bottom of the screen earlier, now that they had passed over the epicenter of the blast, they were all pointed at the top of the screen.
    They passed back into barren wasteland once more. Ahmed sent the telescope hunting for another target. This was a major metropolis on the coast that had received three warheads. Here the landscape was littered with small rectangular shapes that, upon close telescopic examination, appeared to be the remains of vehicles that had fallen from the sky when the power was interrupted.
    They watched in silence, suddenly aware of the magnitude of what it means to kill an entire world. It was a chastened crew that found themselves once more back in space and climbing for the deep black.
    “Get what we needed?” Barbara asked, her tone subdued by what she had seen.
    “We’ve got full memory cubes,” Ahmed replied.
    After a minute of silence, Amos said, “Damn the Broa. That was a living, breathing world back there.”
    Beside him, Barbara Whelan sighed as she punched up the program that would return them to the fleet.
    “Just pray that some alien explorer doesn’t make a similar camera run over Earth sometime next century.”
     
    #

Chapter Three
    Ship-Commander-Second-Grade Pas-Tek, of the Pas-Gorn Clan, lay strapped into the padded resting frame on one of the numerous transports that plied the route between orbit and the planet’s surface. At the moment, his arms and legs floated free in microgravity as the winged transport maneuvered for reentry. Around him, hundreds of other travelers lay swaddled within their own frames. Some slept, others talked quietly into comms, while still others busied themselves with telescreens, either catching up on tasks left undone or else partaking of entertainment.
    Pas-Tek did none of these. He rested in his cocoon while focusing his attention on the screen mounted on the forward bulkhead. At the moment the scene showed a mostly black orb limned by a blue-white crescent, with the yellow-white disk of Faalta rising into view from behind the planetary disk. Dawn was breaking for the second time since they had departed the space habitat where Blood Oath was docked.
    The scene might have been that of a gross of worlds that Pas-Tek had visited in the Navy. It was made special only by the mixed emotions of awe and dread it inspired. This was no ordinary planet, merely one among four-times-twelve-to-the-fifth worlds that comprised Civilization. This was Ssasfal, the Home World, the orb from which his ancestors had gone forth to conquer.
    Pas-Tek had been born on Vil, where he grew to adulthood. Since joining the Navy, he had traveled far, traversing some of the more backwater places in Civilization. Yet, he had never been closer than four jumps to this, the center of power.
    The transport continued its fall until he felt the familiar tug of atmosphere, accompanied by a gentle settling into the resting rack. The return of partial gravity was accompanied by a general stirring around him.
    This particular compartment was restricted to Masters. Most of his fellow travelers were accompanied by their coterie of subservients, all of whom had been relegated to less opulent, accommodations.
    Physically, he and his fellows were not imposing. Smaller than average for sentient species, their breed possessed long arms and legs, the better to swing through vine forests. Pas-Tek himself was 1.5 meters tall when he chose to stand erect, which was seldom. He was covered with brown fur, with streaks of lighter tan. His expansive eyes were tinged yellow. His short snout bore four breathing holes on each side