The Battle for the Ringed Planet Read Online Free PDF Page A

like this?”
    “Several at the space port left behind after the Sky Demons died entering the city.”
    “We were supposed to land at the space port.”
    “The last time a Sky Demon came was when I was a little girl. After they walked into the city, they all died. Then my father and some others brought everything back from their sky ship including guns like yours and the latest holo libraries.” Siiri coughed again, this time harder.
    “Siiri, how many of you are there?”
    “In the village?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I think a 1000, maybe more.”
    “And you live in the valley? I saw no structures when I scanned there.”
    “In tunnels…” then Siiri glanced away, “…maybe I shouldn’t be telling you that …”
    “Well, if I can make lift off I can land in the valley …”
    “No…” she wiped her eye and stepped down to sit back on Chang’s bunk.
    Placing his helmet in the cockpit seat Torian stepped down and crouched next to the girl who sniffed and hid her face, “Hey, what’s wrong?”
    “I told you I was cast out. I can’t go back.”
    “By your own family?”
    “The priest said I was a demon. There were others like me before, so they cast me out to the city to die. I saw their bones …”
    “Because of the voices?”
    Nodding she wiped away more tears and coughed.
    Torian pulled on the bed cover revealing a soft fur material underneath, “Siiri…” he spoke warmly, “why don’t you rest a bit. You’re safe here for now, and the bed is fresh.”
    Hesitant, she folded her dirty bruised legs close to her body and turned away from him, “Come on,” he pleaded. “You’ve had a rough time, and I’ve got things to do, so I won’t disturb you.”
    Peering at him still with suspicion, she slowly reached for the bed cover, “You’re not trying to trick me?”
    “No, I promise.”
    He noticed her long bare legs, scratched and bruised, as she slowly pulled off her sandals and her dress down over her knees, sliding under the single thick cover. When she moved the pillow, however, she noticed a small black disk.
    “What is that?”
    “That’s a player. It has thousands of holos stored.”
    “Oh, I’ve never seen one so small.” She peered up at Torian and then picked it up. As soon as she touched it, particularly on the side, a three-dimensional video of a naked man and woman engaged in a sex act appeared. Swiftly Torian snatched it from the girl and switched off the display.
    “Your porn?” she sighed with disgust, “All the boys watch those.”
    “Not mine, Chang’s. I like the real thing …” then he swallowed, “I mean, not now …” he quickly changed the subject, “So you watch holos?”
    “Mostly at school, I don’t have a player.” She slid into the bed and moved close to the wall and away from him.
    “What kind of school?”
    “Regular … math, science, astrophysics, literature; I was an ‘A’ student. Didn’t you have school where you’re from?” 
    “Yeah, but I slept through most of it ...”
    Yawning, she curled up under the blanket and turned away, “Are you going to let me rest?”
    “Right...” He stood up and sat on the chair by the consul, and when he glanced back a few moments later, she was out. The lanky soldier went to work studying the holos and flat panel screens, worried about what was going on with the Callisto in orbit. With his fingers, he moved floating holo screens and touched flat panel buttons bringing up schematics of the Hawkeye’s internal systems. Running diagnostics on all of the thrusters brought green results and that was puzzling. Why were they not working? The thruster command node probably suffered damage when they lost power on descent; still he climbed into the cockpit and tried to fire them up to no avail. Every other system worked except for the one they needed to leave the planet. He glanced apprehensively up at the sky, but saw no bright lights, moving objects or any signs of space battles. Hoping that Callisto had been