Mutiny on Outstation Zori Read Online Free PDF Page A

absolutely no cause for alarm, sir. Panic's techs have modified these units to minimize the addictive qualities. At the same time, they've inter-woven the game so you'll experience the psychic contributions made by each of you. A one-hour training mission will help you learn to work better as a team, without any actual physical danger. It's perfectly safe."
    "I still don't like it," Kleg said. "How do we know you're telling the truth?"
    "I never lie," the bot stated, flatly.
    Aura slid into one of the reclining chairs and tested the cushions. "Come on, Kleg. Don't tell me the great pirate captain is afraid of a little mental schooling." She inspected the derminals and finger caps.
    Kleg pointed at the silver bot. "How do we know he won't mess with our minds while we're in there?"
    Jamie was beginning to think that was a little paranoid. After all, what purpose would the bot, or Werch, or anyone have in affecting their consciousness before the mission began? This was just a HAVENset, and a damn clever way to see how well the three of them would work together. He had to admire the corp's personnel evaluation technique. He also looked forward to sharing a dream with the purple-haired woman. There were worse jobs in the universe.
    Clamber took a seat next to Aura Devor, leaving Kleg to stand alone in protest.
    "Mr. Karr," the bot shrugged, "if you don't train with these people, the possibility of error will jeopardize the mission. No mission, sir, no reward."
    The spike-haired man grunted in disgust, but stood his ground.
    Jamie wondered what sort of reward would be important to a person as clearly self-centered as Kleg Karr.
    "All right," Kleg said, reluctantly. He climbed into the third chair and crossed his arms. "But after this is over, I better not find out you've messed with my mind."
    Aura muttered, "Who would want to?" The grin on her face was appealing.
    Jamie reached up and pulled the electronic leads down, sticking them into place on his temples and the back of his head. He poked his fingertips into the wired cups and sat back, ready for the game to begin.
    He'd imagined shared HAVENsets before, but this would be the first time he'd ever had the opportunity to experience one. Seated between the intriguing Devor and the anxious Karr, he felt a curious balance between anticipation and dread.
    "Shall we begin?" Zaxt asked.
    The trio nodded.

 
    CHAPTER 3
    Jamie felt himself slipping into a grey humming sleep...
    And then, they were seated together inside the tight confines of a land rover; Kleg on his left, looking back and forth between two of the exterior screens, and Aura behind him working at a multi-keyboard.
    Clamber's mouth felt as if he'd been asleep for days.
    "'Bout time you came to," Kleg said. "Some co-pilot, you are."
    Aura tore off a strip of plastext and handed it over the back of Jamie's seat. "Hot, dry, rocky, heavy grav and fierce UV sunlight." She scanned a collection of readouts before her. "Looks like Hellstar II, to me."
    Jamie glanced at the printed coordinates and began entering them into his piloting computer. He realized they were in the cabin of a long-legged "mosquito" mining-crawler.
    "Where the hell's that?" Kleg wanted to know.
    "What?" Jamie asked.
    "Hellstar II." The pilot's spiked white hair was crushed down in a wide band by his com-link headset. Jamie reached up with the tips of his fingers and found that he was wearing one too. There was something on the side of Kleg's neck under the round cup of the earphone that Jamie hadn't noticed before. It was a small cluster of two-centimeter long earrings.
    Aura responded: "It's a big barren planet with a 13 base rotating around a yellow F star on the edge of FZ5. I'm not saying that's where we are, mind you. It just looks like it."
    "We're in the HAVENset," Jamie remembered. "So, this is what it's like to share a dream..."
    Kleg turned his seat. "This has got possibilities." He arched an eyebrow at Aura. "If know what I mean."
    "God, you're a