The Fortress in Orion Read Online Free PDF

think of someone, let me know.”
    â€œIt may take some time,” replied Pandora.
    â€œYou know how to reach me.”
    They finished their desserts, Pretorius signed for them, and they got up to leave.
    â€œI’ll take you home,” he offered as they stepped outside.
    â€œNot necessary.”
    â€œWell, I’m sorry we couldn’t work together one more time,” he said, “but at least it was nice to see you again.”
    He began walking away when she called out: “Nate!” He waited until his smile had vanished before he turned to face her.
    â€œYes?” he said.
    â€œWhat day are we leaving and where do we all meet?”

3D
    Deluros VIII, the capital world of the race of Man, was the home to basically a single city that had spread over every inch of dry land and burrowed under most of the oceans as well. It was said that it housed some eight billion bureaucrats who were charged with administrating the Democracy’s thousand-plus worlds and pursuing the ongoing war against the Transkei Coalition.
    Pretorius parked his ship in an orbiting hangar and took a shuttle to the surface. Even though Deluros VIII was considered a fascinating city-world, he always felt claustrophobic. The Customs hall was large and crowded, but his military uniform and rank got him into a special line, his passport was okayed, his retina read, his fingerprint and DNA matched against his profile in the Master Computer, and he was passed through in only twenty minutes.
    He went to a transport station, fed the address he sought into a computer, and was instantly given three different routes to his destination: the fastest, the least expensive, and the most scenically beautiful.
    What the hell is scenically beautiful about a goddamned tunnel? he wondered, and he decided to find out.
    He bought passage on an airsled, took an airlift down some twelve levels, found a sled with his name in glowing letters, sat down, waited for the harness to embrace him and the door to shut and lock, and then he leaned back and smiled. The airsled took off so smoothly he was sure he wouldn’t have known it if his eyes had been closed, and it began skimming above the floor of the broad tunnel.
    Suddenly it began slowing down, and then tunnel became brighter up ahead—and suddenly the metal walls were replaced by glass, the lighting got even brighter, and he was slowly passing huge fish, larger and far more colorful than whales, on both sides. He stared at them in rapt fascination and was annoyed when the reversion from glass to metal indicated the end of his ride.
    â€œYou may exit now, Colonel Pretorius,” said a mechanical voice.
    â€œThere’s no station,” he said.
    â€œJust exit, please. You are expected.”
    His harness disappeared, the door vanished, and he stepped out of the airsled. He thought he’d be standing on the tunnel floor, but instead he found himself on a narrow beltway that carried him to an airshaft, where he quickly rose to ground level and walked out of what appeared to be a small kiosk, identical in every way to dozens of other kiosks that were scattered around the street and the slidewalks.
    He had wondered how he’d know where to change slidewalks, but the airsled had let him off within fifty yards of the address he sought, and that section of the slidewalk on which he was standing came to a halt opposite the entrance. He got off, walked into the building, looked for a directory, couldn’t find one, and at the nearest airlift simply uttered the name of the person he was there to see.
    He was gently lifted some forty stories on a cushion of air and stepped off at the door to a large office.
    â€œWho are you here to see?” asked a disembodied voice.
    â€œCirce,” he replied.
    â€œHave you an appointment?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI’m sorry, sir, but—”
    â€œSend him in,” said a feminine voice.
    The door irised and Pretorius