The Ethical Engineer Read Online Free PDF

consciousness, his vision flickering behind a black and red haze.
    Just as suddenly the pressure was gone.
    They were still falling.
    The drive groaned in the stern of the ship and relays chattered. But
it didn't start again. The two men stared at each other, unmoving, for
the unmeasurable unit of time that the ship fell.
    As the ship dropped it turned and hit at an angle. The end came for
Jason in an engulfing wave of thunder, shock and pain. Sudden impact
pushed him against the restraining straps, burst them with the inertia
of his body, hurled him across the control room. His last conscious
thought was to protect his head. He was lifting his arm when he struck
the wall.
*
    There is a cold that is so chilling it is a pain not a temperature.
Cold that slices into the flesh before it numbs and kills.
    Jason came to with the sound of his own voice crying hoarsely. The
cold was so great it filled the universe. Cold water he realized as he
coughed it from his mouth and nose. Something was around him and it
took an effort to recognize it as Mikah's arm; he was holding Jason's
face above the surface while he swam. A receding blackness in the
water could only have been the ship, giving off bubbles and groans as
it died. The cold water didn't hurt now and Jason was just relaxing
when he felt something solid under his feet.
    "Stand up and walk, curse you," Mikah gasped hoarsely. "I can't ...
carry you ... can't carry myself...."
    They floundered out of the water, side by side, four-legged crawling
beasts that could not stand erect. Everything had an unreality to it
and Jason found it hard to think. He should not stop, that he was sure
of, but what else could he do? There was a flickering in the darkness,
a wavering light coming towards them. Jason could say nothing, but he
heard Mikah cry out for help.
    Nearer came the light, some kind of a flare or torch, held high. Mikah
pulled to his feet as the flame approached.
    It was a nightmare. It wasn't a man but a thing that held the flare. A
thing of angles, sharp corners, fang-faced and horrible. It had a
clubbed extremity it used to strike down Mikah. The tall man fell
wordlessly and the creature turned towards Jason. He had no strength
to fight with, though he struggled to climb to his feet. His fingers
scratched at the frosted sand, but he could not rise, and exhausted
with this last effort he fell forward face down. Unconsciousness
pulled at his brain but he would not submit. The flickering torchlight
came closer and the scuffle of heavy feet in the sand; he could not
have this horror behind him. With the last of his strength he levered
himself over and lay on his back, staring up at the thing that stood
over him, with the darkness of exhaustion filming his eyes.

IV
*
    It did not kill him at once, but stood staring down at him, and as
the slow seconds ticked by and Jason was still alive he forced himself
to consider this menace that appeared from the blackness.
    "
K'e vi stas el...?
" the creature said, and for the first time Jason
realized it was human. The meaning of the question picked at the edge
of his exhausted brain, he felt he could almost understand it, though
he had never heard the language before. He tried to answer but there
was only a hoarse gargle from his throat.
    "
Ven k'n torcoy—r'pidu!
"
    More lights sprang from the darkness inland and with them the sound of
running feet. As they came closer Jason had a clearer look at the man
above him and could understand why he had mistaken him for some
inhuman creature. His limbs were completely wrapped in lengths of
stained leather, his chest and body protected by thick and overlapping
leather plates covered with blood-red designs. Over his head was
fitted the cochlea shaped shell of some animal, spiraling to a point
in front: two small openings had been drilled in it for eye holes.
Great, finger-long teeth had been set in the lower edge of the shell
to heighten the already fearsome appearance. The only thing at all
human